Welcome, Ven a gozar!

Things are a little slow at the moment, which led my mind to wandering. I saw a man at breakfast in a blue t-shirt with the word archery on it. It was not clear whether the word archery was referring to a company, or to the sport, but it brought back memories of when I was an almost accomplished archer.

I was about five or six years old and my parents, probably my father bought me a cotton candy colored re-curved bow having a thirty pound draw weight. It was a serious bow for a five or six year old. Of course there were the arrows to go with it and the normal parent admonitions about using my new bow in a safe manner. I was safe of course until one day when I was not being watched very closely and left in the house by myself, while my Mom and Dad went outside for something. They should have came back in the house a few minutes sooner. That way I would not have shot an arrow through the front room windows while pretending I was a great warrior on an elephant hunt.
When I was about nine years old my folks were having a bbq/party. Those things are pretty boring for a kid, and as it was an adult only party, so it was up to me to entertain myself. I should mention we lived in the country, the only house within about a square mile with huge pasture where we kept a few horses. I was old enough to understand bow and arrow safety. I knew my bow and arrow could be a lethal weapon, so I was careful not to shoot it towards anyone.

One of my favorite past times was shooting up into the air. Not straight up of course because the arrow would go out of sight, and that could be painful for me, so I would shoot a few degrees from straight up so the arrow would land about fifty to seventy five feet from me. It was not as much fun as shooting off a rocket, but it was as close as I would get. Shoot into the air, watch the arrow go out of sight for a few seconds, fall over and start its decent back to earth.

While the bbq was in full swing I had been out in the fields shooting clumps of grass that grew in a semi swampy section of the field. That in time became boring and it was time to find something else to do. I started shooting an arrow on way back to the house. Up into the air, out of sight, fall over, and back down to the ground where the arrow would land with a satisfying thunk. I used field point rather than bullet point arrows so it would not go as far into the ground, making them easier to remove from the soft moist soil.

I was about one hundred yards from the bbq when I made what was to be my final shot into the air. I pulled back extra hard on the bow string and let fly. The arrow raced up into the air, out of sight. It stayed out of sight for a few seconds longer than it should have. I found my arrow, it had been blown farther away than where I was looking by above the ground winds I did not know were there.
It was blown so far, that instead of landing between me and the bbq tables, it landed right on a woman’s arm who was unfortunate enough to be reaching for her drink. At nine or so years old, one has learned to be creative in explaining away things that were not planned, but happen anyway. I could have said, I failed to take into consideration some above the ground disturbance caused by the sunset and the cooling atmosphere which caused a mild wind to occur above the ground. For a nine or so year old, that was a long stretch of knowledge that I just did not have in my memory yet. I used the tried and true plan B, “I didn’t think….”

The lady suffered from about a one-quarter inch deep puncture where the arrow came to rest, but she didn’t make an issue about it, lucky for me. I thought it was fascinating though to see one of my arrows standing at attention on her arm. Then I realized what had happened. Her not panicking kept my folks in a contained moment of panic when it came to me, and what I had just done. I was sent away under house arrest, and I knew I would not be seeing my bow and arrows for a few weeks at least. I put myself to bed, and the next day when everyone was awake my punishment was what I expected.  I received a severe talking to, and no bow and arrows until some undetermined future date. I was so glad it was a day later….

As time went on, and I was introduced to other more powerful types of projectile weapons, I was always aware that I shot that lady, that night. I was always careful not to have a repeat performance of any type. My track record was pretty good except when I shot one of my friends in the thumb with my bb gun from a distance of less than six inches. He really should not of been generous enough to hold that frog between his finger and thumb for me to get a better shot. He was older, and I thought being older he knew what he was doing.

I am happy to report that that was the last time I shot anyone with an arrow. There was the incident with me holding a very sharp knife and play fighting with a friend because I was defending the fort, causing my friend seventeen stitches and a cast on one hand and finger. It sure was neat seeing the layers of skin and muscle right down to seeing the joint of the bone - until the blood started oozing out. Oh, I have just remembered the woman’s beehive hair style I blew up with a Fourth of July Cherry Bomb fire cracker on a dare from another friend. I didn’t know her, and it was an accident, it was just supposed to blow up by her, and not in her hair.

I wish I could say, ‘two out of three’s not bad….’, but if I searched my memory I am sure there are other things I have done that hurt somebody along the way. I am happy I grew up without maiming someone, or crippling myself. Be safe out there, and if you have children, remember what you read here!

Comments (0) May 07 2008

New age, paranormal, or occult as it is known comes and goes, cycling through our lives, much like our taste in books, movies, and food. Everything has its season and the paranormal is no exception. Every generation has some people who want to be known as discovering some new or long lost knowledge. Bad news, there is no new knowledge when it comes to certain subjects, only knowledge that has not been passed on for any number of reasons.

It certainly is funny to listen to people talk about any experiences they may have had with something they do not know how to explain. If they are not scared someone in the group they are talking to probably is. I have trouble with the fear part as it is self generated fear and really has no basis in a rational thought process. If someone who is a Christian calls upon God, or asks to have angels sent to complete a task, and it happened no one would blink an eye.

We seem to think that God just sits wherever God sits and waits for us to command something. We think for any number that this thought is completely rational and viable. We pray, implore, beg, or command, and God of course complies with our request. We have this thought so ingrained into our psyche, that in a prayer circle,  if a number of Angels showed up and told the group they were going to do what was asked, most of the group would be nonplussed. After all that is how religion works.

Take the same group of people and put them in a new environment and let them hear, say scratching on a door from a room they know no one is in and panic erupts with fear coming a close second. If someone experiences something that does not fit into their idea of life, it must be the work of some unknown evil entity. There is no room in most peoples thinking that allows for something to exist that is neither there to help nor hinder, but it must always be one or the other.

The more rational people of times passed understood that not everything in the world of the unseen was either good or evil from their personal perspective, but in our fast paced life where we file and catalogue everything we have lost most categories of anything past the first two. Those two categories being either good for us or bad for us. We have not left room for very much in between those two places.

Most people over the course of a lifetime experience something occult or paranormal. Whether it is a ghost, noises, vision, or visitation, very few people are immune from the paranormal. A few people will have many such experiences, and most of them come to understand and accept there is a lot in the world that they know very little about.

In most cases when you find yourself in a position of experiencing something you have never experienced before, the first thing to remember is not to panic or get scared. Once panic or fear rules, rational thought goes out the window. Once rational thought goes out the window, you are no longer in charge of yourself. Once you are no longer in charge of yourself, you have opened a door that you may prefer remain closed.

Try to remember to not to jump from an adult orientation to a child mindset. You need the adult part of yourself active and functioning. Keep calm, and observe whatever is happening. In scary movies people become frightened of the silliest things. It could be something as inane as a glass sliding, or a picture moving, or something floating. Really what is so scary about those things other than you have never experienced them before?

If you feel you can not control your emotions, then pray. It does not matter what you pray about as prayer has a calming effect on us. If praying is not part of your makeup, simply downplaying whatever is happening, and focusing on something else has the same effect.

One more thought to remember, probably the most important idea, one which you have been told since you were a child and have forgotten is this. Anything you experience can not harm you in any way unless you give it permission to (let it). A feeling of something unseen touching your shoulder is just a touch, no more, no less. There is no reason to lose control of yourself over the situation because there is nothing you can do about being touched, it is already in the past.

Now that I have your attention I want to mention in passing that the above ideas work just as well in our everyday lives too. Stay within yourself, and do not get rattled every time something changes in your world that you do not like and probably can not control. Nothing stays the same, and never has. Change what you can, and let the rest take care of itself.

Comments (1) May 06 2008

I doubt everyone has done some soul searching over this, but I know I did. I had to decide for myself what was the right thing for myself and my family. People who study our behaviors have come to a few interesting conclusions. Only two have any relevance to this post. The first is that most of us spend too much time dwelling on our faults and not enough time celebrating our successes. The second behavior we share as humans is we are great at blocking out negative factors in our lives we choose not to think about. For us, it seems if we do not think about them, they do not exist.

The reality is they do not exist until they come to pass, then if we are still around to reflect, we chastise ourselves for not seeing this extreme risk, and taking steps to prevent it. A great example is smoking. Growing up in my generation more adults were smoking than not, or so it seemed. There was a major not smoking campaign throughout my school years, and of course like well brainwashed children I was convinced about the evils of smoking and would harangue my parents about their smoking.

After I was out of school a few years, I found myself buying cigarettes for my own pleasure. Over those few years from leaving school to that point, I managed to dull down the dangers of smoking, and turn it into something real men did, so I should be smoking too. There is nothing like a group of men all standing around smoking and joking to make a young man think about how fun it would be tpart of that small social club.

After some years passed, and I went to some funerals of friends and family members who all seemed to have died too early, smoking started to lose its appeal. The biggest factor in changing my mind about smoking was my children. I did not want them being exposed to smoking so they would be less likely to become smokers themselves. It didn’t happen overnight, but one night I smoked my (almost) last cigarette and started down a new life path.

Time marches on I arrived at forty, and a new set of challenges were waiting for me. Mostly about what and how I ate. All men see and hear of other men who were fine one second and dead the next. Men that fell over from massive heart attacks. At first it just seemed like it was the destiny of men to fall over dead form heart attacks. After all heart attacks caused the demise of several male members of my family. That’s just the way life was.  Of course other men came out of the woodwork, and we now know that is not the way life is at all.

We have access to more and better information regarding our health and welfare than we ever had before. In just a few hours of serious net searching, we can become familiar with just about any health subject. One area we still lack in is denial though. There is no medical breakthrough to stop us from living in a state of denial. If there was, I doubt as free adults we would subject ourselves to that particular cure either.

The biggest health concern I see for us is the foods we choose to eat. We are surviving on some really poor food choices. Most of us pretend poor food choices are okay. If eating fast or fried food had the ’side effects’ of smoking, many people would not be eating those foods. Because the major health problems poor food choices have on our bodies are not visible we go on pretending that eating how most of eat is okay. It is okay, until you find yourself falling over from your heart having exploded in your chest, then it is too late. Company advertising is not going to tell how deadly these foods are either….

I am urging everyone who finds that a major part of their diet is fast food, or fried food to really think about how good that food is, both in health and in taste. Are those food choices really so good that they are worth the risk hidden in those foods? If anyone has children, is eating fast food and feeding it to your children worth dying for and leaving your children to grow up without you around, and facing the same health problems? We can ignore a lot of bad things in our lives and usually it is okay, but poor eating choices have no warning signs until it is too late. Make aware food choices, and be there for your kids. Don’t allow them to grow up eating the poor food choices you are making.

Comments (0) May 05 2008

Wandering around the city today it is obvious that spring has arrived and love is in the air. There is nothing like spring weather to bring out the joy and wonder of the world we live in. People of all ages are out and about with someone they have hopes will become or stay their significant other as the days pass on. There does not seem to be any age group left out, but it is obvious that the different ages of different couples have different things on their minds.

The been married, divorced and trying out dating again crowd appear to place more importance on real communication and compatibility. The younger people, especially the high school age group are focused on the same things most people of their age are focused on. Once spring arrives mother nature and our drive to procreate takes over part the thought process.

Some young women who thrive on this type of attention from young men from the same mold. I wonder how many are going to find themselves in an uncomfortable future, when spring has sprung, summer has sung, and a baby is on the way. The boys play their part of course, but unfortunately it is the young girls who have their lives changed in ways they never dreamed of.

My biggest concern with teenage pregnancy, is how it starts in the first place. In my sliver of worldly view it starts with a lack of self respect in both parties. I am not talking about simple respect shown to young women, and young men, but the basic idea that these young people who find themselves on this path have little or no love and respect for their individual selves. Because of they have no respect for themselves, they have an overwhelming need for attention from others. In our teenage years that need for attention turns to the opposite sex. Any attention is good attention. When a Teenager is desperate enough for acceptance and acknowledgment, they crave attention, even if that attention is a only a sexual urge the other party wants filled.

I looked around the blogs to see what others thought, and I found some interesting ideas. Charles H. Baker has great post where he has listed ten items of personal gratitude and self acknowledgment from his life. Charles H Baker has found a powerful secret to self respect and happiness.

David Stambaugh, with an insightful post suggests that to build self esteem one needs to keep mementos, and keep track of accomplishments. David writes that the way our mind works is we remember the bad more often than the good. Being a poker player I can relate to this thinking, as it is a common problem among poker players.

Helen Williams, a parent counselor and family educator in New Zealand, has a wonderful article that identifies what self respect is, learning how to respect yourself, teaching children how to respect themselves, and the imprtance of having respect for yourself. I wish she could come over to my portion of the world, and educate here. We have too many people who need what she writes about on her site.

For my part, I think self respect comes from self love. Too many of us suffer from a lack of self respect and self love. We only have one body and mind, good, bad, or indifferent to take us through our life. It is hard to break free of the programming that enforces feelings of little self respect, but like walking, it can be learned on step at a time. Take a minute to love and respect yourself each day. Find something worth loving in yourself each day. If you do this it will become easier to respect others, and they will have more respect for you.

Enocia Joseph wrote a post that says it all better than any other blog post I read today, including this one. You can find it at Being the Magic.

Comments (0) May 03 2008

I watched the movie Patton starring George C. Scott today. George C Scott takes on the role of General George S. Patton and makes it very believable. This is not the first time I have watched the movie which came out in 1970 and I doubt it will be the last time I watch this movie. The movie revolves around General George S Patton and his remarkable achievements during World War II as a predominant commanding general of American allied participation during the war.

Of course most of my uncles were veterans of either World War II or the Korean war and opinion usually flowed freely about WWII field commanders and who was the best. Of course as it turned out, all the men present served under different commanders. Naturally each man thought his commander was the best of the bunch and the others were second rate wanna be’s. This conflict is present in the movie also. The Allied forces had some pretty large ego’s involved in their efforts and those ego’s come through pretty well.

The reason I bring up the movie is because of the feelings that Patton invoked in his time and the feelings the movie invokes. Patton is portrayed as a troubled hero who has no political savvy in a time when the world was changing. Patton is portrayed as a hero and and a man in the the movie. General Patton also lived and breathed war. Per the movie he believes he has lived many life times and fought in most great recorded battles found across Europe.

The movie portrays General George S. Patton as a hero who has his faults. General Patton as the movie portrays him is only a hero in his realm which is war. When General Patton is not in the feild commanding his army, his lack of political skill brings him trouble. He is shown as having problems with everyone from Presidents to fellow generals and enlisted men. General Patton on the field with his army was in his element and his men did not have any love for him, respected him, and did what many considered impossible for him.

Comments (1) May 01 2008