When we die, I am convinced that God will review our life with us.  I’m sure He will laugh, cry and sigh with us as we “review” our personal journey on this blue marble in the void of the universe.  And yet, there are moments in our everyday lives where I believe we get a glimpse of what’s to come.

Before that review however, we’re here to do what it is we do.  Sometimes, it feels as though there is no purpose, no tack to our lives.  Almost as if we are boats cast adrift in a huge, impersonal ocean that tosses us wherever it desires.

Many of us live hectic, frantic, “lives of quiet desperation,” as Thoreau would say.

And, as Thomas Hobbes wrote:

…the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.

We race from meeting to appointment, from social gathering to class, from the office to home to rest our head.

And then we repeat the process 6 or so hours later seemingly all within the singular vacuum of our own personal struggles, trials, triumphs.

Yet, we all find time to stop for the ducks.

“Everyone Stops for the Ducks”

My bride (I call her my Loverly Wife) made this comment the other day as we were running around getting errands done with our sons, That’s My Boy and Attaboy.  And she’s dead right!

We were swinging out of  a strip mall parking lot next to a pond or catch basin when a family of Canadian geese were walking across the entranceway.  Cars in both directions just stopped to watch the mommy and daddy geese squawk their admonitions to their half dozen, furry goslings.

To peer into the cars waiting for this short parade to pass, it was remarkable to see folks grinning from ear to ear.  Imagine that; we’ve all got places to go, people to see, yet when a short, fuzzy parade halts our movement, we still have the capacity to sit still and admire the ducks on parade.

Do We Stop To Consider The Ducks?

Yet, here’s where I wonder if we are paying attention, at all, to what is going on around us.  Do we ever consider how these geese get along, day to day, finding food, finding shelter, raising a family?  And yet, day after day, these geese make the traffic stop as they go about their business.

Contrast their seemingly random wanderings in their daily lives with our own ability to plan, scheme and execute our plans.  We schedule our days to “maximize” our time to accomplish our goals, whatever they may be on a given day.  We think that if we can plan out our days to the minute that somehow a reward of sorts is waiting for us.

But we’re the ones that wait for the ducks to cross.  The ducks that simply do what they are supposed to do, regardless of schedules, goals or timelines.

Ducky Grace

I can’t help but wonder if we aren’t supposed to exercise a little grace for ourselves when our day just doesn’t go the way we planned.  As I type out these thoughts, I am in the midst of planning multiple showings and appointments with my clients in the next few days.  Very few of these appointments are staying pinned down on my calendar and I’m frustrated.

Frustrated that the schedule is not coming together the way I want it to come together.

That’s the point, isn’t it?  Life is a journey, not a destination.  Without these bobs and weaves, life would be too predictable.  Boring, even.

That’s My Boy saw me admiring his artwork yesterday morning.  He insisted I take this to my office and hang it up where “your clients and co-workers can see it.  It’ll make ‘em smile!”

That’s My Boy << for a reason!

You taught me to be nice, so nice that now I am so full of niceness, I have no sense of right and wrong, no outrage, no passion.  ~Garrison Keillor

Passion scares us, doesn’t it?

Passion in other people is such a polarizing characteristic.  Between my own two ears, I can admit that I think Olympians are nuts.  They spend all their waking hours practicing, honing and repeating their routines over and over again.  And the only thing I can think of that would drive someone to that level of repetition, that level of obsession, is passion.

Mommy Taught Me to be Nice

Passion scares because it’s not nice!  Passion forces us to make judgments and decisions.  By claiming to be a fan of the University of Michigan, I am deciding to not support other collegiate teams.

Is that “nice” of me to not support the other colleges?

Of course, this is a piddly little analogy.  But extrapolate the thought out: if I am passionate about my family, I am expressly NOT passionate about others’ families.  This is not to intimate that I (or you, dear reader) shouldn’t care about those around me.  It is simply to point out that my passion for my family drives me to lengths far greater than what I would extend myself for others’ families.

And that’s not nice.

As children, we were taught to be nice.  As a father to a couple of young men in process, I am repeating this training.  My young men are learning what it means to be nice to each other, to their parents, grand parents and everyone else.  But this training in niceness needs to be tempered with a healthy understanding of tolerance.

Being nice to the point of loosing your grasp of right and wrong, black and white is to obliterate any personal responsibility one should feel.  If all is relative…if all is nice, then there is no standard by which ANYONE can claim this is better or that is better; this is good or that is bad.

An Overdose of Niceness

You ever run into someone who just effervesces niceness?  I mean, is SO nice, you come away with one of two opinions:

• There’s an ulterior motive behind the niceness;
• You think they have no idea what THEY believe themselves.

Frankly, I believe many people can put up with passionate folks simply because you know where they stand.  They are almost like a lighthouse from which you can draw your own bearings.  Think Al Gore and the environment or Rush Limbaugh and politics.  You KNOW where those two stand: they allow themselves to BE the label of their passion.

Folks right down the middle of any issue or topic are just flat out milquetoast.  Kinda like pushing a string or limp noodle.

Nice and Business Don’t Mix…Do they?

I would argue that there is no way that a passionate businessperson could be nice to anyone standing in their way!  Gary Vaynerchuck is PASSIONATE about wine.  Check out what his passion did for his family’s business, Wine Library:

Customers depended on Gary for his advice and within a five year time period, Wine Library grew from a $4 million dollar business to a $45 million business.

And really, who can blame Gary?  I mean, I like a good, solid bordeaux as much as the next guy.  In fact, maybe a bit more.  But Gary’s passion for the grape goes beyond a great bottle with great friends.  He wants everyone to enjoy the grape and understand the grape in a fun, non-stuffy way.

Is he “nice” to competitors?  Ummmm…  Nope!  He doesn’t pour himself into their efforts.  He is passionate about wine and is doing all he can to bring more attention to his family’s business….not someone his competition’s.

Passion

What are you passionate about?  What gets your blood pumping?  Are you doing what makes your blood pump or are you simply limping from day to day?

“When you have a job, you can’t wait for the day to end.  When you have an occupation, you can’t wait for the day to start!”

The real estate profession gets my blood moving.  Sales, marketing, technology and solving folks’ real estate needs has been a great substitute for my political addiction!

A full dance card on ‘Good Behavior!’  There’s a reason I call him “That’s my boy!”

[happy dance]

From Mr. Tony Woodlief, à la C.S. Lewis from the Screwtape Letters:

Solicitation Number: 666-ACKH-666666


Title: Request for Proposals, Levity in Limbo


Synopsis: The purpose of this announcement is to seek qualified contractors with the capability to provide presentations for The Department of Eternal Torment, Low-Grade Irritation and Annoyance Management Team with experience in meeting the objectives as described herein.


The Contractor shall provide eleven 43-hour Levity in Limbo programs that will discuss the importance of humor in close quarters, the relationship between humor and an ability to dream up fresh ways of tormenting our charges, and why humor is one of the best ways to stay grounded below ground. Participants shall experience how to develop short humorous skits of everyday work life in Hell. The presenter shall refrain from any reference to He Who Shall Not Be Mentioned, and endeavor to stay on schedule. This is a business environment and we need the presenter to address a business audience. As there is no leaving Hell, all Contractors must already be dead with their souls forfeit. Special preference will be given to post-1990 Saturday Night Live writers, morning drive-time radio personalities, and anyone responsible for employing Pauly Shore, Gilbert Gottfried, or Bob Saget.

Tony’s humorous take on a Request for Proposal in hell is in response to this actual RFP put out by the U.S. Department of Treasury:

“Participants shall experience demonstrations of cartoons being created on the spot. The contractor shall have the ability to create cartoons on the spot about BPD [Bureau of Public Debt] jobs.”

Of course, Tony is better at putting words together much more eloquently than I…so go read him!

Seriously, Penn can be caustic, down right hilarious and sometimes VERY insightful.

Here’s one of the instances where Penn Jillette cuts right to the heart of the matter.  As a vocal atheist, he points out a glaring issue with much of today’s church…

…and he is right…

How much do you have to hate someone to NOT tell them about what you believe?  Or do you really believe if you’re not willing to tell anyone?

[youtube 7JHS8adO3hM]

It’s a fine evening, so why not go for a walk around the neighborhood!  This also gave me the opportunity to try out the auto post feature on Posterous.

Technology is a riot!  Take the photo on the phone, email the photo to posterous and it shows up on my blog…

How’re you using technology in your daily life?

This process of throwing a photo on to my blog seems superfluous to me, but it shows how easy it is to communicate these days.  Now, to communicate more things of value!

T

Posted via email from todd’s posterous