Bird Droppings December 18, 2023
There are always possibilities.

“Life has no limitations except the ones you make.” Les Brown

I was riding home from school yesterday, talking with one of my sons, remembering when I was their age. I should say trying to remember when I was their age that would be more appropriate. I was thinking back to a day when my son and I had lunch with my mother. It has been a few days since my sons and I have been to lunch with my mother, and as they would, they got picked on by each other, and she always would enjoy the show. Back then, my oldest had recently completed his first full semester of graduate school, and I recall that in one of his last semesters, he was having some difficulty getting registered because his student loans had been electronically fouled up. I was trying to tell him to take each moment as it comes, deal with it, and move to the next. He was upset, and as the day progressed, the lesson was learned; it seems the wording in the college catalog allowed him a “loophole so he could register and get started in school that semester while the paperwork for his student loan was resolved.

“It is necessary; therefore, it is possible.” G. A. Borghese

Perhaps as I get older, I will find nothing is impossible when we set our minds to it. Somewhere along the line, I took a picture of my son crossing a stream, stepping from rock to rock. He had fallen in playing several times, but even soggy and wet, he was still trying to maneuver across, stepping rock to rock. I have used this illustration so many times and even have a picture of the stream hanging in my room at school as he does in his bedroom. So often, life is like crossing a stream, a stone at a time, and we do fall in quite a bit. The ones who are successful in life climb right back up, soggy and wet, and keep going.

I want to share a true story from last week. I was working on reading with a small group of second graders. In the group, one little fellow is always in trouble. He can not help himself. I do not know all the details, but situations at home are an issue. He started acting out in our small group, and I had him sit away from the reading table. I told him when he was ready, he could return. There was no stopping; he kept interrupting, tossing whatever he could, and I finally said, “ok, tomorrow, I will not pull you out.” He enjoyed coming to my trailer, and he stopped and rejoined the group. The little girl next to me was giggling, and I leaned over and asked what was so funny. She whispered in my ear, “Mr. Bird, we do not have school tomorrow.” I told her not to tell him just yet. There are always possibilities. I thought he wanted to be in my class, and I could work with that.

“Oh, man! There is no planet, sun, or star could hold you if you but knew what you are.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have really come to like Emerson over the years, almost as if he wrote some lines specifically for me to use many years ago, and they have been sitting and waiting.
I altered Emerson’s words slightly, “If we but know what we are,” and what a powerful statement. We go through life trying to understand where and who we are, and many of us spend the better part of a lifetime searching. Some will find themselves at a young age, and for the rest of us, it seems like an eternity trying to know.

“Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.” Dag Hammarskjold

While not a household, Dag Hammarskjöld is the name of the former United Nations Secretary-General during some of the world’s craziest times. The Cold War between Russia and the United States was one of the biggest historical events of our time. His statement of waiting till you attain your goal before you stop to measure is so crucial. So many of us, when we stop to look and see where we are going, become frustrated and slow down or stop completely.

“Of course, we all have our limits, but how can you possibly find your boundaries unless you explore as far and as wide as you possibly can? I would rather fail in an attempt at something new and uncharted than safely succeed in a repeat of something I have done.” A.E. Hotchner

When I was teaching high school each day at school, I would post on my door a new quote, something to offer a challenge to students, to open doors, to expand wisdom, to stick their necks out, and to go beyond where they are now. Each day, many, hundreds of people go by my door, and some will crane their necks to peek inside the door; some will stop and talk as I sit in my office outside my room between classes at my door. What is that thing, what do you teach, and whose room is this? These are my favorites that students come up with. Each day is an effort to try to open boxes and pry the lids off sealed containers of minds and thoughts.

“If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!” Soren Kierkegaard

It has been many years since I heard Dr. Norman Vincent Peale speak in Macon, Georgia, in 1973, when he recognized a small church my brother attended, The Church of the Exceptional, as the National Church of the Year. That was over Forty-five years ago, yet his ideas are as relevant today as they are at this moment as I write this cold morning in Georgia.

“Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities — always see them, for they’re always there.” Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

A possibilitarian is someone who always sees possibilities; what an interesting thought in a day and time when so often we are subjected to negative and belittling concepts and ideas. So many students quit long before they ever get a chance to succeed. I remember when, around this time of year, we would see many seniors leave high school or at least our school due to graduation tests. They have tried numerous times, and while they would have enough credits and may even have been a B student or better, they couldn’t pass one of the former five Georgia High School Graduation Tests. Many would seek enrollment in a small private school that does not adhere to the same standards and does not require GHSGT, and will graduate in May on time only if they graduate from that school.

“How far is far, how high is high? We’ll never know until we try.” Song from The California Special Olympics

Some time ago, I followed UCLA’s basketball program more closely than I do now, and on the team was a red-haired fellow who just happened to be 6 foot ten inches tall. He became a premier professional player and, in retirement, one of the great commentators of sports, Mr. Bill Walton. It was not too long ago that the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team tied the eighty-eight-game win streak of Coach Wooden and Bill Walton’s team.

“No matter how good you get, there’s always something further out there.” Bill Walton

There is more than one aspect to all lessons and more than one possibility. It is seeking, understanding, and achieving those numerous other possibilities by never simply stopping because you made your initial goal. Now, set higher goals, achieve more and better, grow further and farther, and always lift continually. I was reading several small pieces this morning as I started writing. We all are givers and takers at one time or another. As our lives balance out, try balance to the giving versus the taking. You will never run out of giving, but when you take soon, doors will close. Please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts, and always give thanks namaste.

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

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

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