An Odyssey of Creativity and Wisdom: Day 4

one thousand words daily 

“Perfect practice makes perfect.” ~My childhood Tae Kwon Do teacher -Gary Bowles.

An Odyssey of Creativity and Wisdom: Day 4

               Perfection as I’m told is near to impossible to achieve… unless you are Jesus Christ.  What about those that don’t believe in God or Christ?  Do they think that they need to be renditions of upmost precision, as in the perfect machine, or perfect model of human?  Do images they are fed through their family members or social environment drive them to be the stuck up, frugal and selfish pricks, assholes, rude dicks and cold hearted bitches that we think they are or perceive them to be?  Although we as humans experience much trial and error with many flaws, we can sure oftentimes act like “our boo boo don’t stink,” as to say gently. I know one thing for certain.  That is if we try and try again, aside from falling flat on our faces from time to time and perhaps chipping a few front teeth, we will have learned a lot from the fall.   

               The picture I chose for today's exercise is this eraser my fiance is using in her cool doodles. There is no magic eraser in this life that makes everything automatically better however with careful planning and the expectation of "hey, I'll try and do my best but fuck it, I expect something to go wrong... somewhere," we can learn to focus on the positive, make room for error while not flipping out once certain things don't go exactly our way or the intricate way we've planned.

               In skateboarding and rollerblading, you kinda learn how to fall correctly.  We do the same through the trials of live yet sometimes the choice to learn from or to forget the lesson is solely up to us.  We might know someone; perhaps close friend or family member that we look at and judge thinking “They just can’t get it right, no matter what!”  These dynamic characters in our life often have their own time clock, eyes of judgment and unseen circumstances that we on the outside cannot see.  We see them fall over and over, hoping that we could somehow intervene, show them their flaw, or even slap the shit out of them but hey, everyone has their own learning curve. 

expectations: who sets the bar?

             When we shoot for the stars, who is it that we are setting goals for?  What is the destination and what was the influence that brings you to the adventure in the first place?  Are you driven by your own unique ambition is it a combination of social factors, parents, childhood dreams,  a path easily taken or a vision you just had to bring to fruition?  These are the crucial questions we must address within ourselves constantly in order to feel complete and content with how we have spent our time assessing life.  I guess you can call the style how I write, “the Ultimate Guide to Personal Completion,” “Pulling Zen From Within,” or “Messages of World Help,” for the concepts that I address can apply to any culture, those within any religion or belief system, on the basis of complexities or similarities experienced throughout living the existence of the human condition.  One critically important question I have heard time and time again from many folks in different walks of life is “Will anything I do make a difference?”  In other words, some look at how complex the problems of the world is and wonder if they did anything to influence the cause, no matter what it is… will it matter? 

              Relevance is something we live with whether it be knowing what goes on with our families, what it takes to make a living to what goes on in the news, which we can clearly see affecting us. Many decisions made by those in local governments as well as in political power openly broadcasted, as well as back-room deals, directly affect the ways in which we choose to live our lives.  Changing the course of our own history can be fun as well as scary for some.  Standing up for ones rights at the workplace can sometimes mean a demotion, less hours or even being fired.  Imagine that, to be fired for simply fighting for equal, humane working conditions and rights. 

              Aside from the extreme, this type of thing happens quite often, with some foul employers, slum lords, and companies doing the most in the most awful of ways simply because there is no pushback, no pressure from the outside to become better.  Workplace abuse, unfair hiring practices as well as unequal pay-rates are still an issue along with cultural, issues that affect gender and class issues as well as surviving racial and other discrimination issues that are still today in our two-thousand and whatever millennial thread of life we occupy, allowed to go on unchecked.  We have a choice in our lives whether to make waves in our work life as well as our domestic life at home, or not to.  In the same way we have some type of sway in our local governments be attending city council meetings and voting on sensitive issues which directly affect us as well as those we care about.  We sometimes fear negativity from our families, friends, even judgment from some at our religious places we feel safe to go to for openly standing behind certain issues, from education reform to vaccinations to even the complex yet simply understood issue of police brutality in United States as well as places abroad like Israel.

              Although many that live amongst us strive towards that perfect body, perfect house, perfect dog or simply just having and maintaining the perfect front lawn, do the places that we live and the communities we contribute towards strive for that same excellence?  Is there anything, any law, current circumstances or physical or mental condition that prevents you from achieving the goals and the results that you want?  If so, what solutions have you already sought?  What barriers have you already broken down?  Remember, that sometimes you might be alone in your vision, or quest for excellence as the sole “visionary.”  Sometimes it can be difficult to explain ourselves or share our goal or vision in a way that is easily understood or digested by another.  For this reason we have business plans and other common tools that help us.  When there is no template found to fit our model of success, oftentimes we are forced or as I say, “called” to design our own!   We are our own architects of our own greatness, attributed the strength of the wings we find or craft to help uplift our dreams. 

              The only difference between us and the old man in Greek Mythology Daedalus that build those wings for Icarus is that we have no doubt of how hot the unforgiving sun can be, thus we plan better.  We have felt how strong the opposing winds can be and by folly as well as experience, have learned to carefully navigate around obstacles, burning trees, those that do not clearly need help although on their knees, and those toxic in ways that if what they said turned to pestilence, would spread the worst kind of disease.  We have taken both the carefully chosen path as well as the difficult one rarely taken.  Eavesdropping on a conversatioon between two highway patrol man, I was blown away at something I heard. Even on the careful path you choose, you can face opposition and difficulty, such as a police cruiser that cannot catch up to a souped up Dodge Charger.  Oftentimes their cruisers are simply V6 Ford Explorers with extra weight, engine coolers and technology that lack the high-performance equipment even offered in the standard models of cars we get from the lot today.  Although they put their lives on the line (you can tell by all of those freeways named after fallen officers from traffic stops gone bad and drunk drivers) they still experience workplace issues which makes it difficult to complete the task at hand.
               
              I have friends that for reasons, see how their friends and family end up and assume the same yet I have friends that steer towards the opposite, often surprising everyone through their success as they chose to be different than what was expected and “break the mold.”  I know folks whose whole families are in law enforcement so they assume that’s where they will be.  I know friends whose whole families are in healthcare and nursing thus they assume this is the right and only choice for them.  I also know people with both similar stories, of lawyers, real estate, law enforcement, medicine as well as military and business woven deep into the threads of their families that chose a completely different route... and absolutely loved it!  The choice for success as brought for us to look forward or back to dream or reflect rides within our next magical, life-changing choice! Right now I’m just gonna get a coffee refill from Starbucks and doodle a bit.   Cheers!

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