I fell asleep early and slept in my clothes, slept in, snoozed late and I feel great. Had a big Rome apple and five mini brownies for breakfast. Not recommended for six-pack abs, but they are not in my future anyway--I'm too much in love with the Gateway Breakfast House and Sparky's Pizza by the Slice, and somewhere there's a bottle of wine and a dish of hummus calling my name. So six-pack abs are out. Maybe I'll find someone who'll love me anyway. Anything is possible in the future. That's the beauty of it. Do you know there is a car, (actual prototypes exist) that runs on compressed air and a small gas or electric motor, that gets over a hundred miles to the gallon and emits no pollution? Or there are services like Zipcar that allow carless souls like me to use a Honda hybrid, gas and insurance provided, for 9.00 an hour and a small monthly fee? The future is a beautiful thing, and it's starting up all around us.
I'm sketchy on the details, but I have to believe the one great hope for our country is a thorough embrace of new ideas, innovation and technology. We won't get out of the morass we're in with the old politics and the same old solutions, and by dividing the pie differently. We have to create a bigger pie, and learn to be more fully satisfied with the slice we're given. Our new President ran on a promise of "change we can believe in" and while I don't believe government creates most significant change I hope it can do a better job of not getting in the way. Look back in the history books to 1908, and think of all the radical and life-changing innovations that would come in the next 40 years. Roads were paved, houses were electrified, airports and bridges were built. It's time for an explosion of building and creating in America. We need to stop talking and blaming each other and get back to work.
Here at Blog Central, we're going to begin the momentum by cleaning the bathroom and doing the laundry. I read through the Zipcar website and it might be a solution for me. The train won't run to Wilsonville and Tualatin for another year.
Marie and I are barely talking these days. The tendency of our relationship to take on the characteristics of high school is maddening. Thursday and Friday she wasn't picking up, and our conversations since have been tense and guarded, and I'm not sure why. It may have started because I mentioned here that coworkers occasionally stop to give me a ride in the rain. The logic is twisted and the fears are irrational. But the vast majority of our fears are. Embrace the future, and be as fearless as possible. And do something constructive, because your country needs you.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
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This is the Way the Transformation Begins
"Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say "Why not?"
George Bernard Shaw, Robert F. Kennedy
This is the way the transformation begins.
It begins in me.
It begins now.
It begins with small incremental changes and shifts in attitude
it begins with positive action
failing forward
and suddenly I start looking at the world and my place in it in a new way. I speak differently and dress differently and project a different energy, and the world opens up like a glorious pink azalea bush, eight feet tall and blooming like mad.
photo by Kajo123 from the website flickr.com
Good morning!
An engineer builds a bridge and every bolt and weld has to be exactly right; every measure has to be perfect, or the bridge collapses or fails to take its place. Fantastically detailed blueprints have to be laid out. Impact statements have to be filed, sediment has to be studied, years of effort, months of planning, and a man-made marvel rises in the sky. Park somewhere and take a good look at a bridge, and think of all the skill and knowledge and hard honest work it took to create it. Consider how a few thousand years ago we were living in caves.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
The Hawthorne Bridge at sunrise, Portland Oregon. Photo by Joe Collver, from flickr.com
Genuine happiness and success start with an attitude of abundance
Make it a daily practice to begin your day with five minutes of thankfulness. You can even do it in your car on the way to work. Do it in your own way, whether it's thoughtful reflection or a prayer or singing out loud, but focus on your rich, amazing, abundant life.
Feeling grumpy or resentful or worried instead of thankful? Change direction! Consider the incredible gifts you have--mind, body, spirit, senses, your family, your friends, your clothes, your car, and the breakfast you enjoyed this morning. By the standards of 99% of the world, Americans are incredibly, amazingly rich. You truly have no idea how richly blessed you are until you start thinking about it. Even the heart that beats within you and the lungs that breathe your air are an intricate and amazing miracle.
Some of my favorite movies are ones that feature a once-defeated character waking up to an absolutely new day: "It's A Wonderful Life," the various versions of Dicken's "Christmas Carol" and "Groundhog Day." How exhilarating it is for George Bailey to wake up and realize his life isn't over, it's just beginning, and that today truly is a brand new day.
"It's a Wonderful Life"
George returns home to everything he ever wanted.
1 comment:
Dale, I like this post. Your vision for a bigger pie is very good. Too many people think too small. And, I like the idea that we should be satisfied with a small(er) piece.
As you stated, the problem is the same old politics. We have people in power (does not matter what party -- they are all doing the same) promising to increase the size of everybody's slice.
The Dems lay claim to do so by taking away from the rich (not to bash the Dems as the other side promises bigger slices with no apparent source). That same, lame promise has been made throughout my life. Same result. The rich stay rich, and lazy slobs get lazier, and everybody in between goes to work hoping to build something for their families (this is not to say that rich people don't work -- most keep very busy -- that's why they're rich).
Anyway, I enjoyed your thoughts. Technological advances over the next 20 years, although difficult to imagine, will exceed what we have witnessed in the past 40.
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