Life On A B-I7

May we all enjoy happiness and the cause of happiness.
May we all be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.
May we all be free of expectations from others and rejection by others.
May we all rest in boundless equanimity.
Ahmen.

In my mind, this does not fall far from Christian belief — or any other worthwhile moral philosophy for that matter. If I am ever called upon to offer a pray for some reason (let’s hope not) I would like to pull this out of my back pocket.

Democracy thrives under good leadership. Democracy withers under bad leadership. Under the worst leadership, Democracy dies. Fear the Autocrat disguised as a savior.

It’s tough to put into words what yesterday’s ride means to me. I wish I was better with words. To start, it felt good. Turning the pedals is — work. It’s also joy, pure and simple. You are moving forward and you are doing it under your own power and no one else’s. That’s part of the experience. It’s all on you and no one else. Watching the road come up and then disappear under the front tire gives you such a feeling of progress, it’s satisfying. I look up to see beauty all around. The sort of beauty you don’t see when screaming through the terrain at fifty mile per hour. Beauty you are seeing. Cars passing by don’t disturb me, perhaps they should, but they don’t. I’m lost in the moment, or perhaps it’s more accurate to say, the moments. I listen. I hear the tires rolling on the tarmac. Another indication that I’m making progress. Then there is the existential. It just feels good. Good to be out there. There’s no place else I would want to be in that moment. It’s all part of the experience that will eventually bring me home and allow me to write this. While you are pedaling, there is no thought of what is to come later. You look up, you see a bend in the road in front of you and there is no indication what is beyond. That’s part of the mystery. Naturally, you can never be completely sure your body will allow you to get where you are planning to go. I find that now, more than ever, the thought of finishing the ride is not assured. The desire to finish has become another point of the exercise. We can’t be sure of anything, but when the goal is reached and you dismount, it’s a cause for celebration, a celebration of one that feels good.

I’m unsubscribing from (most) everything that comes into my email.

I’m tired of being told what to think.

If you have something worth saying, I’ll find it.

Taking a Step Back

It’s time to take a step back from Stoicism and temper it with a bit of Socratic wisdom.

Knowledge, which we are all seeking and what all philosophies have as their ultimate objective, is a journey…

Stoicism provides tremendous insight into how we should live our lives.

Socraticism is the attempt to define why we are living our lives.

Focus

It doesn’t hurt to occasionally remind myself of my daily goals…

Breathe… Repeat…

Occasionally I will sit on the patio in the morning and just soak up the early rays of sunlight. Tux is always right there with me. Keeping an eye on things, no doubt making sure nothing interferes with my (or his) reverie.

Everybody in Redmond, Oregon drives either a bad-ass pick-up truck or a bad-ass Jeep. I think Tacoma owners should go with little rubber dinosaurs. After all, dinosaurs eat duckies for lunch…

While I’m not at liberty to reveal the identities of these wonderful children, those of you that know me will know they are near and dear to my heart.

I played some competitive pickleball last night. It was a ladder competition. For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, that is where if you win you move up a court, if you loose, you move down a court. If there are 5 courts your goal is not to finish the night on court 5. My record for the night was 2-1-2-3-4-5-4-3. A mixed bag that showed some good play at the beginning and at the end of the night. (I was randomly assigned court two as my starting court.)

All of that is to just give you some context. I enjoyed the evening and my fellow players, almost all men certified at a higher level than I am) There was one exception. One fellow I was partnered with was clearly unhappy with my play because we lost and had to move down a court. Later in the evening I faced him as an opponent. I made some great shots early in the game and he said to me across the net, “Where was that game when we were partners?” I smiled and laughed. My partner at that time, who, by the way is a phycologist and therapist by profession, looked at me and said, “don’t let him talk to you that way.” I just smiled again. What made the contest ultimately satisfying was the end. My partner and I lost but as customary we all gathered at the net to tap paddles. I took my paddle and tapped my vocal opponent on the shoulder and told him, “I saved my worst game for the end so you could win.”

Do I feel bad for saying that, not really… I’m hoping my psychologist partner heard me…

Science and politics make strange bedfellows. Usually after sex (the co-mingling of one with the other in the news media) one or the two ends up on the couch in the living room…

by Fredrik Backman

I enjoyed this book a fair bit but I have mixed reactions to it. Backman can write, there’s no question about that, He has a very good translator too. This is my first Backman. He has been published a dozen or more times in too many languages to count. What I had difficulty with was his humor, satire, and irony. It’s not that he didn’t have any, it’s that he has too much. A better description would be that he chooses to use too much (at least for my taste). The story was a good one and the characters, although abnormal compared to most people I know, were still enjoyable.

I was telling a friend about this book and I said that Hemingway would have written the same story in half the number of pages and it would have been just as good. There’s no accounting for taste. That’s one of the things that makes reading fiction enjoyable — you never know quite what you are going to get.

All of that aside. I appreciate Backman’s ability to reach into a topic and pull out some essence of meaning. What he comes up with may or may not be to your liking, but he has the ability to be profound. One of my favorite passages between two of the characters:

That hit me in a big way. Close to home.

There is so much out there to read, and so little time. I don’t know if I will pick up another Backman any time soon, but I haven’t tossed him onto the scrap heap either.

I like the notion that prepositions are often little words. They are also always part of a phrase. (A prepositional phrase…)

Here are some prepositions:

in, with, at, around, of, between, by, down, beside, within, for among, beneath, after.

These are prepositional phrases:

in the box, with my friends, at school, you get the idea.

I won’t mention the fact that if a preposition does not have a noun or pronoun after it, it is generally not a preposition: it is being used as an adverb. Life is never simple is it?

While adjectives are used to describe nouns and pronouns, adverbs are used to describe verbs (get it?) It’s not quite that simple, sometimes they are used to also describe adjectives or other adverbs.

Here’s the crux. Adverbs tell whewre, when, how, or to what extent. Adverbs usually (but not always) end in -ly.

Here are some adverbs that end in -ly.

Quickly, extremely, really, lovely, lonely.

Here are some adverbs that do not end in -ly.

Now, then, soon, very, only, often and not.

Note: often an adverb can be placed in different parts of a sentence — your choice! Here is an example:

I go for a walk in the woods often.

I often go for a walk in the woods.

Danger! Don’t overuse adverbs. It will make your writing clumsy and boring. Not that mine isn’t already for a myriad of other reasons…

Indeed, history wrapped in irony.

Leaders who are truly great give up some of their own comfort to help others—to contribute to the greater good.

I know that sounds odd, maybe old fashioned, but when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. We all should be willing — the richest among us and the poorest — to give up what we can to comfort others. I don’t mean just our time, I mean our resources as well. Hanging on to wealth to the grave and leaving it behind for those who’s only desire is to accumulate more wealth does not benefit the inheritor or society.

I’m fortunate not to be raising children today. I’ve raised three. They are good people. I’m grateful for that and proud. I don’t know if I could successfully raise children today. The challenges and pressures are an order of magnitude more complex than they were 40 years ago. It will be fascinating to see what primary age children today will be like as adults thirty years from now. I’ll leave that analysis up to you, my younger reader. For the time I have left, I will be watching with no small amount of interest.

The clatter in your mind cannot be suppressed as much as transcended. That means getting above the noise. To do that:

1. Lift your attention to the divine.
2. Look outward and serve others.

It’s as simple as that, only of course, that is not simple. That takes concentrated effort.

Along with the teachings of The Buddha, I would like to read Saint Catherine of Sienna’s, The Dialogue. I have added that to my list.

Yesterday’s Ride

32.5 miles, 11.6 mph average, 2 hr 48 min, elevation gain 925 ft

Tux in meditation, or protecting me… I’m not sure which…

On Monday 4/20 I checked in for my first day of kitchen duty at Shepard’s House. Shepard’s House is a homeless shelter in Redmond Oregon. They serve meals daily, provide shelter and other homeless services. These are good people.

I prepped 20L of broccoli, 20L of cauliflower, 20L of zucchini, and 20L of yellow squash. It took about 2-1/2 hours… and I only cut myself once! Don’t worry, no one noticed. I put on a fresh pair of black neoprene gloves after I cut myself to hide my embarrassment. Don’t worry, it’s all cool, I have my State of Oregon Food Handlers License, so no lives were endangered by my incompetence.

I plan to work in the kitchen every Monday. I met some nice people and I’m looking forward to next week.

If something appears new to you, rest assured, someone has seen it before. This moment has come before and will come again. This understanding is not meant to be discouraging, this is meant to inspire us to action.

When we respect destiny and fate, we give ourselves the grace we need to receive acceptance.

These thoughts would make an excellent focus for meditation. Repeat each of these slowly and ask yourself how aligned are you with each of these.

Our job is to make ourselves better, it is not to make others better. Everyone is on their own journey. As much as you may want to someone else make a change, those efforts will never bring about lasting results.