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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,

The Pilgrim

All those hours of our lives are our own. We have to figure out what to do with them, but having our feet on the ground is a good beginning.

Natalie Goldberg
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I wish I was a sample man. I wish I had a simple life. I sometimes wish I had never seen the backstage of a theatre, the inside of a radio studio, or the handle of a drum stick. I wish I didn't know about ontology, cosmology, semantics, ethics, metaphysics, sociology, politics, history and religion. I wish I didn't know about Bach, Mozart, Wagner and Schoenberg. I'm often tempted to discard all my books and magazines and never buy another one.

I wish I had lived a simple life with a steady job doing something mechanical or educational; a grammar school Phys Ed teacher. I like kids, That would have been a good one.

I would have liked to have a simple home with a wife who liked to smile and keep her house and her garden, while I fixed things up around it. I would be happy with simple food: franks and beans, burgers and potato salad, pea soup, Once a week I would take her out to dinner: Chinese, Italian, steaks and chops.

In the evening we would watch a movie or two. I would get my news from the TV and not think much about it. I would enjoy a good ball game and have a favorite team. Once a year we would take a vacation and go to the shore or to Disneyland.

And if I wanted to be creative I'd paint pictures of flowers from her garden and not worry if they were any good or not.

I would enjoy a good joke and share it with my buddies over checkers, while she was with her ladies sewing circle talking about whatever ladies talk about.

I would be reasonably healthy, well fed and sleep the sleep of a grateful and contented man.
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But I can't afford to properly feed myself. The TV news irritates me. I've been a Yankee fan since I was a child but I don't follow them now. I cherish my books even though I have to read with a magnifying glass. I love music and won't stop hearing more and more into it. I fret over every one of my paintings. There is no woman here, smiling or otherwise, no kids, no garden. I sleep in short spurts of time. And I am angry and distressed that illness has taken me away from my career.

The sound that you hear is my silent, fundamental, existential scream of rage and sorrow.

Come and sing with me, all you who are dissatisfied, even to any degree, with the conditions and limitations of your life. Come sing with me and we will raise the spirits that have ignored us and call them to account for their neglect. Come sing with me the song of the struggling pilgrim.

DB - The Vagabond

Choice Choices

Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.

Bob Dylan
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I don't want to hear the world complain
I want to go out and feel the rain.

I don't need a religious path
I just need a nice hot bath.

I don't want a ring in my nose
I just want to don my comfortable clothes.

Let the others groan and gripe
I'll just sit and smoke my pipe.

I don't need those strange tattoos
I just want to wear my comfortable shoes.

I don't need to ride a motor scooter
I'd rather write on my computer.

I don't need long gray hair
I want to sit in my comfortable chair.

It doesn't matter how I look
I'll just sit and read my book.

I don't want to fret and fear
I'd rather have a glass of beer.

I don't need to own a gun
I'd be friends with anyone..

I don't want to be ordered and led
I want to lie in my comfortable bed.

Enough of trouble, strain and strife
Give me the serene and simple life.


DB - The Vagabond
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May you have a joyful day.
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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.
13 responses so far.

DB - The Vagabond