The longer I am on this earth, the more intrigued I am, with the great and mysterious ways of this planet.

As it turns out, I don’t know Jack.  In fact… I don’t know a whole lot of Jacks.

But here we are….. with….. so many places to explore.  Of course, traveling brings this out in a person.

And today, I am reminded of just that.

The unexplained.  The baffling.  The inexplicable.

Some of them are so momentous and profound.

Easter Island.  The Fantastic Creatures of Angkor.  Stonehenge.  The Sphinx, and The Great Pyramids.

While others are…. peculiar…… odd….. bizarre.

Downtown Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  Certain Political Candidates.  Lime Jell-o.

You know. Like I said before.  I don’t know Jack.   And I don’t think he knows me.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust

Sometimes I lose faith in large segments of the human race.  You know.  It happens at those times when I hear comments from the likes of Richard Mourdock , the Indiana Republican running for Senate.  But not only his comment.  No.  The outpouring of “support” which follows simply makes it worse.

I feel despair.  Anguish.

So…. to cheer me up…. a walk on the lighter side.

Once there was a King who was loved by all of his subjects, especially because of the hunting excursions he shared with them. As will happen, one day he died and his eldest son took the throne. Now this new king was an animal-lover to the core, and immediately outlawed all forms of hunting and fishing. His subjects accepted this for only a short time before they ousted him.

This is a truly significant event, because it’s the first time a reign was called on account of the game.

“Polly?”

“Yeah, Frances.  What is it?”

“Why do people do the things they do?  Sometimes humans don’t seem so smart…”

“Well France. Truth be told, we are not.  Not most humans.  I think all of us are trying to figure out the Secret of Life.  But some of us do it better than others….”

“Oh.  I see.”

“Frances?”

“Yeah, Pol.  What is it?”

“Do you know the Secret of Life?”

“Yep.”

“Well  c’mon then, France.  What is it?”

“It is different for me than it is for you.  Everyone has a spectacular and unique purpose.  And that…. my friend … …. is the secret.”

 “Secrets are made to be found out with time.” – Charles Sanford

When you see this… you say… “Hedge Apple.”

When Ollie, our little ADHD Dog sees this, she says… “Where on God’s Green Earth did all these tennis balls come from.   Tennis ball. Tennis ball.  Tennis ball.”

Ahh.  And there it is.  “Perspective.”

We each have a different one, this thing we call perspective.
Webster says it is a particular attitude toward something… a way of regarding something….. OR…. a point of view.

A point of view.

I for one am glad we are all not like one another.  I think this adds a great dimension to life.  It gives us a chance to learn, AND it gives us a chance to help others learn.

Now here is another definition of perspective.  Two people are standing on a street.   A large bus is coming in their direction.  The bus is travling ever so quickly.  One person is on the sidewalk, and the other is standing in the direct path of the bus.

Two different perspectives.

If I were the person on the sidewalk, I might try to get the other individual to look at the bus from MY perspective.   Not that their point of view is completely wrong, but in a moment, there will be a scene of irreversible damage and ruination, as a result.

I would do this…. not only so that the other person may find a safe haven, but also so that I, personally, do not have to be a part of the mass destruction which is about to take place.

A vantage point can make a world of difference.

So goes our nation.  So goes our world.

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

There are definitely some things I have wondered about today.

I don’t drink, but I am told that white wine goes well with fish.  If this is true, are you supposed to have grapes with sushi?

I am a firm believer in starting over if you need to.  But here is my big question.  Before they invented Drawing Boards, what the heck were you supposed to go back to?

And sort of the same thing with light bulbs.  Before Edison invented that whole deal…. when someone got a great idea…. what appeared over their heads?

I’ve seen photos of the Kamikaze Pilots from WWII.  All of them wore helmets in their airplanes.  I don’t understand why.

Why is the smiley face always so damn happy?

In Alabama, it is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while operating a vehicle.  I understand that perfectly.  What scares me is WHY the law is in effect.

And finally…..   in 1973…. Mao Zedong told Henry Kissinger that China had a whole bunch of extra females.  Apparently, he felt that his country didn’t need this excess of females and offered the United States 10 million Chinese women.

What I am wondering is this:  What in heaven’s name is wrong with that guy?  For that matter…. what is wrong with a WHOLE lot of people in their current-day regard for women?

Piece of advice ladies….. don’t lose any more of your rights.  Work to keep them.  Vote to keep them.  Turn that light bulb on over your head.  This is just common sense for us.   Let’s NOT go back to that old drawing board.  And please…. don’t drive with your blindfold on.

“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.” – Mark Twain

When I was a little girl, I overheard a very disturbing statement.  Someone said to my Dad, “Well Paul, the Devil is in the details.”

“WHAT?”  What could this mean, I wondered.  The Devil is in the details???  I thought the fork-tailed dude lived in the Pits of Hell.  And now…..  now….. of all places….. he is in the DETAILS?

I was on edge.  In fact, I was down right fearful.  I began looking inside pencil sharpeners, and coin returns.  I started overturning rocks, and unwinding spools & spools of my Mom’s thread.  No thimble went unnoticed.  No penny went unturned.

Finally, I went in to see our Parish Priest….. Fr. Schneider.
“Father.” I said.  “I heard that the Devil is in the details.  What does this mean?  And IF the Devil is in the details, does that mean God is a slob?”

“Oh NO, my child!” he extolled.  “Heaven’s NO!  God is not a slob.  He is tidy, and neat, and perfect in every way.  Cleanliness is next to Godliness!  Now you go right home and say ten Hail Mary’s for suggesting such a thing.”

“Ahhhhh.  Sweet Mary Mother of Jesus, Father…..  ten Hail Mary’s?”

“Make it 20 young lady.  Now leave me… before I make it 30!”

And that is how it went.  You see, I never did get a straight  answer from that priest.  And to this very day, the statement has bothered me. The Devil is in the Details.

Since the whole “cleanliness is next to godliness” idea was dropped in to my formidable brain, it seems that I have picked up some obsessive compulsive tendencies along the way.  And…. in addition to all of that …. I am still looking at everything small with unrelenting scrutiny.

I was driven to purchase a macro lens for my camera, and a magnifying glass for every day viewing of life. The search has been tenacious and unflagging.  And so it goes.

So.  I better wrap this up.  This evening at the grocery, I bought a bag of jelly beans, a box of rice,  and a dozen eggs.  I have a LOT of looking under to do.

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” – Robert Brault

So much input.

You have the power.

Scrutinize.

IT is a dark and lonely night.  The midnight air is thick…. with fog.

A cookie, tolls down pan handler’s alley.

Out jumps a mugger.  Yes.  A mugger of milk.

Cookie stops in its tracks…..  filled with fear…. stuck to the pan.

The mugger pulls a gun…. and fires.

Much to everyone’s dismay….

It was….

A CHIP SHOT.

And that my friend, is how the cookie crumbles.

Quite a jarring experience.

What is the secret to happiness?  That old question has been around since the beginning of time.

Some people in this life just seem internally happy.  Others have the disposition of a…. well… a toad on a sloggy bog.

I think the difference is simple to see in those you meet along the way.

This next part may seem a bit off track… but it isn’t.  Seriously.  You see, I’m a bit of a sports fan.  I just learned something about Chappy WcWinty.  Chappy was a football coach in Division II for a WHOLE lot of years.  This guy could really lead a team.  He was one of the winningest football coaches in history… at that level.

So….this is what he did.  The week following the game, Chappy would show his players films  of the previous game.  But he didn’t show them the mistakes.  He showed them what they did RIGHT.  He focused on the things they were doing well.

And what if we did this for ourselves?  What would happen if we played the good movies of ourselves in our heads?  Not of us playing football.  No.  But of us doing the things WE do.

I think whatever it is we pay attention to… what ever we put our  focus on …. is the thing that grows within us.  If we look in the direction we want to go…. well…  away we go.

Don’t get me wrong.  I am betting we can learn from our mistakes too.  That is a certainty in my book.  But we don’t have to linger there.  We just take that information… that “thing” we learned from the “mistake”…. and we try not to do THAT again.  But perhaps we shouldn’t dwell on it…. like a sloggy toad.

You can’t slap yourself into happy either.  I think we can become happy… …. yes…. …. we can “find” our happiness by doing the things that MAKE US happy.  Focus on what we enjoy.  Succeed at that.  And happiness is likely to follow, I say.

But if we dwell on the negative, and hang out with the rotten and stinky….once again…. there we go.

Look toward the direction you want to go.  And just go. Go like the wind.  Or…. Like Chappy.  Just like Chappy.

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – H. Cain

I recently had the opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon.  The grand, grand, grand Canyon.  The southern rim, to be exact.  It was knock-your-pink-socks-off amazing.

We took a small guided tour…. which in many ways… was a great thing.  It wasn’t like the 3-hour tour that Ginger, Mary Ann, and the Professor took.  No.

You see….  We learned A LOT about that area of Arizona, and the formation of rocks, and such…. in a very short time.

One such piece of information was about the age of the earth.  Scientists agree it is celebrating none other than the impressive 4.5 Billion Year Old Birthday.

Although… my friends…. get this. We here in the U.S. have a Senator in Georgia who sticks-to-his-guns that the earth is just 9,000 years old.  Hear ye.  Hear ye.  His minor in college must have been Fiction Writing… because it sure wasn’t Geology.

No.  You can SEE the age of the earth in the Grand Canyon.  Those sorts of formations don’t come by way of digging… I’ll tell you that much right now.

But why did I start all of this?

Oh.  I meant to write about the Seven Wonders of the World…. but boy, oh boy… did I ever get off track.  Okay.  What would you say are the Seven Wonders of the World?

Dang it.  Don’t Google it.  Write them down.  On our little tour… Little Mr. Joe-Joe, our Tour Guide told us that the Grand Canyon was one of The Seven Wonders of the World.

Well…..  I Googled it tonight  (I am allowed to Google it…. do as I say…. not as I do).   And he was sort of right, and sort of wrong.

As it turns out… there are many, many, “Seven Wonders of the World.”  It just depends on which variety you are referring to.  In reality, we have more like 49, or 56 Wonders of the World.

Here are a few of the lists.

Ancient Wonders of the World.

Great Pyramid of Giza
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
Colossus of Rhodes
Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Middle Ages came up with their own list:

Stonehenge
Colosseum
Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa
Great Wall of China
Porcelain Tower of Nanjing
Hagia Sophia
Leaning Tower of Pisa

And then in 2001, a new list was generated, once again.

Great Wall of China     Since 7th century BC     China
Petra     c.100 BCE     Jordan
Christ the Redeemer     Opened October 12, 1931     Brazil
Machu Picchu     c.1450 CE     Peru
Chichen Itza     c.600 CE     Mexico
Colosseum     Completed 80 CE     Italy
Taj Mahal     Completed c.1648 CE     India
Great Pyramid of Giza (Honorary Candidate)     Completed c.2560 BCE     Egypt

Yet….. the Grand Canyon is…. freakishly absent.

I had to look up the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, which has been compiled by a few modern sources… one of which is CNN.  The agreed upon list….

Grand Canyon
Great Barrier Reef
Harbor of Rio de Janeiro
Mount Everest
Aurora  Borealis
Parícutin Volcano
Victoria Falls

I was beginning to wonder about that Wonder.  But.  There it IS… finally.  That big old wholly rocky hole in the ground!

I have my own Seven Wonders of the World List.  And what is it?  Well…..  I honestly have to say… it depends on the day…. and what I see, hear, smell, taste, and feel.  It depends on the day.  And…. my sense of wonder.

“The few wonders of the world only exist while there are those with the sight to see them.” – Charles De Lint

“Wonder is the beginning of Wisdom.”  – Greek Proverb