Bird Droppings October 16, 2012

Over the years I have found it is simply to write

 

“I hold strongly to the belief that we are all part of the drum, and when the drumhead is struck in one place, it reverberates through us all. I also hold firmly to the belief that service to others is our highest calling. Anything less constitutes a failure to pay our spiritual rent on earth. To be given the miraculous gift of life is to be given something so precious that it can never be repaid, even though we cannot give a name or a face to the mystery that bestowed this gift upon us. So we must express our gratitude with service here on earth.” Kent Nerburn

 

Every day I sit down and write some days it makes it into my daily or near daily now morning ritual Bird Droppings and others well into my files for later use. Today I received an email from a friend a fellow teacher who I have never met in real time. I met through the acquaintance of another friend who I have met and who referred me to this other friend. Now that is confusing. Anyhow I received a great series of old farmer quotes this morning from North Georgia and this one caught my attention.

 

“Words that soak into your ears are whispered…not yelled” An old farmer’s advice

 

            After sorting emails I started with wanting to continue my thought from yesterday and the spiritual loss within children as we inundate them with technology and literally occupy every moment with a gadget or thing. I almost find it paradoxical that I am registering a software package and syncing my new iPhone this morning and got to one screen where you check which of the following you or your family own. There were thirty objects listed ranging from Blackberries to cable TV. We had 27 of 30 in our household. Had we not been so against Apple computers we might have had all 30. Actually I do like Apple we just do not have one although we do all have iPhones and I use an iPad daily.

            As I thought of how much we count on and “need” all of these things it hit me how we replace aspects of humanity with the immediateness of technology. I see anger transmission as a good example. I was reading various blogs on Facebook this morning and saw several rather severe venting. Unlike in the old days waiting till you see someone you blog, email, text message and or call on your cell phone immediately your anger. There is a change in how we react and deal with life. So often we miss the journey since the destination is immediately here. 

 

“Life is about the journey not the destination – we don’t know what tomorrow brings” Steven Tyler, AEROSMITH

 

So many years ago I first read this line and have told the story many times of finding a yellow sticky note (again technology 3M post-it notes) on my computer. Every once in a while I get amazed, and as I was driving from point A to point B on a recent day a song was playing in my son’s truck. It happened to be the Aerosmith CD with this line in it. An old Aerosmith song entitled Amazing from the 1993 album Get a Grip that never went higher than 3 on Billboard’s top ten but it was good enough to have its own Wikipedia site. However for me a powerful of couple lines about life. Over the years I have paraphrased and altered a bit so the real line from Steven Tyler’s lyrics. 

 

“Life’s a journey not a destination and I just can’t tell just what tomorrow brings. You have to learn to crawl, before you learn to walk.” Steven Tyler, AEROSMITH

 

I never realized Steven Tyler was a developmentalist, always just considered him a rocker. There are steps in each of our lives as I grow older with technology and without I learn each moment is special and unique and intertwined with so many others. I have learned to enjoy and view the journey. I have my technology but I use it to work with me and enhance not to substitute for any piece or part of my existence. As I sit and play with my less than two year old granddaughter who can get into my iPad quicker than I can to her apps and stories I have downloaded when we sit down to read together.

 

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating you.”George Bernard Shaw

 

We each get up in the morning and begin the day usually very similar to the day previous. I was thinking back nearly nine years ago and how the house was quiet, everyone was gone. My wife and son were at Georgia Tech for orientation, he ended up graduating from Tech almost five years ago. My youngest was at music camp for the week, I actually do not know if they were ready for him or not, he took his tuba but his passion is the blues harp (harmonica) and still is. He and his cousin went to camp to do some serious jamming with his national steel guitar and my son on harmonica. Matt is always trying to turn some folks on to some old Robert Johnson songs instead of pop music so many teenagers listen to. My son today is in Demorest Georgia at Piedmont College in nursing school and father to our first grand baby. I recall his tenure at Mercer University in Macon Georgia the heart of only a few years back the Southern Rock and Blues heart and soul.

I drive by mothers many evening often drop off mail, and often some digital photos for my mother’s hobby. She creates one of kind greeting cards from photos and artwork from family members. She uses the image on the front and then writes a unique phrase to go inside. I recall driving around looking for a picture of a spider web for her and in the process took 60 other photos one I have used as a screen saver on my laptop for some time now.

Thinking back again my oldest son started a ten gallon reef tank years back that has been through ups and downs and it grew to twenty gallons, basically a salt water aquarium that simulates a coral reef, in miniature. The denizens currently are primarily colonial polyps and coral which from a few feet away look like lumps of rock in a very brightly lit tank, but up close and the rocks have quarter inch creatures with tentacles waving in the current very much alive. I have taken many pictures  one is of a group of anemones that cluster together each only a quarter inch wide covering a piece of coral rock with what looks like hair till you look closely and it is tiny tentacles catching microscopic creatures in the water. Tiny mantis shrimp that have hatched in the tank are swimming about each less than a sixteenth of an inch What is amazing is how much beauty is contained in a space 36 inches long and 13 inches wide and a foot high. I often think of life this way we miss so much when we do not look closely.

 

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”Albert Schweitzer  

 

So many people are not content and struggle looking for what may be right in front of them all the time. Having a good outlook and open minded perception are crucial to truly seeing all around you.

 

“How far is far, how high is high? We’ll never know until we try.” California special Olympics song  

 

“Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.”Walt Disney 

 

It is all in the journey, it is walking along seeing all there is to see not missing that minute detail or word and with conviction achieving your goals. No one can see what you see or hear what you hear only a vague proximity and only you will know when your goal is met. In 1953 Sir Edmund Hillary stepped to the top of the world on Mt. Everest 29,000 feet plus above sea level and no one else had ever done that. Now Nepal and Mt.Everest is a nearly tourist trap albeit a very expensive one but many have made the summit.

 

“You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things — to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.”Sir Edmund Hillary

 

We all can achieve, we all can do great things, we all can overcome obstacles, it is with confidence, constancy, courage and curiosity as Disney said. I might add one thing it is to always be looking, observing trying to understand the depth and passion of our existence. Keep all in harm’s way on your minds and in your hearts and to always give thanks namaste.

 

Wa de (Skee)

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