more normal than not

The birds outside are singing again.

I get up early enough at my house that I have some quiet time…..and the only noise is the birds singing…..maybe some bugs….bugging…..a dog barking down the road somewhere.

It doesn’t really sound like the birds are saying, “MAKE THE DEAL!! MAKE THE DEAL!!”

I don’t know that they engage in commerce….whether it’s the Euro or our dollar…..I don’t think that birds care about that.

They build their nests…..but I don’t think they have any other bird showing them where to do it…..or crowing, “location, location, location”.

Maybe what they’re saying is, “HERE IT COMES!!! HERE IT COMES!!!”

That would make more sense for the time right before the daylight.

Here it comes…..another day….another chance.

It’s kind of funny, really, if I have a second cup of coffee and think about things from a different angle.

We consider ourselves at the top of the….whatever. Food chain? Some other hierarchy?

We’re the kings of the beasts.

But….these birds are flying around….singing in the morning….taking care of only what needs to be taken care of….flying around and enjoying the rest of the time….sitting on a wire, maybe.

Unless something happens and a cat eats you, it’s a pretty appealing scenario.

I worry about stuff….and I can’t fly.

But I’m the “superior species”?

That’s pretty darn goofy.

And how do I know that there’s not some dolphins somewhere hanging out with their friends, discussing how they’re the bigshots in the world picture….the superior species hanging out in the water….the smartypants of the ocean world?

Do I have so much hubris that I can say with certainty that I’m better than a dolphin….or a really smart monkey?

Ah, that’s goofy…..that’s just the “coffee talkin’ “.

I know that I’m better than the angry guy at the Ingles deli….why wouldn’t I be better than a dolphin?

Until proven wrong, I will say that I’m better than a monkey….or a dolphin.

I’ll say it just to feel better about my situation….which is good, by the way, but would be even better if I was superior to as many different things as possible.

In the meantime, these birds are singing….talking to each other….the sun is coming up….and the day is on its way to being something different than night.

It’s a pretty good system that God set up….new morning after new morning….evening and a chance to rest…..chance after chance for something good to come around.

It could have been a grey sameness….but there’s a lot of color and variation in this life.

If I step back to remember that, I can’t help but feel thankful for another breath.

Anyway….if I was going to veer off into a metaphysical corner, I might think that in the swirling mass of molecules that I am that I have more of a connection to that bird flying and singing than I notice when I just look at the solid “me”.

“Spirit” is hard to contain….no matter how much we think we’re separate from each other.

These birds singing?

Why, that happens all the time…what’s so special about a bird singing?

My friend and neighbor put an ad on Facebook this morning that she had bantam chicks for sale.

That was kind of exciting….we need some chickens again.

But….we’re not ready for them yet….so I’ll have to skip them.

I can get excited about stuff that’s close to home.

But…..and…..yet……CHECK THIS OUT!!

Who knew that Flagstaff was so cool….or that it was a place where athletes might congregate….or that it was SO COOL?!!!!

I guess that it just goes to show….once again….that I CAN’T KNOW EVERYTHING.

I thought, “It must be pretty darn hot in Arizona…..out there in the desert….out there with all the cactus and sand and sun-battered adobe and rattlesnakes.”

That’s what I thought….and then I see all these people running up a hill that looks like it’s up in Colorado….or out in Idaho.

Who knew that it was like that?

I guess that’s what’s good about a little study of GEOGRAPHY…..it gives you a chance to figure out what’s out there in the world.

I never got a handle on what might be behind the squiggles on the maps, though.

No matter where I drive, I’m never completely sure where I’m going to end up.

It all changes with the weather, anyway.

You have to bloom where you’re planted.

You have to love where you are…..every minute.

You have to love the people who share the space you’re in.

YOU HAVE TO. PERIOD.

Your life is going to be a long string of crummy if you don’t figure that out at some point.

But…..in the same breath….”where you’re planted” isn’t a static thing.

Rubber on the wheel is there for a reason.

We can still buy gasoline.

The world is our oyster.

So…..be happy where you are….but….mobile and anticipatory…..waiting for the next movement…..little Chris Columbus’…..setting off towards the setting sun…..chasing daylight.

Flagstaff?

Hmmmmmmmm……

Why not?

Why not…..anything?!

It’s a big world….and I’M A BIG BOY!!!

“The worst” is kind of hard to pin down sometimes.

Our cat, Lilly, must stay up most of the night.

She must stay up most of the night and hunt….because, in the morning, I’m often blessed with the spoils of her success, left on the outside porch carpet where I step out into the darkness to give her a can of cat food.

When it’s a big chunk of something….like a head or body or maybe even an unchewed, total “thing”….it’s easy to avoid.

It’s the barefoot moment when, in the darkness of “first to get up”, I step on a tiny piece of something still warm and very wet, that I feel a little squeamish and a little irritated.

I like to know what I’m stepping into.

It’s gross.

It’s “the worst”.

“The worst”?

Actually, it’s not even close to the worst.

I think I just throw that out to hype up the situation.

I think that I just say that to make things exciting.

It’s funny how I can take something pretty minor and build it up into something that is approaching monumental.

Like, “Remember the way that checkout person put the eggs on the bottom of the bag? THAT WAS THE WORST….”

Or….”Remember how expensive this or that was? THAT WAS THE…..”

Or…..”Remember when the car blew up? THAT WAS THE WORST!!!! THE WORST!!!! THE ABSOLUTE AND POSITIVELY….THE WORST!!!”

Of course, none of it’s the worst.

It might be kind of a hassle or very irritating….IN THAT MOMENT…..but, long-term? The worst?!

I don’t think so.

All I know is that, in the moment and very short-term, stepping on something wet and warm and very unidentifiable in the darkness is kind of unpleasant.

It’s unpleasant….but it’s not “the worst”.

It’s funny….well, not really funny….more odd…..that I take amusement sometimes in exaggerating how bad a situation really is.

That’s not a good game.

I should stop doing that.

I should say, “Hmmmmmmmmm……there’s something dead on my foot.” and move on efficiently from there…..after wiping my foot off, of course.

I should be able to say, “Shucks. I stepped in something weird again.” and just “let it go”.

“Let it go”…..like that song my kids sing….over and over.

Nothing stays the same…and my memory isn’t so good that I can make an honest appraisal like calling something “the worst” with any accuracy.

I stepped in something that shouldn’t ever be stuck on anyone’s bare foot this morning.

That’s all that happened.

It wasn’t even close to being “the WORST”.

But….what is?

What really is “the worst”?

I don’t want to waste my life trying to figure out what “the worst” is.

I need to figure out how to notice all of “the best” around me, instead.

That would be a better way to spend my time.

(“Spend my time”….gackkkkk.   “Spend”? Holy smokes…..that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish to think about….)

“Kettle of fish”? Why, that’s something to think……

“20 million things” Lowell George

I drove all night and into the morning to get to Niagara Falls.

Of course, that was the American side….the side on our part of the border with Canada.

We wanted to go to the Canadian side.

The printer had jammed on me at home when I was printing out the Mapquest info…..and in my disgust and weariness, I only let the page that was “coming” print correctly….so I didn’t have the last crucial bit of information with me.

I had all the parts that led me to Niagara Falls, NY….but none of the short description that would have carried us across the river and into Canada.

I guess that what we were looking for was the Peace Bridge…..but on the map, unless you had a magnifying glass and knew where to look, you’d never find it.

You’d never find it with your human eye.

You needed electronic intervention.

(No one that we asked for directions could help us in New York. I thought that was kind of weird. I could tell anybody how to get to some of our big tourist destinations. I could tell everybody how to get to the Carl Sandburg House, for instance….)

I was so tired.

When we plugged up the GPS and put in the destination, I trusted it to “take me home”….home being a euphemism for the hotel we’d reserved by the falls in Canada.

I’d downloaded a map update before we left.

Except for printing out all of the instructions…..and checking the brake pads….I’d done everything right.

I had done some preparation.

But, when I started to use the GPS, it took us all over the map!

Jenny kept telling me, “This is wrong. THIS IS WRONG!!! Look at the map….it’s taking us AWAY from where we need to go. Where is it taking us? IT’S WRONG…..LOOK AT THE MAP. LOOK AT THE MAP!!!!!!“

I was so tired.

I understand why men leave the tent in a panicked rush in a blizzard….disoriented and driven mad….or open the door to the submarine….or get more and more lost as they wander in circles in the deep woods.

I know what they feel.

I felt it in a minivan loaded with 4 children and my wife….listening to a crazy piece of electronics tell me, “recalculating” in a calm electronic voice, sending me straight into a New York HELL….sending me away from something that was close enough that I should have been at my hotel already.

Of course, we eventually gave up on the GPS.

I couldn’t trust something that would get me so lost so smugly.

That robot never even cracked a smile.

I stopped having faith in the Global Positioning System.

When we stopped for the worst “Mexican” meal I’ve ever had….at a place called Mighty Taco (how can you go wrong at a place called Mighty Taco? The hot sauce tasted like barbecue sauce with cumin in it. Can you believe that?)….the guy in the line behind me told me that I just needed to go down the highway here…..turn left at the light, follow the signs to “Peace Bridge” and then cross into Canada…..and, if I wanted a more scenic drive, take the road that paralleled the river…..and we’d get there in about an hour.

Easy.

Bad Mexican was a more dependable source of travel information than 89.95 worth of refurbished electronics.

I told Jenny, after we’d been in Niagara Falls, Ontario for a while, that, “I drive about 5 hours every day with my job….but, between the long trip up here and getting lost, I think that I drove a whole weeks worth of driving just last night.”

It’s funny…. after the fact.

It’s funny when you’re safe and dry in a nice Canadian hotel.

Freaking GPS.

Why did I trust a machine?

Didn’t I ever see “The Terminator”?

“Set the GPS” Tank Dilemma

When I was just a really young guy….when we still lived in California….I had a couple of these toys.

They were pretty popular…in the days before “clackers”.

One of the neat things about this particular toy is that the man who invented the Wizzer lived down the road from us.

We went over to his house to meet him…..and he signed all of our Wizzers.

How many kids can say that a man signed their Wizzer?

This was in the days before San Jose became part of “Silicon Valley”.

It was in the days when San Jose was primarily known for all the Wizzers that were located there.

It was kind of a Wizzer capital.

That’s a big deal for a kid….to meet the man who invented a cool toy.

My Wizzer.

I wonder whatever happened to my Wizzer?