Compliment Table

Was walking down Union Street last weekend when we were heckled by two young guys drinking beers outside a local bar.  But this was a different kind of heckling.  One of them genuinely complimented me on my fleece jacket (which bore the logo of Anchorsteam) and declared that he, too, loved Anchorsteam.

We looked closer and saw that a make-shift sign had been pinned to the table at which the two young gentlemen sat.  It read “Compliment Table.”  We smiled and said “Thank you!” and kept walking, only to hear them again, yelling out to the guy behind us, “Those are cool shoes, man!”  (They were, in fact, cool shoes.)

Every passerby seemed to grin, even if he didn’t want to.  Those guys were probably responsible for at least 100 smiles that day.  My compliments to the Compliment Table!

“Let the good times be where you are!”

This was the message inside a birthday card I got when I was 13.  Cheesy, sure, but just the right thing to say to a teenager who, like most teenagers, was always worried about what others were doing and whether he was missing out.  It slowly sunk in over the years, resulting in a calmness and “centering” from which most good things tend to spring.  The “here”.

It strikes me that much unhappiness results from allowing the mind to be somewhere other than where you are.  You worry about what they’re saying about you (colleagues, customers, friends) or if there’s a happier, richer, sexier, greener-grass life for you somewhere else.

Even more unhappiness seems to result from allowing the mind be someTIME other than WHEN you are, as opposed to the “now”.  You dwell on bad (or good) moments from years ago, or you worry that you’ll lose your job or never have enough to retire or never achieve your dreams.  “It isn’t the burdens of today that drive men made, but rather the regret over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow.” (Robert J. Hastings)

I don’t mean to oversimplify.  Certainly, if you’re being tortured, or if you’ve just been shot in the face with birdshot from a hunting rifle, you won’t be considering the present to be the gift that Master Oogway claims it is in Kung Fu Panda.

But, in general, if we can extricate our minds from other places and other times, we might be pleasantly surprised.

See Wicked

Wow.  Highly recommend this musical.  If you don’t remember “The Wizard of Oz” very well, rent it (or read the book) first.

There are more things in heaven and earth

The star PSR B1509-58 appears to take the shape of a human hand and reach out as it dies – 17,000 year ago.  The light just now reaches our eyes.