Fair Findings 1/12/09

Eat an apple every day from the tree of wisdom and plant the seeds in someone's garden

DB - The Vagabond
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Greetings friend.

Today's quote defines my life in many ways. Especially now, in my senior years, when I have so much time to read and think about things.

"Everyone knows actors and actresses are a vain, ignorant group who only read the trade papers or visit the beauty parlor, who primp and posture and are only concerned with how they appear to others. He says he reads philosophy? Ha! Don't believe it. He's just grandstanding, putting on an act, trying to make us think he's smart."

Underestimate me and you hurt me. Overestimate me and you hurt yourself.

There are a great many things I don't know and can't do. I defer to scientists, athletes, doctors and others. But I do know the things I discover and determine on my own. And why not share those things with other people? It's a joy and privilege for me.

I have shared some of my experiences as an actor, not to brag, but to find examples and metaphors for life lessons. When I first began to uncover ideas, the truth behind and under things, I thought I had been blessed with a wonderful opportunity to explore all the caves and summits to see what I could find.

While there is no wisdom in the plow, there is in the plowman. More than we know. More than he knows. And there is no music in the cello until the musician draws his bow across the strings and then only if the music is already in the musician. More than we know. More than he knows. These may seem like simple truisms, and they are, but they point to a great and fundamental fact of life. It is trying to understanding that fundamental fact that keeps me busy now. One's thinking can be fooled in both simple and crucial ways by how one defines something. One must look beyond the obvious to properly define anything. "The cello is a musical instrument." No. "The cello is a devise upon which a musician, if he knows how to manipulate it, can make music." Better. "This poem is a sonnet." No. "This is a major statement about beauty in the form of a sonnet." Better. But there are still deeper levels to find. So I keep on biting and chewing.

The bites from the apple are healthy even if the apple is a little sour sometimes (and please no lame jokes about worms).

Exploration,
curiosity,
observation,
concentration,
imagination,
challenging standard ways of thinking, speaking and doing things,
originality,
persistence,
expectation of discovery:
these are the tools of this baffled vagabond as I go through the orchard and along the road.

I intend to keep chewing apples and planting seeds for as long as I can. It seems to be what my life is about.

Thank you for reading this entry.
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Throw love at them. If they throw scorn back, throw more love and duck.

DB