Something Worth Remembering

mikemjensen History, Interesting Stuff (to me anyway), Life's Truths, Quote Tags: , , , 2 Comments

Hey Kids,

I’m not sure if there are people who wish to live forever.

I don’t mean in the Spiritual, Heaven-dwelling living forever. I mean by not dying. At least not for a long time. I know that no one really wishes to die young but with the average lifespan for men at 72 and 76 for women; are most people OK with that?

I’m not obsessed with death and I don’t really worry about when it’ll come. I hope not for a while and I hope it surprises me when it does. I agree with the late Olympian Bob Richards who wished to be shot at an old age by a jealous husband.

But when death comes, I hope to be remembered for at least a little while. I hope a few people are sad to see me go, or maybe know there will be a few who will miss me on the holidays. More importantly, I hope I did something worth remembering which is more important than being remembered.

I’m amazed by some people and the legacy they leave behind. The fact that their names and feats are remembered for years, centuries, and millenniums after they are gone; is remarkable. It’s never for the person just being a good person, but for what they accomplished and for what they did for humanity- sometimes good, sometimes bad.

But only one person I know of lived a life so respected that even his arm, when lost in battle, got its own grave marker. General Stonewall Jackson. He may have fought a losing war for a lost cause, but he did it with a style that’s still remembered today. He held his ground and inspired those around him to do the same.34a01bc8b5c09fa2a6dac87526d037bc

Over 150 years later, I tip my hat.

 

Day 176

Chaulk One Up for the French

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Hey Kids,

Surlendemain.

It’s the French word for the day after tomorrow.

When I was in France, I had a picture on my wall of Garfield the cat that read, “Never put off till tomorrow, that which you can put off till the day after”. In French of course. It’s from this picture I learned the French word. Later I learned this was a translated variation of a quote from Mark Twain, which in turn was a spin on a quote by Benjamin Franklin (Never put off till tomorrow what can be done today), which appears to be stolen from Philip Standhope, a British Statesman and Earl.13 - 1CAAGXQAX

Procrastination is a word I have known for a very long time. I don’t need a quote or a French/English dictionary to understand it. I tell myself I do well under pressure and that is why I like to let things go to the wire. But then again, I don’t concern myself too much with the wire either.

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” Douglas Adams, English writer.

I didn’t need that quote, but I like and agree with it.

Today, I did something different.

I threw some ribs and potatoes in the Dutch oven and let them cook all evening long. The smell in the house is fantastic!

They are not part of a late dinner, as one might suspect. But instead they are for lunch tomorrow. I am cooking proactively. Today anyway.

I’ll start my diet Surlendemain.

Day 175

I Still Want to Blame the Bike

mikemjensen Life's Truths, Motorcycles, Vanity Tags: , , , 8 Comments

Hey Kids,

It’s a sad day. The Suzuki is sick.

It’s been sick for a little while, but it’s not really sick; it’s been damaged by my repair efforts.

A little while ago, I decided it was time for the valves to be adjusted. I’ve done it before and had no worries about it. The bike had been running just fine, but it was well past the recommended 7500 mile adjustment. So I took a Saturday afternoon and adjusted the valves. Upon reassembly, the warning light came on. I had done something wrong. I had seen this happen before and that time it turned out to be simply a sensor not hooked up right. No big deal.

Next week, I tore it apart again and found no such bad sensor. Hooked it together and warning light came on again. Fine. I’ll figure it out. The engine wasn’t working exactly correct, but I’ll get it, I thought.

Please save me from my owner.

Please save me from my owner.

After work one day, I had a tremendous writing session. So good I spent some extra time to ride out the literary wave, only to discover that I left the key in the bike with the ignition on. Dead battery. Great. Got a jump and headed home. With a quick off and on, I tested the juice. The bike started right back up.

The next morning not so much. The battery didn’t hold enough of the juice to turn the starter. So I took the other bike instead. And then continued to take the other bike for the past several weeks.

Today, the Suzuki had no juice whatsoever. I jumped it again, rode for a while to charge it up. Figured I wouldn’t stop until I got back home and then try to restart it. Unfortunately, I paid too much attention to the parked cop I passed speeding and noticed the stop sign ahead just a little too late. I locked up the back tire stopping and stalled the engine. Despite riding for the past 30 minutes, the battery was still bone dead. Had to call for an emergency, mercy jump.

The bike is back home and I’ll pull the battery out and have it checked or replaced. And then I can get back to figuring out the Error light problem.

The poor thing. It just wants to run and I’ve let it sit.

I’m really angry with myself to allow things to deteriorate to this point. But then again.

How angry can you be when life has allowed you to have a second bike to ride during this whole time?

I’m back to realizing I’m facing a first world problem. Relax says I.

 

Day 174

South Pacific Smiles

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Hey Kids,

I’m envious of people who belong to colorful subcultures.

By a subcultures, I mean those groups that make you talk different, act different, and/or share many insider ideals and insider jokes.

I belong to a subculture, but it’s not so colorful, although it does have some benefits and I can’t disvalue it completely.001859

Tonight I attended a wedding of a staff member. He is Polynesian. The wedding was a mix of Samoan culture within a Mormon church, but it is the Polynesian color that bleeds through.

Food. I never knew I could pile so much food onto one plate. I could feel the plate bend under the weight. And was it good? Even the things I had no chance of pronouncing were amazing. The joke was that you could go back for fifths, but if you sought a sixth portion they might tell you no. Might.

Dance. Many dances were offered to the new couple. Men and women. No long speeches, just Hula-type dances in their honor.

Laughter. You will never come across a more outwardly happy people that Polynesians. They smile, they cheer, and they laugh at any opportunity to do so. It’s impossible to attend a gathering such as tonight and contain a smile.

I know it’s all in your attitude. And I know it’s not imperative to be Samoan in order to enjoy life.

But apparently it helps.

 

Day 173

First Time

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Hey Kids,

Just to show that there are always new frontiers out there, tonight I made Chinese Food for dinner.

I know it doesn’t take much to open some packages and a few cans, and some might not even count this as cookingminions_olaf, but I did it. It was marginally edible and I’ll see by tomorrow morning if I survived.

On another note and for the record, I stand politically opposed to Minions.

Please for the love of everything holy people, let it go. Ah crap, there’s another cartoon thing that I wish would go away.

 

Day 172

Plugging Along

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Hey Kids,

I’ve read a quote attributed to Stephen King. It reads:

“Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard either emotionally or imaginatively is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing to do is shovel shit from a sitting position.”

I’ve not been shy to say I’ve been struggling with finding the right path for my current work in progress. I think of quitting but keep plugging at it. I wonder if I can really write, if I’m fooling myself, if anyone even cares.2012.4.writing

And then today I received an email from a reader.

“I flew to Florida last week and was mesmerized by your book the whole time! Finished it during the flight and loved it!!! You are a fantastic writer with the ability to describe things such that they come alive in one’s mind. Great Job!”

I think I’ll keep plugging.

Day 171

Thanks Babe

mikemjensen Vanity Tags: , , 1 Comment

Hey Kids,

I haven’t always been this happy.

Recently, I came across a short writing that I obviously penned one morning a little while back. It described a typical morning during some personal dark times. Absolutely dreadful.morning

I had forgotten how depressing many of my mornings used to be. Reading that piece, which I don’t exactly remember writing but yet I do, I recalled many of the sad, self-destructive feelings I dealt with on a near daily basis. The contrast to how I feel today is shocking.

I don’t feel that way anymore. I don’t struggle like I did. I don’t feel helpless, hopeless, and alone like I did. I see the world in an entirely different light. I look forward to the future and enjoy the present.

I wasn’t really ever alone. I had friends who patiently watched me, encouraged me, and put up with me. I wouldn’t have. But there is the lesson.

I’ve heard many times that in order to love someone else, you need to love yourself first. I don’t agree with that. I hated myself. I despised my feeling of worthlessness, my weakness.

Despised!

I disgusted myself and then I would hate myself even more. Even thinking of those times when depression dropped to its lowest, I’m embarrassed of myself.

Don’t bother trying to tell me I shouldn’t. I do. And it’s my right to call myself out. My depression was based in my own weakness and my own inability to cope with the situation at the time. I apply that diagnosis only to me. Everyone else can call it however they see fit for them.

But I can tell you I loved the people who stood by me. Especially the one who had to deal with it every day. Although I tried to hide so much of it from her, she saw it and still had to live with it. Actually she didn’t have to; she chose to, and that made me, while hating myself, love her even more.

I kind of like me now, because she loved, and loves me still.

I’m no head shrink, but I can tell you when it came to loving me, someone else had to go first.

Day 170

First World Problems

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Hey Kids,

First World problems, they call them.

Those difficulties we face beyond the need to eat to stay alive, find warmth to avoid freezing, and the fear of surviving yet another day.

Listening to a staff member talk of his struggles of being forced out of his house, trucked away, left on a river bank to fend for his life, watching others die of starvation and disease, spending 18 years of his life in a refugee camp, stuck between two countries that want nothing to do with his people, and experiencing members of his family die due to the indifference; I realize my problems are pretty simple.first-world-problems

They’re still problems and they are mine with which to deal. With real consequences. At least in the world I live in. In contrast however, nothing I’m facing compares.

It wasn’t a life-changing epiphany today. In fact, I’ve been telling myself lately to relax and keep things in perspective. Today, hearing this man’s story confirms I’m onto something.

3G Wi-Fi isn’t the end of the world.

 

Day 169

Local Indifference

mikemjensen Life's Truths Tags: , , , , 2 Comments

Hey Kids,

Bryce Canyon has stood in its place for thousands, if not millions of years. I’m not a geologist but suffice to say, it’s been there for a long time. I have been alive for 49 years.

Of those 49 years, I waited about 46 of them before I visited Bryce Canyon National park. I’m ashamed that for the vast majority, of the majority, of my life, I’ve lived within 4 hours of Bryce Canyon and yet never visited, never asked to be taken there by my parents, never took my own kids, and never gave it much thought beyond, “I should go there some time.”IMG_20150809_133557

I have been there now three times. The last time being yesterday. The true beauty of Bryce Canyon, I feel, is in the trails down into the canyon and standing on the bottom looking up. We hiked 6 miles yesterday and only scratched the surface of the things to see. I can’t wait to return, but I’m also waiting to get back to Arches. And Zion’s. And …

I bought a pass over the past several years and have visited all the National Parks in my area. And not just once either. My sweetie and I go as often as we can, exploring the different trails, sights, and revisiting our favorites. What a blessing to have so many awe inspiring places close to my home.

Sometimes I worry that I wasted my time before by not incorporating these wonders earlier in my life. Maybe I should have shrugged off the local indifference and made more of an effort to enjoy them.

Fortunately for me, they weren’t going anywhere.

 

Day 168

As Good As A Poke With a Stick

mikemjensen Useless Observations Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Hey Kids,

It’s fire season.

That means lots of wildfires here in the West. Thousands if not millions of acres will burn. I don’t understand why?

Have you ever tried to start a fire? Have you been in charge of maintaining the fire? Have you ever needed a fire to cook your food? When you’re famished or had others waiting on you to feed them?

You work to get the kindling just right, the tender situated just so, light it, baby it until it can burn grown-up wood and then…it topples over and goes out. I can have a fire going for an hour, poke it with a stick a couple of times and it’s out!

A Fire, it is not

A Fire, it is not

Yet get two kids and a couple of firecrackers and next you’ll have hundreds of firefighters, a couple of helicopters, and about a million dollars to put it out.

What they should do is hire me. I’d simply poke the fire a couple of times with a stick and it’d be out in no time!

If it’s really a big fire, just line up a couple of hungry campers with fire-ready Dutch oven dinners ready to cook, and ask them to maintain it. The fire won’t stand a chance.

Day 167