Tuesday, April 30, 2013

THE WANDERER

April 30, 2013


Vagabond Journey No. 1,995



Have no fear of moving into the unknown.

(Pope John Paul II)

*************************

Hello Lily

***************************

I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger;

I can tarry, I can tarry but a night.

Do not detain me, for I am going

To where the fountains are ever flowing;



There the glory is ever shining;

O, my longing heart, my longing heart is there.

Here in this country so dark and dreary,

I long have wandered forlorn and weary:

(Mary Shindler)



Many of the years of my vagabond life I moved, not to go somewhere but to get away from where I was,. It wasn't that I was dissatisfied with where I was but I knew in my heart that it was only temporary. That is a result of my youth when I had to keep moving for financial reasons. There are no roots. I never learned what a home is.



It is the same with people. I have no friends from my boyhood or teen age years. My only friend left over from my 20's is Charles, but even with him we were out of contact with each other for about 25 years. I have no friends in this dreary town. I wrote somewhere that I've lost more friends than I ever had. I have managed, in one way or another, to alienate a few of the friends I had. Some have turned cold before they ever became friends. I have moved away from some, others have moved away from me.



So why am I adrift, forlorn and weary, solitary in my ways, apt to pick up and disappear down some road to shining fountains that I think must be there, somewhere? I don't know where they are or where I'm going. I can only say in general where I will stop, if I ever do. There will be space and water, water with waves. I wish to own a tree, and a cat to climb it, and a dog to watch the cat climbing, and young people, and a commerce of ideas.



I can visualize such a place, but can I visualize remaining there? Wherever I am it seems that in my heart I am still a pilgrim and a stranger. A wanderer. A vagabond.

*****************************

Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

Never Give Up

******************************



Monday, April 29, 2013

GET IN THE LIGHT

April 29, 2013


Vagabond Journey No. 1,994



We can readily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark, the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

(Plato)

*************************

Hello Arlene

*************************

The realities of life happen in the broad daylight, and that's why most people don't notice them. A lot of attention has been paid to the victims of the Boston bombings who need artificial limbs as a result. But how many of those people will not be able to afford them.



One evening in New York City a man entered the subway car sitting on a wheelchair. He had no legs. He didn't say a word, he didn't need to. He merely passed through the car with a cup in his hand and people gave him money. When he passed me I put a dollar in his cup. Two words passed between us. I said "Nam?" and he said Yup." Why was that man begging?



Then there's the irony of the homeless. I remember a woman who said she wanted to give her leftover Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless but she didn't know where they live.



Again in New York there was an outdoor book store in Columbus Circle. It was run by the homeless. I bought a few books from them. They were polite, orderly and looked out for each other's books. One day the police came and took them all away. A wealthy and therefore powerful woman had complained about homeless people living in her neighborhood.



The number of children who die everyday in Africa is appalling. The list of wrongs goes on and on and yet it goes unnoticed by all except a few. Politicians, governments, news media, church leaders are the ones who should be shining the bright lights on the world,s problems but they don't because they are afraid..



Churches that should mobilize people to confront and solve the obvious but overlooked circumstances of real life are cloistered in dogmas. The media spends a lot of time worrying about their popularity, telling a lot of stories that look good and asking stupid questions like "What went through your mind?" Congress wastes our money arguing about unimportant things because none of them have the guts to step outside of the party line and face facts.



Go live on the street Senator and see how many peopled don't notice you, pass you buy or cross the street to avoid you. Make friends with the other smelly homeless guys and learn the ropes. And if the police come to take you in, do what they say and don't argue. I've been homeless and I've been a beggar. I know what I'm talking about.

*****************************

Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

Never give up.

*******************

.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

STEP ON A BETTER SCALE

April 27, 2013


Vagabond Journey No. 1,993



Man's greatness lies in the power of his thought.

(Blaise Pascal)

**********************

Hello Beth

*********************

Watch out, now, it's evaluation time, judgement day. It's time to measure yourself against the perfect person you want to be. Are you as pretty as your sister? Are you stronger than the bully in the playground? Are you smarter than the geek in the horn rim glasses at school? When you step on the scale do you like the number that comes up? No, to all of the above? Well, shame on you.



Shame on you? Nonsense. Shakespeare wrote "Comparisons are odorous." I have worked with better actors, heard better musicians, seen better paintings, red better stories and had conversations with very intelligent and knowledgeable people. None of those experiences has robbed me of a single element of my worth. I've learned things from the actors, the painters and the people I've talked with.



There are some positive thinking experts who are vendors of good advice, but they will tell you that if you want to lose weight think "thin" and if you want to have more money think"wealth." If you want to be better looking think"beautiful." And so on and on. But it's the wrong road. It puts you into a contest between who you want to be and who you think you are. Take a U turn. Comparisons, disappointment, self doubt, self criticism and self condemnation are the poisonous fruits of trying to be someone else.. The antidote is self evaluation.



The objective of trying to improve yourself is not to become a better human being but to be a better and happier you. To do that means to identify and hold in your thoughts the special qualities, the benefits and blessing you provide for yourself and the world, to really understand how valuable you are to yourself. Measure yourself on a scale of personal worth. You will be surprised at what happens.

**********************************

Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

Never give up

**************************

Thursday, April 25, 2013

A CURIOUS DAY

A Spectacle of Life Living


******************************

Hello Barbara

*********************

The tiny white beast flutters from bush to bush too fast for any predator to catch her.



The gray cat watches with fascination from his perch on the railing of the porch..



I watch them both from my chair.. And I wonder. I wonder what makes the little white creature scurry so fast through the bushes. What is she looking for? I wonder at the gray creature's unmoving focus and curiosity about the little white one. What does the gray beast think of the white one. And I wonder how I fit in to this scene. I want to read metaphors.



Maybe I don't see metaphors. Maybe what I see is archetypes, lessons from the daylight, symbols of life living itself. Am I a little white creature dashing around to find my subject? Am I a stolid gray furry creature staring with curiosity into the world around me? Am I an arrow zinging through space to find a target? Am I a rumbling tank, slow to move but focused? Am I a laconic phrase? Am I a mystical epic? Am I a spark of thoughtt dashing through space? Am I the rolling of worlds?



I watch the little winged creature and the bewhiskered spectator with wonder and delight.

***********************

Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

No. 1,992

Never Give Up

*************************

Saturday, April 20, 2013

SPRINGLING (revised)

The computer gremlin was at work here. This verse was supposed to read.




On the lawn the dandelions grow.

Trees push out their blossoms just for show.

The rain comes, now not cold. .

Folks walk out no longer old.

Back yard barbecues for sale.

The worker fastens every nail.

Lovers find a place to smooch.

I dress up like Scaramouche.

SPRINGLING

April 20, 2013


Vagabond Journey no. 1.191

******************************

Hello Marty

*****************************



On the lawn the dandelions grow.

Trees push out their blossoms just for show.

The rain comes, now not .

Folks walk out no longer old.

Back yard barbecues for sale.

The worker fastens every nail.

Lovers find a place to smooch.

I dress up like Scaramouche.

***************************

Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

Never give up.

Friday, April 19, 2013

HOW LARGE IS YOUR ROOM?

April 19, 2013


Vagabond Journey no. 1,990



The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.

(William Osler)

**********************

Hello Val

**********************

We are always being told to think outside the box. But the fact is that we all live in boxes, and we expect to function appropriately and successfully inside that box whether its our home, job, school or other place of activity.



Original thought is an excellent quality to posses and use. I often write about it. But it isn't necessary to leave one's home or place of employment to exercise it. What is necessary is to look up, realize and explore the unfamiliar places in one's thinking. The real room we live in is the room of consciousness.



I sometimes feel claustrophobic, confined in some tight space I can't get out of. I have had bad dreams about it. But I know what those dreams are about. They are symbolic of a great dislike for anything inane, anything that wears the cloak of ignorance and stupidity, expressed in my life or the lives of those around me.



My room is filled with ideas, mine and other people's. It isn't in order to expand my consciousness, my room. The room is large enough already. It's to have as much wisdom as I can to use as tools for my own thinking.



Outside my window is a parking lot. There's a car parked in it. At first it's an automobile. Then it becomes a symbol of transportation. It soon becomes a gesture of defiance against stolidity and immobility. It eventually returns to being a car, but it has taken on solid expressions of itself that define it in the larger scope of things. And so it is with the ideas in my room.



I shun cliches. I don't like wise old sayings that hang on walls and are ignored. "Love thy neighbor as thyself." That's a good idea but how many people practice it. In fact how many people love themselves enough to practice it.



The truth of things, the real wisdom, may not lie outside the box, if the box is large enough to hold it.

****************************

Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

Never give up.

*****************************

Sunday, April 14, 2013

I AM A COMPASS

April 14. 2013




Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

(Shakespeare)

****************************

Hello Bruce

****************************

One day in New York City I was standing on the corner of Lafayette and Houston Streets. (In NY it's pronounced Howstin, as in how now brown cow.) I was waiting for the light to change so I could cross. On the other corner was a family looking at a map. The man crossed over to me and, in a think German accent, politely asked me "Vich vay is vest?" I pointed to the west. He thanked me and went back to his family.



It is very easy for tourists to get lost in New York. In fact it's very easy for New Yorkers to get lost there. In my early years, growing up in the New York City area, my destinations were limited and predictable. But when my career began I had to travel all around the city for interviews, auditions and jobs. And sometimes I would come out of a subway onto an avenue and not know vich vay vas vest.



One day I got smart, went to EMS and bought a compass. It was a small pocket model but it was a good one. That compass allowed me to know where I was on the perpendicular tapestry of Manhattan.



A compass works because the magnetized needle on its face always points to the magnetic north pole of the earth. That's an amazing astronomical fact that most compass user take for granted.



High above the north pole there is a star, Polaris, the north star, "the star to every wandering bark." The north star has been used for centuries by marinas to chart their way through the oceans because it is in a fixed position, another amazing astronomical fact. Seamen can find their position and direction by observing how the other stars are in relation to it.



We all have our own magnetic north pole our own north star which always enables us to know where we are and where we are going. It can also tell us if and where we have gone astray. "Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds." Through all the temptations, opportunities, influences, entertainments, activites and obstacles of the urban or natural jungles or over the roaring waves, through all the hurricanes, tornadoes and droughts it is the one thing we love the most that guides us home. Love is "the ever fixed mark that looks on tempest and is never shaken."



Love is not just hope, affection or desire. It's all of those things and more. It's that which once you are focused on it there is a calm in the waves, a sense of peace, an awakening and a realization of who you are, where you are and what you really want in life. The most important thing in your life is what you love. Fix your sights on that star and follow it.

******************************

Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

Never Give Up

*******************************



Saturday, April 13, 2013

ABOV E AVERAGE

April 13, 2013




Enlightened people seldom or never posses a sense of responsibility.

(George Orwell)

**************************

Hello Lora

**************************

I have been noting how often in my youth and even into adulthood I have given over to some authority my right to choose for myself. I remember back to advice given from people I should not have believed, standards of behavior which have since fallen victim to progressive thinking, moral standards that were proscriptive and based on irrational ideas, fantasies about life and my place in it.



The smarter I get, ok, the older I get, let's leave "smart" for now,

the less respectful I get for the ideas that have been dangling in front of me for decades. I could go into tales of the wrong school, the wrong mate, the wrong moves, the wrong professional choices and the wrong remarks to illustrate the troubled life I've had because of being influenced by someone or something I should have ignored.



A psychologist could probably describe to me a pattern of behavior that has caused me the troubles I've had. But if he did he would only be telling me something I have already learned. And it's the danger of repetition. If you are sure you are doing the right thing and you fail, and if you try it again and you fail again, don't try it again just because some standard of behavior is written on your mental wall. Patterns can be dangerous things. That's why most snakes wear them.



"Have a nice day" the checkout girl said as she handed me my bag of groceries. I did not want to insult her. I thanked her and said "But it's raining out there and it's cold." I only wanted to suggest a retreat from the automaton mind set she has been talked into.



Somewhere way back I learned to question things, almost everything. I questioned my motives, my actions, my responses, my attitudes, my beliefs and my ideas. I tried to rub everything against the touchstone of my own sense of honesty. There were many times in the past I might say something I didn't really mean. Now if someone says "How are you?" if I'm not feeling fine I don't answer. Because if they really want to know they will get a catalogue of what's wrong with me. I would rather say nothing and appear rude.



Cliched ideas and cliched words grow like dandelions in our heads. They steal away original thinking and fill up the spaces where enlightened deeds may grow. I try to flee from those cliches. I do not need to be responsible for thinking, saying or doing anything because that is the so-called normal way of it.



We all start off average, but there is no reason we have to stay that way.

**************************

Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

-------------------

Never give up.

ABOVE AVERAGE

April 13, 2013




Enlightened people seldom or never posses a sense of responsibility.

(George Orwell)

**************************

Hello Lora

**************************

I have been noting how often in my youth and even into adulthood I have given over to some authority my right to choose for myself. I remember back to advice given from people I should not have believed, standards of behavior which have since fallen victim to progressive thinking, moral standards that were proscriptive and based on irrational ideas, fantasies about life and my place in it.



The smarter I get, ok, the older I get, let's leave "smart" for now,

the less respectful I get for the ideas that have been dangling in front of me for decades. I could go into tales of the wrong school, the wrong mate, the wrong moves, the wrong professional choices and the wrong remarks to illustrate the troubled life I've had because of being influenced by someone or something I should have ignored.



A psychologist could probably describe to me a pattern of behavior that has caused me the troubles I've had. But if he did he would only be telling me something I have already learned. And it's the danger of repetition. If you are sure you are doing the right thing and you fail, and if you try it again and you fail again, don't try it again just because some standard of behavior is written on your mental wall. Patterns can be dangerous things. That's why most snakes wear them.



"Have a nice day" the checkout girl said as she handed me my bag of groceries. I did not want to insult her. I thanked her and said "But it's raining out there and it's cold." I only wanted to suggest a retreat from the automaton mind set she has been talked into.



Somewhere way back I learned to question things, almost everything. I questioned my motives, my actions, my responses, my attitudes, my beliefs and my ideas. I tried to rub everything against the touchstone of my own sense of honesty. There were many times in the past I might say something I didn't really mean. Now if someone says "How are you?" if I'm not feeling fine I don't answer. Because if they really want to know they will get a catalogue of what's wrong with me. I would rather say nothing and appear rude.



Cliched ideas and cliched words grow like dandelions in our heads. They steal away original thinking and fill up the spaces where enlightened deeds may grow. I try to flee from those cliches. I do not need to be responsible for thinking, saying or doing anything because that is the so-called normal way of it.



We all start off average, but there is no reason we have to stay that way.

**************************

Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

-------------------

Never give up.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

ON BEING SPRING

April 11, 2013




and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring

(e e cummings)

*************************

Hello Rose

*******************

I can't believe that it actually crossed through my mind, briefly, that I might actually get married again. Feh! Impossible. Who would have me? I realize that such thoughts are the symptoms of the illusions, the madness, of that once a year phenomenon known as Spring.



Around here Nature is waking up, the trees are showing the blossoms they have been dreaming about all winter, birds are back in town from wherever they have been vacationing, while the tiny Winter birds, no bigger than my thumb, who somehow thrive in the ice, snow and freezing temperatures have headed back to their homes on the Canadian tundra, flowers and Frisbees are featured on the market shelves. Signs are all around. In spite of predictions of nasty weather in some places, temporary interruptions in the natural cosmic dance, it can't be denied.



Spring is a time for waking up. It's a time for nudging into reality the winter dreams. A time for weary fingers to push into the ground the seeds of Autumn's wishes. It's a time of returning, revivifying and creating new memories. It's a time for listening to the messages whispered by the breezes that come through the trees or down the streets. It's a time to enjoy quiet,harmless insanity. It's the time to find joy in a single blossom or a simple song. It's a time to admire the wondrous things Nature can do.



Spring.The sign of regeneration and of life living itself.

Invite it in.

*************************

DB - Vagabond Journeys

Never give up.

****************************

Sunday, April 7, 2013

WHAT IS TRUTH?

April 7, 2013


I wish to be always at the point of discovering.

(Dana Bate)

**************

Hello Ken

****************

An honest philosopher will not tell you the truth, but he will tell you how he searches for it, and in the process he may uncover a lot of lies and tell you about those. The fact is we squeeze truth out of ourselves by the lives we live and by the yeses and nos we are wiling to admit into consciousness.



To apply for the job of philosopher takes two huge requirements. First of all one must be able the see, hear or read without interpreting, but with a clear understanding of what the event is, whether it's the recipe for meatloaf, the account of a baseball game, or a Psalm of David.



"God sent hurricane Sandy to punish us for our sins." To make a statement like that opens a door on a jungle of interpretations. What does the word God mean? What is sin? Who is this God that punishes, even what does sending mean? A philosopher would never make such a statement. It's much too complicated.



The other requirement is to question all authority. "Most of the authorities in the world aren't." it says in my Jottings Blog http://vagabondjottings.blogspot.com/ and look at how many so-called authorities stand up to proclaim the true facts of one matter or another. Even the authoritative theories of science get dumped out now and then in favor of a better one..By-passing all the authorities and finding his own road through the invisible universe of wisdom is the true philosophers job and joy.



I'm not a philosopher but I enthusiastically read them. I enjoy the ride.

*****************

Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

Never Give Up

********************

Saturday, April 6, 2013

He's Old Now

April 6, 2013




You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old.

(George Burns)

***********************

Hello Val

**********************

About 35 years ago I was directing a production of "The Fantasticks" for a high school in New Hampshire. There is a line in the show which is spoken by the boy about his girl friend. "She makes me young again." The student playing the part kept on saying "She makes me feel young again." That was cute, but not as funny as the correct line, especially coming from the mouth of a high school boy. After several futile attempts to get him to remember to speak the line properly, I told the following true story.



While I lived in New Hampshire I very much enjoyed hiking in the White Mountains. One group is called the Moat Range, North, Middle and South Moat mountains. I was hiking up Middle Moat one day in early Autumn. I had my shirt off, tucked into my belt, and had my back pack on my shoulders. I was feeling good.



The timber line for the mountain is very near the base, so it's mainly hiking up rocky slopes. Up ahead I saws two people coming down. It's not unusual to see others on those mountains. As they approached I saw that they were two teenage girls. We nodded to each other as they passed. One was talking to the other about a boy she knew and I heard her say "Well, I still see him, but he's old now, he's almost twenty."



I resisted the temptation to turn around and give her a lecture on oldness.



After I had told the story I asked the actor his age. When he said he was 18 I said "Oh, my God, you're almost 20. You're old. You past your prime. You're all rusted out. It's all down hill from here. You're old." We all got a laugh over it and I then asked him "What does she do for you?" He replied "She makes med young again." He never messed up the line after that.



I was 4 years old when my father died. He was 52. I grew up thinking 52 was old until I crossed that line myself. Now, more than 20 years later, I'm what's known as a "Senior Citizen" which is a euphemistic term for an old man, aged, past my prime, rusted out, headed down hill. The only problem is I don't feel old. There are parts of me that don't work as well as I would like, but some of those parts weren't working so well anyway.



The hardest part of my senior citizenship is isolation, loneliness. I don't like where I live, hove no local friends I can visit, and I don't have things to do. I spent my working life as an actor. Theatre is collaborative art form. There were always interesting people around working with me. The atmosphere was vital, creative and shimmering with ideas. So how did I end up living next to a parking lot, in a town with no conveniences near me, no friends to visit, in a place where I can't have the life I used to have and want again? Don't ask.



I guess it's time to take off my shirt, put my back pack on my shoulders and start climbing. Who knows, I may meet a couple of chatty teenage girls along the way. That sure would liven up my senioristic self.

*******************

Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

---------------------

Never Give Up

*********************

Thursday, April 4, 2013

it's not easy

April 4, 2013




The simpler the truth the longer it takes to arrive at it.

(Constantine Stanislavski)

******************************

Hello Bruce

****************

When someone asked me about acting I would sometimes say "Acting is simple, but it's not easy." I suppose that's a remark that could be made about many human endeavors. In many cases what makes it simple is also what makes it difficult. Why is that?



Think about learning to drive a car or any such task. The automobile is a very complicated piece of machinery. The average driver knows little or nothing about the inner complications of the vehicle. But he must learn what the tools of the driver are and how to use them safely and successfully. After much trial and error the experienced driver can hop in, start the car, release the brake and pull out on to the road without much thought. It's simple, but how difficult it was to get to that simplicity.



After years of study, guessing, experimenting and calculating, a great,finally discovered scientific truth may be expressed in a very simple formula.



One wonders why, if it's so simple, it wasn't obvious to the viewer, why was it hidden from sight? It's the mental mountain top experience, I think. When you reach the summit the view is clear and you know where you are. It's simple, but it sure wasn't easy to get there.



The violin student struggles over fingering, bowing, scales, exercises and intonation, trying to make music. It may take years of dedicated study but one day the mysteries of the violin reveal themselves and from then on he can play anything he wants to,



The beginning actor has similar struggles with voice, movement, actions, dynamics, objectives, learning to keep himself under control and faithfully represent the authors work. Along the way he may hear a lot of nonsense from directors, critics nd even other beginning actors. But one day it comes clear, he's reached the mountain top and can go comfortably out on the stage being not only entertaining but believable. Then he will say "Acting is simple, but it's not easy."

***********************

Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

-------------------

Never Give Up

***************************



.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Say Yes

We may consider him who is hardened to all sorts of events as a happier man than the one who takes all the joy out of living by looking only on the bleak side of life.


(Immanuel Kant)

*************************

Hello Stuart

**************************

One of life's mysteries is why some people enjoy the good things of life who haven't really put much of themselves into it, while others who may have spent much of themselves living and helping others to live never have a full cup. Nature knows nothing about equal rights.



We have all been knocked about, pushed over, had the floor disappear from under us, been lied to, betrayed and beaten up, some of us more than others. But even the most successful and healthy men and women have something to complain about if they want to. There are many temptations lurking in the mental and emotional alleys to do harmful things to ourselves and others. If we are wise we resist them.



One of the worst temptations and one of the most dangerous because it's popular and seems so innocuous is the desire to think and speak negatively about life. Things are not 100% right. So what? Why dwell on them? Set them right, if you can. If you can't, forget it and get on with life.



Negativism is a form of theft. By thinking and acting on the dark side of human experience we rob ourselves and other of the spirit of life,the enthusiasm,the expectation of good. We look for the trash instead of the beauty. We live with the torn fabric, the leaky faucet, the lost opportunities, the regrets, because we think it's reality to do that. We rob others because we make sure to notice and comment on their flaws and faults. It helps us to ignore our own. And the big crime is that a negative thinker will probably not see an opportunity to do good things, to improve life, to set things right.



I recently read a story about an Army Chaplain whose duties were consoling the relatives of the men and women who were returning from Iraq dead or maimed. On a daily basis he faced extreme cases of grief, resentment, rage and horror stories from the physically and emotionally wounded. Because he refused to be tempted into darkness, he found the compassion and the words to help those people reach a place of peace and acceptance..And he was commended for it by his superiors.



The real heroes of the world are those who carry the cross of healing on their shoulders, who make room for joy, who plant seeds of renewal, who deem possible the dreams of others and who say "no" to the no and "yes" to the yes.

****************************

Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

Never Give Up

*****************************

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

TAKE A BOW

Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.


(Aristotle)

*********************

Hello Geo

*********************

I enjoy the fact that when a player hits a home run into the stands in order to make the run count he must circle the infield touching each base before he crosses the home plate. His teammates are waiting for him for hugs and slaps, but all the way around he gets to hear the cheering crowd. It's one huge curtain call.



As an actor whenever I gave an exceptionally good performance I knew it, and the audience knew it. The applause at the end was like beautiful music to me. I felt not only approved of and accepted but also honored.



There may be no such thing as a perfect game or a perfect performance but there are excellent ones. And there is excellence in many arenas of life and human activity and when it occurs it should be acknowledged and honored.



But often it isn't. And when we don't get the cheers, applause, reimbursement, trophy, gold medal, blue ribbon,thank you note or handshake that we know we deserve, it's the time to look into ourselves to find the real reward, the knowledge of our own worth.



There is a difficult step to take from the approval of the crowd to the aloneness of realizing and appreciating ourselves in spite of all the things we know that are wrong about us. Insufficiency, disappointment, regret, dissatisfaction,loss, in short, failures, are just the shadows cast by the gold medal moments when we did something right and did it splendidly. Listen to the silent crowd and take a bow..

*****************************

Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

Never Give Up

***********************

Monday, April 1, 2013

No Fooling

We should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.


Friedrich Nietzsche

********************

Hello Diane

********************

Well, it's April Fools Day. Yes it is. And of the most sacred rituals of being the April Fool is the act of unconscious rebellion. Why bother to do things right, as you are supposed to, as all your friends and neighbors do them, when with a little mindless imagination you can make a mess of things and perhaps win a blue ribbon for foolishness?



May I suggest the following evvents to ensure a day of glee and folly.



Spoon the oats into the coffee maker and put the coffee grounds in a bowl with milk and sugar.



When you crack the eggs, drop the yokes in the sink and put the shells in the mixing bowl.



Feed the timer and wind up the cat.



Wash your shoes and polish you socks.



Drive the dog to school and take the kids to the vet.



Throw out the groceries and carefully put the garbage away in the selves and fridge.



Water the driveway and sweep the lawn.



Fuel up the tires and put some air in the tank.



Put the newspaper in the washing machine a read your dishes.



Wash your teeth and brush your face.



Turn on all the lights and go to bed.

***********************************

DB - Vagabond Journeys

Never Give Up

************************************