The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
Thomas Paine
*****************
Helllo Val
*****************
Tuesday I went for a long walk, to and fro. I had some errands and some shopping to do. On the way back I was pulling a shopping cart full of groceries and other sundries. (You are realy fascinated with this essay, aren't you?)
My feet and my legs cooperated with me the whole way. The last step on the journey was hauling the shopping cart up the stairs. When I got here I was exhausted. (Now you're really intrigued, admit it. Wait, it gets better.)
A month or so ago I couldn't walk at all except on crutches. That made shopping a very tricky business. If I went a short distance I could take the shopping cart and one crutch. If I had to go a greater distance it was both crutches and my back pack. (I hope you're taking notes, or saving this on your little iPad, or whatever fiendish gadget you use.)
For several years my peregrination involved a cane and when I found I couldn't depend upon the cane is when I went to the crutches. (Got that?)
Even before the crutches came into my life some well meaning but misinformed friends set to work to fix me, by moving me into an old folks, assisted living, nursing home and trying to arrange for a new hip. One of them assured me I would soon be bed ridden. (Here's the wind up. Get ready for the pitch.)
I choose to live my life by the three words that appear at the bottom of this epic. (Don't scroll down yet. I'm not finished.) I decided that the answer to this particular conflict was to walk. True, someone was driving me around for a while until that person became someone I didn't want to know. But since then I've been basically on my own two feet, literally. (Are you with me?)
Then one day, about a month or so ago, I took the crutches but didn't use them. I carried them with me on a long walk, but never used them. The next day that I went out, I went without the crutches. It felt strange walking out without anything in my hand to lean on. No cane, no crutches. I was leaning on spirit.
(Here's the pitch.) My crutches are now in the corner. If I had a fire place they would be hanging above it, sort of like my own version of a stuffed moose head. I still have trouble walking but every time I take to the outside it gets easier. And that's how it is. We have more ability to face up to and achieve a triumph over the conflicts in our lives than we think we do. Whatever it is, the solution is already there, the answer is already there, the idea is already there, they simply have to be discovered. Don't fall prey to the temptation to believe that someone else can solve your problems, keep walking and do what it says at the bottom of this page.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
*************************
Showing posts with label Thomas Paine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thomas Paine. Show all posts
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
The Overhaul
Character is much easier kept than recovered.
Thomas Paine
**************************
Hello Diane
**************************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
The night is past. The past is the night.
************************************
Lately I've been thinking of doing a complete overhaul of myself. It's not something I particularly want to do but it seems to be a necessary activity every now and then at no special time. It's sort of like testing the structure of my house to see if it's still stress worthy and if not to replace the worn out brinks and beams, and to find out just how much of a peculiar person I have become.
For one thing I know that certain garments of good reputation have been cast off along the way. Reputation is almost a non entity in the life of a vagabond. It's as hard to define as grace. You can lose a reputation through a rumor or because you don't do what some people think you should do. Hence I don't worry about my reputation. If it means doors closed to me, so what, there's another door somewhere.
Character is another matter. It is only peripherally related to reputation. A person can have a lousy reputation and still have strength of character. Those who lack it, wimps and bullies, for example, have little idea of what a good character is made. But maybe they learn.
If one is fortunate enough to grow up with a good influence around them, the example of a good man or a good woman, building a character that is positive and harmonious is much easier. The rest of us have to work at it. It's a trial and error program of education.
Scraping through the ashes of one's past is a futile activity and I make repeated efforts to convince people not to do it. The only benefit to me is to uncover the echoes of things I did that let myself down, that tarnished my character. I call them echoes because they can only be real if they relate to the way I am and think and behave today. And that's where the overhauling comes in.
Self sacrifice should not mean turning over your whole life to take care of someone or something to the detriment of your own well being, not if love is involved. The best self sacrifice can mean giving up those ideas, beliefs, traits and habitual activities, some of which you may cherish but that are antagonistic to your own well being and those around you. That requires courage, discipline and a cold hard objective look at yourself.
Check the ground under your feet. Has any of it washed away? Check the bricks of your beliefs. Do any of them need to be replaced? Check the walls. Have you allowed any mental termites to get in? Check the staircase . Are your hopes and plans still sturdy? Check the roof. Are you safely protected from the storms of life?
So with the proper tools in hand, I hope, I've begun the overhaul to determine how much character I have left and to restore the rest. Wish me luck. (Good luck Vagabond.)
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
Thomas Paine
**************************
Hello Diane
**************************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
The night is past. The past is the night.
************************************
Lately I've been thinking of doing a complete overhaul of myself. It's not something I particularly want to do but it seems to be a necessary activity every now and then at no special time. It's sort of like testing the structure of my house to see if it's still stress worthy and if not to replace the worn out brinks and beams, and to find out just how much of a peculiar person I have become.
For one thing I know that certain garments of good reputation have been cast off along the way. Reputation is almost a non entity in the life of a vagabond. It's as hard to define as grace. You can lose a reputation through a rumor or because you don't do what some people think you should do. Hence I don't worry about my reputation. If it means doors closed to me, so what, there's another door somewhere.
Character is another matter. It is only peripherally related to reputation. A person can have a lousy reputation and still have strength of character. Those who lack it, wimps and bullies, for example, have little idea of what a good character is made. But maybe they learn.
If one is fortunate enough to grow up with a good influence around them, the example of a good man or a good woman, building a character that is positive and harmonious is much easier. The rest of us have to work at it. It's a trial and error program of education.
Scraping through the ashes of one's past is a futile activity and I make repeated efforts to convince people not to do it. The only benefit to me is to uncover the echoes of things I did that let myself down, that tarnished my character. I call them echoes because they can only be real if they relate to the way I am and think and behave today. And that's where the overhauling comes in.
Self sacrifice should not mean turning over your whole life to take care of someone or something to the detriment of your own well being, not if love is involved. The best self sacrifice can mean giving up those ideas, beliefs, traits and habitual activities, some of which you may cherish but that are antagonistic to your own well being and those around you. That requires courage, discipline and a cold hard objective look at yourself.
Check the ground under your feet. Has any of it washed away? Check the bricks of your beliefs. Do any of them need to be replaced? Check the walls. Have you allowed any mental termites to get in? Check the staircase . Are your hopes and plans still sturdy? Check the roof. Are you safely protected from the storms of life?
So with the proper tools in hand, I hope, I've begun the overhaul to determine how much character I have left and to restore the rest. Wish me luck. (Good luck Vagabond.)
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
Monday, October 10, 2011
In The Sand
When men yield up the privilege of thinking. the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
Thomas Paine
*******************
Hello Ken
*******************
I am a difficult man. I insist on thinking for myself and I expect everyone else to do the same. I want people to do the things they can't do and find the thoughts they don't know they have yet. False hopes?
My friend Ernie and I used to play war games. Not out in the back yard with clubs and stones, but huddled respectfully over a paper map, moving little pieces of cardboard around and throwing the dice. One of those games was about tank warfare in the desert. I got to hide tanks in the sand, only noting on a piece of paper their exact location. When he tried to cross the desert a tank would only make it's appearance when one of his pieces came with firing range. Then the fight was on. On the other had he could successfully cross the playing field and never discover any of my tanks. But if I placed my tanks in strategically appropriate places that wasn't likely.
For a year I worked for a theatre company that performed short plays followed by discussions for schools in and around the Washington, DC area. For one of the plays I had written a musical score, which generated a lot of discussion pro and con. After one performance a young fellow came up to me as we were packing up to leave. He told me what he thought the music meant and then said that he was probably wrong because he was a level so-and-so student and couldn't understand those things.
I was enraged. I stepped off the stage, went over to him and told him that his critique of my music was right on the mark and never to let anyone tell him he couldn't understand something. Or, I said, let them tell you but ignore them. Imagine a school in America trying to put a lid on some young person's head by telling him he is incapable of understanding something and thinking for himself. Whoever did that should be arrested and jailed.
"I can't do something." Yes you can, you just don't know it yet.
There is a bottomless well of wisdom already existing in the human mind. Most of the time we are not conscious of it. But when we focus our thinking on a problem or question the thoughts that come up in the ladle are part of that universe of knowledge. We wonder where those thoughts came from. They may take us by surprise, but they were always there, hidden in the sand, waiting to be discovered.
I say dip the bucket into that well everyday and find out what you know. These days it's more than a "privilege," it's an obligation.
Dana Bate
Your Loving Vagabond
Never Give up
**************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Only 3 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I await your answers.
DB
********************
Thomas Paine
*******************
Hello Ken
*******************
I am a difficult man. I insist on thinking for myself and I expect everyone else to do the same. I want people to do the things they can't do and find the thoughts they don't know they have yet. False hopes?
My friend Ernie and I used to play war games. Not out in the back yard with clubs and stones, but huddled respectfully over a paper map, moving little pieces of cardboard around and throwing the dice. One of those games was about tank warfare in the desert. I got to hide tanks in the sand, only noting on a piece of paper their exact location. When he tried to cross the desert a tank would only make it's appearance when one of his pieces came with firing range. Then the fight was on. On the other had he could successfully cross the playing field and never discover any of my tanks. But if I placed my tanks in strategically appropriate places that wasn't likely.
For a year I worked for a theatre company that performed short plays followed by discussions for schools in and around the Washington, DC area. For one of the plays I had written a musical score, which generated a lot of discussion pro and con. After one performance a young fellow came up to me as we were packing up to leave. He told me what he thought the music meant and then said that he was probably wrong because he was a level so-and-so student and couldn't understand those things.
I was enraged. I stepped off the stage, went over to him and told him that his critique of my music was right on the mark and never to let anyone tell him he couldn't understand something. Or, I said, let them tell you but ignore them. Imagine a school in America trying to put a lid on some young person's head by telling him he is incapable of understanding something and thinking for himself. Whoever did that should be arrested and jailed.
"I can't do something." Yes you can, you just don't know it yet.
There is a bottomless well of wisdom already existing in the human mind. Most of the time we are not conscious of it. But when we focus our thinking on a problem or question the thoughts that come up in the ladle are part of that universe of knowledge. We wonder where those thoughts came from. They may take us by surprise, but they were always there, hidden in the sand, waiting to be discovered.
I say dip the bucket into that well everyday and find out what you know. These days it's more than a "privilege," it's an obligation.
Dana Bate
Your Loving Vagabond
Never Give up
**************************
AUTUMN QUESTION
What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?
Only 3 answers so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
I await your answers.
DB
********************
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Precocious Prophecy 5/17/09
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
Thomas Paine
*****************
Come in, make yourself comfortable.
----------------------
A band leader once said "No matter what tune you play someone will come out to dance." Sometimes I wonder how people get set up as teachers. I have written about Mr. O'Conner, my elementary school science teacher, who, when in my 11 year old enthusiasm and interest in the solar system said that I would like to go to the moon, scornfully said "Don't be ridiculous. Man can never go to the moon." I bet if I hung out a sign offering instruction in something I don't know anything about, someone would come knocking at my door to sign up.
Yesterday I spent a few hours watching the astronauts repairing the Hubble telescope. It still amazes me how far we have come in space technology since Mr. O'Conner's faulty, authoritative pronouncement of "scientific fact."
Another thing I note with astonishment is, after all the comings and goings of earth life, the societies, the governments, the tribes and nations, wars and trade, the history books and artifacts collected and gathered into museums, we still know very little about this place we live on, this globe floating around in space for no apparent reason. We live on one tiny, insignificant speck on the nose of the universe and Hubble keeps giving us more and more information of the immeasurable vastness of it all. But there is still something else even more amazing.
When Mr. O'Conner gave forth with his "expert opinion" man had never been to the moon, yet. During the NASA program there was a lecture about the plans to put astronauts on Mars; 6 months to get there, 6 months to poke around, 6 months to get back. Considering the starscapes presented to us by Hubble, a trip to Mars seems like a baby step. And so it is.
There are those who think all this space exploration is a total waste of time, money and resources. Those are the same people who did not wish to precede Thomas Paine and his friends. But those who did, did begin the world over again: two new continents, a new story and a new way of life. As Margaret Thatcher said, America was built on philosophy.
Is there life on Mars? It's likely, in some form. Is there intelligent life in our solar system or in some distant galaxy? Most probably. And that means we are citizens of the universe. It means our world is now part of a larger society, a grander civilization than we have known. Our world is much larger than it has ever been. It's a new world, begun all over again.
In 1959 my girl friend and I went to a Dave Brubeck concert at the Revere Beach outdoor stadium outside of Boston. While listening to "Take Five" I leaned back and stared up at the clear night sky and saw a slowly moving star. It was Sputnik. orbiting overhead. Sputnik's successful journey began the world all over again with one small baby step.
Ii is in our power to begin the world over again, every day.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
_____________________
You have a happy Sunday now, your hear me?
*****************************
Thomas Paine
*****************
Come in, make yourself comfortable.
----------------------
A band leader once said "No matter what tune you play someone will come out to dance." Sometimes I wonder how people get set up as teachers. I have written about Mr. O'Conner, my elementary school science teacher, who, when in my 11 year old enthusiasm and interest in the solar system said that I would like to go to the moon, scornfully said "Don't be ridiculous. Man can never go to the moon." I bet if I hung out a sign offering instruction in something I don't know anything about, someone would come knocking at my door to sign up.
Yesterday I spent a few hours watching the astronauts repairing the Hubble telescope. It still amazes me how far we have come in space technology since Mr. O'Conner's faulty, authoritative pronouncement of "scientific fact."
Another thing I note with astonishment is, after all the comings and goings of earth life, the societies, the governments, the tribes and nations, wars and trade, the history books and artifacts collected and gathered into museums, we still know very little about this place we live on, this globe floating around in space for no apparent reason. We live on one tiny, insignificant speck on the nose of the universe and Hubble keeps giving us more and more information of the immeasurable vastness of it all. But there is still something else even more amazing.
When Mr. O'Conner gave forth with his "expert opinion" man had never been to the moon, yet. During the NASA program there was a lecture about the plans to put astronauts on Mars; 6 months to get there, 6 months to poke around, 6 months to get back. Considering the starscapes presented to us by Hubble, a trip to Mars seems like a baby step. And so it is.
There are those who think all this space exploration is a total waste of time, money and resources. Those are the same people who did not wish to precede Thomas Paine and his friends. But those who did, did begin the world over again: two new continents, a new story and a new way of life. As Margaret Thatcher said, America was built on philosophy.
Is there life on Mars? It's likely, in some form. Is there intelligent life in our solar system or in some distant galaxy? Most probably. And that means we are citizens of the universe. It means our world is now part of a larger society, a grander civilization than we have known. Our world is much larger than it has ever been. It's a new world, begun all over again.
In 1959 my girl friend and I went to a Dave Brubeck concert at the Revere Beach outdoor stadium outside of Boston. While listening to "Take Five" I leaned back and stared up at the clear night sky and saw a slowly moving star. It was Sputnik. orbiting overhead. Sputnik's successful journey began the world all over again with one small baby step.
Ii is in our power to begin the world over again, every day.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
_____________________
You have a happy Sunday now, your hear me?
*****************************
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