I’ve been tying my shoelaces incorrectly for over 40 years. Conservatively that is over 50,000 incorrectly tied knots. Now I know why my shoelaces come undone. I’ve lived with this minor annoyance for a long time and I’m not sure I’m willing to give it up just yet. But thanks Ian for making Ian’s Shoelace Site.
Uncle Donald, originally uploaded by trekr.
My uncle Donald gave us a house warming present nearly a decade ago. The plane hangs on the ceiling of our back porch. When the wind blows, the propeller spins with a distinctive sound not unlike a creaky windmill on an abandoned farm. This little plane has foretold many storms.
A pair of owls has taken up residence in our neighborhood. I know the owls are here because every morning about 4 am they start calling to each other from the tall pines just outside my bedroom window. Its loud. It wakes me up. When the sun rises, the crows begin to protest the presence of the owls. The other day I watched three crows relentlessly dive on an owl perched near the top of a pine tree. The crows made a terrible racket, but there was not a sound from the owl. When the owl took flight, it quickly caught the wind and soared aloft. As the owl rose higher, the crows gave up. There is something to be learned from watching the conflict between owls and crows. When a crow comes after you, rise above him and keep peace in yourself.
My wife volunteers at our children’s elementary school and she talked me into helping with a major landscaping project last Saturday. Just as we were finishing, the sky turned to colors. Volunteering has many rewards. I plan to do more.
“The nonchalance of boys who are sure of a dinner, and would disdain as much as a lord to do or say aught to conciliate one, is the healthy attitude of human nature. A boy is in the parlour what the pit is in the playhouse; independent, irresponsible, looking out from his corner on such people and facts as pass by, he tries and sentences them on their merits, in the swift, summary way of boys, as good, bad, interesting, silly, eloquent, troublesome. He cumbers himself never about consequences, about interests: he gives an independent, genuine verdict. You must court him: he does not court you. But the man is, as it were, clapped into jail by his consciousness. As soon as he has once acted or spoken with eclat, he is a committed person, watched by the sympathy or the hatred of hundreds, whose affections must now enter into his account. There is no Lethe for this. Ah, that he could pass again into his neutrality! Who can thus avoid all pledges, and having observed, observe again from the same unaffected, unbiased, unbribable, unaffrighted innocence, must always be formidable. He would utter opinions on all passing affairs, which being seen to be not private, but necessary, would sink like darts into the ear of men, and put them in fear.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
My six year old son reminded me of self-reliance. “Dad, did you get fired?” An independent, genuine verdict. It was easier and more honest to just answer yes rather than try to explain restructuring.
These pages will be a view looking out of my corner.
