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Sunday, January 30, 2011

Not so early, not too late


I was watching Taylor Swift's biography the other day. She was one determined young person in getting her music to the right person in the right place. It definitely paid off for her. Her music has a definite style and much of it has a particular theme to it. But, that's how she has identified herself.

Today I was watching the Lakers play basketball against the Celtics. They didn't play so well in the 3rd quarter because they decided not to guard Paul Pierce very well and he put the game out of range for the Lakers to recover. In interviewing Phil Jackson at the end of the 3rd quarter, Phil said that they failed to identify Pierce [in changing the game complexion], so the game took a definite swing against them.

Identification is important. Taylor Swift identified herself early in life, and it benefited her. The Lakers took too long to identify someone detrimental to their cause, and it cost them the game. Earlier in my life I spent a useless amount of time in identifying those who were competent, who I could learn form, or who I could be happy with. But of late, that has not been a problem. I know exactly who is competent, who I can learn from, and who causes my happiness. (This last part could not have happened earlier. It happened at just the right time). Now my time is not uselessly spent, and my satisfaction meter is much higher. I am clear about identifying sources of satisfaction.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Soul Pictures


Canada has two provinces that are north of the Arctic Circle. The Yukon is one of them, and it has quite a bit of land that is pure, frozen tundra. Few people live there. Pictures of the place are usually beautiful if you like pictures of cold, cold altitudes and alpine lakes.

If I ever find myself having frozen thoughts about my life, I know where to go in my mind to release the warmth of a smile, the sun rays of laughter, and the radiant, soothing comfort of a cheerful voice. So, while pictures of the Arctic are nice to view, I draw on actual mind pictures to surround my soul with... those of smiles, laughter, and cheer.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The best position


Inspiration doesn't hover over a person. It comes in spurts, or moments, or in flashes. Usually something external creates the flash, moment, or spurt. It improves a person for a little while.

But, there's an exception. Inspiration could derive from the inside of a person because someone believes in her or him. Then, inspiration is not something short and profound. It is a continuous quality and allows one to rise above the daily quagmire to a level above the crowd.

Continuous inspiration helps one to feel or be a cut above the crowd, and how fortunate one is to find herself or himself in such a position.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

A string of adjectives and still true



In English adjectives describe nouns. That means that when you think of a person, place, object, or idea, you can alter the noun by making it more specific. Three types of specifying are allowable. You can tell how many of the noun you have, what kind of noun you have, or which noun you have. If you take an object, rainbows for example, you can tell that there is one or four rainbows; you can say that it is a full rainbow or a partial rainbow; or you can say if it is a brilliant rainbow or a faint rainbow. It's easy to know what is being said about a noun. Simple enough!



I remember a time when I was driving to a professional development session and meeting other presenters there. One of them mentioned seeing the rainbow that I had seen as well. So, we talked about it for a moment. The very next day I saw the rainbow in the sky again about the same time of day. I mentioned that to the person I had been discussing the previous day's rainbow with.



I haven't seen a rainbow in quite some time, maybe not even since that time two years ago. But I came across a cache of rainbow pictures today, and I was reminded of how adjectives work.

I was looking at beautiful, many-splendored, vibrant, cheerful, perfectly-arched rainbows.

And they still hold the same symbolism as the day we were talking about them with each other. Loved those two rainbows. Love what they represented!



And I received a double portion. Love that best of all, and it is still true!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Number 8


Today is the 8th birthday of a young man who has all the characteristics a parent would want. He has a heart for the underdog, so he helps them. He has the competitive spirit, so he participates in all kinds of sports from baseball to hockey. He has the mind and wit of a true academician. At 8 he knows more than the teacher at times. And for personality, he gets an A+. He never shies away from speaking with an adult. So today, a birthday tribute goes out to this outstanding young man.

And I just finished reading a book on the brain. In one of the chapters, some experimenting was done to see what part of the brain was involved in whether a young person reacted to scenarios being shown him or whether the young person anticipated what the scenario might bring with it - something threatening or something routine. The results were reported, but one of the conclusions was that the young person's brain responded reactionary-like or anticipatory-like based on the parenting style in his environment. So, I also want to compliment this young man's amazing mother whose parenting style (and genes) enhances this outstanding young man's many admirable traits.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

No day is black

The soul drives the person. It's the part of the brain that tells me the day is worth meeting every morning, that the day will be envigorating. Or, it tells me that the day is black, that it has nothing to offer. Or, it dictates that the day is somewhere in between, that it is some shade of gray.



With someone by our sides, every day is envigorating.



The soul does not believe the day is black or some shade of gray. It believes that the one by our sides sends light into the day no matter what the shade of gray or darkness is



and that the day cannot offer up an invincible, unconquerable conundrum...



with that someone by my side.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Next stretch of the road


I have had a few premonitions in my life, but very few. They foreshadow what happens a little ahead of the actual happening. My partner and I have been working on a project for a little over a year. Today, the project was ready to be launched. It's not quite finished, but it is finished enough to begin. The rest can be added as we go. We have launched two other projects and they are successful, but not lucrative (yet). This project has much greater promise to be lucrative. Usually I have a rather cautious approach to the success of something because I have been a part of several failed attempts in business. And even though I don't have a true premonition about this project, the beginnings of this one have all the shadows of success ahead of their official start.

If this venture becomes a success, it will go a ways down the road in helping to complete a life's desire of mine to be financially independent. The sweetest success of all, my heart's greatest desire, would still lie a little way farther down the road, but a successful venture would make my step a little lighter while I'm walking that next stretch of the road.

Enamored with Madagascar



Madagascar, the island off the eastern side of the tip of Africa, is the seat of human development and the place where a number of earth's oldest plants and animal relatives are. It has an enchanting atmosphere because it contains the original of what is on the Earth today. To many it is the source of life.

As I walk through the days of my life, I realize that there is a source for my everyday actions and aspirations, spawning what I will become in the days to come. How enchanting is my Madagascar!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Bon et beau


Over the years words compund their meanings. The word beautiful is an example of this. It started out 2500 years ago in Latin as the word bonus, which means "good" at its root.


Roman troops carried Latin to England and the language took root there alongside Anglo-Saxon. So the Anglo-Saxons began adopting some of the Latin into their language. Bonus was one of those words, and it took two routes to get to the present. The Angol-Saxon people began pronouncing the o in bonus as oo (but spelled ou) in the Middle Ages. So, the form boun is found as in the word bounty, which has come to mean reward or something good in great quantities. During the early years of the Middle Ages, in French, the o in bonus was pronounced and spelled as eau. So, the root was beaun. But, the n was heard as an l, so there was some confusion with the root bel, which means very pretty. From there it wasn't much longer before the word beauty was born. l and n were both dropped from pronunciation, leaving beau. After the French conquered the English in 1066 ACE, a good number of words took on their French spellings even though many of the Anglo-Saxon words remained unchanged. English adopted beau (but they still kept bou in their native tongue) added the suffix -ty as a suffix carrying the grammatical meaning to indicate the word as a noun. Finally, a second suffix, -ful was added to make the word an adjective.

There were a lot of derivational gymnastics taking place for beautiful to mean what it does today. As for me, I like the fact that bounty and beautiful share the same root. If you bundle the two words together, you get the idea of someone strikingly attractive containing great quantities of goodness.

I know this person. And what a bonus!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Translation


Translation is very nice because it takes words that a person doesn't understand, that is not in the person's grasp, and makes it come to life for the person.

One of the mightiest motivators on Earth is the idea that the desires of the heart will transpire. So I get up every morning thinking that I am a step closer to my heart's desire being translated to moments in time that come to life.

Je le veux tellement! Lo quiero tan mucho!

A part of the brain for ethics?


I read a chapter in a book today of why the brain developed an ethical part to it. It was an interesting chapter. It addressed the fact that people really do want to live together peaceably, but that it has to be on its guard since there are those few people who would endanger the species because they are deceivers and would thin out the ranks. So the brain has a way to construct behavior that is considered fair. Violators of this notion of fair become easy to spot, and therefore, to control or weed out.

This does seem to support the idea that people in America have of everyone having certain inalienable rights and equality. And while equality is a good philosophical ideal, I know about pecking orders. All I have to do is visit any school of any level and I see those playing fair and those violators who have to be controlled or weeded out.

Fortuantely, another principle is in play at the same time that young people are figuring out the nature of life (and that part of the brain that deals with ethics). Cream rises to the top. Very fortunately this prinicple is more powerful and produces more people for the ranks than those who get confused about ethics and let unethical influences override the ethical developmental process.

That keeps hope alive that the next generation will not only survive but succeed, keeping the future bright for those young children who will inherit tomorrow's society.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Better, more efficient, happier



Rocket propulsion has advanced over the years. When rockets first began being launched, jet fuel propelled 2 stages out of earth's atmosphere. Then there were 3 stages, using more fuel. But, fuel is heavy. So, when the shuttle needed a boost to space, attaching the shuttle to a rocket designed just for the fuel to lift it, detach from it, and fall to Earth, became the next step in the evolution of propulsion.

Then, came the era of the space probes being sent to planets, comets, and deep space. They were lighter, so they didn't use as much fuel, and they were going so far that fuel would burn out far before they reached their destinations. So other propulsion methods were used like gravity sling. Now it has been discovered how to generate power in the probe itself to create an ionized power source having very little weight and recreating its own ionized power indefinitely.

Advancement of propulsion of rockets is exactly how indiviual wisdom in life is formulated. Wisdom, like rockets, eventually generates its own knowledge base that works to make us able to live better, more efficient, happier lives. So, when it comes to knowing what is good for our psyches and who we allow to help shape our existence, our latter judgment is far superior to our former.

Beautiful when it happens

Every so often in life's journey people enter it that have profound effects and light up the night sky. Sometimes it is parents who encourage and support. I had two of those. Sometimes it's a professor who taught distinctly and truthfully. I had one of those. Sometimes a friend comes along who sticks through thick and thin. I have one of those. And, sometimes it's someone very amazing who brings brilliance to the path.



6 1/2 billion people on earth. Amazingly a handful stand out enough to think of daily or influence me to become better than I would normally be.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Our highest thoughts


Alla. Arriba.

There's a new series on CBS called Off the Map. American doctors are dedicating their time and healing talents to a little known place in South America. They help the people in a very poor rural area with all their health problems. One way the rural population gets from one place to another is with a cable strung from one mountainside to another or to the valley below with a little chair hanging from it. But, the people are proud of their mode transportation. It has served them well in the absence of roads and cars. In the initial episode of the series, one of the natives of the land was asked how he planned to go to some people who needed medical help. He pointed to the cable above and shouted the Spanish words meaning, "There. Above."

When thinking of times that might represent the rural places in events that come our way, and we need that healing thought to go on, all we have to do is look to those zenith moments and that person who brought the happiest episodes of our lives. Our minds immediately bring up the healing pictures of those stretches of time and elevate them, shouting, "Alla. Arriba..." so that we look up and receive glimpses of our most elevated hours.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Language of a liar


I have been following the disappearance of a teenager from Colorado City on the news for the last week. Finally, tonight CBS showed two interviews of the parents. So, I put my forensic ears on while the interviews were going on to listen for lies.

The biological father used language that repeated itself, the tell-tale sign that truth is being told. His actions matched the words he was saying. He was going to malls in Odessa, Midland, and Big Spring to pass out fliers to find his precious daughter.

The mother used language that did not repeat, the sure-fire sign that lies are being told. Her actions matched. She was worried about her own credibility with the media and community. She's living with a boyfriend that has at least once threatened to kill both mother and daughter. She and her boyfriend hosted a New Year's party even though the daughter had been gone for a long time at that point.

Even without the matching events to go with the language, the words of the mother ring as loudly as a bell begging for someone to completely exploit every aspect of her story about the events causing her daughter to be missing. She knows a lot of information that she is withholding. The language of arousal and fear are borne in her utterances - arousal that people are snooping around her for the truth and fear that if she is not careful, she will be found out.

As the story unfolds, we'll see where it leads. But, I am predicting at this point that the road to truth goes through the mother, not the father. I would bet that she knows who, when, where, and how. I hope someone soon exploits the knowledge that she has so that justice can be served.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Whatever happened to nas, nat, nevre, no man?


Winston Churchill is reported to have been interrupted once after saying that a particular situation was not acceptable when he said, "That is a problem I won't put up with." The aide interrupting Churchill reminded the prime minister that it wasn't proper to end a sentence with a preposition. Churchill rephrased his statement, saying "OK, then, that is a problem up with which I will not put." Oh, Churchill made the right transposition of words, but there is something so unnatural about that correction. And, in America, the natural way to speak is by ending a sentence with a preposition, regardless of what English teachers who wear ankle-length skirts and tennis shoes say about proper grammar.

I think it is arrogant beyond belief for a very small percentage of the people to decide what is proper when 98% of the speakers of English in America have decided what is going to be practiced. A sham if you ask me. There are other inane rules like the one about the preposition. Try to remember not to split an infinitive the next time you speak, or write for that matter. And don't put a negative meaning word twice in a sentence (the double negative) even though there is this example from Anglo-Saxon English, "nas, nat, nevre, no man" [four negative words - translated to mean something emphatic like "not one, single, solitary person"]. Somewhere the skirt and tennis shoes crowd elitely and haughtily decided to change the rules of our English speaking forefathers. And there are a great many other examples that could be cited.

I understand about conventions, in both language and life. I know why they are needed to a certain extent. I don't have to like it, but I understand. They seem to convolute what is apparently simple sometimes, but I see the big picture.

Sunday, January 09, 2011

End of time


The end of time is used mostly to refer to a very future point in which the time-space continuum disappears. For religious people that would depict a judgment day scenario, for scientists, the death of the sun or collision of the Milky Way galaxy with another galaxy.

But, the end of time can happen while a person is alive if a situation so pleasant and desirable happens that time goes unheeded. I know that certain small events occur for a couple of hours or so in which people don't notice time, so they say time flew by. But, I am speaking of living in a situation in which time really is not paid any attention to, not merely for a few hours, but for months and years.

That's pretty unimaginable. So, should a person find himself/herself in such a situation, (s)he would be the most contented, fortunate person on earth because the rest of the people are waiting on the judgment or death of the sun.

And so... unimaginably... do you have the time? ... I really don't know.

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Idylls making me a king



Idylls, like any word in English has more than one meaning. It started out having two meanings, one for love a things simple, but picturesque, the other for a poem that depicts the charming life of rural living. These meanings originated back in England when living in a beautiful countryside was the rule rather than the exception. An idyllic life was standard for most people.

While the Civil War was raging in America and life was far from idyllic, Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote the classic Idylls of the King, a poem about King Arthur, his knights, and the beautiful Guinevere. It was a series of 12 idylls (short poems) that highlighted different events or different knights like Lancelot. After Idylls of the King, the word took on a new meaning. No longer was the word idyll just a poem about the charm of country living but about the charm of knights riding across the enchanting countryside with a noble cause. And, of course, one could not miss the way the poem opened by speaking of the charm that the beautiful Guinevere brought to the entire country. The following lines are taken from the beginning idyll after the dedication. Arhtur is riding into battle with his knights and sees Guinevere for the first time.



But Arthur, looking downward as he passed,
Felt the light of her eyes into his life
smite him on the sudden... [suddenly gazing on him]




Arthur fights the battle, but after it was over, he cannot get the young maiden's eyes out of his mind. Finally, he knows that she inspires him to be a better ruler, as in the lines below.

And, reigning with one will in everything
We might have power on this dark land to lighten it,
And power on this dead world to make it live.

After Idylls of the King, idyllic could mean simply something or someone charming or someone who helps someone else live life in beauty with hope and power, as the last lines above bear out.
Growing up, I thought that idyll and ideal were synonyms, a modern spelling replacing an archaic spelling. Although they share a few semantic domains, they are not synonyms. Ideal means something perfect or something only dreamed of. Idyll can now mean something pastoral, a poem of something pastoral, something or someone with charm, or the charm of someone who adds beauty and power and hope to bring light to "dark land" and life to a "dead world." So, if someone is living an idyllic life, what kind of life is he living? A country life? A charmed life? A life with someone who helps him live beautifully with power and hope? Of course, Tennyson used them all as a triple pun.

I don't know how many idylls will be in my life's poem. But, I do know that the most recent idyll contains a line or two about inspiration as if drawn from Tennyson's poem. It would otherwise be a dark land. Instead, I am living an idyllic life.


Wednesday, January 05, 2011

The masterfully pieced story


I watched a video today called Journey to 10000 BC. It pieced together quite a number of discoveries from 3 different fields in order for the historian to tell a cohesive story. It started with an excavation of a mammoth, moved to some of the bones found in various spots in North America for the short-faced bear and the saber-toothed tiger, then ended with projectile points for spears found in Clovis, NM. Then it depicted ice coring that showed a lot about atmospheric changes from 10000 BCE. Finally it portrayed different scientists discussing a couple of theories based on geologic finds as to why the people of 10000 BCE disappeared from view. It was masterfully pieced together to tell a cohesive story of the people who lived at the end of the last ice age. Since we don't have written records to tell us of the time, scientists are compelled to label their ideas as speculative, open to interpretation, but plausible.

When it comes to seeing Journey to 2011 MH (Matters of the Heart), I can piece together some fantastic events and emotions that make the current story cohesive. Without them, though, the story fails. The story bogs down and is stripped of any life. It would be a speculative story, not worth telling, and should disappear from view. But with those events and emotions, the story is full of life and rich beyond measure.

Who would want a story of mere facts and events devoid of fantastic events and emotions? Any day of the week, I want those fantastic events and emotions that make my current story rich beyond measure. The story then becomes desirable, not merely plausible.

Sunday, January 02, 2011

Where the palm trees grow



The boulevard leading into and away from the Harlingen airport is lined with palm trees. There are palms adorning the terminal entrance as well. Something about the palm trees lining the entrance and the terminal take a person's mind to relaxing, comforting thoughts. They invite one to continue right on down the boulevard to the white sand beaches of South Padre Island.


Flying or driving into Orlando is a sight to see. Everything is lush and green. The main roads surrounding the airport are planted with many different kinds of trees and plants. But the way leading to Disney World is breathtakingly beautiful. The lanes sport palm trees all the way from the center of town to the amusement park. It makes one feel that there is no other moment to be lived in than the present one. Breezes are warm. Thoughts are of relaxation and pleasure.

Pictures of the countries along the equator are so inviting. They beckon a person to come and enjoy the climate and the easy atmosphere found in its forests and beaches. There, palm trees' broad leaves sway in the sunshine laden with coconuts, mesmerizing one with those laid-back feelings.


As the new year begins its unveiling of events, I have palm trees lining my thoughts. Well... not really palm trees, but mesmerizing thoughts that take my breath away. They yield the same effect as the warm breezes, relaxing atmosphere, and coconuts and broad leaves gently swaying in the sun. These pleasurable thoughts are blended into my soul, stored deep within, trapped in the chambers of my heart. No matter what happens this coming year, there will be nothing better than the palm trees lining my thoughts today.