National tooth fairy day it’s a mouthful of peace and joy

The tooth The Whole Tooth and Nothing but the Tooth?

So It’s not only the last  day of February at least  on years that don’t take a leap.  Now do we often leap backwards because adding  a day sets the first of March and the rest of the year back a day.  Maybe we should call it something else?  Any suggestions?  Okay back to today… it’s National Tooth fairy Day.  Does anyone else find it curious that  most every other “holiday” comes with great encouragement  to eat?  You know and it’s often sweets we are encouraged to enjoy.  You know there are Easter Eggs, Chocolate for Valentine’s Day, and candy canes.  So after. Parents provide mythical characters for these holidays it’s only fair (fairy) that we get a holiday for when our teeth fall from out that crap we eat.  

So… what do we know about the tooth fairy?

The “fairy” is not a pretty princess type being worldwide.  In several nations the night visitor is a mouse-like character.  The fairy is getting some age on her.  We first started hearing about the canine collected about 114 years ago.  It’s not an easy job as there. Are an estimated  300,000 stops per night and we better hope the  payment method has gone digital as estimates are that  the fairy would be carrying around about a million dollars in various currencies.  research also shows that as the stock indexes increase the tooth tally increases.  There are some estimates that this year’s  yield will cost over $4.00 per tooth.  

So what’s the “seeking. Peace and joy angle? 

Let’s start with the whole notion of the need for a tooth fairy.  Why?  Let’s say that  kids might be a bit afraid  to find certain body parts  hurt and then they are being encouraged to help them fall off or out.  If a kid falls down and scrapes a knee and it starts to bleed a bit we don’t encourage them to wiggle it until the leg falls out.  We don’t tie the ankle to a door and slam it to see if that fixes the problem.  so sure… it seems like a bribe to be brave  might be in order?  For years kids have heard commercials and dentists preach the need to floss.  Now flossing  will do no good whatsoever to maintain of preserve the initial  set of teeth from exit strategies.  Oh and research shows flossing doesn’t really help adult teeth either—no crap.  Didn’t anyone stand up at the initial floss design meeting and say, “are we sure that putting a little string in our mouths is the greatest use of our time?”   And added to that what do you use to get little pieces of floss out from between your teeth?  Oh wait I know …let’s jam sharp skinny pieces of wood in there.” You see the teeth are a microcosm  of life.  Use use teeth like time.  We have a limited number and there is some pain associated  with teeth yet in general teeth  in almost any condition allow us  to eat.  Life in almost any condition allows  us to experience  the world and form meanings.  Like teeth, we let many. Days go by and onlyappreciate  life/teeth after there has been some painful issues show up and get  resolved.  Oh and to rid ourselves of pain we will do almost anything like read countless self-help books, watch Dr. Phil, and pay big pharma huge dollar amounts.  As far as teeth are concerned,we let some stranger stick sharp metal objects in our mouth and even sedate us so that they can use a power drill between. Our gums.  

Unfortunately with teeth and with life we have learned to fear even the smallest amount. Of pain even when we  know that this pain rarely impacts a larger purpose.  Oh and maybe  a little sleep and a little cash along with a little pain means things will turn  out okay in the morning as you start another day?  

Happy National Tooth. Fairy Day!

 

Self-help prayer?

 Can you help us Dr Freud 

Hopeful moments  lie destroyed

As the logic now employed 

Boldlyclaims to fill the void

While it  fuels the paranoid

Trumpetss fears we can’t avoid

Yet if love could be deployed

Peace of Mind might be enjoyed?

#self help?

You Don’t Have To Be A Suckr…but sometimes it’s OK

War! What is it Good For?

Ask Edwin Star 

The Benefits of Being  Centered?

So yesterday someone accused me of being a peace extremist...okay do you think someone who titles a blog and podcast seeking peace and joy is going to get riled  up about being handed that label?  Well actually I did get a little upset and instead of screaming  out I have decided to use today’s blog to counter the extreme by talking about the center. Oh not the political center.  Oh not the economic center.  Oh not the religious center.  We’re not  even going with Bell Russell, Wilt Chamerlain, or Shaquille

No we’re going for a smile instead  of hate and going right for the ore.  What then  is the thing that creates a smile at the center?  Well  of course...

It’s  the chocolate at the center of the tootsie pop (you know the 1930 modification to the roll——the tootsie roll. 

This week marks the birth of the tootsie roll and since 1896 (although some places say it was 1899) it’s inventor Leo Hirschfield started rocking the world for Stirns and Saalberg.   

Over time the tootsie roll has found itself.  In some crazy places.  Oh sure  this 2 inch treat  made it’s way. Into candy stores and general  store displays, yet that’s just a start.  It, along with m&Ms has gone to war.  The TR has found its way into engineering labs at major universities where budding young academics  have constructed elaborate licking machines specially designed to address the critical question of. “How many licks does it take to get. To the center of a tootsie pop (with or without. The Indian shooting an arrow  near.a star).  The two major universities that built the most sophisticated and best functioning licking machines were at Purdue University and the University of Michigan.  According to  the Boilermaker brains it takes 364 licks  and according  to the Michigan mouth machine makers it takes about 413.  My own research indicates it takes  only about 213 to 227 depending upon  mouth moisture levels.  And speaking of numbers...Data indicate that the standard tootsie  is a bit over 2.2 inches long.  Now there are smaller “fun sized”. And jumbo  versions.  Manufacturing sources  estimate that each day sees the birth of 64,000 thousand delightful treats and placed end to end that’s just a hair over two and a quarter miles  every day

Now here’s some other wisdom  to be found in tootsie... 

they didn’t  avoid changing and trying to honor diverse tastes.  The newest is mango, however, there are raspberry blueberry, root beer, and watermellon flavors  just to name a few.  My personal favorite tootsie pop/roll combo is likely grape with chocolate, however I’m not turning down red or orange—let’s face it I’m not turning down any.  

So what’s this have to do with seeking peace and joy?

You can be at the center  just like the tootsie roll and still be loved by them masses and fulfill  your purpose.  You can change with the times and try new flavors for a while.  Other people can  have other preferences and it doesn’t.need to upset you because there is plenty in our culture to go around.  In short you can love the center and explore  many different ways to do that.

Finally.... does anyone wonder  how much taxpayer  money went into building. These. Lickers and where they are nw?  To quote the wise owl.... “three.”  Or as the voice over  guy  offers, “the world may never know.”   

War! What is it Good For?

Ask Edwin Star 

The Benefits of Being  Centered?

So yesterday someone accused me of being a peace extremist...okay do you think someone who titles a blog and podcast seeking peace and joy is going to get riled  up about being handed that label?  Well actually I did get a little upset and instead of screaming  out I have decided to use today’s blog to counter the extreme by talking about the center. Oh not the political center.  Oh not the economic center.  Oh not the religious center.  We’re not  even going with Bell Russell, Wilt Chamerlain, or Shaquille

No we’re going for a smile instead  of hate and going right for the ore.  What then  is the thing that creates a smile at the center?  Well  of course...

It’s  the chocolate at the center of the tootsie pop—the tootsie roll. 

This week marks the birth of the tootsie roll and since 1896 (although some places say it was 1899) it’s inventor Leo Hirschfield started rocking the world for Stirns and Saalberg.   

Over time the tootsie roll has found itself.  In some crazy places.  Oh sure  this 2 inch treat  made it’s way. Into candy stores and general  store displays, yet that’s just a start.  It, along with m&Ms has gone to war.  The TR has found its way into engineering labs at major universities where budding young academics  have constructed elaborate licking machines specially designed to address the critical question of. “How many licks does it take to get. To the center of a tootsie pop (with or without. The Indian shooting an arrow  near.a star).  The two major universities that built the most sophisticated and best functioning licking machines were at Purdue University and the University of Michigan.  According to  the Boilermaker brains it takes 364 licks  and according  to the Michigan mouth machine makers it takes about 413.  My own research indicates it takes  only about 213 to 227 depending upon  mouth moisture levels.  And speaking of numbers...Data indicate that the standard tootsie  is a bit over 2.2 inches long.  Now there are smaller “fun sized”. And jumbo  versions.  Manufacturing sources  estimate that each day sees the birth of 64,000 thousand delightful treats and placed end to end that’s just a hair over two and a quarter miles  every day

Now here’s some other wisdom  to be found in tootsie... 

they didn’t  avoid changing and trying to honor diverse tastes.  The newest is mango, however, there are raspberry blueberry, root beer, and watermellon flavors  just to name a few.  My personal favorite tootsie pop/roll combo is likely grape with chocolate, however I’m not turning down red or orange—let’s face it I’m not turning down any.  

So what’s this have to do with seeking peace and joy?

You can be at the center  just like the tootsie roll and still be loved by them masses and fulfill  your purpose.  You can change with the times and try new flavors for a while.  Other people can  have other preferences and it doesn’t.need to upset you because there is plenty in our culture to go around.  In short you can love the center and explore  many different ways to do that.

Finally.... does anyone wonder  how much taxpayer  money went into building. These. Lickers and where they are nw?  To quote the wise owl.... “three.”  Or as the voice over  guy  offers, “the world may never know.”   

 

Growing up to be or not to be the crazy ones

 What To Be Or Not To Be -a Continuation 

Well this is technically Part III of the “President’s” theme.  However, much like Jaws  3 and the Matrix 3 or The Godfather 3 it is not necessarilymuch the same as the initial one or two.  Only cultural phenoms like Halloween and sharknado can pull off sequels without some digression or regression right?  

Anyway...

Seeking Peace and Joy and What to Be.

So this blog and the podcast that constitute the SPJU get from  inspired thoughts to digital domains through Apple  products.  This is not a commercial, yet these devices do make sharing fairly simple and on the birthday of Steve Jobs it seems appropriate to tip a madhatters hat to him.  Steve’s life has been abundantly documented and described, yet probably misunderstood.  Seeking Peace and Joy almost always requires experiencing the now and then bringing  the meaning to these experiences into awareness.  This is not always an orderly human experience so it might be considered a “crazy” way to approach Peace and Joy.  On the other hand search Steve Jobs and “crazy ones” and some insights might be gained as to how peace and joy and the seeking of same are linked to Jobs....

Would  a person like to grow up to be like Steve Jobs?  If you mean rich and misunderstood —well I’m halfway there.  Sorry I’m not going to work on the rich (in money terms) part so maybe I’m all the way?  

I’ll make no more comments about money with the exception of saying we have a lot of people  acting like Monopoly  tycoons these days and all I can think is—there is no such thing as “free parking” nor have I ever seen a bank error in my favor.  

The whole thing about growing up is that there is a stealth implication that a person gets to a final point where they are “up”. 

Maybe the question we could ask ourselves and others  would work out better if. It was—

Who or what will you be when you  are convinced of and dedicated to growing?  You know dedicated to growing. In knowledge and wisdom—dedicated to growing in empathy—dedicated to growing in service to your purpose and the purposes in others who share the same values?  

What or who would we/I become. If we/I we started to grow in curiosity instead of fear and love instead of the need to be worshiped?  

No I don’t want to grow up to be president, yet I do want to grow wiser, more empathetic, more curious, and more able to find ways to love  my fellow human passengers on this blue marble.  

...and yes in seeking peace and joy there seems to be some growth in those directions so like our first president. I’m looking For my distillery And opium?

.Well…maybe not if it means Rhino teeth…you see the universe throws you some balance points.  That leaves us with one final question….

What are we going to be when we grow to be more like  children—full of wonder—full of laughter—satisfied  with simpler things?  

Presidents science religion and writing and other things we get wrong sometimes including today

 W important  Presidential History Part 2 and SO MUCH MORE

SO LET’S GET RIGHT TO IT—IN THE PREVIOUS POST I STATED THAT  MONROE WAS THE SKINNY-DIPPING PRESIDENT.

THIS WAS WRONG!!!!!  IT WAS. JOHN QUNICY ADAMS

Also the entry didn’t make mention of some other important  historical note.  Washington used a lot of strange dental work and heck yes this was painful.  Therefore George used a lot of opium.  Was he the Father of the Opiod epidemic?

This entry is being written and posted on his actual birthday of 2/22 and while we need to get to the topic of what we are going to be when. We grow up as promised in the previous post that has to wait one more day or so.  Why?  well there is another more important  thread to follow today.  

What’s more important. Than growing up and what’s to be done then?   Well…. Ask Galileo 

You see it was on 2/22 that Galileo  made the public declaration that scientific  study shows the Earth  moves around the sun and that the Earth is not at the center of the universe.  

So answering this debate  should have been celebrated right?  Not exactly.  Galileo  was prosecuted and placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.  Yes indeed he used science to observe and present the available facts/observations.  His  reasoning was correct and still wham!  This makes me wonder. If we are treating  the extreme proponents  and opponents of COVID. Shots fairly.  After all science  will eventually get  to shining a light on this to the point  where we can feel relatively certain about what getting COVID means and what life after the “pandemic” will be.  For now let’s maybe be patient and curious and understand  that most of the time people. Motivated by wisdom usually aren’t trying to gather power and influence.  Now those seeking riches?…try not to judge them either, however, stay aware of the difference of treating symptoms with products and healing.  We will have treatments far sooner than we have healed.  

were all the scientists that stared into the heavens bad scientists? Or. Bad People?  Who has earned the right to throw the first stone?  

Anyway the next entry will focus on “what to be when grown up”. For now let’s raise a glass to the opium using, liquor making “father” of our country and also salute Galileo for being right and being treated like  he was wrong…. Remember  that history draws strange lines,yet, justice is nearly always done….well most the time…okay sometimes.  

The point  is that maybe we can all honor  our imperfections as attempts to learn and that moving forward adds light helping nearly all to stay fully engaged in today and  able to form meanings that might shape tomorrow

Happy Birthday George

Growing up? To be president?

 What Do You want To Be?

When.you grow up?  

Well… I’ll let you know when I get ther! 

Okay in the Seeking Peace and Joy Universe this has several different angles to explore.  Inf fact it has an infinite number of them and thus this whole discussion becomes a circle as a circle results as you draw a regular polygon with  an infinite number of sides.  Which reminds us of the old  math joke… what did the acorn say when it grew up?  Geometry…

Okay enough.

One thing  that never appealed to me was the idea of being president.  And since today is President’s Day the blog and podcast hits upon that, a little government, and on growing up.  Now we will revisit the selection of “what” and “being” a bit more  in the next couple entries.  For now let’s start with presidents and then go from there.   

Does anyone think presidents should still have to dress in short pants and wear  wigs?  Okay I know some folks think our more recent candidates have powder. In their heads not on them….but oh well.  

Below there is a link sharing some nice truths about the U.S. Chief Executive Officer.  Here are some things that amused and amazed me about some of the earliest to hold the office.  First, George Washington ran unopposed.  Employers today complain about how hard it is to fill positions.  Well when you can’t even get a second  good applicant  for a job….what’s a nation to do?  You might  argue that the guy had just won a revolution and all, however, James Madison’s wife Dolly hadn’t even invented those little cakes yet and he ran unchallenged.  Now we have fevered debates on tastes great vs. less filling….when we used to use the “not it” method to pick the country’s boss?  

Oh and what of some the other  early heads of state.  John Adam’s and Tommy boy Jefferson…well they weren’t exactly choir boys.  While Washington used rhino and human teeth from others and owned the largest distillery in America when he passed, John and Tom were documented vandals  of the highest order.  They snatched a piece of a chair  once owned by Billy Shakespeare.  Oh and Jimmy Monroe used to skinny-dip  in the Potomac each morning.  Let’s see what social media  would do if a modern  president pulled some of this crap.  

So does.anyone want too “grow up” to do this?  Well some people spend a lot of time and money going  just for that post, yet, I’m still not convinced  it would have been a better career path for me than say the next Roy Rodgers  or Batman.  

Maybe in Seeking Peace and  Joy land it’s more important to ponder who you are becoming and why you want to be rather than what fills the “job title” section on your business card.  

A Surrender

Okay lets go ahead. And honor or celebrate  some of the presidents by closing  the place where we see their faces most often —you know like federal buildings and the bank.  Of course if any of us were president we’d want a distillery  and might want to go jump in the lake when the divided public  tossed whims this way and that (leaving our clothes on I’d hope).  

As Stated here’s a link to give readers a look at some presidential quirks.  Maybe this will remind us that these men were/are just humans like us…. Forgive them and pray for the best.  Now  go  do something  so great that some folks in South Dakota  get to carvin’ your face in a big rock.  

More tomorrow

https://www.kqed.org/pop/20516/weird-facts-you-never-knew-about-the-u-s-presidents

22 in review so far how about you

 The View. Or 22 From 50 Days In

The calendar says February 19th…well the calendar didn’t actually say it because I didn’t ask Siri to tell me what day it is or anything and I don’t have any reminders scheduled.  However, it is the 19th and that means we are 50 days in  as far as 2022 goes.  Now is this a significant  day as far as the year goes?  

You bet your fine backside today is significant!

Why?  

Because  ladies and gentlemen boys and girls every day is significant.  every day is full of new thoughts about old experiences and old thoughts about new experiences.  Every day gives us a new chance to find  new lessons in new things and older things.  Every daylet’s us open our eyes to  new questions and lets us find the balance  between answering questions and questioning answers.   Every day lets us use curiosity instead of fear to explore the meaning of our inner and external world it we should choose to make such distinctions.  Every day lets us fly a little higher or pick ourselves off the dirt if yesterday’s flight didn’t go so well.  

Okay so yes February 19th is significant…. Oh you meant in regular  speak?  

Well if you are evaluating  such things then it’s been a month (by the way English is the only language where the ‘s has so much power ..it can mean you own something or it  can be a substitute for. The word is OR  the word has) since January 19th which is “quitting day.”  Quitting day is the day of the year.by which most people have stopped working on their New Year’s. Resolutions.   

Well what has happened. In the 1200 hours of the new  Seeking Peace and Joy Universe year?  Not enough.  

Well …. That’s not exactly true… except the external products haven’t been  what was hoped.  Writing has come a bit slower than  I hoped because I’ve been brewing things in the noggin a bit longer and more than usual—though  the blog and podcast show no evidence of that.  There have several  books that reviews  weren’t given….. now the reason is simple.  I didn’t find the magic in a lot of them.  Now the author put some magic in them and the publishers  couldn’t possibly have removed it all for commercial purposes—right?  Some  really good books that have been recycled thus far in 2022  are.

The Cafe at the end of the World —the Way of the Warrior and two books featuring the exploits of Murray McBride and his friends.  Anyone looking to ponder the concept of time and how to spend the precious moments we get should take a peek  (or read the whole damn thing).at 4000 Weeks.  The dawn of Everything  is a really long book about most things we thought we knew about history and how we might need to rethink a lot.  This is the kind of book that reminds us that science is important because it  is the process by which we tell each other we were wrong in a nice way.  Oh and it reminds us of the kinds of facts we have such a hard time  dealing with like dinosaurs  had feathers and Pluto was never really a planet per se except for the fact we called it one.  How many things aren’t really  hanging on in our life except for the fact that each time we remember something we attach the same meaning instead of exploring other possibilities?  

Okay  back to reviewing the year… One goal I set was to learn the piano a bit better… That’s iscoming along slowly… My hands and my mind haven’t quite  tapped into the. Musical stream  all at once yet…but there are moments…the magic is but a breath away.  

As stated above the blogging and pod have come slowly, yet a lot of things are ready to pop.  For example last Saturday.marked the birthdays of both Abe Lincoln and Charles Darwin One of these people was interested in the evolution of the species  and the other took off sailing to. See what was on some island and had a pet turtle that lived a really long time (Google it).  The point is… both people deserved a blog entry, yet a complete. Thought didn’t rise up… so February 12th floated by…. 

Then there was Valentine’s Day Love is the finest emotion/cognition/and action ever and somehow Hallmark charges $5.00  for. A piece of paper  used to express something?  Really?  Even if you go with the heart shaped box full of mystery chocolates it’s not enough of a day to honor love.  After all we al know “Life is like a Box of Chocolates…….you never know what. You’re gonna get.”  That’s not true…. You are going to get a box of things that  the person getting will only really like part of…. Good work.  Love …my friends is more than a box of chocolates a few flowers….or a piece of paper even if you attach a couple of those. Little Rock hard pink hearts on them. 

Please celebrate love every day.

Anyway I’ll try  to get a little more product out into the world as predicted some 7 weeks ago well seven  weeks and one day   

Oh and is one day significant?  Please  read above

Peace and Joy! 

Smarter phone and thinking first?

 A word or two of fine advice

Maybe some should read it twice

For with very little sacrifice

You hold the latest phone device

Shouting takes  not keys nor mice

Yet if you choose not to be nice

You just rolled the cosmic dice

Which can’t be cleaned when dipped in rice

#think first

Tell yourself go fly a kite?

 time to Go Fly AKite?

So right off… I’m sure there’s another entry  among these  500+ blog offerings that uses the phrase “go fly a kite”, yet somehow  the cosmic tumblers  prompted what falls below.  

You see we in my neck of the woods (yes we’ve asked the  question about what other body parts the woods might have—such as the left pinkie toe) it was a little warmer and provided a glimpse  of Spring.  It was also a little breezy, so of course  it’s kite weather and lo and behold this week includes  the international day of the kite.  Yes… it’s not just  a city, state, or American deal this is worldwide baby.  

Well there’s a bunch of extra paper around this house.  A lot of us is useless or needs to be  trashed—take for instance this bill from DTE energy every time I get something from them I mutter. “You can go fly a kite.”   With all this paper I could make hundreds of  kites and challenge the world record of flying. Nearly 1200 kites from one string and if the wind came  down from  Canada in an Arctic  burst maybe we could max out the altitude and over  2 and half miles to break that record.  Where would all that string come from?  Have you read the latest fine print from your credit card company about the low low rate… there all kinds of strings attached and how would you hold these strings together?  Look  at the process for disputing or altering our health coverage.  there’s enough red tape there to attach the Empire Stte Building to the Top of the gateway Arch in St. Louis.  Anyway getting serious about kites…

In s history  kites have served as a toy and a very important communications device.  This makes sense because  most of the time  in life really important things  seem to be up in the air a lot.  Seeking. Peace and joy is often like flying a kite.  You have to hold on tight to a fragile thing for some moments, run fast and then have the courage to let go.  You may have to give your dreams.some room to rise above the  ordinary and yet remember  to stay grounded  just enough  to stay connected and to let others see the beauty in your flight.  Oh and will you eventually  get tangled up in things that end that particular flight?  Yes. Almost every time.  Will you occasionally  get a little off the ground, spin around  awkwardly  and crunch violently?  Count on it.  Yet there will be days  when you will fly like the wind, see the world from brand new perspectives, and others may point to you and say “look there—all my efforts are worth it.”  

It’s probably not quite the perfect time of year to latch to  sticks to a string and pray or to construct one of the other  wonderful flying shapes possible, however, we are always ready for the next winter storm and people always rush to the store to get milk and bread so the next time the forecast says Sunny  and 67 with a moderate breeze, get  to the store or your junk drawer  and get ready to fly

There  was some paper. One could. Buy

Bits of wood on strings we’d tie

Hold  and Run then let it fly

Then int rises to the sky

The sun is bright you squint one eye

Then the breeze decides to die

 The whole thing crashes you ask why?Breathe Deeply Give it  one more try

Live Now 

Rhyme for the C—old

 Let it be  now told

To those young and to those old

To the meek and to those bold

To those wild and those controlled

If what you seek is gold

Your heart will soon grow cold 

Your mind shall turn to mould 

And your soul’s already sold

How’s the weather? Ask a groundhog?

 What’s the Forecast?—Ask the Ground Hog?

A couple of days ago—maybe three or four by now we started.hearing about the approaching winter storm.  the weather people  here started  their all too familiar fear campaign and even predicted “storm aged in”talking about snow totals  ov a foot and a half in places etc.  They went on and on about  how it was going to snow for  36 hours straight.  Well…. Thankfully they were as usual all jacked up about something that just didn’t happen.  This leads. To two seeking peace and joy questions.

How often  do we  get caught up in the fear of things that we cannot  control and that may not ever happen?  

These weather forecasts  sort of teach us to expect  to pay attention to things that might happen and that could  cause us anxiety.  

The second  question is—“Why don’t we have “Wonderful Weather  Warnings?”  

Seriously, why don’t we have  the National Weather.Service tell us when it’s going to be an exceptionally great day to take a walk, plant a tree, or play your guitar out on the river bank?  If the weather service can  tell us to prepare for rotten weather wouldn’t it be nice if two or three days before the best day of the week  was upon us we knew to have  our cooler  and music devices ready for a picnic lunch?  Why  don’t we get advised to slow down and. To enjoy the gentle breeze and sunshine?  

Oh and what about  this whole. Ground Hog’s Day. Weather prediction deal? 

First of all  shy in the world is a ground hog anyway?  

Well according to National Geographic the G-Hog  (that’s its rapper name, is related to squirrels and can be found. In most of the North American. Continent.  Farmers and Carl the assistant grounds keeper don’t much care for these critters that are generally small,however  can grow up to 16 pounds.  Generally  the larger varieties get called “wood chucks’ and though there are not scientific studies one would imagine they get rather tired of answering questions about how much wood they can chuck if in fact they  could. 

Now… because it’s vital we know the record  low for March 25th 1937, we have kept track of the weather for quite some time.  So it is possible to  make a factual statement  about  the accuracy of  g-hog forecasting. When it comes to Gobbler’s knob’s most famous furry  forecaster.  As it turns out Phil predicted six more weeks of winter yesterday and as it turns out Phil is only correct about 40% of the time.  But come on now  it’s a g-hog… it doesn’t consult climatologists about carbon footprints and atmospheric  changes.  Phil comes out—get’s his 15 minutes of fame and if it’s sunny  we have winter in February…. Oh and in a few weeks of March sometimes.  

so  all of that  boils down to this.  In seeking peace and joy we put up a lot of barriers because  our world is full of folks who seem to have more skills at selling. Fear that selling peace.  Weather  is a subject we love to talk about, however we can’t do much about it.  Seeking peace and joy  may work better  if we spend time talking about things we want to change and if we find folks who want to work toward that change to talk with.  Also. It is good to balance  out the anxiety. We might experience with an expectation  that there will be sunny days ahead.  It is also good to remember that  we get to  chose whether  a day is partly cloudy or partly sunny and that counts when it comes to seeking peace and joy.  *—

Is the book of life a dictionary?

 Life —It’s Like. The Dictionary

What full of words  I don’t understand and can’t spell?—well that too.  No… you see  it happens that on the first of February  1884, the folks in England released the first volume (of 10) of the Oxford DicDictionary.  The modern Oxford  Dictionary  is up to about 30 volumes.  Now to be fair, you can access the said dictionary online and I believe there is still a CD ROM  version.  BTW the first version of the dictionary took about  30 years to complete and  was published in it’s “completed form in the late 1920’s.  The second edition was released  in 1989 and is commonly regarded as the primary dictionary of the English language.   

So… turning to our  theme for the day…

Life  is like a dictionary because. It takes a while  to complete.  We spend a good deal of time updating and completing.  Things that once had one meaning may now have two or three meanings.  Events like words have various meanings  even in a  single person’s mind and it gets more complex when  several people are engaged.  Let’s take a simple word… When  I was cleaning the floor in my office I found  a tiny screw.  Now many of you would swear I have  a screw loose somewhere—maybe it finally fell out.  It’s okay to use screws to put things together, yet if you do that wrong you screwed up (does that mean when you pull off something.really cool you screwed down?  Well… though I’m just sort of screwing around with this, it’s time to move forward before  you start thinking I can get screwed.   The point is that the  event that happened in one instance and in one context can morph  into other things. Over time and depending on your crowd  at the time and like the dictionary  it’s okay that one word can have various  implications.  

Picking Out Specifics

A reasonable estimate would put all the words  used in the 500+  entries in this blog at a total  approaching half a million.  Each one of these words is in  a dictionary somewhere (or at least a reference work somewhere.  In fact, the dictionary contains every great work of fiction or non-fiction.  So what distinguishes  the dictionary from War and Peace or The Cat in the Hat?  Well… it’s simple.  The dictionar tries to include everything while the author  of other things makes decisions about which words to leave in, leave out, and link together.  

So life can be like a dictionary, we are presented with all types of options, all types of  challenges, all types of people, food, etc.  As the author of our life we have to grab life and decide what to leave out, what to repeat, and what to define more fully as a matter of fact some words in the dictionary are given definition  after definition while others  get just the minimum. Attention and take  up hardly any  room.  

Seeking Peace and Joy In the Dictionary Life

So in seeking peace and joy… it’s important to  understand that  the same experience can mean different things at different times and to differing degrees  with different. People.  An important. Thing. To remember here is that we have choices regarding what things mean and how long we need these things to mean  what we want it to.  

Second seeking peace and joy will almost always  mean we are diving in, yet knowing that we will have to leave something’s out, repeat some lessons, and in the end we can understand  that once we fully engaged in an experience  we can move on.  If. We need to we can always get. Out the dictionary and try some  different. Words.  

More about. This soon.