Bird Droppings March 12, 2012

The weavings of life include a strand entitled courage

 

I went out twice last night walking the dog and each time was awe struck by the silence and sky over my head. On my first excursion a shooting star to my left one of few I have seen since living out here in the country the past nearly six years. Now nearly three hours later a half moon is glaring and silence still. It is a bit to chilly for the chorus of frogs to gather and chirp for me as I go out. But I stood in awe of the silence and stars looking through the stillness and silence in wonder. Earlier as I checked emails and my various blog sites I saw a note of sorts that actually is addressing current situations, and so I am this borrowing this, line from a friend’s blog page.

 

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts and while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” Charles Bukowski

 

I think about in school watching students who do little or nothing so full of themselves that they really do not care whether they fail or not and students who come to class and are at an excellent grade worry about that extra point or two. Watching politicians is sort of similar however translated to the populace of our world it is this sort of scenario that provides the ability to manipulate people. So with that I cruise into a word of significance, courage.

 

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” Winston Churchill

 

Generally I bounce from topic to topic and occasionally I will tie a few together over a period of time as my thinking sort of spills out that way. The past few days emails and discussion have kept me thinking about this word courage. I bought a book quite a few days back at Barnes and Nobles, the Lakota way: stories and lessons for Living, by Joseph M. Marshall III. The book focuses on twelve core qualities crucial to the Lakota way of life. These qualities are bravery, fortitude, generosity, wisdom, respect, honor, perseverance, love, humility, sacrifice, truth, and compassion. Interestingly enough the word courage was not used although in dictionary terms perhaps bravery is synonymous. I looked up the definition of courage on the internet and found the following.

 

“The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery.” Yahoo Dictionary.

 

When I first started on this word a few days ago my discussion went back and forth as ideas of is this courage and an example of and or is this courage. I found defining courage soon became a personal thing. What was considered courageous for one may be craziness for another. I used the example of counting coop among the plains tribes of Native Americans and the sacredness of an eagle feather awarded for touching an enemy in battle as an example. I received an email yesterday from a friend responding and she wrote about a card sent to her with the following inscription.

 

“Flying in a circle of beauty, the eagle reminds all of the Lakota about the great circle of life, death and life again. To the Lakota, the eagle–with its promise of strength and power–also brings light to the Morning Star. Held in reverence, the eagle’s feathers symbolize everything strong, brave and holy. The feathers are to be worn always with honor, dignity and pride.” A card from St. Joseph’s Indian School, the Eagle and the Lakota People

 

As I thought, for the Lakota a feather earned in battle by touching an enemy was sacred yet in our day of modern warfare this would be crazy. I attended a seminar a little over a year ago and listened to a good friend and frequent commenter to my thoughts. A few days back I received an email from him on courage.

 

“Courage is probably like life; if you break it down to define it … you destroy it. Just a note from where I sit.” James D. Sutton, Ed.D., CSP, psychologist and author

 

I thought about this as I sat listening to the stillness of a still rain dampened forest this morning trying to dry out finally by star light and a smidgen of moon beams the only muffled sounds were drops of the past few days and nights of rain falling from saturated branches and pine needles. Several years ago another friend responded to one of my thoughts as she often does with a story gleaned from her reading and thinking and as I thought about life and courage this story does apply for courage often is in the sorting and doing of life. I will share this short passage sent by a friend with you all.

 

THE MAYONNAISE JAR AND TWO (2) CUPS OF COFFEE
When things in your lives seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough – remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee. A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “yes.” The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed. “Now,” said the professor as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things–your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else—the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. “Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.” One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.”

Emailed from Jodie Schmidt and so far unable to find an author

 

I thought about this simple analogy to life and my own current search in life for answers and to better illustrate the word courage. We all seem to find when the time comes what is courage for us. Courage often is the sorting of what is important in our lives and deciding this is a golf ball and this is only sand. I was reflecting back several years on a problem my son came home with from Georgia Tech one weekend. I have shared this with our calculus teacher. The diagram was of three molecules touching. They were circles or symbolized by circles. There was space between the circles a triangular sort of shape. The problem was writing an equation that could solve for that space. In other words write a formula to calculate the number of molecules that will fill that space.

My son worked many hours formulating an answer for a take home midterm at Georgia Tech in Physics. The object was to write a formula for the space between molecules which is a finite space with an infinite answer. I have found that defining courage is much like solving for that space. We can in each instance find a solution for our given time and place and yet tomorrow there will be another answer and always for the Lakota an eagle feather. A feather is a simple bird dropping for some, a left over remnant of a bird passing by and yet to others it is more precious than gold.

I recall a good friend carefully unwrapping a feather from a piece of deer skin with a mood of sacredness that he had carefully placed away. My friend had received the eagle feather from his grandfather, who at that time was the spiritual leader and medicine man for the Muskogee Creek tribe in Oklahoma and in his late nineties. My friend was beading the feather into a special necklace for his grandfather perhaps for his burial. This was over nearly forty years ago and the feather was handled with great honor and respect always laid back on the deer skin never just tossed aside. It was always wrapped and carefully placed away when work was stopped for the moment.

Looking back at the twelve words used by the Lakota all of them truly intertwine and interconnect. Courage is not a lone word but a weaving in the basket a piece of the puzzle of life. Often I fall back to a small prayer sometimes attributed to St. Francis and officially published in a sermon by theologian Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr entitled, the serenity prayer.

 

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.”

 

Over the years I borrow various stories and thoughts from a friend and his postings of Chicken Tales, the adventures and misadventures of his free range chickens in the back yard. Many the stories I can tell about this fellow back to junior high school as we were classmates through high school. As I sit pondering courage I will borrow another adventure of the late great King Calico and the wisdom to know the difference.

 

“Then the husky put two and two together, figuring a hot chicken dinner was preferable to a cold bone. He chased a couple birds in earnest, and the rest scattered. Then there was King Calico. Calico faced the hungry animal at a distance. The beast charged. Calico stared down the menace as the space between them narrowed rapidly. But it was no contest. Indoors (probably) dog against the smartest street smart rooster in the world. Calico jumped and flew away. After all, at this twilight of his life, he is not up to a tough fight with some big pooch.” Allan Gold, Chicken Dairies

 

As I sit here listening to Carlos Nakai on CD and the haunting notes of the Native American wood flute and a sage candle burning as I close today. Sadly as I listen to each and every news broadcast they seem to bring more stories of people needing others, of people needing people for whatever reason. So as always each morning I ask please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts and to always give thanks.

namaste

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