Another Triplet ~ Early Morning Thoughts

I interrupt the scheduled posting to bring you these stories from a collection of stories that I quoted from the other morning. Having spent a little more time with the collection today, I wanted to offer one more triplet.
Any resemblance to current affairs, or current activities is purely coincidental.

Pleasing everyone ~

A man who decided to take his donkey to town to sell it, started off with his son and himself walking alongside the animal. they had not gone very far when they met a group of young girls returning from town. "Look at that old fool!" one of the girls cried out. "At least one of them could ride the donkey but there they are walking." So the father put his son on the donkey and continued the trip.

Presently they passed a group of women who stood chatting outside a house. "There, that proves what I've been saying," said one of the women in a loud voice. "Look at that young brat riding the donkey while his poor father is walking. We're spoiling our children!" When the father heard this he thought perhaps he had better avoid further criticism by taking the son's place on the donkey's back.

As they neared the town they met an aggressive young woman who stopped and denounced the father as being cruel. "How can you ride the animal while your poor little boy has to grudge along beside you in the dust and heat!" With a sigh the poor man told the son to mount the donkey, too, and thus burdened the poor beast struggled along toward town.

When they entered the town a bustling citizen dashed up to them and cried out: "You ought to be reported -- two big healthy people sitting up there on that poor animal's back. Why you two should be carrying the donkey instead of it carrying you!" The alarmed father dismounted with his son and they tied the animal's legs and with a pole across their shoulders struggled along with the donkey, until they came to a bridge, where a number of people began laughing uproariously at them. This noise frightened the donkey and he fought to free himself. this increased the uproar of the crowd and in the midst of it all the animal slipped off the pole and over the bridge into the river below and drowned.
--Aesop

The Speckled Ax ~

My scheme of order gave me the most trouble. order with regard for places for things, papers, etc.,I found extremely difficult to acquire....I made so little progress in amendment, and had such frequent relapses, that I was almost ready to give up the attempt, and content myself with a faulty character in that respect, like the man who, in buying an ax of a smith, my neighbor, desired to have the whole of its surface as bright as the edge.

The smith consented to grind it bright for him if he would turn the wheel; he turn'd, while the smith press'd the broad face of the ax hard and heavily on the stone, which made the turning of it very fatiguing.
The man came very now and then from the wheel to see how the work went on, and at length would take his ax as it was, without further grinding. "No," said the smith, "turn on, turn on; we shall have it bright by-and-by; as yet it is only speckled!"

"Yes," says the man, "but I think I like a speckled ax best." and I believe this may have been the case with many, who, having for want of some such means as I employ'd, found the difficulty of obtaining good and breaking bad habits in other points of vice and virtue have given up the struggle, and concluded that "a speckled ax was best"
-- Benjamin Franklin

Appointment In Samarra ~

A merchant in Baghdad sent his servant to the market. The servant returned, trembling and frightened. The servant told the merchant, "I was jostled in the market, turned around, and saw Death.

"Death made a threatening gesture, and I fled in terror. May I please borrow your horse? I can leave Baghdad and ride to Samarra, where Death will not find me."

The master lent his horse to the servant, who rode away, to Samarra.

Later the merchant went to the market, and saw Death in the crowd. "Why did you threaten my servant?" He asked.

Death replied,"I did not threaten your servant. It was merely that I was surprised to see him here in Baghdad, for I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
--W. Somerset Maugham
(retelling an even older story - 1933)

Self-Fulfilling Anger ~ Early Morning Thoughts

A fellow blogger once wrote that comments and emails are like drugs ... we get some and then we want more!!! Today, when I got home there were two emails about my post yesterday about anger. Both brought up the same point ... a valid point.

When I talked about becoming angry, not just irritated, but angry I was expressing what was going on within me. That feeling of almost rage about something. Now, there are times when anger is very appropriate, however - it's where the anger is directed and what's done with it that's the important issue.

You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.
--Buddha

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
--Buddha

When I started having the problem of getting the delivery, I was irritated which then as the problem dragged on, became anger. Now, that anger was becoming something that was beginning to effect how I was viewing things around me. It was becoming the overriding emotion for the day. It actually was beginning to resemble a volcano, with hot lava about to erupt.

What made me work at changing was watching the man on the bus. His anger had reached such strength that nothing, no one was right, doing right or being right. And by that I do mean no one. It almost became laughable. People were getting on the bus too slowly, the lights should change faster and the rain needed to stop. He grumbled at a lady because her umbrella was wet and would get the floor wet...which it already was. The windshield wipers were too noisy. And his list was getting longer as time went on. That's what I mean by his external behavior was beginning to mirror what I was feeling internally.

In the discussions with the company that was supposedly delivering the package, I was faced with choices. I could really "let-them-have-it" or try and figure out what was going on. When I got the final phone call last night attempting to get to the bottom of the issue, the person on the other end tried to place the blame where it wasn't ... on me. Again, I could have really vented - but I chose (this time) to simply stay where I felt I wanted to be. I stayed firm, but calm.

Today, the decision paid the benefit. There was another phone call this morning about the delivery. I'm sure the person calling was expecting a major problem...but within five minutes the issues had been completely resolved, the delivery DID arrive at the time it was supposed to AND I got a discount on the purchase price for the delay.

Now, I'm not some kind of Pollyanna that thinks that everything can be solved with calm words, sweet behavior. I KNOW better than that. What I don't want to do, is become as that person on the bus - the kind of individual who thinks that everything is wrong, nothing and no one is right. That kind of behavior becomes almost a self-fulfilling prophecy...keep believing that, and soon that's exactly what will happen. Once we cast someone or something/someone as the enemy everything is to be suspect and made to fit the preconceived ideas we have.

Anger is only a natural reaction; one of the mind's ways of reacting to things that it perceives to be wrong. While anger can sometimes lead people to do shocking things,it can also be an instinct to show people that something isn't right.

A number of years ago there was a book titled "Don't Waste Your Sorrows," but I would like to use the term "Don't Waste Your Anger." There are some things we should be angry about - injustice, hatred, bigotry (all kinds), deceit (any kind) and the list could go on. However, if the anger isn't causing some kind of action, then to me it's wasted.

-- more tomorrow

Meme Or Not To Meme ~ Early Morning Question

Bloggers often play "tag" with each other. Sometimes it merely having to accomplish some kind of writing or reveal something about yourself that others might not know, or in some cases, not wish to know. I'm not sure this qualifies as an authentic meme but here's my contribution to something that's been wandering around:

Here are five statements. All you have to do is tell me which one is the true statement. Then, in the next few days, I will write the story behind the statement.

1. I spent part of my college life working at a sea park.

2. Thanks to my youngest son, I spent a night in jail.

3. My musical instrument of choice in high school was the accordion, earning me extra money (and pick-ups) at parties.

4. I am terrified of thunder and lightning.

5. I was once an extra in a major motion picture.

Let me know which one you think it is, and as I said, in a few days I'll write about the true one (and explain the false ones) .

Flung From The Tree Into Life ~ Early Morning Thoughts

Today I became very angry. A delivery that was supposed to happen yesterday … with the companies precise scheduling “sometime between 8:30am and 5:00pm.” It didn’t happen, in spite of several phone calls to find out what was going on. It didn’t happen. It was scheduled today, supposedly before 12 noon - or shortly thereafter. Again, several phone calls later - no one really had a good answer as to what happened. The mysterious delivery is supposed to happen tomorrow. Perhaps it will - but what I gained today is going to make tomorrow a lot easier.

I started to become quite angry. I was not irritated (that might have been justified). I was becoming very angry. The kind of anger that would have translated into outward behavior, I have no doubt. When it was finally determined that the delivery wasn’t going to occur - unless someone waived a magic wand, or sprinkled fairy dust - I headed to catch a bus to get some errands done. As I was sitting on the bus with the rain coming down (Oh, just great! … mutter, mutter, mutter), there was another problem. One that really caught my attention. A gentleman got on the bus who had obviously had a very bad day - no, make that a week (at least). Nothing was going right, everything was wrong and everything was everyone else’s fault. No one could meet his standards for breathing, let alone living. When he got off the bus, there was almost a collective sigh of relief - but one from me of awareness. As much as I don’t want to admit it, his outward expression was somewhat matching my own inward feelings.

Had I continued with my thoughts and mental complaints, things would have been very different. And I wouldn’t have begun to notice things around me again. The beauty of the clouds as they moved, the various expressions of people as they moved through existence. I wouldn’t have noticed something I thought went out of style when I was a “young-un.” There was actually a child with folded paper sailing a “boat” in the water of the gutter.

I want to borrow a story from a wonderful teacher/actress that I have the privilege to know personally. She has an amazing outlook on life and living.

My cousins live in Asheville, North Carolina, where Jesse is a prominent surgeon. He is a fine man, a very gracious man, a very loving man, but a man who doesn’t like cats. His wife, Frances, is a delightful person who loves cats.

One day a little neighbor girl ran crying to their house. Her cat had climbed up in a tall, slender tree and couldn’t get down. Jesse thought that was a very good place for a cat to be, but following Frances’s gentle persuasion, he said, “Let’s see what we can do to help.”

The two of them decided that Frances, who is of diminutive stature, would grab the lower part of the tree and work it down until the topmost branches reached Jesse. Then Jesse, who is quite tall, would scoop the frightened cat from the top of the tree to safety. Their plan worked well at first. Frances grabbed the part of the tree within her reach and pulled it toward her. The tree tipped down like a thirsty giraffe, bearing a tiny passenger on its head. The branches were almost to Jesse when Frances lost her grip!

Whoom! The tree slipped from Frances’s hands and sprang away with such great force that the cat was flung into space! Catapulted! Claws out! Eyes wide! Approaching a certain but unknown destiny.

The little girl was crushed, but the shock of her beloved cat’s mode of departure stopped her sobbing. Frances was overcome by guilt because she and Jesse had lost the little girl’s cat. Jesse tried not to laugh. They all accepted the foiled rescue attempt. What else could they do?

A few days later, Frances was in the grocery store and noticed a friend pushing a grocery cart with cat food in it. She knew that her friends’ husband didn’t like cats any more than Jesse did. “I see you have cat food. Do you have a cat?” she asked.

Her friend stopped, looked around to be sure no one else could hear, and said, “Frances, the strangest thing happened. My husband and I were sitting in out backyard when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this cat landed at our feet! My husband looked at the cat and then at me. He said, “Maude, the Lord has sent us a cat!”

My cousins’ story gives me new insight into the dilemmas of traveling and the bewilderments I often find in life. I identify with that cat! Often flung out into uncharted space. I’m not sure where I’m going, but I’m going there very rapidly. Clashing priorities, scrambled agenda, sudden assignments, unexpected incidents catapult me into areas and activities for which I have no comfortable preparation. Sometimes, I even look like that cat. Claws out! Eyes wide! Grasping for breath and trying unsuccessfully to get my act together before I land.
--Jeannette Clift George
Travel Tips From A Reluctant Traveler

--angry cat
cloudking.com/artists/pinguino/angry-cat.php
--angry kitten by Yiannis Pavlis
www.pbase.com/lens/image/28636132

The Three Cups ~ An Elegant Timewaster

The Three Cups

Thanks to the folks at Durnmoose I have spent a lot of time with this game.



The object is quite simple - turning two cups at at time, get all three cups upright.



Oh, and they are so helpful, they even show you how to do it before you start to play.

I am not responsible for frustration, throwing things at the monitor, broken keyboards from having heads banged on them in irritation.

You were warned!!!