Is there someone else I can speak with?

I recently watched Michael Palin, no relation, as the chaste Sir something or other, standing with the Knights of the Round Table outside a castle wall while insults and farm animals were being hurled at him, ask the simple question, "is there someone else we could speak with?" I've seen the movie a thousand times but it only just hit me like the Holy Grail that this is the question I have been wanting to ask!

Usually I just have a question I ask myself that helps me through the day, like "what was I thinking?" it works for about a year until I get it through my thick head. There are questions you could ask other people, like "what's your problem?" but they sound rude. "Is there someone else I could speak with" sounds polite, especially coming from Michael Palin.

But the real point is that when we ask that question, we are trying to change the situation. We are trying to put ourselves in a better situation. We are trying to improve our lot in life!

How many times do I wish I could have just asked, "is there someone else I could speak with?"

How many rude, unpleasant people and situations from cradle to grave could be solved so sweetly with just this question. Especially if it worked! It didn't for Michael Palin.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wider Eyes!

You see it in sports. A guy is standing at the plate and the catcher is sizing him up and the pitcher is bearing down on him, getting ready to make his life a living hell! He opens his eyes wider. He looks harder. All the while he is trying to make the pitcher think he isn't paying attention maybe, or maybe he wants to make the pitcher know full well that he is his worst nightmare, that it is the pitcher who will know living hell thanks to him; he shows him his wide eyes!

There are those among us that got the wrong memo. When thrust on the rocky cliff of life they choose to close their eyes, and the worse it gets the tighter they close them.

Stop! Open your eyes wider! That is the only hope you have! Across the board!

When life is too much, don't care less to ease the pain, care more! Caring less is like closing your eyes! I know too many people on medication to dull their pain. This is suicide! Nothing less! Like closing your eyes to an oncoming train! When you see that train coming, open your eyes wider and you can get out of the way!

If you can't navigate your way through what tastes good and what tastes bad in life, don't cut out your taste buds! Get good at navigating! Taste more! Learn the difference between shit and fresh cream! Your taste buds will tell you the difference between fresh and rotten, vital and rancid, healthful and poison, and so on. Your life depends on it!

Art is not superficial. It is a world rich in feelings and ideas, a story told with color and shape, mark and space, speed and light. It is an eyes wide open world! And when that world cares less? Care more! When that world feels less, feel more! When that world see less? See more! Your life depends on it!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone