Go ahead. . .
FILL IN THE
B
L
A
N
K
. . . .
Perfectly Imperfect
Are you Perfect?
I am.
Pristine. Unadulterated. Pure. Faultless–ME!
Perfectly IMPERFECT!
You?
The Teacher Knows.
The story goes, not so Once-Upon-A-Time, but currently, when a Rabbi, The Teacher, prayed daily that God would make a perfect world in which there would never be any hatred, jealously, pain or problems.
Well, wouldn’t you know, one night, God appeared to the Rabbi, The Teacher in a dream and took him on a wonderful tour of any absolutely, magnificently uncorruptable World.
P E R F E C T
The Rabbi, The Teacher, saw his house, his synagogue, his little town. Lions and lambs were actually laying down together.
P E A C E F U L
Still, this Rabbi, The Teacher was troubled. Something, something was terribly absent…MISSING!
“Where am in in this Perfect World,” the Rabbi, The Teacher asked, wanted…needed to know?
God offered the most apologetic answer, ever: “This is a perfect world you requested. You must understand that you are NOT PERFECT, so you cannot be included.”
We are NEVER just one thing in Life, are we?
We are all so very PLURAL and never so SINGULAR.
But one thing, one thing through all of these Personas, through all these changes, through all our ages, our comings/goings, stayings/leavings, pasts/presents/futures remains the same, doesn’t it?
We–everyone one of us–are undeniably, immaculately, impeccably, PERFECTLY IMPERFECT.
It helps, doesn’t it, with the WHY’S, the HOW-COME’S, the WHAT-FOR’S?
Expecting the world, this world of August 20, 2014 to treat us fairly because we are nice, caring, compassionate, PERFECTLY IMPERFECT People is like expecting a Bull not to gore us just because we are vegetarians.
Are you Perfect?
I am.
So are you.
We, we are PERFECTLY IMPERFECT.
A Person of No Age
21,550 isn’t all that a big number. . .
Until, until it is.
If a person were allowed to live for 21,550 days, 3.078 weeks would have been ventured; 707 months survived, 15 leap years endured…
1,861,904,152 seconds
31,031,735 minutes
517,195 hours
1,539 fortnights
792 lunar moons
414 dog years
60.81 lunar years
2.27 generations
0.59 centuries
0.05904 milleniums
0.00000025669823197229 galactic years
…Countless Moments. . . .
As much as we are not a Label, we are not a distinct moment.
We are so very, very much more and much, much more to become.
What. . .which day isn’t a Birth Day…which day isn’t one we haven’t expired to be birthed again…in another, new way?
I’ve decided to become, without another fortnight or galactic, nanosecond to pass,
A PERSON OF NO AGE.
Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.
–Wu Men (Hui-k’ai)
I’m inspired and awed by so much and better–so very, very MANY.
Pause…as I have a few moments before writing these few facts/figures and thoughts from Sherry Ruth Anderson’s story about harp lessons (in this google link below)
http://books.google.com/books?id=fG4dAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PT53&ots=q2SKD57_Jn&dq=sherry+ruth+anderson+ripening+time+harpo+marx&pg=PT52#v=onepage&q=sherry%20ruth%20anderson%20ripening%20time%20harpo%20marx&f=false
How about it? Are you up for becoming a Person of No Age?
Join me…let’s be TIMELESS…and oh yeah…Happy Birth
Day.
Would THEY Blacken Your Face OUT?
Would they blacken out your face if you left?
Do we matter THAT much?
We all want to be accepted, liked, LOVED!
It’s the innate yearning that’s more a part of us than the very first time we let out a cry.
For the second time in four years, LaBron James made a DECISION that literally has effected thousand of lives, not to mention his own and his family’s. Not just Cleveland, not just Miami, but the Country, the World was waiting for where LaBron was going to play basketball next. He made his decision last Friday and reactions were fierce everywhere. Anger in Miami. Pure Party-in-the-streets hysteria in Cleveland.
Why would LaBron be cause for such craziness? For such opposing reactions? LaBron stirs up the pot of emotions so much because he’s the best basketball player in the world. People love him and others just love to hate him. Psssst…that means he matters. He’s doing relevant, amazing things.
Your Movie
Movies.
The very first movie ever made was in 1878, THE HORSE IN MOTION.
I know nothing of it, and most likely, you don’t either. You probably haven’t heard of the first movie ever shot in the USA, MONKEYSHINES NO. 1 (1889 or 1890).
You might not know of the movie that just came out last weekend or hundreds sitting in your local REDBOX or the thousands that can be downloaded via NETFLIX.
The only movie you might KNOW and know intimately is the one of your very own life. The one that plays every day in your heart, projected on the screen of your Soul and needs seeing than more of just your eyes.
So, which Movie, or parts of a Movie, bests describes THAT Movie of YOU?
Is it something from, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE? PATCH ADAMS? ROCKY? DANCES WITH WOLVES? STAR WARS? MARTY? THE ARTIST? KING OF KINGS? SIMON BIRCH? THE MIGHTY? PATCHY ADAMS? MRS. DOUBTFIRE? THE TEN COMMANDMENTS? HOPE FLOATS? WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING? THE OTHER SISTER? KILL BILL? BIG DADDY? TOY STORY?
The Never Failing Experiment
It is absolutely Flawless.
The Experiment never fails–Ever.
Dare to not only change your life, but your work, your leisure, your lifestyle, your relationships, your all encompassing E V E R Y T H I N G!
But, don’t let me tell you about The Experiment. Let me Show you…better still, YOU TRY IT!
Here’s how it works:
EVERYTHING YOU DO, DO AS AN EXPERIMENT!
Really, IT is THAT simple. There’s no special formula’s; no 1-2-3 steps to take, no special maps to follow, no A-B-C special procedural directions, no embarrassment, no, “I-told-you-so’s,” no hassle and no worry. . .Really!
This will work just as brilliantly at work as it will personally or at home.
Pick a problem to be solved. Go ahead, if you want, do what you use to do. Pro and Con it, list all the reasons For and Against, think In and Out and Around the Box; do what you do to come up with a most likely, probable, consensus decision and then apply it this way: AS AN EXPERIMENT.
By the very nature of any Experiment, it naturally calls for Trial and Error. It Expects to Fail as a means to Succeeding. Ask Mr. Edison how many successful ways he determined NOT to Invent a Light Bulb!
When you Experiment things, there’s no pressure, no winning or losing–just a faster track to Success or WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU OR THE SITUATION!
Under this guise, you can Experiment with an Exercise Program, a new Diet, a Short cut to work or another destination, a way to resolve a conflict at work, in a relationship, or between business partners or neighbors.
It’s NEVER FAILED.
Don’t believe me, though. Try it yourself. Mix a little of THIS will a little of THAT, shake gently and pour a drop at a time or as quickly as you dare in full measure…it won’t matter because IT IS AN EXPERIMENT.
The best part?
If IT doesn’t work, you can triumphantly shout, “N E X T”
and begin yet another Experiment again and again and again. . . .
One of my favorite Experiments is to have an Experiment inside of an Experiment–Try IT–There’s nothing more FREEING and NON-THREATENING and best of all:
E F F E C T I V E.
Falling UP
Oh yeah, it’s happened several times. At least a dozen times. But not as many times as it has happened WHEN I HAVE NOT BEEN RUNNING!
F A L L I N G
Ouch. We’ve all done it haven’t we.
I usually run/jog early in the morning, mostly even before the sun comes up. IF I fall…no one is usually up to see it.
Whenever I FALL by not keeping a promise, not caring more, being a huge jerk, having a short fuse, being hypocritical, missing a goal–badly, totally living a different scenario than ever dreamed, not just fighting but actually fighting dirty, seeing how I make a difference and absolutely-on-purpose-DON’T, I, I utterly, undeniably, unequivocally, overwhelmingly, uhhh. . .
HEAVEN-less
You knew it was coming, didn’t you?
I mean, it’s the question we have to ask. . .answer, many different times in our lives, isn’t it?
So, do you?
Do you believe in, dare I ask, (yeah, I triple dog dare) H-E-A-V-E-N?
I don’t!
It’s not the first time this has happened, which is probably more affirming than anything.
More substantiating is that it’s happened to different types of people in different economic, religious, sexual orientation, gender, racial and generational realms.
It happened again this morning at a funeral I was conducting.
Vereses
The best song’s have more than just one verse, don’t they?
The best song’s not only have more than one verse, but a killer chorus that bounces around in your head like a bullet ricocheting around in a steel encased room.
But we don’t believe it!
We know it, know that the song has multiple verses, might even be able to sing through everyone of them like a long Dylan song gone amok, but we just don’t believe it–or at least act like we believe it.
The Apple commercial with Robin Williams, borrows his speech from his role in Peter Weir’s 1989 film, DEAD POET’S SOCIETY. In the film, Williams plays a teacher who inspires some pretty rigid academy students with his unorthodox teaching methods and passion for poetry. Williams ends the commercial with his oft-quoted line from the film:
Just Who Do You Think You Are?
Just who do you think you are?
It’s a question that was usually asked in anger, almost disbelief when I did something wrong as a kid.
Maybe I talked back to my parents (BIG MISTAKE)!
Maybe I talked back to my teachers (BIG MISTAKE–they were friends with my parents)!
Maybe I threw bubble gum out of the balcony at Church and it hit Peggy Young in the back of the head and stuck in her long hair (before they knew how to take it out with Peanut Butter) and she had to get a hair cut and Mr. Young called the house on a Sunday afternoon that quickly became BLACK SUNDAY before there ever was a Black Sunday.
Maybe it’a been asked of you?
Maybe it needs to be!