Words, Words, The Lyrical Fruit

In the beginning, there was the Word. The Word called into creation man and woman. It created the Earth and animals. It encompasses all of which I attempt to experience and describe on my short terrestrial tenure. I borrow but a fraction of its glory, and a smidgen of its meaning when I write down my words here. We all do.

It's as if we are attempting to record a story- our story- that could eventually give a sum-total-meaning to what we have no proper language to describe. But we try. I try. And though I have, once again, fallen off the face of the blogging Earth, I believe that this will be the norm rather than the exception. My story will be a slow, yet well written novela. Occasionally there will be rhyme. Occasionally there will be tragedy. But mostly, there will be a collection of disjointed vignettes that only the author could love.

Life has proven busier than usual. With:

1. A trip to Ohio...

Here is a picture of my Papaw and I in the spot we had lunch on a log 20 years prior (on one of our regular walks through the woods), and Papaw and Abby (and Copley in the background) on the old "farm."

   

2. A recent doggie stomach virus (that provide a myriad of bills and a minimum of sleep)...

Here is Copley with rice on her nose (from her boiled chicken and rice diet), and Abby asleep on the floor with her (we slept on the floor the night she was really sick).

   

3. And the launching of RunBoston (our running tour company).

Here is a picture of our brochure that we dropped off to 13 different hotels in the Boston area last Saturday.

Life has been busy, yet through these three weeks of blogging neglect I have re-encountered Nostalgia, Sickness, and Forward-Thinking. They reminded me of the following truth:

People are made up of 60% water, 39% flesh, bone, and waste products, and 1% "Other." Somewhere in that 1% lies your soul and your experience.. the stuff we live and relive in our minds... Funny that we "bleeding hearts and artists" choose to describe that which lies in the smallest portion of physical being.

Nostalgia reminded me of how I came to be as I am.

Sickness showed me of what is most dear.

Forward-Thinking gave me hope for the future.

And at the moment, all of these rag-tag Dickens-esque companions are calling out to me that it is time to take Copley to the dog park.

Adieu.

Namaste, Y'all

This week I am finishing up a Cisco routing and switching class out in Waltham (my instructor looks like Harold Ramis). Instead of getting up at 7:00 am everyday and driving the 2 minutes to my school, I got up at 7:00 am everyday and headed through Arlington and over to Waltham to the New Horizons teaching and testing center.

This is the first time since around 2002 that I have taken a class like this, and let me tell you- this stuff is intense. This particular class is a part of a two-section series that prepares one for the CCNA certification. I opted to pursue this certification as part of my own personal professional development goals. The perk is that this will also benefit my school (which is why I could justify sending myself... the class costs $3K). Next year, I will send myself to part II.

Just being outside of one's normal routine does many things for you. I find I experience the music I listen to differently. I find that I interact with different people and discover new parts of my city. It's pretty refreshing actually. I feel very invigorated. During this past week, we purchased ad space for Runboston on Google and Yahoo, we ordered 300 brochures, and I'm actually taking the time to do some blogging... I'll call this week a success.


There are two things I want to run by you folks today:

Firstly, I have come to the conclusion that the music genre classification system is completely situation/band dependent. As a matter of principle, I can't stand country music. Though this is somewhat of a paradox (because I love the precursive Celtic tunes, and the southern rock descendancy), I think I absorbed way too many steel sounding slide guitar riffs during my residency in Ohio. I don't like the twang. I don't like the topics. I don't like the clothes. Having said this, I can identify that many songs by the Black Crowes, Charlie Daniels, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kid Rock, and several other of my favorite folk rock artists all have country-ish sounds (and some of them full-blown top-100-esque country songs). The point here is that I would never label any of these bands "country bands." In fact, it seem almost sacrilegious to even associate the Black Crowes with country music. Though I don't think they would mind it, I just can't bring myself to think it! Ask yourself... Even though a band might evolve and change throughout their life-cycle, can a band actually break out of a genre?

Lastly, I will leave you with a note from my buddy Mike (also, his blog is HERE). He and I know each other from CAC basketball leagues, in the past (he is also going to be our wedding photographer). In the past, we have done Bikram Yoga together. At this very moment he is in Costa Rica learning how to become a yoga instructor. Apparently, once upon a time, I had shared the meaning I love for the word that instructors often end each class with: "Namaste." The meaning that I shared with Mike is: "The light in me, reflects the light in you." Well, Mike shared this with his fellow instructors-in-training down in Costa Rica, and here is his resulting message. By the way... It really is a special word, and a special meaning.. and there really are no words of English origin that come close to the words: Namaste, Aloha, and Shalom:

"[My teacher] don asked me to get up on friday night in front of the group (there are about 50 of us) and share the story of the meaning of namaste that i have come to know...so there i am mentioning you and telling them all that story... so many people came up to me to say it was the first time the meaning of namaste really meant something to them... or meant more... it was special."

Peace all.

My Life In A Nutshell (Look At This Bloody-Big Nutshell)

I haven't blogged in a very very long time. It's been so long that I began to ask myself "what" I actually used to blog about... It's true, you know... There needs to be some sort of "theme" or "message" to a piece of writing.

If that theme happens to be mild mannered meanderings of a middle class moron, then that moron needs to have both time and experience to relate to his audience. I feel like I haven't had either of those lately. That said, many things are afoot with the Gadfly. Let me summarize:

My basketball team is winning (surprise)
My fantasy football team is losing (another surprise)
Our website is really taking off
Our dog is big and healthy (after a UTI and acne)
My childhood "nanny" is coming to visit in 2 hours
I worked 6 hours on Veteran's Day (today... boo)
We skipped our Marriage Class last night to clean the house (we're old)
Sam Adams has stopped making Octoberfest (but we have 4 cases in the basement)
We have our wedding dinner tasting on Saturday
We are going to a Celtics game tonight
I sneezed last week and thought I collapsed a lung
I saw the Back to the Future car in Inman Square last week
We ran the same time at this year's Seacoast Half Marathon as we did at last years
Sunday is Abby's birthday
I'm both random and odd
People still continue to amaze me... yet somehow never surprise me


How was that? It's been busy, fur shizzle. As I mentioned, I had to go into work today... as I'm sure a lot of my non-educational compadres, out there, had to do. I'm not totally complaining about this though, as I was able to catch up on things that had been lingering for ages. Now that I'm done with my "work day," I'm discovering that a great burden has been lifted from my shoulders. I must have been carrying that around with me for as long as I feel like I had been getting buried at work. I love these days.

And with that, I'll leave you with that little bit of wisdom...

Be it a workday or holiday, no day can compare when everyone else is doing the other.

Signing off.
The more-recently-not-so-gadfly-like-hyperactive-guy...

Idle Tools

Along with a more "laid back" leadership style, my Advanced Backpacking instructors described me as "having a lot of 'things' to share with the world." Maybe you agree with this or maybe you suck, but let's assume for the purposes of this blog that everyone has something to share with the world (this should ease the dissonance for the dissenters).

This isn't the first time I have been described as such (and I'm sure, as in this case, many have been left-handed compliments). This is certainly not the first I have thought something similar to myself, however, the more you hear it from other people the more you feel as though you are shirking some sort of divine responsibility. This is something I struggle with greatly. It usually manifests itself in a mental statement such like: "If I were to die tomorrow what would be my contribution to the souls of others" OR "What original 'thing' am I actively creating or seeking out."

You see the output of these questions in the work with my school's Adventure Club, in my time with the Big Brother program, in my pursuit of the thoughts and words of the "great thinkers", in RunBoston, and even in this blog... but (to borrow an analogy from my activities in the woods) perhaps I am on the wrong path in my process from statement to question. Perhaps the answer to my questions are found internally rather than externally. Perhaps the realization of this purpose is in the implementation rather than the planning. Perhaps activity and experience won't draw out Divine Purpose in an individual... Perhaps it is actually the reverse, that great experience only comes from being true with a Divine Purpose. If you think this concept is hard to understand, I don't blame you. I'm the one making the argument, and even I am confused by what I mean.

My point is, God has given each of us a toolbox of gifts to create (and do) wonderful things. Seeking out things/deeds that society sees as wonderful will no more help you appreciate your toolbox than it will help you to understand that which you are doing/achieving.

Though I think experience is important, nay invaluable, I am just discovering that even my oft sought after betterment will fail to reach its potential without knowing or understanding my tools. Whatever my excuse is for not using my tools, I must always remember to be in touch with my inner monologue, share those ideas/actions with others, trust that they are "good," and to borrow a mantra from the old Greek millionaire: "Just Do It."


The trip was good. We challenged ourselves to be outside our comfort zones, we practiced many "advanced" backcountry skills, and we witnessed a plethora of leadership styles. On this trip where my waterproof gear got saturated, my tarsals got numb, and where I laid down with a layer of tarp and ice, I saw to the heart of myself:

There is much I can't do, but of maxims most true,
Idle fools yield idle tools.

(Forgive me Anne Bradstreet.)

The Trees Against The Sky

Trees, trees against the sky -
O I have loved them well!
There are pleasures you cannot buy,
Treasurers you cannot sell,
And not the smallest of these
Is the gift and glory of trees. . . .
So I gaze and I know now why
It is good to live - and to die. . . .
Trees and the Infinite Sky.

I read this last stanza of Robert Service's "The Trees Against The Sky" to the kids in our Adventure Club last weekend when we climbed Pack Monadnock. For the most part they just stared at me and blinked a few times. In the short time that we had in the parking lot together before the hike, I could only tell them that being in the woods was "special to me", and that sometimes I sought out the green deliberately to block out the craziness that life often doles out. Sometimes, I told them, I would bring something to read while I was there...

I've quoted Robert Forest before... I first heard him on a five day backpacking trip in the spring of 2008. On Wednesday I will do another five day trip... only this time, it will be in October.

Though I am sad to be putting my Seacoast Half Marathon training on hold, and sadder still to be leaving my girls at home for five days, I am truly happy that I will be able to bask in "the gift and glory of trees," and that I will be able to leave behind all worldly stressors.

I will strap up my new waterproof jacket, and I will lace up my new waterproof boots. I will be happy to have my -20° sleeping bag, but most of all, I am happy to not have to "chew off my own feet." Don't ask... just see the movie...