Tag: inspiration

Icarus, Wax Wings, and Living Half Full

I never understood Greek mythology when I was in school. I never quite got it. But I always enjoyed the story of Icarus.

Perhaps you recall the story of Icarus. Icarus and his Dad, Daedalus, were imprisoned on the island of Crete by King Minos. The only way to escape from their captivity was by air.  Daedalus was a gifted inventor and created two pairs of wings that he and Icarus would use to fly to freedom. The father’s instructions to the son were simple; do not fly too close to the sun, as the wings were crafted of feathers and wax. Flying too close to the sun would melt the wax and destroy the wings. Unfortunately, that was exactly what Icarus did, which cost Icarus his life on his flight to freedom.

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Cruising Altitude…and the White Knuckle Ride

“Feel free to move about the cabin…the captain has turned off the seat belt sign…”

Cruising altitude.  That point in the flight where you’ve risen above the turbulence and the clouds. Time to sit back and enjoy the ride. Ease the seat back and grab a $4 beer. Or two. No worries, mate. It’s all good.

It wasn’t that long ago that life sort of worked that way. You’d get to a certain point in life where you could finally just sit back and enjoy the ride. Career stable, home life stable. Blue skies ahead. There was a calming and reassuring predictability to life.  

Cruising altitude. 

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Welcome to the Year 1439

It was going along just great until Johannes Gutenberg changed everything.

It was 1439, the year that Gutenberg is widely believed to have invented something called moveable type. Moveable type was the foundation of the modern printing press. Gutenberg crafted individual letters and then could assemble words, then sentences, then paragraphs, then pages of information that for the first time could be mass produced. Prior to Gutenberg, calligraphers ruled the world of printed information. The only problem with calligraphers was their work could not be mass produced, thus greatly limited the distribution of information. The printing press changed the world.

Being a calligrapher in the age of the printing press was not a good thing. Suddenly your skill set is no longer as useful to the world as it used to be. I’m sure calligraphers of the day fought this technological change; after all it was a direct threat to their trade and their ability to provide for their families. Fight as they may, technology won, and changed the world.  

Technology always wins.

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A New Found Appreciation for Trees

You can learn a lot from a tree.

As children, we excitedly spoke of what we’d like to be when we grew up.  Doctors, firefighters, baseball players, teachers.  I don’t recall anyone ever saying that they’d like to be a tree.

I can honestly state that I never wanted to become a tree.  Even today I have no desire to radically transform myself into trunk and branch.  Even if I did want to, I’m not quite sure how I would even go about it.  Trees have many great characteristics that we’d all love to possess.  They are tall, strong, self reliant, patient, and can weather the extreme changes of seasons.  The thing that inspires me about trees, though, is their attitude.

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Nothing Will Ever Make Me Happy

One of the happiest days of my life was when I realized that nothing will ever make me happy.

Nothing.  As in no thing.

Things used to excite me.  I would feel so much better by having things rather than when I was just wanting things.  I have surrounded myself with all sorts of things, all designed to make me happy.  Or at least that’s what I told myself when I bought them.  Somehow I expected the things that I possessed would give me the happiness and joy that I was missing in my life.  How could I be happy with a 32″ TV?  A 54″ TV is 69% larger, and therefore must contain 69% more happiness!  How could anyone be happy using last year’s iPhone?  Driving a two year old car?  You must be miserable!

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“Have an Adequate Day!”

Maybe it’s me.  Perhaps I send out some sort of signal, some sort of message to those I come in contact with that lets them know that I settle for mediocrity and have low expectations.  Maybe people just don’t think I’m capable of having a great day.  Because they always only tell me to have a good day.

These people who talk to me each day are talking to you, too.  You see them at the drive-thru when you get your morning coffee.  Or when you pick up your dry cleaning.  The waiter at lunch.  Even when you’re buying new shoes.

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Who Are You?

“I was with a friend of mine in an airport and a stranger came up to me and said, You’re tall. Are you a basketball player? and I replied, No. Then another person came up to me and asked, Are you a basketball player? And I said, Nope. So my friend asked me, Bill, why do you keep telling them no? And I told him, Because basketball is what I do, but it’s not who I am.”

The quote above is from Bill Russell, perhaps the greatest basketball player in history.  An 11-time NBA champion, Olympic Gold medalist.  Two-time NCAA champion.  The evidence strongly suggests that Bill Russell was, in fact, a basketball player.  But I just love the wisdom of his view of his real self: “basketball is what I do, but it’s not who I am.”

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