Back in the day, there used to be a show on TV called Kung Fu.  It starred David Carradine…. who I think died a few years back…  as a result of a sex practice called auto-erotic asphyxiation.. But that is for another discussion here sometime.  Or maybe not here…..

But.  Back to the show.  The series aired on ABC from October 1972, to April 1975 for a total of 63 episodes. Kung Fu started out as a full-length feature television pilot….. you know….. one of those ABC Movies of the Week.

Anyway… I never watched the show.  It creeped me out for some reason.    But the main character (Caine who was played by Carradine) was nicknamed “Grasshopper”.

Thy young boy, Caine…. thought The Master….. who was blind…. had a terrible affliction in his blindness.  One day…. The Master took notice of a little grasshopper at Caine’s feet.  Caine didn’t notice.
Hence…. the nickname for Caine…. Grasshopper.

Now we used this whole funny-phrase-Grasshopper-thing all throughout the 70s and 80s.  I used to LOVE to say it….

“Hey… do you know how to fix this bike chain?”
“Ahhhh….. watch and learn Grasshopper, watch and learn.”

“What is the Capitol of Kentucky?”
“Ahhhhh…. the answer is found within the hotdog,  young Grasshopper.”

Oh… and on and on. (Yes…. I was easily amused back then.)

So… fast-forward 35 years.  Tonight I took a walk in nature.  Just to appreciate the beauty of it all.  And as I walked, I didn’t feel all that great… I saw nothing that I truly wanted to shoot… and it was NOT the holy-moly meditative nature walked that I had hoped it would be.  I was a little disgruntled.

I came home.  At some dinner.  Cleaned the kitchen… and took the trash to the garage.  Grumble.  Grumble.

But in the midst of it…..low and behold.  My nature walk abounded… right there underneath the garage door opener.

On a nail, high above… a beautiful and amazing Grasshopper.

Sometimes we go to great lengths… to find what is right there…. right there at our feet.

“Ahhhhhh….. Watch and learn young Polly.  Watch and learn.”

“I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.” – Winston Churchill

“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.” – C.S. Lewis