FUN FIRST!

MONTHS

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2007

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2006

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JULY, 2009

•  "What do you know about women?" "I got seven wives.  How many you got?"  "Why aren't you home with your seven wives?"  "I know how to marry them.  Nobody knows how to live with them." (from The Gods Must Be Crazy)  This is a big laugh line in the movie.  A lot of people, men and women, have expressed similar feelings about living with a spouse.  It can be challenging.  I however am about to face a different challenge.  My wife is on her way to Greece today for a month.  Unlike the poor guy in the movie, I've figured out how to live with a wife quite well.  My question is how well will I be able to live without her. One of my key principles is that Life is Fun.  Now we'll get to see how well Mr. Life is Fun holds up without her.   
•  Pay attention to little children. They see things simply. Often the simple way is the right way.
•  Painting is a lot like life.  If you don't like something about the way a painting is progressing, you can paint over it and try something else.  You aren't stuck with every brush stroke you make.  You can paint and repaint and keep changing it until you're satisfied.  If you're not happy with some aspect of your life you're not stuck with it.  Pull out the brushes and make a masterpiece.
•  After stating that we are endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the Founders go on in the Declaration of Independence to list their grievances against King George III.  My personal favorite is: "He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance."  I'll leave you to ponder on your own the progress we've made as a country on that front in the last 233 years.  My point here is that we, as individuals, often do to ourselves what George III was doing to the colonists.  We impose on ourselves all sorts of fears, doubts, worries, and concerns that are as useless and destructive to us as a swarm of colonial government officials.  Declare your own independence today.  Don't let this swarm "eat out your substance" and keep you from exercising your right to pursue happiness.  Revolt! Your freedom is yours for the taking.  
•  One day I was sitting in the yard with our dog.  Suddenly, he spied a squirrel and took off after it.  The squirrel jumped on a tree, ran up, and fell off on the other side of the fence.  It was safe.  The dog couldn't jump the fence.  But the squirrel didn't know that.  It didn't understand the fence was protecting it.  It just knew it was on the ground and so was the dog.  It jumped back on the tree, climbed, and fell off on the dog's side of the fence.  The squirrel did manage to escape but its ignorance almost got it killed.  Just because you've always done it doesn't mean it's not stupid now.  We need to observe our changing circumstances and adjust our behavior accordingly.   
•  On this date in 1535, Thomas More lost his head.  He was executed on the orders of Henry VIII.  Thomas More is one of my heroes for many reasons not the least of which is his sense of humor.  He was derided by his critics because he was jesting even as he climbed the gallows.  He tripped on his way up and one of the guards reached out to help him.  He said, "I can make my own way up but I'll need some help coming down."  A sense of humor can get you through the darkest hours.  Finding humor in your life starts with not taking yourself too seriously.  Thomas More had that figured out.
•  Can you relax?  Are you capable of it?  Letting your mind wander to pleasant thoughts and taking your body off the treadmill of "doing something"?  We tend to associate "productive" with "busy" but this is not the case.  Great inspirations tend to come from a relaxed, playful mind.  "Busy" may just be locking you into a grind that gets you nowhere.  Like pacing feverishly back and forth.  You might be working hard but you're not going anywhere.  Just digging yourself into a rut.
•  "There is only one inborn error, and that is the notion that we exist in order to be happy." (Arthur Schopenhauer)  Schopenhauer is wrong.  Things may not always go the way we like and sometimes will be downright unpleasant but that does not mean our happiness is unattainable.  If you look at the good, instead of dwelling on the not so good, you can be happy almost all the time.  Be grateful.  It will bring you happiness and joy no matter what Arthur says.
•  When someone tells you their dream, don't tell them why it won't work. Encourage them to pursue it. It may work. It may lead them to a different dream that works. The pursuit of the dream will improve them no matter what.
•  Spent yesterday at the zoo.  You can learn a lot at the zoo from watching the animals.  Here are a few things I learned: 1) Sleep is good. Particulary, sleeping in the sun. 2) Playing in the water is good whenever you decide to stop sleeping in the sun. 3) Life is not very stressful when you do a lot of 1 and 2.  The animals have relaxing down to a fine art.  Go and do the same.   
•  Laughter is nourishment. If you’re not laughing a lot, you’re starving yourself to death.
•  Mosquitos are the deadliest animal in the world because they take disease from one infected being and transfer it to healthy people making them sick.  Sounds a lot like gossip to me.  Don't be a mosquito.
•  My gym used to have a mechanical rock climbing wall.  It was like a vertical treadmill with hand and footholds that would keep coming around.  You had to climb feverishly to stay in one spot.  It was a good workout.  You got to climb without ever being more than a few feet of the ground and it always held the possiblility of falling off in front of an audience.  The machine was in the front of a room full of treadmills, exercise bikes, etc.  Very few people used it.  They didn't like the idea of being on display.  This was good for me because I never had to wait to use it.  I figured if anybody wanted to watch, it was nice I could provide some entertainment value.  I only fell off twice.  Unfortunately, I didn't have an audience either time.  It was a shame to waste something that comical.  Oh, well.  Fear of embarrassment can keep you from really enjoying your life.  Singing, dancing, starting a business, any number of things can be squelched by fear of embarrassment.  You owe it to yourself to risk embarrassment.  Who really cares if people laugh at you?  If you persist, they'll all be envying you before too long for your courage and success whether they started out laughing or not.
•  Today is my mother's birthday.  It's also Bastille Day.  The day the French Revolution started when a mob stormed the Bastille Prison.  My mom liked being born on Bastille Day.  She felt a certain kinship with rabblerousers.  One of my favorite memories of my mom is driving one day past a junior high school that had just let out for the day.  A group of kids was walking down the middle of the street.  When we pulled up behind them, they moved off to the side so we could get through.  All but one kid that is.  He decided he was going to stay in front of the car so we'd be stuck behind him.  He looked back at us with contempt and slowly walked along.  My mom very gently rolled up and tapped him with the bumper.  He decided to get out of the road.  After she did it, mom was mortified.  But, she's always been a hero to me for doing it.  Tyrants, big or small, beware!  Thanks mom!
•  "The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes." (Winston Churchill)  Yes, we are.  It's very easy to be dismissive of people who have a bad track record but that can be dangerous.  Even the most foolish person shouldn't be ignored.  Evaluate what they say but don't automatically write them off.  Doing that makes you the fool. 
•  "Win Back Your Hair!" [What!  Like I lost it in a poker game. "Yeah, I used to have a full head of hair but I lost it to Rod Blagojevich in a poker game.  All that extra hair has brought him nothing but trouble, though."]  I've been greeted by this banner ad every day for a week on Yahoo!  What would I do with hair?  Being bald is good for a constant stream of cheap laughs.  If I had hair, I'd actually have to become funny.  Change is often good but it needs to come from a true desire within.  Don't change just because someone else thinks its a good idea.
•  Abraham Lincoln said: "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time."  What he didn't say is the person we're best at fooling is ourselves.  We can get in a rut and tell ourselves we can't get out.  We convince ourselves that it is is the only way it can ever be.  If we're honest, we have to recognize that change is only a choice away.  We may not be able to avoid fooling ourselves completely but at least we can move into the "some of the time" category.  If we pay attention to our thoughts, we ought to be able to catch ourselves so we don't stay fooled for very long.  
• I discovered this language on the package of a nutritional supplement I used to take: "Results may vary:  the appearance of the models on the packaging is not guaranteed for consumers of this product."  Whoa!  You mean drinking this stuff isn't going to make me look like the big, chiseled-muscled guy with the full head of hair lifting weights on the box?  You know, I never expected to look like the beautiful woman on the box but I figured looking like the guy was going to be a no-brainer!!  Alas, such is life.  If I want to look like the guy on the box, I can probably get close (except for the hair) but I'm going to have to do a lot more than run the blender and drink its contents.  There are no "one drink" solutions in life.  Whatever your goal, you're going to have to work diligently at it and not give up.  Looking for the magic potion to get you there isn't going to work.  
•  "Won't Get Fooled Again," The Who's 1971 song about the nature of government, [I always figured this would be my campaign theme song if I ever ran for office but most people probably wouldn't get the joke] concludes with the classic line "Meet the new boss-- same as the old boss."  The boss may change but the nature of the boss never does.  This applies in our personal lives as well.  We are the boss.  If we want our lives to be different, we have to change.  If the new boss is the same as the old boss, the new life will not differ from the old life.  The character of the boss has to improve if our lives are going to improve.  What's a characteristic you want the new boss to have?  What's the first step you can take to develop it?  Take it now.  Don't get fooled again.
•  I used to use a blow dryer to dry my hair.  At the time, it made sense because I actually had quite a bit of hair.  Eventually, it became silly.  It probably became silly quite awhile before I realized it was silly, though.  That's the way it is.  Something that was important to you at some time in the past becomes useless to you but you don't notice because seeing it as important is now a habit.  That's why it's good to have a life goals list and to review it at least a couple times a year.  Reviewing the list gives you the chance to stop and notice the things that may no longer be important to you and let you refocus your energy on the things that are.  Maybe I should take being a model for shampoo ads off my list!
•  They had a test for teacher position applicants where I went to grade school.  They'd read the applicant the Bible story where Jesus healed a woman on the Sabbath who had been crippled for 18 years.  If the applicant agreed with the Pharisees that Jesus was wrong because there were rules against such things, then they got the job.  Ok, I made that up.  But rules become useless when they get diconnected from the reason they were created.  Look at your life.  Are you following some "rules" but don't know why?  If you can't figure out the underlying purpose, maybe you need to rethink why you're doing what you're doing.   
•  It's my birthday!  I've been celebrating for a few days and may continue for a few more.  That's why you haven't heard from me for a couple days.  Too busy goofing off.  If you want to give me a present, reply to this email and let me know if getting these daily (well almost daily) messages is helpful or entertaining to you.  Thanks for reading! 
•  Thanks to everyone who sent me a birthday greeting.  I appreciate it.  When I turned 40, I remember thinking: "  Gee, I didn't think I'd still be this stupid when I turned 40."  When I turned 50 a few years back, I'm pleased to report that I no longer had this problem.  By 50, I fully expected to still be this stupid.  Now, I just think it's funny.  What I mean by stupid is making mistakes.  I'm still making a lot of mistakes.  I finally figured out that mistakes are ok.  None of them have been fatal.  Many of them have led to important changes for the good.  Don't wait 50 years to learn the value of your mistakes.  Enjoy them today.  
•  Some people enjoy running.  I'm not talking about running with a purpose, like after an ice cream truck or away from their creditors, I'm talking about running for its own sake.  It makes them feel good.  This is not my experience.  I only experience pain when running.  I used to imagine people jumping out of the bushes and attacking me while I was running.  I guess being forced to fight for my life seemed more enjoyable than the incessant pounding of the run.  I could have concluded that running was stupid and set out to convince people who loved it that they were wrong.  This is often the approach we take when somone tells us they want to get involved in some kind of nontraditional calling.  It's not for us so it must be bad.  When you're tempted to tell somebody that their dream is a bad idea, stop yourself and go for a run.  The pain will distract you from spoiling other people's dreams.