Thursday, September 01, 2005

Relief

Like everyone else, I've been watching the news from New Orleans. OK, I'm going to ask...

Why is is that we could drop food, water, and various other supplies into Afghanistan and Iraq and we can't drop some in to New Orleans?

What is the problem? Two and a half days seems like a long time to me.

I'm not suggesting we could solve all the problems, but it seems like we could use helicopters and drop bottled water and basic food stuffs to the people we see on rooftops. Seems like we could get some basics to people at the SuperDome and the Convention Center.

How is it that the media can get to these people and officials can't? I realize that might not be the "preferred, official" way of doing things. But, geez, maybe we should just be DOING something instead of planning to do it.

People are dying in the meantime - that would seem to be some good incentive - and yet no one seems spurred into action.

Past, present or future?

Do you live in the past, present or future?

I live in the present.

There's no tomorrow for me. Life is far too uncertain for me to think about tomorrow. I could use up today doing that and I have no guarantee there will even be a tomorrow.

I've often puzzled about this and I believe it's because I lost people from a very young age, so I've always known that life is very uncertain. I don't plan for the future. I don't think about the future. I don't worry about the future. There is never a tomorrow for me - only right this moment.

I've always had a sense that life is very short and we only have a little bit of time and we'd better cram a lot into it so we get to experience things. There's no promise of anything past this second, so we have to get every bit of life out of it possible.

The past is done with and I choose not to belabor it. Like most people, I could find a few hundred things that would send me into years of therapy, but moping about them won't change them, so after having years of therapy, I decided to stop wasting today worrying about yesterday, too.

I am who I am and however I got here, this is where I'm at and I've got to make the best of it. Figuring out what made me one way or another - as of yet - has not changed a single thing in my life. Maybe that works for some people but not for me. So, I decided there's really no point in wasting all that time figuring out "why" something is the way it is if it doesn't help me improve. And, it doesn't work that way for me. Wish it did because it would be so darned simple, but it doesn't.

So, I live in the "right now" - only the present. Not even God changes the past and if I wake up in the morning I'll be surprised - like I am every morning. I wake up and think, "hey - wow - I woke up, I'm still functioning, I have another day, this is great, Thank you God," and I run down my stairs to see what the day will bring. Wow! I didn't know I'd get another day. And here it is. Relish every second for it may be the last one you have.

Red, Red, Red

I've been wanting my dining room red. It was a deep green. I would refer you to paint colors, but both were ones I created and had color matched. Apparently I'm the ONLY person who wants these colors in my house.

One gallon of the green covered the wall. We've used about 2.75 gallons of the red so far. But, as of late this afternoon, I'm optimistic that it's about done. That will be good, because I'm getting low on paint in the most recent can, and I'm also weary of the room being in disarray.

Andrea has helped me paint in there a bunch, and I've touched up tons of times in various spots. I'm hopeful this is about it.

There's a reason "done" is my favorite word.

I knew this going in - but just in case you don't and are thinking about painting a room red - red pigment is not the best at coverage and so you end up doing many, many, many coats to get it to cover. My front door has about 8 coats on it.

Yellow is also difficult but not as bad as the red. Guess what color my living room is? Yup, you guessed it, pale yellow.

I don't know... All I can figure is that I'm a sucker for punishment.

United Way Breakfast

Wednesday morning was the United Way Breakfast to kick off the campaign in our community. I'm fortunate to be director of a United Way agency and this is always a fun event to start the campaign.

Our local director, Rob, is leaving shortly to go to work for United Way of America in Virginia. I'm going to miss him something terrible. I've known Rob a very long time and he's a great guy. It was sad that this was his last kick off breakfast here.

Each year the campaign has a local chair, who spearheads the effort. This year it's Lisa, who's the manager of Dillards.

I sat next to her at the chamber dinner year before last and we really hit it off. We talked about getting together for lunch and it still hasn't happened. How do we let time slip away like that?

Anyway, when I heard she was chairing this year's campaign, I knew she would be an excellent choice. She's a dynamic person - always smiling and in a good mood - wonderful to be around. She's going to have an exceptional campaign, I'm sure.

Sig Line

"Bear in mind that you should conduct yourself in life as at a feast." Epictetus (55 AD - 135 AD)

Childhood Dreams

The question posed was - Would you trade your life today for your childhood dream?

My answer:
I can't say that I had a childhood dream in particular. My dreams change constantly, and that has been true all my life.

I don't put much stock in the "future" - never have - there's only right now for me. We have NO guarantees about having a future so why invest your energy in it? You can waste all of today doing that.

Not even God changes the past, and the future may never come, so I prefer to just focus on this moment right now and enjoy it. You can spend your life belaboring the past or longing for the future or wishing away the present.

I just "live" in this moment, am thankful for the dreams I've gotten to live already, assume others will come my way in good time, remain grateful for the experiences that have given me the perspective I have today, and let the rest of it fall where it may.