Ripples

Everyone creates ripples…every day.

In this great ocean of life we—all of us—make a splash, every time we get out of bed in the morning—sometimes big, most times small—that send ripples out into the vast expanse of existence.

And you thought you were just looking for your slippers.

For the most part, the majority of us see ourselves as relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

Well, most of us except for my cousin Albert who thinks he’s all that and a bag of chips, just because he won that spelling bee in the 6^th grade.

Get over yourself Albert! I knew halitosis was spelled with an “I”…maybe I didn’t want to embarrass you…did you ever think of that!!!

Sorry….

Where was I?

The grand scheme of things….

Right…most of us think of ourselves as sloshing through life swimming in a small pond—if not a small bowl—watching a broader world unfold from afar.

We see all the famous folk—politicians, movie stars, authors, humanitarians, physicians, scientists, talk show hosts, even poultry producers—up on the big stage finding ways to make a better chicken.

We oooh and awwww—depending on how much credence we assign to poultry—and say to ourselves, “If only I had a big idea, I could change the world!”

But we don’t need a bigger chicken to change the world. We—all of us—change the world every day, just by taking our place in it.

Well, except, again, maybe Albert who sends most of his day making popcorn and watching “Magnum” reruns on the internet.

But I digress….

I’ve talked before about the connections we have in life; some given to us, some created by us….not by the DNA we share but by the fact that we have DNA…every living thing.

Some make a big splash, while others slip quietly into the water .

But these ripples we create every time that we step into the soup we call life, no matter how small or insignificant we tell ourselves ours is, extend out and intersect with an infinity of ripples creating a chain of consequence.

The things we did or said when we were 6 had some effect on someone or something, even in the most miniscule of ways.

That effect in turn influenced another action, somewhere along the way, somewhere in the world, somewhere in time, which then tilted the balance of things someplace else.

It could be as simple as a kind word passed, a harsh reaction expressed, a song that touches the heart or a poem badly written that fades from our lives but ripples out into the lives of others…and on and on it goes.

Every choice made, decision reached, action taken or action not taken, ripples out and touches the world.

Most times we never see it, feel it or know it in any way.

But it’s what we do…everyday…in the smallest, yet largest of ways…just by being a part of the world.

I think it’s something worthwhile to keep in mind when we put on our slippers.

If we can find our slippers.

It all matters…and so do we.

Even Albert….

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I know...too many options. Probably better to just go back to bed....

Feeling Reckless

I’m feeling a little reckless this morning….again.

So I lathered and rinsed…BUT I did NOT repeat.

Yeah….

And I did NOT wash behind my ears, either.

Then I put on a dirty pair of socks.

I know….

I put creamer in my cup before I poured my coffee.

Don’t even ask about the sweetener.

I opened my cereal box from the wrong end.

I’d already removed most of the “Do Not Remove under penalty of law” tags in the house during previous bouts of recklessness.

But I have not used everything as directed.

And I’m not starting today.

In fact, some of them I used downright improperly.

That’s just the way I feel.

I did NOT shake my orange juice before serving.

Later on I intend to bend at the waist, instead of my knees.

I’m just gonna start opening stuff and NOT refrigerate after.

Try to make me.

I’m using my cell phone WHILE pumping gas.

I am NOT staying in the crosswalk while crossing.

In fact I’m not even waiting for the light to change.

Sunscreen?

Not using it!

I’m using mayonnaise that expired 3 days ago.

That’s right….

Uh huh…

I’m having a conversation with a Republican.

While wearing an old “Friends of Bill” button.

I’m actually gonna try to poke my eye out.

Maybe hold my face in an odd position just to see if it will really freeze that way.

I’m not putting the toilet seat down.

At least not for a few seconds.

What? I’m reckless not crazy.

But I am gonna wash with unlike colors.

If I can locate the washing machine.

If I do, I may just over suds.

Not sure….

I’m definitely thinking about it though, because, like I said, that’s just how I feel.

And while I’m at it I may operate machinery AND drive a motor vehicle, WHILE taking a cold medication that may cause drowsiness.

I’m gonna find a TV show intended for mature audience’s….and watch it anyway.

If I can find a Sharpie…I’m sniffing it.

I don’t even care what color.

I drinking irresponsibly…on one leg…even while I write this.

Matches…I’m not only playing with them, I’m striking with the cover OPEN!

Sorry…I know this is making a lot of you “Goodie Two Shoe/Safety First” folks uncomfortable.

And by the way…I AM walking with my shoes untied.

While running down the stairs….

With a scissors in my hand.

So I’m gonna just take it outside…go get my crazy on…if you know what I mean.

But wait…is it starting to rain?

I’m not going out in that.

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So Much Sunshine

So the sunshine is back, well into the early evening.

Finally….

Time to once again resume our late afternoon walks, well into the early fall.

It’s as if an entire missing part of the day has awakened and been found.

By the time we get to the end of the month the skies will be light until nearly 8 PM.

Creeping steadily into the night, all the way until late-June where it will peak and begin to recede, again, unnoticed…until we do, sometime around mid-August.

But until then…..

Of course all the early risers have to once again deal with the miserable morning gloaming; at least for a few more weeks.

Yeah…we’d just gotten used to bright sunny mornings, again.

And today…it was tough finding our pants.

But we did get to see the sunrise…and that’s always heartening.

Of course there’s always gonna be somebody who can find a reason to complain.

Even in March.

Yeah…I know.

Sorry about that.

Speaking of March…or more specifically, marching….

We went to one of the local St. Patrick’s Day parades on Saturday.

Bagpipers up the gazoo.

Not sue what that means…other than there were a lot of Bagpipers.

Which means there were a lot of bagpiping tunes.

Not that there are a lot of bagpiping tunes.

There’s pretty much just the one, which varies depending on how much wind the piper has in him, which he blows into a bag, and then up through a set of pipes…I think.

I’m not really sure exactly how they make that thing “sing”. 

I’m usually too busy wondering how I’d look in one of those kilts to notice much else.

And don’t get me wrong…I’m not making light of Bagpipers.

I even have a few family members who play, and they take it very seriously…at least when they’re allowed out of the basement.

You have to admire a person dedicated to his craft, no matter what it is, especially if he or she has the ability to silence hundreds of people just by walking into a room, even if it’s only because there’s no way to talk over one bagpipe, let alone a dozen.

You have to respect them…but that doesn’t mean you can’t try to make them laugh…which would be the undoing of any piper. 

But it’s not easy to make a piper laugh.

I’ve tried.

Or the Irish Dancers.

No laughing there either.

Not much of anything there other than a lot of leg swinging and kicking…and curls…lots and lots of pretty curls on a bunch of cute little girls who've apparently been afflicted with some sort of arm paralysis.

So how can you not enjoy that?

Of course, like all heritage parades, it’s all culture specific, so you have to be attuned to the significance of all the goings on, most of which has to do with potatoes, persecution and, of course, the British.

The British seem to have been involved on the wrong side of a lot of these things through the years…at least until the Fab Four came over in the mid-60s.

Unfortunately though, for the most part, a lot of folks aren’t really all that clued in, other than they think it’s a chance to watch a parade, drink green beer and gobble down as many corn beef sandwiches as possible in an afternoon.

But it’s also a nice sunny afternoon… a prelude to all the long sunny days to come.

So, yes…it was a great day for the Irish…and everyone else.

Just a rehearsal, really.

Because we get to do it all over again, next Sunday, for real.

Pipers aplenty…dancers a kicking and green beer a flowing.

And the Shriners  scooting around in all those cool little cars…which I think were used to help chase the snakes out of town.

The Sunshine is back!

Bring on the parades!

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I Need an Agenda

I need an agenda.

Something to motivate, sharpen my point of view and steady my aim.

Towards what I have no idea…but that’s why I need an agenda.

I don’t have anything to aim at.

To criticize and demean.

Try to tear down.

Ridicule and destroy.

I’m not even a Republican.

Or a Democrat.

Or anything.

I’m just me.

So I need an agenda.

Agendas give people something to wake up for in the morning.

If you don’t have an agenda, you only get up for the donuts.

Hwever, at this time of year I’m partial to Hot Cross buns.

People with agendas never have a problem arguing; they know exactly what they want to say and never waver from that position.

If they’re reasonable, people with agendas will accept the fact that you may have a different opinion or perspective from their own and respectfully give your argument its due, as well.

If they’re not reasonable and simply put their agenda front and center, ahead of ever thing else, they probably live in Washington.

Being as I don’t have an agenda, I don’t live in Washington, and I’m not very good at arguing.

I’ve been known to change my mind…a lot.

So much so, I’m not even sure if I have the original mind I started out with.

I think I may have ended up with the mind of that guy who goes to the park so the squirrels will feed him.

My problem is I’ll enter a discussion feeling one way about an issue, but often find myself being persuaded by the points being made by the other participant…especially if they’re buying lunch.

Not that my opinions can be bought…they can’t.

Only rented…and only for a specific length of time, depending on the quality of the lunch.

Because at the end of the day opinions are like…uh…elbows…everybody has one.

No, that’s no good…most people have two elbows.

I would say belly buttons, but I just talked about belly buttons a couple of days ago so that might be considered…I don’t know...weird.

 I’ll just leave it up to your imagination, mostly because I don’t have an agenda; what do I care?

So you can see why I might want to find myself one.

I’m not a big fan of moss…especially in my lawn…so maybe I can be against lawn moss.

But then I suppose the lawn moss lovers will be all over my case.

Who needs that?

I’m not a big fan of wind…so there’s that.

But I suppose wind is a natural phenomenon, and that will just upset the naturalists.

That’s never good.

And all I’d be doing is tilting at windmills…which looks odd.

Besides, having an agenda doesn’t require you to support a negative point of view.

You can promote something positive…like Jerry Springer.

Or Nancy Grace.

I like walking…no matter what kind of day it is.  I like walking and exercise of any kind; as long as it’s not too…strenuous….or makes you tired.

Or doesn’t involve a remote control of some sort.

But then, I suppose, that will get all the anti-health folks up in arms…or elbows.

So maybe it’s better that I don’t have an agenda and just continue to weigh the facts as they are presented to me.

Fair and balanced.

Just like Fox News….MSNBC and all the other mainstream media outlets.

You know the ones that are bound by a little something called “The Fairness Doctrine”, which provides for an “honest, equitable and balanced” presentation of—

What?

“The Fairness Doctrine” was eliminated in 1987?

Now every broadcast outlet is free to promote any given agenda of its choosing?

Is that fair?

Maybe it is….

Or maybe it isn’t…..

I’m not sure how I feel about that….yet.

Or tomorrow…or the day after that.

I don’t know.

But I bet if I had an agenda I would. 

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Focus Pocus

It’s important to stay focused.

If we’re not focused then we do dumb things like backing into parked cars…or silly things like pouring milk on our salad…which, surprisingly, is not all that bad.

It seems everyone is distracted these days by something.

Too many Tweets from Bill Clinton.

That E-mail argument you had at work over who ate the last jelly donut…the first…and possibly, maybe the other two in between.

The weird look the valet parker guy in the garage is giving you.

Your puzzlement as to why you are in a garage in the first place since you don’t even own a car.

All things that keep us from focusing on the task at hand.

What was I saying...?

Oh…right…focus.

I have a particular problem with focusing because my mind just wanders off to wherever it wants to go at any given moment.

Most of the time it—

Soup…I’ve got to remember to pick up some more soup….

Sorry…where was I again?

Focus….

It’s important.

Especially if someone is talking to you and you’re supposed to be listening, instead of just nodding your head and smiling while they tell you about the time their grandfather was mistakenly arrested for improper use of a chainsaw on government property and shipped to Gitmo for 6 months.

 “That’s funny!” normally a more than acceptable response to most unfocused listening situations is, however, probably not the thing you’re looking for in this particular instance.

Nor at the end of a long convoluted phone call with your best friend that ends with… “So I guess I’ll just have to get another cat….”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve handed over a 20 dollar bill for a 2 dollar purchase and started to walk away without my change.

Or the times I’ve walked away with somebody else’s change….

Or the times I’ve put  my car keys in the refrigerator to remind myself not to leave without taking my lunch…then spend 20 minutes cursing, later on, when I can’t find my keys, becoming so upset that when I do find them, I forget to take the sandwich.

Walking into the kitchen and forgetting why is one thing.

Driving down a highway and wondering why is another.

Forgetting birthdays might be understandable…but not your own.

Toweling off after a shower and wondering if you actually washed your hair is disturbing.

But not as disturbing as toweling off and wondering if you actually took a shower.

And while some of it might be attributable to advancing years contributing to an overload of data stored on an ever diminishing internal hard drive…most of it is merely due to a lack of….

Uh….

Whatever it was ….that thing I was talking about…for some reason.

I’m not sure now….

But I think it made some sense…at the time.

It’ll come back to me….

Hey…I think there’s a basketball game on tonight…or was it last night…maybe tomorrow.

 

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Rainy Day Sunshine

We had a couple of rainy days last week.

More than just rain; it was actually petty stormy on Wednesday.

Kind of nice, at least in my opinion.

But then I don’t have to drag myself out of bed in the dark, cold, dreary dawn and drive to an office.

The furthest I have to commute is down the walkway to pick up the newspapers, sitting in a puddle.

And why I sit in a puddle is anybody’s guess.

So the rain doesn’t bother me…at least this time of year.

But even at the height of summer, a rainy day can be a welcome respite.

Kind of rainy day sunshine.

There’s something comforting about the clouds closing in, enveloping you in dankness.

Like pulling the covers over your head and shutting out the world, from time to time.

Sheets of rain send a signal to your brain: relax…let go, there’s nothing to be done.

Which, to be honest, is pretty much the same signal a sunny day sends to my brain…but with a modicum of guilt attached.

See, I’m not what you call a “go getter”.

Aside from my daily walk about, I spend the majority of my day avoiding chores of any sort.

And when they’re unavoidable, I spend a lot of time coordinating them, so as to minimize the actual time spent performing them.

A trip to the cleaners, combined with the bank, the grocery store, my apology to the Swedes or whomever I’ve offended that week.

And then I take a 2 hour nap.

You know…to recharge.

But a day like last Wednesday, around here, is a day to just stay in and maybe watch old movies; read a book or just quietly sit and contemplate life’s mysteries.

Like…where does belly button lint actually come from and why?

I mean it’s not like I’m wearing a fuzzy shirt…yet there it is, every day.

Which, I suppose, is not at all unusual…everyone collects belly button lint.

But not always in a large zip lock bag.

Some people prefer slide lock bags.

Just saying….

Which is sometimes unfortunate…I know.

Anyway, all I’m saying…I mean about the rainy day, not belly button lint….is a rainy day can be a welcome day, under the right circumstances.

Rain drops buffeting your window sing out, “stay inside, hunker down…”

And if you can, you will…you should.

The chores can wait for another day.

A sunnier day…a warmer day.

Unless the roof is leaking, then all bets are off.

Except for the belly button lint…that’s a sure thing.

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It’s Friday - It’s March

It’s Friday.

It’s March.

I’ll say it again.

It’s Friday.

It’s March.

Okay…I got that out of my system.

In like a lion and out like lamb.

It’s March.

It’s Friday.

Sorry…I guess not.

But it’s reversed…so it’s different.

It’s just that….

Well, you know.

Or maybe you haven’t been paying attention.

I get that a lot.

So we’re already into the 3^rd month of the year.

Only 8 months to the start of the holiday season…7 if you start at Halloween.

March is another one of those transition months.

But in good way, this time.

March closes the door on winter, which, so far, for the most part, this year, has been somewhat mediocre.

So far….

It’s been way colder than last year’s winter, but the storms, depending on where you live, have been on the “not so bad” side.

Just average, if not below, on the snow scale.

Still, all the same, we’re happy to say a quick, by-bye, adios or adieu…whatever your predilection.

Pretty soon the earth will, thaw, loosen and spread its special scent of spring on the early morning dew.

As will all the Irish pretenders who’ll also thaw, loosen and spread their special scent of stale beer and vomit on the early morning dew on St. Patrick’s Day.

March opens stark; leafless branches, scratching towards the sky.

Patches of dirtied snow, puddled by the curb.

March closes confident; buds sprouting, grass greening.

We'll even take a dandelion or two.

Heavy coats replaced by lighter coats, or, if we’re lucky, no coats at all.

Baseballs flying.

Basketballs bouncing.

The sights and sounds of March.

Turn our faces to the sun. Color on our cheeks, warmed not frozen.

It’s what makes March march.

Onward towards the spring.

One foot in front of the other.

It’s Friday.

It’s March….

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