Stuck

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.


James Baldwin
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Hello Val
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When I was a senior in high school I went on a field trip to Washington, D.C. Part of the trip was a visit with one of the Supreme Court Justices, Harold Burton. In his office Judge Burton showed us the files of books on his shelf. They were records of all the disputations, opinions and decisions of the Supreme Court dating back to its very first session. There were pieces of paper jutting out of the tops of many of the books and he explained that every time a former case was entered into the proceedings of the Court he would place a marker in that case for reminders.

Consider that man's library, the libraries of the other 8 judges, the libraries of all the various state and municipal courts throughout the country, the records of the US Senate and House of Representatives, state and local governments, and we find a vast and complex history of the legal proceedings of our land.

And the Unites States is just a mere 236 years old. Imagine what exists in other countries with a conscientious legal tradition, Great Britain for example, which could go back for thousands of years. It seems as though world history is written in laws and jurisprudence, and that a judge could not make a righteous decision without consulting the legal minds that went before him all the way back to the beginning, Hammurabi.

The history of the world is not all written in laws of course, but it is one way we can get trapped into derivative thinking. There are also the unwritten laws: custom, tradition, legend, lore. The human race loves its tractions, religious and secular. Some of those traditions come from ancient legends and superstitions, handed down without much question from generation to generation. But many of them still have a powerful influence on our behavior.

Some people are obsessed with keeping records even when there is no need. Some live their lives by the zodiac or other heavenly influences. Some do what their fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers did, carrying on a family tradition. Some people carry hereditary beliefs with them and others believe there is a genetic streak in a family line that produces their behavior.

I can see how easy it is to move unnoticeably from the dry, sturdy, dependable world of legal tomes to the colorful, mysterious, uncertain world of superstition, completely passing the world of natural law on both sides.

Oh how easy it is to get trapped ! !

DB _Vagabond Journeys No. 1892
Never give up.

Albert's Secret Weapon

Imagination is more important than knowledge.


Albert Einstein
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Hello Diane
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I spend much tie thumping the drum and tooting the horn for imagination on this journal, as perhaps you've noticed. Imagination is a great tool for almost anybody, provided it's used in a productive and positive manner. So why is imagination better than knowledge? They both have similar mental contents and perform similar functions. You know a lot of things. Some of those things you know are useful, some are useless and some are things you probably wish you didn't know. Imagination gives us ideas. Some of those ideas are useful, some are useless and some are down right awful. So what's the difference? Simple, knowledge is limited and imagination is unlimited.

You have knowledge up to a point. Beyond that point is not-knowing, ignorance, Not a bad ignorance, not stupidity, just beyond knowledge. But nothingg is beyond imagination.

For a creative person imagination gives ideas and aso gives suggestions and instructions as to what to do with those ideas. Imagination doesn't just throw out a blueprint and then head for the bar. It keeps on working.

I sometimes think of ingratiation as if it was an expert standing by, patiently waiting and keeping an professional eye on what I'm doing, and when I get stuck I can simply ask "What should I do now?" and the expert steps up with a good sound suggestion or two.

Here is one of my most memorable moments of imagination working. We were in rehearsal for "My Three Angels" at the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota, Florida. It was late into the rehears period. The play had been completely staged, but the ending of the second act wasn't working. The director knew it and the three actors knew it but we didn't know what to do about it.

The three of were sitting around a bare table on the stage. The director and stage manager were sitting to the side. I stared at that table top and silently said "I know there is an answer and imagination is going to give it to us. It's going to grow right out of table top. In a moment an idea occurred, it was discussed, we performed it, the director made a few changes and we had the finale of the second act which was a great delight for us and for the audience.

As the years go by creative people, artists, learn to depend on imagination more than knowledge. It's ideas sometimes seem to come from some cosmic mind somewhere and you end up doing something you would never have thought of on your own.

The door of imagination is open to all. Enter, make yourself at home and use it well.

DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.

monster

This new google monsgter refuses to publish my blog.  Maybe you'll get it later.

Keep Walking

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.


Thomas Paine
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Helllo Val
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Tuesday I went for a long walk, to and fro. I had some errands and some shopping to do. On the way back I was pulling a shopping cart full of groceries and other sundries. (You are realy fascinated with this essay, aren't you?)

My feet and my legs cooperated with me the whole way. The last step on the journey was hauling the shopping cart up the stairs. When I got here I was exhausted. (Now you're really intrigued, admit it. Wait, it gets better.)

A month or so ago I couldn't walk at all except on crutches. That made shopping a very tricky business. If I went a short distance I could take the shopping cart and one crutch. If I had to go a greater distance it was both crutches and my back pack. (I hope you're taking notes, or saving this on your little iPad, or whatever fiendish gadget you use.)

For several years my peregrination involved a cane and when I found I couldn't depend upon the cane is when I went to the crutches. (Got that?)

Even before the crutches came into my life some well meaning but misinformed friends set to work to fix me, by moving me into an old folks, assisted living, nursing home and trying to arrange for a new hip. One of them assured me I would soon be bed ridden. (Here's the wind up. Get ready for the pitch.)

I choose to live my life by the three words that appear at the bottom of this epic. (Don't scroll down yet. I'm not finished.) I decided that the answer to this particular conflict was to walk. True, someone was driving me around for a while until that person became someone I didn't want to know. But since then I've been basically on my own two feet, literally. (Are you with me?)

Then one day, about a month or so ago, I took the crutches but didn't use them. I carried them with me on a long walk, but never used them. The next day that I went out, I went without the crutches. It felt strange walking out without anything in my hand to lean on. No cane, no crutches. I was leaning on spirit.

(Here's the pitch.) My crutches are now in the corner. If I had a fire place they would be hanging above it, sort of like my own version of a stuffed moose head. I still have trouble walking but every time I take to the outside it gets easier. And that's how it is. We have more ability to face up to and achieve a triumph over the conflicts in our lives than we think we do. Whatever it is, the solution is already there, the answer is already there, the idea is already there, they simply have to be discovered. Don't fall prey to the temptation to believe that someone else can solve your problems, keep walking and do what it says at the bottom of this page.


DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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Sorry Folks

We can send a man to the moon, but.....

Due to day long struggle with Facebook and Google there will be no Vagabond Journey entry today.  I never got to read anything or write anything.  I don't know what to call the sly but stupid tricks Facebook was playing but I managed to retrieve most of it.  On the other hadn the best word to describwe thisnew Google system of writing and sending blogs can best be described as IGNORANT.  It's slow, cumbersome and difficult to read (white letters on a pink background do not work).  It won't accept my feedback, it won't allow me to return to the former system, which worked fine, and when I tried to find an older blog to use instead I had to keep starting over each time.  Too difficult.  No one should have to be put through thei torment.  I don't care if these (engineers, technicians, designers) creeps have to justify their jobs IF IT WORKS DON'T FIX IT.

How To Do It

Ritual matks the waning of belief and onset of confusion


Lao-Tzu
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Hello Stuart
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As far as I know and believe, my sister never gambled a day in her life, never even bought a lottery ticket I'm sure. She went on a vacation to Las Vegas, Nevada to stay with two friends who were also not gamblers. One day they went on a tour of the casinos, purely as tourists. When she got back east she said that she didn't think the gamblers in those casinos were enjoying themselves because no one was smiling. I asked if she smiled while she was balancing her check book. She said she didn't, and I said it was because she was concentrating on numbers, which is exactly what the gamblers were doing. They smile when they win but the rest of the time they are in deep concentration, particularly the poker players.

One morning I caught a group of children rehearsing a choreographed dance outside near Central Park. They were getting ready to join a festival and the teacher was putting them through the dance tightening things up. He kept saying "smile, smile." They were concentrating so hard on the dance no one was smiling. I've seen majorettes and baton twirlers in high school bands with the same stern look on their faces.

Our lives are filled with rituals. Cooking a meal, especially from a recipe, following the instructions to set up the back yard barbeque, turning on the computer and getting to your home page. All of these things require concentration. We may smile in satisfaction when the job is done but in the meantime "Don't disturb me."

We have rituals that help get along in life, at home, on the job. in school. But there are some rituals that have become dangerous. There are mental, social and religious rituals that we perform because we think we have to. They may have once had a meaning., but we have forgotten what that was. So we keep doing the ritual, taking the steps because it's habitual and because if we don't something will go wrong. We keep thinking in the old way without daring to challenge our thoughts. We perform all the social graces that we think are necessary even when they aren't. We go through the rituals in church without ever investigating or remembering what they are supposed to represent. We go through the rituals without a smile, and if we don't go through them we fear the consequences. . The rituals have now become superstitions. And fear is more important than the original point of the rituals. We have stopped believing in the value of the pattern of behavior and allowed the irrational to take it's place.

I remember learning a job from someone who had done it for 35 years. When I suggested a way of streamlining a part of it she didn't want to hear about it. We did it her way because that's the way it was done. No other reason.

I realized that the job was a ritual for her and to ask her to change the way she did it would cause her to have to think about it, to challenge her ritual, and that would have caused a lot of confusion in her steady uncomplicated life. No wonder she was afraid to try anything new.

Moral: Don't give up your rituals, but challenge them every now and then and if they're not working for you, change and improve them.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.

Mistakes

Don't fear mistakes.. There are none.




Miles Davis

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Hello Diane

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Miles Davis was a great jazz trumpeter who knew music thoroughly. The pianist Herbie Hancock told about one day when they were playing together and Hancock accidentally struck a chord that had nothing whatsoever to do with the music they were playing and Davis played notes around it that brought it into the range of the piece.



Strange things happen sometimes in the performing arts. I once saw a ballerina lose her slipper during a performance. She kept dancing while one of the male dancers scooped it up and presented it to her as if it was a cherished gift of love.



I was doing a play one evening and another actor said something that wasn't even remotely his line. I couldn't respond to him with my scripted line. I had to make one up on the spot that would answer him and still get back to the plot.



During the filming of Dr. Stragelove George C. Scott accidentally did a tumble while pointing at something. He came up with a smile still pointing. Kubrick left it in.



There are always stories of writers setting out to write a story about one thing and ending up with something else because a mistake loomed somewhere and changed the whole idea or inventors who discover something they weren't looking for when they made a mistake in the shop, or the artist who accidentally spills some paint on the canvas and the painting takes off is a completely new direction, or a chemist in his lab mixing the wrong ingredients and discovering a new solution.



Many discoveries can be made by accident. When you make what you think is a mistake instead of throwing it out, stop and consider it. You may have discovered something.



DB - The Vagabond

Never give up.