Direction.

Or lack there of.
I know there is a True North.  Somewhere.  But what about the times it feels like a Fibbing North?  Or would it be a False South?
Oh, I do not know.
But occasionally, it is hard to know which way we should go.
We can only hope that the Song of our Direction, is in sync with the sound of our footsteps…. on whichever path we choose.

Sometimes, mine feels out of beat.  It should thumpity-thumping … when it boinkity-boinks.

Yep.

You know, when we drive somewhere, without a GPS in the vehicle, and we get lost…. most of us stop and ask for directions.  Most of us women.
I think most men press on at all costs. (But that discussion if for another night.)

Anyway…. if we get lost, we stop and ask.
Maybe life should be like that too… a little bit.
If our direction seems unclear, perhaps we should take pause, and ask which way we should go.
Ask whom?
That depends on the individual.  Some people believe in a god.  That may be the one to ask…. for them.  Some people put great faith in the plan of the universe.  And maybe they should ask that entity.

Then there are others that have iPhones.  They could ask Siri.

But no matter, who you are, or where you stand…. I think deep inside… we are all searching for that one true direction in life.
The way we are meant to go.

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.” – Carl Jung

“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” – Dalai Lama

“The only failure one should fear, is not hugging to the purpose they see as best.” – George Eliot

Which is better?
Salt or pepper?

The answer is likely to change every time you consider it.
The outcome depends on the variants involved.  All of them.

Take watermelon, for instance.  Some people like to salt it.  (Others, no.)  But I have never heard of anyone peppering watermelon.  In this case, salt wins by a nose.

Now…. how about a bowl full of ham and green beans.  It is probably salty enough.  But boy, wouldn’t a little pepper be good?  Pepper wins.  Depending on the person, of course.

You see.  There aren’t really any right answers.
Where salt and pepper are concerned.
It all depends on the circumstances surrounding the event.
I am wondering if that mostly goes for all of life too.

“Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made.” – Wayne Dyer

Okay.
I’ll quit talking about the zoo any day now.  But while we were there, some incredibly interesting things occurred.

At one point, we walked near a pond where some turtles were hanging out.  I noticed that two of them were holding hands.  Hands?  Paws?  No, that’s not right.   What the heck do you call turtle extremities?  Feet, I guess?

Okay.  The two turtles were holding feet.  Gawd, that sounds wrong.

Anyway they were holding feet and …. I said….  “Awwwwwwwwwww.  How sweet.”

And one of the turtles said… “Wellllll.  Thannnnkkkkkssss.”  Real slow-like.
That surprised me, I’ll tell you…..  So I asked….”Are you two in love?”
“Yepppppppppppppppp.”
“Well, how did you two meet and fall in love?”
“Wilma was competing in a big race down in Mudville, Kentucky.  She was going up against this hot-shot rabbit.  She beat him by a mile…. and made a killing off the wagers on the race.  And me… I was a reporter for the Turtle Times… covering the race.  We sort of bumped into one another at an after-race-party…. at Kermit’s Lily Pad….which happened to be a swinging Raw Bar down there.    Anyway…. we got to talking a little…. and snacked on some small insects and minnows.  Delicious, I might add.  We even had slowwwwww dance.  At any rate,  I had to ask her out….  She just wouldn’t come out of her shell,” Luke said.

She wouldn’t come out of his shell.
I sure can relate to that.
And hence… another parallel.  In this big pond of ours.

Beautiful.

“We are actually living in a million parallel realities every single minute.” – Marina Abramovic

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