Champions

Ranch Road 1431 winds around across 2 counties. A lot of roads do that, but this one is a memorable one. I have a place in the middle of one county off of road 1431 and near the opposite end of the other county is a special camp. Coming across the two counties I pass three camps, The Retreat, nearest my place, Camp Peniel, and Camp Champion. Tonight as I passed the three camps only one took my thoughts to deeper thinking... Camp Champion!

I know a young man who is just about a year and a half from getting to go to the camp. I know he's excited to get there. I'm sure he'll return for a number of years once he starts. And I look forward to the time when he starts because I know what will happen to him once he goes. I know this because I know another product of Camp Champion. That person is of the noblest ilk, sits atop every endeavor attempted, rides head and shoulders above anyone I've known in the academic world, and amazes everyone as a parent.

The young man is already a champion at all he does, so I can only imagine what his future holds. I'm a betting man, and I'm putting my chips on this young man already! It's not much of a bet. The other person I know who is a product of the camp, I would bet on any day, any second of the day, any year... any time.

Back spin

The sports segment of the news tonight highlighted pro golf. One of the golfers shot a beautiful stroke. The ball hit the green about 3 feet from the pole. But, the best part of the shot was that the ball had back spin on it, so after it hit three feet from the hole, it spun backwards the 3 feet to fall in the cup. The golfer was ecstatic; he had hit an eagle.

Back spin represents beautiful execution. I know it can be misconstrued as back lash, but to me there is a huge difference. Spinning backwards can offer initial opportunity as in the golfer's case, or it can offer additional opportunity as happens a few times in life (because the general principle is that opportunity knocks but once). Back lash is ugly and happens as a result of something a person does not try to have happen. Back spin is something a person works to have happen, and it happens to one's advantage. It proves that one is at the top of his or her game.

Eagles don't happen much in golf or in life, nor does back spin so accurately executed. Calling it beautiful is an understatement. There may not be a word for it in English.

Perfect symmetry

I hadn't ever seen Good Will Hunting even though a number of friends told me I should watch it. Finally, I happened on to it on one of the movie channels earlier this week. So, I watched it. Yes, I should have taken everyone's advice who told me to watch it. It was good on several levels.

One feature I like about a movie or a book is for there to be some line or some episode referred to again in the end. In one of the scenes in the middle of the movie, Robin Williams, playing an esteemed psychologist, relates to Will that he married the one true love in his life. So he enjoyed his marriage to the very end. He was passionate about going places with her or compromising his own thoughts if making her happy would be the end result. When she fell sick before she died, it was not a chore for him to care for his one true love in life. He related that story because Will had earlier flippantly suggested to the psychologist (without knowing the story behind the psychologist's state of being single) that he was scared to marry again because he married the wrong woman. Thus, Robin Williams found the right moment to relate having met the woman of his dreams to Will. He had given up going to a historical baseball event just to be with this woman for their first date. And, he never regretted it. In fact, he would have regretted attending the baseball event and missing the meeting with the woman of his dreams.

At the end of the movie, Will had a job that would catapult him to fame and show his unique abilities as a world class mathematician. But through his therapy with Robin Williams, he had learned to care about people again (which he had lost the ability to do through a series of events). In particular, he wanted to go reclaim a relationship with a woman so that he would have no regrets. So, he left a note with Robin Williams to tell the person offering him a job that he had somewhere else to be, with the woman of his dreams that he was going to meet. Beautiful symmetry. In literary terms, it's the perfect way to highlight a major theme.

From my observation of married couples, I would have to say that precious few individuals find their one true love. So seeing it portrayed in a movie is moving. Seeing it highlighted as a theme by seeing such a unique passion for another human being pass from one individual to another is even more touching.

In reality, just a taste of it for a few precious moments in time would be life's single most treasured event. Living it would place one in the most enviable position in the whole world.

Friendship

My college roommate came by today for a short visit. He was passing through after spending time in the cool mountains of New Mexico. It's always good to visit with him. He represents someone who knew me back when... who has known me throughout the happenings of life as the years have passed. We get together periodically; it probably works out to be about once every 3 years. We have shared the ups and downs of both of our lives - with kids and spouses. In a number of ways we are alike. He's a bit more reserved than I am and much more informal. Whereas, I analyze language, he analyzes the human mind. So, we have a lot to say about speech communication. If I ever need a psychological lift, he's the go-t0 guy.

It's good to have life-long friends. They help you measure your success or failure in life. They have some history to compare your present status to, for showing growth in both character and philosophical viewpoint. I'm grateful for such a friend.

Reunion time

It's time to meet with my colleagues again. Once a year I get to have a reunion in Dallas with those who went through the trenches with me, languishing in classes analyzing language in all of its various environments. I look forward to such meetings. They usually last about 4 hours, and we compare notes on all the types of environments we have encountered with language over the last year. These are not the normal class reunions, but they are reunions of great value to me. Over the last 8 years, we've been able to meet 6 times. This one is particularly good since one is coming from Nigeria to be there. He should have some interesting stories. He already has contracted an illness and had to take medicine for that. But, he remains devoted to his work. Another is from the Dallas area, but he works with people connected to Ethiopa. And yet another is working in Mexico with an indigenous clan of people for whom he has developed a written language. He always has good stories of both culture and language. I anticipate these usually annual meetings greatly and learn more about language than I otherwise would.

Only one reunion would be sweeter than this one. And when I look up to the stars at night and say "I wish I may I wish I might have the wish I wish tonight," I renew that very special hope that is part of the fabric of my soul.

Mesmerize me

The beach is a mesmerizing place. It has all kinds of activities associated with it. You can take a ship to deeper water to fish for the big ones. You can ferry to particular spots to watch dolphins. You can find a boat to hook a parachute to and go parasailing. You can, of course, grab your surf board and catch the big wave back to the sand. Of course, there's always the crowd that sits on the beach to soak in radiation from the sun, those who wade into the ocean to enjoy the water rush against the skin and fill the nostrils with that ever invasive saline smell. You can comb the beach for shells, crabs, and sand dollars.

The waves that come onto the beach are the most mesmerizing art of the whole scene. They endlessly smash, roar, roil, glide, billow, and slide across the sand wave after wave after wave, ad infinitum. They cause a person to pause and think, stop and consider, dawdle and laugh, and wade and reflect. It's beautiful, rejuvenating, relaxing, comforting, and calming. Long live the beach!

Fudge

The outrage from the Casey Anthony verdict derives from the fact that people thought she was lying about the murder and that she waited too long to report the missing daughter to the police. On this second matter, I hope that there never is a law about time periods for reporting things to the police. That would mean I am living in a police state. That would be a travesty. Of course, we're close enough to one already that I refer to the US as a police state from time to time. On the first matter, I find myself loving the jury. Who among us doesn't lie?

I'm no better. I have 2 friends that I am completely transparent with. I know that lack of transparency is not the same as lying by most definitions, but for these 2 people it is for me. I was talking with one of the two the other day and I made the statement that my work was less than desirable after a certain event. Although that statement is true, it was not transparent enough because it was an understatement, and I didn't present it as such. I should have presented my outlook with the strength it deserved. My whole life has had a hole in it after that event. That's a whole lot different from saying my work wasn't enjoyable. I fudged the truth. Fortunately, I didn't have a jury sitting in, watching what I was doing, deeming me guilty or not. But I know that I didn't tell the truth, that is, I know I was not transparent.

Filtering thought is what we do best to preserve our images. But, I have 2 people that know my true, unfiltered image. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to "unfudge" the truth.

#1 invention

According to a radio report last week, 50 engineers were sent a list of inventions recently. They were to rank the top 25 inventions of all time. Of the top 5, the personal computer was 5th. I couldn't believe it. I thought that was the driving force behind everything modern. More surprising was the radio, which came in third. But, after thinking about it, I can see that that allowed the world to start its march toward globalization.

The number one invention of all time was the smart phone. Really no surprise there. It allows one to control everything in her/his environment if (s)he wants to. For example, I have an app that controls the thermostat, the alarm system, the door locks to the house, a light, motion sensors, and a camera inside the house. In fact, I set the temperature of my house just the other day from my phone. Love it. The smart phone also contains a movie camera. I love these. A person can send and receive videos of people that are important and special to him/her. My daughter and I exchange still pictures through text occasionally and keep each other updated that way instead of through words. But, if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is that to the tenth power. They're the most special of all the features to me. They record the precious moments of precious people in our lives, including the sounds that bring a smile to the lips. Love them!!! The smart phone is a great choice for the number one invention of all time.

A golden lode

Today was one of those days where good things happened. My brother signed a contract to become a partner in an oil company. The doctor was able to move an appointment up 3 weeks. And my company signed a major contract that will take my business to the next level. What a deal. I felt like a gold miner in California in the 1880s who had made the dusty, long trip mined a few streams for gold and found nothing, only to wake up the next day to land a really huge nugget that allowed him to continue with his dreams. Let's call it a mother lode day.

As good as that may be, there is yet one thing that could top that. It is my greatest wish. And it would be the whole vein of gold in the rock around it... the mother of all lodes!

Tapping the reservoir

The Ogallala Aquifer is the world's largest underground reservoir in terms of how large it is. It covers 8 states in the midwest of the U.S. It can't be seen from the Earth's surface, but it irrigates much of the heartland of America. It's named after a town in Nebraska because the town was where the type of reservoir and the type of water filling it were first identified.

Inside of me is a reservoir of thought that irrigates the drought of mundane living. It is large, and it refreshes the thoughts in every area of my life, enriching them all. Even though rain may not be falling in my life right now to make things green and vibrant, I look to that Ogallala reservoir within. From it, thoughts are watered and life gets better. I call its very special name often. There's nothing like this reservoir in the whole wide world.

Letting Scorpio center me

Looking at the sky from the front porch tonight, I was staring at the constellation Scorpio. It's the shape of stars known for its long tail. I'm enamored enough with the night sky with all of its constellations. But, tonight it seemed that Scorpio was shining a little more brightly. I'm sure that it was lower light level in town. But, I like to have my imagination run away sometimes. The Greek mythology behind Scorpio isn't consistent. It has at least 3 stories of how it got in the sky. None of the stories make a person love the scorpion. It is like the serpent in the creation story. People disdain scorpions as much as they do snakes. But tonight my thoughts were not about the scorpion's sting.

The location of the constellation is near the center of the Milky Way. And perhaps, that's why I couldn't lower my gaze tonight from looking at Scorpio. It signified things and people who anchor or center me. I was in need of that reminder tonight. A little time with the night sky put me at ease, calmed my soul, and touched my heart with the flash of a face.

Applying Tombstone

Tombstone is a well loved film by the American public. It continues to run on the movie channels. I don't know exactly why the public loves the movie, but I think part of the reason is that the bad guys in the movie get exterminated en toto. People love to see justice served and many times, justice is harshly served. In this movie it is extremely served. And, that's the reason I am using this movie tonight.

I have commented on the Hailey Dunn case before, but the most recent move on the part of the Colorado Police Department defies understanding. They arrested Hailey's mother again. It appears the PD is trying to squeeze her in an attempt to get her to talk about her involvement in her own daughter's disappearance. So, they round her up for lying to authorities back in December when the disappearance was reported.

That correlates to two scenes in Tombstone which motivate me to action. After Wyatt's younger brother gets killed, Johnny Ringo invites Wyatt to a duel and tells him where to meet him. Wyatt, just before going to meet Ringo, visits with Doc Halliday about whether he can beat Ringo in the duel. Doc tells him he can't. In the next scene, Doc shows up in the shadows of the place Johnny Ringo is waiting to duel Wyatt. Doc approaches Ringo and opens with the line, "I'll be your huckleberry." At that point, the viewers are very much behind Doc because they know Doc will be Ringo's huckleberry and Ringo's demise is about 60 seconds away, as it should be since he is so evil.

Another scene is when Wyatt and company are confronting the Cowboy gang at a river. After killing many of the gang at the river, some in Wyatt's company are talking to Doc about Wyatt's boldness. They mention that revenge has made him so bold. Doc weighs in by saying, "Make no mistake about it gentlemen, this is not revenge. It's a reckoning."

I can't stand it anymore. The PD is making one move after another to deflect attention from themselves to a person who most of all would like to see her daughter again. Enough is enough! I'll be the huckleberry. Someone in the town knows what happened and is being allowed to remain undetected and taunt all who show up to search for Hailey week after week for 6 months. I say it's time for total exposure of the deflections that have occurred. It's time for their reckoning.

Sacred belief

The Green Lantern is a movie mainly for kids. It has great symbolism that kids need to hear, namely that fear can be overcome by will power. One's will power can wane and a person has to work at perfecting the will, but eventually it will overcome fear even if no one else believes that he or she has enough will power. The movie is a great lesson in personification of abstract ideas.

During the course of the movie, the hero has to admit his human limitations and his failures in life especially in relationships. He also has to admit that he has let fear get the best of him in a number of situations. However, the one person he wants to have a relationship with, in a scene near the end of the movie, tells the hero she sees courage in him even if he doesn't, and she knows he can be the Green Lantern who will overcome the fear facing the people of Earth with will power. It is a touching scene, and it turns the tide in his thinking. From that point on, he fights the fear that has descended on the Earth and wins the ensuing battle. He had it in him all along, he just needed a catalyst to bring the best out in him.

All of us need catalysts from time to time. Those points keep us believing in ourselves and our abilities. In particular, it's nice when someone tells us that they, too, believe in our abilities. When that happens, it's a sacred moment. It makes us better than we normally are, better than we would otherwise be. In a world that sends so much negativity our way, I'm thankful for the sacred moment when that one special person voices belief in us... so very thankful... so very beautiful... so very, very sacred!

Great meaning in an uncoined phrase

The phrase, "the winter of my discontent," is understood by nearly everyone whenever it is used whether or not one knows its original context. Funny... the opposite is not even a coined expression. I guess it would be "the summer of my great content," or "the summer of my greatest satisfaction."

I have one of those summers whether or not the expression has ever been coined. It was the summer I went to Canada. I went with my siblings, and the trip went well and I enjoyed the mountains of Canada greatly. But, as immensely satisfying as that experience was, there was another part of that trip that wasn't present with me that gave me the greatest satisfaction. It was what was contained in the deepest place within me, my fabric, that made the Canadian experience so bright. It was not the faces around me although they were pleasant enough. It was not in the rugged, jagged mountains that surrounded me although they were majestic and beautiful. It was an essence locked deeply within me that gave me my "summer of greatest satisfaction."

And that essence still satisfies me on a daily basis.

Finding the soul

Tonight on the Science channel, a special was aired that dealt with the soul. It's amazing to me that people are trying to define that idea in scientific terms. Mainly, though, the soul is the mind, or the way the brain's neural network is designed. The documentary included a neurosurgeon, a couple of psychologists who monitor the subconscious, and a neuroscientist/cognitive scientist who all have tried to track what happens in the brain during both waking and sleeping hours. The bottom line is that we still do not know, but some clear direction is starting to emerge on what areas to study.

Interestingly enough the word in Greek for soul is psyche. So they were on the trail of the right pursuit all along. It's the mind that gives rise to the idea of what outlives the body.

The most interesting idea is that our minds with all of their philosophies and views (the sum total of the connections we make daily and cumulatively) are nothing more than an amalgam of every influence from events or people that we have either encountered or that we allow to have even the smallest influence.

All I know is that my mind or soul or psyche or substance that makes sense of experience definitely bears the stamp of one experience I have had in life more than any other. Wouldn't it be nice if it would be that experience to outlive my body. I would be buried with a smile and my mind would fully enjoy infinity.

Atlantic sunrise

There is a certain energy and newness to watching a sunrise. This morning the clouds were over the horizon, so I had to wait 30 minutes for a peek at the sun.



But as the sun began to create its aura and brighten the water, anticipation heightened as to what was about to happen.



The sun reflected off the water, which made me, in turn, reflect on thoughts running through my mind. The scene added clarity and hope to my thoughts... hope that the deal in the works here in Georgia will actually materialize and clarity on the exact steps to closing the deal... and clarity that the warmth the sun represents is not a figment of the imagination.



Ahhhh... the brilliance finally appears! The day holds promise that what can be accomplished will be accomplished... And I immediately felt the warmth of the rays... both on my skin and in my heart!!!

Watching majesty

Tomorrow is the last day I will get to be at the beach, so I am going to go to the seashore and watch the gorgeous, majestic sunrise. I think it will inspire me. I will have about 20 minutes to watch it. I am usually busy and inside, so I rarely take in a sunrise (or a sunset for that matter).

The symbolism of watching a sunrise is whatever one wants it to be, but tomorrow I am looking to see the sun come up and think of all that it means to be as full of energy as the sun. That energy should bear results in my business and will allow me to appreciate more the one whose rays warm my life.

Another beach moment

Last summer I spent a weekend at Peak's Island off the coast of Maine. This summer it worked out for me to spend a weekend at Jeckyll Island off the coast of Georgia. The terrain is wholly different. The island was forested with Spanish Oak trees featuring the characteristic Spanish moss hanging from the limbs. The coastline itself sported 8 miles of a narrow strip of white sand and sand dunes separating them from forested area. Both islands have their own beauty. The beach is a place I love walking on. Instead of walking in the park back home, I get to walk with the scent of salt in the air, the constant roar of waves in my consciousness, and the endless stretch of wave after wave in my vision. That makes for a nice walk.

I thought I would walk down the beach a couple of miles to a restaurant to eat and walk back. That way I would be sure to get my exercise for the day. Well, I did get my exercise, but on the way back the sun disappeared behind the horizon, so it got dark. Of course, there are no street lights on the beach, and the moon was a very small crescent, so I was walking without much light at all. I couldn't see the path back to the hotel, so I overshot it by a half mile. I finally found the main road, and walked back to the hotel on it. 4 miles turned into 5 pretty quickly. It took a good hour to cool down from the extra long walk.



You have to laugh at experiences like that. It shows how disorientation can lead you way off track even though you think you know where you are. I saw a gift book today, too, called Lessons of Life from the Ocean. I'd like to add this one to its pages. Walking on the beach after dark turns a decent walk into a disorienting one. Life is seldom a beach, but if it ever is, don't let walking on it lure you into staying on it after the sun disappears. It causes more than one anxious moment.

Optimizing an encounter

Learning is a tricky business. Having a goal helps. Then a person has an open mind, which is what it takes to learn something. A person who has no goal in mind doesn't know what will apply to something (s)he might encounter, so (s)he follows the path of least resistance - not to learn. It takes too much energy to learn. So, when the encounter finally does come, the person doesn't know to expect it or what to expect during the encounter, didn't learn the principle that would apply to the encounter, thus cannot capitalize on what the encounter might offer. Sometimes opportunities happen twice, but more often than not, opportunity knocks but once. So, many people lose chances to succeed because they are unprepared.

There are a few other reasons why someone might not learn something, but by and large, transfer of knowledge, that is, learning, happens because it is utilitarian for a person. This is especially true of adult learners. But, the energy factor is hard to overcome even for adults. Life gets more complicated the farther upstream a person gets from adolescence. One's energy has to be distributed among more people or more encounters. Thus, transfer of knowledge happens for a person in a narrow band, one that is utilitarian. That leaves just enough energy to meet the demands of children, friends, family, and problem encounters.

One lesson from this is to learn while young, before life gets too complicated and scatters one's force. Another lesson is that adults should force themselves to not have such a narrow band for transfer of knowledge to happen. Perhaps they should be aware of and act on the driving forces, whether extrinsic or intrinsic, or develop interests outside of their main interest in life, their job. Maybe someone they identify with a great deal would like to talk with them about a subject if only they knew something about it. That's all wishing. The world rocks on. "You can't change the stripes on a zebra," so they say.

But I personally want to be around and with people who learn, learn more, and learn a lot. For them, life is much more than an existence within a narrow band of knowledge. They're prepared for many kinds of encounters. It's the cut between men and boys, women and girls.

My lot is through a lens

The History Channel has been running a special program on the search for life on Mars for the last 9 months. It's an interesting documentary. They talk about the history of Mars in which one era had the right ingredients for life. It has long, long since disappeared. They talked of the images on Mars' surface. It appears that traceable channels and lake boundaries still exist there on the planet. But, the most compelling evidence comes from readouts of methane gas on Mars, which indicates that organisms that make methane gas could have or still do exist on Mars.

I would love to be able to take a vacation on Mars (even the moon for that matter), but I don't think that will happen in my lifetime. I would love to live on the moon or Mars in a colony before settlement takes place on either body. But, that would happen only toward the end of my lifetime. So, I look from Earth through telescopic lenses presented on television and on the internet at a celestial body that I would really like to inhabit and dream of what could have been had I been born a generation or two from my location in history. Life tantalizes us like that. But, it keeps us young in mind to explore and dream and wish.

Hot wind only on the outside

Tonight the wind is high. I can hear it rustling through the leaves of the tree right outside my window. It's been blowing for about 3 hours now. The rain, thunder, and lightning rumbled in the distance a little earlier. The most we got out of the clouds was the smell of rain. Not a drop touched the crisp, brown blades of grass that still form a yard.

So the hot wind blows. Yes, hot because it has barely slipped from the 90s at this time of day. That's hot enough. But spring was totally different this year. I blogged about it back in March. I knew the summer would hold something extreme or irregular. And it has. The reason for the brown grass this year, even in the park nearby, is that water rationing has taken place because of the severity of the drought. So, a person can't just turn on the sprinklers at will.

The events of the year have been about like the weather... extreme, irregular. But, the beauty of the year is inward, in my thoughts. There it is green every day. Waterfalls come to mind regularly, feeding rushing rivers that produce the swirls of thought that freshen my mind and life. There is no such thing as a drought there for my thoughts are fed by the springs of a familiar voice. The events of the year, regardless of how barren, are light years away from the scenes accompanying the voice in my mind. The events may blur the vision, but they cannot dominate the landscape of my mind.

Let the hot wind blow. It's on the outside of the window of my soul.

Truth in proverbs

There is a saying in America that patience is a virtue. I have seen that the platitude is true. Another saying follows on its heels, "Good things come to those who wait." Waiting and patience go hand in hand sometimes even if they are not equivalent terms . Another adage close in meaning to the above two is that something or someone is worth waiting for. This, of course, doesn't happen often, which is why there is a proverb capturing its truth.

These three proverbs work closely together. If something or someone was worth waiting for, then of course, something good would come from waiting, and patience would have been a virtue in that situation. I have been told I am patient. Maybe that's true. If so, then it's a virtue. It would mean that I have the ability to wait for something or someone... a moot point, of course, if I had not ever thought or said that something or someone would be worth waiting for. But it is not a moot point for I have thought and said that. It is the truest thing I have ever said.

Soft rain

Ray Bradbury wrote a short story called, There Will Come Soft Rains. It is a story about realized dreams of reaching planets in space and having regular space travel. The title is an analogy about how sweet spring is when it arrives like the sweetness of the arrival of regular space travel. The USA is not quite to the level of regular space travel as a means of transportation to other celestial bodies, but almost. I can see the rest of the story from my place in history. But, I do like the title and what it is an analog for.

The meaning, there will be a time for dreams to be realized and how sweet it is when it happens, is also indicative of how to rise above the ebb and flow of life. First comes the dream or the great hope. Next comes the regular work, taking into consideration that regular work is how the goal, the object of hope, is reached. Then comes the regular gauging of the intervals that serve as the milestones toward reaching the dream and realizing the hope. Finally, comes the day when the soft rains begin.

It's the only path that works in realizing a dream except for encountering dumb luck. And, since I am very, very, very short on dumb luck, I have to rely on the one-step-at-a-time plan. The second step above is the step many people cannot do. It takes patience and discipline. Both drive you crazy, and it is true that some dreams do not get realized. So, being driven crazy is a hazard of working hard to realize a dream and failing. But living daily is hazardous to your health, so I'll be satisfied with being crazy, because you can never see around the corner. And, who knows but that your realized hope lies around the very next corner. Soft rain is so sweet to hear.

A new take

Sometimes you hear words all your life but narrowed to a certain situation, never outside of a certain context. Then, out of nowhere, you hear a couple of words put together that you have never heard together. I was in a doctor's office not long ago and a nurse practitioner came in. He was entering notes about the condition into a computer and was talking aloud to himself as he typed. He came to a couple of words that I had heard in other situations, but never had I heard the two words together. He uttered that the bane history consisted of blah, blah, blah...

I've heard bane, and I've heard history, but never bane history. That's all right. I knew immediately what the combination meant. My mind wandered at that point for about 15 seconds. I had always heard of bane used with the word boon, as in Every circumstance has a boon and a bane side to it. Then, I thought about what could be written if the nurse practitioner had said boon history. Of course, I wouldn't be in the doctor's office if he was writing my boon history.

But I have a boon history. It's the history of the one who makes me better than I am, who puts the sunshine in my day, the laughter in my world, and the happiness in every second of time. I'll have to remember to use that sometime... boon history.

I have a bane history, for sure, and it's not just relating to health although it certainly affects health. And, I was just going through life, living my bane history out when I suddenly hit the boon era. Love it when that happens, and I definitely loved it when the boon era came.

Yin and yang, boon and bane, mountaintops and valleys. Life sure has them. But I have enough of the bane history already written. I'm glad to have encountered the boon history. What a difference it makes.

Treasuring Yellowstone

I don't know exactly what the allure was to going to Yellowstone National Park, but I think it was everything that it offered. by the time I was 15, I had visited Yellowstone 9 times. I enjoyed seeing Old Faithful, the geyser that erupted in water spouts every hour (at that time vs 90 minutes now). I remember the bears that inhabited the campgrounds and picnic areas. Sometimes they would cross the roads and back traffic up because people would cut their engines off and start taking pictures or trying to feed them. One trip I counted over 100 bears. Regularly I would count over 70. (Today people make trips without seeing them at all). One of the main features I enjoyed was the hike to the Paint Pots. Different colored mud came boiling out of the ground in spots. Sometimes the mud was pink or orange, sometimes it was dark brown and rust, occasionally ruddy red. I remember also staying at the foot of the majestic Grand Teton mountain in Jackson Hole Wyoming. I could hike around on the lower elevations of the mountain, always dreaming of climbing to the top. Jackson Hole would have a actors at dusk ride out on horseback and act out a shooting in a saloon and an hanging in the town square.

Today I look back on the Yellowstone experience and see good times, full of beauty and excitement. Even though they are days gone by, they were and still represent the good that life has to offer. In my adulthood, I have been able to recreate that experience only once... days of beauty and excitement. I looked forward to what each day would bring during that time period... days as idyllic and majestic as the outline of the Grand Teton on the landscape, as colorful as the Paint Pots bubbling from the ground, as spectacular as the heated water of the geyser spewing 50 feet into the air at regular intervals, and as mesmerizing as the bears crossing the roads by the picnic grounds. And because the Yellowstone experience has been recreated only once in my lifetime, I hold it in the highest of highest esteem. It is sacred ground. Nothing can touch it.

Viva la heights

How big a part does personality play when people are together? A lot. Some people you know from the outset that you don't need to be around. They would drive you to insanity or violence or some other behavior that doesn't benefit healthy living. Others you know you could be friends with since they are compatible in some way, morally maybe or philosophically. And there are personality types all up and down the personality spectrum. While there are precious few personalities that are entirely compatible with your own, it's still a little onerous when you are forced into a situation and you have no choice or limited choices on being around someone who doesn't share some of the key personality points it takes to peacefully coexist. They're just a reminder of how low on the roller coaster ride one can go. The good thing is that roller coasters have high places on their tracks as well.

A day for the best

Today is the day for mothers to be honored. They are truly the hub of the home when they don't let selfish desires take them away from what mothers do best. I had one of thsoe great hub mothers growing up. She has always believed in my abilities and has given encouragement for my writing and educational endeavors then and throughout my adult life. Happy Mother's Day to her.

And speaking of the word best, there is one mother I know that embodies that title. She is above any mother I have ever seen. She makes sure her children know not only what the school has to offer, but what life has to offer. She makes opportunities for them to serve others. She seeks opportunities for them to be well-rounded and be exposed to interests that have immediate benefits and long-range ones.

She is the best! Bar none!! Happy Mother's Day!!!

Staying too long

You can be somewhere too long.

That's a lesson I have learned on a number of occasions. The lesson is nicely illustrated when investing in the currency exchange. Once a position is opened at a certain price, you predict that it will either go up or down from your opening price. There's no turning back once the position is opened. So, if you predict that the trend will be upward, and the trend goes up, you make money. If you predict that it will go downward and the trend falls, you make money. But, if you open the position and the price trends in the opposite direction from your prediction, you lose money.

I have opened a position with a prediction, and the trend went the opposite direction a number of times. The immediate thought is to stick it out and the trend will turn around. Many times that is true. But, you can stay in the doldrums too long. Bad things happen when that occurs. You can exceed your margin for one. Then you automatically lose your money to the brokerage house. I've had that happen. Or it ties up your money for so long before the trend comes back that you lose out on having enough margin for other money to work if it had been available instead of being allocated for the deep sleeper to turn around. Or you could be at historic highs or lows. The price will never be that low or high again, so no turn around is possible and you lose.

The lesson is that you can be in a geographic location too long, in a job too long, or in a relationship too long. Bad things happen. Waiting for the turn around always costs. Fortunately, there are patterns in the way prices move just as there are in the rhythms of life. Most of the time the patterns prevail and you make money or enjoy life.

But, you can be somewhere too long.

Goodbye to words

The evolution of the way knobs and buttons in a car are marked for identification is one of the best ways to show how thinking changes over time. When cars first came out, knobs and buttons were not identified, especially the crank, which was on the outside of the car. Everyone knew what the crank was for whether or not it was labeled. As car companies began marking their buttons and knobs, they would spell out the whole word beside it or above or below it. Then, the companies began abbreviating, like A/C for Air Conditioning. Finally, symbols were adopted for the buttons and knobs. Now you wouldn't ever see Heater or Htr, you would see two slightly off parallel bars with waves in between.

The reason that represents a change in thinking is that it shows that people react faster with fuller comprehension to symbols than to letters for words or abbbreviations. We live in a visually stimulated world where rapid reaction is required. Ask any gamer. I look forward to the next 10 years as visual stimuli becomes ever more the way life will be arranged. Goodbye words, which slow the reaction process down.

By comparison 2

I was talking to a friend about an attorney who only accepts two or three cases a year. It' s always a high stakes money case taken on contingency so that the stakes can be higher by winning. Over the course of the last 12 years, this attorney has never lost. So, he has amassed a huge fortune from the contingencies he's won. He's also good at investing, so the money he has won has multiplied considerably.

His wife has a housekeeper, two nannies, a yard and pool man. She flies to Paris as if it were only a day trip. She takes her friends to concerts and buys them front row seats for 3-5,000 per ticket. a five dollar bill is a nickel to her.

By comparison, my life is quite average. I am a part of the middle working class. But stories like the one these two people live keep me in line if I ever for a second think I might have arrived in some area or another.

By comparison

Recently, I was in a place where the people were homeless and dirt poor. I didn't know any of their stories, but I am sure they were very interesting. The road that brings someone to a certain place in life is always interesting.

I saw a man in a wheelchair on the corner of an intersection, legless, with hand out for one car, cap out for another. I saw another lady sitting in front of a hospital, wild-haired, smoking, just passing the time of day. I had another lady hit me up for "gas money" as I was waiting in line to check out myself in a 7-11. She had come in at the same time with me into the store, waited till I got my Dr. Pepper and Zingers. Then asked for money so she could buy whatever she was checking out.


There were many more people that would have had interesting stories. I guess by comparison, my life is one of a king.

A measure for phenomenal

Max Anderson put out an inspirational book and Power Point once about the boiling point. I don't remember the name of either writing, but it was something about 1 degree of difference. The one degree between high heat and the boiling point is one degree. Then he went on to talk about what a difference it makes in one's life (for accomplishing goals) to ratchet up just one degree more of determination or passion or effort. Reaching the metaphoric boiling point is magical in accomplishing one's dreams.

Without the hoopla of the inspirational part, it is true that small increments are all around us that make a difference. The difference between two degrees of temperature from 99 to 101 is small. But, it makes a difference in whether the fever needs to be treated or not. If the normal or average temperature is 98.6 (or 99), then just a short two degrees of temperature make a difference.

The freezing point serves the same purpose as the boiling point in the original inspirational writing. One degree from 33 to 32 degrees turns water from a fluid to a solid. It makes a difference in the type of lifestyle preparations one needs to take, such as wrapping pipes for pump houses, covering or draining water from pools, procuring salt for bridges and roadways, planning trips, etc.

And in my line of work, just one standard deviation is the difference between honest, casual speech and contrived, rehearsed, dishonest speech. The range of type-token ratios between 0 and 1 is far less noticed than the range from 1-2. And the ratios above 2 are infrequent and highly significant when they occur. Small increments these numbers are, but increments that matter.

The list could contain many, many more examples of the difference small increments make. The point of the original boiling point illustration was to say that the extra, small amount of difference yields great results in life. It's true for the most part. Valedictorians and salutatorians are sometimes .001 apart in GPA. 1 degree of angle in a trajectory makes a difference between glancing off the atmosphere into deep space or piercing the shield for a safe landing. 1 inch of snow between one's foot and a crevasse on Mt. Everest determines life or death.

Mediocrity is unacceptable. Average is expected. What stands out I'm thankful for. But what is phenomenal is desired and immensely satisfying when achieved. And the difference between outstanding and phenomenal is probably just one infinitesimal unit apart.

What am I missing?

I understand most things in life. If I have an interest in them, I usually study them until I understand them very well. A couple of things in life, I have pursued formal training to know the nth degree about. So, when I hit something I have really tried to understand and can't, it bothers me severly.

I was told early on in life, "Everything has a shelf life." I understand this concept. But, I don't like how it has played out in life since I left my 30s. I know that we were "born to die." That will come in due time. I comprehend that there are cycles to life, so that many things resurface; they come and go, leave and return. I get it. What I don't understand is why the important matters/people have been plucked from me one at a time. Even formal training for acceptance of this principle I know about and can quote the steps for. However, I am not a whole individual as much as I could be because what I considered to be the #1 priority at different times in my life has been taken one priority at a time in a methodical, successive fashion. This I don't get.

At one time I thought that religion would help... of course, it didn't. I thought that discipline would help... that's not the trick. I thought maybe there were religious "disciplines" I was remiss in... of course not. I thought pursuing ideas to the nth degree would give me insight... yes, but not in this matter. If I have had a #1 priority, I have been stripped of it.

All I have to say about matters and people I have priorities about is that I wish it had worked out differently. I don't understand it for sure, so I am forced to settle for wishes. I wish that J.W. Roberts had mentored me a little longer before dying in mid-semester of my second year with him . I wish that choices from the 20s had been different. I wish consulting for attorneys had played a larger part in my life. I wish that I had not gone through raising teenagers alone. I wish for my son's cancer to have had a cure. I wish that 2009 could have lasted the rest of my life. I wish 2011 had not included the path I am bound to go down.



I still need the understanding of the bigger picture. Without it, I am blind. I have never liked being blind and have fought against it with every ounce of my energy. It defies what I am about. But...

Most people

Outrageous and outraged are certainly from the same family if one were to write the related words, such as outrage (noun form), outrage (verb form), outrageous (adjective form), outrageously (adverb form). But there are subtle differences in the forms, one from the other. The noun and verb forms are pretty similar although there is the difference in which the verb form shows a burst of emotion and the noun form removes that from the meaning. The adjective and adverb forms share most of the same meaning except that the adjective still refers to anger where the adverb does not. However, the adjective form and the past participle form [a member of the verb family] (the two words starting this blog) are not very close even though they belong to the same family. One deals with rage, the other mainly with something far from the norm. It's a mirror image of the human family with members having different personalities or defining characteristics.

So it is with people. If we think of a class of people, women for instance, we find that they have shared characteristics like the outrage family. However, the members of the class are not the same. In the same way the mind chooses words for expressing the right meaning, people can see the differences in the individual members of the class and choose to pass or accept. And just as there are major distinctions between noun/verb and adjective/adverb, there are some fine-tuned distinctions between close members of a class as between noun and verb and between adjective and adverb. So even if we choose to accept the members of a larger class, there are even smaller distinctions that set the members apart for further scrutiny dictating how much we want to accept that member.

Where I would use the word outrageous, I could also use unbelievable (most people's first choice) or incredible (many people's second choice). But my choice is outrageous. Focusing on just the right word choice follows the same routine as choosing members of a class, then narrowing to focus on a preference. Language and life choices have a number of parallels. I used to think that I could not change my life choice preferences. But that's like saying I am stuck with outrageous as a preference and could not change to incredible, unbelievable, unique, over-the-top, way beyond, or any number of words that might be equivalent. It's just that I have a preference after closely examining the possibilities. My criteria might change for how I select preferences. If so, then I might change preferences. That's more a reality.

I would say, though, that most people stick with the language they learned as young people and it marks them for life. It gives them their recognizable characteristics. Well, that's most people.

UNspoken

Meanings of thoughts uttered definitely show up in a number of ways. Meaning is carried through tone used, voice pitch, gestures made, and facial expressions. But none of these means are quite as potent as the words uttered. And sometimes the most potent of all meanings is in the words that have been left unsaid.

Tomorrow I am going to hear a doctor's report of his surgery. He will utter words that will be accompanied by all the above means. He will use calm tones, normal pitch, neutral gestures if any are made, and quite ordinary facial expressions. I am certain he will use very precise wording to say very clinically and precisely what he did.

But the entire story of the degree of his success will be in the words unspoken. I will hear those words anyway... and that hidden story is the whole story.

The substance box

Magazines adopted the practice for a while of capturing the substance of an a page in an inset box, bolding the print, and increasing the font so that everyone would know the heart or central thought of what was on that page. Soon religious and self-help books, pamphlets, and technical articles began doing that as well. That style of capturing the heart of the matter being read lasted for a decade and a half before it began tapering off. But, a number of magazines still do that.

I find myself being silent these days in conversations when I am among those who don't share any common interests or I am not among friends. I wish that I had a set of boxes that had the substance of what I am about in them. Then all I would have to do is pull one out and let people read it. If they wanted to stay around and talk about that, they would be welcome to do so. Otherwise, they would save themselves a lot of breath by reading the box, then deciding to converse with someone else who might share their common interests.

Music of our lives

I remember the era of the Chicago Bulls winning NBA championships. They had the best player in basketball, Michael Jordan, without a doubt. And the best coach, Phil Jackson, hands down. And the best supporting cast with Dennis Rodman and Scottie Pippin. But they also had the best song. Right before the introduction of the team, the lights were killed in the arena. A bull herd was shown running down one of the main streets leading to the arena, then entering it to the shouts of the thousands gathered there for the event. That short, wordless song became the icon of the Bulls and all they stood for.

Music can do that. Some songs represent a particular time or event in our lives. I heard the love songon TV the other day that served as the theme to the original Romeo and Juliet movie from years past. My thoughts immediately jumped to the time period. If I ever hear Won't Get Fooled Again by the Who, I always see the Tarrant County Colliseum with a huge ball revolving and sending chutes of light all over the ceiling and with smoke coming from the stage as the song is being sung.

I suppose we can chart our events with music. It's important to us. What was the number one song when we graduated? What song marked the passing of a loved one? What song is from your favorite movie? What song represents your chosen career field? What song inspires us to sing along with it every time it's played? What song can we never let go because it represents the heartstrings attached to it?... it's one of those forever songs.

Shifting Scenes

Once in a while, something comes along to let you know that the world you live in is not yours. You can't control it or predict it. You are left to react to it and adjust to a new schema. So be it.

The people living 70,000 years ago endured a decade of winter and darkness when Mount Toba blew its top in the worst volcano eruption in the known history of the Earth. Most humans didn't make it, and the few that lived to share the earth with their posterity lived in a very different place than before.

The people in the Sahara Desert understand about reaction to change. The Sahara was lush 20,000 years ago. Those in the transition from lush to desert knew they would have to adjust to live.

People in Nazi Germany had to make about a 15 year adjustment to a regime that changed the way a government treated the citizens of its nation. Some citizens were favored while others were hunted down and murdered.

So it's not new that in our personal lives, life might just radically take a twist. Bring it on. Survivors adapt to a new environment and learn its new ways.

Malleability

At a garden park I recently visited, there were several sculpted metal figurines placed in a circle on the lawn. The figures showed a variety of positions a person could take in defending oneself in one of the martial arts, perhaps Jujitsu. I don't really know if there was symbolism with the figures being placed in a circle or with the positions of the figures, but I saw some parallelism with the figures and the way life is.

Life happens to a person in such a way so as to force him or her to develop a rhythm of positions to take while trying to figure life out, defending against some of its developments, or making plans to be more assertive to overcome some of the holes it puts one in. The shape helps one see how (s)he has mapped out the circular nature of her or his added or repeated responses. And the sculptures being metal show how rigid those responses become.

While this is psychologically protective, I think our responses to life should show a certain malleability. We do have to form a view of life and place our experiences within that view, but the view does not have to be narrow. It should broaden horizons and aid us in following what we deem best for ourselves.

Product of sheer natural beauty

Today was beautiful in a garden park behind the hotel where I have stayed for a week. On the hotel property is a park that contains about 3 acres. In the center of it is a sundial pedastal decorated with beautiful yellow flowers radiating from it for about 10 feet. The path I walk on takes about 5 minutes to walk around (my walk is 4 times around), but it has a bridge with ponds on either side of it, one of which holds about 20 large goldfish, the other a sculpture of a father and son fishing out of the pond. Flowers are also planted around a number of trees. Some of the trees are exotic looking like the cyprus trees whose roots come up like splotches all around them. The grass is absolutely green, verdent green. Fountains refresh the one walking the path. The product of walking along this path is the clear thinking that occurs. I need that. And, I have never had clearer thinking than I do now.

Running rivers

One of the best movies from the last quarter of 20th century was A River Runs through It. Its theme of life just happening for good or ill next to a river pulsing through the territory still stands out to me. The picture above reminds me so much of the land from the movie, and its universal symbols for the lives of those who watched it.

Snow blizzard fences have been constructed to block blowing, blinding snow from covering the meadow where cattle or buffalo graze. Mountains form a ridge in the background to make their presence known without being too imposing on the landscape. The sky is partly clouded with some gray, some white, shielding the sun from the scorching the grass in the meadow. Sage brush clumps have grown in pockets around the land in the picture. And, although the sun is veiled, its rays still bathe the mountainside and the land at the foot of this tall terrain as if it is defiant in announcing that no one can truly hide the sun. All of this along the river running through the land.

Comparing the theme of the movie that life happens along the river, and the picture that represents it here, I find a number of parallels. I have certainly had mountains to climb (who hasn't!). I have fortunately had snow blizzard fences to keep the white blanket from completely covering my landscape, freezing the meadows I operate in or blinding me from seeing its worth. Skies in my world have been cloudy at times and shielded the sun. I have smelled the musty, rather colorless sage of life, but at least it shows that there is life going on.

Oh, and did I leave out the sun rays spilling down the mountainside filling the valley below? Oh no, not a chance! I saved it to single out the source of my living as the river runs through my life. I have one in a place within whose cheer allows me to press forward, whose spirit rains warm rays on my thoughts, and whose brilliance cannot ever be completely shielded from lighting the lay of the land in my life. It's the main feature in a life with a river running through it!