Sometimes… you just have to say to yourself….

Life doesn’t get any better than this.   Better than…. Lincoln Logs, Cheese Pizza, and any televised football game on a Sunday.

Yes.  What a joy these things are, especially when they are shared with the ones you love.   Kids, Grandkids, Spouses, Friends.

But… enough with the sap already.

Let’s talk Lincoln Logs.

Oh… you know what they are.  Lincoln Logs are the little wooden toys consisting of notched miniature log segments.  You can  use them to build small forts and buildings and skyscrapers and such.

They are cool-io toys.  You can create whatever it is you want.  You can dream-build.

Most people don’t know that they were invented by John Lloyd Wright, second son of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

How about them architectural splinters?

The toy sets were originally made of redwood.   Wouldn’t you know…  In the 1970s…..  the ding-dong parent company unsuccessfully introduced sets made entirely of plastic.  Bad idea.  I mean… what the crap.  Who ever heard of a plastic log cabin?  They soon reverted to real wood on all their sets.  Good idea.

So… back when it all started in 1916…. when John Lloyd Wright was working in Japan with his father.  The mold for the toy was based on the architecture of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.  Now that was Franky boy designing that honker.  It was commissioned to be “earthquake-proof”.

At any rate, John came back to the U.S.   He got busy, and finally was  issued U.S. patent 1,351,086 on August 31, 1920, for a “Toy-Cabin Construction”.

(The original Lincoln Log set came with instructions on how to build Uncle Tom’s Cabin as well as Lincoln’s cabin.  In the day.)

Most think they were named for President Lincoln.  But truth of the matter is…. they were more likely named for  Frank Lloyd Wright’s original name, Frank Lincoln Wright.   And of course, the slang…. which is the alteration of the name, ‘linkin’ logs.

But enough history.  They are fun.  Like I said… you can be creative and build.

Yes.  You can build dreams.   And what is better in life then to put your elbows on the floor, and build dream after dream… with the one’s you care about the most.  Like I said.   It just doesn’t get any better.

This indeed is a really good linking toy.

You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.  — Walt Disney

Once again, I am a little embarrassed to admit it, but I am a big fan of The Wheel of Fortune. It is the competitive streak in me, I think.  I like to finish the puzzles before the contestants can figure them out.  And then I yell like crazy at the television… “Oh c’mon you guys….. ‘One Fish. Two Fish. Red Fish Blue Fish.  How HARD is THAT???'”

Yes.  That is my MO.

Admittedly, tonight, I watched once again.  I know.  What a pathetic Saturday night Polly.  But again I say… that is my MO.

And tonight on the Wheel …. was College Senior Night.  Well, much to my dismay… they could not figure out the following phrase:

“Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck”

They had ALL but the S in Steinbeck.  Fill in this phrase.  Holy _hit!
I couldn’t believe these college seniors could not recognize this titled classic literature piece.

And then.  Next…. is when I realized that our society truly is on a rapid and horrible path toward total ruination and eradication.    The following puzzle came up.  It was this phrase:

“Ordering Beverages Poolside”

They immediately got THAT one.  With maybe half the letters in tact.  I reiterate:  “Holy _hit!!”  Pat give me an S.

My head dizzied… and fell abruptly into my plateful of pizza.  I was vexed.. to say the least.

Alright… let’s get the mozzarella off my face and  move on with the evening.  A blurb came on for Entertainment Tonight… or some such show.  The big headline:  Mary Jo Somebody of Stardom is showing a Baby Bump while on the red carpet in her slinky dress.

Now at that very moment …..my Saturday evening had gone from bad to worse.  If there is one phrase I loathe as much as “24/7” or “It is what it is”…. that phrase would be “Baby Bump.”

Baby Bump is when your kid falls down the stairs and gets a nasty knot on the forehead.  When someone is pregnant… they are pregnant.  Or more politely… “Expecting”

Baby Bump.  I would say Holy Shit again, but it is getting old.

Fear not friends.   All is not lost.  There were some shining moments in today’s news.  The next blurb followed:  Pope Frankie has welcomed divorced people, and homosexuals, with open arms, into the Catholic Church.   He encourages all members of the church to do the same.

I can only hope  he will soon pardon poor spellers with baby bumps.

Holy Pope.  Somebody buy a vowel.

To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.  —  Gilbert K. Chesterton

Here’s the deal.   I am a geek.  I get distracted by the geek-ish things in life.

And. You know you are a TOTAL geek when you can hardly wait for the new Operating System to be available for your computer.  Alas… even more of a geek when…. on the day it comes out…..  you download it, install it…. and then do the Happy Dance in your office because you like the look of the new desktop colors, right off the bat.

I’m a little late in writing tonight…. you see….. because I have been doing the very Happy Dance all around my office tonight.

Yes.  Yosemite is here for my Mac, and I am as happy as a pig in the mud.  In fact…. I’m am more overjoyed than the Winner of the Grand Prix Cow Race Extravaganza, 2014.   (It was Big Melvin, from Belleville, Minnesota, in case you missed the competition on ESPN VIII).

Anyway.  Yes.  It thrills me.  The old operating system was a fine one, indeed.  But it was called Maverick.  And the only thing I could think about was John McCain, “The Maverick” in the last presidential race.   (Big Barack, from Chicago, IL won that one… in case you missed the competition).

Anyway.  Yep.   With Maverick, that is all I could think of….. which then reminded me of the Vietnam War… of course.. because McCain was a Prisoner of War.   He went through one heck of a time in that war, I’ll tell you.  He was held captive for almost six years… as I recall.  He endured unbearable torture.  And when I consider of all of this, I get incredibly sad.   And then… I cry on my keyboard.

So. By the time I get myself back together, and clean off my keyboard…..  half the day is gone, and I haven’t done a bit of work.   This is all before I even turn ON my laptop.  I just start thinking about the operating system. Old Maverick.

And THAT is why I am glad Yosemite is finally here.   Yes.   Now… productivity is on the horizon.  No more distracting thoughts.

Except for that it reminds me of Yosemite National Park.  I love going there.  It is one of my favorite National Parks.  It is beautiful beyond belief.   I always think of John Muir when I think of Yosemite.    Now he was an incredible GEM in our national history.

Muir did much for the establishment and preservation of Yosemite, the Sierra, and many other areas.  He also fought a long battle against the Hetch Hetchy Dam Project.   Which is an entirely different story.

But whenever I hear Hetch Hetchy, I think of  one of my least favorite actors…. Anne Heche.  And that terrible movie she was in with Harrison Ford, “Six Days, and Seven Nights” or something.  It is the only film of Harrison Ford’s that I totally dislike.  And this makes me sad.  Great.  Now I am crying on my keyboard again.

You know… the other half of the day is gone.. and I still haven’t gotten anything done.

It is probably going to be a couple years down the road before Apple releases another new OS.  I mean… Yosemite just came out.   JUST.

Maybe I should just go back a couple of versions.  That system was called Mountain Lion.

Oh forget it… THAT one scared the pee right out of my bladder.

“The more you let yourself be distracted from where you are going, the more you are the person that you are. It’s not so much like getting lost as it is like getting found.”  — William Stafford

After careful observation, I would have to say that one of the greatest, most significant, and truest truths about life is this:  Everything Changes.

I know I’ve said it before.  And a million others have said it before as well.  Maybe even one million and one.  But it is the ultimate reality of life.  Everything Changes.

Look in the mirror.  You’ve changed.   Oh my gawwwwddd how you’ve changed……
And look around you.  All around you.  Every single thing your eyes lay to rest on…. is in a state of constant change.  Right down to the very last molecule of that pencil on the counter top.

But some things change much differently than others.  If you pull an ice cube from the freezer… it really has no choice but to melt.  That is… if your house is warmer than my sister-in-law’s house… it will melt.

And the corn that was planted in the spring.  It really doesn’t choose to sprout and grow into 7-foot tall stalks, eventually only to shrivel up and die.  It simply happens that way.   Soon, it will be pig food…. despite the fact that it overcame so many corn-growing obstacles in its lifetime.

The same thing happens to us on many levels.  We are born into this place, this space, this time.  And we grow.  As hard as we try to stop ourselves from doing this…. like riding bikes without helmets when we were kids.. ..  disobeying the 10-second-rule for the Reese Cup that dropped on the pavement ….  smoking cigarettes and drinking hard whiskey….  eating deep fried chickens…. and falling down stairs….  our bodies push right through it all.

Yes.  We push right through.  Some of us push harder and last longer than others… but eventually, our bodies will quit.  Pig food.

So what is the difference between us and corn?  Molecularly, not a lot.  But somewhere in that make-up…. that put-togetherness of us…. WE have the ability to choose.  Yes.  Choice.

We can make decisions about a plethora of things that happens in our life time.  In fact, we make a million decisions…. maybe even a million and one.   We have something inside our molecular makeup that can not be seen or operated-on or transfused.

Some people call it a soul. Others have named it a conscience.  Others say it is a spirit, a psyche, a life force, a will.

Name it what you will.  But we can choose to DO.   Every minute of every day.

And the only thing I know about that… … .. is this.
When I am choosing the right way… I can feel it is the right way.

Sometimes making decisions isn’t quite as fundamentally ingrained.  Like… do you pick the blue dress, or the red one?  Or take the job with J.P. Morgan, or Citibank?   Those are more intellectual decisions.

I am talking about the Soul Decisions.  The right or the wrong.
I think we all know when we are walking on the side of the good light… and when we trip over into the shadows.

It is a big responsibility.  But I for one am glad to have it.  And, I am thankful that things change as they do… and that I have a choice in how to live, and to BE.

And I’m glad not to be a cornstalk.   After careful observation.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.  —  Lao Tzu

Today, I had this terrific intention.  A plan, if you will.

First thing this morning, I devised a series of events, which were to unfold throughout the day.  Zippity Doo Dah.   First, I planned on walking out the shed and dusting off the hefty oak wooden cart.  Then I was going to push it out to the big old apple tree … just north of the gulley … and commence picking apples until I filled the cart.  Next, I was going to roll that cart all the way to the market, and sell those beautiful rosy apples to all the happy passers-by.

But wouldn’t you know it.  The dang wheel fell off the cart before I even opened the door to the shed.  Kaplooooooey.  Right off the axle.

I looked at that wheel.  I wished and hoped for that wheel to magically jump right back on the cart… so I could take this little piggy to market.

It didn’t work out that way.  That weigh.  That whey.

How does the old saying go?  The best laid plans of mice and men.  And what the heck does that really mean?  (Okay….I found out.  It is from a poem, written by Robert Burns.  It is called “To a Mouse” composed in 1786. It tells of how he, while plowing a field, upturned a mouse’s nest. The resulting poem is an apology to the mouse.)

I should be glad then.  Really.   I mean…. the wheel fell off my cart… …. that’s all.  (I could have been the mouse, who lost his house, when the plow came along, and plowed the thing down.)

As they also say… “Tomorrow is another day.”   Which it is.  Unfortunately, the other wheel has already fallen off tomorrow’s cart.  Dag nab it, anyhow.

I guess I should look at the bright side of that too.  I’ve made the apples happy.  They are still hanging on the tree.  Rosy side up.

So, maybe the moral of the story is this.  Somedays you have sad mice, and happy apples.  Other days you put your cart before your horse… and your mice.  Or something.

I suppose it is just a matter of which side of the plow you are on….  happy or sady, busy or free, apple-ey or mouse-ey.  And so the story goes….

From the time she was very young, Polly knew that there wasn’t going to be a duck she didn’t like.

Polly, Friend of the Ducks.

Most of the other kids in the neighborhood pretended to be Batman, or Superman, or even Hercules, when they played Super Hero Games.

But Polly insisted on being on “Friend of the Ducks.”  She wore a mask when they played.  But no cape.  Absolutely no capes.  The reasons were clear.

Childhood turned into years passed.

Later in life….  she always had an inkling, an itch, an intuition.  But she could never quite put her finger on it.  But Polly knew there was something more.  Something much bigger.  A purpose.

Then one day, by Culdufindit Lake, it all came rushing back to her.  She saw Alvin.  Sitting on the bank.

“Al?  That you?”
“It’s me Pol.  I’ve been waiting for you to come back.  I missed you.”
“I missed you too Al.  I couldn’t remember you.  I grew older and I forgot.  I’m sorry. Oh Alvin.  I’ve missed you so much.  I’m ready to wear my wings again.  Polly, Friend of the Ducks.  I remember it all now.  How I want to be the bird who can swim…and FLY.”
“That’s my girl.  And so you will.”

They sat quietly on the bank for the rest of that Thursday afternoon.  They shared a bag of cracked corn.  They didn’t care.  They had each other, and Polly had her wings back.

And her waddle too.

As it turns out…. Polly does, indeed…. want a quacker…. for all her life.

You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.  —  Swami Vivekananda

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.  —  e. e. cummings

Well.   Today was Columbus Day.

It celebrates Christopher Columbus “discovering” America.   This all sounds very America.  But I wonder why we hang on to this holiday tradition.

We have a lot of American traditions.  Many of them, don’t make a lot of sense.  But they call it “steeped” in tradition for good reason.  Steep by definition means a few different things… 1. Rising or falling sharply; 2. Not reasonable or excessive; or…. 3. Soaked in water or liquid.   Steep.

But back to Chris and his boat.

The thing of it is…. he really wasn’t such a hero after all.  You may not like me for saying so, but I will tell you a few observations I’ve learned from reading.

He set out, on the good Queen’s money to find a shorter passage to India.  Well.  Strike one.  He failed to complete his original mission.   When he finally did bump into land, it was on the shores of the Bahamas.  There were already lots of people there.  Strike two.  This was no big discovery for them.  Well… except for discovering a white man trespassing on their shores.

But Christopher Columbus didn’t stop there. He captured a lot of indigenous people and sold them into slavery.   He tortured a bunch.  That’s three big red X’s by my count.  And then some.

Moving on….. he wiped out more than half the population of Haiti with disease and pillaging and destruction.    We are striking out more the entire St. Louis Cardinals’ bullpen.

Okay.  If you really want to credit any sailors for landing here first, that would be the Vikings.  Not the Minnesota Vikings but the ones from Iceland.  Leif Eriksson to be exact.  The son of Erik the Red.  They weren’t saints either.   But they landed in the Americas more than 500 years before the Nina, the Pinta, or the Santa Maria.

But nonetheless.  In these parts… ALL of the Americas, north, central, and south…. had been inhabited by indigenous people for thousands and thousands of years, before any Europeans came bumbling along.

Many cities around the country are deciding to no long “recognize” this pseudo-holiday.  Now don’t get me wrong, I am all for giving the U.S. Postal Workers the day off.  But I think we should change the name of this holiday, to better reflect true historical representations.

I’m not sure what it would be… to really represent a celebration of men in boats coming here and conquering native people.  Maybe we should just call it an Early October Holiday to tide us over until Halloween, because the Fourth of July seems so dang far away Day.

So… Happy EOHTTUOUHBTFOJSSDFA Day.  It will look great on Greeting Cards.

Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality.  – Earl Nightingale

Tonight I am thinking about home.  I know, I know.   You are sitting there hollering at the computer screen …. “Dag nab it, Polly. We’ve heard all this before.  It happens every time after you have traveled.  We KNOW how much your little homebody… loves to be be back at your little home.”

It is truer than true.

But I am thinking of a different piece of this tonight.  I always thought I was such a homebody, because I had such a great home when I was growing up.  Wonderful parents, some really great siblings, a good house in a fun neighborhood.  It was safe, and warm, and stable… and boy oh boy… the cooking was good.

For me that just spelled the big reason for my homebody-ness.

But then I had a conversation with someone today about another homebody.   Except their childhood was not so good.   The “family” turned out to be not  much of a family at all.  The mom and dad didn’t sound so kind.    Yet…. this person grew up to be a good person… BUT a homebody too.

So.  It appears people love to be at peace with, and in their homes, for a lot of different reasons.

Others can’t stand to be at home for a minute.

I don’t have any guesses about any of this.

All I really have to say is that I am happy to be here.  At home.  In my own bed.    With the ones I love.  In the space and the place that means more to me than any other grand location in the world.  No matter the reason.

And… I’m happy that no one minded too much when I stood up in the middle of the plane…. in mid-air… and started belting out that “I believe I can fly.” song by R. Kelly.    Sure.  Oh sure.  The flight attendant escorted me back to my seat… but not before I got in a few rounds of the chorus…..

Yeah.  But  no one stopped my in my living room… when I sang “Home, Home on the Range” tonight.

No wonder I am a homebody.  No wonder.The light is what guides you home, the warmth is what keeps you there. ~Ellie Rodriguez

“Hey, Bruno.   Here comes some more people. Let’s hide up behind those rocks again and growl like bears.”

“Perfect idea Doyle.  This will be the third set of hikers we’ve scared today.  You think we should growl like bears, or howl like wolves?”

“Definitely bears.  That scares the holy heck out of them.  Who knew life in Utah could be so much fun?”

Oh.  Those sneaky moments in life.

Yep.  That sure can be the deal.  Often times, things aren’t always as they seem.    On occasion … the unexpected happens.

Actually, when you consider the all and all of life….. the unexpected happens more often than not.

We certainly can’t foresee the future.  (Well.  Some people say they can… and maybe it is true for them.  But for this little camper right here…. I have absolutely no idea what is around the bend.)  Most of the time…  it isn’t quite what I had anticipated.

I have read a lot of spiritual teachings which say…. that when we are faced with something that’s unexpected, unwanted and uncertain…. we should consider that it just may be a gift.

Most of the time, I believe this is true.  We may not realize it in the moment.  But eventually, we understand that things unfolded just as they should have.  We may not always like it…  but we learn from it.  Hopefully.  And grow from it.  Hopefully.

Along those same lines, it is important to remember that ….  not everything that counts can be counted.  Sometime the things that matter the very most …..might come and go…..  without us recognizing the importance.  The impact.  The bigger picture.

So when things are quite what they seem…. it could just be…  it is our truest moment.  In disguise.

Just like Doyle… the Cocker Spaniel Mix… with a great sense of humor…. and an incredible impression of a Grizzly Bear.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.  — Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.  — Arthur Rubenstein

Some days, it seems, that I just keep getting the same message over and over again.

It is sorta’like the old King Henry the 8th Song…. “Second verse, same as the first.”?

Today,  I had to tune in.

There was no choice in the matter.  And the thing that kept coming up again and again was the “importance of positive energy in our lives.”  I overheard people talking about it.  There were others who said it  directly to me. I read about it… and heard it on the news.  I saw it happening… and not happening.   Everywhere, it seems…. this notion… this idea… wanted itself to be known….. …  loud and clear.

Positive energy… a good attitude… makes the world seem brighter.

Our internal perspectives…. WILL in fact, reach the outside.  They will emit through our eyes, our mouths, and through every pore of our skinny, skin, skins.  This will touch others…. either in a good way or a bad way.  Depending.

It is much like being at the really fun birthday party with the big stick.  And…… if you crack open a Pinata… and there is candy on the inside… well, by goodness… candy is going to come out and spill sweetness all over the place.   If there is a swarm of angry bees on the inside…..

You got it.

On the flip side of that… some of the smallest of objects can cast some very long shadows.   Standing in the way of the light… in front of the light… will definitely block it.  And as a result…. a dark shadow will prevail.

Here is the thing.  I know some really positive people in this world.  I aspire to be like them.  I want to learn from them.   I want to be a part of the light… and not the thing that blocks it out.

It has been said that sometimes our choices of action might be limited.  But the choices of our thought is not limited.  Pinata Candy, Baby.

I want my choices of thought….  to be with the light.  It is sometimes easier said than done.  I want to be the candy corn and Snickers Bars  … and not the angry bees.