An hour to explain all that you did.

Professional Manager or Entrepreneur

Hard to get too interested in these pictures. Tonight I am going to meet with a few young men and talk about careers. Mine will be the backdrop and focus of the discussion. When I look back at my own career it splits off into two parts. Years of being an entrepreneur and years of been an employeed manager. Add to that years of what helped both fall into place. I wonder if most entrepreneurs could have decided to just stop and go back to being a manager. Once you have been on your own and had to live by your own wits more or less then how do you just "hire out".




The definition of entrepreneur has to do with creating and managing but it is really the creation that is at the core. Taking what others may see as nothing and getting it to work and to pay.


Actually you can do that, even as an employed manager.


I actually was published in Entrepreneur Magazine
"once upon a time". Small thought a long time ago made the pages.

80% of all jobs are still filled by word of mouth. Networking is what this is called.

For the boys tonight that I visit with they may find just listening to someone else's story to be useful. It is always useful to hear someone tell how their life unfolded.

I remember a fellow who in a church group who had an hour to tell us his life story. I remember is that he was older than me. He had an hour and used 20 minutes of his time telling us about his winning the state marbles championship as a youth. Another fellow, way older, started out with his story beginning in about 1912. He made it to about 1920 and the hour was up.

Makes you wonder what to pick to talk about if you only had an hour to tell the story. I remember a guy who forgot to talk about his employment. He had been the president of a candy company. I was so surprised when he forget his career. Then I wonder. Have I forgotton my own. What was my career. Was it just a series of networking? Was it creative. Was it just survival. Was I creating or managing? Then too the guy who forgot his carreer did remember his family. Good

A birthday Sunday, tommorrow's about yesterday

Sister

November 26th in the late 50's was on a Tuesday. I was 11 years old. This little girl arrived in our home. My mother had two boys. Moms need a daughter and Trudy was welcomed. Happy Birthday Trudy.

Little Girls grow up to

be interesting Ladies


It wasn't too far back among this series of blogs that a friend sent me a note and said it seemed clear to him that I was an existentialist. Ok that may seem like an odd word to toss in on a birthday greeting to my sister. Ok, it is. Nevertheless. he added that a lot of folks don't seem to know what that word means. Some think maybe it reflects non belief in diety or something? Not so. What it does mean is that even with a lot of cause and effect directing our life the fact is we direct a great deal of our lives by how we react to the events that we experience. We really create our self to a large degree. Thank goodness. If were creating ourselves through our experiences it stands to reason that the future can be better than the past.

When I was 11 years old I really didn't know my little sister. In fact I din't know her very well when I was 20 or 30 either. Today I know her a lot better. Today she has helped me and I have learned from her. Today I see in her a lot of the past however. I see my mom and my dad and I see their goodness. But then I see her more clearly now. Different and the same. Looking forward to tommorow and appreciative of the past.

Who can say

Why To-day

To-morrow will be yesterday?

Who can tell

Why to smell

The violet recalls the dewy prime

Of youth and buried time?

The cause is nowhere found in rhyme.

I guess I could just go on about this cute little girl and all the cute little girls she reminds me of. Or, I could just make a comment about the play. I liked the play of course.

Then too it, the plot, was Existentialism. Not just becuase in the experience of the hero we saw him rediscover faith and principle but it was really a backwards approach. Things went wrong and then as the result of a series of events he questions his life and values, and find a purpose or set of values.

The Narrator has been good to us

Listen to the Narrator

Went to the movies last night. Mike mentioned that we had gone before on Thanksgiving Eve. He recalled a trip to see Malcolm X. Last night is was "Stranger than Fiction". The movie not the night. By the way, thinking of Malcom it is interesting how much more clear things seem looking back now than at the time. The movie Malcolm X was not what it seemed like when we heard about him on the news each night years back. I liked this Malcom quote. "You can't separate peace from freedom becuase no one can be at peace unless he has freedom."

Stranger than Fiction

The movie had an interesting plot. The main character heard a "narrator". The voice announced to him things that were just taking place. His life became narrated. He was a part of a novel. Non Fiction, by the way, since it was taking place for him.

If I was to narrate Thanksgiving Day

"Like many holidays Brent got up and went out for a run. After meeting Jan they went deep into the cove. The mountain was unlike any mountain anywhere and as they wound through the streets they seldom lost the comfort of the mountain. Half way back home they would look up at the face where the "great crack' on the face had been adaquate to allow their hero, Pat, climb straight up the face." O yes, that was back then. Not now. No more mountain on holidays. Blue Sky however. Almost always. The mountain hid the sun till late mid morning in the Winter. Behind the mountain to the East. Then take a right turn to the South. Way South. The High Desert.

New Mexico. A mountain still to the East. Sandia, not Wasatch.

It was one day in the Summer

Non fiction. Just two guys running through the daily run. Jeff and I. The grandkids back at the house. It was indeed a day to be thankful for. Much like the last few weeks with Mike. Days to be together and be thankful for. Running. Walking. Talking. Jan and I always talked. About everything and nothing. Those walks were indeed non-fiction and had plently to draw from our daily activities. This day I shared a story I had heard many times since coming to New Mexico. A Navajo, a Cherokee, maybe just a half Welsh Grandfather, this time, but a story of some advice from a Grandfather. I told the story. Then was asked to tell the Grandkids. Maybe they remember. The "daughter" did and used it for some lessons. Today is a day to be Thankful.

The Narrator has been good to us.

Two wolves live inside me

There is a story about a Navajo Grandfather who once
told his grandson, "Two wolves live inside me. One is
the bad wolf, full of greed and laziness, full of
anger and jealousy and regret. The other is the good
wolf, full of joy and compassion and willingness and a
great love for the world. All the time these two
wolves are fighting inside me."

"But Grandfather," the boy said, "Which wolf will
win?"
The grandfather answered, "The one I feed."

Those geese are not turkeys but do they hear the music

(Thanksgiving blog tommorrow)

Talking Geese

(walking together)

Hey buddy, he says. Tommorrow is Turkey day. Bet your glad your not a turkey, he says. Maybe the other guy is thinking, you are a turkey. Whatever, Geese apparently talk. The evidence is right here. Solid proof.

This picture may have nothing to do with

Thanksgiving.

Even so it is likely that green chile will be on a lot of tables tommorrow. Just thinking a little about dinner tommorow.

Yams, turkey, stuffing, a raspberry peach pie.

Tommorrow is T day with the Boys and KJ

We will have some empty seats. Wish they were here too.

The Lead Bird is doing more work

(flying together)

Geese again, I suppose. Ducks perhaps. Not Turkeys. I find it interesting to think about these formations. I mentioned that before back a few blogs. I was going to wait until the weekend to do another blog but what the heck. I had this talking Goose up above and he was just begging to get on this blog. One of those birds in the middle is just floating on the wind and air created by the others. The difference with the formation and a lot of life situations is that all the other birds know who does the work and who rides the wind in their formation and they take turns, on purpose. Just based on that it seems like a mean thing to do to have a goose for dinner. On the other hand Turkeys will drown if they get caught in a rain storm looking up cause they are so dumb they won't close their mouths. I guess that is a Rx for trouble just by itself. Turkeys get eaten.


This picture means nothing

A few months back we went to the hot food show. It happens once a year and it is really somthing. Lots of folks display their hot sauce. We have gained a new appreciation for "hot" sauce. Green chile's need to be hot to be good. Life is a surprise. Didn't think I would be someone who liked hot sauce.

Smart Birds

Geese. They seem to get it. The are on there way somewhere, up in the picture, but they are going together. Keeping pace with their companions. In doing so they seem so interesting. In some ways it would be so nice to have a formation to fly in. A way to fall back and ride the wind. A way to step forward and lead. A bunch of other birds. One that talked too.

Then again

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. Henry David Thoreau

Go Quietly into the night or Donkey by any other name

Big Day in New Mexico

Mike, Zach, Kathy and myself went to the Flea Market.

Company in town ya know. Gota show em the sights. Mike's been here before. Always interesting. Left earlier and went to a Mexican market. Bought a couple of bottles of Mexican coca cola. Good Stuff actually. Real Sugar is why. Then of course this is far from uplifting or insightful into the total big picture.

Evidence

*

We have been there before. (picture from prior trip)

It came to my attention, again today, that I have a poor sense of smell. One of the really good smells is that of green chiles roasting. It is just great. Even so, I did actually smell it today at the flea market, and yes we finally bought some and ate some hot.

Green Chile is a staple in New Mexico

I like it on eggs, hash browns, burrittos, hamburgers, and especially hot out of bag.







What are those little letters on the top of this Post Card? Ok I will tell you. Hate to do this. I am already wondering if this blog is "in tune" with my blog themes? I will say that the "Post Card" made me think of Louis Lamour and I looked him up on google and found a 28 minute interview with him. Just a sound bite of his voice as he answered questions. Live, "voice" that is. It was interesting. I recall listening to the voices of a lot of interesting people. I have book that has a CD with it and it contains live voices form a lot of folks.

First let's get this over with

The post card says................ I am in Texas ( the left side) and then on the right above the donkey is says....... but my ass is in New Mexico.

Sort of sums it up but then it is all perspective. I can tell you I have been to Texas and this side of the card is pretty good. Did you notice that blue sky up on the top of the blog. Right above the green chile's. Course it is really above everything today, really. Blue sky is a good thing. By the way, I am sorry that I said ass on my blog. I wanted to keep my blog pure. I think that guy up above just needs to pull the little guy over to his own state.

"Cd" full of interesting voices

The bookI mentioned above is called "Poetry Speaks". Might as well talk about it since I may not do a blog for a few days. Might be a week. Might not, might be sooner. Anyway the CD in the book cover has some really neat stuff. Least I think so. The voice of Tennyson, Eliot, Yeats, Robert Frost, Whitman.

These were favorites but then I really liked Dylan Thomas. Loved to hear him reading the poem "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" I won't by the way. Love that poem. Another blog maybe speaking of Dylan. Not on this CD but I have a tape of William Faulkner and anything he saysor writes is a favorite. His voice sounds just like his books. Maybe what I mean is when I read his books I can hear his voice and guess what, I was right. Then again I suspect a lot of the really good authors are ones that you really can hear their voices when you read their words.

Seems to me, and I am just rambling a bit here, not actually a quote, maybe I will take a chance and quote myself but I do feel like when you really need to know something and when you reach out of yourself for help that the answer is often a real voice. Still. Small, Accurate.

Weekly Blog to follow, but not today

Been Thinking

I have put something down on this blog for several months. Each day, mostly, and each day something.

My plans are changing. I am going to post once a week. I think I will start with a post day after tommorow. Saturday the 18th

Then once a week, probably on Saturday.

Check in when you want

The only "True" Duck, and he doesn't lie...............

Dad liked the cartoon shows

and the funny papers

It's my dad that I am talking about here. His last few years he lived alone. He had a TV in his bedroom. He for years watched late night TV. Cartoons was something he liked. He would laugh out loud at the stuff on the cartoons. He liked the older cartoons. Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and so on. The Road Runner got smashed over and over and Dad would always laugh. In some ways what you think is funny is revealing. Then too what you admit you think is funny says a lot too.




It is hard to imagine someone who would sit up late alone and laugh at Daffy Duck telling a lie.

Guess Shakespeare saw that

To thine own self be true, then it followed that that man could not be false to any man.

Why is that ya suppose....................

Folks really sacrifice a lot in order to be true to themselves. The folks portrayed in Les Miserables stop up for what they felt they had to in order to be true to themselves.

Still, why is it that being true to oneself means one won't lie to any man?

A lie reflects what isnt' true. The reflection comes from somewhere. Being true to oneself might mean admitting who you are.

A guy who will admit that he likes cartoons has a pretty good start

What reflects from him is 'true"

I guess the best thing to do now would be to confess that I too like cartoons and Daffy Duck is my idea of a good time. Wish it were true. If I listed the things I like to do it would perhaps not be as clear as to whether I am a good candidate for one who is really true to himself. I like to run, or walk with Kathy, or go out to eat when the food is really really good, or to a good show, or to the flea market and just walk with Kathy through all the stuff, or to get an email from someone who is checking in , or to find something new to think about, or find something previously wondered about sort of answered. I like it a lot when I see Shakespeare in Daffy Duck and both of them in my Dad.

Glad Grace, Soft Look, Changing Face

Experience is what you get

when you don't get what you want.

To Err Is Human, To Forgive Divine

Getting what one wants seems to change with time. Sooner or later the things that went wrong and were a challenge seem to be the point where real experience took place.








The road to wisdom?-
Well, it's plain and simple
to express:
Err and err and err again
but less and less and less.

~Piet Hein




Just another guy, looking back. His particular view of experience is summed up as "when he was that age" ect. His lessons learned were then. His proof now are proud scars, perhaps.

Memories turn soft. Moments of glad grace. A soft look

A Pilgrim Soul

When You are Old

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once,
and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

W.B. Yeats

Be a man Jack, they are playing your song?

Rap a tap tap, "Jack"

Music or dreams

or

just some "Jack" specialists

Formally and informally, as a church job and for my own network of business contacts, I have worked as a employment specialist, on the side, for a number of years. It is interesting to see the difference in what options a young person just getting out of school has vs's a person that has been employeed over a lot of years. Whether one likes it or not they evolve into being a specialist.

In some ways it is a good thing because specialists seem to make more than generalists and it can be easier to fine a job. So good. I guess. Then on the other hand I compare this to some advice that veryfew folks seem willing to take.

J Paul Getty said in his book published back in 1976 ( read for the first time by me back about then) that he would not rely on a executive with single function orientation to conduct negotiations. He said what he prefered would be to have people who could solve problems and make decisions on the spot. He said the type of person he would want would be well rounded individuals whose education had enriched their intellect and judgment and he suggested that was best done with a liberal arts education. Does it mean that liberal arts is only for a manager or what is often just a generalist. Someone who is master of nothing? Why liberal arts? He assumed that one would be better able to think with that type of education. Better able to think. Better able talk to someone else. More likely to have had experience in thinking about a wide range of subjects. More interesting. Better able to get up and do something proactive rather than reactive. Good way to find a job. Better able to after it.

Playing our Song: dreams and music seem to

reflect or maybe cause thought pattern.

Plato theorized that human-behavior patterns are controlled by three factors: appetite, emotion, and thought, all of which should function in harmony. So what then controls thought. Guess the first step is to have some thoughts. Next is to make some choices.

I guess in some ways it seems clear that businessmen like Getty were existentialists. Thinking that someone who is well rounded and polished may be driven by those facts assumes a belief that reality can be chaned by experience. Why is this so obvious? Why is it that people are so hesitatant to just think it through. Or is this just me thinking it through?

If

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run

- Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

The Blog may Exist

At the Center exists all the colors

Today we went for a walk. Kathy found it to be "brown" in color. Maybe it was the fall colors. The Blue Sky, of course, was a highlightin terms of color and just being up there. Makes one wonder if "color existed" before we did? Is color there if we don't see it sort of like does the tree make a noise when it falls in the forest if something doesn't record it?

Existentialist, Me Too

Once upon a time on a blog way back there, in my long history of blogs, I think I mentioned that a friend once looked in and then called me an existentialist. Glad to be called "something", and so I may have pleaded guility and moved on. Moving on, Kierkegaard is considered the Father of Existentialism and I have liked his points of view. Two of his popular ideas are "subjectivity" and the "leap to faith," He figuered that doubt needed to be an essential element of faith. Sounds sort or grim. Yet it seems rather obvious too. He also pushed the idea of importance of the "self", and the self's relation to the world as being grounded in self-reflection and introspection.

"existence precedes essence"

If no one reads this blog is it still a blog?

I will have to tell you it is a good thing I am an existentialist or there just wouldn't be a blog, at least today.

In order to know something is true it helps a great deal to want it to be. One can plant the mustard seed and have faith in it growning into what it can be, but it helps to hope that it will grow. Kierkegaard was pro individual vs's groups and added to the idea of faith that doubt may be a first step towards hope and faith.

Maybe the question isn't so much why did the chicken cross the road, and lots of options are pointed out in the cartoon, as much as whether it was as the last guy in the last frame so well put it, "it was a cool idea".

PS: White space contains all the colors of the visible spectrum. It is the color that reflects the light of all parts of the visible spectrum equally. Black is the absence of color. Some colors are primary and others depend on those colors for their existence. White is cool, and exists.

"This is us", in solitude and sweetness, too

Alone Somewhere

Me Too

Of course once you say "me too" you admit your not alone. You in some ways join someone, somewhere, in whatever it is that they are doing that you would like to be doing.

"the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude"....... Emerson

Is it then me, or is it "me too".

Tommorow is Saturday. It will be not a "me too" day but an "us" day. Kathy and I may go for a walk. We will meet Mike at the airport.

"This is Us"

"Us", implies a solitude. It closes in on what is important and has it's own sweetness.

Still wandering after all these years

At ones command

To a large degree this blog has helped me re-visit a number of books that I have enjoyed over the years. I have had a habit of underlining things that I read that I really like. I often go back and re-read the books I like best. Sometimes I just read quickly through the book where I underlined the first time. The blog has just been another excuse to go back and look. It helps keep the thoughts fresh.

So why bother to read an re read


"to be able to turn at will, in a book of your own, to those

passages which count for you, is to have your

wealth at instant commmad."

John Livingston Lowes

Education of a Wandering Man had a big impact on me.

\

It is worth it to read books on reading. A good one is "Your well read life" as shown in the picture above. These and other books give points of view on what is worth reading and for me the always stimulate ideas. The surprise for me was Louis Lamour. I had never read any of his books. He has over 225 million books in print. 86 novels, 16 short stories and three non-fiction books. Even so he, for me, was just a western author writing about the old west. Then I read his autobiograhphy shown here. In it he talks about his "wandering" as a young man but as he tells his story he talks about the books he read while he was wandering. Wow. What a surprise. The literature and history he read were not things you would expect from a western writer. He communicated the passion he had for what he read. He not only shared my excitement for books but he made me curious about some new books. I just didn't think that someone who seemed to love the old west would at the same time like so many of the older books that I did. So I read some of his short stories. Kind of like Stephan King. I really didn't like his novels but after I read a few things about him I read "Heart in Atlantis" and was really impressed with his skills. You don't have to love the subjects that Lamour and King tackle to really see their skills. Their fiction seemed so much better when there full interests were understood better.

"Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist"

Emerson

"What counts, in the long run, is not what your read;

it is what you sift through in your own mind"

Eleanor Roosevelt

"Tis the good reader that makes the good book"

Emerson

Education according to Lamour is a breadth of view, ease of understanding, tolerance for others, and a background from which the mind can explore in any direction.

Me Too, Still Wandering

Me Too !!!

Yet to be determined

Paul Harvey this morning, commenting on the election, reported that the Democrats were now in charge. By the end of the day both the house and senate were no longer in the hands of the Republicans. Maybe it was the war. Maybe it was all the corruption. Maybe it was the hypocrisy. Do you think? Anyway Paul mentioned that of course this meant that the country had voted for a "new direction". Then he concluded that as far as that new direction it was "yet to be determined."





Lot of Republicans are gone. They have taken an exit. Of course it is usually the actors that leave the stag and indeed this bunch were.... just actors. Playing parts that they obviously didn't believe in. To bad they let us down.


Of elections T.S Eliot said: "An election is coming, universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sinere interest in prolonging the lives of the poulty.

Maybe that is the new direction.

***********************

“I am a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him/her down." -Abraham Lincoln, 1809 - 1865.

Me Too

Take a close look to see it for the first time

Don't stop Exploring

We shall not cease from exploration And at the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know it for the first time

T.S. Eliot

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,

I can see all obstacles in my way

Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind

It’s gonna be a bright, bright Sun-Shiny day.

Song Lyrics by Johnny Nash

Begin with the end in mind.

Finish, understanding more about your start.

The End

November, remembered, different yet the same

Autumn Leaves

No bird,

No bee,

No leaf on tree.

No wonder!

November.

On arms leant

Some run to escape from their own personality.

The ipod can help because it focuses your thoughts. Then the choice of music still reflects ones personality and it is hard to escape. Often the time is full of thoughts. Sometimes it is void of any thoughts. Today I ran 4 miles. I guess it isn't the type of run that a lot of people would call a run but for me it is enough and is consistent with many years of running. I thought of our time yesterday at the Bosque. I thought of our time together here in this new land and then the time in the old land. Sometimes when I read the poem below by Tennyson I think of my own parents and they indeed see like a time that was old. Then I think of our own times and how much we have leaned on each other. No escape here. In fact it really isn't needed.



And on her lover’s arm she leant,
And round her waist she felt it fold
And far across the hills they went
In that new world which is the old;

Across the hills, and far away
Beyond their utmost purple rim,
And deep into the dying day
The happy princess follow’d him


Alfred Tennyson


Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things. T. S. Eliot

different eyes, new thoughts to imagine in the Bosque

Today we walked

the Bosque

Bosque is a Spanish word for woodlands. It is defined as a oasis or ribbon of green vegetation, often canopied, that exists near rivers and streams. The one that is on both sides of the Rio Grande and runs through Albuquerque runs for

200 miles from Sante Fe to the North and South to Socorro.

Colorful not Sterile

We walked through the Bosque to the water's edge. This time of year the leaves have turned. Some still have color. The growth is so thick you would never know that you were in the middle of a large metropolitan area of around 800,000 people. Sort of a long central park. When you think about where we live it is just surprising how interesting it is. I thought we lived in te desert when we lived in Utah. Utah seems sterile when compared to New Mexico.



We are looking out

from the Canopy

Up and down this river geese fly in formation. They honk and you can hear them and see them through the trees.

The Bosque is like fine literature

The good of Literature is that
We want to be more than ourselves……
We want to see with other eyes
To imagine with other’s imaginations,

To feel with other’s hearts, as well as our own.

C.S. Lewis

Bosque on a Saturday Morning coming up

Bosque

More to the point, this is the Rio Grande Bosque. The trees along each side are the Bosque. Thick and back a ways from the shore line. This river runs throught Albuquerque. More or less right down the middle. To each side you will find the "bench" areas where a lot of houses are. Sort of a East Side and West side that in many ways are two towns. Then to the South is Downtown. Tommorrow Kathy and I will go and walk one of the Trails along the Bosque. The leaves will be turning. It will be interesting. Anticipation. I do like Saturday mornings. This will be a new adventure.

Encourage me, honk, or fly point

The

Lessons

learned

from

Geese

1. As each Goose flaps its wings it creates an UPLIFT for the birds that follow.
2. When a Goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the DRAG of resistane of flying alone.
3. When the lead goose tires, it drops back into formation and ANOTHER goose flies to the point position.
4. The geese flying in formation HONK to encourage those up front to keep up with their speed.
5. When a goose gests sick, two geese drop out of formation adn follow it down to HELP and PROTECT it.

Smart Geese

*

I did notice a bunch of bats under the freeway in Austin last weeks. I would estimate about a million or so. Their seemed to be no logic to their fury. Then they would go off and it was like a big black spot in the sky and it would move together across the sky. In a few minutes many black spots extended as far as you could see.

*

Graceful Dancer

*

Dancing with the Stars. I guess in this example they are not looking for geese. On the one I watch they seem to like football players. They seem to be the popular ones on this show. They or whoever gets the most points seem to fly point. Makes you wonder if they would fall back into the formation and let someone else take the lead, having such a spotlight. Those that dance are in solo flight not in formation. A new month. Good time for new goals. Fly in formation more often sounds like a good one. Encourage others. Protect those cared about. Read a good book. Have a nice weekend with Kathy. Good stuff.

*

Why do the Geese

work together so well?

Perhaps becuase for them it matters.

you feed what matters with or without advice

Why Read?

Harold Bloom's book, "How to Read a Book and Why"
suggests some answers to this question. The first answer seems to say it all....................."It Matters"

It Matters !

*

*To prepare for change and then some adice were other reasons for reading

*

"Take no advice"

The book suggests that the pleasures of reading are selfish. It notes that you can't improve anyone elses life by reading better or more deeply.

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A lot of stories are not read but just remembered

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My Dad is my own example of that approach. He seemed to tell the same stories over and over and now I remember them perhaps a lot better than if I would have just read them. One time I heard a story about a wolf. I was running with my son in law and told him the story. Being a good scout himself he liked the story. Later he asked me to retell it to the kids. I rememember wishing at the time that I had more of my own story to tell them.

Two wolves live inside me

There is a story about a Navajo Grandfather who once
told his grandson, "Two wolves live inside me. One is
the bad wolf, full of greed and laziness, full of
anger and jealousy and regret. The other is the good
wolf, full of joy and compassion and willingness and a
great love for the world. All the time these two
wolves are fighting inside me."

"But Grandfather," the boy said, "Which wolf will
win?"

The grandfather answered, "The one I feed."

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Reading feeds our wolf