Tag Archives: philosophy
How to Be Awesome
I’m transitioning to another phase in life. My job as an interpreter at Old World Wisconsin is ending for the season. Working for minimum wage at a living history museum was one of the most awesome choices I’ve ever made. I decided to spend my time doing something that I found interesting and valuable instead of compromising my satisfaction to make a bigger paycheck. However, I want to do better. I want to do something even more significant and important with my time and energy, something more socially responsible, more environmentally responsible, more philosophically moral. I don’t know what that will turn out to be… yet. A blogger friend posted this Oprah quote and got me thinking: “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” (Thanks, Susan from skedazzles!) I want to prepare myself for my next awesome choice and make sure that I am open and aware of opportunities. Something will undoubtedly fall into my lap. As I was talking to Steve about this, we were actually living an example. Here’s what happened…
Driving home from the grocery store, I noticed a black Labrador trotting down the street toward the park without an owner in sight. After I’d unpacked the groceries and made lunch, I heard a woman calling outside. I went out to ask if she was looking for a black dog. She was, and I told her where I’d seen it. About a half hour later, Steve and I went out to take a walk. The woman was still looking for the dog; she told us that it belonged to her niece who lives around the corner from us at a house with a “For Sale by Owner” sign. So we went walking in the direction of the park. We heard someone calling a dog down by the river and learned that another couple was looking for a German shepherd named Corky. We told them that there was also a lab named Drake on the loose. We resumed our walk. A little while later, it started raining, and we headed back toward home. We saw Corky’s folks turning their van into an adjacent park across the street. They called to us and told us they’d found the lab down by the bridge. They hadn’t found Corky yet, though. When we got to the bridge, there was Drake, secured to a post by a leash, presumably donated by Corky’s folks. So we untied him and walked him home. By then, it was pouring. About a block from home, a car was driving slowly down the street. I guessed it was the woman looking for Drake. She was incredibly excited and pleased to see us leading the dog homeward. Her niece was at work on her first day back from maternity leave and had asked her aunt to let the dog out at lunch. Now I imagine this young mother, worried about leaving her dog and baby and going back to work. I’m soaking wet, but loading the dog into auntie’s car, I felt awesome. I had been out in my neighborhood, just paying attention to my surroundings, and was able to help someone out. I wasn’t trying very hard at all, but I was open to events as they unfolded. It was a very satisfactory afternoon.
Outside of the Box
System, structure, dogma, convention, party line, category, pigeon-hole. There are all kinds of ways to get living beings corralled into something that some authority will find manageable. And then there are those of us who defy this kind of tidy dismissal. Here are two examples that I photographed on my walk yesterday:
Here’s to all you defiant ones! Thank you for teaching me a thing or two…
Do Something and Do Nothing
I would like to change the world. I would like to see less violence involving guns. I would like to see more wild and rural land reclaimed from developed areas. I would like to see more tolerance and listening and compassion. I would like to see more curiosity and play and wonder and less capitalism, competition, and greed. I am never going to be an “expert” at anything, and I don’t want to market myself or make disciples. How can I make an impact?
“Integrity,” Steve says. Know your vision and live it. Don’t be afraid to do something and don’t be too busy to do nothing.
I can imagine myself being afraid to do something because I don’t have enough information, or I haven’t figured out exactly what the “right” thing to do is. I will never know the perfect solution, but I don’t have to settle for inaction. I can imagine jumping on some band wagon and stumping away at a project because others are encouraging me, without thinking critically or allowing time for observation to inform me. I can imagine myself feeling obligated or slipping into habit and just going on and on. I don’t want to do any of that. I really want to live out of a peaceful center, spontaneously responding with integrity to the issues that I face. And I want to be able to accept the fact that I may not be noticed…and that I may.
I am a visual person, too. I like examples, illustrations. Who lives like this? Gandhi. Thich Nhat Hahn. Pete Seeger. Anyone else? You tell me.
Humanity
Curiosity, creativity, collaboration, compassion.
Spontaneity, self-esteem, self-reliance, morality.
Ignorance, competition, capitalism, aggression.
Complaint, dogma, habit, paranoia.
Love and appreciation.
Ego and aversion.
Open.
Closed.
I observe humanity, myself included. What’s been in the news and on my mind? Landing a roving data-collector on Mars. The fatal shootings at a Sikh gurdwara here in Wisconsin. (My sister is a Sikh.) Drought and global warming. Conversations with Steve about who we want to be, how we want to live, what risks we are willing to take, what new modes of being we want to develop. Trying to see my inner self and assess it with honesty and compassion. Hoping and yearning for my children. Monitoring my energy.
We are living. We claim and generate energy, all the time. The flow of that energy is governed by our choices. (Ours and other living things’, although we humans are the ones who make cognitive choices. Plants, animals, planets and cosmic particles participate in that flow differently.) We are responsible for our choices. Are we looking carefully and critically at those choices? Are we blaming some other source for the results of our choices? Are we even aware of the results or do we look the other way?
7 billion people. We are making an impact on the Universe. Do we like the results we observe? Can we do better? Can I do better?
Living Inside Out
Denholm Elliott in the Merchant Ivory production of “A Room With a View” portrays one of my favorite wise characters. I love the scene at the pensione when he’s trying to convince two women unhappy with their accommodations to take his room which has a view.
“I don’t care what I see outside! My vision is within. Here is where the birds sing! Here is where the sky is blue!”
He is gesticulating with his dinner fork, poking himself in the heart all the while. Sometimes I need a good poke in the heart as well to wake up that inner vision. I find myself feeling bored and peevish, discontent with my fortune. Why a traffic ticket now? Why didn’t I get that early bird discount? What am I supposed to do with myself when it’s 95 degrees out, I’m wearing a tight corset, I’m at work, there are no visitors to talk to, and I’ve got no chores to do? Why am I feeling so stuck?!? Because I’m not taking responsibility and I’m not living from the inside out. I am waiting for the outside world to stimulate and satisfy me.
And the outside world would love to take over that job! There are a million things to distract and entertain and lead you from one external thing to the next. I spent 4 hours this morning at the Wisconsin State Fair, manning the Tourism booth in my 19th Century costume. A quick tour after my shift was all I needed to grab a lamb sandwich and some fresh roasted corn on the cob. I passed up all kinds of brightly colored, noisy stuff. I don’t need a chamois cloth or a giant roller coaster ride or chocolate covered bacon on a stick. They’re not really going to make me happy. I want to be satisfied from within, and I want that for my children. I tend to worry about their fortunes, too. How are they going to get a job? How are they going to pay off those student loans? How are they going to get around if their cars break down? I find myself getting anxious and peevish on their behalf, too. But really, more than catching a break, I want them to catch that inner vision. I want them to be able to be satisfied and happy and enthusiastic about life no matter what their outward circumstances show.
An inner life. Unassailable, regenerating, like solar energy that continues for millenniums. Do we even teach our children to cultivate that anymore? How are we supposed to have a moral compass if we don’t? How does a nation of outwardly motivated and distracted people develop a moral compass to guide their democratic process? I wonder about these things…..
Playground Photos
Earthbound, solid structures surround me. My eyes shoot upward toward the moon. Life is so much more than my immediate environment. Hard and colorful outlines are surely blurry and insignificant when viewed from that other orb. I must remember this. I freeze the thought in a frame…and wish I could expand the edges to infinity.
Team Spirit
The world is gearing up for another Olympic Games. National pride, sportsmanship, individual performance, athleticism, courage, and victory will be concepts that will get much press in the near future, I suspect. I like to push out the boundaries of concepts and see how they all interconnect and create a bigger picture. In this arena, I’m going to put all of those issues under one large banner: humanity. The Olympics give us an opportunity to look at humanity, albeit through a particular lens, and witness ourselves. What do we have in common? What are the responses available to us in certain circumstances? How do role models give us a glimpse into the possibilities we carry in ourselves? When I was growing up in the 70s, I would glue myself to the TV and soak in all those “up close and personal” stories. I found them fascinating and inspiring. Now that I have lived to be (almost) 50, I have lived some stories of my own that have taught me about being human. One of those is the story of watching my husband die of diabetes.
Human beings experience suffering; that’s one thing we all have in common. We can learn information and we can gain understanding and compassion by looking into that suffering and asking questions. What is causing this suffering? How does it feel? How can I help? The Galasso family looked into diabetes for the first time in 1991, when Jim was diagnosed. After he died in 2008, my oldest, Susan, came up with a way that we could help those who suffer from it. She organized the first Team Galasso and walked with 2 of her siblings in a fund-raiser event in Urbana, IL sponsored by the American Diabetes Association. The next year, she moved to Madison and Steve and I walked with her. Last year, the entire family gathered in Madison (including Susan’s fiance, Andy) to continue the effort. This year, the walk is being held on Jim’s birthday, August 26. How fitting is that?!
Team Galasso 2011
I invite you all to participate in this Team effort by making a donation to the ADA via my sponsor page here. I also invite you to spend some time considering your part in Team Humanity, asking your own questions about being human, about suffering, about living in a body. Who do you want to be? How do you want to live? What will your life model and inspire? My youngest daughter got her first tattoo a few months ago. She chose a typewriter font over her left shoulder, above her heart, to illustrate one of her dad’s most memorable maxims: “Pain is inevitable; misery is optional.” I am honored to be part of this team, this family of humanity. I want to acknowledge and include every member and recognize that each one is trying to work out the answers to those questions, even though there are destructive results in the process. I’ve had mine, you’ve had yours. We can learn and do better. I believe that. Thank you for your participation!
Adventure!
The season for Old World Wisconsin ends in October. Steve and I are gearing up for a 2-3 week road trip. We have about 9 possible itineraries, National Forests and Parks mostly. We’ve come to call this “our trip to metaphorical Maine” because although Maine is one of the top contenders, it is really just serving as the title of an unknown eventual destination. This is how Steve prefers to travel, and he is teaching me to appreciate the spirit of living in the moment rather than planning for safety and control. Not that Steve is an “extreme” kind of guy, a risk-taker for the sake of it, or anything like that. It’s really more a Zen kind of thing of being aware of conditions as they arise and dancing with them rather than putting on blinders and sticking to a railroad track.
We recently borrowed the DVD of “The Sheltering Sky” starring Debra Winger and John Malkovich. I’m sure the book was better, but the film has some terrific cinematic landscapes and brings up a lot of interesting questions. Like, “What is the difference between a tourist and a traveler?” A tourist wants the comforts of home. A traveler seeks adventure. I recently had a conversation with a co-worker who talked about a visit to France and only mentioned that there were no bugs or birds and that French waiters substitute Sprite for lemonade. This guy never thought he’d leave the country in his lifetime. Maybe he shouldn’t have!
I feel like I have been working on my personal demons (neuroses, grief, all that baggage) and have gained some courage and self-confidence since our last big trip. I did have one memorable meltdown in a rest stop off the highway in the pouring rain from about 2-4 in the a.m. That was April of 2011, and we were on the road for 4 weeks. Here’s a shot taken somewhere near the Colorado River in Utah that illustrates one of the many decision discussions we had. Do you want to take this road or not? Why?
There’s no “right answer” and there’s no judgement, Steve told me. “I just want to know what you think about when you make decisions.” What are we here for? What do we call “living”? Is it “to be safe and have children and grandchildren”? Is it “to learn to praise God and serve Him”? There are a million ways to answer that question. Steve describes his answer to me every time we have a conversation. He wants to meet life with awareness, engage in nuance and complexity, question and think critically, try to discover delusion, respond in the moment to what is before him, and participate in the adventure of living, as holistically as he can. Yesterday, I read a short science fiction story by E.M. Forster called “The Machine Stops”. It describes a futuristic world where the human race is run by Machine and never ventures to the surface of the earth. It’s eerie how much that could be the life of modern individuals plugged into the Internet with no experience of the physical phenomenons of Earth. What kind of life do I really want to live? What kind of courage do I have to face the adventure of living? Do I prefer comfort to challenge? These are good questions to take out for a road test. I’m looking forward to it!
Half Way Around
Traveling ’round the sun, it seems we’re always half way done. Imagining the opposites, the contrasts, the dualistic ideals. If what is happening now is somehow unsatisfying, we’ve only to think that on the other side of the globe, things are completely different. Somewhere, life is cool and peaceful while we struggle with heat and violence.
scillagrace 