Home Of The Brave

Live simply and deliberately.

Unknown
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While the humble worm goes about it's business preparing the dirt to grow crops the small flower lifts it's face to the sun from the patch of dirt next to the telephone pole down the street.

This is who I am, and this is what I do, and I do it proudly and deliberately.

I want to write today about bravery. I know courage and bravery are synonyms, but they have different meanings to me.

Next to where I used to live in New York City they were constructing an apartment building of about 40 stories. One day, while it was still under construction, a fire broke out on the top. Pieces of burning wood were being blown off down to the street below. The builders had reached to about the 25th floor. The only way the fire fighters could get to the fire was by the construction elevator on the side of the building. That elevator went two or three stories above the fire. I watched as the fire fighters jumped one by one directly down into the fire, not knowing what they were going to land on if anything. That's courage. There were no injuries and the fire was quickly put out.

Bravery to me means not knowing if one will ever face that sort of danger but deciding to become a fire fighter in the first place. Bravery, to me, is being willing to stand up to whatever comes. Courage is standing up to it.

My life is fairly simple today. I don't have any poorly written scripts, prima donnas, difficult directors or hostile audiences to put up with. I like it. I like the simple life. I wish it were simpler.

I think bravery is also a matter of hope, trust, faith. The worm goes about it's business trusting that it's not going to be dug up and speared on some fish hook. The flower goes on trusting that it won't be stomped on my some careless boot wearing pedestrian. This is who I am, this is what I do and I do it proudly and deliberately.

I was just talking with my friend Marty about how important it is to know who we are, to accept who we are and to be who we are without anxiety, shame or regret. I think to simplify one's life to the important things is the answer to a happy life, even if some of those things might be dangerous. The trivial things are always there to be done but if I can wake up in the morning knowing that what I'm really going to do today is what I want to do more than anything else then nothing else matters.

I can recall several times in my life when I came off the stage after a successful and satisfying performance saying "I love this. I love this more than life itself."

To save lives, to put the fires out, to capture the hill from the enemy takes courage. To live up to the best expectations and standards of who we are, doing what we do with faith, trust, hope and deliberation, that takes bravery.
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Never give up.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
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SUMMER QUESTION

It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you.

Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

7 answers so far.

You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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WEEKEND PUZZLE
(It's easy.)

What do the following names have in common?
For extra points, identify them.
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Beethoven
Champion
C3PO
Ed
Hal
Lassie
Louie
Ollie
Scout
Toto
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dbdacoba@aol.com

Good luck.
DB
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,

Real Age

One can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things and happy in small ways.

Edith Wharton
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Hello Agra India
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Though I often read what others had to say about agedness I never really understood it until I stepped onto the gently moving carousel of soup and meatloaf, gray hair and tender feet myself.

Those of us who have passed the age of so called "usefulness" have become experts at adjustment, adaptation and courage. We learn to accept a changing world which is changing faster than it did when we first thought it was changing too fast. I get a lot of spam offering to introduce me to seniors in my area. I have no trouble meeting seniors if I want to, without any help. It's younger people I want to meet because it is they who have the energy and vision that are making the changes happen.

We may not go disco dancing, jogging in the park or bounding up a flight of stairs, but we will get to the top of the stairs in our own good time, however we have to, if what we want is up there.

We have developed the courage to deal with an uncooperative body and an uncaring world. We have made many sacrifices and have learned to make them gracefully. And we have grown to know that the most important sacrifices are not things but attitudes, beliefs and false ideas.

We can appreciate the benefits of slowing down, of exploring new ideas, of gasping in delight at the grandeur of the world and savoring the sweet melody of a single flower. And if we are fortunate to have children around us we can see that life is continuous.

My friend down the street has a daughter with three children, and her mother is still alive. On Mothers Day they all got together and went to an amusement park where they all had a lot of fun, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, three generations of mothers. How about that?

As some wise person once said "Don't complain about growing old, it's a privilege denied to many."

DB - The Vagabond
(Never give up)
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

Come on. 11 diverse and interesting answers so far. Where's yours?

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

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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