No time to panic: the finale

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M THIS IS NO TIME TO PANIC—THE FINALE

Well...I’m writing this on Halloween and I really want to start with  a story about  the great candy crusades of my youth, however, I’m going to save it for tomorrow and against my better judgement  get right  to the subject. At hand.  

so far in this miniseries the posts have  resented the notion that the “old social and personal narratives are  fading and some other narratives are emerging but haven’t  fully soaked in.  I would argue that none of the most recent  “competitors” will unify our world’s narrative, and probably. Not our country’s narrative since  one of the paths often taken is to build a personal narrative and. Journey based on identifying  who we are not.  Grabbing on to who you are not removes a. Lot of anxiety  and defines you as part of a group—it creates belonging, yet it also leads to duality and exclusion and almost requires differences to include a power component not an additive  or complimentary one.  This type of narrative building IS NOT A RECIPE FOR GROWING PEACE AND/OR JOY!

So I asked readers yesterday to consider what they might stay to their 15 year old self given the chance.  It was a trick, but I’m not sorry I put it out there.  You see this is not Hansel and Grettle—there are no bread crumbs.  So anything you might have said to that 15 year old was probably  a list of  I wish you would haves or regrets that you are still holding on to.  Now the only thing I would have told my 15 year old self is take it easy on my knees...I miss them.  Oh sure I  might have said some other things...I want to sound perfect you know.  Come to think of it the “I want to be perfect” club is  pretty large and expanding constantly, but the “I am perfect association has a very limited membership and hasn’t taken any new members for quite some time.”  

Anyway let me make a suggestion that may help in building a functional  narrative.  All the things you wanted to tell that 15 year old are lessons you have learned.  So  why nbot start by telling. Your 15 year old self thanks for starting the learning process on those things and reminding. You thatthereismorelearning yet to come.  Oh and tell  him not  to drive a Ford Pinto in heavy traffic.  Now.let’s move the other direction to yourself 15 years from now.  The messages  moving in that direction are your expectations about how  thepath from now till the IS SUPPOSED to go and so it’s full of your assumptions and predictions.  So these. Little messages are  just a way of. Pulling off your existential scabs to see what still needs. To heal.  

Now that you’ve provided yourself with those bits of wisdom let’s go forward.  Again—no bread crumbs :)

Now here’s  good news...when most of us grew up we only had  one or perhaps a two  narratives to choose from and there was trememndous pressure to stay within those. Guard rails, so going outside those  rails always produced a lot of people shaking their  heads and wagging their finger at you.  This made it difficult to explore and test your values, behaviors, and emotions.  Now when people followed the same path they had a reasonable idea of where it. Could lead so you didn’t have to convince yourself that you were on the right trail.  Unfortunately this robbed you of your  opportunity to assign different meanings to different experiences and that’s a pretty high price to pay for the security of conformity.  Now you can  go to the all you can eat buffet of values, skills, and relationships and balance your life in a way that has meaning for you.  

So start there...start with  what you want your life to mean to you and then be confident that there are many  stories that can get you. To that moral so to speak.  Then write your  first scene picking up the lessons your past self has given you and  moving ahead.  As far as a role...think of yourself as a great inventor like Edison who failed a whole bunch of times  before he got the light bulb to work just long enough so that. You had to keep buying them every few months so that the cash would keep rolling in.  Or think of yourself as  Indiana Jones who  runs into trouble every now and then

But solves the puzzles in time, or maybe the right character is Neo or Trinity from theMatrix who starts. Into the adventure and can upload new skills immediately while testing the limits of  the “real” world and the  world constructed by those who would like to control you.  

So start with  your values, learn the  behaviors that show others those values and start writing after you plant yourself in a setting knowing that  this setting will change either because it changes or you change it.  As you  write your “plot” give it three ways to twist at least three and then you will have plenty of stones to step on as you cross. The. Stream of obstacles that a fast flowing  stream of our current  existence puts before you.  Don’t. Concern yourself with plotting the whole way across because if you set the stones out too far then that part of the river may flood and your paths. Becomes invisible and. You stand  there suck.  Just assume your path across. The river and your narrative will not be linear in geography, life roles, or time.  Expect to feel young. Again starting new enterprises often.  Accept that you may not finish some parts of  your life and may need to find other ways to express those. Values.  You don’t have to. Be patient and wait and see what happens to you because you can learn, however since you are human there will be times when your patience is tried.  Don’t shake your fist in the mirror when that happens.  When  you lose your cool breathe and try to  use the Arthur Ashe  mantra “Start where you are.  UUse what you have.  Do what you can.”  Notice  he didn’t say figure out what you did wrong, find out  whose fault it is, and complain about  what you don’t  have but still need. 

If you need to have the world prove things to you that can be your narrative—the search for truth....Just remember that  your journey will then  have to have two. Kinds of experiments  going most the time.  You will fairly test two competing ideas and see  which idea proves to get results that. Highlight. Your value as and use your gifts and you’ll have to study  your path by moving forward with the skills and values. That have already been proven into new areas and. Observe if those  parts of you work in new situations and if they don’t get ready to test two competing ideas again.  Learn  what needs to come next in. Your narrative from.  What you have just learned and believe in your process.  

As you put together your new  stories a and your. New roles rememberthat Batman had robin, The Lone Ranger had  Tonto,sponge Bob has Patrick, and so on—yes   You will have people who will walk with you on your path and  play critical roles in. Your life story—let them and help them know you so that  they can help you and they can ask for help too.  

So..in the end..after all this  am saying 

THIS IS NO TIME TO PANIC because you have tools and you have options that you  may not be thinking about and these  tools, like you, are very powerful and  will assist you in making  meaning...and more than that the meaning you were. Hoping.  The worlds is no longer. Going to stay steady at least for a good long while so  if the round  hole turns square, you are at least going to. Have to  be a triangle to  keep from getting stuck.  You. May have to reach out to find others who belong to your tribe. Or share your narrative, however you do not have to. Expect that everyone will belong and  you don’t hav e to work hard to exclude anyone...if they needs excluded there is enough wiggle room in our society now that they will most likely exclude themselves if needed.   I’ll talk  more about  finding a tribe and changing tribes in a week or two.  

Be a happy explorer and experimenter.  Remember that experimenters. Never fail they just find a lot of ways not to do something  sometimes.

Our culture is  changing significantly. And quickly, yet you can choose not to panic...you have tools and you are not alone.  Recognize the value of your.values, the strength of your relationships, and the power of working with one another to create a flexible growing. Narrative.  You don’t need to control the outcome because the outcome is likely to be far. More wonderful than you expect and while the maze may have some walls no path needs to be a dead end.

Next Up... a poem about your story and some  thoughts about Halloween that will still be haunting me. Tomorrow.  also the podcast goes back online tomorrow because  I owe you folks that and I  haven’t been working hard enough at it... Peace

No time to panic part two

NO TIME TO PANIC—PART 2

Okay what was Part I?  I’m not going to make you go back and look.  In that first part I talked about how  the “Great Depression” created a universal  narrative context for  our culture  and that of several generations to fit into and to draw our personal narratives within.  Unfortunately (or I might argue fortunately) that. Narrative isn’t functioning or functional anymore.  The result of this is that  a whole lot of people are  facing anxiety due to the fact that  our neither our education nor society’s whispers have prepared us to create new functional narratives for our time and our lives.   So as if it’s not bad enough (or good) that we are experiencing the old narrative eroding, we are lacking the tools to  quickly cope with the corresponding ambiguity.

So...that’s where we begin today.  

Building a new narrative.  

Well you may have noticed that. We spend a lot of time these days in the  world of  “I am not!”  So often when in a society  where we have been. Trained to test the null hypothesis we use this. Tactic to find out who we are by eliminating all the I am nots.  The  challenge there of course is that  who or what you are is then defined externally or through comparisons.  This leads to a process of moving to the extremes.  So I’m not dark so I’m light, not soft so I must be hard, I’m not skinny so I’m fat etc... It also leads to  a constant  barrage  of marketers telling.us we’re not  skinny enough, tall enough, clean enough,rich enough etc... In short a lot of our. Social messages are. Telling us how to define what we are not and if  we are going to claim we are not something we must be extremely  not that.  It’s a great  tactic because people want to belong even if they have to  make sure belonging. Guarantees  other folks. Cannot.  

In short we spend most of. Our time constructing  our lives around who and what we are not in order to eliminate the anxiety of not knowing.

Eventually adopting all the I am nots wears out most people and lacking the  energy or tools to start creating a world that reflects who we are or. Could be, we simply give  up and that’s when we start hearing —“IT IS WHAT IT IS”. While that is. A great if you come to that after a lot of observing, howe3ver one day you will wake up and realize it isn’t what it was. 

Now..I claimed I was going to give you some new tools and so here they  come....

Put on your  favorite  red and white striped top hat and say the following

Who we are the world forgot

But I am not who I am not

But if not that  then who’ll I’ll be

It’s not up to  them, it’s up to me

While I explore and I decide 

Don’t  claim I’m for the other side

I may be neither  this nor that

I may wear yet a third hat 

Since we are not really living under a solitary narrative in our world and certainly not in our country you have an opportunity to form your own.  You can follow someone else’s  or join with others and that is absolutely needed at some times.  Just remember you are making that choices and you are the decision maker when it comes to what experiences mean to you.  

Since  we are all out there trying to redefine some. Things, treat each new day as an exzperiment where the goals are exploring, describing, and understanding not. Predefining testing and  controlling.  In short build your narrative by asking the  questions and observing the answers instead of  having an answer and looking for proof you are  right, because when you are  wrong you will create more anxiety not peace.  

Biew your  days as if you are an orchestra  conductor...you can shape the sound of the entire song of life, however, accept that the viola and the kettle drum will always sound  like the viola and the kettle drum and yet you can add or subtract instruments as you  go.  Remember that “with” and because of” are two different things.  You will want to experience life with others, yet peace and joy does not come because of others.  Your willingness to be with others in the moment shapes  your narrative even as you create it’s meaning.  

Alright...that’s k probably enough to chew on for today.  I’ll end today with a  little task for you—one that I have. Found really helpful.  Imagine you  have the chance to write a letter that will be delivered to  yourself at age 15, what would you say in three sentences?  Now. Imagine you  needed to write a letter to the person you will become 15 years from now..What. Three or four sentences would you  share?

Tomorrow there will be some more  ideas about building a narrative and a few final thoughts on the power. You have as. A creative soul.

For now..have fun time traveling. 

Seeking peace and joy? – Is it still Black Tuesday?

THIS IS NO TIME TO PANIC—AND SOME OTHER  WELL-MEANING MOUTHFULSToday marks the  90th  anniversary  of BLACK TUESDAY—the day the stock market crashed, the banks started to close and the “Great Depression” (quite possibly.history’s most insulting oxymoron) took  hold of the nation’s and the world’s economy.  So when did it end?  Not yet—I would argue—not yet.

The “depression narrative became the  life story for our grandparents, their  parents, and many of their  children.  In so many ways it kicked off a narrative where an individual could never get enough security, never protect enough wealth, never  fully trust government, and that’s just for starters.  Not much more. Than a generation. Ago, employers and employees  alike were determined to have. 20 or 30 year careers as a norm.  Employees were engaged in their. Workplace because  their was not an expectation of  many job changes, if any at all.  

So you say...”that’s just not true anymore.”  I’d say....”of course it’s not—you are right”. However, ask almost any parent what they would want for their. Children in terms of  a career and life and they would  most likely say they want their kids to find. A job they love and can hold on to—one with benefits, a great life partner, a healthy existence, and a nice family.  

In short the “depression” led to a fairly common social narrative that rolls on even though most. Adults today, and practically any youth will tell you “that’s  not things are  today.”  

So what’s all this have to do with  seeking peace and joy?   Well...I don’t usually say this...but it’s simple.   Seeking peace and joy includes growing  your  ability to craft, adopt, and pursue your own personal narrative.  Until quite  recently any individual had only about three narratives to use as 

prototypes.  There is/was the “haves and haves mores—the haves enough, but won’t ever be a have more—and the we don’t have enough because...and most people  didn’t have too many problems falling into  their  chosen or prescribed cultural spots.  Now, however,  you probably. Have an entire  society that falls into  one of four narratives that are much different from those, and far more difficult to construct a life narrative around.  I see out there these four:

1. I have  a lot and I am entitled to it—pleacse don’t change the universe now.
2. The “I’m next in line and I’ll learn some things and get mine..narrative
3. The “I’m different than “those  people and I will fight to get mine”  Narrative
1. The “none of this really makes sense, I’m. A bit lost, and I am afraid to do much of anything” narrative

The challenge is  clear (or at least to me).  All the new narratives divide people up  a bit differently and each comes with a free truckload of anxiety.  

What’s more set against the backdrop of the depression this task of being  able to or having to create a new personal narrative is pretty jarring.  It requires skills that are schools didn’t (and still do not) teach.  We are still teaching people to by satisfied industrial factory workers sprinkled with a few administrators and even fewer le3aders.  We  have a generation of people. Growing older  who need  to be social networking,  flexible, problem-solving machines, but we are  only teaching the “machines” part.  ThaThat leaves us. On our own to.  Find a narrative  that encompasses flexible problem solving in order to approach the world in a peaceful way.  

So this is. Where it stands  right now.  

The depression set a social narrative that  still influences much of out range of  tools for forming our. Current personal narrative.  That. Narrative doesn’t really work anymore although it still influences many beliefs and changing. It rewquires  anxiety provoking change.  We are are, around the world, faced with the task of creating our. Own new dominant narrative that may not come.  At the national level.  We may have to build it at the.indivdual, family, or community level instead and we will each have to take an active role in  creating our own.  So we have a brick wall of anxiety. Blocking our search for peace and joy.  

What do we do?   —Read tomorrow for ideas...

For now relax you know the whole world is going through this (if you care about. What others are doing and thinking)...I know, I know...in the whole history of  helping people relax—telling  someone to relax has never  worked—so till tomorrow simply ask yourself “what is my “Great Depression?”  Now.....

Peace, joy, and the hourglass

 PEACE, JOY, AND THE HOUR GLASS

Time to. Set down last night’s blunder

Ride the. Next wave don’t  go under

Meet a new day  full of wonder

Grab the lightning become the thunder

As the sunset  meets the range

Some. New ideas you  must arrange

Some  feel familiar and others strange

Hold On with faith embrace the change

Call your angels. From the twilight zone

To guide your steps through  sand  and stone

Some dreams you reach may be your. Own

But I’ll share your time  you won’t walk alone

Fret not when final bells will chime

Feel your soul’s rhythm speak your heart’s rhyme

Oh sure you’ll fall but  next you’ll climb

As you hold dear each grain of time

Save room for dessert when you’re seeking peace and joy

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Seeking Peace & Joy?—Leave Time for Dessert

Last night’s dinner was  a lightly coated chicken breast, diced baked and then flash fried potato, and mixed veggies.  Plenty to eat for everyone, but no dessert.  Now, we  almost  always have some sort of cookies or ice cream or cake or chocolate etc. around but last night we didn’t and of course instead of being thankful for all the good food I’d just plowed. Through, I focused on what I didn’t have.  Raise your hand if you’ve ever focused on what.you didn’t have directly after getting something totally worth while.  Okay everyone with your hand up can put it down and the rest of you better. Never tell me “the check is in the mail.”  

So now I couldn’t. Help but look up some  facts about cake and  ice cream (two. Things that seem to disappear pretty quickly from the dessert  counter and  sometimes from our. Counter and fridge.  I found some interesting  facts and I’m going to pass them along—well right after this little biblical interlude that floated through my mind.

So Phil was walking. Down the  street and notices  his shoe is  untied.  He is a very. Careful guy and doesn’t want to trip over  the string so he kneels down.  Unfortunately, in the process of  doing that his smart  phone pops out of his pocket and slides into the street.  He reaches for it just as the route 11 bus rounds a the corner and then a flash of  light.  “Welcome to  Heaven Phil.  My. Name is  Gabriel and right after lunch we’ll start your flying lessons and get you fitted for a halo and whatnot.”  The two heavenly bodies magically  appear at a table where there are a whole. Group of angels sitting.  Gabriel  says to Phil “when you hear the harp strike 12 you just think of what you want to eat and  it will appear.  Phil smiles as the harp starts to sound.  Bing—a hot turkey sandwich  on toasted wheat bread, some fresh fruit, a cup of his favorite soup. Finally, some cake pops  onto the table.  “Wow,” declares Phil “it’s a miracle.”  Gabriel shrugs.  “There are a lot. Of those around here.”  Phil stops chewing for a second and looks a bit  perplexed.  “Far be it for me to complain—after all I’m in heaven and all and and this lunch thing is amazing, but the cake...it’s not  what Iordered.”  Gabriel just grinned and tilted. His halo slightly  to the right. “Look Phil you’re an angel now...you may as well get used to  this white cake.  It’s. The only kind we get.”  

Alright  I won’t mention brands here, however unlike Phil you can go to  the superstore and.   Choose from  30 varieties of cake from DH and they are only one of three  biggest dessert mix  companies.  That Betty lady and the Dough Boy also have  a myriad of options.  In fact, if you made a different  cake/frosting combo every day—you would have an eternity to eat cake. As the resulting factorial would be  33 digits long even before the frosting variations were added.  Oh and we’re not counting. Cheese cake, coffee cake, or twinkies.  

So in fact, if the French rioters would  have  been  “let to eat  cake,” sop to speak they would have had plenty.  

So what goes with cake?  Ice Cream. Since people are inventing. New flavors all thetime (Ben and Jerry are just two of the culprits), it is useless to research. How many flavors of ice cream there are now or at any given time.  What we do know is that the  average American eats 48 pints of ice cream each year.  The average life  expectancy  is over 70 now so we are talking over 400 gallons of the stuff.  

Well this research. On dessert was making me hungry, but then I   Read some  amazing stats. That sort of  helped me lose my appetite.  

The World Health Organization believes that by the  end of 2020   We will have developed a world food  supply  that could feed the entire world if we would invest $28 billion dollars in the production and storage of food.  That seems pretty  positive...but then  we spend $59 billion a year worldwide on ice cream.  

Well...Phil got used to the Angel Food Cake...but I’m going to have to think a bit about the ice cream thing before I can  make room for dessert.  

Will I eventually. Give in?  Sure... but  maybe for a while I’ll make sure that others a eat dessert first—

For now I’ll leave you with a thought. That almost always brings me some peace and joy.  Many. People have  quoted and paraphrased this and  so here’s the gospel according to Phil...

“Peaceful and Joyful is the  person—not. Who gets what he wants—but learns to want what is placed in. Front of  them on the. Table. Of. Life.”  

some  weekend poetry and song coming next

I hear some trumpet music..good lord I hope  it’s just Louis Armstrong....Peace  

Thank you Thursday – the road less taken

THANK YOU THURSDAY—-FOR THE “ROAD NOT TAKEN

We were slightly hunched over a backgammon table with an empty beer bottle  by each leg listening to “slow Hand” by  “Clapton”.  Bob held the dice in his hand and curled his lip.  “We have enough beer?” We’ve had more beer than sex this week,” I replied ‘you asshole that’s not what I meant  and ...” I just started laughing.  We’ll have to. Get some  more before it gets dark.... and then he got this twinkly in  his  eye and says “ludes” ( a nickname for my calm when it didn’t seem like anyone else. Could be) “keep laughing from the road less taken.”  “You planning on driving me out into the woods and. Leaving me on a pat?,” I snickered.  “No...but we’re both headed there.”  Lay Down Sally came to the end...we headed out to the mighty Ford EXP and went to get  another. Couple cases of Bud...because it was. Payday otherwise we were going  to buy cheap beer.  

Well this summer see had a quasi-family reunion featuring  nearly all my cousins, aunts, and uncles from. One side of my family and of course stories  bubbled up like so much foam from a poorly drawn Solo cup from the. Keg.  No. Wee didn’t have a keg. We are too old and sophisticated for that—and my uncle lives pretty close to a very steep bluff and we’re a little strange—not stupid.  

Well of  course  we have. Had some common experiences as family members, however, there came a moment when I realized that I have  spent a few miles on the. Road not taken.  This isn’t the first time I’ve had that feeling, but it was. Perhaps only the second or third time I felt incredibly thankful for having traveled that road.  Sure has it  created some  discomfort when I failed to help people understand where I was coming from. In my thought process—yet that happens a to everyone I suspect.

By wandering off the  trampled path, I have met extraordinary people and have had the chance to use a  very wide range of my  given and developed gifts.  I have found some of my limits and have learned just which ones I was  placing on myself.  While I haven’t completely eliminated the  coulda woulda shoulda habits that. Invade the souls  of many Ihave seen the power of. Grace and friendship banish  the ghosts that come with these time after time.  

So this post is  just to say thanks to all who have walked  with me on this path for years, months, weeks, days, and even moments and have been there to hear me laugh... and since Bob’s birthday would have been. Last week....thanks especially to him as he is my guardian angel or at least the joker who keeps me laughing.  RIP RVR. 

Time one last time for now tick-tock tick-tock

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES —IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES—FOR SEEKING PEACE AND JOY

Well here it is “Thank  You  Thursday” and I’m writing. About time for the third time in a row.  So this will be a two post day and I hope it’s not the best of posts and the worst of posts.  Having said that, look for a second post  today because gratitude should never wait until you wish you would have  given it.

Now on with the show....

So far I’ve presented my “toilet opinion” about time.  Humans try to treat time as if it were a concrete and linear. Thing.  We claim. To want to “save it,” use it as a way of assigning  monetary value to things like work,” and act as if if can be measured and controlled.  There are a lot of “experts” who have written millions of words about our faults when it comes to using time and have. Kindly given us thousand of their insights  about how we can be better people if we change the way we  use  our pile of time.  My main point so far is that if we experience things that are happening.right now.  More fully then we get more for our money when oit comes  to time and that there is no possible way to make or save  more time, therefore, worrying aboi,ut it doesn’t make  much sense to me...again...my opinion.

So what else. Is there  to say about time?  

Spin the turntable and groove on some David Bowie  and Tom Petty..”Time may change me...but I can’t trace time...and t”the waiting is the hardest part.  I’ve found seeking peace. And. Or joy is far simpler when I accept that almost everything. Has  a rhythm or a season “

(Turn, turn, turn) and experiences do change the way  I interpret the present and give me choices about how to  think about things all the timne.  My role in this is to carry forward in my current  attitude or to create another one by changing my stance and my behaviors.  This may work for you and it may not —-again no judgment by me just the. Way Iexperiment with life I guess.  Now let’s look at waitingI hate waiting——or  Ione did.  One, I have decided that. When I reach a waiting  place—let’s say at the airport—it’s time to open up. All my senses and practice. Noticing all the input the universe  is giving  me.  I try to literally smell the coffee....like where the closest coffee shop might be.  I look around in the  gift shop at least. Once if I can.  By the way, you know you are in a bad airport when the  airport has one of your pieces. Of luggage on display for sale.  

 I watch the children who are  focused on so many different things. I listen to the older folks talk about their. Journey and their families and I especially listen to the  questions they ask.   In short Iexpand my awareness and that fills up the. Time quite nicely most of thetime.  When I go to my. Physician’s office they are always playing home improvement and house flipping shows on the TV—so I never watch these at home because I will get the binge watching chance while I’m  waiting to. Get. A blood draw or the chance  to bend over and cough —what TMI?  Again in terms of waiting..I work really hard at understanding things take exactly as long as they were meant to take.  In the doctor’s office you get a chance to see how  other people deal with their discomfort and poor health.  You don’t get that chance let’s say at a restaurant...or in line at the post office.  You just can’t walk up to a stranger on the street and say tell me about. That strange. Sensation that you think is coming from your kidneys,” or how many times at the library to. People  lean forward and whisper “do you want to know about  this blood in my urine?”  That has happened  to me at the doctor’s office and been a good conversation starter.  I guess what I’m saying. Is that you can change waiting into doing and hoping not a situation that is disappointing and annoying.  

Thank you for using. A bunch of time this week in reading about my thoughts...I hope it changes the way you feel about this concept and makes it a little. More possible to seek peace and joy.   I’m going to end this with a short rhyme

is my stomach trained by the noonday clock?I’m afraid so sometimes tick tock tick tock.Does time dictate how fast I walk

Well it just may tick tock tick tock

DoI sometimes feel in  time I’m frozen Tick Tock Tick Tock

Or doing something else I’d chosen Tick tock tick tockSure. At times Ifeel that way and. How tick tock tick tock

But I still have this time right now tick tock tick tock  But since I don’t know when my times’ done tick tock tick  tock

I’ll cherish moments—every one Tick tock tick tock—silence

Time management is a piece of cake – whatever

TIME MANAGEMENT IS A PIECE OF CAKE— Oh Whatever

Okay this is the second of. Three posts in a row on “time.”  thanks for  using some of. Your time to read this by the. Way. 

It’s  just. 10:30  AM where I am right now...well not now it’s 10 30 and  a grew seconds...oh wait it’s a few seconds. After that....oh crap now it’s. 10:31.   OH goodness now I’m just going to start the stop watch feature on my phone and  when I’m  done I’ll know how long it took me to write this.  

In  the. Post right before this I started. A look at time management because I became fascinated by how we (or I) sometimes determine things like hunger based on what time it is and things like becoming. More effective and efficient. By “saving” time.”  My curiousity set off a series of   Questions in. My mind (I know—that. Doesn’t take much for me.

So I di8d a quick book search on “time management.”  What did I discover?  There  are. A lot of people out there who don’t think I’m using my time very well because they had to write a book about it.  It seems a they want me to use some of my valuable  time  reading their books, listening to their podcasts, and tracking their blogs and maybe some of that would be worth it.  I also learned that there’s a lot of disagreement or variety or viewpoints on the topic... except for the3 fact that most the. Writers  argue that. Most people need help in this area.  So as I suggested yesterday there are a lot of ways  we think we might save time but they don’t really help much—add reading about  time management until you find an exact answer to the list.

In short, most people  have an opinion on time use and  for the most part a lot of them are “toilet opinions”—you know, most people have. One and sometime it’s full of  __it.

So here’s mine and it might be a toilet opinion too.  Time is money.  No it’s not but we  want desperately to make it. So.  We  want. To save it, track it, pay for work by marking it in a computer or punching a time clock.   You know we want to  measure it. In a finite way like how much time  do I have and. How much time  will this take?   We want to somehow own time and  claim it as ours.  We work so very hard to construct time  as something that is.  Linear and measurable.  Human beings. Seem to be obsessed with  that  type of thing.  Take for example we. Have worked our scientific butts off to establish that Stone Henge is some type of astronomic. Calendar.  That do calendars do?  Measure time.   Now I’d like to ask one of the. Ancient druids just. How that whole configuration worked.  Maybe it  on a daily basis or an hourly basis in which case  did they record time that they could measure using  it?  I can’t help but think some pre-historic supervisor going out to a ancient  nomad and. Saying “I want three huts built before the sun passes two of those big upright  stones and I’ll pay you  15 sheep per every third. Of those   Horizontal stones if the roof doesn’t leak.”  

Alright back to my observations on ime for today.... Our culture screams at us that the reason we don’t. Always do what we say we want to do or what someone else wants us to do is because we. Don’t use our time well or we run out of  time and they. Pina negative connotation on it and call us flawed.  My opinion is ... if you ever feel you have. Too much time you  may might not be creating enough or you have reached the end of a rest period.  Perhaps you aren’t  taking advantage of  all the input that is available and.  You are letting your mind and body  just float through life?  I’m not going to judge you for it...it’s. Just something to. Think about.  What works for me on a regular basis is ponder what. My values are and what I can bring to others, then I set my actions into motion.  Then I make mistakes and start over...and then I recycle.  I also assume everything takes just. The amount. Of time it was supposed to take.  People will argue against my view—which is a waste of their time by the way.

To summarize for today... we  seem to have a human need to  make time linear, , measureable, and controllable.  If you don’t feel like. Your time  fits those characteristics, there are a lot of books written to remind you of your inadequacy  when it comes to time.  For me the challenge. Is  creating experiences that use time in ways that I think or feel  represent my values and  that I engage in activities that demonstrate those beliefs.  It doesn’t always work out just right, but the idea that time  management is something  simple and universal just doesn’t  make sense to me... You what does?  Continuing this discussion one more day in about 20 hours from now.  

By the way writing this took 58 minutes and 21.77 seconds.   I’ll set my sun dial  and finish this thread as the shadow grows long on the left side of the circle.  ..

Almost out of time – or maybe not time peace enjoy part one of three

YOU’RE ALMOST OUT OF TIME—OR MAYBE NOT

Peace, Joy and Time

This morning—well in the night sometime I woke up hungry.  Now, I didn’t rush right out to the kitchen (oh sometimes a I do so I’m not judging anyone here).  I thought about asking my phone what time it was....then I stopped.  What does  time have to. Do with hunger?  Well I listened to  part of  an audio book and after a good half hour I felt hungry still so I thought about. My options.  I decided on toast.  Someday I’m going to write about toast but today I’m writing about time.  

So I’m standing in the kitchen breathing in the smell of toast because  we have this fancy toaster and. I never  have learned what settings to use so I pop the toast out when I think it is done.  “You should just learn how to  run the toaster Mr. Brilliant,” I can hear you thinking it so you don’t have to say anything.  NowIget a little butter and sugar out, put it on the toast and of course that means it’s time to eat?  Nope, of course not—it’s time for a trip to the bathroom because when you get to be a certain age waking up always means a trip to the bathroom unless you fell asleep in there—but that’s probably another story.  

Well, it’s still dark out but now I have toast and life is  good.  Now I could pay attention to  the toast I made and enjoy it, but I just start chewing semi-burned bread and wondering how long till the sun comes out?   Off course that train of thought moves right into the tunnel of “whendo we turn the clocks back?”

Yes in a couple weeks some of us will move the entire clock back an hour and then agree we are actually living at a different  time than we were just a few seconds before that... I propose that each of us gets  to move the clock backward or forward an hour twice a year, however, it would just last that day and we could  have the hour like on our birthday or when we have a layover at  the airport—whatever...

Okay...okay...it. Is time  to get seriously to the. Point here.

After my toast I listened to a “self-help” podcast and the host said “We. All need to make moretime for the important things in our life.”  Well I have a coffee maker, and I’ve seen a bread maker, however I searched Amazon and I didn’t find a time maker.  I did find a  left-handed banana slicer.  Now, I understand that  these folks were saying I. Need to use my time differently.  Unfortunately, they talked about becoming more efficient and effective What they were really talking about was  going faster or not doing some things.  

That argument sounds so good in theory, however, I stopped to consider it a bit more.  Well what would I. Cut out.  I spend a lot of annoying time shaving every year and yet facts indicate that. The average adul male beards  only grows about six inches per year Oh and I like to eat Ketchup or catsup on some things and talk about  a time waster?  The average speed at which  that fine tomato based yum leaves the  bottle is 35 miles per year.  Maybe I could go to self-checkout at the  grocery store instead of  standing in line....because. It’s  faster right?   Well let’s see...there is me who runs the  register at self self check maybe 100 times a year tops and there’s a trained cashier who  serves thousands of customers a year—who do you think might be faster?  But if you want, go ahead serve yourself—run to your car—get on the road and when the stop light turns. Red—thanks for playing the time savings  game...pick up your consolation prize.  

What if faster has nothing to do with saving time.... what if we  look at using time to create experiences a that we value regardless of  what a clock says?  

What if  we realize when we are enjoying something and open up all our senses in order to pack in far more  sensory info into our present moments?  When someone  says something that makes. You laugh, go ahead ad smile right out loud and if that makes someone else smile then that’s efficient—I mean a laugh and two smiles coming from one event—that’s efficient and effective and how long did it take?  Who cares?

Share. A creative idea with someone.  You both can probably grow the idea faster that either. Of you could do that separately and bam!—you have saved some more time!  

Okay....I’m going to stop for now because you’ve used enough of your time for. Now.  I’ll be back on. This topic tomorrow and the same bat time.    Until then I’m going to think about how to  connect my ketchup bottle  to a power washer or. A Wagner power painter...35 miles per year just won’t  cut it.  :)

  

A little pre-Monday optimism the musical LOL

OPTIMISM — PEACE & JOY

Warning the video (visual part not the sound).is a little flashy and the Grand Canyon is a little crack in the  ground.   I WAS GOING FOR A 60’STHING...BUT.I THINK IT IS AN “I WEAR MY SUNGLASSES AT NIGHT LSD  EFFECT...

If it freaks you out then  I’ve accomplished my far out task with the lyrics so peace man and. All you groovy chicks.

Optimism 

By Jim. Whalen

So many fallen angels—uneducated scribes

we have built our walls so. Tall , We can’t learn from other tribes

When’s the last time that we thought that our glass was half full?

Listened to each other and didn’t need control?

Why have we forgotten?  To throw each other rope

so that we can hold on to

What’s left of our hope—what’s left of our hope...

Well I think....

that we have the courage to make our mind grow still

Find the  little light inside and reignite our will

To smile at one another  so 

Some demons can be slain

And to keep  each others’ dreams

From rolling down the drain

You see ..

We can lift up fallen angels and educate  the scribesBuild windows  in our walls   so we can learn from other tribes

And..  We can still create far more than we destroy

And find ourselves  together on the path to peace and joy

We can still creat far more than we destroy and we can walk together on the path to  peace and joy

Path to peace and joy—seek out peace ad joy

Have the end of a superior  Sunday or. A Marvelous Monday!

A song of peace and joy?

 PEACE, JOY AND LEARNING  TO BE STILL

Twenty some years ago the Eagles of Hotel California fame not of  let’s say Boston. College or Philadelphia, released a song titled  “Learn to Be Still.”  Some mornings I wake up pretty still so to speak and others are like today.  I can’t wait to pick up my guitar or take out the trash or wipe a little flour  off the counter or even goodness me clean up a around the toilet.  So, before I sat down to write this I’ve already done  many of these things and now maybe, just maybe, I’m still enough to put some thoughts together in a way that reaches out from behind  all the noise.  

Here goes... 

So today is  a day for. Writing a song...some days I can just feel  that inside.  I have some lyrics bubbling. Up and a couple of chord combinations that have been waiting  for the lyrics of some kind to enhance.  Earlier in the week I read a quote about  songwriting.  Arlo Guthrie (mostly known for  Alice’s  Restaurant) Described song writing as if it were fishing.  Lyrics or words  go by. In a stream and  eventually , as long as your hook is in the water, you will catch the right ones.  He does, however, add that you shouldn’t fish downstream from Bob Dylan.  

That being said, I thought I’d offer up a few lyrics that have been rolling  through my mind this morning.  Of course, listen.to Learn to Be  Still from the Eagles and then maybe a song titled “Last Resort” that will let you know how  my state of mind was (not a very peaceful or joyful one)  first thing today.  Now I’m going to share  a verse from two. Songs I’ve been working. On  One is nearly finished but the melody or chord progression isn’t quite. There yet and the other one  is part of the song I’ll likely  work on most the rest of today until I record a podcast this afternoon.

Anyway here are those lyrics and they have to do with seeking peace and joy.

How much longer until we see some rain?

Will it wash away this dust that has settled on my brain

Is that light in the darkness. An oncoming train

Have the  dreams all vanished or do some remain

These are the questions that seep into my soul

Do I stand back and. Wait or crank it up, crank it  up let it roll?

A 

Other song... 

 And the sage said as  she  sighed

When’s the last time that  we’ve tried

To build together. Not divideAsk what others feel inside

Set your  bank account aside  and 

Let your souls decide

So it’s going to be a peace and joy roller coaster today...because  while. The lyrics come forth I will gain peace, yet joy might not come till the song is done and sometimes that’s a day and sometimes that’s. A bit longer...

Oh well my  soul is engaged now and that’s. Where the journey always  feels best to me.  

Find a song to sing... More Sooon