Tap Dancing

My father is 87 years young.

He has just signed up to take tap dancing lessons. Not just one class either. He is taking two different classes with different teachers and sets of students. Both of them are oriented towards seniors. Both are introductory level. In the first class, which started today, he is the oldest and the only man! I'll find out Thursday the composition of the second class but I suspect it will be similar.

I am very impressed with and proud of my Dad. The courage it takes to start something new at that age is inspiring. The willingness to look silly as you learn new "moves" is fabulous! How many people his age (or younger) are not only willingly and able to do that, but more importantly, how many ARE doing it?! I wonder, as I compare his ability to be goofy with my own or with my kids (his grandchildren), who is young and who are the old fuddy-duddies.

Learning new things, trying different approaches and being prepared to take risks are some of the ways that keep us young in heart, spirit and body. What a role model he is! In all these ways and more, I am so happy to have him to look up to, to love and respect.

Threads

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as courses, and they come back to us as effects.
Herman Melville

One of the book series I have read is the "Ender" series by Orson Scott Card - starting with "Ender's Game", "Speaker for the Dead", "Xenocide" etc (plus all the newer ones that involve other characters' perspectives). I like these books for a number of the usual reasons - great characters, intriguing plot, interesting dilemmas etc.

OSC adds to these by introducing unusual philosophies. In some cases he does this by extrapolating from those present in today's societies but he also seems to me to create new philosophies.

At one point in Xenocide, he introduces the concept of the philotic web. This idea is that all souls, all people, are connected to each other by invisible strings, by a web. And you can pull those strings, bringing to you the one (the person or capability) you need. Effectively this is done by very strong wish and desire. I have always liked this idea, and personally have found amazing truth to it both when I have tried it for myself and in observing other people’s lives.

It reminds me somewhat of Greek mythology and the Tapestry of Life - but that isn't quite accurate. There are similarities but is not the same. I've never seen a comparable idea of strings and webs discussed anywhere else and he only uses it as a tool in the book (rather than as an underlying philosophy). So it may be an original idea?

This quote, while again not really the same concept, builds upon of the philosophy. It too has much truth in it. Both make me look at the connections I have with other people differently.

Have you ever heard of or thought about connections as threads or strings before?

Monday's Quote - Goethe

"The realization of the self is only possible if one is productive, if one can give birth to one's potentialities." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Most, if not all, of the quotes I have come across from Goethe seem to me to contain much wisdom. They frequently make it into my word document where I store quotes of interest to me or that resonate for one reason or another. His quotes frequently resonate with me. But I know little of the man. German. A philosopher. That's about it.

This particular quote resonates in two ways. First it advises that one must be productive. One must produce. Usually that means produces results of some kind. It is well and good to think, ponder, and learn but without results to show for the time spent on those efforts - no realization of self, no birth of potentialities can take place. Productivity is a result of actions taken. Of acting and learning from those experiences. Of trial and error. Of progressive steps. One's potential becomes stillborn without these actions, without the productivity.

It also resonates with me as he refers to one's potentialities. There are unborn potentials in all of us. These wait to appear, to bloom, to grow, as either need or opportunity present themselves. We often have no idea of all of the wonderful things we are capable of, until we take action. Until we are productive.

What actions can I take, can you take, today? Tomorrow?

Tranquility and Calm

In the National Gallery of Art
There is a spot that calms my heart

An atrium of windows to the sky
I quietly sit, watching the clouds go by

Through panes of glass, the sun brightly shines
Bringing warmth to the gallery's cool, clean lines

Here I love to come and sit
To write, to draw, or think a bit

To ponder the art that I've just seen
Or dreams of places that I have been

When others enter, there is sound
Else very quiet, when none abound

The guards peek in and out
Unobtrusive yet still about

Leaving you to your private thoughts
Whether silly poems or novel plots

Here one can sit and quietly write
Drenched in rays of the sun's bright light

I wonder what it's like when it rains
How loud or echoed the sound on those panes?

Do they in winter stay covered in snow?
I must return then, so I will know

Every time that I've been here
I plan to return often, my thoughts to clear

Rarely has it happened that way
To my normal routine, I stick and stay

Unless visitors come that I can take
A special trip to the Gallery, I rarely make

I really should become a member
And visit more often - May, June or December

This is a place that can make you whole
Let you relax, think and calm your soul.

Learning Techniques

They say the best way to learn is by doing. And that a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

Step.

I want to learn how to write better. I intend to write a book. Am I capable of writing a book that people want to read? I truly do not know. Time will tell. Much research needs to be done and much hard work invested before a single word is typed on the manuscript.

Some people seem to be born writers. They have loved it since they were first taught the use of the alphabet. All they have ever wanted to do was write. I am NOT one of them. The pen scares me. I am unsure of my skill and my voice. I have been told I write well. So why the fear and dread those times I have decided to write?

They say the best way to conquer fear is by doing the thing you fear. Good advice, I suspect (unless your fear is of death). So I will take this small step by writing here - in this blog. I'm unsure today what I will use the blog to write about - thus the name - to be determined.

Another technique for learning is to obtain constructive feedback. So while my first inclination is to use this as a private, practice journal, I have decided to leave it open for comments.

Thank you in advance for help or encouragement!