Art.

Tonight I went to a community event.  It was called Good Folk. Bad Art.  The Preble County Art Association hosted the event at The Gathering Place.

There are so many good things that could be said about this evening.

It was a “competition / auction” sort of deal, where “local people in the community” who are NOT artists… create a piece of art.  Then people come to the event and vote on the best piece of art… or the person they love the most who made the art.  While all the voting goes on…. the individual pieces are auctioned off……. so everyone bids on the art.  And as a result, money is raised to support the arts in our community.

So… how great is all of that? Pretty great.

Each little part of this night was all put together right too.  The food, the venue, the music (Worley Boys), the auctioneer (Kramer), all the participants and artists, the guests… every bit of it.  And it was all orchestrated by the PCAA Executive Director, Vicky Fanberg … who by the way, is great too.

If it sounds like a commercial for the PCAA…. well… so be it.  They deserve it.  This is yet another gem in our community.

It’s not all warm milk and kittens here in Preble County, though.  As with any community, no matter where you live, there are things that could always be improved upon.  There are things that need to be changed.

But in our community, there are a lot of things which ARE going right.  Very right.  And this is just one of them.  Mostly because of the people…. those Good Folk… with their Bad Art.

Next time you are brushing your teeth… consider this…..

Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet (2 meters) away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

Speaking of toilets and toothbrushes… this next one has nothing to do with either…..

The numbers ‘172’ can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.  And…. On the new hundred dollar bill the time on the clock tower of Independence Hall is 4:10.

What does THAT mean?  I am voting for some sort of Conspiracy Theory.

Since we are full of information tonight… so are libraries…. like….

The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.

I’ve been in that Library on a number of occasions.  Funny.  I always had this sinking feeling.

Okay.  Time out.  All this writing is making me hungry.  Which brings me to this…

On average, there are 178 sesame seeds on each McDonalds BigMac bun.

You can count on it.

And… speaking of numbers…..

The largest number of children born to one woman is recorded at 69. From 1725-1765, a Russian peasant woman gave birth to 16 sets of twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 4 sets of quadruplets.

Her uterus must have been the size of Siberia.  Since we are on the subject of human beginnings…..

Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.

I am beginning to believe that certain people have not come much further than that… unfortunately.

And on to how else we might evolve… me the Geek….

The word “nerd” was first coined by Dr. Seuss in “If I Ran the Zoo.”

Oh… if only I could run the Zoo.

Today was a bit of a long dang day… it seemed like. It didn’t contain any more minutes than any other day.  But it sure seemed like some parts of it were creeping along at the speed of snail.

Ahhhhhh. Time Travel.  The ins and outs.  We all time travel.  All the time.

Throughout the day… our minds fly backwards, remembering things of the past.  It may just be…. that it happened an hour ago…. or a decade ago.  But we revisit those places quite often.  At least I do.

An the same goes for forward motion too.  We wonder about the future.  “I wonder how this meeting is going to go.”  “I wonder when my package from Big Bob’s Barn of Bonzai Trees will get here.” …. and such.

But there I go again.  Getting off topic.

This day was long. (That’s what I started writing about.)

I try to learn lessons every day.   Today, I was reminded of a lesson I learned some time ago.  And that is…
in my life, I want to spend time with people who are full of good energy.  I do not want to spend time with people who ooze negative energy… those who condemn… those who are cynical, critical, and dismissive.

I much more prefer the ones with the big old white gleaming aura … the one you can almost see when they walk through the door.  The ones who seem like they are good energy magical wonders. The entertain the possibilities of the unknown.

Fortunately… I know a few people like this.  I like them.  And I am thankful for them.  Together… we try… to help the pig learn to fly.

Do you ever happen upon an emotion or a connection, somewhere you didn’t imagine that you ever would?  There are connections all around us, I think.  Unknown connections too.

You see.  We have bird feeders.  In fact, we fill them with seed, to feed said birds.  But we get bonus guests as a result.  Sometimes they are mystery guests… like on a game show.  But on other occasions, we have the opportunity to see our random callers.

Some times, they take the form of a squirrel, raccoon (mystery-guest with a  mask), or even a possum.  But many times, right up here near the house… they are the “cuter-than-ever” chipmunks.  Oh my goodness.  They are so adorable.  But, right now, they are pretty skinny.  I guess the winter sleep was long and hard.

However…. back in the fall… they looked like Dom Deluise, or John Candy… or something.  A little on the plumpish side.

Anyway, today I looked out and there was a little chippy.  A word about our feeders.  The poles are seated in rock, and at the base of each pole is an area of small river rock.

So.  Chippy.  The little guy was out there foraging for food.  And that tiny fella’ would pick up one of those little river rocks and heave it out of his way.  Then he’d pick up another and toss it over his shoulder.  It was like watching Fred Flintstone move boulders.  I laughed out loud.

And there you have it.  That, is just one very small example of the blessings that nature brings us.  Those amazing connections.  Being in nature is nice.  This, coming from a “comfort-seeking-home-body”….

But it is true.  Being out in nature feels good sometimes.  I think the reason is that it is so very full of these blessings of nature itself.  It reminds us that we are just a very small part of the bigger equation.  We are useful and viable pieces of the universe.  But we share it with a lot of others.  Others which are… sometimes “like” us… and sometimes very “different.”

Which brings me to our lovely and beautiful dogs.  When you look in the eyes of any living being, there is a sign of something much, much deeper there.  Unless… of course… it is the likes of a Stepford Wife.

Again, digression.

My point is this.  When I look into the eyes of our dogs, there seems to be some kind of understanding and connection.  It is one that only exists between them and you.  They know it.  You know it.  Another gift of our natural world.  This reminder that we are all connected.  On so many levels.

It is like 3-dimensional-connect-the-dots, on speed.

Again, I shall propose.  There are so many connections in this world, and beyond, which our very limited brains do not understand.  We get ourselves all clogged-up and bogged-down, with details, and noise, and digital clutter.  But what we might just need to do is breath in…. exhale… look around and take notice of WHAT we are a part of.

What I know tonight that I am thankful to be a part of this world, this universe.  To be a small piece of this very large clock-works.  And I am especially glad to be sharing it with nature, and all of those kingdom’s creatures.  Like chipmunks.

I am especially glad… to be sharing it with you.

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.  — John Muir

Every living being is an engine geared to the wheelwork of the universe. Though seemingly affected only by its immediate surrounding, the sphere of external influence extends to infinite distance.  —  Nikola Tesla

Convoluted dreams.

Last night, I had a dream that Lea Ann Golden, Jane Beall, and Tina Marker showed up at my house for breakfast.

My sister Julie was over visiting when they showed up.  Mary and I and Julie started to make breakfast.

Lea Ann, Jane and Tina wanted scramble eggs, bacon, fried bologna, English muffins, and French toast.  We were low on eggs and I knew it.

I took a place at the table, and then I began to put things out with the trio.  Lea Ann and I were smoking cigarettes, but I told her that Mary didn’t like me to smoke in the house. We continued despite this acknowledgement.

Julie and I began to make all the fixings in the kitchen, with the exception of the eggs. Mary was “off camera” in charge of rustling up the eggs.  I called out… “Don’t forget to fix the eggs.”  She replied “I took something for it.”  I think she thought I was asking about her headache.

The house was nothing like ours at all, but in the dream, it was ours.  It was like a cross between my childhood home… mixed in with some of the Munsters, and the Brady Bunch.  It was a mess…. including the kitchen.  I was mortified.

Eventually, we had everything on the table for the trio, except for the eggs.  I hollered to Mary again.  She came in the kitchen and said.. “Oh.  I’ll see what I can do.”  Panic overwhelmed me.

You see, now, everything else was getting cold.  I was getting upset.  Lea Ann Golden, Jane Beall, and Tina Marker sat at the wooden table and stared at the presentation before them… but they wanted to wait for the eggs.  I noticed there was no syrup on the table for the French toast.  I retrieved syrup.

Finally, I went to the other kitchen, and did not see Mary. I found a couple of dozen of store-bought eggs, and scrambled them up for the breakfast guests.

After eating, we all laid down, in different areas of the living room and dining room and fell asleep.  Except for Tina.  She left.

When I awoke, I lit up a cigarette.  The next thing I know, Stephanie Breslin was walking through the front door.  She said she had a surprise.  The entire softball team was coming over to visit.  This dream was going from bad to worse…. and I knew it.  Most of the people in the dream are individuals I have not seen in a very long time…. or folks that I don’t run into on a regular basis.  But there they were.
As they all began to shuffle in, I felt the need to…. well…. pee.

And that is when I woke up from the dream.  Apparently, my real life sensors were telling me the same thing… because I really had to pee.  Or, perhaps…. I just couldn’t bear to have more people in that dream… coming into a dirty house… with a shortage of chicken eggs on hand.

This morning, in real life… I had a message from Lea Ann.  Telling me about some great Hush Puppies in this area.  Not the shoes.  The food.

When reality and the outer states combine… I’ll tell you.  It is like Deja Vu, I’ll tell you.  Just like Deja Vu I’ll tell you.

Seriously, this was one of those dreams, which was so vivid, and real.  Like I was touching and seeing all of it.  So very actual.  And it couldn’t be further from my true plausibility in existence.  I mean, I haven’t seen, or heard from Jane Beall since 1982.  How is this?

I can only say… we are multi-dimensional humans.  Don’t underestimate us.  Don’t underestimate yourself, or me.  T RULY…..We are each contributing necessary parts offering completion to the wholeness of the universe.

And, it is our very existence which guarantees our equality.  In theory, we should not have any fears because of this freedom.  But not everyone understands that we are all equals.  And therein lies the problem.

Therein we can find the inherent presence of the unknown. Like being in a dream…. low on eggs… when the house is a mess.    Oh Lord.  Just tar and feather me.  And then wake me up.

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.  —  Plutarch

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.  — Albert Einstein

The only absolute certainty is uncertainty itself.

I am almost completely certain of this.

Okay… Seriously.
This assertion began a long time ago.  Back with Socrates, actually.  It was the Delphic Oracle who recognized Socrates as the wisest man in Greece.

Yet, our boy Socrates replied that he possessed no wisdom whatsoever.  Sockry said… “I know nothing.”

But.  Paradoxically, the Oracle interpreted his complete acceptance of ignorance as evidence of great wisdom. (Leave it to an Oracle!)   As a result.. Socrates ended up being sentenced to death by poisoning.  You see… those prominent Greek-folks-of-old didn’t like being ranked among the self-proclaimed ignorant.  Poison.

Jump 2,000 years forward……  after Socrates’.  This was a point in history where the West became incredibly concerned with certainty.

Calculus was developed; Newton’s discoveries of gravity and the laws of motion came about.  Lots of things like this.  It was hard not to be convinced that reality could be laid out and explained through scientific exploration.

Newton was followed by a whole of other scientists, making scientifically science-like discoveries.

And with every new discovery….  people started to think the certainty that the universe could be completely understood through equations and deductions. These discoveries of electric, and magnetism and such… could be explained in physical realms.

But then hey… a little later… some new kids hit the block.  A  new batch of scientists that included Curie, Rutherford, Planck, Einstein and Bohr proved that the universe was not that simple to figure out.  These discoveries were a little more

Then 1926, when a young German physicist proved that it was impossible to know the position and momentum of a particle at the same time.  Werner Heisenberg.

He formulated the Uncertainty Principle…. and of course…. quantum mechanics. The implication of this discovery…. was that unpredictability ruled at the fundamental level of subatomic particles.  Einstein didn’t like it so much… and died trying to disprove it.

But years of experimental consistency confirmed his worst fears.  For lack of a better way of putting it…. God does play dice.  In 1932 Heisenberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

And now…. we have recent discoveries by Leonard Susskind and Ed Witten which support the idea that we live in a holographic universe.   In other words….objective reality does not exist.

This one is a DOOZY… but it comes down to this.  All aspects of reality are merely interpretations.  Yes, these “personal understandings” are relative to the observer.   And as such… it makes it impossible to reach any kind of universal certainty.

If you are still reading after all of this… YOU deserve a Nobel Prize.

So there you have it.  2,500 years later…. we know that Socrates was right all along.  The only absolute certainty is uncertainty itself.

I am almost completely certain about all of this.  Certainly.

“All we know is still infinitely less than all that remains unknown.”  — William Harvey

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.  — Albert Einstein

Sometimes we think we can’t.
But perhaps, in fact, we can.

Maybe not in this exact moment, whatever the “it” might be.
There will be other moments though.

But right here and now, the very best we can do is simply to…. BE.

And in life, the greatest accomplishment we can achieve, comes in being our true authentic selves.

Not someone else’s version of us.
But whoever we truly are.

You.  Me.  We.

And from one of my favorite poems of all time.

“I shall be telling this with a sigh   
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
   Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
   And that has made all the difference.”  —  Robert Frost

Nearly 20 years ago, Mary and I were driving down the coast of California.  We stopped at a Mexican Restaurant for a repast.  Mary order Baileys with her coffee.  After a short discussion with the waiter, he came back to the table and produced a cup of black coffee, with a plate full of bay leaves on the side.

Clearly the order had been misconstrued.

Stick with me for a seocond.

Back in the day…. the way-back day…. there were a lot of shows on Saturday morning.  I loved that time of life.  I can remember watching those morning cartoons at a pretty young age… and I probably kept it up through grade school.

Any way… there is one in particular that I loved.  It was called The Secrets of Isis.  Honest to goodness.  It was about this archaeologist.  She finds this amulet-deal, that lets her turn into the super heroine goddess Isis.  And then she gets all Isis-like and fights evil. (It starred some bit-part actress).

Gosh I loved that show. It was one of the first Girl-Power Shows ever.  I would go out and play like I was that super hero.  I’d repeat her classic line… “Oh Mighty Isis!” to conjure up my very own super powers.

So.  THAT Goddess Isis was from the ancient Egyptian era.  She was worshipped as the ideal mother AND the patroness of nature and magic.

It gets better.  She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans and the downtrodden.  But she didn’t draw lines there.  Nope.   She also listened to the prayers of the wealthy, maidens, aristocrats and rulers.  She knew no favorites.

Now.  Imagine my dismay… when one of the most horrible terrorist groups on the face of the planet comes to be known as ISIS.  Some dingle-berry … somewhere… gave…… the The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham…. the Acronym….ISIS.  Big dumb bunnies.

Why couldn’t they have nicknamed them MMF.. for “Monstrous Mudder Fockers.”   Or something like that….

No.  They had to take a perfectly good Goddess and give her a bad name.  A bad connotation. Now… ISIS is totally misconstrued.

Those dang words with two meanings… like LIE.  Either you aren’t telling the truth…   or you are resting in a horizontal position.

But back to Isis.

Certainly, we all have different perspectives on things.  But it really bugs me when things get a bad reputation, due to “guilt by association” or misconceptions, or misinterpretations.

And I guess that is the main thing to remember here.  What could have a powerful and wonderful connotation to one person…. may have an entirely different meaning to someone else.  For whatever reason.

That is where we sometimes have to tread lightly.  Gaining knowledge of the perspectives of others.  We all line up differently… that is for sure.

Be it bay leaves, goddesses, or getting settled in for an afternoon nap.

So the next time you are out…. and  order a Killer Brownie for dessert…. you better find out just who is taking the order.

Let’s talk about “they” for a minute.  Again, I will reiterate, I do NOT know who “they” are.  But “they” are everywhere.

Honest to goodness.  How many times a day, do you here someone say…”Well, I read an article on garbage disposals the other day, and ‘they’ said never to put live snakes in there, without turning on the water first.”

(Okay… don’t get too distracted by the example… it is just terrible to think about really.)

Back at it.  Those pesky “they’s”….

“They” come up with a brand new exciting study of evidence everyday.  Coffee is now good for you.  Whoops… now “they” say it is bad.  Hey look.  Java is now good for you again.  And line up the list:  Red Wine, Red Meat, Fat, Salt, Eggs, Chocolate, Butter, and on and on.  Eat your White Pasty Foods.  Trust me on this one.

Here is the thing…. I’ve come to find out… “they” can be quite flippant.  And indecisive, wishy-washy, and namby-pamby.  You really can’t count on a thing the “they” tell you.

Some real & true recents studies which “they” conducted include:
• New Scientific Study Shows Rich People Cheat and Lie A Lot
• Four or more cups of coffee per day fights off cancer.
• Castration is the key for long life in men.
• Power walking reduces the risk of having a heart attack in half.
• Eating egg yolks is as bad as smoking.
• Female porn stars are happier than other women.
• Do YOU believe in the three second rule? Scientists reveal whether food dropped on the floor is safe to eat (if it’s picked up quickly enough).
• Eggs don’t affect cholesterol levels and Eggs are a great food for weight loss.

Okay.  We won’t hold any of this against “they”… as it may end up being bad for us… in some study somewhere.

So what do we really make of all of this?  What to believe or what to discard?  I mean… in the past two centuries, we have made enormous advancements in science and medicine.

I know this much to be true for me.
We can learn a lot from other people.
The middle ground in any area… is huge.
Having faith in others can be a good thing.
Having faith in others can be a bad thing.
Always, always…. always… prove your source of information.
Experience is your best teacher.

As for the “Theys”….  I think we should be compassionate to others.
So if you ever find a “they”… give ‘em a big hug.  They probably need it.

Believe you can and you’re halfway there.  — Theodore Roosevelt

I have never been a big fan of The Bucket List idea.   If you have one… that is all good, and all.  They are just not for me.  I haven’t quite been able to put my finger on it.   I DO know that one thing that bothers me is when people do things just because they are trendy, and everyone is following along.  Like Lemmings, I’ll tell you.  Right off the cliff sometimes.

The free-thinkers, the ones who march to the beat of their own drum… are the ones I seem to be drawn to.  I don’t really hang out with the Beliebers so very much.

Anyway… back to the bucket list.  I just read an article on it, which captured how I feel about them.

The long and short of it is this…..    I already mentioned that is just seems trendy to me.  The other thing is…..   once people make their list…. they put this really big burden on themselves to get the list accomplished.  And if they aren’t actively pursuing their list… or getting things “Checked-Off”… they begin to feel guilty about it.

But let’s say we do a great job of tracking the items on this down.  Are they totally meaningful activities to us?  I think most of the time, we just put things on that old B-List… because they sounded cool to do.

When I hear people talk about their lists…. most of the things on those bucket lists are just ideas that popped randomly into our heads.  A lot of times… they don’t appear to have anything connected to meaning.

We hear things like “skydiving” and “learning to ski” or “visit the Sahara Desert”…. or eat a hotdog in Yankee Stadium.    I mean… all of these things are interesting activities.

But do we ever write down…. “change someone’s life” or “find a way to help others” or “be compassionate toward those people I love”.  How about “be compassionate with humanity?”

It just doesn’t seem to me that life should be a big to-do list.  I have enough of those between the grocery, and cleaning the house.

If we take the time to notice….. it is my submission that…. the most amazing things are right in front of us.   We can see them right where we are standing, I bet you.   Every day. Right now.

Do we really need to go anywhere….. or see some incredible landmarks …. or drop out of planes…. to experience the wonder of life?

Hmmmm.  Meaningful things each day.

And maybe… if we can’t think of anything meaningful to do in our everyday lives…. that might be a good place for us to start?