Someone made a lot of money out of the phrase "Think globally, act locally". I sure learned the truth of acting as locally as possible, my Number One. In effect, she's one through ten, but that's off track. So i take my first considerations with her since the gratification is most immediate and tangible, or tangleable. What better consciousness raising to community needs exists? We can conveniently throw itemized deductions at the cause that has the best website or appeals to our sense of affluence, but the money's generally lost in administrative and materials costs. We are proud when we find the spotless charity but there's still the disconnect of the face to face and the assurance it's focused to whom you want to bring joy and comfort. Then there's the whole motivation factor which when uncovered, can be as depressing as the insanity of convincing local adolescents to kill overseas adolescents for a board of directors' decision.
So, we begin with one, at least i do, since i found someone who can see over the fence, over the past rationalizations and recoveries that delivered us to each other, recognizing the unique now and forever of our togetherness. Her brother tries not to roll his eyes at our sugared-up looks and excessive endearments, but i know he gets this connection's depth and wants it too, even though he'll carry it off in far smarter style.
Back to the egg, the farm prospers with full attention to detail, and the needs are obvious to the alert. Many relationships begin with where we've been, what didn't work, and the hopeful chance of what we've needed all along. We reconsider honesty to oneself before settling for a partial list checked off, before surrender and attempting to miss potholes in the road. I'm the luckiest person to have walked this earth long enough to be found in the human mirror of what i know is true. All truth of her is held up for me to see and hear, what show-and-tell should have meant in elementary school. We took eggshell steps of uncertainty and risk, both cautious of overstaying our welcome of timeshare and breathing space. Like the truck farmer, one's eyes and ears must be open to more than the bees in the bonnet. All the local traffic in our heads, the swirling mass of helplessness and injustice and disappointment are the decoys and distractions to helping in compassionate ways. At the top of the toolbox is understanding, listening to the needs of where you wish to begin to help. She and i waited an overdue amount of time, sorting through the forensics of our own battle wounds of previous wars. It wasn't until a day ago that i finally wore out my headspace gremlins of insecurity, the little bastards that make sense of nothing and sell fear of loss. I truly feel relieved of those unfounded stressors and can finally relax and enjoy this deep-fried cosmic communion. So, from now on she gets all the breathing room she wishes as well as her own relaxed and happy confidence in me and mine in her. My mantra now is "she needs this" and as she becomes more and more comfortable in letting me know, i most willingly follow that true path. Anytime and anything she wishes, upward and outward, so long as it doesn't hurt, anything i can offer that attracts her smile. Believe me, that's heaven on earth.
So take the few steps further to family, to friends, to the streets. All will connect like Ice-nine. Patience, care and understanding are necessary ingredients. Love and peace follow like the puppy's tail. The little bit i learned sure makes me feel better than i've ever imagined. Don't wait for the gremlins to sleep and try not to forget the way here. Get on with living it up.
Community
Search and Rescue
Curious that the rookie ascetic's baby steps are less a slash and burn unload than an anguished analysis of what's dear after clearing the dead wood of nest padding. Case in point is my sweet patootie's clothes dryer punking out not long ago. The born rescuer sights the problem in my crosshairs and is poised to diagnose. I have her full permission to resuscitate what's as good as dead anyway, so i make the incision with a spatula and expose the innards. No heat in the coil but enough current to make me duck and cover, motor smooth, no burnt evidence. First assessment is the heating coil gone, but there are no gaps in the wire. Could be a fuse too, but who knows without a multitester handy. I get online and see that a new coil (these things do get brittle with age) is $50 and since the labor will be free, offer to undercut the home repair guys, figuring their initial visit will be around $150 minus parts and I'd come out smelling good and feeling righteous against da Man. Encouraged by her adoring eyes, the hero sets off the next morning to the Sears warehouse, since it's a Kenmore. She loved it when it worked, when it sensed moisture and protected her clothes from excessive fire and rain. She just didn't know when she bought the gizmotic thing, she didn't experience the years of being held parts and repair hostage by anything Sears. It's a family tradition passed down to me that Craftsman blades cost more than the saw and parts were only available in an industrial warehouse on the wrong side of the tracks. They've kept the business model but somehow my instincts and training failed me and i went along with the salesguy's advice that the heating circuit contained more suspects than just the coil. In the bulkhead area also resides a thermal fuse, a thermal cutoff, and a thermistor. I take my chances with a heater coil and the thermal fuse/high-limit thermostat, about $100 of parts. Reasoning these things wear out and this combination will likely cover the failing part, i ride back to storm the castle with new ammunition. No happy red glow from the coil, a patient and semi-adoring smile from the maiden in distress. Next battle? The fabulous internet for deep forum research. There was still the thermistor in the repair chain, another $25 and another trip to the nowherehouse. Back to the ranch and still no-go. Back to the forums and a hidden clue about the heater relay in the console along with horror stories of on-site repair charges and burnt out controller boards (>$100).
Here's where love conquers all. Rather than letting me nearly surrender to the factory repair goons, honest or devious as they may be, she suggested i press on and pursue the heater relay clue. I've done enough repair in my life to know the cut point, the place where i defer to the expert, but it's a moment of full reluctance and twinges of failure. But she was totally behind me on this and her intentions were adventurous and practical.
The short of this is there are two identical (FSA China like all other Whirlpool aftermarket parts throughout) relays in the top console where the controls are, one controls the heater, the other the motor. You get the part number from the parts list and Google it, looking for sellers (not Sears). The price hovers around $30 but i found a guy on Ebay selling them new for $6. He only sells these switches and pants but he shipped it right out to me and after locating the right circuit (not the intuitive one from the exploded view), the coiled glowed bright red as i yelled bingo! The happiest maiden comes skipping toward me and throws her arms around my neck and i look into the deep blue of her shining eyes to realize she knew better than i that it was a matter of access, resource and effort. She realized the learning experience versus trading job time for money to pay people extortion rates to fix an over-complicated machine that mimics the sun and wind. Yes, there is the clothes line that gets used more often, but this was a challenge of humanity over inhumanity and the surcharge machine nearly won all the spoils of war. But i'll never forget that happy, little-girl homecoming hug of hers and the delicious sweetness of her faith in my mission. As JP McCartney wrote in 1975 about 1985, " I just can't get enough of that sweet stuff my little lady gets behind", or maybe it was "gets me high". Doesn't matter when it's all so wonderful.
One year now
As promised to myself, it's been a year off from the sturm und drang of the corporate jailtime. The anniversary was recognized and a moment of silent respect was honored, but the reminder of what was, all the horrible tension of the recurring nightmare regained its last gasp of terror at a Costco checkout. The harried but stoic clerk was pacing herself ahead of the oncoming conveyor overloads that should have been left on the warehouse carts. She had an added step to remember for each transaction, a monotone assigned appeal for donations to a local hospital famous for saturating the local airwaves as the childrens' savior. Of course this is the same gestapo that laid me off my favorite year and my natural reaction was to say "ya gotta be kidding". Sudden eye contact lessened the venom spew, but it got her a moment away from the robot response to "I already gave". Before i could offer sympathy for her position of indirect pimping for the heartless thieves (not Costco), she said it wasn't the first time that day she heard an unkind response. I got out a couple more 'never again's before wishing her a good day, and then felt a strangely benevolent compassion, as if i've been elevated from the ordinary world, free at last to wallow in my own crapulence. I'm liberated from reserving judgment, from holding back the bile of the captive everyday execution of BS.
It's been a good time off, and there is no apprehension in sight. Things are as open and afloat as this time a year younger, in fact better than ever. I met the dreamgirl of my life because i was free to walk in the slow lane of my favorite path. That wouldn't have happened if things were as they were two years earlier. She wasn't as far along the way nor was I. None of what's grown would have been cultivated as consciously nor would it's precious nature been recognized. Solutions come more naturally with accumulated experience and the more time exposed to the day makes it less a shock and dilemma that demands attention in what we can recover around the giant dent of the 8 to 5 workday. Time to sort out the unexpected is far less panic with accessibility and the cushion of more reaction time. Thoughts are more fully formed rather than compressed to fit the gaps. The misfit nature of unemployment is no longer a whittling project of conformity to the gray swirling masses with printed credentials. The square peg naturally fits the corresponding hole. I just love it.
Feels like home wherever i go..
NoMoneyFun
You were in the rut of work and spend. Now your head is above water. Breathe deep the treasure around you. Your surroundings belong to you. You have a free pass practically anywhere. You are personally free of the individual property taxes and maintenance of all this beauty. Explore neighborhoods in the best parts of town, the forests, the coastal highways, all the places you've already indirectly paid for in sales taxes. One no longer feels as an outsider in financially prohibitive areas.
This brings up an important point, Trust. The modern hippie has adapted and evolved toward comfort rather than pricetag fashion statement. In the back forty of our lives, cleanliness is not an option as philosophical statement. No matter the disdain for the mechanics and hypocrisy of society's norms, clean is the necessity for admission without question. An eccentric look is fine, many have come to believe, especially in the retail world, that one must assume they're talking to a sale, and not look too far down one's nose at the absurd. Dress code in most pricey restaurants is now so relaxed that one can assume whomever has the ease of entry and the air of home away from home is welcome. The truth of business is that they need you more than you need them. Being free to be on the customer side of the formula is no excuse for rudeness or contempt. Remember where you came from not so long ago. Never piss in your own pool. All the world belongs to you and you to it.
Free and almost free places to go are priceless in the best sense. The wi-fi coffee shop, the bakery, the library, the bookstore, are all places of etiquette and resource.
Wi-fi freebies:
Shoutcast
YouTube (dig deeper and do a thoughtful search for your interests)
Friends!! Chances are most of your friends are still working to pay the no principle mortgage and kids' student loans and wedding bills. Try not to rub their noses in it. They know they're waist-deep so lay off the excess grinning. Be a beneficial influence and use your superpowers for good. They'll find you and the times together will be better than ever. Friendship is the spiritual penultimate of all relationships, less expectation, less disappointment than marriage's white lie to God and the Universe. Nurture and nourish this garden. There is definitely love in it, as much as you wish to harvest.
Support local business:
These are the guys that welcome the discriminating nonconformist.
Touring:
This for me is the ultimate in travel, especially on two wheels. The ground covered at ten miles per hour is the perfect rate of cognition, attention, and pace. Sit up in the saddle and watch the cinema unfold just for you.
Ongoing education:
Adult school is the deal of the century. Learning keeps one young and in touch and poised for growth. Start here on the net, with the greatest world community forum, and then take it to the streets. Face to face is the path of humanity, so make sure never to miss a day with conversation.
Open your eyes and your heart to all you can. You only have so many days left on this earth, and chances are you've already spent half of them. Wake up!
Commitment and Caring
Now that you're older and more distant of the rat race, you have the authority to speak your mind... no pissant company tool to report your aberrant behavior on your chart, no one but the law to question your beliefs.
You can now afford to support your cause, in a far more direct way than to write a check. You are a physical entity rather than an account number. See and be seen, hear and be heard. Stand and remain standing. Pressure from people like you ended the war in Vietnam. The war then didn't run out of money. Dissent and disagreement on a world scale ended occupation there. Now it's a major tourist destination. Make the entire world an unlimited tourist destination. Explore culture and ethnic specialty. Travel is exposure and education. Understand why things remain in conflict and do what it takes to chip away at the mountains of inhumanity. Enjoy and exercise the freedoms left in this world. They are an endangered species now but will always resurface as the trickle-down of any administration just the way a reinstated draft will certainly get the complacent up in arms about the current war. When it's our kid in the line of fire, we get concerned. Speak up and be unafraid to listen and learn.
Happiness and Flow
What is it that makes those old Italians so content to work in the olive orchards all their lives. Is it the mysterious fulfillment of all things zen and cosmic? Is it the security of encompassing knowledge and the full appreciation of every working detail of their lives? Or is it the simplicity of the basics covered; family, identity, and the cycle of life before their eyes. Understanding delivers peace, the philosophers generally agree. Being able to relate to the next guy is harmonious, so why is it we limit by nationality, borders, and attitude? Territory, space to propagate, i suppose.. ownership and exclusivity, most likely. We want our individual space and the accompanying certificates of authenticity.
When we become comfortable with owning less, the aggression diminishes, the rage of one dog eating another becomes ludicrous, and the peaceful life becomes more idealized and precious. We are progressively owned less by the maintenance and protection of our depreciating symbols of wealth. Room to move is created by less clutter and we manage to create real estate by subtracting the storage space.
This brings a tangible design of what comes and goes, a more honest assessment of what allows comfort and method and what can be let go as useless and anchored obligation. Happiness is realized as contentment of the continuous now, the flow of the cooperative and helpful. Swimming upstream to spawn sacrifices life to society, trusting the current provides a most beautiful cruise of life's pleasures along your way.
The last and most essential ingredient is Love. Trust the current on this as well. It will wash you to the most splendid shores of understanding and certainty. Timing is everything and being true to oneself will connect the wandering soul to its perfect reflection. Be prepared to soar higher than you ever imagined.