Bird Droppings November 29, 2022

To think or at least try this morning

 “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” Joseph Campbell

 I wonder if it is for attention that so many teenagers seek the route of drama in their lives. Overreacting to seemingly inconsequential stimuli seems a matter of fact in the teenage world. Is it hormones and various emotional lapses that drive the multiple levels of humankind? I often wonder why we do what we do. I observe and listen and find myself often swept into turbulence that it is challenging to raise one head above. A few years back, I was called to talk to a student before the holiday break. Her head was in her hands, sobbing, and she had asked me. The story from a few days before had grown and found its way to school. I had heard bits and pieces floating around the school in the days before.

Thinking back on another topic, a young man in my classes asked me if he had been good and would write a letter for his probation officer. A week ago, I separated him from another fellow just before a fight.  

 “Absolutely speaking, Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you is by no means a golden rule, but the best of current silver. An honest man would have but little occasion for it. It is golden not to have any rule at all in such a case.” Henry David Thoreau

 At times, do our worlds of reality intertwine, or is this some grand Venn diagram, and only occasionally do the edges overlap? Is part of reality A and part of B touching here, and reality C and D barely touch over there?

I wonder if it is for attention. I watched a girl walk down the hall a year ago, staring straight ahead, obviously depressed. How do you get depressed at 16? What if our water drives a teenager to depression? Earlier I went out briefly. My head today feels like a sponge. It was hard getting up. I forgot to take my allergy medicine last night, and the gas heat tears up my sinuses. But as I walked and stood looking as my dog ran around the yard searching for prey and trying to find a dry spot in the wet grass to do her duty, I could not help but think. I wonder about dogs. They look for a dry place to make it wet. It actually might be logical, perhaps in dog thinking. But as I looked about, the air seemed to resonate with my mood foggily, and the weather channel had issued fog warnings for our county.

I could see stars, yet the trees only a few feet away were clouded over. One, in particular, was literally in a mist as I looked. Much is a mist at 2:30 in the morning, but this tree was unclear as the others were fine. My perception was a bit foggy today, and actually, I did go lay down again after getting up with a severe sinus headache. But as I lay back down, I thought of seeing pieces clear and others shrouded in mist. Some were unclear and indistinct, while others were plain as day.

I will come back to the students and kids at school. Perhaps there is a difference. On the one hand, some students learn others are just kids, taking up air and space, and baby goats, sarcastically. But as I thought, perhaps it knows that clears one’s self; one’s self-image is more apparent when you know yourself. In so many Eastern religions and philosophies, there is a focus on “know thy self.” Here is a thought from one cloudy mind today to numerous clouded minds at 4:00 in the morning. Maybe it is like my tree; many people are unclear because they do not know who they are. In their searching and journeying in life, they never have a clear pathway. It always seems to be rubble blocking the way, be it relationships, family, or “friends,” and for some, perhaps a disability or imperfection that, in their eyes, holds them back or causes them to stumble. Very quickly, it could create an unclear vision of who they are.

I went back out, and as my head cleared, the tree that had been blurrily cleared up, and I could see it fine. When we meet people, even ones with drama and unclear at the time views, if we focus, if we give ourselves a moment to recompose, often we can see through the fog and see the natural person even if that person is unsure. Then we can offer a hand to help them come back. It could be sort of a tug into the Venn diagram, perhaps. It might be M&M’s, a paper towel, or just a word or thought, and it amazes me sometimes to see some things so simple can change a life. Sometimes it is just coming when called or needed. I wish we had “clear life,” something bottled you could spray out, and all would be okay, sort of like the commercials with the red eyes and one drop, and they are clear. Peace, my friends, and please, when the opportunity is there, offer a hand for many people stuck in the fog of their own lives. Please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and your heart’s namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

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