There’s More To Life Than Being Stupid

I would say nothing makes you realize how unique you are in life than when you become a parent but my point of reference is biased.  How can you describe to someone who hasn’t felt it the overwhelming feeling of trust that engulfs you when you look deep into a child’s eyes, your child’s eyes?

I thought I understood it, but I didn’t.

Now I do and it scares the hell out of me.

It’s a good scaring the hell out of you because it is part of a larger (almost wrote lager there for a moment), a larger . . . “thing.”

It’s beautiful because it has allowed me to love my wife even more, something I did not think possible.  It has made me appreciate innocence and wonder more.  It’s made me “more.”

It’s also done one more thing, one new thing.  It has made me realize that part of me has to grow up.  Not the part that sees wonder and humor in every moment.  Not the part that let’s me and a six year old share a joke their parents don’t even understand.  Not the part that makes me young, but the part in me that lets me see what I need to be to the young, our young.  And that’s not a bad thing.

It’s quite an eye opener for someone who has been teaching, and I still believe successfully, young and old people how to allow themselves to be better people.

And me to be not as stupid a person as I have been.

I didn’t even know it had happened to me until it knocked me upside the head.  I can’t remember the last time I played with my trains.   Not because I haven’t, not because I don’t find it enjoyable any more.  But because I’m not as stupid and petty about my time as I once was.

I’ll still play with them, maybe, hopefully, share my passion for my hobby with my daughter.  I just don’t think I’ll be as stupid about it anymore.

Elizabeth Eleanor

On May 31st, 2009 my wife gave birth to our beautiful daughter, Elizabeth Eleanor.  It completely freaks me out to use the terms “my daughter” and more importantly “our daughter.”

Freaks me out in a good way.  A good, tingly, exciting, scary sort of way!

My Train of Thought

This is my train of thought.  You will notice that it is sitting on a siding, going nowhere.  This is a very important analogy.  This predicament came about when I was writing an article for my much more serious blog, “The Secret Life of a Martial Arts Instructor.”  A place of thoughtful reflection upon the subject of teaching positive values using martial arts.

Here, here is the place where I bitch and moan a lot, while teaching positive values to zombies.

At least that was the plan.

I’m not waiting for the zombie apocalypse.  Real zombies move too slow they can’t even sneak up on each other. What I am waiting for is my train of thought to stay on the same track as I am.  Life would move along so much easier that way.

Point in case, look back to the first paragraph and see what I was really talking about.  I was talking about getting distracted while writing a martial arts article.

What do zombies have to do with that?

. . . ?

Writing is a journey and sometimes I get frustrated when things take an unexpected detour.  I should just shut up and enjoy the ride, I haven’t been disappointed yet on where I ended up.

Monkeys with Hammers

You can’t go wrong with a monkey with a hammer.  The possibilities are endless.

• Politics – obvious but oddly necessary.
• Corporate culture – see example, or just go to work
• Music – wait, how can you tell anymore?
• Reality Shows – who wouldn’t want to see a monkey with a hammer go berserk on American Idol?

Dilbert by Scott Adams

The point is, if there ever was one, is that a monkey can get away with a lot more than we could.  And,  AND it’s as entertaining as hell.  Stick a hammer in his or her hand and the world is your oyster.  At least until the monkey hammers the snot out of it.

Stick a hammer in the hand of a normal person and all you end up with is a very bad horror movie or the evening news.

Your choice.

Back to monkeys.  I’m not a huge monkey fan, certainly not like some friends of mine.  I fail to see the appeal of a screaming, fuzzy simian that is often more coherent than some of my more distant relatives.  Envy?  Possibly.  But stick a hammer in their hand and they’re golden (or intoxicated.)

Maybe it’s the hammer . . .

I Have A Blog?

Okay, so it’s been a while.  If you follow this blog then you may be led to believe that I think there are only 10 months in the year.

Aren’t there?

A Matter of Perspective

This is my grandfather, Carl Copper, born in 1893.  The photo was taken in Elwood, Pennsylvania in 1939.  I look at this photo and I can see my grandfather's entire life.  On the surface there is the struggle and hardship, but underneath there is much more - resilience, triumph and many more facets of a long, hard life.

To put things in perspective:

• January 7th, 2007 - Apple announces the iPhone
• November, 1987 - Microsoft introduces the first version of Windows
• November 9th, 1989 - The Fall of the Berlin Wall
• August 6th, 1945 - Nuclear Bomb "Little Boy" is dropped on Hiroshima
  
• January 15th, 1929 - Martin Luther King is born
  
• June 28th, 1919 - Treaty of Versailles is signed ending The Great War.
• 1894 - Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book is published

It just makes me pause for a moment.

"Honor the Past, Look to the Future and Live in the Present."

-Me

It’s OK to Think

On the way home a few days ago I needed to pick up some things at the store so naturally I decide to stop at the local grocery store. Any opportunity to attempt to avoid buying chocolate is fine with me. The only complication to this plan was the weather. As I drove up the hill to our home I noticed the clouds getting lower. No problem, what's a little precipitation?

Let's stop for a second and define what "a little precipitation" means to someone who not only lives in Western Washington, but was born here. "A little precipitation" means:

• Noah has not been notified, yet.
  
• You can still see the person waiting at the stop sign in the middle of the night at a deserted intersection.
  
• Salmon are not running for public office. (It's a pun! Oh never mind . . .)
  
• People still go swimming.
  

So, I'm turning into the local QFC, destined to forget half of what I stopped for in the first place. Now it was raining. Not just a little but coming down in sheets so hard landmarks were being redefined. It was SOLID. I still get out to do my shopping, walking casually to the store because it really didn't matter how fast I went. The second I stepped out of the car I was soaked to the bone. I do my shopping, forget half of what I need and start for home. There is six inches of water in the parking lot which is pretty good considering we were on top of a hill. Just as I'm about to exit I have to wait. One of the landscapers hired to take care of the local scenery was walking the parking lot, gas-powered leaf blower strapped to his back.

Huh?

It still hurts to get my head around it. What was he trying to do? Any leaves were well on their way to Puget Sound via the public roadways. Salmon were spawning in the empty parking spaces. Was he trying to clear the water away? Was he trying to compete with nature and blow the rain back to God?

Why did somebody not walk up to him and say, "You know, why don't you take a break until after the tide goes out." It doesn't even have to be his supervisor, just anyone to spark an idea.

But no. He went about his job regardless of what was going on in the world around him. I can appreciate that type of dedication and I really don't want to write fantastic quips at his expense. The mindset is all too common today.

But come on!

Get the Hell out of the rain.