The Toyotas are running amuck and the Greeks, who gave democracy to the world, are watching their economy collapse. Ominous signs are everywhere: it's the hungry and bitter who touch off panic and rioting in the streets, and if a bold gesture of confidence is not made soon the world will race off like a Prius with a stuck accelerator and a full charge. Eighty years ago the defeated hauled wheelbarrow loads of disgraced currency to the marketplace to barter for a loaf of bread, a madman saw this and blamed the Jews, and soon the whole world was in flames.
It's different now, we say. There are controls in place. Still the madmen lurk with their cries for purity and revenge. Cleanse the world of infidels and we'll have a thousand years of peace. The promise is always hollow, for the poor and hungry will swallow a lie and call it hope. The world races on and the false pundits find someone new to blame. Be afraid for a world where reason gives to panic and then panaceas, where sharp-tongued men in crisp shirts feed eager crowds a diet of catchphrases and quick-witted lies.
In America this week the offices and shops will be abuzz with new energy. The copy machine will be whirling and flashing like a nickel slot machine in the frenzy of an Elks convention. Energetic clusters will gather around desks, and the air will be filled with bracketology and inevitability of a bracket buster in the five-twelve seed. "I had it," comes a smug voice from accounting, the guy who smirks behind his coffee cup and always seems to have the answer to 29 down. It will be a week of sneaking into the breakroom and lost productivity, of buzzer beaters and Cinderellas gone home. I don't care for the March Madness. The best players leave early for the league and the story lines are too short. It's too prepackaged. The enthusiasm is all for TV, the basketball head masks and painted faces, the index fingers thrust into the air. The images are stale. I don't have a bracket in the office pool, and couldn't tell Duke from Dusquesne.
I won't watch a minute of this but millions will, and it's amazing to me we can get so excited about this while the world is shaken off its axis, and the founders of democracy lose theirs. Erin Andrews makes her living on sex appeal and tight skirts, but the idea of someone watching her leaves her tearfully outraged. The tears, I suspect, are for loss of control of her brand. The world is hurtling along like a Prius doing 90 miles an hour uphill with the brakes on, and the official story is that it's all a hoax.
Monday, March 15, 2010
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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:
Dad--
I'm not one for basketball myself either. I always preferred football. My mommy however loves it, and is one of those crazy pool people, she does pretty well too....
Me
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