Musings

The opening fanfare to the original Star Wars movie is probably one of the most famous, most parodied, most imitated opening themes in pop culture.

By the way, I need to know when “pop culture” becomes “history.” Anybody who has lived through that transition with sanity intact, please let me know how it’s done.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, few people probably remember the film “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.” At minimum, most people who remember that the film exists don’t recall the film in any great detail. I do. More than one scene, to be exact. I can even recite some of the poetry from the pimp pageant. One of the running gags in the film is that the main character has his own 70’s black-sploitation film theme song, complete with a band that follows him around everywhere playing the tune.

I got a birthday card from my witty, very sweet sister-in-law that says “A long, long time ago…” on the front cover. There are stars on the cover, as well, and it looks like the opening crawl from the original Star Wars movie. On the inside it says, “You were born.” Since she’s eight years older than me, the age jab is almost required. The best part of the card (apart from her handwritten note, of course), is that it actually plays the first 30 seconds or so of the opening fanfare from the movie. The card rocks on so many levels.

I am taking the card to work. I plan on opening it every morning when I get there. Why not begin each day with great fanfare? Why not have your own theme song to inject some spice and energy into your day? So what if I have to borrow John Williams’ fantastic score? Not a problem. The point is simply this: I deserve to begin each day feeling like a million bucks. I can rely on meditation or self-examination or ritual to get me started in a positive manner each day. And I can also rely on failing to get off on the right foot at least a few times each month. What difference does that make, though, if I have that stirring musical number to get me jazzed?

Do something exciting for yourself every day. Don’t rely on anyone else to adjust your compass to North each morning. It’s all about you, and it’s up to you. Just find a way to make it special.

I can look forward to my own opening fanfare.

This weekend presented a few more transcendental nuggets upon which to ruminate.

I went on a date with my lovely wife, Lynn, last night. We saw “Gran Torino” and went to dinner afterwards. There’s a moment in the movie where Clint Eastwood is faced with a startling reality: the focus of his life has been more about death than life. It’s a profound moment where you see deep inside a character who is very obviously meant to be a reflection of the potential in all of us to lose track of Living with a capital “L”. What is the difference between living and merely existing? I suspect that answer is unique to each of us.

Mike Tomlin is the youngest head coach to ever lead a team to the Super Bowl. He is also now the youngest head coach to ever lead a team to a Super Bowl victory. My favorite quote from him: “Steelers football is 60 minutes long.” That was a pretty cool line. It’s equal parts cheesy hyperbole and organizational mission. Think about it. For Mike and his team, every minute counts. Nobody PLANS on giving up, but I still think his was a bold statement. He’ll be held accountable for that one next season.

Clint Eastwood in “Gran Torino” and Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin to me are both reflections of what we each carry inside of ourselves: the potential to forget how to live and the audacity to believe that we can.

I don’t know how old Clint Eastwood is, but he’s logged quite a few hours on this planet. Mike Tomlin is 36. He’s my age…for now. I’ll be older than him shortly. Therein lies the final nugget to consider: to paraphrase Master Yoda, “age matters not.” The ability and desire to learn keeps life flowing into and through us. An open mind affords us the benefit of learning from anyone who is willing to teach. Clint, Mike, my own kids…age matters not. Keep the lessons coming, and I’ll always be a student.

These are some things you learn during Super Bowl Weekend.

First month: gone. Already? Hard to believe.

A lot has happened in one month. A lot will happen next month.

My kids are running around like maniacs downstairs. Someone cries every five minutes. Then, they start laughing again. That’s kind of how life goes. Things happen, we laugh, we cry, and we keep on going. At some point in time we die, but laughing, crying, and going on will continue.

Just like the months.

So, I try not to get caught up in the names of the months or the days of those months. They simply are. Each one is what it is the day that it is, and tomorrow will be no different.

I find that natural simplicity beautiful.

P’U. The Uncarved Block.

It is a core concept of Taoism. In its simplicity, the Uncarved Block is filled with natural power. Nature is simple. Even complexity in nature is simple; all things serve the natural order. What is simpler than that?

When we take away too much of that simplicity, things lose their natural power. As an artist, to me there are few things more magical than a blank canvas, a set of freshly sharpened pencils, or the smell of a newly opened can of paint.

The end of a project brings satisfaction, no doubt. But do not sit too long in admiration of your handiwork. If you do, you miss the next opportunity. Instead, smile, be happy with what you have done, learn a lesson or two, and then set out a fresh set of newly-sharpened pencils.

As a being, there are few things more invigorating to me than the potential inherent in every new opportunity. So here I am, full of P’U. So to speak.

P’U. The Uncarved Block.

Where does credibility come from? I have some ideas.

Credibility is granted by one person to another. I think it is that simple. We all agree that the letters “MD” after a name give an individual instant credibility. From time to time a horror story about someone impersonating a doctor hits the headlines, but that’s really not the norm. Still, the letters alone don’t make a person a worthy doctor. There’s more to it. There are several criteria involved, and we all might apply them differently. The point is that credibility is partially subjective, therefore, it is granted. It is not an inherent characteristic of a person. It is a gift, and it really should be a crime to abuse that gift. But it’s not, so people do.

See, credibility is not hard to acquire. For example, you’re reading this post for a reason. If you came for just the title, you’re probably disappointed by now. That’s OK. If you came because you like the way I write or you find truth in what I say or you think I am an arrogant ass and you get a kick out of rolling your eyes at me, the fact still remains that you came. You came, you stayed, and you are still reading. So, you’ve granted me credibility as someone who has something to say. At minimum, I write well enough to hold your interest.

That is a form of credibility that I have acquired from you. I can build on that credibility by continuing to post witty, informative, thought-provoking snippets for you to read. Regardless, it is a gift that you have given to me, and I take it very seriously.

We all have instant credibility with people: at work we might have it because we give good presentations; with children we might have it just because we’re taller than they are; with our spouses we might have it because they think we’re really smart. No matter how it is that we come by the gift, the most important thing is to remember that it was given in good conscience, in good faith, in the hope that we might positively influence another person’s life. That is a huge responsibility, but it’s one that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Give it to me, and I will use it compassionately.

Did you know that your brain is contra-lateral? That means that the right side of your brain controls the left side of your body, and vice versa. So, with that in mind, it’s not hard to believe that people who are right-handed are predominantly left-brained.

Written language in most Western cultures owes much of it’s heritage to the Greeks. The Greeks “perfected” the art of written language, and their art flows from left to right. Do you know what that means? That means that reading and writing Western languages provides an opportunity to exercise the left side of your brain. How? When you read, your eyes move from left to right, as does your head. This is considered right side motion by your body, thus it is controlled primarily from the left side of your brain. Written language flowing from the right pretty much guaranteed a predominantly left-brained society. That translated to a predominantly right-handed society, too. Now you know why 90% of the people you meet are right-handed.

Left-to-right written language is focused primarily on order and sequential processing. This means that the precise order of every letter, every space, and every mark of punctuation has a specific meaning. It reinforces logic and text. Interestingly enough, there are languages that flow from right to left, and these right-to-left languages, such as most Arabic forms, are based on context over text. Vowels are often omitted, yet the placement of vowels in words in these languages is no less vital to differentiating what a word means than it is in left-to-right languages. For example, if we omitted vowels in English, “stmp” could be “stamp,” “stomp,” or “stump,” three entirely different words. In right-to-left languages, the overall context of what is being written provides the information required to understand which word is needed in a given sentence. “Stmp” gains meaning from its context relative to the words around it and the topic of the writing. While this sounds confusing to people who use a left-to-right language, the fact of the matter is that our right-to-left brothers and sisters have an amazingly well-refined ability to understand context, and they focus on the big picture over the details in language as well as in other cognitive pursuits. And, in case it escaped you, right-to-left language requires motion towards the left, thus it is controlled by the right side of the brain. That would encourage development and growth of the right hemisphere of the brain, and, more than likely, result in left-handedness.

We have preconceived notions of what it means to be right-handed vs. left-handed and right-brained vs. left-brained. Some of these ideas are based in fact, some in fiction. You now have information that you can use to come up with new assumptions. When you see someone who is left-handed, you might conclude that they are creative. Why? Because now you know that left-handedness means they have a developed right brain, and we all know that right-brained people are more creative. But do you really think that the brain is that simple? After all, these people still read from left to right. They still live in a society that looks to the left brain to provide the answers. As with all things, assumptions are filled with errors. Regardless, it is clear that Western cultures promote a right-handed, left-brained approach to life, one focused on logic, sequential information processing, and detail-oriented analytic skills. That is the Modern World in a nutshell.

But, the world is changing, evolving. It does not come as a surprise to me that cultural evolution is increasingly influenced from the Eastern cultures of our world, and it has been that way for the better part of the last century. That many of the challenges that face humanity are brewing in this part of the world as a result of conflict between East and West should not be a shock. There has been Western dominance in the world for many, many years, and the Eastern part of our world is simply beginning to counterbalance this spread of dominance.

It is time for a reconciliation, for the many parts of the world to come together, to function as one, just as our brains do for us. Hemisphere dominance cannot continue unabated. The world is unbalanced.

While there is also hemisphere dominance in our brains, diseases and traumas of the brain have showed us the indescribable, breath-taking power of the brain to adapt, to compensate for the injured side. It is a powerful metaphor for the interdependence of our world; as it is in our bodies, so it must be with the world.

There are things that we can do, as individuals, to help bring about this understanding. Written communication is so important to our relationships, and written communication is a key method of influence. Exert your influence over those with whom you come into contact. It is probably worth remembering that there is a need to appeal to the healthy, modern human brains with which we interact. There is a corpus callosum that joins the two brain hemispheres together, allowing for whole, integrated human thought. The corpus callosum is literal, but there is a metaphor in it, as well. YOU can be the structure, the mechanism, that joins the two hemispheres. The world does not need divisiveness to effectively lobotomize the world and keep the parts from acting together as a whole. What is needed is unity, balance, counterbalance, and interdependence.

Build a bridge. Exercise both sides of your brain. Find ways to bring people together.

I think good stuff might happen to your own brain in the process.

A long time ago in China, there was a moderately sized village that sat along a road that wound up a mist-shrouded mountain. The mountain was said to be a place of enlightenment, a place for answers, and it was heavily traveled. It brought traffic and life to the village.

One day, a cranky, old donkey wandered up the road and into the village. About mid-way through, it decided it was tired, and sat down in the center of the road. Well, traffic came to a halt. The villagers tried to approach the donkey to persuade it to move, but it brayed loudly. Then it bit at people as they approached, and it kicked when someone tried to grab its tail. The people tried to move it, but it wouldn’t budge. Screams and yells did nothing to dissuade it. Rock and sticks just made the donkey more aggressive. The people were perplexed and soon ran in fear from the angry old donkey.

A crowd gathered at the low end of the village, and another gathered at the high end. Village councilmen discussed what to do next. The donkey sat in the sun, nibbling at some vegetables that had been dropped by fleeing merchants. As often happens in such situations, one of the elder councilmen took charge. He became their leader.

Morning gave way to afternoon and repeated attempts to move the donkey resulted in repeated failures. As the shadows grew longer, an old hermit made his way into town. He was following the road on a pilgrimage of enlightenment to the top of the mountain. Soon, he found himself in the midst of the crowd.

“Wise master!” cried the elder councilman come-leader. “Please, help us. Come see our problem, and share your wisdom with us.” The hermit shuffled forward at his invitation. “See that cantankerous old donkey in the middle of the road! He has cut our town in two and brought travel to a halt! We have tried to push the beast, to attack it, to move it out of the way, but nothing works. It nips at us, it brays, it kicks out with its hind legs! Wise master, what should we do?!?”

The hermit blinked at the councilman. He craned his neck to look around the man and up the road. He looked at the rather peaceful donkey, then back at the councilman. He blinked again. Then he shuffled around the crowd, up the next side street, past the place where the donkey sat, then made his way back onto the main road. He continued on his pilgrimage up the mountain, never once looking back.

The moral of the story: sometimes trying to move your ass for the sake of moving it won’t get you where you want to go.

The real moral: when you lose sight of where it is that you need to go, anything can bring your efforts to a halt. The way is always present; we just need to see it.