Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Vagabondism 224
Vagabondism #224 "One of the most dangerous things in the world is silent hatred." http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Dancing With Bears
We have allowed someone else to determine our worth, and then we are angry at being undervalued.
Julia Cameron
******************
Hello Geo
*****************
We should never be in a position where we have to evaluate another person, and, hopefully , never be the object of someone else's evaluation of us. You know there is more to you than anyone knows. The other person must be as complicated as you are. No one knows everything about you. You can't possibly know everything there is to know about another person.
There are times when we must make an assessment of someone, such as Election Day. How well we choose a candidate will have an effect on our futures in one way or another. Choosing a friend is even more difficult and important to our lives.
If you go looking for a job you will probably have to be interviewed, or if you're hiring then you have to measure someone else on very little informtion.
Actors are being evaluated all the time, by audiences and critics. But the most crucial measurement comes from the audition. You usually audition for the director and maybe one or two other people. If you're in good company you're reading for an artist of talent and experience, Sadly that is not always the case. I have auditioned for people who had no idea what they were doing. Maybe they were fresh out of Drama School somewhere with a pocket full of theories and no imagination. But sometimes they were older and shouldn't be trying to do what they can't do.
Twice I did a scene for a directing class and could very well see where the bewildered beginner was coming from. The professors were not teaching directing. They were teaching how to insult actors. It's a shame they were teachers, but thankfully not directors.
In or out of theatre you sometimes get an interviewer who says "Tell me about yourself." If you don't have a pat answer you're thrust into a whirlpool of information from which you have to draw no more that one minute of talk. That question is usually from someone who isn't sure of himself. I was stunned once by a director, there was no one else in the room, who said "Tell me something about yourself you don't want me to know."
Whatever the manner is of the interview or audition the result is probably going to be that either you are undervalued or overvalued. That's bad news in either case. Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you.
One of my Vagabondisms says "Underestimate me and you hurt me. Overestimate me and you hurt yourself."
Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up>
Julia Cameron
******************
Hello Geo
*****************
We should never be in a position where we have to evaluate another person, and, hopefully , never be the object of someone else's evaluation of us. You know there is more to you than anyone knows. The other person must be as complicated as you are. No one knows everything about you. You can't possibly know everything there is to know about another person.
There are times when we must make an assessment of someone, such as Election Day. How well we choose a candidate will have an effect on our futures in one way or another. Choosing a friend is even more difficult and important to our lives.
If you go looking for a job you will probably have to be interviewed, or if you're hiring then you have to measure someone else on very little informtion.
Actors are being evaluated all the time, by audiences and critics. But the most crucial measurement comes from the audition. You usually audition for the director and maybe one or two other people. If you're in good company you're reading for an artist of talent and experience, Sadly that is not always the case. I have auditioned for people who had no idea what they were doing. Maybe they were fresh out of Drama School somewhere with a pocket full of theories and no imagination. But sometimes they were older and shouldn't be trying to do what they can't do.
Twice I did a scene for a directing class and could very well see where the bewildered beginner was coming from. The professors were not teaching directing. They were teaching how to insult actors. It's a shame they were teachers, but thankfully not directors.
In or out of theatre you sometimes get an interviewer who says "Tell me about yourself." If you don't have a pat answer you're thrust into a whirlpool of information from which you have to draw no more that one minute of talk. That question is usually from someone who isn't sure of himself. I was stunned once by a director, there was no one else in the room, who said "Tell me something about yourself you don't want me to know."
Whatever the manner is of the interview or audition the result is probably going to be that either you are undervalued or overvalued. That's bad news in either case. Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you.
One of my Vagabondisms says "Underestimate me and you hurt me. Overestimate me and you hurt yourself."
Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up>
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Vagabondism 223
Vagabondism #223 "Sometimes the pathless life is best. A stroll through the garden is pleasant, but it’s not real, it’s man made nature. While a walk in the forest is wild and dangerous, but it’s the real thing.
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Joy, The Girl
Wise men ne'er sit and wail their woes,
But presently prevent the ways to wail.
Shakespeare
********************
Hello Diane
*********************
Let's all sing of woes and sorrows, of rues and regrets, of illnesses and troubles, of heartbreaks and mistakes, of wrongs and errors, of sins and sufferings, of depression and despair, of ugliness and crime, of anger and abuse, of age and weakness, of ignorance and want, of cruelty and condemnation, of lass and lack, of fear and failure, of broken dreams.
The joy that you find here, you borrow -
You cannot keep it long it seems -
But Gigolo and Gigolette -
Still sing a song and dance along -
The boulevard of broken dreams.
***************************************
On the other had, let's not.
-----------------------------------
Life seems to be a festival of things that go wrong. The easiest thing to do is to make a mistake. One can sit around and "wail their woes" or not. A vital precept which no one thinks of until they have logged in a sufficient amount of weailing is that if you make room in your heart and mind for sorrow, sorrow will come and fill it up.
Some positive thinkers, so called, are merely doing battle with the grime and garbage that already rent rooms in their heads. The true thinker, the wise man, entertains no negative guests.
One of the happiest people I ever knew was a girl named Joy, and she was very appropriately named. She went through her days with a smile on her face or an expression that looked like it was going to break into a smile at any instant. She was certainly aware of all the wrongs and troubles in the world but she simply didn't include them on her mental menu. She expected good things to happen to her and to those around her and they generally did. Joy was unselfish. She respected other people and when she had to deal with some ignorant rat she did it with grace and ease.
One day I had lunch with her father and I could see where Joy's qualities came from. There was a man who was intelligent, friendly, solidly self assured, with the full knowledge of his positive place in the world.
Joy and her father were an inspiration. It was a lesson I took with me but didn't apply until years later. Now I'm passing it on. Keep the mind clean of the distractions of doubt and discouragement, treat people with respect as far as they can be trusted and step around the boulders in the way.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*******************
But presently prevent the ways to wail.
Shakespeare
********************
Hello Diane
*********************
Let's all sing of woes and sorrows, of rues and regrets, of illnesses and troubles, of heartbreaks and mistakes, of wrongs and errors, of sins and sufferings, of depression and despair, of ugliness and crime, of anger and abuse, of age and weakness, of ignorance and want, of cruelty and condemnation, of lass and lack, of fear and failure, of broken dreams.
The joy that you find here, you borrow -
You cannot keep it long it seems -
But Gigolo and Gigolette -
Still sing a song and dance along -
The boulevard of broken dreams.
***************************************
On the other had, let's not.
-----------------------------------
Life seems to be a festival of things that go wrong. The easiest thing to do is to make a mistake. One can sit around and "wail their woes" or not. A vital precept which no one thinks of until they have logged in a sufficient amount of weailing is that if you make room in your heart and mind for sorrow, sorrow will come and fill it up.
Some positive thinkers, so called, are merely doing battle with the grime and garbage that already rent rooms in their heads. The true thinker, the wise man, entertains no negative guests.
One of the happiest people I ever knew was a girl named Joy, and she was very appropriately named. She went through her days with a smile on her face or an expression that looked like it was going to break into a smile at any instant. She was certainly aware of all the wrongs and troubles in the world but she simply didn't include them on her mental menu. She expected good things to happen to her and to those around her and they generally did. Joy was unselfish. She respected other people and when she had to deal with some ignorant rat she did it with grace and ease.
One day I had lunch with her father and I could see where Joy's qualities came from. There was a man who was intelligent, friendly, solidly self assured, with the full knowledge of his positive place in the world.
Joy and her father were an inspiration. It was a lesson I took with me but didn't apply until years later. Now I'm passing it on. Keep the mind clean of the distractions of doubt and discouragement, treat people with respect as far as they can be trusted and step around the boulders in the way.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*******************
Monday, November 28, 2011
Occupy
Come on! Bring on your injunctions, your arrests, your cells and your judges. Bring on your clubs, your tear gas and your pepper spay (what happened to the water canons of yore?). It will do you no good. Occupy Wall Street is a dream, a hope, a need, a passion, an idea. And the idea will still be alive long after your weapons of "civil obedience" are finished.
Vagabondism 222
Vagabondism #222 "Allow to each one his own special spectacle of bliss."
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
Play The Job
You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you're doing is work or play.
Warren Beatty
********************
Hello Beth
*********************
There once was a young man in the neighborhood who at the age of 14 discovered he had an amazing talent for dealing with animals. He was too young to be a vet or to go to veterinary school but he would go after high school to help out at the local veterinary and animal shelter.
All the creatures there took to him immediately. Those who could would come running up to him and he could pick them up and carry them around, even the nasty ones like the goose. One of the local papers did a story on him, with pictures of him and certain happy beasts.
I'm sure he has gone to school. got his degree and is practicing somewhere because he clearly loved all those critters.
Acting can frequently be very hard work (in spite of what some people think) and yet we refer to it as playing. We put on a play. We play. Even the objects on the stage are playing. "Where does the telephone play?" "On that table over there."
A friend came to see me perform Big Daddy in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" by Tennessee Williams. Afterwards he said "I don't know how much they're paying you, but it's too much, because you're having too much fun."
Imagine being paid for having fun. Imagine being paid for doing what you love to do. There are tricks to turning any job into play to one degree or another. But the real secret is to find what you love to do and do it all the time. It's a lot easier to sell if you are having fun.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to look for the joy of your life and capture it.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
***********************
Warren Beatty
********************
Hello Beth
*********************
There once was a young man in the neighborhood who at the age of 14 discovered he had an amazing talent for dealing with animals. He was too young to be a vet or to go to veterinary school but he would go after high school to help out at the local veterinary and animal shelter.
All the creatures there took to him immediately. Those who could would come running up to him and he could pick them up and carry them around, even the nasty ones like the goose. One of the local papers did a story on him, with pictures of him and certain happy beasts.
I'm sure he has gone to school. got his degree and is practicing somewhere because he clearly loved all those critters.
Acting can frequently be very hard work (in spite of what some people think) and yet we refer to it as playing. We put on a play. We play. Even the objects on the stage are playing. "Where does the telephone play?" "On that table over there."
A friend came to see me perform Big Daddy in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" by Tennessee Williams. Afterwards he said "I don't know how much they're paying you, but it's too much, because you're having too much fun."
Imagine being paid for having fun. Imagine being paid for doing what you love to do. There are tricks to turning any job into play to one degree or another. But the real secret is to find what you love to do and do it all the time. It's a lot easier to sell if you are having fun.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to look for the joy of your life and capture it.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
***********************
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Vagabondism 221
Vagabondism #221 "There are some places in this country where being cultured and sophisticated is un-American."
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
No Yawning
The best way to live is by not knowing what will happen to you by the end of the day.
Daniel Barthelme
*********************
Hello Jen
*********************
Someone recently remarked that my life is not boring. How can a man who lives alone, in an attic apartment, in a small and quiet town, with no family, no pets and hardly any visitors not live a boring life? How can that be, especially since he spent his working life in the entertainment business, as an actor, one of the most interesting, exciting and action filled professions there is and one which is never boring? Why isn't he bored to a perpetual yawn now?
I have known people in my days who were expert at planning out their lives so well that they knew where they would be at any minute during the day. They would keep to strict schedules, were dependably prompt and never deviated from the discipline of their lives. That's a noble way to live, I suppose, but it doesn't allow for much improvisation, adventure or whimsy. And when carried to an extreme it tends to invoke rules for buttoning shirts and tying shoes.
"I always do my laundry at 11 Saturday morning."
"Why not do it Friday night instead?"
"Oh no, Friday night is my time for doing the crossword puzzle."
It gets ridiculous. Some people will tell you that if they didn't carefully plan out the day little would ever get done, and I agree with that. Any serious actor knows time must be set aside for memorizing lines and developing the script. When rehearsal and performance times come the actor must be there and ready to work. But if it weren't for the freedom of expression and imagination, the unexpected moments of creativity, the bright light of inspiration that suddenly flicks on, the actors performance would be boring. The arts when properly done are never boring.
So why aren't I bored? Why isn't my life boring? Although I like a good healthy yawn now and then, I'm not an authority on boredom. My life in theatre taught me curiosity, imagination and, best of all, enthusiasm. It also taught me to respect the unexpected.
When the stranger wanders into your life, when the door you always go through is suddenly locked and when the steady rhythms of your day become syncopated smile, boredom has just fled out the window like an escaping racoon.
If you can embrace with enthusiasm the ever new, ever changing story of your life it can only get better.
Dana B - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
***********************
Daniel Barthelme
*********************
Hello Jen
*********************
Someone recently remarked that my life is not boring. How can a man who lives alone, in an attic apartment, in a small and quiet town, with no family, no pets and hardly any visitors not live a boring life? How can that be, especially since he spent his working life in the entertainment business, as an actor, one of the most interesting, exciting and action filled professions there is and one which is never boring? Why isn't he bored to a perpetual yawn now?
I have known people in my days who were expert at planning out their lives so well that they knew where they would be at any minute during the day. They would keep to strict schedules, were dependably prompt and never deviated from the discipline of their lives. That's a noble way to live, I suppose, but it doesn't allow for much improvisation, adventure or whimsy. And when carried to an extreme it tends to invoke rules for buttoning shirts and tying shoes.
"I always do my laundry at 11 Saturday morning."
"Why not do it Friday night instead?"
"Oh no, Friday night is my time for doing the crossword puzzle."
It gets ridiculous. Some people will tell you that if they didn't carefully plan out the day little would ever get done, and I agree with that. Any serious actor knows time must be set aside for memorizing lines and developing the script. When rehearsal and performance times come the actor must be there and ready to work. But if it weren't for the freedom of expression and imagination, the unexpected moments of creativity, the bright light of inspiration that suddenly flicks on, the actors performance would be boring. The arts when properly done are never boring.
So why aren't I bored? Why isn't my life boring? Although I like a good healthy yawn now and then, I'm not an authority on boredom. My life in theatre taught me curiosity, imagination and, best of all, enthusiasm. It also taught me to respect the unexpected.
When the stranger wanders into your life, when the door you always go through is suddenly locked and when the steady rhythms of your day become syncopated smile, boredom has just fled out the window like an escaping racoon.
If you can embrace with enthusiasm the ever new, ever changing story of your life it can only get better.
Dana B - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
***********************
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Vagabondism 220
Vagabondism #220 "A good sense of humor is the tool that enables you to face the cruel with disgust and the victim with tenderness, without twisting into hatred."
dbdacoba@aol.com
dbdacoba@aol.com
Survival
I read Shakespeare and the Bible, and I can shoot dice. That's what I call a liberal education.
Tallulah Bankhead
********************
Hello Jen
********************
When I was a teenager I carried a violin and a switch blade.
I had the violin because I really wanted to be able to play it. After several years of lessons and many hours of practice I concluded that I had no talent for the violin. Many years later I learned I had talent for the clarinet. But I was immersed in my career as an actor and had neither the time nor the income to study the clarinet. If I, like Woody Allen, had started in my boyhood I might have been able to play in jazz clubs the way he does from time to time. Now, in my retirement, I might be able to pick it up. But again I can't afford it. But I would like to buy a tenor recorder some day.
The reason I carried the switch blade is because the other guy had one. It was like nuclear missiles sitting in their silos. We have them and the Russians have them and everyone knows it. As long as they stay in the silos there is peace between us.
There are definite disadvantages from growing up without enough money. (No kidding!) But there are some advantages to be had if one is willing to face the dark. Some street wisdom isn't a bad thing to have for anyone. I have no patience with those who are easily shocked and baffled by things that human beings do. I rarely get enraged but often laugh at the pomposity and self importance of upper middle and upper class people who wouldn't know how to handle an obscure night of the soul even if they had the sensitivity to know they were stumbling through one.
I tried to go to college by working at two jobs (ok, one and a half jobs) but I soon left. It was a good school, but the ivy covered mentality was not for me. Not having a college degree kept me back from teaching Russian people to speak English. But it never kept me back from being an actor, a radio announcer, a lecturer, a teacher of public speaking and an associate of the drama department at another ivy covered college.
I read Shakespeare, the Bible and a lot of other things. I never learned about throwing the dice but I did make a profit playing the horses, which, by the way, is easier and faster than playing the stock market. I don't invest in horse races any more because of the cruelty that is sometimes involved.
So here I am an uneducated, ex street kid, with no clarinet and no switch blade, a retired actor with a true liberal education. You can have your privileges. I'll take survival.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*************************
Tallulah Bankhead
********************
Hello Jen
********************
When I was a teenager I carried a violin and a switch blade.
I had the violin because I really wanted to be able to play it. After several years of lessons and many hours of practice I concluded that I had no talent for the violin. Many years later I learned I had talent for the clarinet. But I was immersed in my career as an actor and had neither the time nor the income to study the clarinet. If I, like Woody Allen, had started in my boyhood I might have been able to play in jazz clubs the way he does from time to time. Now, in my retirement, I might be able to pick it up. But again I can't afford it. But I would like to buy a tenor recorder some day.
The reason I carried the switch blade is because the other guy had one. It was like nuclear missiles sitting in their silos. We have them and the Russians have them and everyone knows it. As long as they stay in the silos there is peace between us.
There are definite disadvantages from growing up without enough money. (No kidding!) But there are some advantages to be had if one is willing to face the dark. Some street wisdom isn't a bad thing to have for anyone. I have no patience with those who are easily shocked and baffled by things that human beings do. I rarely get enraged but often laugh at the pomposity and self importance of upper middle and upper class people who wouldn't know how to handle an obscure night of the soul even if they had the sensitivity to know they were stumbling through one.
I tried to go to college by working at two jobs (ok, one and a half jobs) but I soon left. It was a good school, but the ivy covered mentality was not for me. Not having a college degree kept me back from teaching Russian people to speak English. But it never kept me back from being an actor, a radio announcer, a lecturer, a teacher of public speaking and an associate of the drama department at another ivy covered college.
I read Shakespeare, the Bible and a lot of other things. I never learned about throwing the dice but I did make a profit playing the horses, which, by the way, is easier and faster than playing the stock market. I don't invest in horse races any more because of the cruelty that is sometimes involved.
So here I am an uneducated, ex street kid, with no clarinet and no switch blade, a retired actor with a true liberal education. You can have your privileges. I'll take survival.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*************************
Friday, November 25, 2011
Vagabondism 219
Vagabondism #219 "One of life’s hardest tasks is to know which of your cherished desires will never be fulfilled and to surrender them graciously." http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Write That Book
Everything in the world exists to end up in a book.
Hosea Ballou
****************
Hello Stuart
****************
Now don't get me wrong. I like books. No, I love books. I own a lot of books on many subjects and I read from some of them everyday. I want to read them all and buy some more. I'm currently into authors such as Nietzsche, Dickens, Durrell, George Washington, Plato, Shakespeare and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
What makes me wonder is how some books get published and how some don't. Dickens and Dostoyevski had trouble publishing their novels at first, but simple romance novels with no particular message will roll off the presses in surprising numbers.
And the world of non fiction is even stranger. People not only write but publish books that say things like "The Deployment of Mules During the Crimean War" or "How To Use the Torque Converter in Manufacturing Wheel Chairs" or "The Most Effective Use of Amber Gels in Footlights" and, Wham!, the book hits the shelves.
Here I've written two novels and a bunch of short stories, but none of them are in print. I'm thinking of writing a cook book called "Recipes From The Ghetto." It will probably sell like hot cakes (or cold cakes, in that case).
I recently donated a book to the local library on human and animal anatomy for the artist. I was almost embarrassed to give it to them, it's such a third rate book. However did it get published? I have other books on the same subject which are 10 times better than that one. And to think I actually paid money for it.
So if you want to be published write a book on the history of street lights in your town, or how to build a spinning wheel, or the evolution of the buggy whip, and you're sure to be published. Some agent will pick it up and sell it to a publisher and you'll all get rich.
A band leader once said that no matter what tune you play someone will come out to dance. I guess it's a question of where I play my tunes.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
********************
Hosea Ballou
****************
Hello Stuart
****************
Now don't get me wrong. I like books. No, I love books. I own a lot of books on many subjects and I read from some of them everyday. I want to read them all and buy some more. I'm currently into authors such as Nietzsche, Dickens, Durrell, George Washington, Plato, Shakespeare and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
What makes me wonder is how some books get published and how some don't. Dickens and Dostoyevski had trouble publishing their novels at first, but simple romance novels with no particular message will roll off the presses in surprising numbers.
And the world of non fiction is even stranger. People not only write but publish books that say things like "The Deployment of Mules During the Crimean War" or "How To Use the Torque Converter in Manufacturing Wheel Chairs" or "The Most Effective Use of Amber Gels in Footlights" and, Wham!, the book hits the shelves.
Here I've written two novels and a bunch of short stories, but none of them are in print. I'm thinking of writing a cook book called "Recipes From The Ghetto." It will probably sell like hot cakes (or cold cakes, in that case).
I recently donated a book to the local library on human and animal anatomy for the artist. I was almost embarrassed to give it to them, it's such a third rate book. However did it get published? I have other books on the same subject which are 10 times better than that one. And to think I actually paid money for it.
So if you want to be published write a book on the history of street lights in your town, or how to build a spinning wheel, or the evolution of the buggy whip, and you're sure to be published. Some agent will pick it up and sell it to a publisher and you'll all get rich.
A band leader once said that no matter what tune you play someone will come out to dance. I guess it's a question of where I play my tunes.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
********************
Thursday, November 24, 2011
My Friends
Always be a little kinder than necessary.
James M. Barrie
*******************
Hello Everyone.
*********************
Whether you are celebrating a holiday or not, wherever you are I wish you a joyful day.
I think the thing I am most grateful for this time in my life is friendship. I have blogspot friends, IM friends, email friends, telephone friends, postage stamp friends and some friends who I have actually seen and know. I've got friends. I also have friends between the covers of books and on CDs. I have a lot of friends.
This seems to be a good time, this season of The Gathering, to come together with friends if only in your thoughts, to remember why someone is your friend, what makes a particular friendship and why you care for someone. The thoughts and feelings of friendship are powerfully positive ones in the dark skies and cold winds of approaching winter.
We share a part of our lives with our friends as they share some of theirs with us. That's a blessed commerce. It helps to balance the uncertainty of the future and to define life as it should be.
I may be a vagabond but there is room in my heart for many people, my friends.
May you have a happy thanks giving.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*******************
James M. Barrie
*******************
Hello Everyone.
*********************
Whether you are celebrating a holiday or not, wherever you are I wish you a joyful day.
I think the thing I am most grateful for this time in my life is friendship. I have blogspot friends, IM friends, email friends, telephone friends, postage stamp friends and some friends who I have actually seen and know. I've got friends. I also have friends between the covers of books and on CDs. I have a lot of friends.
This seems to be a good time, this season of The Gathering, to come together with friends if only in your thoughts, to remember why someone is your friend, what makes a particular friendship and why you care for someone. The thoughts and feelings of friendship are powerfully positive ones in the dark skies and cold winds of approaching winter.
We share a part of our lives with our friends as they share some of theirs with us. That's a blessed commerce. It helps to balance the uncertainty of the future and to define life as it should be.
I may be a vagabond but there is room in my heart for many people, my friends.
May you have a happy thanks giving.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*******************
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Vagabondism 218
Vagabondism #218 "What is he? He’s a paradox. He’s a sad man with a sense of humor, a dark man who spreads light, a sinister man with an adroit wit, a tragic figure with a comic face. Who is he? He’s the court jester."
dbdacoba@aol.com
dbdacoba@aol.com
Ordinary Heros
You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated, to reach challenging goals.
Sir Edmund Hillary
**********************
Hello Jen
************************
Question: What is a 33 year old New Zealand beekeeper doing over 29,000 feet in the air?
Answer: He's standing on top of the tallest mountain on the Earth.
At 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stepped on to the top of Mount Everest.
He wasn't Sir Edmund until he got to England and met a young woman named Elizabeth who had just been inaugurated Queen Elizabeth II. And she quickly knighted him.
Hillary had been climbing mountains since his youth and had, in fact, made several expedition climbs around Everest and other areas in the Himalayas before he ever set foot on the summit of Everest.
That brings to my mind so many other people, ordinary people, who do something extraordinary once that makes them famous. And I sometimes wonder what the rest of their lives were like.
How many other miles did the legendary messenger Pheidippides run before he was picked to bring the news of the successful battle of Marathon to the Greeks?
How many races did Roger Bannister run and win before he stepped across the finish line in less than 4 minutes?
How many hours did Neil Armstrong spend learning about space travel before he stepped on the moon?
How many wounds did Florence Nightingale patch up before she established her nursing school in England and write the book on contemporary nursing?
How much danger and brutality did Harriet Tubman endure before she escaped and began to rescue hundreds of slaves through the Underground Railroad?
How many hours did Rosa Parks spend sitting at the back of the bus before she took her rightful seat at the front?
These were ordinary people, like you and me, "sufficiently motivated" as Hillary put it, to face a challenge and win, not because they wanted to be famous, but because they believed in themselves and what they were doing.
There are many other heroes in the world who will never be famous, but whose lives are histories of problems solved, difficulties overcome and challenges met. Each of us may have an opportunity to join them. If it occurs, take it.
DB - Vagabond Journeys, and
never give up.
****************************
Sir Edmund Hillary
**********************
Hello Jen
************************
Question: What is a 33 year old New Zealand beekeeper doing over 29,000 feet in the air?
Answer: He's standing on top of the tallest mountain on the Earth.
At 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stepped on to the top of Mount Everest.
He wasn't Sir Edmund until he got to England and met a young woman named Elizabeth who had just been inaugurated Queen Elizabeth II. And she quickly knighted him.
Hillary had been climbing mountains since his youth and had, in fact, made several expedition climbs around Everest and other areas in the Himalayas before he ever set foot on the summit of Everest.
That brings to my mind so many other people, ordinary people, who do something extraordinary once that makes them famous. And I sometimes wonder what the rest of their lives were like.
How many other miles did the legendary messenger Pheidippides run before he was picked to bring the news of the successful battle of Marathon to the Greeks?
How many races did Roger Bannister run and win before he stepped across the finish line in less than 4 minutes?
How many hours did Neil Armstrong spend learning about space travel before he stepped on the moon?
How many wounds did Florence Nightingale patch up before she established her nursing school in England and write the book on contemporary nursing?
How much danger and brutality did Harriet Tubman endure before she escaped and began to rescue hundreds of slaves through the Underground Railroad?
How many hours did Rosa Parks spend sitting at the back of the bus before she took her rightful seat at the front?
These were ordinary people, like you and me, "sufficiently motivated" as Hillary put it, to face a challenge and win, not because they wanted to be famous, but because they believed in themselves and what they were doing.
There are many other heroes in the world who will never be famous, but whose lives are histories of problems solved, difficulties overcome and challenges met. Each of us may have an opportunity to join them. If it occurs, take it.
DB - Vagabond Journeys, and
never give up.
****************************
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Vagabondism 217
Vagabondism #217 "Count your blessings. The disappearance and absence of evil things is not one of them. The appearance and presence of good things is."
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
Shape Up
Big government is an institution that has no conscience. I has no feelings, it has no brains. And it doesn't read constitutions and it doesn't understand liberties.
Chuck Hagel
*****************
Hello Ally
*****************
I don't like to write about politics, but who can avoid thinking about it these days. I'm just a humble vagabond, retired, living in a small town and with health problems and debts. But I wish I could write a letter to each member of the big aloof government and say "Look at yourself in the mirror and shape up!"
"Big government is an institution that has no conscience." One year I helped two friends gather up all the food that had been donated by local markets to take to a homeless shelter in New York for their Thanksgiving dinner. The people who lived at the shelter were nice, friendly, normal people like you or me. They weren't drunks, drug addicts or dead beats. Some of them had meager, low paying jobs.
The person who ran the shelter thanked us and said it would be a happy Thanksgiving for them. But he also said that at Thanksgiving and Christmas people are very kind to them, it's the rest of the year they suffer. I wondered what they did in February when they ran out of heat.
"The reason they're homeless is because they refuse to work" one politician said. One block from where I used to live in the city there was a thriving out door book store run by about a half dozen homeless mem. They had tables set up and large laundry baskets full of books, magazines and post cards. People, including me, gave them books. There were always people going through those stacks and buying books from them.
One day they were all gone. It seems some self righteous, self important person objected having to walk past those ragged looking homeless people on her way to work. What happened to those men? What happened to all those books?
I worked with a theatre company that performed for homeless shelters around town. When we arrived at one of the largest ones we drove our van up a ramp and from there I looked down on the main area, it was a former armory. There was a rank and file of beds as far as I could see. There was absolutely no privacy for those men. What a depressing, degrading way to live. The small Indian woman who ran the place treated them as if they were her own brothers. They all respected her.
"It's their own damn fault if they're homeless." What a cruel and unconscionable attitude for anyone in a government that is supposed to be taking care of its people.
"It has no feelings" Only once in my life did I apply for unemployment insurance. I was only out of work for six weeks but I didn't receive any money until after I went back to work. I used it to pay back the people I had fortunately borrowed it from. When I called to find out about the money I explained that I had a small room in a cheap residential hotel but that if I didn't pay the rent I would be evicted and be homeless. The woman I spoke with said "Well if you change your address let us know." I tried to tell her that I would be homeless, without a new address. She didn't care. "It has no feelings."
"It has no brains." Examples of brainlessness on the part of government are too numerous to list. I once heard a U S Senator stand up and list all the things wrong with a bill that was before the Senate. He had nothing good to say about it And then he said he was going to vote for it. Even with the country in the terrible financial trouble it's in there are members of Congress who are actually considering legislation that would extend tax cuts to the rich. It doesn't take an elementary school education to see the stupidity of that. The same Congress people want to cut into the benefits that make the United States a livable place. Where are the brains? "Look at yourselves in the mirror and shape up."
"it doesn't read constitutions" Our Constitution guarantees us "the right of the people peaceably to assemble" unless you're an Occupy Wall Street protester. The 99% are making things very uncomfortable for the 1%. So the obvious answer is arrest, tear gas, pepper spray, beatings, anything to get them to disassemble. It has been said they occupy parks and streets they haven't paid for. Well then who paid for them? The tax payers. Well, not all of the 99% are out of work or income, they must have paid for the streets they occupy. But there are others who pay no taxes. Who is it, again, that doesn't pay taxes? "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes." The 99%. The Occupiers. The people who live here, who don't go the Costa Rica with their billion dollar bonuses. Who...
One presidential candidate said the protesters should get a job, after they take a bath. Where's the brain? How can a man who makes a remark like that ever consider himself qualified to be President? A man who will talk about the American Dream.
Here's the American Dream: Take care of the rich and let the other classes fend for themselves. Well, that is what Occupy Wall Street is all about. We are beginning to fend for ourselves. Communism would be an unexpectedly bad result of all of this, but it's a possibility if you don't look at yourself in a mirror and shape up.
"it doesn't understand liberties" "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Without liberty there is no happiness. Without liberty life is a desperate struggle against depression and enslavement. It's not that big government is for or against liberty. It's that government doesn't know what it is. Liberty is not woven into the fabric of its duties. The slaves got their freedom legally, but they didn't get their liberties without struggling for them. Congress may pass feel good laws but when they are broken it goes into the courts with "the laws delay" in front of a wealthy judge who is presiding over a poor man's rights or the deprivation of them, before anything is even temporarily settled.
Big government is a waste of the tax payers money, since only the non tax payers seem to benefit from it. But taxes are necessary and can greatly improve our lives if collected properly and spent properly. And the present and future of America is mostly in the hands of those who will have the courage to look at themselves in the mirror, shake themselves loose from the mesmeric influences of politics and shape up.
Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
***************************
Chuck Hagel
*****************
Hello Ally
*****************
I don't like to write about politics, but who can avoid thinking about it these days. I'm just a humble vagabond, retired, living in a small town and with health problems and debts. But I wish I could write a letter to each member of the big aloof government and say "Look at yourself in the mirror and shape up!"
"Big government is an institution that has no conscience." One year I helped two friends gather up all the food that had been donated by local markets to take to a homeless shelter in New York for their Thanksgiving dinner. The people who lived at the shelter were nice, friendly, normal people like you or me. They weren't drunks, drug addicts or dead beats. Some of them had meager, low paying jobs.
The person who ran the shelter thanked us and said it would be a happy Thanksgiving for them. But he also said that at Thanksgiving and Christmas people are very kind to them, it's the rest of the year they suffer. I wondered what they did in February when they ran out of heat.
"The reason they're homeless is because they refuse to work" one politician said. One block from where I used to live in the city there was a thriving out door book store run by about a half dozen homeless mem. They had tables set up and large laundry baskets full of books, magazines and post cards. People, including me, gave them books. There were always people going through those stacks and buying books from them.
One day they were all gone. It seems some self righteous, self important person objected having to walk past those ragged looking homeless people on her way to work. What happened to those men? What happened to all those books?
I worked with a theatre company that performed for homeless shelters around town. When we arrived at one of the largest ones we drove our van up a ramp and from there I looked down on the main area, it was a former armory. There was a rank and file of beds as far as I could see. There was absolutely no privacy for those men. What a depressing, degrading way to live. The small Indian woman who ran the place treated them as if they were her own brothers. They all respected her.
"It's their own damn fault if they're homeless." What a cruel and unconscionable attitude for anyone in a government that is supposed to be taking care of its people.
"It has no feelings" Only once in my life did I apply for unemployment insurance. I was only out of work for six weeks but I didn't receive any money until after I went back to work. I used it to pay back the people I had fortunately borrowed it from. When I called to find out about the money I explained that I had a small room in a cheap residential hotel but that if I didn't pay the rent I would be evicted and be homeless. The woman I spoke with said "Well if you change your address let us know." I tried to tell her that I would be homeless, without a new address. She didn't care. "It has no feelings."
"It has no brains." Examples of brainlessness on the part of government are too numerous to list. I once heard a U S Senator stand up and list all the things wrong with a bill that was before the Senate. He had nothing good to say about it And then he said he was going to vote for it. Even with the country in the terrible financial trouble it's in there are members of Congress who are actually considering legislation that would extend tax cuts to the rich. It doesn't take an elementary school education to see the stupidity of that. The same Congress people want to cut into the benefits that make the United States a livable place. Where are the brains? "Look at yourselves in the mirror and shape up."
"it doesn't read constitutions" Our Constitution guarantees us "the right of the people peaceably to assemble" unless you're an Occupy Wall Street protester. The 99% are making things very uncomfortable for the 1%. So the obvious answer is arrest, tear gas, pepper spray, beatings, anything to get them to disassemble. It has been said they occupy parks and streets they haven't paid for. Well then who paid for them? The tax payers. Well, not all of the 99% are out of work or income, they must have paid for the streets they occupy. But there are others who pay no taxes. Who is it, again, that doesn't pay taxes? "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes." The 99%. The Occupiers. The people who live here, who don't go the Costa Rica with their billion dollar bonuses. Who...
One presidential candidate said the protesters should get a job, after they take a bath. Where's the brain? How can a man who makes a remark like that ever consider himself qualified to be President? A man who will talk about the American Dream.
Here's the American Dream: Take care of the rich and let the other classes fend for themselves. Well, that is what Occupy Wall Street is all about. We are beginning to fend for ourselves. Communism would be an unexpectedly bad result of all of this, but it's a possibility if you don't look at yourself in a mirror and shape up.
"it doesn't understand liberties" "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Without liberty there is no happiness. Without liberty life is a desperate struggle against depression and enslavement. It's not that big government is for or against liberty. It's that government doesn't know what it is. Liberty is not woven into the fabric of its duties. The slaves got their freedom legally, but they didn't get their liberties without struggling for them. Congress may pass feel good laws but when they are broken it goes into the courts with "the laws delay" in front of a wealthy judge who is presiding over a poor man's rights or the deprivation of them, before anything is even temporarily settled.
Big government is a waste of the tax payers money, since only the non tax payers seem to benefit from it. But taxes are necessary and can greatly improve our lives if collected properly and spent properly. And the present and future of America is mostly in the hands of those who will have the courage to look at themselves in the mirror, shake themselves loose from the mesmeric influences of politics and shape up.
Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
***************************
Monday, November 21, 2011
Vagabondism 216
Vagabondism #216 "Things seldom go right the first time, and once right seldom stay that way."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Watch Your Head
In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom.
J. G. Ballard
******************
Hello Stuart
******************
If this was a completely sane world Ballard's pronouncement would be appropriate. But since when has there ever been a completely sane world? It seems to me the current world is crazier than it's ever been. Cruel dictatorships here, religious fanatics running things over there and terrorists in the other place. How does the human race survive?
Now, in my country, we have a group of total mad men and women in the United States Congress.
When I was younger I admit to a lot of insanity. I did crazy things. I took foolish risks. I supported groups and activities that made no sense. I fought irrationally just to win an argument. I overlooked many facts of life that were right in front of me. I was jealous, suspicious and non sparing in my harsh criticism of others. I gradually grew up, became more of an adult and saw the moronic error of my ways. Now I am not completely sane. No one is. But I recognize that reason is the only freedom in a completely insane world. Surely the members of Congress have grown up to the same understanding and rely upon reason, logic and clear thinking to conduct their business. Or do they?
Some of them are now dickering around with each other, trying to win arguments while, meanwhile, bills are written and waiting to be turned into legislation that would deprive Americans of the benefits that making living in this country worth it. There is argument about instantly erasing the federal debt which could be solved over the long run my good fiscal management, about which no one seems to know anything. And even as they argue they are refusing to go where the money is and get it. Some of those madmen still believe the Medieval idea that the wealthy are somehow superior human beings. We can't even say that these lunatics walk among us because they don't, and that's part of the problem.
There is no doubt an endemic of madness has taken over Washington. One wealthy senior was heard saying that if he were taxed he would only have $200.000 left to feed his family. One of the candidates for President said he would overturn the Supreme Court, another has suggested to put the poor students to work cleaning the schools and pay them to teach them the work ethic and the value of a dollar, instead of putting the rich kids to work to teach them the value of the wealth their parents have. And about the Occupy Wall Street protesters it was said they should take a bath and find a job. There is no excuse for that low level of ignorance, particularly among men who presume they are qualified to be President of the United States. President of the rich, President of the Middle Class, President of the poor, President of the native Americans and President of the immigrants.
About the Occupiers another senior member of Congress asked "What do they want?" I reply if you don't know what they want then you have no business being in a position where you even have the right to ask that question.
The angels with the vials of the seven last plagues has poured one of them
on the heads of Americans and only the rational, clear thinking, sane ones have the freedom to resist it.
---------------------------------------
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
J. G. Ballard
******************
Hello Stuart
******************
If this was a completely sane world Ballard's pronouncement would be appropriate. But since when has there ever been a completely sane world? It seems to me the current world is crazier than it's ever been. Cruel dictatorships here, religious fanatics running things over there and terrorists in the other place. How does the human race survive?
Now, in my country, we have a group of total mad men and women in the United States Congress.
When I was younger I admit to a lot of insanity. I did crazy things. I took foolish risks. I supported groups and activities that made no sense. I fought irrationally just to win an argument. I overlooked many facts of life that were right in front of me. I was jealous, suspicious and non sparing in my harsh criticism of others. I gradually grew up, became more of an adult and saw the moronic error of my ways. Now I am not completely sane. No one is. But I recognize that reason is the only freedom in a completely insane world. Surely the members of Congress have grown up to the same understanding and rely upon reason, logic and clear thinking to conduct their business. Or do they?
Some of them are now dickering around with each other, trying to win arguments while, meanwhile, bills are written and waiting to be turned into legislation that would deprive Americans of the benefits that making living in this country worth it. There is argument about instantly erasing the federal debt which could be solved over the long run my good fiscal management, about which no one seems to know anything. And even as they argue they are refusing to go where the money is and get it. Some of those madmen still believe the Medieval idea that the wealthy are somehow superior human beings. We can't even say that these lunatics walk among us because they don't, and that's part of the problem.
There is no doubt an endemic of madness has taken over Washington. One wealthy senior was heard saying that if he were taxed he would only have $200.000 left to feed his family. One of the candidates for President said he would overturn the Supreme Court, another has suggested to put the poor students to work cleaning the schools and pay them to teach them the work ethic and the value of a dollar, instead of putting the rich kids to work to teach them the value of the wealth their parents have. And about the Occupy Wall Street protesters it was said they should take a bath and find a job. There is no excuse for that low level of ignorance, particularly among men who presume they are qualified to be President of the United States. President of the rich, President of the Middle Class, President of the poor, President of the native Americans and President of the immigrants.
About the Occupiers another senior member of Congress asked "What do they want?" I reply if you don't know what they want then you have no business being in a position where you even have the right to ask that question.
The angels with the vials of the seven last plagues has poured one of them
on the heads of Americans and only the rational, clear thinking, sane ones have the freedom to resist it.
---------------------------------------
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Vagabondism 215
Vagabondism #215 "The hardest mountain trail to climb will get you the best seat in the forest."
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
What's Next?
The desire to work and be useful is what makes life worth living.
Johnny Ball
************************
Hello Marty
************************
So Boss.
We invented the wheel, the rudder and the internal combustion engine. We built the pyramids, the Tower of Pisa and the Eiffel Tower. We sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on a wooden bottomed ship, laid down an intercontinental railway and a system of national highways. We built Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal and the Empire State Building. We sailed up and down the Yellow River, the Nile, the Amazon and the Mississippi. We wrote Hammurabi's Laws, Magna Carta and the U. S. Constitution.
We built cites: Tokyo, Beijing, Bombay, Alexandria, Athens, Rome, Paris, Moscow, Berlin, London, New York City. We established Institutes of Higher Learning in all those place to educate the people. We established a United Nations.
We invented the light bulb, the automobile and the airplane. We have developed hygiene, medicine and psychotherapy. We have created worldwide literature, music, painting and sculpture.
We have channeled hydropower, wind and solar power and nuclear energy. We have invented the stethoscope, the microscope and the telescope. We have learned to grow crops, keep herds and to fish. We know how to develop friendships, families and communities.
We have walked across the North Pole, the South Pole and the surface of the Moon.
OK, Boss. What's next?
-------------------------------
DB - The Vagabond's Journeys
Never Give Up
*******************************
Johnny Ball
************************
Hello Marty
************************
So Boss.
We invented the wheel, the rudder and the internal combustion engine. We built the pyramids, the Tower of Pisa and the Eiffel Tower. We sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on a wooden bottomed ship, laid down an intercontinental railway and a system of national highways. We built Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal and the Empire State Building. We sailed up and down the Yellow River, the Nile, the Amazon and the Mississippi. We wrote Hammurabi's Laws, Magna Carta and the U. S. Constitution.
We built cites: Tokyo, Beijing, Bombay, Alexandria, Athens, Rome, Paris, Moscow, Berlin, London, New York City. We established Institutes of Higher Learning in all those place to educate the people. We established a United Nations.
We invented the light bulb, the automobile and the airplane. We have developed hygiene, medicine and psychotherapy. We have created worldwide literature, music, painting and sculpture.
We have channeled hydropower, wind and solar power and nuclear energy. We have invented the stethoscope, the microscope and the telescope. We have learned to grow crops, keep herds and to fish. We know how to develop friendships, families and communities.
We have walked across the North Pole, the South Pole and the surface of the Moon.
OK, Boss. What's next?
-------------------------------
DB - The Vagabond's Journeys
Never Give Up
*******************************
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Vagabondism 214
Vagabondism #214 "I wonder who acquired the books that I had to leave behind and if they love them as much as I did." http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Incident At The Bar
Never let the other felloe set the agenda.
James Baker
******************
Hello Lily
*******************
The year was 1980. I was living in northern New Hampshire. The small town I lived in was surrounded by mountains. It isn't that the local population considered themselves mountain people especially, although many of them would ski in the winter and the men would go out into the forests during hunting season. It was rather that people who didn't come from there were called "flat landers." I moved to the area from New York City. I was a flat lander.
I worked as the morning disc jockey for the local radio station. I hit the Star Spangled Banner at 6 a.m. and commenced many hours of broadcasting. My shift ended at 1 p.m. In the good weather I would usually go for a hike in the mountains near by. But as hunting season came and then the Winter I made a different agenda for myself.
One block away from the station was a bar and restaurant. I would go there, have a couple of beers at the bar, have lunch, stay around and chat with folks until it got dark then I would go home.
One afternoon I walked into the bar and found that the bar stools were all full of local guys. They all knew who I was because I woke them up every morning, gave them their weather forecast, road conditions, school closings and so forth. It was the only radio station in town. They depended upon me. In between I tried to play their favorite music and give them some harmless, amusing chatter. So I was no stranger to them. But, still, they were all native mountain boys and I was a flat lander. As such they wouldn't acknowledge me beyond a friendly nod.
So on this particular day I went into the bar to find the entire bar section filled up with those good old New Hampshire boys. I went to the service side of the bar and ordered a beer. One of the men at the bar, who was sitting in the middle, knew me because he was the mechanic who worked on my car. He spoke up with a slightly mischievous grin in his voice and said "Dana. Why don't you have a seat?" It was a friendly challenge, with an edge.
All conversation stopped. There was silence, drinks were poised in mid air and everyone waited. There was tension in the room. A response from me was absolute and all were ready to hear it. I thought for a short moment and then said "Can't. There's too many asses and not enough chairs."
That was it. Some of them laughed, others grinned and a few looked at me and nodded. The tension broke. I had passed the test. I was in. After that none of them had any trouble being friendly with me.
"You know something, Dana, you're a cool guy for a flat lander."
Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*******************************
James Baker
******************
Hello Lily
*******************
The year was 1980. I was living in northern New Hampshire. The small town I lived in was surrounded by mountains. It isn't that the local population considered themselves mountain people especially, although many of them would ski in the winter and the men would go out into the forests during hunting season. It was rather that people who didn't come from there were called "flat landers." I moved to the area from New York City. I was a flat lander.
I worked as the morning disc jockey for the local radio station. I hit the Star Spangled Banner at 6 a.m. and commenced many hours of broadcasting. My shift ended at 1 p.m. In the good weather I would usually go for a hike in the mountains near by. But as hunting season came and then the Winter I made a different agenda for myself.
One block away from the station was a bar and restaurant. I would go there, have a couple of beers at the bar, have lunch, stay around and chat with folks until it got dark then I would go home.
One afternoon I walked into the bar and found that the bar stools were all full of local guys. They all knew who I was because I woke them up every morning, gave them their weather forecast, road conditions, school closings and so forth. It was the only radio station in town. They depended upon me. In between I tried to play their favorite music and give them some harmless, amusing chatter. So I was no stranger to them. But, still, they were all native mountain boys and I was a flat lander. As such they wouldn't acknowledge me beyond a friendly nod.
So on this particular day I went into the bar to find the entire bar section filled up with those good old New Hampshire boys. I went to the service side of the bar and ordered a beer. One of the men at the bar, who was sitting in the middle, knew me because he was the mechanic who worked on my car. He spoke up with a slightly mischievous grin in his voice and said "Dana. Why don't you have a seat?" It was a friendly challenge, with an edge.
All conversation stopped. There was silence, drinks were poised in mid air and everyone waited. There was tension in the room. A response from me was absolute and all were ready to hear it. I thought for a short moment and then said "Can't. There's too many asses and not enough chairs."
That was it. Some of them laughed, others grinned and a few looked at me and nodded. The tension broke. I had passed the test. I was in. After that none of them had any trouble being friendly with me.
"You know something, Dana, you're a cool guy for a flat lander."
Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*******************************
Friday, November 18, 2011
Vagabondism 213
Vagabondism #213 "The best way to outlive your past is to start living your future."
dbdacoba@aol.com
dbdacoba@aol.com
Steps Up, Steps Down
Do good and don't worry to whom.
Mexican proverb
*********************
Hello Jen
***********************
This event happened many years age when I was doing a season of summer theatre. The theatre was located near a beach and there was a pier with two buildings on it. One building had a wooden staircase that led from the pier up to a porch, and inside was the rehearsal area. The morning rehearsal went from 10 until noon. I wasn't involved in it that morning so I was sitting on the pier with my script.
It was a warm, bright summer day. The tide was coming in and as it did an ocean breeze was caressing my cheeks and curling through my hair. The deep, mystic aroma of ocean air was everywhere.
Our Technical Director, Bill, came out of the shop with 4 large planks of fresh lumber, went back inside and came back out with a hand saw, a claw hammer, a saw horse, a bucket of nails and a ruler. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was going to replace the stairs. I figured that it would be a day's work for him unless he got some help. He politely declined my offer
I'm not sure of the dimensions of those planks of wood, but they were thick and long. Because a power tool would have disturbed the rehearsal going on upstairs, he took a hand saw and, after he had carefully measured everything, he cut 10 identical triangular grooves in both of the larger, thicker boards, about 5 inches each. They were so perfectly cut that when he reached the corner of each one the triangular piece just fell out onto the pier. He also cut the corners off of each board. I kept wondering when his arm was going to fall off.
Then he set them aside and measured the thinner planks and cut 10 identical pieces from them. The he stretched out the two larger planks parallel and braced them against the building. He took the smaller pieces he had just cut and with the hammer and some nails from the bucket, he attached each plank neatly into the grooves he had cut from the large boards. He then lifted the whole thing up and braced it against the porch.
He climbed the old staircase with the hammer and the bucket. He pried the old staircase loose from the porch and let it fall gently on to the pier below. He then pulled over the new one and with large nails attached it to the porch.
He picked up the hammer and bucket and ran down the stairscase he had just erected. He put the tools away and cleaned up the pieces of wood that were left lying on the pier. Then he took the old staircase into the shop to dismantle it.
I was amazed. I said I couldn't believe what he had just done. He said that there was nothing to it, and then added "I'm a good carpenter." I agreed.
In a moment or so the rehearsal stopped and the actors came tromping down a brand new staircase on the way to their break. Nobody knew how it got there, but I did. "There was nothing to it."
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
*************************
Mexican proverb
*********************
Hello Jen
***********************
This event happened many years age when I was doing a season of summer theatre. The theatre was located near a beach and there was a pier with two buildings on it. One building had a wooden staircase that led from the pier up to a porch, and inside was the rehearsal area. The morning rehearsal went from 10 until noon. I wasn't involved in it that morning so I was sitting on the pier with my script.
It was a warm, bright summer day. The tide was coming in and as it did an ocean breeze was caressing my cheeks and curling through my hair. The deep, mystic aroma of ocean air was everywhere.
Our Technical Director, Bill, came out of the shop with 4 large planks of fresh lumber, went back inside and came back out with a hand saw, a claw hammer, a saw horse, a bucket of nails and a ruler. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was going to replace the stairs. I figured that it would be a day's work for him unless he got some help. He politely declined my offer
I'm not sure of the dimensions of those planks of wood, but they were thick and long. Because a power tool would have disturbed the rehearsal going on upstairs, he took a hand saw and, after he had carefully measured everything, he cut 10 identical triangular grooves in both of the larger, thicker boards, about 5 inches each. They were so perfectly cut that when he reached the corner of each one the triangular piece just fell out onto the pier. He also cut the corners off of each board. I kept wondering when his arm was going to fall off.
Then he set them aside and measured the thinner planks and cut 10 identical pieces from them. The he stretched out the two larger planks parallel and braced them against the building. He took the smaller pieces he had just cut and with the hammer and some nails from the bucket, he attached each plank neatly into the grooves he had cut from the large boards. He then lifted the whole thing up and braced it against the porch.
He climbed the old staircase with the hammer and the bucket. He pried the old staircase loose from the porch and let it fall gently on to the pier below. He then pulled over the new one and with large nails attached it to the porch.
He picked up the hammer and bucket and ran down the stairscase he had just erected. He put the tools away and cleaned up the pieces of wood that were left lying on the pier. Then he took the old staircase into the shop to dismantle it.
I was amazed. I said I couldn't believe what he had just done. He said that there was nothing to it, and then added "I'm a good carpenter." I agreed.
In a moment or so the rehearsal stopped and the actors came tromping down a brand new staircase on the way to their break. Nobody knew how it got there, but I did. "There was nothing to it."
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
*************************
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Vagabondism 212
Vagabondism #212 "Things change, times change, people change, changes change."
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
The Bell Has Rung
Dollars and guns are no substitute for brains and will power.
Eisenhower
******************
Hello Holly
********************
NOTE: To those who think they are wise and have power.
You can humiliate them, laugh at them, insult them, infiltrate them, tear gas them, beat them, shoot at them, arrest them, chase them out of their parks and throw their books in the trash cans. But you can not stop them.
History and the future ore on their side. The warning bell has sounded. Pay attention. Shut up and listen. Heed the warning or you will be sitting in the ashes of your wealth.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*********************
AUTUMN QUESTION
My sincere apologies. The old gremlin has been at work again and I have lost the file that contained the 6 answers I got for the question. I spent 2 days trying to get it back but failed. Hence I am unable to post the answers I got. As for the rest of you, you're off the hook.
I've decided to drop it and turn my attention to a Winter Question. For those who answered, I am very sorry.
DB
************************
Eisenhower
******************
Hello Holly
********************
NOTE: To those who think they are wise and have power.
You can humiliate them, laugh at them, insult them, infiltrate them, tear gas them, beat them, shoot at them, arrest them, chase them out of their parks and throw their books in the trash cans. But you can not stop them.
History and the future ore on their side. The warning bell has sounded. Pay attention. Shut up and listen. Heed the warning or you will be sitting in the ashes of your wealth.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*********************
AUTUMN QUESTION
My sincere apologies. The old gremlin has been at work again and I have lost the file that contained the 6 answers I got for the question. I spent 2 days trying to get it back but failed. Hence I am unable to post the answers I got. As for the rest of you, you're off the hook.
I've decided to drop it and turn my attention to a Winter Question. For those who answered, I am very sorry.
DB
************************
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Vagabondism 211
Vagabondism #211 "Our lives are filled with more myths than we can even imagine."
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
Still Waters
A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.
Joseph Addison
**********************
Hello Ally
**********************
I once knew an actor named Brown (I don't remember his first name, sorry Mr. Brown) who had one very effective process in working out his performances. He began with the idea that what his character wanted, above all things, was peace. Like water seeking it's own level he wanted to achieve calmness, and every thing in the play that disturbed him was something to fight against. It gave him a good solid objective for every role. I saw him perform a few times and it was clear the technique worked well for him.
When he described it I thought about how easy it would be to apply that, not only to acting but to many of our actions in life. We want to be happy. We want to be wealthy, or at least solvent. We want to be healthy. We want the things that concern us in our lives to be harmonious and uncomplicated. We want our work to be done satisfactorily. We want our lives to run smoothly. In short we want peace.
But our days seem to be filled dealing with things that interfere with that peace, that calmness, and even though some of the efforts we make are joyful ones, they still relate back to the state of ultimate contentment.
But there's another side to that coin, it's the tight shoes theory. Why wear tight shoes? Because it feels so good to take them off. Why take on difficult or strenuous activities? Because it gives us a sense of pride and accomplishment. We can sit back, relax and congratulate ourselves for having done it, whatever "it" was.
There are a great many things wrong with the world that we can get all riled up and exercised about if we really want to. There's no point in turning the back and ignoring them. But there are people working hard to make still waters where trouble rears it's angry head. If something rocks your boat it helps in the calmness category to support them. To assuage guilty feelings is not enough, nor the point. That brings no lasting peace. But to care is the positive remedy for all the world's ills, and that is best done from a place of quiet confidence.
Sometimes contentment requires a humble and contrite spirit. If real peace is achieved those states are well worth having. They are the cure for active feelings of rage, resentment and revenge. With those emotion close to the vest there is no such thing as peace. Those are the disturbances that Mr. Brown would have fought against as the play progressed. To dispel all the negatives from one's heart and mind is the pathway to the still waters.
DB - Your Patient Vagabond
***************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
My sincere apologies. The old gremlin has been at work again and I have lost the file that contained the 6 answers I got for the question. I spent 2 days trying to get it back but failed. Hence I am unable to post the answers I got. As for the rest of you, you're off the hook.
I've decided to drop it and turn my attention to a Winter Question. For those who answered, I am very sorry.
DB
************************
Joseph Addison
**********************
Hello Ally
**********************
I once knew an actor named Brown (I don't remember his first name, sorry Mr. Brown) who had one very effective process in working out his performances. He began with the idea that what his character wanted, above all things, was peace. Like water seeking it's own level he wanted to achieve calmness, and every thing in the play that disturbed him was something to fight against. It gave him a good solid objective for every role. I saw him perform a few times and it was clear the technique worked well for him.
When he described it I thought about how easy it would be to apply that, not only to acting but to many of our actions in life. We want to be happy. We want to be wealthy, or at least solvent. We want to be healthy. We want the things that concern us in our lives to be harmonious and uncomplicated. We want our work to be done satisfactorily. We want our lives to run smoothly. In short we want peace.
But our days seem to be filled dealing with things that interfere with that peace, that calmness, and even though some of the efforts we make are joyful ones, they still relate back to the state of ultimate contentment.
But there's another side to that coin, it's the tight shoes theory. Why wear tight shoes? Because it feels so good to take them off. Why take on difficult or strenuous activities? Because it gives us a sense of pride and accomplishment. We can sit back, relax and congratulate ourselves for having done it, whatever "it" was.
There are a great many things wrong with the world that we can get all riled up and exercised about if we really want to. There's no point in turning the back and ignoring them. But there are people working hard to make still waters where trouble rears it's angry head. If something rocks your boat it helps in the calmness category to support them. To assuage guilty feelings is not enough, nor the point. That brings no lasting peace. But to care is the positive remedy for all the world's ills, and that is best done from a place of quiet confidence.
Sometimes contentment requires a humble and contrite spirit. If real peace is achieved those states are well worth having. They are the cure for active feelings of rage, resentment and revenge. With those emotion close to the vest there is no such thing as peace. Those are the disturbances that Mr. Brown would have fought against as the play progressed. To dispel all the negatives from one's heart and mind is the pathway to the still waters.
DB - Your Patient Vagabond
***************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
My sincere apologies. The old gremlin has been at work again and I have lost the file that contained the 6 answers I got for the question. I spent 2 days trying to get it back but failed. Hence I am unable to post the answers I got. As for the rest of you, you're off the hook.
I've decided to drop it and turn my attention to a Winter Question. For those who answered, I am very sorry.
DB
************************
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Vagabondism 210
Vagabondism #210 "My memories come to me randomly, like a shuffled deck of cards; my loves, my successes, my failures, my regrets." http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Johnny One Note
I've always felt that a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same subject.
Abigail Adams
******************************
Hello Teresa
****************************
I once knew a classical musician who traveled the world as a soloist with some of the major orchestras. One day he told me a story about one of the esteemed groups he played with. It seems the conductor had decided long ago exactly how every piece of music should be played and he never deviated from it. My friend, who was a young man at the time, tried to introduce some alternative interpretations and was scolded into towing the conductor's line.
Other musicians have often told of coming back to a piece they played well years ago and discovering new things about it they didn't know before, subtle things, matters of interpretation.
I had the pleasure of coming back to roles I had played before and finding deeper meanings in them. There were 2 plays by Arthur Miller and 2 by Eugene O"Neill that I returned to. And Other People's Money I managed to do 3 times. Returning to those plays was a rich experience in some ways but it was more about opening my thoughts to larger issues about the plays and the characters.
May heaven protect the world from closed mindedness. There are people who have decided on the "right" way of thinking or doing something, and thus it becomes the "only" way, and they simply will not listen to an alternative or conflicting point of view. They say "I know what I know, and you're not going to convince me otherwise."
When the rough and tumble squabble about religion starts some people wrap themselves up in the cozy word "faith" and let it go at that.
Imagine what the world would be like if everyone had that sort of one track mind. There would be no innovation, no experimentation, no discoveries, no risk taking. No progress.
Admittedly it is difficult to hold in thought several ides about anything specific, to mull them over and to compare one with the others. But where and when has it ever been written that real thinking is easy?
I'm a voracious reader (you've heard that old saying before). I read mainly philosophy, history, science, religion and psychology. In those books and magazines are ideas, well articulated, about everything from ancient Mesopotamian crafts to modern football tactics. The excellent scholars I read often disagree with each other. There are probably as many theories about the Reformation in Europe, how and why it happened, as there are about Kennedy's assassination. None of those topics has a direct bearing on my life except to satisfy my curiosity. I know what I think, but I welcome having my thoughts challenged and my mind changed. Besides, the vast fields of knowledge are available to me in my attempt to understand how the world goes and what life is all about. And I will think about more than two things at the same time.
So if you want to sing your one note loud and clear, that's fine. Just don't come around knocking at my brain. But if you enjoy tossing ideas in the air like a juggler, let's talk.
DB -The Vagabond
Never Give Up
***********************
Abigail Adams
******************************
Hello Teresa
****************************
I once knew a classical musician who traveled the world as a soloist with some of the major orchestras. One day he told me a story about one of the esteemed groups he played with. It seems the conductor had decided long ago exactly how every piece of music should be played and he never deviated from it. My friend, who was a young man at the time, tried to introduce some alternative interpretations and was scolded into towing the conductor's line.
Other musicians have often told of coming back to a piece they played well years ago and discovering new things about it they didn't know before, subtle things, matters of interpretation.
I had the pleasure of coming back to roles I had played before and finding deeper meanings in them. There were 2 plays by Arthur Miller and 2 by Eugene O"Neill that I returned to. And Other People's Money I managed to do 3 times. Returning to those plays was a rich experience in some ways but it was more about opening my thoughts to larger issues about the plays and the characters.
May heaven protect the world from closed mindedness. There are people who have decided on the "right" way of thinking or doing something, and thus it becomes the "only" way, and they simply will not listen to an alternative or conflicting point of view. They say "I know what I know, and you're not going to convince me otherwise."
When the rough and tumble squabble about religion starts some people wrap themselves up in the cozy word "faith" and let it go at that.
Imagine what the world would be like if everyone had that sort of one track mind. There would be no innovation, no experimentation, no discoveries, no risk taking. No progress.
Admittedly it is difficult to hold in thought several ides about anything specific, to mull them over and to compare one with the others. But where and when has it ever been written that real thinking is easy?
I'm a voracious reader (you've heard that old saying before). I read mainly philosophy, history, science, religion and psychology. In those books and magazines are ideas, well articulated, about everything from ancient Mesopotamian crafts to modern football tactics. The excellent scholars I read often disagree with each other. There are probably as many theories about the Reformation in Europe, how and why it happened, as there are about Kennedy's assassination. None of those topics has a direct bearing on my life except to satisfy my curiosity. I know what I think, but I welcome having my thoughts challenged and my mind changed. Besides, the vast fields of knowledge are available to me in my attempt to understand how the world goes and what life is all about. And I will think about more than two things at the same time.
So if you want to sing your one note loud and clear, that's fine. Just don't come around knocking at my brain. But if you enjoy tossing ideas in the air like a juggler, let's talk.
DB -The Vagabond
Never Give Up
***********************
Monday, November 14, 2011
Vagabondism 209
Vagabondism #209 "Some of the mountains I climbed turned out to be Paper Mache, but some of the simple jig saw puzzles of life seem to have an infinite number of pieces."
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
Read Your Mail
What we need is to love without getting tired.
Mother Teresa
********************
Hello Stuart
********************
I am so far behind in responding to my emails that sometimes I think I should just stand on the corner of a busy intersection some where and hand out cards that say "Thank You" to everyone who passes by.
I think I missed a few birthdays and was late on one (sorry Jen) and way behind on people's comings and goings. It isn't unusual for me to be up at 2 in the morning reading old emails and responding to some of them.
Why do I care? Because, as innocuous as it may seem at times, the contacts we make through this miracle of modern trouble making called the computer, are golden threads of friendship and care. Facebook really ought to be called Sharebook. Personal experiences are put online to be shared by others and sometimes problems are solved by someone out there in E-land who knows the answer. I know I am always grateful for someone who has done battle with some Google Monster and won and thus can pass on the right moves to make.
Knowing something about human nature you know that every one, even if he's the worst skink in the world, is in need of some affection and understanding on some level of his life in spite of what his social network face may suggest.
At least, but very important, this Internet specter enables us to keep lines of communication open between people who may never meet but who have become friends and acquaintances.
Read blogs, and, if you have something to say leave a comment. Sometimes it's good to know just that somebody read your blog. Read your emails and answer them. Go through Facebook and Twitter and whatever else you're connected to and see what's happening. And don't put it off just because you're weary. The other person wants to hear from you. As the little girl said "Love is what makes you smile even when you're tired."
Don't have time? Neither do I. That's why you end up with a mountain of unanswered mail, like mine. But I keep at it when I do have some time. So if I respond to an email you sent me in September don't be surprised.
DB - The Loving Vagabond
Never Give Up
************************
WEEKEND CONTEST ANSWER
A farmer son loads some pumpkins in his pick up truck and goes out to deliver them to various markets around town.
At the first market he delivers Half of the pumpkins in his truck plus half a pumpkin.
At the second market he leaves half of the pumpkins in his truck plus half a pumpkin.
At the third market he gives them half of the pumpkins he has plus half a pumpkin.
At the forth market he delivers half of the pumpkins he has plus half a pumpkin.
Then he drives his truck back to the farm to get more pumpkins because he's run out of them.
How many pumpkins did he have in the truck to begin with?
The Answer is 15
The only winner was the persistent Val, who therefore wins the genuine Lego pitchfork.
DB
**********************
AUTUMN QUESTION
This is not a contest
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Autumn is moving along.
Only 6 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Mother Teresa
********************
Hello Stuart
********************
I am so far behind in responding to my emails that sometimes I think I should just stand on the corner of a busy intersection some where and hand out cards that say "Thank You" to everyone who passes by.
I think I missed a few birthdays and was late on one (sorry Jen) and way behind on people's comings and goings. It isn't unusual for me to be up at 2 in the morning reading old emails and responding to some of them.
Why do I care? Because, as innocuous as it may seem at times, the contacts we make through this miracle of modern trouble making called the computer, are golden threads of friendship and care. Facebook really ought to be called Sharebook. Personal experiences are put online to be shared by others and sometimes problems are solved by someone out there in E-land who knows the answer. I know I am always grateful for someone who has done battle with some Google Monster and won and thus can pass on the right moves to make.
Knowing something about human nature you know that every one, even if he's the worst skink in the world, is in need of some affection and understanding on some level of his life in spite of what his social network face may suggest.
At least, but very important, this Internet specter enables us to keep lines of communication open between people who may never meet but who have become friends and acquaintances.
Read blogs, and, if you have something to say leave a comment. Sometimes it's good to know just that somebody read your blog. Read your emails and answer them. Go through Facebook and Twitter and whatever else you're connected to and see what's happening. And don't put it off just because you're weary. The other person wants to hear from you. As the little girl said "Love is what makes you smile even when you're tired."
Don't have time? Neither do I. That's why you end up with a mountain of unanswered mail, like mine. But I keep at it when I do have some time. So if I respond to an email you sent me in September don't be surprised.
DB - The Loving Vagabond
Never Give Up
************************
WEEKEND CONTEST ANSWER
A farmer son loads some pumpkins in his pick up truck and goes out to deliver them to various markets around town.
At the first market he delivers Half of the pumpkins in his truck plus half a pumpkin.
At the second market he leaves half of the pumpkins in his truck plus half a pumpkin.
At the third market he gives them half of the pumpkins he has plus half a pumpkin.
At the forth market he delivers half of the pumpkins he has plus half a pumpkin.
Then he drives his truck back to the farm to get more pumpkins because he's run out of them.
How many pumpkins did he have in the truck to begin with?
The Answer is 15
The only winner was the persistent Val, who therefore wins the genuine Lego pitchfork.
DB
**********************
AUTUMN QUESTION
This is not a contest
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Autumn is moving along.
Only 6 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Vagabondism 208
Vagabondism #208 "To discover knowledge, construct wisdom and learn to praise the right requires mental modesty."
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
American Jobs
The world is moving along not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.
Helen Keller
*******************
Hello Sandy
*******************
Here is a word to the wise and the otherwise. Have you ever heard of Spencer Silver or Art Fry? No? They should probably be almost as famous as Thomas Edison. They invented the Post-it. A thing some people use every day. The were two honest workers for the 3M Corporation. You've heard of them. I'm fairly sure Silver and Fry were compensated for their work, but it was 3M that walked away with the millions the Post-it has earned in all it's various forms.
"There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:
Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. (Ecclesiastes) 9: 14,15)
Think of all the nameless workers who have made things happen. The part time tutor who makes sure the kid passes her math exam. The typist who finds a mistake in the legal document and corrects it. The fireman who rescues the boy and his dog from a blazing building. The engineer who finds a more efficient way of moving the traffic through a busy city. The technician who gets two parts to fit together properly that allows the space shuttle to fly. We never know their names, those poor wise ones. Why are they poor? Because what they earn is never as much as their efforts are worth. But it doesn't matter. They have jobs.
Honest American workers want honest American jobs. If you are out of work the unemployment ratios presented on the TV News don't mean a thing. They just mean that you're a statistic.
Hence there is Occupy Wall Street, young people standing in the rain, shot at with rubber bullets, tear gassed and mustard gassed, arrested, beaten and sleeping in tents. Ecclesiastes also says, (4:13) "Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take warning." That wealthy corporations don't pay their fair share of taxes is an absurdity. They say they need the money to provide jobs. I wonder what the honest American unemployed worker thinks of that, when he can go through his home and see all the things that say "Made in China." Recently one of our rich Congressmen complained that he couldn't afford to be taxed because he would only have $200,000 left to feed his family. I wonder what the single mom who feeds her family on less than $20,000 thinks of that. They can out source jobs to Asia, hire temp workers so they don't have to pay for health care and vacations and squirm out of collective bargaining to fill their pockets and Maximize Shareholder Value. But now they have been warned. Will they heed the warning?
All the talk about economic policies, national debt reduction, stimulus packages and fiscal responsibility is, as the old farmer whom no one remembers said, all a lot of "hog wash." America is a poor country. The number of poor people who live here far out weighs the number of rich. The answer is to pry the money out of the hands of the greedy who don't even know they are greedy and spend it on a gross national product that people can afford. Honest American workers want honest American jobs. Now.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
*************************
WEEKEND CONTEST
This is easy.
A farmer son loads some pumpkins in his pick up truck and goes out to deliver them to various markets around town.
At the first market he delivers Half of the pumpkins in his truck plus half a pumpkin.
At the second market he leaves half of the pumpkins in his truck plus half a pumpkin.
At the third market he gives them half of the pumpkins he has plus half a pumpkin.
At the forth market he delivers half of the pumpkins he has plus half a pumpkin.
Then he drives his truck back to the farm to get more pumpkins because he's run out of them.
How many pumpkins did he have in the truck to begin with?
I await your clever answer.
DB
************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
This is not a contest
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Autumn is moving along.
Only 6 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Weekend
Helen Keller
*******************
Hello Sandy
*******************
Here is a word to the wise and the otherwise. Have you ever heard of Spencer Silver or Art Fry? No? They should probably be almost as famous as Thomas Edison. They invented the Post-it. A thing some people use every day. The were two honest workers for the 3M Corporation. You've heard of them. I'm fairly sure Silver and Fry were compensated for their work, but it was 3M that walked away with the millions the Post-it has earned in all it's various forms.
"There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:
Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. (Ecclesiastes) 9: 14,15)
Think of all the nameless workers who have made things happen. The part time tutor who makes sure the kid passes her math exam. The typist who finds a mistake in the legal document and corrects it. The fireman who rescues the boy and his dog from a blazing building. The engineer who finds a more efficient way of moving the traffic through a busy city. The technician who gets two parts to fit together properly that allows the space shuttle to fly. We never know their names, those poor wise ones. Why are they poor? Because what they earn is never as much as their efforts are worth. But it doesn't matter. They have jobs.
Honest American workers want honest American jobs. If you are out of work the unemployment ratios presented on the TV News don't mean a thing. They just mean that you're a statistic.
Hence there is Occupy Wall Street, young people standing in the rain, shot at with rubber bullets, tear gassed and mustard gassed, arrested, beaten and sleeping in tents. Ecclesiastes also says, (4:13) "Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take warning." That wealthy corporations don't pay their fair share of taxes is an absurdity. They say they need the money to provide jobs. I wonder what the honest American unemployed worker thinks of that, when he can go through his home and see all the things that say "Made in China." Recently one of our rich Congressmen complained that he couldn't afford to be taxed because he would only have $200,000 left to feed his family. I wonder what the single mom who feeds her family on less than $20,000 thinks of that. They can out source jobs to Asia, hire temp workers so they don't have to pay for health care and vacations and squirm out of collective bargaining to fill their pockets and Maximize Shareholder Value. But now they have been warned. Will they heed the warning?
All the talk about economic policies, national debt reduction, stimulus packages and fiscal responsibility is, as the old farmer whom no one remembers said, all a lot of "hog wash." America is a poor country. The number of poor people who live here far out weighs the number of rich. The answer is to pry the money out of the hands of the greedy who don't even know they are greedy and spend it on a gross national product that people can afford. Honest American workers want honest American jobs. Now.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
*************************
WEEKEND CONTEST
This is easy.
A farmer son loads some pumpkins in his pick up truck and goes out to deliver them to various markets around town.
At the first market he delivers Half of the pumpkins in his truck plus half a pumpkin.
At the second market he leaves half of the pumpkins in his truck plus half a pumpkin.
At the third market he gives them half of the pumpkins he has plus half a pumpkin.
At the forth market he delivers half of the pumpkins he has plus half a pumpkin.
Then he drives his truck back to the farm to get more pumpkins because he's run out of them.
How many pumpkins did he have in the truck to begin with?
I await your clever answer.
DB
************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
This is not a contest
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Autumn is moving along.
Only 6 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Weekend
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Do It Yourself
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
General George Patton
**************************
Hello Marty
**************************
"Direct the play, not the players." (Bate)
I knew a man who had been a Lieutenant in the U. S. Army during the Korean War in which he saw action. His immediate commanding officer was a man all the troops admired and respected That Major's orders were always couched in firm but respectful words. He would say things like "It would please me very much if you and your men took that hill." My friend said that remark was an order that meant that taking the hill was an absolute necessity. He said his men were amazingly innovative about it. If taking the hill was an impossibility they would figure out a way to do it.
As an actor, the best directors I ever knew were those who had the same respectful attitude. There were many directors who somehow felt they had the right to tell actors how to act. That unwarranted arrogance made most actors lose respect for the director and perform well in spite of him. But a good director was one who sought out the best qualities in his actors and addressed us with the knowledge that we knew what we were doing. One of the best directors I know would say "Find a different motivation for that scene" and then leave it up to me to do so.
An actor will make a choice and act on it. If a director wants a different choice he should say so and leave it up to the actor. He shouldn't tell the actor how to play the part or criticize him for the choice he made. Some directors are so stupid (I can name names, but I won't) who don't even know that what they are seeing is an actor's choice.
If directors only knew how much damage they do to actors, the production and themselves by their arrogance they would probably deny it.
There are some actors who seem to need to be told what to do. But they don't last long in the profession, just as such a soldier wouldn't last long on the hills of Korea.
I have come across the same circumstance in the world of music. For two years I was involved in raising money for the New York Philharmonic, which is one of the world's greatest orchestras and that is a formidable reputation for an orchestra to have and one that holds little meaning for one who doesn't really know from first hand what a symphy orchestra is and does. The Philharmonic has had a variety of conductors over the years and some of them evidently were more interested in teaching musicians how to play than in playing the music. A bass violinist said the orchestra was so good it could play any piece you put down in front of it, even the most complicated and difficult modern work. That orchestra can play anything. It doesn't need to be told how to do it.
In short I hope you have a boss, if you have one, who trusts that you know your job and doesn't try to tell you how to do it.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
**********************
WEEKEND CONTEST
This is easy.
A farmer's son loads some pumpkins in his pick up truck and goes out to deliver them to various markets around town.
At the first market he delivers half of the pumpkins in his truck plus half a pumpkin.
At the second market he leaves half of the pumpkins he has in his truck plus half a pumpkin.
At the third market he gives them half of the pumpkins he has plus half a pumpkin.
At the forth market he delivers half of the pumpkins he has left plus half a pumpkin.
Then he drives his truck back to the farm to get more pumpkins because he's run out of them.
How many pumpkins did he have in the truck to begin with?
I await your clever answer.
DB
************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
This is not a contest.
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Autumn is moving along.
Only 6 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
General George Patton
**************************
Hello Marty
**************************
"Direct the play, not the players." (Bate)
I knew a man who had been a Lieutenant in the U. S. Army during the Korean War in which he saw action. His immediate commanding officer was a man all the troops admired and respected That Major's orders were always couched in firm but respectful words. He would say things like "It would please me very much if you and your men took that hill." My friend said that remark was an order that meant that taking the hill was an absolute necessity. He said his men were amazingly innovative about it. If taking the hill was an impossibility they would figure out a way to do it.
As an actor, the best directors I ever knew were those who had the same respectful attitude. There were many directors who somehow felt they had the right to tell actors how to act. That unwarranted arrogance made most actors lose respect for the director and perform well in spite of him. But a good director was one who sought out the best qualities in his actors and addressed us with the knowledge that we knew what we were doing. One of the best directors I know would say "Find a different motivation for that scene" and then leave it up to me to do so.
An actor will make a choice and act on it. If a director wants a different choice he should say so and leave it up to the actor. He shouldn't tell the actor how to play the part or criticize him for the choice he made. Some directors are so stupid (I can name names, but I won't) who don't even know that what they are seeing is an actor's choice.
If directors only knew how much damage they do to actors, the production and themselves by their arrogance they would probably deny it.
There are some actors who seem to need to be told what to do. But they don't last long in the profession, just as such a soldier wouldn't last long on the hills of Korea.
I have come across the same circumstance in the world of music. For two years I was involved in raising money for the New York Philharmonic, which is one of the world's greatest orchestras and that is a formidable reputation for an orchestra to have and one that holds little meaning for one who doesn't really know from first hand what a symphy orchestra is and does. The Philharmonic has had a variety of conductors over the years and some of them evidently were more interested in teaching musicians how to play than in playing the music. A bass violinist said the orchestra was so good it could play any piece you put down in front of it, even the most complicated and difficult modern work. That orchestra can play anything. It doesn't need to be told how to do it.
In short I hope you have a boss, if you have one, who trusts that you know your job and doesn't try to tell you how to do it.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
**********************
WEEKEND CONTEST
This is easy.
A farmer's son loads some pumpkins in his pick up truck and goes out to deliver them to various markets around town.
At the first market he delivers half of the pumpkins in his truck plus half a pumpkin.
At the second market he leaves half of the pumpkins he has in his truck plus half a pumpkin.
At the third market he gives them half of the pumpkins he has plus half a pumpkin.
At the forth market he delivers half of the pumpkins he has left plus half a pumpkin.
Then he drives his truck back to the farm to get more pumpkins because he's run out of them.
How many pumpkins did he have in the truck to begin with?
I await your clever answer.
DB
************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
This is not a contest.
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Autumn is moving along.
Only 6 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Friday, November 11, 2011
Vagabondism 207
Vagabondism #207 "Some say that wisdom is the knowledge of how to fix things, others say that wisdom is the knowledge of why things are the way they are. They are both right."
dbdacoba@aol.com
dbdacoba@aol.com
Waking Up
The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.
W. M. Lewis
*****************
Hello Lora
*****************
I used to say, half jokingly, that I was waiting around for my life to start. The life I had in my imagination, the life I thought I should be living, was not the life I had. Even though I had achieved a career as an actor, and even though, along the way, I managed to become an announcer at the two radio stations that were most important to me. I still felt there was something missing, that I should be somewhere else doing something else. One day, gratefully, I woke up and began to accept myself for who I was and what I was doing.
I have an original quotation in my Vagabond Jottings (http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/) which says something like "Don't bother wondering what you should be dong with your life. You're doing it."
It's a trap, a bad game we can play on ourselves, to think that what we do is worthless or not the tight path in our lives. We can stack up a large pile of maybes. If only I could afford it, if I only had a better education, if I had just made a better decision back then. It's a sad story when a man works his whole life to do something he believes is right and then to end up with regrets that he didn't do something different. What a rueful trap to fall into.
But, thankfully, the big lesson and realization is that it's life itself that is important and not the superficial trappings that accompany it. That is the wisdom of senior personship. That's what's at the end of the rainbow. The reward of living is waking up to the consciousness that we can embrace life from any place, any path in the universe. And we can begin to do that whenever we are ready to.
DB - The Living Vagabond
Never Give up
******************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Autumn is moving along.
Only 6 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
W. M. Lewis
*****************
Hello Lora
*****************
I used to say, half jokingly, that I was waiting around for my life to start. The life I had in my imagination, the life I thought I should be living, was not the life I had. Even though I had achieved a career as an actor, and even though, along the way, I managed to become an announcer at the two radio stations that were most important to me. I still felt there was something missing, that I should be somewhere else doing something else. One day, gratefully, I woke up and began to accept myself for who I was and what I was doing.
I have an original quotation in my Vagabond Jottings (http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/) which says something like "Don't bother wondering what you should be dong with your life. You're doing it."
It's a trap, a bad game we can play on ourselves, to think that what we do is worthless or not the tight path in our lives. We can stack up a large pile of maybes. If only I could afford it, if I only had a better education, if I had just made a better decision back then. It's a sad story when a man works his whole life to do something he believes is right and then to end up with regrets that he didn't do something different. What a rueful trap to fall into.
But, thankfully, the big lesson and realization is that it's life itself that is important and not the superficial trappings that accompany it. That is the wisdom of senior personship. That's what's at the end of the rainbow. The reward of living is waking up to the consciousness that we can embrace life from any place, any path in the universe. And we can begin to do that whenever we are ready to.
DB - The Living Vagabond
Never Give up
******************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Autumn is moving along.
Only 6 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Vagabondism 206
Vagabondism #206 "Learn from the wise, educate the ignorant, be compassionate with the stupid."
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
Thank You Boris
Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time.
Betty Smith
*********************
Hello Lily
*********************
Okay, I'm going to brag. Oh, there are a lot of things I can tell you about myself that I am ashamed of, but today I'm going to brag.
When I was a teenager living in New York City and being a classical music lover I would sometimes buy cheap tickets to the New York Philharmonic concerts. The conductor of the orchestra in those days was Dimitri Mitropoulos (1886 - 1960).
There was a little known, avant garde, American composer named Boris Blacker (1903 - 1975). One of his pieces is entitled Variations for Orchestra on a theme of Paganini. One day the Philharmonic played the American premiere of that piece. I listened. It was the only time I ever heard that piece. Until....
About 25 years later I was working part time for WQXR, a classical music radio station in New York. In the announcers' and engineers' lounge there was a speaker playing whatever was on the air. I walked in one day to work a shift on the station and I recognized the piece that was playing. I said, out loud "That's the Boris Blacker Paganini Variations."
'
I will never forget the looks on the faces of the guys in the room. It turned out that the piece had just been recorded for the first time and had never before been played on the air at any other radio station. How did I know?
I told them about hearing it in concert with the Philharmonic when I was a kid and that I remembered it. They were stunned.
I don't know quite why it is but if I see a film or hear a piece of music I will recognize it years later even if I just see a scene from the film or hear a snatch of the music.
I wish I was that way with a lot of other things, like people's names, for example.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
****************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Autumn is moving along.
Only 5 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Betty Smith
*********************
Hello Lily
*********************
Okay, I'm going to brag. Oh, there are a lot of things I can tell you about myself that I am ashamed of, but today I'm going to brag.
When I was a teenager living in New York City and being a classical music lover I would sometimes buy cheap tickets to the New York Philharmonic concerts. The conductor of the orchestra in those days was Dimitri Mitropoulos (1886 - 1960).
There was a little known, avant garde, American composer named Boris Blacker (1903 - 1975). One of his pieces is entitled Variations for Orchestra on a theme of Paganini. One day the Philharmonic played the American premiere of that piece. I listened. It was the only time I ever heard that piece. Until....
About 25 years later I was working part time for WQXR, a classical music radio station in New York. In the announcers' and engineers' lounge there was a speaker playing whatever was on the air. I walked in one day to work a shift on the station and I recognized the piece that was playing. I said, out loud "That's the Boris Blacker Paganini Variations."
'
I will never forget the looks on the faces of the guys in the room. It turned out that the piece had just been recorded for the first time and had never before been played on the air at any other radio station. How did I know?
I told them about hearing it in concert with the Philharmonic when I was a kid and that I remembered it. They were stunned.
I don't know quite why it is but if I see a film or hear a piece of music I will recognize it years later even if I just see a scene from the film or hear a snatch of the music.
I wish I was that way with a lot of other things, like people's names, for example.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
****************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Autumn is moving along.
Only 5 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Vagabondism 205
Vagabondism #205 "America seems to be filled to surpassing with juvenile adults and children who grow up too fast."
http://www.blogger.com/profile/09144446186279708019
http://www.blogger.com/profile/09144446186279708019
Behind The Veil
Enlightenment - that magnificent escape from anguish and ignorance - never happens by accident. It results from the brave and sometimes lonely battle of one person against his own weaknesses.
Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano
************************
Hello Kate
************************
The older I get and the more I try to grasp and understand the things that are the most important to me, the more I realize that they are easily within my reach. So then why is it I don't have universal wisdom safely tucked into my back pack?
Nyanasobhano, who is an American born, Dartmouth educated, former actor, Buddhist, says it is because of my weaknesses. I ponder that and I can't identify my weakness itself, but I can see the effects of it. Principally it is the common human desire to find easy explanations for things, to try to accept things as they only appear to be, to avoid the fearful task of looking for the reality behind the masquerade. Nyanasobhano implies in his writings that if we really understood the Nature that we take for granted we could find a universe of peace and beauty hiding there. But, in fact, it isn't hiding. It is just that we have put up veils in front of it.
It was veils that hid from the Israelites the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle and allowed only the high priest to enter.
It was a veil that hid the face of Moses from his followers because his skin shown from his own understanding of truth and reality. And it frightened them.
Veils hide the faces of beautiful Arab women, and it was veils that Salome cast off of herself when she danced for Herod.
It was the veil of the Temple that was torn in half when Jesus was crucified.
What's with these veils?
A veil is nothing, it has no power, no intelligence. It's just used to hide things. We all have our own veils. What we see, hear, feel, etc., the senses are our veils. The geologist is staring at a chunk of moon rock. Is it just a rock, or is it a path, a journey to knowledge and then to understanding and maybe then to wisdom, enlightenment? A man can make a silly, ugly noise vibrating his lips together. But when he does it into the mouth piece of a horn out the other end comes a beautiful tone. What is that tone? What does it mean in the overall cosmic scheme of things? Is it just a tone, or is it a journey? Is Nature explaining it's true self to us in a language we can't understand because we don't look past what we think it is?
My ignorance resides in my avoiding the brave and lonely battle with my weakness, with my failure to look beyond the veil, to dare, to question, to imagine, even to plead for the real truth of things.
DB - The Original Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
**************************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Autumn is moving along.
Only 5 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano
************************
Hello Kate
************************
The older I get and the more I try to grasp and understand the things that are the most important to me, the more I realize that they are easily within my reach. So then why is it I don't have universal wisdom safely tucked into my back pack?
Nyanasobhano, who is an American born, Dartmouth educated, former actor, Buddhist, says it is because of my weaknesses. I ponder that and I can't identify my weakness itself, but I can see the effects of it. Principally it is the common human desire to find easy explanations for things, to try to accept things as they only appear to be, to avoid the fearful task of looking for the reality behind the masquerade. Nyanasobhano implies in his writings that if we really understood the Nature that we take for granted we could find a universe of peace and beauty hiding there. But, in fact, it isn't hiding. It is just that we have put up veils in front of it.
It was veils that hid from the Israelites the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle and allowed only the high priest to enter.
It was a veil that hid the face of Moses from his followers because his skin shown from his own understanding of truth and reality. And it frightened them.
Veils hide the faces of beautiful Arab women, and it was veils that Salome cast off of herself when she danced for Herod.
It was the veil of the Temple that was torn in half when Jesus was crucified.
What's with these veils?
A veil is nothing, it has no power, no intelligence. It's just used to hide things. We all have our own veils. What we see, hear, feel, etc., the senses are our veils. The geologist is staring at a chunk of moon rock. Is it just a rock, or is it a path, a journey to knowledge and then to understanding and maybe then to wisdom, enlightenment? A man can make a silly, ugly noise vibrating his lips together. But when he does it into the mouth piece of a horn out the other end comes a beautiful tone. What is that tone? What does it mean in the overall cosmic scheme of things? Is it just a tone, or is it a journey? Is Nature explaining it's true self to us in a language we can't understand because we don't look past what we think it is?
My ignorance resides in my avoiding the brave and lonely battle with my weakness, with my failure to look beyond the veil, to dare, to question, to imagine, even to plead for the real truth of things.
DB - The Original Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
**************************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Autumn is moving along.
Only 5 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Vagabondism 204
Vagabondism #204 "I think most people read scripture to affirm what they’ve been told, not to discover what they haven't."
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
Vote For What?
Do not wait for leaders. Do it alone, person to person.
Mother Theresa
*********************
Hello Jen,
******************
Election Day in the USA. This is the day we American citizens get to vote for our leaders and representatives. Unfortunately to run for public office, especially in the higher levels of government, is a very expensive activity. The radio and TV commercials, print advertising, fliers, leaflets, letters, travels and phone calls all cost a lot of money. So the lucky ones who hold those offices are mostly rich, supported by the even richer.,
The wealthy in this country have all the power and, even among the kindly intentioned, they don't have a history of exercising it wisely. Like the monarchs of old they have the money, the position and their armies, in the modern case that means lawyers and lobbyists. They all seem to be quite comfortable with that arrangement. They call it the American Dream.
The common man has daily problems about which the rich know nothing "Let 'em eat cake." But the common man, the commoner, the peasant, the indentured servant needs some of that power. He wants the power to build a life, own a home, support a family and gain a decent standard of living. That's the American Dream. And as time goes by it's slipping more and more from our grasp. "Can the King, who commands the beggars knee, command the health of it?" Shakespeare wrote.
If the rich were to pay their fair share of taxes it would be a blessing for the country. Some of the rich and richly supported politicians are against that idea. Meanwhile money is being squandered.
If the rich were held accountable for the taxes they should have been paying all these years, their debt to America, it would be an even bigger blessing. And if they were assessed the sort of interest charges on that debt the wealthy banks like to charge the commoner it would be a healthier, wealthier and more prosperous country all around.
If that unlikely event should happen there would be a lot of yachts and mansions for sale. Do you think the common man would shed a tear over that misfortune?
We cannot depend on our leaders to forfeit their ideological arguments and knuckle down to their responsibilities. The Washington game goes on like a huge ball to which we are not invited. Power, influence, obligations and promises are pushed around the table like poker chips. And we aren't in the game.
So what do we do? We use the only power we have: protests, demonstrations, standing for days in the cold in ever increasing numbers, being hated, bearing beatings and arrests, scorn, scoffs, misunderstandings, fear, to convince the unconvinced, move the unmovable and awaken the spirit of rightness, of fairness, of genuine concern for the nations's well being. And we do it alone, person to person. Because we are the people.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Only 5 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Mother Theresa
*********************
Hello Jen,
******************
Election Day in the USA. This is the day we American citizens get to vote for our leaders and representatives. Unfortunately to run for public office, especially in the higher levels of government, is a very expensive activity. The radio and TV commercials, print advertising, fliers, leaflets, letters, travels and phone calls all cost a lot of money. So the lucky ones who hold those offices are mostly rich, supported by the even richer.,
The wealthy in this country have all the power and, even among the kindly intentioned, they don't have a history of exercising it wisely. Like the monarchs of old they have the money, the position and their armies, in the modern case that means lawyers and lobbyists. They all seem to be quite comfortable with that arrangement. They call it the American Dream.
The common man has daily problems about which the rich know nothing "Let 'em eat cake." But the common man, the commoner, the peasant, the indentured servant needs some of that power. He wants the power to build a life, own a home, support a family and gain a decent standard of living. That's the American Dream. And as time goes by it's slipping more and more from our grasp. "Can the King, who commands the beggars knee, command the health of it?" Shakespeare wrote.
If the rich were to pay their fair share of taxes it would be a blessing for the country. Some of the rich and richly supported politicians are against that idea. Meanwhile money is being squandered.
If the rich were held accountable for the taxes they should have been paying all these years, their debt to America, it would be an even bigger blessing. And if they were assessed the sort of interest charges on that debt the wealthy banks like to charge the commoner it would be a healthier, wealthier and more prosperous country all around.
If that unlikely event should happen there would be a lot of yachts and mansions for sale. Do you think the common man would shed a tear over that misfortune?
We cannot depend on our leaders to forfeit their ideological arguments and knuckle down to their responsibilities. The Washington game goes on like a huge ball to which we are not invited. Power, influence, obligations and promises are pushed around the table like poker chips. And we aren't in the game.
So what do we do? We use the only power we have: protests, demonstrations, standing for days in the cold in ever increasing numbers, being hated, bearing beatings and arrests, scorn, scoffs, misunderstandings, fear, to convince the unconvinced, move the unmovable and awaken the spirit of rightness, of fairness, of genuine concern for the nations's well being. And we do it alone, person to person. Because we are the people.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
*************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Only 5 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Monday, November 7, 2011
Vagabondism 203
Vagabondism #203 "Underestimate me and you hurt me, overestimate me and you hurt yourself."
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
Please Forgive Me
Lack of forgiveness causes almost all of our self-sabotaging behavior.
Mark Hansen
************************
Hello Holly
************************
The rule is: "Forgive, if you wish to be forgiven."
There is no single individual who has ever stepped outside his front door who hasn't done something to be forgiven for. Carelessness, missed opportunities, mistakes or just plain meanness have created cob webbian problems for himself and others.
The easiest thing to do in life, it seems, is to make a mistake, to get something wrong, to mess up, for me, and hence for everyone else. If we didn't forgive each other we would be breathing animosity instead of air. It's true that some things are more difficult to forgive than others and some people seem to be beyond forgiveness. How many times can I forgive a perpetual evil doer before he stops? That's a hard one. But if I get into the habit of forgiving it gets easier. Forgiveness, like breathing, is a choice. But like the lungs, which will work automatically once they are set in motion, forgiving can become a matter of natural fact.
I may carry around self destructive burdens of anger, hatred and a desire for revenge, all of which can eventually be cured by the medicine of forgiveness. But no matter how many scoundrels I meet in life the hardest person to forgive is myself, because, if I don't, then I have to add to my load the invisible and nasty virus of regret.
Forgiveness is hard work, but like weeding your garden, cleaning your house, supporting your family or meeting a payroll, it's a necessity of life.
And life is too good to waste it on negative feelings.
DB - The Original Vagabond
Never Give Up
*******************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Only 5 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Autumn is moving along.
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Mark Hansen
************************
Hello Holly
************************
The rule is: "Forgive, if you wish to be forgiven."
There is no single individual who has ever stepped outside his front door who hasn't done something to be forgiven for. Carelessness, missed opportunities, mistakes or just plain meanness have created cob webbian problems for himself and others.
The easiest thing to do in life, it seems, is to make a mistake, to get something wrong, to mess up, for me, and hence for everyone else. If we didn't forgive each other we would be breathing animosity instead of air. It's true that some things are more difficult to forgive than others and some people seem to be beyond forgiveness. How many times can I forgive a perpetual evil doer before he stops? That's a hard one. But if I get into the habit of forgiving it gets easier. Forgiveness, like breathing, is a choice. But like the lungs, which will work automatically once they are set in motion, forgiving can become a matter of natural fact.
I may carry around self destructive burdens of anger, hatred and a desire for revenge, all of which can eventually be cured by the medicine of forgiveness. But no matter how many scoundrels I meet in life the hardest person to forgive is myself, because, if I don't, then I have to add to my load the invisible and nasty virus of regret.
Forgiveness is hard work, but like weeding your garden, cleaning your house, supporting your family or meeting a payroll, it's a necessity of life.
And life is too good to waste it on negative feelings.
DB - The Original Vagabond
Never Give Up
*******************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Only 5 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Autumn is moving along.
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Vagabondism 202
Vagabondism #202 "The creditors are all out there, circling around and snarling, unmindful of their own debts." http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
The Actress
Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it.
Oprah Winfrey
******************
Hello Frosty
*******************
Her name is Lisa.
I was in a production in the South. It was a large theatre with almost full houses for every performance. One day a request was put up on the call board for actors who would be willing to talk to a group of high school students. I always enjoyed doing that so I put my name down right at the top.
It was a Monday afternoon, a day on which there was no performance, when another actor and I went over to the high school where we found a small group of bright, polite and energetic high school seniors. I asked them if they all saw the play and they nodded so I said to ask us questions and make them as hard as they wanted. And they did.
What followed was a very lively discussion about theatre, art and personal histories. Sitting at the end of the row was a quiet girl, a pretty brunette who finally asked something about life in the theatre.
Our conversation went something like this:
Are you interested in being in theatre?
Yes, but...
But what?
I don't know if I could make it.
Why not?
I don't know if I'm good enough.
What makes you say that?
I don't know.
Have you done any acting?
Yes. School plays.
Did you enjoy that?
Yes.
Did anyone tell you you weren't good at it?
No.
Then why don't you think you aren't good enough?
I'm just not sure.
You're not sure of yourself?
Yes. I guess so.
I looked at the other actor, who nodded his head. I said to him "I'll take this."
I picked up the folding chair I was sitting in and moved it over to right in front of her and sat down. I asked her her name. "Lisa" she said.
I took her hands in mine and stared into her eyes for a long minute. In them I saw timidity and uncertainty, then softness, distant sparkles reflected off of water, then colors surrounding a deep pool of light, cool fire.
Then I spoke, very quietly and very slowly. "Never......Doubt......Yourself."
She smiled and then I said "Promise me." She nonned with a big smile.
I let go of her hands, picked up my chair and went back to my place to finish the discussion with the others.
Good luck Lisa. Break a leg.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give up
***************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Only 5 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Oprah Winfrey
******************
Hello Frosty
*******************
Her name is Lisa.
I was in a production in the South. It was a large theatre with almost full houses for every performance. One day a request was put up on the call board for actors who would be willing to talk to a group of high school students. I always enjoyed doing that so I put my name down right at the top.
It was a Monday afternoon, a day on which there was no performance, when another actor and I went over to the high school where we found a small group of bright, polite and energetic high school seniors. I asked them if they all saw the play and they nodded so I said to ask us questions and make them as hard as they wanted. And they did.
What followed was a very lively discussion about theatre, art and personal histories. Sitting at the end of the row was a quiet girl, a pretty brunette who finally asked something about life in the theatre.
Our conversation went something like this:
Are you interested in being in theatre?
Yes, but...
But what?
I don't know if I could make it.
Why not?
I don't know if I'm good enough.
What makes you say that?
I don't know.
Have you done any acting?
Yes. School plays.
Did you enjoy that?
Yes.
Did anyone tell you you weren't good at it?
No.
Then why don't you think you aren't good enough?
I'm just not sure.
You're not sure of yourself?
Yes. I guess so.
I looked at the other actor, who nodded his head. I said to him "I'll take this."
I picked up the folding chair I was sitting in and moved it over to right in front of her and sat down. I asked her her name. "Lisa" she said.
I took her hands in mine and stared into her eyes for a long minute. In them I saw timidity and uncertainty, then softness, distant sparkles reflected off of water, then colors surrounding a deep pool of light, cool fire.
Then I spoke, very quietly and very slowly. "Never......Doubt......Yourself."
She smiled and then I said "Promise me." She nonned with a big smile.
I let go of her hands, picked up my chair and went back to my place to finish the discussion with the others.
Good luck Lisa. Break a leg.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give up
***************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Only 5 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Vagabondism 201
Vagabondism #201 "We struggle to mine the ore of experience and to express the inexpressible, and from that struggle art, poetry and music are made."
dbdacoba@aol.com
dbdacoba@aol.com
Beth and Ken and the Autumn Visit
My Day With The Riches, Part 2
Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments.
Shakespeare
**********************
Two kind and fascinating people picked me up and took me out to breakfast. I had a feta cheese omelette with grits. Grits ! GRITS? This is Pennsylvania not Alabama. But I enjoyed the grits, the omelette and the conversation.
Photographs were taken all around. Ken even got an unsuspecting passer by to take a picture of the three of us.
Then, after hugs, they left for New York City, my old home town, and I climbed the stairs to my lonely attic garret.
Those wonderful people injected a positive spirit into my life. Ken made sure that I made it safely in and out of his car, through every door and across every street. Beth is just as energetic and dynamic as her writing.
It was a great pleasure for me to have them here. They conquered my heart and took it with them. And now I feel very sad because I fear I may never see them again.
DB
(never give up)
Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments.
Shakespeare
**********************
Two kind and fascinating people picked me up and took me out to breakfast. I had a feta cheese omelette with grits. Grits ! GRITS? This is Pennsylvania not Alabama. But I enjoyed the grits, the omelette and the conversation.
Photographs were taken all around. Ken even got an unsuspecting passer by to take a picture of the three of us.
Then, after hugs, they left for New York City, my old home town, and I climbed the stairs to my lonely attic garret.
Those wonderful people injected a positive spirit into my life. Ken made sure that I made it safely in and out of his car, through every door and across every street. Beth is just as energetic and dynamic as her writing.
It was a great pleasure for me to have them here. They conquered my heart and took it with them. And now I feel very sad because I fear I may never see them again.
DB
(never give up)
Friday, November 4, 2011
Vagabondism 200
Vagabondism #200 "To be aware of that of which we are ignorant is dwelling with shadows. But to be unaware of that of which we are ignorant is deep darkness indeed.."
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/
Beth and Ken and the Autumn Visit
My Day With The Riches, Part 1.
They arrived promptly at 1 p.m., just when they said they would, with beer, on a beautiful Autumn day. We sat and drank, and talked, and laughed.
They ascended the loftiness into my aerie, where they viewed my world inside and out. They stepped out on to my balcony and saw the river, they sat in my chairs and saw my paintings. She opened my book, my treasured volume, my Shakespeare.
We drove into town where they met my friend the tobacconist, lottery seller and vendor of all local news.
We went for a long walk in the park where they saw the river and the trees. She took photos of everything (even me). They checked out the Columbus monument, the Puerto Rican monument and the Harriet Tubman monument. We talked of Washington's Crossing and of the Underground Railroad and of many things.
We made our way to the best restaurant in town. It was still lunch time when we arrived so we ordered appetizers and drinks. There was more talk and more laughter.
Soon it was dinner time and I had the best meal I have had since way before I left New York City.
It was the dark of night when we left there They drove me home and made sure I made it across the street with my cane, bless them.
I spent a happy day with two happy people. I had so much fun I forgot to take their picture, which I may be able to rectify during My Day With The Riches, Part 2.
DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
They arrived promptly at 1 p.m., just when they said they would, with beer, on a beautiful Autumn day. We sat and drank, and talked, and laughed.
They ascended the loftiness into my aerie, where they viewed my world inside and out. They stepped out on to my balcony and saw the river, they sat in my chairs and saw my paintings. She opened my book, my treasured volume, my Shakespeare.
We drove into town where they met my friend the tobacconist, lottery seller and vendor of all local news.
We went for a long walk in the park where they saw the river and the trees. She took photos of everything (even me). They checked out the Columbus monument, the Puerto Rican monument and the Harriet Tubman monument. We talked of Washington's Crossing and of the Underground Railroad and of many things.
We made our way to the best restaurant in town. It was still lunch time when we arrived so we ordered appetizers and drinks. There was more talk and more laughter.
Soon it was dinner time and I had the best meal I have had since way before I left New York City.
It was the dark of night when we left there They drove me home and made sure I made it across the street with my cane, bless them.
I spent a happy day with two happy people. I had so much fun I forgot to take their picture, which I may be able to rectify during My Day With The Riches, Part 2.
DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Vagabondism 199
Vagabondism #199 "How odd it is when those ahead of you may treat you as a leader while those behind you think they are ahead."
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
http://tinyurl.com/6xvgzz8
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Vagabondism 198
Vagabondism #198 "Most of the authorities in the world aren’t."
http://www.blogger.com/profile/09144446186279708019
http://www.blogger.com/profile/09144446186279708019
Think Of That
True thinking is work. It involves being comfortable with not knowing.
Diane Cameron
********************
Hello Arlene, ,
********************
I was talking with a friend the other day and during the conversation I recalled an experience that occurred when I turned 50. I was surprised at how little I knew. I thought, here I've lived half a century, an active life, where is all this wisdom I'm supposed to have? It was then that I began to realize I didn't know any where near as much as I thought I did.
But to gain any sort of wisdom requires thought. It does not want opinion, guessing, throwing dice or consulting the advice column of the newspaper. It requires imagination, probing, investigating, challenging and, very importantly, as Diane Cameron says, being comfortable with the fact that there are many things, too many things, you don't know.
I wanted to understand the books and articles I was reading and not just skim over them. I wanted to join in on discussions people were having around me about subjects that were foreign to me. I was caught up in a trap of not really knowing the things I thought I knew.
I began by going back over some of the books I had read and really digging into them. Then I started buying books on all sorts of subjects, subjects I didn't' really think I was interested in. only to discover I did enjoy learning about them. Books on science, philosophy, history, religion and psychology really challenged my mind and forced me to think.
After a while I found that I was coming up with my own ideas which seemed to intrigue people when I expressed them. As I approached my 70"s I began to write. I suppose at last I have some small measure of wisdom. I'm still baffled by a great many things but I'm comfortable with that since there is always something to learn and to think about.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
************************
HYMN FOR THE OCCUPIERS
A glorious day is dawning,
And o'er the waking earth
The heralds of the morning
Are springing into birth.
In dark and hidden places
There shines the blessed light;
The beam of truth displaces
The darkness of the night.
The advocates of error
Foresee the glorious morn
And hear in shrinking terror
The watchword of reform:
It rings from hill and valley,
It breaks oppression's chain.
A thousand freemen rally,
And swell the mighty strain.
(Unknown)
NEVER GIVE UP
****************
****************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Only 5 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Diane Cameron
********************
Hello Arlene, ,
********************
I was talking with a friend the other day and during the conversation I recalled an experience that occurred when I turned 50. I was surprised at how little I knew. I thought, here I've lived half a century, an active life, where is all this wisdom I'm supposed to have? It was then that I began to realize I didn't know any where near as much as I thought I did.
But to gain any sort of wisdom requires thought. It does not want opinion, guessing, throwing dice or consulting the advice column of the newspaper. It requires imagination, probing, investigating, challenging and, very importantly, as Diane Cameron says, being comfortable with the fact that there are many things, too many things, you don't know.
I wanted to understand the books and articles I was reading and not just skim over them. I wanted to join in on discussions people were having around me about subjects that were foreign to me. I was caught up in a trap of not really knowing the things I thought I knew.
I began by going back over some of the books I had read and really digging into them. Then I started buying books on all sorts of subjects, subjects I didn't' really think I was interested in. only to discover I did enjoy learning about them. Books on science, philosophy, history, religion and psychology really challenged my mind and forced me to think.
After a while I found that I was coming up with my own ideas which seemed to intrigue people when I expressed them. As I approached my 70"s I began to write. I suppose at last I have some small measure of wisdom. I'm still baffled by a great many things but I'm comfortable with that since there is always something to learn and to think about.
DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
************************
HYMN FOR THE OCCUPIERS
A glorious day is dawning,
And o'er the waking earth
The heralds of the morning
Are springing into birth.
In dark and hidden places
There shines the blessed light;
The beam of truth displaces
The darkness of the night.
The advocates of error
Foresee the glorious morn
And hear in shrinking terror
The watchword of reform:
It rings from hill and valley,
It breaks oppression's chain.
A thousand freemen rally,
And swell the mighty strain.
(Unknown)
NEVER GIVE UP
****************
****************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Only 5 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answers.
DB
********************
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Vagabondism 197
Vagabondism #197 "Don’t put your hand to the plow without putting your intelligence and affection to it as well."
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/
Standing Firm
Peace hath higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew.
John Whittier
**************************
Hello Ally
************************
Back in mid October I predicted the curfews and the tear gas, the arrests of the occupiers, the cracking down on the protesters by the police and local governments. Where there is brutality it means the authorities are scared. Now I am loath to say this but I wonder when the first occupier will be killed and where it will happen.
ODE TO THE OCCUPIERS
A glorious day is dawning,
And o'er the waking earth
The heralds of the morning
Are springing into birth.
In dark and hidden places
There shines the blessed light;
The beam of truth displaces
The darkness of the night.
The advocates of error
Foresee the glorious morn
And hear in shrinking terror
The watchword of reform:
It rings from hill and valley,
It breaks oppression's chain.
A thousand freemen rally,
And swell the mighty strain.
(Unknown)
NEVER GIVE UP
DB - Vagabond Journeys
***************************
John Whittier
**************************
Hello Ally
************************
Back in mid October I predicted the curfews and the tear gas, the arrests of the occupiers, the cracking down on the protesters by the police and local governments. Where there is brutality it means the authorities are scared. Now I am loath to say this but I wonder when the first occupier will be killed and where it will happen.
ODE TO THE OCCUPIERS
A glorious day is dawning,
And o'er the waking earth
The heralds of the morning
Are springing into birth.
In dark and hidden places
There shines the blessed light;
The beam of truth displaces
The darkness of the night.
The advocates of error
Foresee the glorious morn
And hear in shrinking terror
The watchword of reform:
It rings from hill and valley,
It breaks oppression's chain.
A thousand freemen rally,
And swell the mighty strain.
(Unknown)
NEVER GIVE UP
DB - Vagabond Journeys
***************************
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