The Boy Who Loved Elsie the Cow

When I was young I had a wild crush on Elsie the Cow.  Now it can be revealed.  Now this could be somewhat troubling looking back to this youthful insanity. But I also thought my grandmother was also "I Love Lucy" on TV and Lassie lived with my aunt in California (she had collies), the crush was just kind of silly.  

I remember thinking Elsie had a great smile and oh, that wonderful twinkle in her eye!  My mother had sent in for a brooch with Elsie's likeness on it surrounded by a large daisy, much like in the picture here.  I am sure I thought my mother actually knew Elsie and Elsie had given this to her personally.  (I think I still have that brooch somewhere.) I also liked the daisies.  They were big black-eyed Susan's like the ones that grew along our fence in front of our house.

But alas, is it any wonder if my boyhood crush came to an end when I learned Elsie was married...to Elmer the Bull!  That's right, THAT Elmer, the one of Elmer's Glue fame.  I must have realized there was no future for me with Elsie under those circumstances.  (The other more obvious reasons did not become apparent to me until sometime later.)  To adher to such a flour based that was outside the box would surely end my days of cut and paste when cut and paste meant cutting out sillouettes from construction paper and gluing them to the bulletin board as an art project.

To this day, I remember Elsie fondly.  She is the symbol of a simpler day when milk was unchallengeable as healthy for us and we didn't worry about over-eating because we played hide and seek, tag, jump rope and ran races, rode bikes and did athletic stunts on monkey bars every night after school and all day Saturday.  Fat had no chance of accumulating in our arteries and we believed it when they said, "Milk, it does a body good."

*********

A Brief History of Elsie according to Wikipedia:

Elsie was created in the 1930s to symbolize the 'Perfect Dairy Product' and made an appearance at the New York World's Fair in 1939.  Her husband was Elmer the Bull, later lent to Borden's chemical division as the mascot for Elmer's Glue. Their offspring included Beulah, Beauregard (born 1948), and twins Larabee and Lobelia (born 1957). She is buried at Walker-Gordon Farm (now a housing development) in Plainsboro Township, New Jersey.

If the River Runs Dry

Once upon a time on a lovely spring day in April, I was walking the dogs down to the river.  Tater was pulling forward and Ching Ching trying to claim every bush in his little boy dog manner.  The clouds were drifting lazily along the horizon as the sun began to rise.  The sky was clearing after the night's rain and it promised to be a beautiful day.

My  mind began to wander as it often does on our walks.  Thoughts about the meaning of life and what I wanted for breakfast competed in my brain for attention.  The crisp air and birds singing in the early morning air inspired hopes of a very productive day of creativity ahead.

Tater stopped to investigate an carelessly tossed piece of trash while Ching impatiently tugged at the leash to continue on to the river.  We walked on down the little dirt path to the sandy banks of the trickle of water called the might Santa Ana.  Even after an exceptionally rainy winter, there was very little water flowing down from the snow capped San Bernardino's to the Pacific, at least here, in Riverside.  The river, it seems, went underground years ago.

Today that is how the flow of my creativity seemed to be: flowing somewhere deep inside not accessible to me.  The riverbed, it seems, was dry.  In that moment of realization I was alarmed.  Would the waters of inspiration ever rise again?  Would the flow ever arise from my inner source?  My fears again seemed to becoming true.  I would never write again.  There would be no musings, no thoughts quirky or otherwise.  It was the end.

And then I started with once upon a time....

Some Thoughts are Best Left Unthought

Sometimes it just gets too late to think.  Sometimes, when the day has been particularly eventful, even maybe a little stressful...well, even very stressful indeed, the urge to think just takes a back seat to the urge to, surprise, not think.

Now I this might be a little difficult to grasp.  I don't mean to come across as condescending.  It is just that it is late and I am tired.  I sat down and I thought I would think of something to write about, but I just haven't thought of a thing.  I now find myself thinking about how sometimes inspiration comes like a flash and is then pushed aside by a sudden distraction like a hunger pang or a rush of wind through the wind chimes outside your door.  It becomes a war of sorts and thinking just flies away like a fleeting thought.

So, does thinking about thinking or thought count as thinking about something to think about or am I just getting a bit punchy?  Perhaps I should stop before I push the beyond the limits of my limited capacity to think is exceeded.  In other words, this is going no where fast but it was fun getting there.

Sometimes a thought is just a thought.  Other times it is beyond anything anyone could every think of.  Just think about that!

Wasting Time -- 3 Non-Time-Wasting Ways to Think About

Bertrand Russell once said, "The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."  Now there's a quote meant just for me.  Somehow "wasting time" elicited feelings of guilt and sometimes shame.  After all, time is a precious commodity.  It is all we have really and to waste it is, well, a cardinal sin, isn't it?  Or so I thought.  But now I realize that maybe this is not so.

First, you cannot waste something that does not exist.  Time is a construct of man to better order his world and activities.  We need a mutally agreed upon means to intersect and achieve our goals and objectives.  All we have is now but if we only live in the now, we could lose all track of....well....time.

Second, who says doing something you enjoy is wasting time?  Some of the most valuable discoveries in life are made while doing something totally unrelated.  Haven't you ever had the "aha" experience while in the shower?  Haven't you suddenly realized the solution to that nagging problem at work while watching "I Love Lucy"?  Didn't your ever suddenly happen on a new way of looking at the universe while idly gazing at the Big Dipper?

Third, wasting time is a great way to give the mind some much needed R & R.  If you are constantly using every moment of the day and night to work on things that matter, you will become very tired...even burn out.  Play is what makes life worth living.  Even just sitting not thinking, dreaming or even meditating...just  emersing yourself in a emptyminded mindlessness...gives the mind and your spirit and your soul a much needed chance to regenerate.

So there you have it.  You really cannot waste time.  Time is not real therefore you cannot use it, conserve it or even spend it.  It is as intangible yet real as is the spirit and the soul.  It is always and ever and will always and ever be.  Time, my friend, is on your side.

Finally, in the words of Albert Einstein,  "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once."  Now that makes sense.

5 Things You Need to Furnish Your Mind

'Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well' ~ Peter Ustinov


There are five things I believe one ought to consider when your mind goes blank and you consider what you want to use to refurnish it.


1.  Consider the environment.  What do you see when you look in the mirror?  Have you come to grips with what you may have thought of as "imperfections"?  No matter your physicality, you have been blessed with a body to experience life.  It is up you to take care of it.  


2.  Think about what you give your attention to.  Does what you read, what you watch on television or the movies somehow enrich your experience of life?  Sure, its okay to have some mind candy now and then, but it is important to furnish your mind with things that not only support what you already know and believe, but challenge you with new ideas and alternative ways of thinking.


3. Love.  You need to furnish your mind with love.  Begin with yourself.  It is much easier for others to love you if you love yourself.  This can be a tough one if you fear appearing egotistical or self-centered.  That is not what I mean.  I mean accepting yourself and knowing that even though you are not perfect (who is?) you are totally lovable.  Keep mental souvenirs of the good times and let the rest go to the recycle bin.


4. Furnish you mind with friends, family, pets and anyone you feel good about being with.  Populate your life with people who support you and in general accept you warts and all.  Play with them, eat with them, go places and let them challenge you to be all you can be.  


5. Lastly, gather symbols and totems that represent what ideals you hold dear.  Use them to reflect about what is important to you.  Your personal sense of morality is what keeps you upright.  Without a sense of right and wrong, your mind may as well remain empty.  Fill it with that which inspires you, nurtures you and makes you a respectable human being.

Keeping It Light

I try to keep it light.  No one wants to hear the rants of old, cranky, curmudgeon unless, like Andy Rooney, it is entertaining and a bit sly.  On Monday though it is very easy to sound very much like an old curmudgeon as another week begins and you reality seems to set in.

In assessing the weekend one ponders why every day cannot be a Saturday or Sunday.  Of course one must remind oneself that for some, Saturday and/or Sunday may be just another work day like ER doctors and nurses, ministers, firemen and police officers to name a few.  But even they have their days off and whether those are weekend days or weekdays, they are days when they seem to have opportunities to pursue hobbies and recreation that they enjoy.

So where am I going with this?  I don't know for sure.  It is Monday for heaven's sake.  Who thinks clearly on Monday morning?  I am fortunate to be able to spend Monday morning working in my garden and walking the dogs.  I do have meetings to prepare for and volunteer assignments I have, well, volunteered for.  And most are because I want to do them.  Most.

I guess I am thinking about how curmudgeonly I can get at times.  I do have my views on how things should be and, darn it, I can't understand why they are not that way.  Youth should be taught reverence why they are in church.  Politicians and Charlie Sheen to think before they speak.  Social discourse should be respectful and polite.  Sure, heated debate is healthy, but not when it devolves into venemous rhetoric and nasty mud slinging.  One should have a reverence for life and for whatever one percieves to be that which is behind it all....whatever one believes that to be.  And we should be reverent of other people's beliefs and desires to maintain a sense of decorum and respect in the schools, in churches, the public sector and in all the mass communications.

See, I told you it was Monday.  I warned you, but you kept on reading.  I am smiling to myself right now.  Sometimes it is fun to be curmudgeonly.  Not cranky, but a but constipated I suppose.  I guess that is why it feels good to let it all out now and then.  And what better day to do it than on Monday?

April Fool's

Its April first and you know what that means!  Jokes and pranks are flying fast and furious.  Somehow, though, I got through the day with no pranks or surprises.  But that started me thinking.  Maybe there is more to April Fool's Day than meets the eye.  Maybe, just maybe, it is not all about catching people off guard, scaring them with some outrageous claim or making jokes at other people's expense...just maybe it is all about love.

Now I am a fool for love.  I still believe in romance.  Even though I have not had a serious romantic relationship in more years than I care to think about, I still think it is possible.  Call me a fool, but I believe anything is possible.  Foolishly I suppose, I still believe that someday that someone is going to be hit with Cupid's arrow at the same exact moment as I.   Love at first sight?  I don't rule it out.

Also, I am basically an optimist.  I do believe that no matter what happens in life, we are going to come out somehow better on the other side.  Even when we die, I believe something...even it is just the redistribution of our phyical materials and essential enery into some new and exiting form, I do believe we go on.  This I believe even if it is just in someone's memory of us.  No fooling.  I think it is so.

They say in the old song that fools rush in where angels fear to tread.  If fools did not rush in, well, no one would ever take a chance, would they?  Foolishly sometimes, other times fool-heartily, people do risk their very settled lives to maybe realize a long-held dream or burst of inspiration.  Angels may fear, but I think something like angels follow them into whatever venture they set out on.  If you are afraid of appearing the fool, then you will need to be satisfied with never knowing if you could have.....

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.  With experience comes wisdom.  What appears to be a foolish gesture, may in fact be the best thing you could ever have done.  You never know until you try.  Until you are willing to play the fool, you can never be the sage.  There may truly be no fool like an old fool, but fools are what makes life interesting.  Suffers fools with love in your heart and the same will come back to you when it is your turn to play the fool.

So I think it is true what I said: there is more to this April Fool's thing than meets the eye.  Play with it.  Any fool can see there is more to life than getting by.  And when you come to rest and reflect, you will be glad you lived at least a day in a fool's paradise....no foolin'!