To the veterans out there who may find there way here. I personally, thank you so much for your service and dedication to this country. Without you, we would have fallen long ago. We really do owe our freedom to you.
On to something a bit different for me. Since School has started, the bug is on the back burner, and we are focusing on other things. Sorry to the bug enthusiasts, we will return to the project when the weather becomes more accommodating, or, when I have time to clear space in the garage. I did release a couple songs recently and I certainly hope you continue to enjoy them along with the earlier projects with friends. I also did another “Tall Tale” and put it in that category. These are total drivel and are for the sole purpose of my getting some weird out in another creative way. This post is strange because I an venturing into different waters by adding some of my own thoughts and feelings instead of simply reporting facts. Not to worry, I am not going to go into politics or other taboo subjects. This is just something different to stretch my writing and try to entertain you with other tools in the toolbox.
Nothing like a simple project to ruin a day off. Don’t get me wrong here, I enjoy doing things that improve my living space. I feel like when I accomplish something positive, it helps lift my spirits and make me more pallet able to the people around me. Some times, little projects come up that are involuntary. This project, you may have already figured out by the picture, was replacing glass in a very old garage window. I have been told be more than a few people, that I just think differently than “Normal” people. As I work on this project, I cannot help but relate the window to perspective. There are the obvious things like windows are used to open up perspective in a closed room so that one can see things they were unable to see through a solid wall. This is what I would consider low hanging fruit in the “Things to be learned” department of any situation. You see, I have been a repair person for 22 years. It has been my job to walk into unfamiliar situations, and figure things out. Let’s define Low hanging fruit. This is the easy stuff to pull down and benefit from. If you are hungry, this is the fast cure that can get you by for the time being. This is all well and good, but, there is almost always more. Being a professional in the IT world, it is difficult to go through a career without attending classes or training that addresses the idea of changing your perspective socially by standing on a desk or dividing the room into categories in which you self define as whatever they want you to cuss and discuss until you see another perspective. These are well meaning and do have an effect on people and assist in the breaking down of barriers between people of all shapes. The point is to get beyond yourself, and try to see things from the other person’s perspective. I try to do this on a regular basis in as many different situations as I can. I know this makes me strange. I know this puts me at odds with most people. I promise you that this does not bother me. On to what I learned about me during this little unexpected project. A few weeks ago, I was mowing my grass and passed by my garage window. I noticed that it had several cracks in a nice spider web pattern that all met into a tiny hole. This was not the size of a BB, but bigger. It was round, ruling out rocks or lawn mower fodder. Those of you who know me, likely understand that I don’t get hung up too much on blame. At this point, the damage is done and it really does not matter who done it. The real issue here is getting it fixed. Dealing with broken things at work all day kind of cured me of trying to spend time figuring out who’s fault things are and moved me to a place of getting things resolved so people can return to normal life, and I can move on to the next puzzle. As any dad would do, I asked the kids what happened. I got a nice story of archery and accidents. The thing that surprised me was that all of the people that were there decided that I might get angry and didn’t tell me, or, they just plain forgot. Again, this doesn’t change the broken window or the path back to normalcy. Turns out one of the neighbor kids along with my own, were shooting arrows and one got away and went through the window. I am glad it was a piece of glass instead of something important. I am glad the kids were having fun together and not causing real trouble. Thinking more about the window itself, I came up with a different perspective. A window is also limiting. Yes, it can give you a view, but it does limit and change the whole experience. You can see out, but you are still behind a wall. You can experience the light, but, the sounds change. The window limits your other senses. Your sense of sight is only opened partially, but the other senses are all limited further and change your experience of the world. We all do things to windows to alter our own perspective as well. We buy curtains, and blinds and other decorations to make the window fit into what we want or how it comforts us in some way. This is natural. Some of the things we dress our windows with are to make them more pleasing to us, and other stuff we put on the windows are for the purpose of limiting the prying eyes of our neighbors and passers by. We do this with almost everything we encounter, so why not windows too. In a time when we have been forced to isolate and view things through the window of the media, please be extra careful about being aware of your perspective. Be cognizant of the fact that we are seeing the world through the lenses of media and technology more so than ever before. Do with this what you want. I am not trying to change who you are or what you believe. I am simply showing you something I thought about. The reality here is that I am thankful for the neighbor kid who shot an arrow through the garage window. It gave me something to think and write about. I also think that I learned that sometimes thing happen to teach me about me. Today, I learned that I despise glazing old windows. I am glad I learned a new skill and that the weather allowed me to do this on a nice day. So, there you go. A long and pointless journey into my world that you will never get back. I hope the rest of your day is filled with enjoyment and turns out in your favor.