Gettiing It Wrong

Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.

Sophia Loren
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"What ho, Mrs Brisket,
Why not take a plunge and risk it."

Watch your step. But keep walking.

Watch your back. But don't turn around and go that way.

Watch your mouth. But don't be afraid to speak up.

So what if you make a mistake? So what if you screw something up? Join the human race.

Mistakes are good things, they're blessings. Why? Because they are filled with lessons. They are sudden gusts of knowledge through the brain, slippery ice under the feet of our certainty. Mistakes are the things that grab us and fling us forward into a better understanding of who we are and what we're doing.

I was just talking to my fried Marty and saying that in this entry I could recite a catalogue of my mistakes. But I don't want to. That would just depress me and then depress you. It is much better to recite the lessons learned. And even better to describe the positive results of those lessons.

To not take things for granted is to be open to exploring all the facets of whatever I come across. To not judge anyone or anything just by appearances is to discover hidden values. To acknowledge my mistake and take it's lesson to heart is to be thrust forward into a greater, higher place in my own thinking. To refuse to accept the claim of my own limitations imposed on me by my errors is to yearn and strive for a limitless life.

To risk taking the plunge in any of life's adventures is to risk getting my feet wet in the mud puddle I didn't see. It's to risk stubbing my toe, bumping my head and slipping on the ice. But the adventure of a full life is worth the risk.

Some mistakes loom very large in one's history. They may cause deep regrets and years of repair. Those require time and space in our lives. But the learning is even more valuable and needed as we become better, more fulfilled creatures.

I think my errors should be put into a box. They've had their day, and paid their way. I will put the box into the closet, close the door, forgive myself and get on with my full life.

DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
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SUMMER QUESTION

Summer is moving along, people.

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

15 answers so far.

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

DB

Wing Flapping

If I had to live my life again I'd make the same mistakes only sooner.

Tallulah Bankhead
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Yesterday afternoon I heard a rattling sound coming from the other room. I went in and found one of the finches on the window sill trying to get out. It had come in through the open door to look around and then taken the wrong way out. It could see the outdoors but couldn't get to it through the closed window. I finally managed to pick it up, felt it's little heart pounding with a panic, carried it to the open door which wasn't far away and let it go. Of course it took off like a bullet.

Wouldn't it be great if there was some benevolent giant who would pick us up and put us down in the right place when we stray from the path and get lost?

Sure, we learn from our mistakes. So it's not a bad idea to get them all over and done with as early in life as we can. But there is no point in believing that since you are older and wiser there are no more mistakes to be made and from now on you can live a flawless life free of erroneous behavior.

There are always mistakes to be made, and the influences to make those mistakes sit, wait and watch like gargoyles on the edges of our minds. Looking for the opportunity, when we have an important choice to make, they fly down and flutter about until we are confused and end up making the wrong move.

The easiest thing to do in life is to make a mistake. There is only one right answer, there are a hundred wrong ones. When all the figures are added up correctly there is only one right balance on the books. There is only one bulls eye on the target.

So what's the solution to the problem? I don't think there is one, except being careful, reasoning things through and getting good advice, if possible. If I knew how to avoid mistakes I would be one of those perfect, errorless humans I can only fantasize myself being. In truth I am flapping my wings against my own wrong choices, like everybody else.

DB - The Vagabond
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Summer Is A Comin' In
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

Come on. 12 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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