Amazing Things

Life never becomes a habit to me. It's always a marvel.

Katherine Mansfield
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Hello Val
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"Watchman, tell us of the night."
Last night they took away the fair.
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I think it was Yogi Berra who said "You can see a lot of things by looking." I have seen many amazing things by being alert and watching. I am particularly fascinated to see people do things I don't know how to do or wouldn't do. I watched a crew of fire fighters in New York City jump blindly down into a blazing fire because it was the only access to it.

I watched a Hudson River tug boat captain tuck nine barges in three rows of three neatly in between two piers at the first try against the currents.

One winter morning in New Hampshire I discovered a flat tire on my car, which was a big Ford Station Wagon. I called my friends at Bob and Bill's Chevron station. Bob came over with his jack. Bob was a big, silent bear of a man. There was snow all over and underneath the car, so much snow that he couldn't fit the jack under it. So he reached down with one hand to the side of the car and lifted it up to put the jack under it.

For the past week the Saint Ann's annual carnival has been going on just outside my apartment. The largest attraction was a giant slide 2 stories high and a city block long. It was very popular and the kids were sliding down it all evening.

It was a dark night last night. The carnival closed and all the rides and games were taken down, packed up and moved away. It took four men to dismantle that slide, put all the parts where they were stored and get it ready to move. A specially designed truck came up and attached itself to the end of the slide. The driver then pulled forward about 50 feet. Then he backed up, slowly, with the four men as guides, and maneuvered it between a fence and a fire hydrant, on to a street where cars were parked on both sides. He took it out backwards and then drove off. The whole thing, from beginning the dismantling to the driving away, took 3 hours. It was amazing. I was so impressed I was speechless. I was in awe of that truck driver.

I hope I never stop seeing marvels happen..

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.

Catcher In the Wry

If you don't know where you're going you'll end up someplace else.

Yogi Berra
(Thank you Jim)
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Hello Bechar, Algeria. The Vagabond wishes you great prosperity.
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Some people are always ready to laugh at Yogi Berra as if he was a clown. because of some of the funny things he says, such as, "It's like deja-vu, all over again."

But Yogi Berra was catcher for the New York Yankees for many years. He was an excellent ball player and when I lived in New York and was a Yankee fan he was a hero of mine, as he was for many New Yorkers.

Yogi was a good catcher, one of the best. A catcher has to deal with every pitcher on the team and every player that comes to bat. He has to know their strengths and weaknesses. It's not a job for a clown.

He was also a good hitter. The story goes that when he tried out for the Yankees he stepped up to bat and the pitcher threw a ball that went wide of the batter's box. Berra didn't bother to let it pass. He stepped across the plate and smacked it into the outfield anyway.

He said "I never blame myself when I'm not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn't my fault that I'm not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?"

Here are some of his other observation about baseball.

"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."

"If people don't want to come out to the ball park, nobody's gonna stop 'em."

"I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house."

Yogi Berra was also an astute social commentator.

"It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much."

"I just want to thank everyone who made this day necessary."

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

"There are some people who, if they don't already know, you can't tell 'em."

His understanding of himself was clear and candid.

"I never said most of the things I said."

"If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer."

His general advice to the world at large was just as clear and wise, if you consider the real meaning behind the unusual verbiage.

"You can observe a lot by just watching."

"If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

And, of course, the famous "It ain't over till it's over."

But of all the Yogisms my favorite is this one of undisputable clear headed logic and wisdom:

"The future ain't what it used to be."

Thank you Yogi.
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DB - The Vagabond
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

4 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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Who's Watching?

You can see a lot from looking.

Yogi Berra
(Thank you Bruce.)
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Okay, Yogi, why don't we observe things? Why do we pass through life barely paying any attention to the world around us? What a waste of eye sight. Many remarkable things happen which no one notices.

Everywhere one of my neighbors goes he stares at the sidewalk in front of him. An angel could fly over his head he wouldn't know it.

Part of an actor's training is a very difficult observation exercise. A row of chairs is set up and filled with students. Another student observes them for a minute or two then turns his back. Those in the chairs rearrange themselves and take different poses. Then the student turns around and has to restore everyone to their original positions and poses. It is much more difficult than it seems at first and teaches the student to be very careful how he looks at things.

All during the actors life he will observe people. Observing people is an enjoyable experience for most everryone but for the actor it's also work. One never knows when a simple action a person may make will become something the fills out and compliments an entire role.

Some things that people do are automatic. When a man enters a room wearing a hat, if he takes it off he may straighten out the hair on the side of his head. When a woman sits down wearing a skirt or dress she generally scoops her hands under her backside to straighten out the skirt so it won't bunch up or wrinkle. I saw a woman do that once even though she was wearing slacks and didn't need to. It was automatic.

We do those automatic gestures on stage but we do them purposely. We make them look automatic so you will believe us. That way we help to add dimension and reality to the role.

And when not on the stage? When I was in shape I used to know how many tables there were behind me in a restaurant and how many diners there were at them, how many lamp posts there were between my home and where I worked and how many steps there were on the back stairs, a good thing to know when they were covered with snow.

One evening at Christmastime I was traveling back here from New York City. A man got on with three large bags. He put two of them overhead in the rack, but there wasn't room for the third one there so he put it up in another place. I was sitting two rows behind him with my backpack next to me. He may have been nodding off but he wasn't ready when the train reached his destination. The train had stopped and was about to leave the station when he realized where he was He jumped up and grabbed the two bags over his head and started down the aisle toward the door. In his rush he had forgotten the third one.

I was evidently the only one who had noticed where he put that bag. I got up and called to him about it. He turned and started back but I told him to get to the door and keep the train from leaving and I would bring the bag. I did and he told me the bag was full of the Christmas gifts for his kids. He was very grateful. He got off the train with everything.

When I got back to my seat there was a man sitting in it. As I approached he stood up and said "I sat here so no one would steal your backpack." I thanked him and he went back to his seat. Two people being alert, looking and seeing things saved a lot of property.

DB
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Becoming Breakthrough 5/02/09

The best way to outlive your past is to start living your future.

DB - The Vagabond
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Hail. Some people, including myself, have had trouble getting into my journal. It seems to come and go, like phases of the moon. "Try again later" as AOL is fond of saying. It's apparently working right now. I don't know what made it work but I suspect it was because I marinated the modem in some high class Japanese saki.
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Outliving the past. Yes. This is a topic I've been pondering for some time now. The memories keep stacking up. Mine come to me randomly, like a shuffled deck of cards; my loves, my successes, my failures, my regrets. It's very easy, if you are a crotchety old curmudgeon like me, to say "Well, most of my life has been lived." When, in fact, a lot of time has been spent either living your life or not living it. That's all.

That one cannot predict the future is no reason not to live in the present and look forward.to it. I simply want to do the things that my meager income and my physical infirmaries allow me to do and I don't care how much time I have left to do them. In writing this journal I often cite things in my past, but I think and I hope it is a healthy exercise, for a couple of related reasons. One is that it enables me to think back at those events and draw the values from them. And the other is that I can use the lessons learned and the observations made to illustrate some important point (or, at least, one that I consider important) for me and others. But, at the same time, writing is an act of pure futurism. It is something that I give out to the world to see tomorrow, or a year from tomorrow, or whenever, if ever.

Circumstance don't allow me to be a performer any more, unless miracles take place, but that doesn't mean life is over. You took a journey to someplace, and when you got there it wasn't where you thought you'd be? So what? Look around and see what there is to do and enjoy it.

As Yogi Berra so eloquently put it "The future ain't what it used to be." So toss out the "used to bes" and live it up, boys and girls. There are still a lot of mistakes to be made and successes to be achieved.

Yours truly.
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Sudsy blessings to you.
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SPRING QUIZ

THIS IS NOT A CONTEST

What do you think was the most important event of 2008? and

What was the most significant event in your life last year?

You have all Spring to answer if you wish.

15 responses so far.

Leave answers on my email dbdacoba@aol.com or on my journal
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/. Thank you. DB