The Shadow Knows

There's something about shadows because you make your own mind up about what's lurking in them.

Richard O'Brien
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Hello Stuart
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Here are four interesting tales about shadows.

In early days philosophers were also mathematicians. The ancient Greek Thales was one of those. He took on the task of determining the height of the great pyramid of Egypt. Because he was a thinker he used a very simple method. He put a staff in the ground and measured its shadow. At the same moment he measured the pyramid's shadow. Just as the pyramid's shadow was so many times the staff's shadow so the pyramid was so many times the height of the staff.

I knew a photographer in New York who once mounted an exhibit of photos which she called self portraits. Intrigued, I went to see it. She had photographed her shadow, up against a wall, on the sidewalk, along a fence. on the grass and various other places. They were fascinating pictures because you wanted to know who the person was that was casting the shadow.

Another photograph I saw in a magazine was of a herd of large animals running across a field. They were clearly very big dark colored beasts in a small herd. But next to each of them was a strange thin wedge of block stripes. Each of these animals had seemingly attached to their sides that streak of black stripes. I stared at the picture for a while and then realized the photograph was taken from directly overhead at dawn or dusk when the sun was low, the stripes were in fact the necks and backs of zebras and the large dark beasts were their shadows.

In another magazine I read about two physicists who were working on an experiment trying to make a solid object so transparent that it would seem to disappear. The worked on the principle of deflecting light rays away from the object on the basis of the inability to see something which does not reflect light. Although the room was lit the object did indeed become transparent. Though it didn't disappear, it become such that they could see thorough it. It almost disappeared. But they noted that the experiment had no effect whatsoever on the object's shadow. That was just as dark as when they started.

He that dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty.

Please check out my newest journal, Hands of the Vagabond at http://vagabondhand.blogspot.com/

DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
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To Flip Or Not To Flip

The choices we make determine the choices we get to make.

Dana Bate
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Hello Abu Sunbul, Egypt
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I once knew a young man who was a typist for a law firm but who had plans to become rich. One day he said "The only thing I want to worry about is whether to shop at Gucci or Fendi." He might as well have said Tiffany or Cartier. Those may be hard choices for a wealthy person, but they are non choices for a man on a limited budget such as myself. Sometimes, if I happened to go that way, I would stop and admire the fabled window displays at the Tiffany building. But go through the front door? No.

Rich or otherwise our lives are comprised of choices. Like beads on a string, one choice leads to another and another after that. And each choice we make eliminates all the others, at least temporarily. It's very tempting to look back over our lives and wonder what would have happened if we had gone left instead of right, or if we had taken a chance on something which we avoided. But it's a thoroughly pointless pastime. You didn't go left, you didn't take the chance, so don't think about it. Or if you do, do it to learn about yourself. (Arlene understands that. Don't you Arlene?)

Choices are very simple, whether to have a fried egg or a boiled egg for breakfast. On the other hand they may be very complicated, which college to go to, what career path to take, whether to get married or not, where to settle down. Once one of those choices is made it opens up a whole series of other choices, other beads for the string, and each one of those choices presents another series of choices. Ethical, financial, social, professional, religious, physical, etc. we never run out of choices.

Some things look like choices which aren't. Did you choose to drop that jar of jam on the floor? Of course not. It's what to do next that is your choice Did you choose to have the automobile accident? No, but what's next, to go and rage at the other driver or to calmly get the important insurance information and get on with life? Sometimes life throws us a curve ball. The choice is to hit it or let it pass.

I used to be a horse player, I wagered money on horse races, and I was good at it. I made a profit because I was very careful and conservative about how I used my money. I carefully researched every horse in a particular race, never played favorites because they were favorites, or long shots because they were long shots. The odds didn't concern me. Profits large or small were what concerned me. I used to refer to it as investing in a small business, with four legs, a head at one end, a tail at the other and a small person sitting on it. A major lesson I learned from that experience was that the time to worry is before I put my money down, not after. Once the wager is placed sit down, enjoy the sunshine, watch the race and wait for the result.

Sometimes it seems as if life is waiting for you to make a decision, but not offering any advice. Then as soon as you make a choice life says "Okay. In that case you have the following options" and you wonder why you didn't know the options before hand. It's not knowing what is behind the doors you are facing that makes life frustrating and makes choosing difficult.

Then there comes the most difficult choice of all, to give up on life or to go on living.

"To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?"
(Shakespeare)

Drowning in a sea of troubles is a very real possibility and a very real choice. But if the only armor you have against the approaching tide is a rock then throw the rock at the sea and search for another one. The tide will go out and if you fill up the shore with enough rock hard choices when it comes back in again it may not reach you.

To compromise myself by letting all the results of my wrong choices and the flying arrows of outrageous bad luck wash over me and then quitting the fight is not my option. Even in the face of creeping errors and meager opportunities, I have other roads to seek and other doors to open. In front of all the great philosophers I read, from ancient Greece to modern California, my rule of life is summed up in three simple words: never give up.

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

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

Only 6 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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