Yesterday, we went to the zoo.  We just went down to monkey around.  Yet.   Such a trip, will really get you thinking.   About a lot of things.

One thing I came home with was this.

We have no lease on life.  No guarantees.  No control.  Each and every one of us is vulnerable for life’s twists and turns…. at any moment.  No possession is truly ours.

Again I say….. We are all vulnerable.  We are all in this together.   We are all guests here.

Each and every one of us is a steward of creation.   Just the same.

We can help one another if we choose to.

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” – Pericles

Today I heard a monkey sing. It made me so happy.
That monkey…… sat high in the tops of the trees.  Quietly.  It looked out…. over the crowd of people gathered below.
And suddenly……

Figaro.  Figaro.  Figarooooooooooo.

Monkeys of the Opera.
They love to sing… all the live long day.

All the live long day.
And now…. the fat lady is singing.

Which in human-speak, means…. I am tired and I am going to bed.  That is what happens when you travel far and wide to go see the Monkeys of the Opera.

It takes a lot out of you.

“I don’t sing because I’m happy; I’m happy because I sing.” – William James

Sometimes I feel like a fish out of water.
Which…. when you consider it…. is a very bad thing.
Bad for the fish.  Maybe not so bad for the water.
But it happens.  The old… “fish out of water” thing.

It is always when I least expect it.  I’ll be swimming along just fine and dandy… at least I think so.  Just floating right along with the current.  Enjoy the plankton.  Heck… I even hang out with the squid.

And then, out of the clear deep blue sea…. or maybe it is the unclear deep blue SEE…..  I come up gasping for air.

I get that bug-eyed… fish lipped… face.  You know the one.

And without a rhyme or reason, I find myself churning against the current.  Fins and flippers a-flailing.

Just keep swimming.  Just keep swimming.

Oh the way of the fish.  Out of water.

But I ‘ll quit going on and on about it.

I mean… oh my cod.  You’ve probably haddock enough of this already.  The sheer scale of this has become unfathomable.  You are liable to cast me out.

So just remember… buoys and girls.   I did it for the halibut.   And even though I told the whole grouper this very personal thing about me…. I asking you not to tell a sole.

“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” – Maya Angelou

Time sure is a funny thing.
It slows down, and speeds up at will.
We need it.  Yet. We have all wished it away.  And we all have yearned to make it last just a little longer.
Sometimes we wish we could do it over again.
There are times we wish it wouldn’t change one iota.

But it does.  It moves, and grooves, and flips, and turns.
Ticks.  Tocks.
Truthfully, it does whatever the hell it wants to do.
Yep.  There are occasions when it has wings…. and flies right by.
And then…. you have a bunch of it on your hands.  It is all over the place…. well…. all the time.
We have all loved certain moments, and then, hated certain moments.
No matter.  Like I said…. it comes and goes at will.

But tonight, I have a pain in my heart about it.
There are a million phrases, songs, and quotes about it.  But this evening… not a one of them fits.
I’m sure that will change.
Just give it a little time.

In basic Euclidean Geometry, there are many principles.
Stay with me now.  I promise not to go all hypotenuse on you.

In very simple terms…. one of those principles includes the fact that any two points, any where in space as we know it, can be joined by a straight line.  Real or imagined.

This can be applied to many functions of our lives.  Think about it.

Consider any two points, any where.  They could exist in the room in which you sit… the earth… the universe… space which goes on and on….  and on.

Those two points can be connected by a direct line.
Two people.   Two beings.  Two inanimate objects.
Janet Jordan and this big black snake.

Hence the phrase …. its a small word after all.
There is a line connecting all of us and everything.   Life lines.  Maybe we should take care of one another.

Me…. and you.

“Everyone in this world is somehow connected. So why not just be nice to everybody.” – Richard Simmons

Well looky here.

Today is my great aunt Rosa’s birthday.
She was ahead of her time, indeed.  She landed a job with Procter and Gamble down in Cincinnati, back in the late 1800s.
Growing up… she always came up with a catchy phrase or saying…. for this or that.  Apparently, that characteristic stayed with her through adulthood.

Yep.  She worked in the advertising department at P&G.  The only woman in that office.
As a matter of fact… with their Ivory Soap push… (P&G’s first big product)…  she hit the phrase  “It Floats”

Simple.  Yet to the point.  They expanded on it in many ways.  Like…. “The top of the water is your soap-holder when you bathe with Ivory.  It Floats.”

She also thought up… “If you want really good soap, you have to raise the bar.”

That one didn’t fly quite as well.
But this one…. “You will bubble your money when you buy Ivory.”
Oh yeah.  That’s cooking with Crisco, I’ll tell you.
Happy Birthday Rosa.    Not only could you make a pitch……  you also knew how to lye.

“Creativity makes a leap, then looks to see where it is.” – Mason Cooley

I’ve long had this fascination with robots.  Blame it on the Jetsons, or even the Robinsons.

Robots… in real life… were meant to help us…. mere…. humans.
You see.
Sometimes life can be mundane.
It isn’t that we want it to be.  Or even that we try to make it that way.  But there are things about life which are simply that.  Mundane.
Call it what you will…..  humdrum, dull, boring, tedious, monotonous.

Yet. We do it because it just needs to be done.  Going to work. Brushing teeth.  Changing diapers.  Washing dishes.  Gassing up the car.  Exercising.  Taking out the trash.  Fixing the toilet.  On and on.  No one forces us to do it (most of the time).  It is just a part of the functional equation of life.

Some people are better at it than others.  They move through these tiresome and unexciting tasks with a song on their lips, and a smile on their faces.  They seem to accomplish them with ease.

Humans have been trying to construct robots to take the place of these mundane tasks for a long time now.  And in some cases, it has worked.  Consider assembly lines in factories, and such.  Heck, there are surgical techniques done with robotics these days.

Yet, it is a slippery slope, I think.

If we start replacing everything that humans do with machines…. well…..  what is the use of the human?

What is the use of the human?

The trick of living fully in each day…. is finding our best use.  Even if it is amidst all of those tasks which fall into the classification of the repetitive and the unremarkable.

What is the use of the human?  Perhaps…. oh to be…. remarkable.

“Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

Frogs.
Unfortunately,  when frogs get old…. they die.
Heart attacks for most of them.

Some drink too much beer.  They really love the hops.
I heard of one frog who was shot to death.
He went into a bank with a gun.  He wanted to robbit.
A few frogs have been known to get really sad, and Kermit suicide.
But most of the time, they simply just up and croak.

“The gods too are fond of a joke.” – Aristotle

Most people know that the Bald Eagle is a National Symbol for the United States of America.  Thomas Jefferson was well in favor of this.  And most people know that old Ben Franklin thought the Wild Turkey should take the place as the Bird for the National Symbol.

Yet few people know this.  Of the 56 men, from the 13 colonies, who signed the Declaration of Independence, 38 of those men thought the common pigeon should be the bird of choice.

Among those 38 were John Hancock of  Massachusetts, and Thomas Heyward Jr. of South Carolina.

But Jefferson made his case and we got the Eagle.

Had it been the other way, we would have Pigeon-Brand Condensed Milk, the NFL’s Philadelphia Pigeons, and American Pigeon Outfitters.  And my friend Bertie Conroy, who walked with his feet pointed inward, would have been Eagle-Toed.

So it is, the American Way.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
 
Happy Fourth.  Here is to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

And for celebrating your Independence, no matter what your feathers look like.

Sure.   I am a self-confessed home body.  No question about it.  I like being home more than anywhere else in the world.
I am home now, and it feels good.

But sometimes it is nice to get out and see the sights.  Smell the smells.   Taste the tastes.    You get the idea.  Hear the heres.

The past couple of days, we went to Indy and kicked around the city a bit.  I really hadn’t been there in about a hundred years.   Since I went to Butler University.  (Shout out to all the Bulldogs in the world.)

At any rate, we explored and learned and enjoyed.

Some of it made us happy.   Some of it made us sad.

But all of it made us more aware of the world in which we live.   And I am very aware now…. of  things I never knew before.  In all my years.

Around every minute of the day, there are intriguing and mysterious things for us to find.  If we look.

I find this this characteristic of life…. to be a pretty incredible thing. And I am thankful that we can explore, as we can.

Especially when you find pizza at Izzy and Harry’s.

Other cool facts:

Abraham Lincoln’s birth mother may have been illegitimate. 

Shriners don’t wear their Fez Caps all the time.  They also drive regular sized cars in real life.

There are 330 steps going up inside the Circle Centre War Memorial Monument.

Most cities have secret gems.