more normal than not

My daughter turns 3 this year.

Her birthday doesn’t fall on Thanksgiving like it did the night she was born, but we will celebrate Thanksgiving no matter what the calendar says.

We’ll just eat our Turkey some other day of the week.

No calendar made by man can tell me when I should be “thankful”.

An election is a big event.

Here in the States, we just had an election.

That news would be hard to miss.

It was all over the media, after all.

Now we are finding out how much of the contest was manipulated.

Of course, the results of the manipulation didn’t work out the way it was intended.

This is all stuff that we weren’t supposed to know about.

Those emails were private.

Why wouldn’t you be paranoid when you get to peek behind the curtain for a moment like that?

Why would you want to keep going?

Wouldn’t it be easier to just hunker down and peek out from behind your living room curtains?

The world is an evil place and it is out to get you.

Right?

If you google “Bilderberg”, you’ll find  a bunch of information about conspiracy.

They’re kind of a secretive group….so conspiracy about them and their motives is something that makes sense.

I didn’t bother to look up “George Soros”, but he’s apparently quite the puppet master, too.

Did I mention that my youngest daughter turns three this year?

I can’t sustain any interest in paranoia about our future….or the people who are supposedly trying to influence it.

I have to believe that the majority of the people in this world are good and have each other’s best interests at heart.

This might be pretty naive, but it’s something that I have to believe.

That is something that I choose to believe.

I have to go through my life with a positive expectation for the future.

The funniest part of all of it is this: it is hard to say if people will behave themselves. We may have a horrible war again. We may have EMP strikes that take us back to the dark ages. Horrible things may happen….but, we might behave. All of that is true. Any of it might happen. But…we might be able to avoid it. The thing that I expect, though, is that for all of our “good intentions” or good behavior, what is going to take us out is going to be something environmental.

We will practice our diplomacy, make our deals, exercise secrets and manipulation…and maybe keep everything from hitting the fan in our narrow and manufactured idea of what the world is really all about, but the thing that is going to take us down will probably be a slowly developing environmental issue that might be too late to avoid….and, even though it took a while to get here, is going to accelerate in a way that will astound and terrify.

That’s kind of depressing.

No….that’s really depressing.

Sorry.

That’s something that falls outside of the accepted range of concerns for some, though.

The environment can go to hell as long as the wheels of commerce and politics keep turning.

Right?

I still have faith in people, even if, on a macro….and a micro level, they don’t always inspire that faith.

From what I’ve seen, people sometimes let you down.

God doesn’t….but, people?

You can never tell what people are really up to.

But you have to love them.

You have to love.

Where would we be without that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x-SXYRZBYk

 

 

Here’s a short video about trail running and ultra-distance runner Jim Walmsley called “The Distance”.

It looks good to be out there running in the woods.

I’m not sure about running 100 miles, though.

I had a dream last night that I was going to run a half marathon.

In my dream, I was lining up with accomplished runners and friends, shifting from side to side, feeling the stones in my shoes.

I knew that I shouldn’t start off on a journey like a half marathon with stones in my shoes, so I took the shoes off and emptied them out.

When I looked down again, I realized that the shoes that were uncomfortable only moments before were now non-existent.

They weren’t in my hands and they weren’t on my feet.

I looked for a pair of shoes to borrow when I couldn’t find mine, but couldn’t find any.

That’s when I woke up.

Maybe it’s all a commentary on preparation and making excuses?

I have shoes.

I know how to empty out the rocks.

I know how to run.

So….what’s the excuse?

In my dream, I hadn’t trained for the run at all.

I was going to go out and just run this thing without getting ready.

That sounds kind of typical.

If my preparations aren’t a dodge and a way to avoid committing, they’re woefully under developed.

I once almost started a road trip with a nail in my tire.

The car was a Dodge.

I don’t know if there’s any correlation.

I think that if you let your preparations become the activity, and the preparations keep you from doing the thing you’re preparing for, you’re going to miss out on a lot.

This is a good short film.

I know how to empty the stones from my shoes.

I can do that much, at least.

 

“Something you love” is part of a quote from this movie….Alive in Alaska with Alex Strohl.

He talks about how sometimes, even though the goal in life should be to find something you love to do, finding that thing can become a trap, because then it’s all you think about.

Only thinking about doing what you love would be a good trap, I think.

I thought about doing the things that I love after I watched the first couple of minutes of this, and realized that, even though some of the things on my periphery might not be exactly “what I love”….what I really love is being with my family.

It’s not just a habit or circumstance…it’s what I really love.

That’s good to figure out.

Midway through the movie we get a chance to see Alex and Mathieu’s own families.

Just in time! More affirmation that it’s possible to live a life of high adventure and have everybody involved.

He travels with his family!

That would be a good thing.

Of course, it looked like, for the most part, that the dudes were off having big adventures while the wives were back at the campfire with the kids.

That’s OK….I’M A DUDE!! I can have big adventures and come back and tell Jenny about them and eat the hot dog she made for me while I was gone!!

(Just kidding, Jenny….that wasn’t a very appealing scenario. We need to figure out how to all have adventures. I won’t get you stuck on the beach…)

Thinking about the big world and the adventures “out there” is something that really gets me down sometimes….being on someone else’s schedule and not having the freedom to travel when we want to or when we’re able.

It’s only when I’m comparing what I think I’m able to do to what I’m actually doing that I get disappointed.

It’s only when I don’t actively work towards making something better that I get discouraged.

But….that’s life.

If you’re going to work for someone else, you’re going to have to learn to live a life of compromises.

It’s nice to get the money.

Anyway, I digress.

You can’t live your own way all the time, and knowing that should save you from creating your own ever-present tornado of disappointment.

You can’t live your own way all the time, or…can you?

How does it happen that some of these guys seem to be able to figure out a way to live a life of high adventure and make a living while they’re doing it?

A campfire on a beach in Alaska looks like a good thing.

Living a creative life looks like a good thing.

But….taking care of your family is a good thing, too.

Figuring out “something you love” gets you through a lot.

You can push through a lot of things when your main motivation is doing it for “what you love”.

There’s a lot of ways to “get the job done”, too.

I need to figure out something interesting that generates giant piles of Scrooge McDuck cash.

Mathieu Le Lay was the producer of Alive in Alaska with Alex Strohl .

You can see more of his work on Vimeo.

Here it is! As promised! The second video in the series by  Iohan Gueorguiev!  Sharing these videos is the thing I do on Sundays (for a while)…..See the World episode 2….

I get up at 5.

Whether or not I hear the alarm on my watch, I wake up at five o’clock.

This morning, I woke up like I always do….and it was 4 AM.

I didn’t do anything different, but, somehow, it was 4 in the morning.

Daylight savings time is such a ripoff.

Time is pretty arbitrary, though….until I have to get up for work tomorrow and my body is still confused.

This episode takes place in Alaska.

We went back to Idaho after not being out West for a while.

We went to Canada.

We’ve never been to Alaska, though.

There is so much that I want to see.

This video series is pretty inspiring….but it’s a hard way to travel with a family.

I can’t see that happening anytime soon.

Nate has learned to ride his bike now, but I wouldn’t think that riding up the Dalton Highway is something that he (or I) would be up to.

That’s pretty darn rugged stuff.

So….watching any of these videos is a tease for me….but it fuels something that really does need fueling.

It’s really important to be happy…no matter where you are.

You take care of your family however you need to. You take care of needs, and you nurture.

It’s important to take care of the business of living.

We need to try to create a situation where everybody can grow and be happy.

I don’t know that I’m all that good at doing any of these things….but I know that I have to be for things to really roll smoothly.

But….I really think that you need to remember how big the world is, too….and work towards seeing more of it all the time.

I want to see the world, too.

There’s nothing wrong with wanderlust.

Wanderlust shouldn’t fuel your disappointment with the things around you, though.

Disappointment is not something that haunts me.

I’m happy with my life.

Man.

I do want to get out and see everything, though.

This is a great video series. If you have a spare hour this Sunday, do yourself a favor and watch this one.

 

I’m listening to a channel on “Calm Radio” ( calm.com ) called “Wisdom” this morning.

All of the music is Asian music.

Wisdom.

How come there’s no bluegrass music when I listen to the “Wisdom” channel?

I didn’t want to listen to bluegrass, anyway….no matter how wise it might make me.

Funny how that goes….but….I do feel like my head is expanding a little with new….wisdom.

That’s a good feeling.

Still no rain here….in spite of reports of a 20% chance last night.

What’s a “20% chance”? What’s that about? No one would take me seriously if I bragged that there was a “twenty percent chance” that I might do anything.

Why bother to even tell us about a sliver of a chance when it doesn’t come to be?

Here’s another bicycling video.

Wisdom.

There’s a good bit of wisdom in pursuing the thing that it built slowly and with great attention.

Maybe “have less, have better” should be a good mantra for me?

And….why no bluegrass on the “wisdom” music channel?

Too fast and frenetic?

In too much of a hurry to gather any “wisdom”?