Under the Maple Tree

Ah, good conversation — there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing."-- "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton "

 

 

The protagonist of The Age of Innocence,  Newland Archer, addresses his feelings about the shallow and often misguided world in which he lives. Here he praises the collaborative power of the mind, suggesting that it is in conversation with one another that we discover our best ideas.

 

After I completed my memoir, now titled Come On, I Dare You (to write your own), I came out the other side feeling happy. And with that, the idea of another blog gave me a thump.

 

While it appears that most conversation turns to the dismal, the depressing, and what's wrong with the world, what if we had a safe place to go, to sit under the tree in my backyard while sipping coffee, tea, or wine, we talk of good things, not bad, of Spirituality not sad?

 

So, what's it with you?

 

As we sit under the tree, we can first go around the group and tell how our lives have been this week, and let's insist that it's a two-minute gripe. (Write out your gripe below, it will make you feel better.)

 

My gripe of the week is AI and cloning, and now they are altering faces and putting words in people's mouths that they never spoke. Computer programs can do that. Now, we must work hard to discern what's real and what's not. If I find out I'm a clone I will be livid, they could at least set me back to where my body worked better.

That's my two minutes. See, it didn't even take that long.  

 

But, notice how we want to continue with the computer program gripe and wring it a bit more. It's hard to switch, isn't it?

 

After a while, we might start laughing at all the wrongness we can come up with. And then we might be anxious to speak of things that make us laugh or motivate us to new heights. We may be into something creative we want to share, a new thought on an old subject, something inspiring. a positive think tank of sorts. 

 

While writing my memoir/adventure, travel special interest story, I began looking to the positive and read Robert Fulgrums* story about two college boys who were eating a chair. 

 

At that writing, the boys had consumed a rung, two legs, and a back piece. They had been rasping off fine particles and sprinkling them on their granola and salads. Their professor told them to do something they had never done and to write about it. 

 

In that vein, I asked a lady at the grocery store if anything funny happened that day. She thought a minute and said, "No, not today, but yesterday a lady came into the store with no pants on. Will that work as funny?"

 

I laughed and told her she made my day.

 

Come on over and sit a spell. https://coffeeteayouandme.blogspot.com

 

 

 

Add to the conversation and add a gripe, a funny or profundity in the comment section. 

 

 

 

 

*What On Earth Have I Done? By Robert Fulghum

 

Claiming Your Power

 

How about "claiming your power "instead of seeing a situation as hopeless?

 

And then as I saw control all over the place and stumbled right into a quote from Terry Cole-Whittiker, (The Inner Path From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, 1987) and fell on my face.

 

 "The chance that we all have is the chance of a lifetime to step out of the world as it is and create the New World as we would have it be."

 

I don’t know how that will happen, or how to do it, but I see that it will. We believed that world transformation would come from the top down—from world leaders, religious figures, poets, philosophers, scientists, and songwriters. 

 

Now we see that it will come from the bottom up.

 

We are learning that change comes from within, from the people, like the many who started grassroots movements. Who began screaming about the air quality? Not the industries. Who wanted organic food? Not the chemical producers. Who wanted to save the whales? Not the whalers or the perfume industry. Who is concerned about global warming? Not the highest of officials but other individuals in the sciences, arts, and human welfare who took it upon themselves to bring that attention to the masses. And who taught people about chimpanzees' intelligence and their social structure? One person, a little secretary named Jane Goodall. And then two bicycle makers from Kity Hawk, South Carolina, showed that man could not only fly, he could apply a motor to it.

 

What about the people who rallied behind John F. Kennedy when he said, “We will send a man to the moon and bring him back alive, by the end of a decade?”

 

Scientists, inventors, mathematicians, and engineers, a small group of people rallied behind –yes, a leader who had a vision and motivated people, but they were little bitty bunch. They reached down into the depths of their souls, and made it happen. (Of course they had a little competition and fear whipping them into shape.)

 

It will be the people who get it. We don’t need to be forgiven for our sins, when we can’t even remember ever having one. Do you think a God would put a beautiful person on a beautiful planet then tell them that life was a veil of tears and that they were sinners? It defies all logic. We have a body, but were made to be ashamed of having one. It defies all logic.

 

When Jesus called out for the cross, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” He understood. He came here to remove the curse. The curse was the curse of a vengeful god in which all of mankind believed. Jesus said he came to put away the law, but people didn’t get it. When they believed in a vengeful god it gave them permission to be vengeful.  When they believed that disobeying a ridiculous command like do not eat of that tree, and they did, it was a reason to curse all mankind, babies, women to a lifetime of work and worry. It is beyond all that is holy.

 

No, change will come from the folks. The god of the old testament is not the God we are learning about today, one in which we are all a part.

 

 

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

—Margaret Mead

 

 

”The notion that we are products of our environment is our greatest sin; we are products of our choices.”—Mead again.

 

 

P.S. I revamped our Real Estate site Vibrance Real Estate.com

No search engine, no popups, no sign ins, only information. And remember, if you are buying a home, you don’t always have to put a 20% down payment. Check https://vibrancerealestate.com to see how.

 

Write your own memoir, I dare you. I double dare you.

Tuesday August 1, 2023

 

“For in the last analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”

--John F. Kennedy

 

Hi, 

How are you doing?

While taking down the search engine from our Real Estate Site, I finally got a fire in my belly.

 

You see, I am a reluctant Real Estate Agent. I'm a writer. I want to write. I'm not a salesperson. 

 

But I'm into service.  

 

And so, I began writing a Newsletter. In the middle of it, I decided to call our Mortgage lender, the initial one, not the one who has services our loan now. That loan moves through lenders as though playing musical chairs. However, the initial lender is friendly and Simpatico.

 

I knew there was down payment help, but I needed to figure out where to find it. Cavalry in the form of one horseless Mortgage Lender to the rescue. He dumped so much in my head some didn’t stick, but his email came shortly after. Bless his heart.

 

I got excited. And wrote,

 

I'm here to give out information and to help people. I don't want potential clients to look at me and think I only want a commission. That would be nice, but first comes service.

 

So, I am not blogging on Vibrance Real Estate LLC, and I know that real Estate talk can be dull for people not into it. I'm going to have fun. After all, a Pink Flamingo on your sign and business card tells the world you aren't running with hyenas.

 

When the lovely flamingo calls to you, you are called to celebrate life's beauty, romance, and fun. The flamingo reminds you to not get too caught up in life's day-to-day responsibilities at the expense of feeling joy and recognizing the finer things in life. Flamingos are famed for their pizzazz, grace, balance, and harmony. They are highly vocal, and their idea is that the more, the merrier. 

 

So, add your voice to the gathering; The Flamboyance Newsletter will appear on https://vibrancerealestate.com on the first of each month. Except for this first one. The second installment will be next Tuesday.

 

We’d be tickled pink to have you join the gathering. No sign in, no fee, just information.  

 

Lend your voice, and we'll see where it goes. 

 

 

What's it all About?

 

 I've been feeling fractured these days. Dare I say, schizoid, for that's how it appears when I look at the world.

 

Well, the world and its critters seem all right; it's the culture that has gone cuckoo, dare I say schizophrenic?

 

We've been fractured before, as in wartime, but now people are warring on each other, on friends, on family, on the capitol, the government, the lawmakers, the politicians, the pharmaceutical companies, the rich, the poor, and probably saying that God is on their side, and against the other. (As though God takes sides.) 

 

And it all happened around the time Covid19 hit us. That pandemic was more than the flu, it was a pandemic of the human spirit, and nobody knew how to handle it. 

 

During that time, it was as though the populist was stirred, and what came to the surface? The most vocal of the people. Pundits swam in the soup, Propaganda flourished like weeds, anonymous people dumped their brain droppings on the populist, and the populist fertilized their gardens with it. The weirder the droppings, the better the weeds.

 

Each side has its ideology. An ideology is a belief system. So, we are fighting over beliefs. Beliefs are thoughts we keep telling ourselves.

 

"Oh no," says one side, "I have data."

 

"Well, so do I," says the other.

 

"If you read what I read, you'd believe as I do." 

 

Yeah, I would. But what if I see the world as a beautiful place, whole, flourishing, friendly, and kind. Would that help bring it about?

 

Would that be the proverbial ostrich's head in the sad, or would it assist the growth of kindness, generosity, service, and friendship? 

 

And then I watch a documentary on happiness. It is Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss. 

 

First, though, if you follow those amorphous, they.  They say, "The search for happiness is the root of unhappiness." 

 

It's like atoms change when observed. When we scrutinize something, it becomes embarrassed and hides, but let's take a peek.

 

In Iceland, they say happiness is a bottle of cod liver oil. (And reading the label, it does say it helps lift the mood) I suspect that if you live in a place that's dark most of the year, cod liver oil is a good idea.

 

Ghana: Can you believe Ghana is the most optimistic land on earth? Primarily because they have Hope that "Things will be better someday." 

 

Changeability is high on the list. "Everything will work out." 

 

Adaptability, "Embrace what comes your way." Isn't that what biology tells us? You either change it, move away, or die.

 

Expressing oneself creatively. In Iceland, there are more artists, musicians, and writers per Capita than anyplace else.  

 

And then people—being with people and family. We are herd animals, after all.

 

And now, happiness reveals itself like the proverbial sculptor who says he just takes away what isn't his sculpture. 

 

"Happiness lies in moments, and while you have it, you're not even aware; only afterward do you know you were happy."

--Luise Rainer, actress