A sobering thought

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I loved the space race. For all the reasons young boys love adventure. It was a great quest, brilliantly achieved.

It seems like only last week that I walk home from high school to watch the landing on TV.

WWII, on the other hand, seems long long ago.

Yet I was born closer to WWII than my boys were born to the moon landing.

I wonder how they view it?
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Just sing!

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"Finches on Parade" - Karsten Stier

Have you ever noticed that it is a rare thing to find children all skilled in the same thing?

The classic three child scenario is that the first child has free reign and usually becomes mobile and vocal before the second. The second arrives and find that the 'skills' of the elder child too advanced to compete and so moves into unfilled niches, often sport. The third arrives and can't compete academically as well as the first or athletically as well as the second and looks for another unfilled niche, often humour.

Generalisations, but you get what I mean.

The same happens in our adult life, where we compare ourselves to people who do something really well and so, because we believe that we can't compete or exceed this benchmark, we give up.

The only benchmark should be you. Are you better now than you were then?

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In year 10 at high school I was always second to Keith Ayres (Hi Keith, if you are reading this!). Time and time again, in all subjects, Keith topped the class and I was second.

Except for Art. I was much better at art than Keith was.

But, come the final mark for the year, Keith beat me. The rationale of the teacher was that he had improved more than I had over the year.

Only now do I really understand what she was on about.

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Use the talents you possess,
for the woods would be a very silent place
if no birds sang except the best.

- Henry Van Dyke.

Snowparkle's Question

Snowsparkle asked if I could do a poll where I asked whether things happen for a reason, or just happen.

Always wanting to please, that is the poll for this week.

I will comment further on it at the end of the week.
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A reflection.

Long ago in a small, far away village, there was place known as the House of 1000 Mirrors.

A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and friendly.

As he left the House, he thought to himself, "This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often."

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, "That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again."

All the faces in the world are mirrors.

What kind of reflections do you see in the faces of the people you meet?

What if...

I attended a short course at a local college a while back. In the course the instructor asked us to imagine our best holiday. What would we do, where would we go, if money was no object? How would we travel? What would we eat?

Dream the ultimate holiday.

Once we had done that, we were asked to determine what values we were applying to our imaginary holiday. Were they values of curiosity? Adventure? Luxury? Indulgence? Education? Culture?

What values did we draw on to make our perfect holiday?

And then the killer question: what would happen if you took the values that you applied when you were on four weeks holiday and applied them to the other forty eight weeks of your year?

What if you walked down the street as if it was a foreign land and actually looked at the houses? Smelt the smells? Heard the sounds?

What if your shared your self more with people you met?

What if you ate out more and tried different cuisines more often?

What if you visited more galleries and museums?

What if you permitted yourself to really relax?

What if you had more hot baths and massages?

What if you did more 'interesting' things because you needed to do them while you were 'here'?

What if you woke in the morning and looked forward to the day, eager to see what it offered you?

What if you put flowers in your hair and danced naked in the moonlight?

What if.
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The substance of your fate.

H.G. Wells wrote:

"What personalities you will encounter in life, and have for a chief interest in life, is nearly as much a matter of chance as the drift of a grain of pollen in the pine forest.

In other school rooms and nurseries, in slum living rooms, perhaps, or workhouse wards or palaces, round the other side of the Earth, in Canada or Russia or China, other little creatures are trying their small limbs, clutching at things about them with infantile hands, who some day will come into your life with a power and magic monstrous and irrational and irresistible. They will break the limits of your concentrating self, call you out to the service of beauty and the service of race, sound you to your highest and your lowest, give you your chance to be godlike or ignoble.

These unknowns are the substance of your fate. You will love them, hate them, serve them, struggle with them, and in that interaction the vital force in you and the substance of your days will be spent.

And who they may be, and their peculiar quality and effect, is haphazard, utterly beyond designing."

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