I think the first time it happened was in Jellystone Park, around 1968.  Yogi the Bear turned to Boo Boo, and aptly said….”Little Buddy.  I don’t think you can see the forest for my knees.”
And Boo Boo replied, “Yogi, I think you mean THE TREES.”
So then, Yogi said…”What trees Boo Boo?  What trees?”

Or something like that.
I am pretty sure how that whole dang deal started.

Yep.  Sometimes we stand too closely…… or maybe we are in the wrong place.   We can’t see the bigger picture, the ultimate cause, the greater good.

And it that case, altering our vantage point may be a good thing.

“You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It’s just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.”  – Paulo Coelho

As you may have noticed, I have been in a bit of a writing slump lately.
Oh.  Why oh why.  My life is incredibly blessed.  In more ways that I can count or even imagine.  Blessed.
Yet lately, amidst all those blessings…. life lately…. has felt a bit…. well…….
….. ……. slumpy.

Slump.  From the Norwegian derivative….. To fall.
The trick about falling, is getting back up again.
Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down….. and all.  I am no Weeble.  So as you see….  I am slumping.  Slumpy.

When baseball hitters are on their game, they bat around .300.    Three times out of ten, they get a hit.  If they hit a dry spell…. they are in a slump.  Or just lousy hitters.  So, like the Major Leaguers…..  My objective is to write something decent here three nights out of ten.  Then I’ll be cracking….
But until that happens.  Slumpy.

As a word, slump is pretty versatile.  As mentioned, you can be IN a slump.  Or you might find yourself slumped OVER.  At times, we slump DOWN.  On Thanksgiving, our mashed potatoes run the risk of being slumpy.   No.  Wait.  That’s lumpy.  Nevermind.

At any rate, slumpy is all over place.  As luck would have it… slumpy is with me now.    I’ll let you know when my creative mind steps in the batter’s box again.   Just call me mashed potato head until then.

“Slump? I ain’t in no slump… I just ain’t hitting.” – Yogi Berra

Despite it all,  Joe was a pretty good guy, really.  But he had a time of it… I’ll tell you.  Joe’s Grandparents came to America on a big boat around 1825.  They left the Oldenburg, Germany area to seek a new life here in the states.

And so they did.  They settled right down in Ohio.  They did what they knew best.  They started farming.  They were very good at it.  Over time, and a couple of generations, they amassed a good about of farmland in Auglaize County, Ohio.

But fast forward to Joe.  Joseph Anton was his given name.  He was one of ten children, born in 1891.  He took to farming like a fish to water.  Or more appropriately, like a turnip to dirt.

But then trouble started happening in the world.  The first world war broke out and Joe enlisted in the United States Army.  And away he went.  While he was serving overseas, his dear mother, Mary Elizabeth… … (everyone called her Liza) …. died.  She fell victim to the flew epidemic of 1918.  The family took a photo of Liza in her casket.  When Joe came home from the war, they showed him the photo.  This made him sad.  He loved his Mom.

But Joe got back to being a farmer.  And a couple years later, he met a girl.  He was head over heals for her.  The girl’s name was Katie.  (Her real name was Katherine.)  Katie and Joe got married…. and… well…. they got busy.

They had five kids in just under five years, including a set of twins.  They were happy, and in love…. and all was good with the world.  But then another flu epidemic hit.  This time in 1929.  And Katie died, she did.    Joe was very sad again.

A few months later, he hired a housekeeper named Rose.  She took great care of the family… of Joe and the five children.  For a long, long time.  It was obvious that Rose loved Joe very much…. and the children as well.

But Joe could not bring himself to love another.
And that made Rose sad.

It is a true account.  I know of Joe…. I do.  I learned a whole lot of this just today…. the details of this winding and interesting story.

It wasn’t all sad though.  It had a few happy turns, here than there.  For instance …. Joe and Rose would go to Bingo every Friday night at the local church.  Joe was a real Bingo Wizard.  Mr. Lucky Numbers.  He won loads and loads of money at bingo, each and every week.  He kept Rose happy with an ample supple of Fanny Farmer Chocolates.  She liked the kind with caramel centers.

Joe was the inspiration for the book: Rose with the Big Fanny and Farmer Joe.

Yes indeed.  So many people in all the world, through all of history… each with their own lives, and their own stories.  We are all here together.  Bumping into one other.  Learning each other’s stories, and sharing one another’s lives.

It is limitless, and infinite.  That is the world.  That is the universe.  Lucky numbers,  chocolate covered caramels….. and silver linings.

“I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.” – Herman Hesse

Some people say there is a reason for everything.  They may be right.
I am not entirely sure this is true.  I am not smart enough to know that for sure, either way.

Tonight I had a conversation with someone trying to figure out a reason for this, and a reason for that.  I don’t know why we humans have the need to do this.

The toast falls on the floor, butter side down….. sometimes.  And next Tuesday, it might fall butter side up.  For no real cause.  No blame.  It just happened that way, that time.

There is a word in most languages which explicates  this thought.  And that word is the……  unexplainable.

And that is how it goes, I imagine.  Some things just can not be accounted for, or explained.

It may some how “ease” our human minds… to think there is a reason for the way someone behaves, or the events that may occur on any given day.  And maybe that is good enough.  Maybe it is so.

But I will never be able to explain it all…. and most likely…. neither will you.

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” (Sign hanging in Einstein’s office at Princeton)

Oh those pesky plumbing problems.
You just never know when a leak is going to spring up.
Good thing I know Perry.  He is a plumber.  I like the guy.  He is very smart, in The Ways of The Plumber.  (They have to take an Oath, you know.)   And boy oh boy… he knows his monkey wrench from a pipe threader.  I’ll tell you that much right now.   But, he really needs a belt.  Or a cummerbund.

Anyway…. he came out today, and fixed the whole shebang of mishaps we had going on.   It was a wrenching experience.
Yet… when it was all said and done, Perry the Plumber explained that the problem in my kitchen was just…….  water under the fridge.

Water under the fridge.

Thank goodness for that.  And I am telling you all about it.  Right here and now. … …. …. before the story gets leaked.

“A good flush beats a full house every time.” – Plumbing Proverb

Life can be like the weather, I think.

Sometimes it is bright, sunny, and downright cheery.
Other times is is cloudy, dark and rainy.

And on occasion, it can be quite foggy.  Yep.  As clear as mud.

“Everybody experiences far more than he understands. Yet it is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behavior.” – Marshall McLuhan

I get to spend time with my Mom almost every day.  I like spending time with my Mom.
I feel fortunate to be able to do this.  You know, we just sit and talk.  About regular old Mother-Daughter kind of things.

Mom?  Do you think there are any giraffes who are afraid of heights?
Honey, I wouldn’t know.
Mom?  Do you think Michael ever finally rowed his boat to the shore?
Honey, I wouldn’t know.
Mom?   Do you think Alphabet Soup comes in different languages?
Honey, I wouldn’t know.
Mom?  Do snakes poop?  Cuz’ I don’t think they have butts.
Honey, I wouldn’t know.
Mom?  How come Men’s shoe sizes are different from Women’s shoe sizes?  Like, doesn’t all one same size make more sense?  That way, if a man likes to wear women’s shoes, or a woman likes to wear men’s shoes… they wouldn’t have to do the math?
Honey, I am sure I wouldn’t know.

Yep.  Just regular old Mother-Daughter Talk.
Mom is always happy to see me.  But she always gets very tired while I am there.
I guess I’ll have to ask her why, tomorrow.

“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.”  – Eleanor Roosevelt

There is a barn in the middle of a field.

And in the barn is a farmer.

Not farming.  Standing.

In the middle of that barn.
A cow stands with the farmer.  They do nothing but stand there quietly.

In the middle of that barn.
They can hear each other breathing.  The can look into each other’s eyes.

They do not know what one another is thinking.

Yet they both think.  At the same time.
The farmer, thinking farmer thoughts.
And the cow, thinking cow thoughts.

“Cow.  I sure do wish I knew what you thinking.”
“Human.  I sure do wish I knew what you were thinking.”

“Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them; and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures.”  ~Thomas de Quincey

“All the really good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.”  ~Grant Wood

“As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists.”  ~Joan Gussow

I used to think I understood free will.

As it turns out, I do not understand it, at all.

I thought what differentiated humans, was this wonderful and amazing gift of free will, which we are given at birth.

Yet sometimes, it seems, certain people are stripped of theirs.  Deprived of it.

Once again, I am reminded that I know very little about anything.

“We must believe in free will, we have no choice.” – Isaac  Bashevis Singer

For all practical purposes, this time around, I think I’m going to blame it on gravity.

You can always place blame safely in one of two places.

a. Blame it on the Gravity.
b. Blame it on the Monkey.

In this case, I’d say it is gravity.

But let me back up for a minute.

______________________________

I am truly blessed in a thousand different ways… tens of thousands of different ways.  Infinitely, really.

But amidst all those positives…. every once in a while… things just feel topsy-turvy.

Don’t get me wrong.  I have absolutely no reason to complain about anything.  Some people have truly topsy-turvy lives.

So for me, when things feel a little out of whack, I either blame the monkey, or gravity.

________________________________

Now.   Why would anyone blame anything on a cute little monkey?  I think my realization of this came early on….. from all the old movies.

The scene would be some crowded mid-eastern bazaar, and there was hustling or bustling, and shoulder-to-shoulder people.  Invariably, something would get stolen, or someone would get poisoned, or kidnapped.  And it always…. ALWAYS… came back to the Organ-Grinder-Guy, and his little smiling monkey with the fez.  Always.

_______________________________

But not this time.   You see.

My first clue that things were askew came last night.  I was at a Graduation Party for someone very dear to me.  As I enjoyed BBQ, Cheesy Potatoes, and a rather large helping of Baked Beans, I heard the little girl next to me say… “Mommy.  These are the BEST Chocolate Beans I’ve ever eaten.”

Chocolate Beans.

And all this time… I never, ever knew.

_______________________________

It gets even more sideways.

This morning, as I was driving to visit my Mom, I just felt out of sorts.  Beside myself.  Upside-down and Inside-out.  Topsy-Turvy, and then some.

Yet, as I drove, the music playing on the Satellite radio was soothing.  Even healing.  The song was familiar to me, so I glance down to see the exact name and movement of the piece.

And that’s when I saw the image above.  Now I am quite familiar with Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, but I always attributed this work to Ludwig Von Beethoven.

Yet, to my surprise today, I learned that… NO…. NO… Not at all.  It is not Ludwig’s Song.  No.  We owe this one to his obscure, and little know brother, Fred Beethoven.  Topsy-DAMN-Flopsy-Turvy.

____________________________

I am telling you.

It’s gotta’ be the Gravity.

___________________________

“You will find truth more quickly through delight than gravity. Let out a little more string on your kite.” – Alan Cohen

“Hey, hey, we’re the monkees
And people say we monkey around,
But we’re too busy singing
To put anybody down.”

-The Monkees