Today, I caught a bit of the movie…. “How to Train Your Dragon”

Which brought to mind this thought:  Fear is probably our greatest enemy in life.  Yep.  It is my hypothesis…. that fear is the main cause of most “things gone bad” in our world.

Possibly an oversimplification.  But I am pretty serious about this one.

We fear what we don’t understand, what we don’t know, what we can’t control, what can not foresee.  A lot of this is caused by a lack of knowledge.  When our brains only have a few particulars about something… a few pieces of information…. those silly old  brains tend to fill in the rest of the details all by themselves.

Oh…. and what details they can be.  We make things up in our heads. (Well… I know I do….)  And occasionally,  we imagine them to be a whole lot worse than they are in actuality.  Hence…. the Big Hairy Beast…. Fear.

The upcoming job interview.  A doctor’s appointment.  The speech we have to give.  Or.. even… a group of people who are different than we are… be it skin color, religion, or way of life.

But back to “How to Train Your Dragon.”  It is the snappiest of movies in my book.  Most people haven’t given it a look because it is an animated film.  But it truly has one of the best messages ever.  We fear what we don’t know.

It is the story about a hapless young Viking named Hiccup.  He aspires to be a great Dragon Hunter, like his father….  Stoik the Vast.   But Hiccup really doesn’t have it in him… this whole dragon-killing-thing.  He is more of an inventor.  A smart Viking kid.

You see, in a series of chaotic events… Hiccup sort of brings down the most feared of Dragons…. and the two of them become the truest and bluest friends.  That is……once they get past the Human vs. Dragon Labels… and Roles… they both have assumed their entire lives.

So that is the long and short of the movie.  But it really made me think today.

Some folks may not like to call it fear.   But.  The Bottom Line.  We don’t know… what we don’t know.  And we sure do fill in those blanks…

… and this can be very scary.

The Cowardly Lion did it.  So did Chicken Little.

I do it.

So… from here on out…. I am going to try to get to know that Dragon… before I try to kill it.  Me and that Dragon could become great friends.  Who knows.  That Dragon may save my life someday.

“Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here.”
– Unknown

“Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends.”
– Shirley MacLaine

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”
– Marie Curie

I like a good birthday.  Today is one of them.  Anyone who Googled anything today… surely had to notice the little horseys atop the search page.  You see… today is Eadweard Muybridge’s birthday.  9 April 1830 – 8 May 1904

He is a photographer. He was born in England, but he spent much of his life in the United States.  Eadweard… I guess it is Eadie for short…. or Weardo…. is best know for his ingenious work in stop-motion photography.

His pioneering work on animal locomotion mostly took place in 1877 and 1878.  It started like this……  An wealthy owner of Race Horses… who’s name was Stanford… had some on-the-side-bets with his buddies at the track.  The topic….  “Do all four horse legs leave the ground when that horse is running  racing, trotting?”  Giddyup.

Stanford hired Eadie to shoot the horse… not with a gun… but with a camera… to settle this bet.  Well, Eadweard had a BIG BURLY thinking cap I’ll tell you.  He set up multiple cameras to capture motion in stop-action photographs.

Then… he took it further.  He thought… ( out loud in the middle of Ye’ Old  Starbucks one day ) … .. “Hey. This would be funkadellic if I “strung” all of these together. Why… I could show the whole scenario… from first hoof to the last.”   So he came up with a device called…. of all things….a  zoopraxiscope  It pre-dated the flexible perforated film strip used in cinematography…. by a bunch.

He has long been one of my favorites.  Before all his motion studies, he did amazing work at Yosemite.  He made some incredible architecture images as well.  None of this was easy… I can assure you.  The photographic process in 1877 is reminiscent to chiseling a statue out of marble with a butter knife.  And barely faster.

But…. this guy Muybridge has a pretty interesting life.  He moved to San Francisco when he came to the U.S…. and got in a stage coach accident soon after.  I think someone was texting and stagecoaching.

At any rate… he konked his noggin’ pretty good. OMG.  My BFF….  Supposedly, it left him a bit on the bluto side.

Some years later….in 1874 to be exact… Muybridge discovered that his young wife Flora had a lover.  The Lover-Studmuffin was one… Major Harry Larkyns.   Yep.  Old Eadie  sought out Col. Larkyns. He shot and killed the guy…. point blank. Not with his camera.  With a gun.

Muybridge was tried for murder. His defense attorney pleaded insanity due to that pesky head injury that Muybridge had sustained following his stagecoach accident. He was acquitted for “justifiable homicide”. The whole episode interrupted his horse photography experiment.

There is a lot more to his life story.  That is for sure. But you are yawning.  I noticed.

At any rate, he died in the early 1900s … on a visit to England.

He was so dang talented in all things photographic. I’ll let you borrow my book on him sometime. And a thinker too.  Loopy… but clever.

So, just another little click of the camera… in the great history of this world of ours.  And when you string them all together… time flies…. like the gallop of a horse.

Yippee Ki Yay….  Yippee Ki Yay……  .

There are some smart people on this spinning ball we share.  Wise, wise, wise.   Often times, these insightful people say some incredibly perceptive things.  On this holiday… one that we share with family and friends…. I  seem to be in the mood to reflect on some of these.  So.

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” – Gallileo

That Gallileo was a snappy guy. Good at math.  A real star gazer.  He was shining bright on this quote, I’ll tell you.

“Trust in yourself. Your perceptions are often far more accurate than you are willing to believe.” – Claudia Black

Ahhhh…. the old intuition.  I The sixth sense.  The third eye.  The little voice….  or in my case… the many little voices in my head….

“What ever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napaleon Hill

Not the short Napoleon.  Nope.  Because that Napoleon conceived that he could win at Waterloo.  Problem was…. he didn’t believe he could win.

“Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.” – Jim Rohn

This one is good.  Period.  I wish I were better.

“Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose.” – Tom Krause

This one is good too.

“Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.” – John W. Gardner

I am not sure this quote is so true.  The art of drawing without an eraser means never making a mistake, right?  But…. I think we humans are imperfect… hence… we make  misteaks…. oooops…. misstaikes… dang it….. mestakes.  Crap.  We mess up from time to time, is what I was trying to say.  And I think it is okay….

“Great acts are made up of small deeds.” – Lao Tzu

Yes. Because……

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Anglou

…. and……

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” – Ann Frank

“The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.” – Buddha

Some words are funnier than others.  I like funny words.  Sometimes, I even play games with them.

Take the word “SOME”….. for instance.  Not funny at all.  Or the word “ARE”…. again… not funny.  Unless you are like MORK…. and you start laughing like him….arr, arr, arr, arr.  Then it is funny.

But others can be quite silly.  Or at least they sound silly.  This all hit me today, while we were watching the College of Charleston’s Fastpitch Softball Team play Furman University.  One of the young women laid down a bunt in the fourth inning.  A bunt.  Now that is a comical word.

Here are some others that I think are funny.

Knickerbockers.

Squabble.

Jingle.

Flap.

Moped.

Nincompoop.

Wharf.

Huffed.

Goggles.

There are hundreds.  I can’t say that there is a commonality between them.  They just sound zany as soon as they leave the lips.

A nincompoop, wearing knickers, engaged in a squabble concerning a jingle he heard on the radio.  It was quite a flap.  The nincompoop huffed at the annoyance. He donned his goggles, sprang onto his little moped, and sped away from the wharf. Vrrrrooooom.

Vroom.  Another funny word.

Sometimes…  I make up my own words.  Like “kwagle”  Sounds like bagel.  But when someone kwagles down the street… well, it is similar to a waddle… but then…. it sort of quakes as it happens.  A “KWAGLE”…..

I see people kwagling all the time.  In fact… there may be a Kwagle Epidemic in the country.  I think the solution for the Kwagle is the Kakewhacket.

But I won’t go in to all of that.  You may think I am loopy beyond retrieval from the edge of the  Loopy Fringe….

Which brings to mind something which happened at recent Therapy Appointment.  After 12 years of counseling… my therapist said something to me that brought me to tears.  He said, “No hablo ingles.”   Great.  Just great.  That explains why he always just sat there… nodding, and smiling.  I thought I was making progress.

Before I go tonight… I have a little story, or two…. in honor of Easter.

I saw it on the news.

Energizer Bunny Arrested!    Charged with Battery.

Not a news item…. but a commonly known fact…..   Did you know….

If you pour hot water down a rabbit hole and you get a hot cross bunny.

That’s not all folks.  For you music lovers…. because I sure do love music…..

My favorite rapper is the Easter bunny, he’s really in to hip hop.

And please… don’t be sad on Easter.  It will get better.  Just remember… everyone feels down from time to time….

Do you know why was the rabbit depressed? He was just going through a bad patch!

“It’s a pretty good idea to be of good cheer… but not all the time. Just at the most unexpected times.” – Unknown

At once, Maxine realized she had made a terrible  mistake…. AND a Fashion Faux Pas.

Oh yes.  She  had strutted with pride….   in her new pink fuzzy Easter Hat, and spiffy Easter Basket….  She was dressed to the nines for the BIG parade….

But at the very site of the shiny black hogs… down at Battery Park ….she was struck with the reality that she had marked the incorrect date in her Franklin Cover Day Planner.  Oh.  Horror of Horrors.  It was…. indeed….. the wrong day.

How could she have known the Harley Davidson Biker’s Rally would be on the day before Easter?

As Butch, the Biker Bulldog jeered … and the rest of the Harley Bitches laughed at little Max…. she sank away in dejection.   Quietly, she scooped up her small Easter basket… her chocolate biscuits… her marshmallow peeps….. and made the long, lonely walk home.

“When we truly realize that we are all alone is when we need others the most” – Ronald Anthony

“Put on your Sunday clothes when you feel down and out
Strut down the street and have your picture took
Dressed like a dream your spirits seem to turn about
That Sunday shine is a certain sign
That you feel as fine as you look!”

– Dolly from Hello Dolly – ‘Put On Your Sunday Clothes’ Lyrics

They say that birds of a feather flock together.

I don’t think that is always the case.  Take this Mourning Dove and Sea Gull.  Not alike at all.  Yet, they sit with one another.  And, they are clearly having a discussion about all-things-aviary.

Sea Gull:  Hey Mourning Dove… how come you never sit on top of any churches?

Mourning Dove:  Well that’s because I am not really a bird of pray.

SG:  Well then… Do dou like sushi?

MD:  Not with the recent salmonella outbreak that has been in the news.  How about you?

SG:  I fix all my own sushi…  I pluck it right out the salty water.  Hey… speaking of which…. do you know why me, and all the other sea gulls,  just fly over the sea… and not the bay?  Because if we did… they would call us Bay Gulls.  Get it?  Bagels…

SG:  Mourning Dove old pal… hey… you aren’t looking so good…. are you SAD?  Bwaahhhhhh haaaaaaa bwahhhhh haaaaaaa.

MD:  Funny gull.  I’ve never heard that one before.

SG:  Seriously… you don’t look so good.  You feel okay?

MD:  I’ve got a terribly bad headache.  I think I need to migraine south.

SG:  Serious question for you … why EXACTLY do you fly south every year, dove?

MD:  Because it is too dang far to walk.  …. (… … geez, this guy is a real  bird brain….. )

SG:  HEY…. I may not have any ears… but I could read your beak…..  you… you…. pecker.

Well, it just got uglier from here on out.  Maybe birds of a feather really DO flock together… and birds who aren’t of the same feather… argue like opposing politicians…..

“By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart” – Confucius

When we lose our footing, or slip….  we have lost our traction.   Like a clumsy pig on a cobblestone road.  No traction.

Dis…. traction.

Yes..  …. the Art of Distraction…. which is….to draw away or divert one’s mind, or one’s attention.  To disturb or trouble greatly in mind.  To beset.

When I was out for a run this morning… I kept passing the same couple.  Three times, I did.   They distracted me… I’d have to say.  But that isn’t the point.

At the first pass-by, they were crouched down on the boardwalk.  The woman’s purse was on the ground, and the contents were scattered about.  It was apparent they had misplaced something within the contents of that bag… which was now spread over half of Charleston.  I chuckled a little, and ran on.

The next time,  both the man and the woman…were applying band-aids on their hands.  I’m not sure what event prompted this… but there they sat on a curb, in the midst of a first aid ritual.

Finally, I encountered them yet once again.  This time, they were standing in the middle of a rather large Dahlia Bush… I saw the woman pluck out the cap from a plastic water bottle from amidst the leaves.

Clearly these people were the Stumblebums of All Sightseers.

And, I would have to say that all three incidents for this couple…  were a direct cause of ….. various distractions.

Life is full of them.  Distractions that is.  Well, it is full of Stumblebum Sightseers too… but that is for another night.  Back to the matter of diversions.

I heard on the radio today that “Speech Recognition Commands” used in car navigation… is as much of a distraction as cell phones.

It is all a distraction… isn’t it?  Driving is a distraction, after all.  When we are driving a car, we can’t really get to our needlepoint, now can we?

Or when we are whiling away at the needlepoint, we have a hard time fixing the chicken and dumplings.  But if we were stirring that pot in the kitchen, we would be distracted from cleaning the lint filter on the dryer.  Yet… if we were getting the lint out of the clothes dryer, we’d have a heck of a time removing the dead mouse from the mousetrap.

And back to the needlepoint…. while you are sitting there stitching away… you notice a foul smell coming from over there.  Smells sort of like… well… dead mouse.

Or perhaps you wind up standing in the middle of a Dahlia Bush in some foreign city, with band-aids all over your hands …..

So it is all one distraction after the next.  We can try to prioritize our distractions… but really… what is the point to all of it?

Well… the long and short of that answer is one of the greatest secrets in life.  Purpose.

Finding our Purpose.  But I don’t think it means being mired down with anything…. no.   Or even to worry too much about what that purpose might be.  I mean, who knows…. maybe it is simply “all about” moving through distractions…. one to the next.

But is it such a bad thing?  As long as we are helping others through our various diversions…..  now that would be quite worthwhile, I think.

“When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It’s to enjoy each step along the way.” – W. Dyer

“Why is it that every time I’m with you, makes me believe in magic?”
– I. M. Arounde’

Okay.  I promise NOT to be one of those people that invite you over…  and then proceed to get out the Slide Projector.  You know THOSE people…. and you remember that dreaded machine.  The one with the big old round spinner-thing that sits on top.  Yes, I promise not to load it full, and subject you to hours and hours of vacation photos.

That is a perpetually grueling scenario.  I can remember visiting my Aunt and Uncle once when I was very little.  It was NOT my favorite Aunt & Uncle… but one of the cheek-pinchers.  The “Green-Jello-Mold-With-Marshmallows & Pineapple” Aunt.

At any rate, we had to sit through what seemed like hours and hours of **click, whirrrrr**…. “and this is the Big Ball of Yarn at Glenny Roken Point”…..  **click, whirrrrrrr**…. “and this is US… standing in front of the the Big Ball of Yarn Statue at Glenny Roken…..”  **click, whirrrr**…. “and then this is US, reading the plaque at the Big Ball of Yarn Statue….”  **click, whirrrrr***…..

So I won’t do that.  I will have to say though… our trip to Disney World, was a great vacation.  We visited in 2000 and now again in 2012.  Both trips were pretty rocking.  One can do as little or as much as one wants to at the land of the big mouse.  But there is… in fact…. A LOT to do there.  At every step you take.

[   To See A Bit of the Slide Show….. CLICK THIS LINK…..   ]

I saw so many wham-jamming things, and learned a great deal too.  I would recommend this Alternate World to young and old alike.

Now, I won’t sugar coat it either.  It had its minor drawbacks… which is true of any place… anytime.  As hard as those Disney People try to create the perfect Utopia… they can’t really control the nimrods that walk in through the front gate.

For the most part… people were nice.  But every so often, you would run in to a very, very, very important person.  So important in fact, they ruled the thoroughfares. Thou shall not walk where they walk.  Yep, I was bowled over by a couple of such dignitaries.  I feel… somehow honored…….  …. I guess.  At least they didn’t pee on me… which… I wouldn’t put past such individuals as these.  But never mind them.  I’m a tree.  I can bend.

Yes, for the most part, people were grand.  We met Mouseketeers of all sizes, shapes, colors, and ages.  From the little kid in the pool proclaiming that we were all in “Evil Florida, Evil Florida”…. to that Crazy Speaking Mime who wouldn’t shut up.

Some of my favorite things / attractions,  were the “Hall of Presidents” … “The High School Choir from California”…  “The Giant Turtle, and Dolphins… at the Sea Aquarium” …  “All the Parades with Dancing and Singing in the Streets”… “The NT Marching Band”….. AND….. of course…..

“All the Magic.”

It had it all.  But all good things… must come to an end… or so they say.

So now it’s time to say goodbye… to all our company…. M – I – C…. see you real soon… K – E – Y… Why? Because we like you.  M – O – U – S – E……

I am tired and spent tonight.  A long day of flying and traveling.  And there is nothing… in this little brain of mine.  As hard as I’ve tried.  So tonight…. a very short story.

“My darling King…” the Queen said to Richard.  “Your Royal Lovehandles!  That is way too much bread for you to eat in one sitting.  Who the heck do you think you are?  The Earl of Sandwich?”

To which the king responded… “The Kingdom is in trouble my dear Queen.  We are nearly bankrupt.  So, you see.  I WILL eat all this bread……  Yes, because ….  I really knead the dough”.”

_________________________________________

“He who talks more is sooner exhausted.”  -Lao Tzu

What a great weekend this was at Disney.

One of the biggest highlights of the trip was meeting Ellen Degeneres here today…. at the “Finding Nemo” Aquarium Attraction at Epcot.  She is doing a “promo” for the upcoming sequel for Nemo.  Of course… she will be revisiting her role as the voice of Dory.

What a bunch of fun……

A few more memories:

Mickey with Goofy…..

AND……

Mary with Goofy…….

…. and.. ….

Happy April Fool’s Day.