No containment box will hold back the mess we've made of the world, when football heroes are rapists and a man disciplines a three year old boy by scalding him with boiling water. I can't contemplate a world like this. Mark Twain called it a dreary space-lost bulb, and that was before yahoo and youtube and CNN, before the twenty-four hour news cycle and Tennessee flood and the volcanic eruption of bad news that haunts our waking hours and our dreams. I don't have an answer or a hope, not for this and the way things are. All over the world press conferences are held, and self-assured men in suits stand before podiums and assure us that this is the best course of action and everything possible is being done, when nothing can be done. Will the end of days be anymore frenzied and chaotic? Can anything reverse the momentum of senselessness? Was Sodom or Gomorrah any more lost than we are now?
Men behave badly and undo themselves with unchecked appetites and perversity. Greed leads inexorably to ruin and incalculable losses. Who set this all in motion, and what can make it stop? I get tired if I think about it for twenty minutes. If I watch the evening news I'll fall into a pit of despair. Unless something fundamental changes in how we strive to master ourselves, the grip of uncertainty will overtake us all. From Iceland and Tennessee came the grim reminder of the words of Will Durant, "Civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice." The Permafrost is melting, and our hopes and certainty with it. We are the fools who think we are in charge, unaware the kingdom of humanity hangs by a thread, a thread that the jackals of violence and greed and mayhem lunge at viciously every day.
I can't think about it anymore, at least not today. The ruin and suffering and cruelty is too much. I have five beautiful grandchildren with another one kicking merrily in the womb. It's a sunny day in Spring. I won fifty dollars playing poker on Monday and another sixty yesterday. I'll take my superficial comforts and small victories. I haven't got the strength or wisdom to take on the world. I'm not sure anyone does. I don't have any confidence in the men standing at the podiums. They've told these lies before.
Saturday, May 8, 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.
2 comments:
Dad--
I demand happy post. It's Mother's Day you can't say no to me......that's all I'm sayin.
Me
Dear Steff--
First you want more posts, and now you demand that they be happy. That's a terribly demanding attitude. Here's a happy thought: Happy Mother's Day.
Regarding your other comment, first, thank you for your comments. You are wrong about Pierce Brosnan, who is bony-shouldered and overhyped, and gets too much credit for looking good and speaking well. He can't act. Brad Pitt and George Clooney are every bit as pretty but more believable, just to give two examples, and Jeff Bridges, Michael Caine, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duvall are far less pretty but infinitely more believable.
I know movies are entertainment. I recognize the difference. But in order to be top notch a movie has to carry you into the experience. It has to be satisfying and convincing rather than distracting and artificial. Or it can go the other way and be so outlandish you just go along for the ride. "Thomas Crown" was somewhere in the middle, and just didn't work for me. But I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Happy Mother's Day.
Love,
Dad
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