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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,

Basic Bravery

Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring.

Henry Miller
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I know an actor who is moderately well trained though lacking in certain bits of essential instruction. But he has talent. I have performed with him a couple of times. He has a regular office job, working from midnight to the morning. He does shows, now and then, on a very temporary basis, but he would rather be sleep deprived than to give up his job and pursue a career as an actor. He is frankly frightened of the insecurity. One day I tried to encourage him by showing him that even with my vagabond life my yearly income was approximately the same as his and thanks to the union my health and retirement benefits were the same.

So what was the difference? He always knew he had a job and I usually didn't know where my next job was coming from. He made the same amount of money each week while my salary varied depending on the job. He was afraid of being out of work. I could and did take temp work if times were slow. He grew up in a secure middle class family. I grew up in a economically depressed situation where we had to move all the time. I ask myself if any of those issues were really the cause of his reticence at taking the plunge into a career he trained himself for. I don't think so.

He was once let go from a job when an entire department was cleaned out. He lived for a year on unemployment and dabbled in theatre and when the unemployment ran out he got another steady job. Circumstances gave him a chance to get going and he didn't take it.

He once said that every time he thought about leaving his job and trying to start a career it gave him a knot in his stomach. Of course. That's the knot of fear we all experience when we have to face something fearful and uncertain. I have faced things like that many times. I have compassion for anyone who feels that knot, but it is not an excuse to hide and deny oneself the rewards of facing it down and living a life doing what one loves.

A career in the arts is a very big and complicated thing. In the acting world there are many facets, opportunities and requirements. To make a life out of it means not limiting oneself. To go from having a tomato patch in the back yard to suddenly being responsible for a 40 acre farm would be an intimidating thing for sure. It takes courage.

If my friend the actor took assessment of himself and saw his strengths, he's young and strong, good looking, intelligent and talented, has no family to support, he would see what he had to offer and how to sell himself. The one thing he lacks is courage, and that will keep him from the life he could have and will deprive the world of the results of his artistry.

Someone I know recently criticized me for not having the courage to stop and give up. "Be brave" she said. I laughed. It takes courage not to give up. It doesn't take super intelligence to know that.

To live a full and successful life it seems to me one has to face the fear and the stresses and go for it. We need the daring of Hannibal to take our elephants across the Alps and attack Rome, the daring of Washington to move our army across the freezing Delaware in the middle of the night to liberate Trenton. the daring of Eisenhower to invade the beaches of France to cut off the German Army. Life is no part time business.

A few years ago I was asked to play Zorba in the musical. Everything said I shouldn't do it. I'm not a singer, I'm not a dancer and I don't do musicals. So naturally I said "yes." I used to sit backstage 5 minutes before the curtain and wonder how I was going to get through it, even though I had done it the night before. It was a huge role, like running up a mountain with a pack of elephants. I was frightened. I had a knot in my stomach. But the music would start, I would go out and throw myself into it. If I still had the knot in my stomach I wasn't conscious of it. 2 hours later I had done the job. If you do the thing you fear you destroy the fear.

To be brave, to have courage, to dare sometimes feels like we're shaking our fist at destiny, but if we take the risk and strive for the results nature itself can come forth with forces to assist us. "Whoever strove to show her merit that did miss her love" Shakespeare wrote.

DB - The Vagabond
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New Improved Weekend Puzzle

Straighten out these titles please.

AABIILRS

AAOTTW

ACEEGHNNOP

AEHNST

AEIJKKRVY

AGHINNOSTW

AIPRS

BDILNU

CHKLMOOST

DLNNOO

EHIIKLNS

EMOR

(dgoo cklu)
DB
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