Man Alone

If you can mentally separate solitude from loneliness today, your time alone will seem alive with possibility.

Unknown
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Hello Arkene
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There is a big difference between aloneness and loneliness. I've lived alone now for almost 15 years. I often wish I had some companionship, particularly of the female persuasion. But since I am not vigorously pursuing it, or even passively pursuing it, I guess it's not that vital to me.

The fact is I keep excellent company with myself. I agree with almost everything I say. I don't bitch at myself for leaving my dirty socks on the floor. And when I come through the door everyone here is glad to see me.

One sad part is that since I don't have anyone to talk to, I talk to myself. Out loud. And since I've grown used to talking to myself I've caught myself doing it in public. So now I am giving the impression of a harmless old coot sitting on a bench mumbling to himself.

One happy part of aloneness is the absence of interruptions. My head is full of ideas, most of which I can do nothing about confined as I am with serious lack of abundant income, unable to transport myself easily and living in an area seriously arid of any cultural activity. But there are some ideas growing up out of the top of my kitchen table which can grab my interest with a fist and set me to working something out, whether a painting, a story or a blog entry. My time is my own, it belongs to me and my muse, my angel of inspiration.

Life is a grand puzzle. I've tried throwing away the pieces in the past, but, no good, they won't go away. Now I cherish them. Each time I put two pieces together I'm delighted. That I have no one to show it to is frustrating. But I know it's a puzzle with an infinite number of pieces and if someone else joins a few pieces and they fit with mine, very good. And if they don't both of our lives are enriched anyway.

In my solitude lands are explored, discoveries are made, mysteries unfold, principles are learned, knowledge grows, wells are filled, stars are captured, majesty is revealed and possibilities are endless.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.

Tinker Time

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.

Thomas Edison
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Hello Batumi Georgia
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What are you waiting for? The inspiration you are waiting for is waiting for you. But you have to summon it from out of the back room where it's been resting up from the summer heat.

I think it was Somerset Maugham who said that if you want to be a writer you have to write everyday, even if it's only your name. Good advice. It gets your hands on the pen or the keyboard and puts letters and words together.

Are you a musician? Then sit down at the piano and play some chords. Put the mouthpiece in and play a C# minor scale, (watch out, it has a B# in it). Tune the violin or the guitar.

Are you a painter? Clean your brushes, or take a piece of paper and draw a line, not one of those dumb paisley lines, but a real line that starts somewhere, curves off into the universe and returns.

Are you a dancer? Grab the back of the chair and start your plies, then lift and see where that foot is pointing.

Are you a cook? Open a cook book, read a few recipes and contemplate something different for the rice or the potato. Check through your spice rack.

Tinker with things. Push your tools around, reorganize your shelf, wash your dishes, give the dog a bath, go for a walk, take a shower. Waiting is a dynamic activity. Sooner or later something is going to walk out of that back room and into your life, and you will be prepared for it.

There's the story about Cole Porter who was thrown from his horse while out riding. His leg was broken but he crawled over to a stone wall and worked on some of the lyrics to one of his songs while he was waiting to be rescued..

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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The Faith Of Nachshon

Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.

Pablo Picasso
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No matter what we do there is some degree of inspiration necessary and connected to it. But sometimes gaining that inspiration is a major test of faith.

According to the Zohar, a centuries old document of Jewish lore and Biblical interpretation, The Red Sea did not part until a man named Nachshon walked into it. Though nothing happened at first he didn't turn back but walked on with absolute certainty. When he reached the danger point and the water was up to his neck, the sea parted for the Israelites.

The point of this story is clear. We have to make the effort if we want to achieve the result and we have to have the certainty that there is inspiration to be had from our efforts. Simply put it's the old saying "God helps those who help themselves."

Considering the circumstances Nachshom obviously saw that crossing The Red Sea was their only alternative, so he set to it. Whether we are writing a novel, painting a picture, designing a building, raising a barn, financing a project or solving a scientific problem there are solutions that we haven't found yet and maybe don't even know are there.

I have noticed this to be true so many times in my life that I have come to have the faith of a Nochshon about many things. I stare at the problems confronting me and I despair and give up, for a moment. But then I pick up a pen or a brush, or I sit down at the keyboard and set to it. It is almost miraculous sometimes what happens, a parting of the waters. Where did that inspiration come from? Where did those answers emerge from? How did that happen?

I don't know. I just keep walking to the other side of it. All I know is that it found me working.

DB - The Vagabond
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WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Given the resources and opportunity, what one thing do you want to do in 2010 that you've never done before.

You have all Winter to answer. Answers will be posted on the first day of Spring.
20 responses so far.

DB - The Vagabond

Mind's Halftime

There is an unlimited universe of mentality about which most of us know almost nothing.

DB - The Vagabond
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One day, years ago, I was talking with a commercial airline pilot. He spoke of the difficulties of piloting a plane, particularly a large commercial jet. He said that the taking off and landing procedures were tricky maneuvers, especially landing. I asked him why landing was more difficult than taking off or flying. He explained that the aircraft was designed to fly. Flying is something it does very well. When you land it you are coaxing it to do something it wasn't necessarily designed to do.

It was in the 40's here today. For the first time in many days I could open the window and let some fresh air into my apartment. Relieving my stuffy apartment reminded me at how stuffed up my mind can get sometimes. My mind was designed to think, not to stop thinking. But sometimes I want to blow the whistle and say "Time out. Halftime. Stop!"

In the intellectual race between the tortoise and the hare I am definitely the tortoise. I admire people who can quickly grasp a concept and start applying it. That's not me. I plod through books as if they were written in a language I only vaguely understand. I don't read books. I eat them.

But while digesting the morsels of information contained in the wide variety of literature I read I now and then come across something that could be called knowledge. "Ay, there's the rub." Whenever that happens my own mind kicks in and I start thinking (heaven forbid).

Knowledge comes to us in two ways. Most of us know what we know because it was passed along to us by those who received it from someone else, and so on. And the further back that passing comes from the more venerated that knowledge is. It is known as "wisdom." But is it? Every once in a while someone will kick that "received wisdom" in the butt and come up with a more enlightened understanding of the information, and thus obtain more information, more knowledge.

In the case of music, for example, Mozart and Beethoven both bit their thumbs at the conventional modes of composing, and thank goodness they did. That same irreverence has happened in all areas of life and on all continents. But then it becomes received wisdom which then must be passed along in it's turn. We study harmony and counterpoint not to learn how to write music but to learn how music has been written up to the moment.

What is it that allows, prompts someone to turn away from this hand-me-down knowledge and find a newer understanding of things? It's inspiration. Inspiration doesn't come from books or teaching. Those things can inspire us to seek out what has been uncovered in our own thoughts. But it isn't until those things are articulated by us that they have any reality or existence except as microchips of the brain, a nice gift tucked away on the shelf. When they are articulated a channel begins to open up for more understanding, more inspiration, more wisdom. When you get to the point where you are wondering where all this "good stuff" is coming from you are on the door step of realizing the infinity of mentality. The middle men of books, teachers, Internet search programs and received knowledge are dispensed with or take an appropriate seat at the back. When you reach that state of enlightenment do what the sages do. Take a break. But not a long one. Halftime only. Absorb what you've done, what's happened to you, what it means, and then go back to work.

DB -The Vagabond

Basic Beatitude 10/20/08

Any and all creativity...comes from the same place.
You just try to get out of your own way and let it happen.

Jeff Bridges
(Thank you Marty)

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Blessed are they who step aside and let creation do its job.

There are moments in every artist's life when the work seems to do itself. I've noticed this in painting. Sometimes the brush just seems to know where it's going without me exercising any will power over it. And it has been even more apparent in my acting career. I can recall those moments that every actor hopes for, when the character seems to play itself. Some magical thing happens when something takes charge of my mind, my voice and my body and I'm just an observer.

For a lazy actor it may happen once or twice in a year's worth of performing. For a disciplined actor it will happen much more often. All the reading, table time, rehearsal time and home work the actor puts in prepares him for those moments. For a genius it may happen once a week.

There's a famous story, probably true, about Lawrence Olivier who had just given one of those inspired performances. It was so brilliant that many of the other actors were waiting for him when he came off stage in order to congratulate him. But he was in a fit of fury. When asked how he could be so upset after such an unusually magical performance, he said it was because he couldn't remember what he did.


DB Vagabond Journeys