Karaoke

I sit and nurse a drink and watch with amusement

I think that human history is resplendent with refinement in fermentation

Drink forever a magnificent fuel for social engagement

Surely the history of and primal need for song must parallel that of drink

But what damage could you do around the campfire, or hearth I wonder

While I listen to friends in low places, where whiskey drowns, and beer chases, I ponder

That a century ago, Edison brings us the microphone along with lights

And the Japanese, naturally industrialize it all

I can only hope everyone here has had enough to drink

And that Jimmy Buffett forgives me when I lay waste to Margaretville

It has come to my turn at the karaoke mike…

I blew out my flip flop, stepped on a pop top;
Cut my heel, had to cruise on back home.
But there’s booze in the blender…

Pick-up Baseball

Just a lad of about five or six, mom said enough, now go play

I knew of a park two blocks away

I rode my bike, dad had just taught me how to ride without training wheels

Not really a park, it was land carved out under the power lines

Early summer, and there are kids gathering around a makeshift field

Rocky base path worn in the grass, nothing more

A fence that define the edge of the so-called park

Some swings and a monkey bar in the corner that no one paid attention to

A cylinder or two of huge concrete pipe, that judging by graffiti someone cared about

Hey kid, do you want to play baseball?

Sure….

Are you left or right handed?

I don’t know? 

They toss me a ball I try to catch with my left, drop it and throw it back

They said I was right handed, and gave me a glove for my left-hand, which confused me

A bat was tossed, and an older boy and older girl picked up sides

Nervous I waited and was finally picked last and sent to right field

But that didn’t make sense either I was on the left side of the field where they told me to stand

I loved playing, I loved that they figured out how to make up teams, and everyone was welcome, this game of baseball was incredible.

We played there for a few years, as I got older, I eventually was picking teams

I was telling a new kid where to stand in right field

No-one really cared who won, only that we had the joy of playing for hours

I played until I hit a homerun over the fence and clobbered a car one day

It was time to move to a bigger field, wear uniforms and play a game I came to love 

I heard the Deacon at church on Friday talk about what Christ’s death on the cross and subsequent resurrection meant to him.  He talked about how we are taught that Christ died for our sins, and through his resurrection we may be forgiven, thus opening the gates of heaven to us sinners.  He rejects this simple transactional view for one that is more transformational.  That God did not need a sacrifice by his son to forgive his children.  God could do so out of love as he pleases, and its human hubris that interprets the events in this transactional way.  I think this is where he was going, but I stopped listening and started thinking on my own… that we may think of the demonstration and example of Christ’s sacrifice, in the context of proving that a life commitment to loving others, to doing good, and of humility and sacrifice can be extended through one’s life, through death, and lives on forever in a spirit and form that remains transformational today.  The legacy of Christ and his love lives on today two millenniums later and has spread around the world. This is an example that says that we can transform beyond our human frailties into a spirit and legacy that lives on.  I believe that this is the true message of Easter.  That how we live defines, much more than how we interact with our complex worlds, but how we influence others, and how that influences others, and it extends through generations.  So, we are influenced by Christ’s teachings today, you are influencing today your friends, your families, your casual acquaintances and even potential enemies, and they will influence others in a geometric sequence of legacy that extends on forever.  So, he is risen, and he influences us today, and we should remember always that we are doing the same.  That we are too a transformational influence in our worlds.  What would you like that influence to be?  One of love I hope!

Why is it difficult sometimes to find tranquility

Is it beyond our meager mental ability

We journey through our limited time

With useless worry of future on our mind

In the sometimes lonely, in mid of night

We feel futility of struggle and fight

We realize solemnity of existence

In the limits of time’s distance

Some would pray for relief

To an unseen God, or mysterious belief

We seek kindred spirits to share

Our anxiety and honesty if we dare

Or we find comfort in a drink

So to sleep and not to think

Maybe tranquility and peace, we will reach

On some faraway shore and sandy beach

Or in our loves and heart’s mind at night

We find our soul’s truth and know it’s right

Over the course of many articles and some poems, I’ve tried to convey some of what I feel is accumulative wisdom about life and thought that if considered and followed should enhance the probability of finding success in life and in business.  I’ve pressed the need for perspective, of being curious, of being passionate and willing to take risks and of course the need for self-evaluation.  To know your own capabilities and be honest about it, and then to stretch and climb the mountains in front of you.  Create a life-long passion for learning and accomplishment.

What I’ve not yet talked about is “luck”.  I’ve written about life’s lottery, which is a bit of luck in where you were born, what country your parents managed to get you to, and how the sacrifices of our ancestors bring you to a point in your life where you have opportunities for success.

Most people get some break in life, an opportunity that presents itself, in part out of luck… Many will never have the perspective to see the opportunity, they will only see the problem.  Some will be too timid to explore it, or if they do, will realistically lack the talent or passion to exploit it.   However, getting that opportunity is something of a bit of chance, of luck, and we can increase prospects of this occurring by expanding our network, expanding our experiences, and being open to seeing change as a potential opportunity. Furthermore, be ready!  Develop the wisdom and capability to respond to opportunity when it knocks… and then work hard and be persistent.  Climb that mountain!  If you don’t, you’ll find that there are so many other talented people that are also out there looking for their chance, as they go by you.

Be Lucky!

I know I have been!

The following article was an interesting take on the dirty secret about success… luck!

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20180309-your-hard-work-doesnt-actually-pay-off

A Field of Black and White

Enthroned on a field of black and white

To do strategic battle for what is right

For the moment queen is close at my side

Evaluating all the risks arrayed on the other side

Bounding and maneuvering knights

Travel forward looking for fights

Pawns inch forward and sacrifice

Too easily their least-valued lives

Bishops dressed in religious garbs

Cast sideways glances with sharp barbs

Rooks late to battle, and castle protect

Reserves for later power project

The queen flits easily forward and back

She manages intrigue and leads the attack

A game of thrones with a hobbled king

Moving nearly like a pawn, with little sting

Two dimensions and so many options

Think ahead many thoughtful notions

View the field from on high

As a bird would float and fly

Lure your adversary into a trap today

Or surprise with a brilliant unexpected play

A game of war, of strategy and of might

Played on a field of black and white

I’ve written about how great and growing lives are driven by a relentless curiosity, see “Loving Curiosity” and “Of Perspective and Shading” and its value in how we navigate life. True to “Thinking About it” and “Keep it Simple” this musing is about the value of risk taking in one’s life journey.  I have expressed a philosophy that includes truthful self-evaluation, seeing the journey ahead of you from the vantage point of perspective, understanding that clarity is not possible, that life and futures are always shaded.  I encourage decision making based on perspective, but also based on evaluations of options where the fewest of assumptions are necessary to see successful outcome, and yet I’d be remiss if I didn’t add the need for risk taking.  Every day in a life has inherent risks.  We may be prudent, we may seek to avoid failure, and danger, but it is ever present.  Randomness and chance both play a role in our lives, in good ways and in bad.  In a way circumstances are a part of every life that we can either embrace and “Dancing with Circumstance”, or we can spend our days decrying to each other the consequences of circumstance.  So too, our decisions and our path includes always options of relatively greater or lesser safety.  I believe that if we are curious, and investigative, if we are able to see past the risk with perspective, if we keep it simple, and think about it, then we can master too the risks of our lives and world.  All interesting stories involve taking a risk.  As my grandfather used to always say, “take a chance, Columbus did” … I’m sure he meant it in a fun and casual way, but I see those words differently in the passage of time.  Quite possibly it was his way of saying that in all life, in every game of cards, or game of life there are choices and risks.  But there is no great story, there is no great wins, and no great loves without taking a risk; and when you do, do so with passion, and know very well that “Passion is a Dragon”.

Gun Insurance Required 

It seems that our state and federal government leaders have grave reluctance, approaching cowardliness toward improving gun control.  Furthermore, would the government be good at enforcement even if gun control legislation was improved?  As evidence by systemic failures and holes in background check system, I have concerns.  A private/government cooperative approach may be to use insurance as a means to manage access to guns and provide incentive to responsive and accountable ownership.  I propose we attach accountability to gun ownership and require insurance coverage to compensate victims of gun-violence.  Then with every licensed gun, there would be a required proof of current insurance, with risk of penalties for both unlicensed as well as uninsured weapons.  Insurance companies would be interested in the additional business opportunity, but also would help greatly with assessing and conferring risk to weapon type, owner stability, and other critical factors of risk.  To legally operate an automobile, you are required to have insurance in addition to motor vehicle registration, and the cost of that insurance is relative to the safety of the vehicle, the driver and its use, storage, as well as location.  Seems like a comparable risk profile would be possible, with great differences in insurance cost for a handgun versus a semi-automatic rifle.  Furthermore, a gun store owner, or other weapons dealer, even private sellers would own the liability for selling guns without ensuring insurance was in place.  For sake of an example, imagine a $500 annual insurance for responsible gun ownership of a personal handgun, while an automatic or semi-automatic weapon under questionable ownership requirements may be nearly impossible to insure, or maybe it’s expense would be 10x the handgun, more like $5,000 annual cost.  This would be prohibitive for many, as it should be.  A lower cost insurable solution may be to keep a high-risk weapon at a range under lock and key to be used only there, and to move it would require a special permit and appropriate insurance.  In this way, gun enthusiasts could own, and use at a target range their weapons responsibly and with proper protections and oversight, bringing insurance costs more in line to the handgun price.  The insurance market would set and control pricing based on risk factors.  The government would only legislate the requirement for insurance.  I hope this may be a more palatable path toward gun control, and should be viewed as a part of a bigger picture of improvements in school protections, mental health improvements, ammunition and direct gun control.   We need a practical alternative to the current ineffective approach to gun control in the US today.  Quite possibly the insurance industry would be a suitable lobbyist balance to the NRA lobby.

What A Waste

Beautiful, young, future’s many and strong

Possible artists, doctors, inventors, and heroes

We’ll never know what they may have accomplished

We’ll never know the good they may have done

If they’d succeed in life, even if they’d make our lives different

All because they died going to the movies, going to church, to a concert

And maybe worst of all because they were bettering themselves in school

We light candles, and pray, and say what a shame it is

We hear of heroes that shielded others through tears of pain

Then we go on with our day

What can we do, what can we say?

Memorials and flowers and teddy bears, remembrances, until it rains

And in November we’ll vote again without remembering their names

Loving Curiosity

Let her free, she will then be your friend

Curiosity will be with you until the end

She will guide you in life-long learning

Love her if it’s wisdom you’re yearning

Forget salaciousness of celebrity and Hollywood stars

Forget triviality of rumored family and friend’s scars

This world of nature, science, math and beautiful art

Of literature, history, and genius we must never part

There is so much to learn, and she can teach us

If we let her, and we listen to world wondrous