I am a sucker for sports movies and movies where the good guys triumph over insurmountable odds to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Within each of these movies is a message that is as heaven sent as a newborn baby. We aren't alone and we can achieve.
Life wasn't meant to be an exercise in perfection. Instead, it was meant to be raw and gritty and cause people to rise above their circumstances to reach just a little higher and draw from their inner reserves just a bit deeper. Life requires a broad wingspan and the willingness to deploy those wings in a gale force wind.
Movies where the dogs rescue the people, or themselves, are certainly on my watch list.
Within the genre of hero movies, anything that requires us to suspend our disbelief is worth my time. Our lives are so filled with the 'have to's' and 'must accomplish before nightfall' that the energy and pleasure I get from seeing a program that brings the battered hero home is heart warming and emotional in ways that other things simply aren't.
Teddy Roosevelt once said, "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strikes valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
I believe that to be a truth of the highest caliber. That is why we rejoice with the hero when he wins and cry when the struggle makes the hero wonder if he can achieve that moment of triumph.
We need more of the heroes in our world and a whole lot less of the saturation of that which neither lifts nor encourages. Instead, we need a steady diet of what we can do both when the chips are up and when they are totally down.
Your prescription for the day: Go watch a movie about a hero and bask in the warm glow of knowing that no matter how long it takes, or the obstacles and sacrifices required to do it, eventually good will triumph over evil, right will defeat wrong, and the good guy will come out on the top of the heap.
October 26, 2007
October 25, 2007
Junk Drawer
I know why it is called a junk drawer.
Because that is all you can ever find in it. The idea is to have a place that all of the miscellany of our lives can be put 'so you know where to find it'.
Reality however. . . welcome to another planet.
Opening the drawer to retrieve the camera patch cord that sucks the photos off of the internal memory as well as the card, I find about a half dozen various cords. Sadly, they don't belong to the camera.
NOT ONE OF THEM! #*&!#*!&#^!
Okay. I pull the card out of the camera only to discover that while it does indeed go into the special little 'we paid boocoo bucks for this slot', the card is as empty as Mother Hubbard's cupboard after a raid.
GRRRRR.
That means the only option I have left is to find the ticky tacky little patch cord and effect the transfer. Searching and swearing begins. Okay, I'm not a paragon of virtue when it comes to the words that come out of my mouth - I'm working on it!
Besides which, it's the only reason I haven't been translated yet. ;-)
Apparently aliens came and collected only the camera patch cord. Sorry to all those people who are still out there waiting to be experimented upon by the friendly little bald headed people with the giant eyes.
Days passed.
Aggravation grew to new levels of angst. Despair set in and most especially since I had wanted to send the pictures to our son for his amusement since he is away from home. The GRRRR factor was off the charts.
My long suffering and generous husband bought me a replacement along with a bouquet of flowers.
"See if this will work." He smiled as he said it, knowing full well that it would indeed work. Marrying a man of technical skills who looks cute in corduroy pants is a good combination.
My pictures were saved and perhaps a giblet of sanity. At least until the next crisis.
Because that is all you can ever find in it. The idea is to have a place that all of the miscellany of our lives can be put 'so you know where to find it'.
Reality however. . . welcome to another planet.
Opening the drawer to retrieve the camera patch cord that sucks the photos off of the internal memory as well as the card, I find about a half dozen various cords. Sadly, they don't belong to the camera.
NOT ONE OF THEM! #*&!#*!&#^!
Okay. I pull the card out of the camera only to discover that while it does indeed go into the special little 'we paid boocoo bucks for this slot', the card is as empty as Mother Hubbard's cupboard after a raid.
GRRRRR.
That means the only option I have left is to find the ticky tacky little patch cord and effect the transfer. Searching and swearing begins. Okay, I'm not a paragon of virtue when it comes to the words that come out of my mouth - I'm working on it!
Besides which, it's the only reason I haven't been translated yet. ;-)
Apparently aliens came and collected only the camera patch cord. Sorry to all those people who are still out there waiting to be experimented upon by the friendly little bald headed people with the giant eyes.
Days passed.
Aggravation grew to new levels of angst. Despair set in and most especially since I had wanted to send the pictures to our son for his amusement since he is away from home. The GRRRR factor was off the charts.
My long suffering and generous husband bought me a replacement along with a bouquet of flowers.
"See if this will work." He smiled as he said it, knowing full well that it would indeed work. Marrying a man of technical skills who looks cute in corduroy pants is a good combination.
My pictures were saved and perhaps a giblet of sanity. At least until the next crisis.
October 24, 2007
You May Already Be A Winner
Winning is everything.
At least, that is the accepted axiom for life in the fast lane. The concept here being that if you aren't a winner, then by default, you are most assuredly a loser.
Most of us bristle at the notion of being a loser. It seems so 'high school' to consider ourselves on such shallow terms and classify everyone into one of two categories with a broad brush.
What really occurs is that people who are popular, noticed, part of the 'in crowd' and generally well accepted grow up enjoying the same rarefied air and light. That is until the realities of life crowd in around them.
I remember reading an article several years ago about one woman's journey back to the small midwestern town of her birth, childhood and youth. Being more 'bookish' than 'lookish', this gal had spent a great deal of her time defending her brains and intellect from all invaders, both foreign and domestic. Moving away from her small town, she bravely entered the college scene and delved into opportunity that she had only dreamed of during those nights back on the farm. She was accomplished academically and professionally. She had married well and brought children into the world who were not little hellions.
All of that screeched to a halt when she attended her 25th high school reunion.
Successes and failures are measured all too often by the microcosm of high school. We can be instantly transformed back into the awkward teen we once were by simply entering the halls of our Alma mater. Time has no meaning and attainment of job skills and life skills disappear under the harsh light of the popularity contest that has no end.
In her own eyes and estimation, none of these people would ever see her as anything more than a bookworm who was shy and retiring. Neither of those things had been true for more than 20 years, but by default she became both under the crushing weight of high school expectations.
As the reunion drew to a close, she was jolted back to her senses by her wonderful husband who reminded her that all she had done that night was to retreat from a memory of her former self that was no longer true and likely had never been truthful about her at all. She had, he skillfully shared with her, become a swan. It wasn't that she was ever an ugly duckling. Far from it, he assured her. The fact was, she was in a small pond which was inhabited by a gaggle of geese that were intent on making noise for the sake of noise and a migrating flock of ducks that were only looking for the best places to feed and move on. Because she was different by nature, her skills and talents didn't match those of the crowd that, for a time, filled the little pond.
It wasn't until l that moment on that reunion night that this woman realized just how right her husband truly was. He had, in a very clear way, demonstrated a truth that too many of us miss entirely.
Who we are is totally up to us and not to our circumstances, social strata or the ideas of another.
We have a world of opportunity and learning at our feet. The wealth of knowledge is available to us. And, she had grown beyond the boundaries of her small town to embrace the whole world in her heart and mind.
She mentally retraced the evening and realized that for far too many of those whom she attended classes with that life had never left the city limits of the small community in which she drew her first breath. They were happy and secure in the small town fame and success that hadn't required the leap of faith to leave town and grow under uncertain conditions.
This wasn't to say that they were somehow less, but rather, that she had become something more. Over the course of her life experience, she had become a winner in a way that had nothing to do with games and competitions with little envelopes and scratch off cards.
She had, in fact, become a winner at life. She had learned to define herself by her own barometer of successes and failures by living life as it came. Those who had once been people of influence or targets for her youthful admiration were now clearly seen as the flawed and imperfect people they had been all along. And knowing that made her realize the best way to becoming a winner is to just keep trying.
That was something that many of her friends had missed, just like she did. It wasn't about winning and losing. Because the truth is, during the course of our lifetime, there will be far more losing that winning going on. That is the nature of life and how we learn. Instead, it was all about getting up just one more time when there was no more strength to go on. It was about making one more attempt to do the job, even when the odds were stacked against her. Life was about living, not about looking back at what was or what might have been.
In the years that have passed in my own life since reading that article, I have come to realize that the business of becoming adults is hard work. There are days I would cheerfully surrender unconditionally and run back into the the halcyon days of my youth, until I remember that some of them weren't all that great either.
But, even knowing that things are not always perfect doesn't dampen my elan for the adventure that is life.
So, I look at the promised prizes on the label of the sweepstakes I have been offered. No, this one didn't come in the mail. Instead, this is that mental sweepstakes that we all have deep inside us. It doesn't require us to fill out the silly little forms or remember a complicated series of questions and answers.
All we have to do is pay the price to be all that we can dream. It won't come without effort, but it will most assuredly be worth it.
Who knows?
You may already be a winner, whether you realize it yet, or not.
At least, that is the accepted axiom for life in the fast lane. The concept here being that if you aren't a winner, then by default, you are most assuredly a loser.
Most of us bristle at the notion of being a loser. It seems so 'high school' to consider ourselves on such shallow terms and classify everyone into one of two categories with a broad brush.
What really occurs is that people who are popular, noticed, part of the 'in crowd' and generally well accepted grow up enjoying the same rarefied air and light. That is until the realities of life crowd in around them.
I remember reading an article several years ago about one woman's journey back to the small midwestern town of her birth, childhood and youth. Being more 'bookish' than 'lookish', this gal had spent a great deal of her time defending her brains and intellect from all invaders, both foreign and domestic. Moving away from her small town, she bravely entered the college scene and delved into opportunity that she had only dreamed of during those nights back on the farm. She was accomplished academically and professionally. She had married well and brought children into the world who were not little hellions.
All of that screeched to a halt when she attended her 25th high school reunion.
Successes and failures are measured all too often by the microcosm of high school. We can be instantly transformed back into the awkward teen we once were by simply entering the halls of our Alma mater. Time has no meaning and attainment of job skills and life skills disappear under the harsh light of the popularity contest that has no end.
In her own eyes and estimation, none of these people would ever see her as anything more than a bookworm who was shy and retiring. Neither of those things had been true for more than 20 years, but by default she became both under the crushing weight of high school expectations.
As the reunion drew to a close, she was jolted back to her senses by her wonderful husband who reminded her that all she had done that night was to retreat from a memory of her former self that was no longer true and likely had never been truthful about her at all. She had, he skillfully shared with her, become a swan. It wasn't that she was ever an ugly duckling. Far from it, he assured her. The fact was, she was in a small pond which was inhabited by a gaggle of geese that were intent on making noise for the sake of noise and a migrating flock of ducks that were only looking for the best places to feed and move on. Because she was different by nature, her skills and talents didn't match those of the crowd that, for a time, filled the little pond.
It wasn't until l that moment on that reunion night that this woman realized just how right her husband truly was. He had, in a very clear way, demonstrated a truth that too many of us miss entirely.
Who we are is totally up to us and not to our circumstances, social strata or the ideas of another.
We have a world of opportunity and learning at our feet. The wealth of knowledge is available to us. And, she had grown beyond the boundaries of her small town to embrace the whole world in her heart and mind.
She mentally retraced the evening and realized that for far too many of those whom she attended classes with that life had never left the city limits of the small community in which she drew her first breath. They were happy and secure in the small town fame and success that hadn't required the leap of faith to leave town and grow under uncertain conditions.
This wasn't to say that they were somehow less, but rather, that she had become something more. Over the course of her life experience, she had become a winner in a way that had nothing to do with games and competitions with little envelopes and scratch off cards.
She had, in fact, become a winner at life. She had learned to define herself by her own barometer of successes and failures by living life as it came. Those who had once been people of influence or targets for her youthful admiration were now clearly seen as the flawed and imperfect people they had been all along. And knowing that made her realize the best way to becoming a winner is to just keep trying.
That was something that many of her friends had missed, just like she did. It wasn't about winning and losing. Because the truth is, during the course of our lifetime, there will be far more losing that winning going on. That is the nature of life and how we learn. Instead, it was all about getting up just one more time when there was no more strength to go on. It was about making one more attempt to do the job, even when the odds were stacked against her. Life was about living, not about looking back at what was or what might have been.
In the years that have passed in my own life since reading that article, I have come to realize that the business of becoming adults is hard work. There are days I would cheerfully surrender unconditionally and run back into the the halcyon days of my youth, until I remember that some of them weren't all that great either.
But, even knowing that things are not always perfect doesn't dampen my elan for the adventure that is life.
So, I look at the promised prizes on the label of the sweepstakes I have been offered. No, this one didn't come in the mail. Instead, this is that mental sweepstakes that we all have deep inside us. It doesn't require us to fill out the silly little forms or remember a complicated series of questions and answers.
All we have to do is pay the price to be all that we can dream. It won't come without effort, but it will most assuredly be worth it.
Who knows?
You may already be a winner, whether you realize it yet, or not.
October 23, 2007
Snarky Remarks
I realized tonight that on a couple of boards I read online that people will say just about anything on the Internet and feel totally confident that it will never get back to the people they are slamming. It is as if they honestly think they can't hurt someone if they get snarky on the boards.
Fact is, some of the things that are said are beyond rude. They are so insensitive that they smack of total hypocrisy. Tonight, I read one where a woman was belittling her son and trying, through her nasty comments, to bring validity to the remarks of another person who aired her 'dirty laundry' regarding her own child.
I only have one question for these women: What on earth are you thinking?
The idea that we are not responsible for the statements we fling out into the cosmic void of the Internet is so blatantly false that it is laughable. We live in a day and time where every literal keystroke can be detected and printed out for the whole world to see. And there is no such thing as total anonymity on the world wide web, no matter what people are inclined to believe.
For every person who launches verbal venom, there is a hacker who can, and often does, find a way to use those remarks to their advantage when the time comes. It is all about personal expediency and power.
What I have to wonder is how that child feels when those remarks come back home to roost?
If the parents feel confident sharing them with total strangers, I am quite sure that the poor children in question have heard those cutting remarks so frequently that they have suffered under the unreasonable expectations of a parent who forgets that they are not perfect themselves and neither is or will be their child.
And I cannot believe that the child, even when they reach the age of adulthood, will EVER forget that their parents' love was totally conditional upon whether they met some invisible standard of worthiness imposed upon them by someone who is not a fit judge of their heart.
We don't all mature or progress at the same rate and the things that are good for me in my own life may simply never be something that suits your God-given talents and interests. We can't all be the same!
We need the professionals as much as we need the ditch diggers. We need the beauty stylists as much as we need the street sweepers. There is no human endeavor that is worthless if someone puts all they have into reaching their full potential.
While all parents have expectations for their offspring, there comes a time where the parent MUST step back and let them figure it all out on their own, even when and especially because they WILL make mistakes. We can't sheild them forever from life. To do so creates a crippling condition that is a greater wound than letting them fall down once in a while in order to learn to get up and keep trying.
I only hope that someday, the snarky women find themselves in a position to realize that they do damage to a relationship where they devalue their children because they are not like and cannot be like themselves. I honestly don't believe God sent us all here to be the same.
If that were the case, there would have been no need for us to all be different. We could have used Cliff Notes and just watched one man and one woman make all of the mistakes and learn all of the lessons just so that we could take the final and everyone could pass with 100%.
God bless those children who don't have their earthly parents' unconditional love in their life. Because it is most certainly God who has that love in abundance and who can see so far beyond our limited understanding as to just who and what these marvelous people truly are. And it is God who can heal them and make them have the strength through him to rise above the petty behavior of those who should love them, but don't.
Fact is, some of the things that are said are beyond rude. They are so insensitive that they smack of total hypocrisy. Tonight, I read one where a woman was belittling her son and trying, through her nasty comments, to bring validity to the remarks of another person who aired her 'dirty laundry' regarding her own child.
I only have one question for these women: What on earth are you thinking?
The idea that we are not responsible for the statements we fling out into the cosmic void of the Internet is so blatantly false that it is laughable. We live in a day and time where every literal keystroke can be detected and printed out for the whole world to see. And there is no such thing as total anonymity on the world wide web, no matter what people are inclined to believe.
For every person who launches verbal venom, there is a hacker who can, and often does, find a way to use those remarks to their advantage when the time comes. It is all about personal expediency and power.
What I have to wonder is how that child feels when those remarks come back home to roost?
If the parents feel confident sharing them with total strangers, I am quite sure that the poor children in question have heard those cutting remarks so frequently that they have suffered under the unreasonable expectations of a parent who forgets that they are not perfect themselves and neither is or will be their child.
And I cannot believe that the child, even when they reach the age of adulthood, will EVER forget that their parents' love was totally conditional upon whether they met some invisible standard of worthiness imposed upon them by someone who is not a fit judge of their heart.
We don't all mature or progress at the same rate and the things that are good for me in my own life may simply never be something that suits your God-given talents and interests. We can't all be the same!
We need the professionals as much as we need the ditch diggers. We need the beauty stylists as much as we need the street sweepers. There is no human endeavor that is worthless if someone puts all they have into reaching their full potential.
While all parents have expectations for their offspring, there comes a time where the parent MUST step back and let them figure it all out on their own, even when and especially because they WILL make mistakes. We can't sheild them forever from life. To do so creates a crippling condition that is a greater wound than letting them fall down once in a while in order to learn to get up and keep trying.
I only hope that someday, the snarky women find themselves in a position to realize that they do damage to a relationship where they devalue their children because they are not like and cannot be like themselves. I honestly don't believe God sent us all here to be the same.
If that were the case, there would have been no need for us to all be different. We could have used Cliff Notes and just watched one man and one woman make all of the mistakes and learn all of the lessons just so that we could take the final and everyone could pass with 100%.
God bless those children who don't have their earthly parents' unconditional love in their life. Because it is most certainly God who has that love in abundance and who can see so far beyond our limited understanding as to just who and what these marvelous people truly are. And it is God who can heal them and make them have the strength through him to rise above the petty behavior of those who should love them, but don't.
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