LEFT DEVELOPMENT

26th June 2012  "LEFT DEVELOPMENT"

I got to see my grandparents recently.  They're neat, classy old people with a wealth of experiences.  For instance, my grandpa spent a good deal of time working towards a Psyche degree in college.  He was gifted in the field too.  One of the things he knows from his experience is a way to determine hand dominance. 

Try this: Fold your hands, with your fingers laced.  Which hand has the top most finger?  That hand is your dominant hand.  By the way, your thumbs are still not fingers.  What did you get?  My left index finger was on top so I'm supposedly left handed.  So why do I mostly write with my right?

Did I mention this is my grandfather with psychology knowledge that's at least 40 years old?  As I said, my Grandparents are neat & classy people.  I love them to death :-) 

If you're like me and the 'fold-the-hands' test gave you something of a false read, let me reassure you.  As science understands it, hand dominance is genetic.  Left hand dominance is a recessive trait connected to a specific gene that you either have or you don't.  Only an estimated 13% of the world's population is left handed. 

So my Grandfather thinks I'm a lefty but I've grown up writing with my right.  He can't really be right, can he?  Now, to be fair, I have spent most of my life developing ambidexterity because I think it's useful.  But that doesn't make me a lefty.  Never mind the fact that society seems to make lefties develop ambidextrous skills.  And aside from all that, modern science says there has to be an inherited genetic link.  Never mind that this self-same grandfather is a natural lefty who grew up covering his hand dominance . . .

 . . . Nah, I'm right handed.  I write right handed, I just taught myself ambidexterity . . .

 

Whether my grandfather is right or not, he got me thinking.  What if I am left handed & I just never knew it?  But how could I have not figured it out until now?  On the other hand, what if it was a talent I sequestered because this is a right-handed world?  Other questions come to mind like: 

 What other neat talents have I hidden away & concealed from the world? 

It almost feels like the "awakening moment" of a superhero.  The awakening moment, as I call it, is where the superhero finds out who they are, that they have a special power, & that they were made for a great destiny. 

All right, I'm probably taking it a little too far.  It's really just an inconclusive guess at a potentially different hand dominance.  It's not like I found out I can fly or anything!  But, it is totally exciting!  The discovery of unknown potential is intriguing!  What latent talents or abilities have you discovered 'late' in life?  What will you discover yet?  An inquiring writer would like to know . . .

ICE CREAM MURDERER

5th June 2012  "ICE CREAM MURDERER"

It's hot in Fort Collins.  I mean record hot! Like multiple 100+ degree days in a row hot.  I once read that the sale of ice cream is directly related to the number of murders.  One might concluded the sugary dairy products insight murder.  But more to the truth, ice cream is sold most often at the same time people murder each other most often - when it's hot.  Hot like it is now. 

I saw this insanity today while sitting at a stop light.  I pull up on the scene where a truck stopped a little late into a cross walk, blocking the way.  Two ladies were crossing on said cross walk & still a good 20+ feet away from the truck.  For some reason the trucks placement seemed to be a personal affront to the ladies & they got all kinds of irate at the truck driver.  You would have thought the truck driver ran over a child or something!   

To me the ladies had a seriously illogical reaction, at least for the reaction to be so severe.  There can really be only 1 explanation - the two ladies just walked away from an ice cream shop.

TASTES LIKE BURNING

23rd June 2012     "TASTES LIKE BURNING”

Right now Colorado is on fire.  I mean all of Colorado.  Well not quite literally every square foot but there are 9 separate fires up & down the Rocky Mountains.  The fires have destroyed hundreds of structures, caused thousands to be homeless from emergency evacuations & property loss, and crisped over 100,000 acres collectively.  The fires have threatened a multitude of small & large towns, to include Estes Park, Colorado Springs, & Fort Collins; which is where I live.  West of the Fort Collins area is the High Park Fire, currently labeled as the 3rd largest & #1 most destructive fire in Colorado history.  Firefighters say this is the fire they hoped would never happen.  Some say the fire almost has a mind of it's own, like some monster that's come & settled in on Colorado.  As soon as the fire looks like it's contained, it changes directions, jumps a fire line, or otherwise goes a little chaotic.  If the fire is a monster then the Firefighters are the heroes.

The Firemen here are working themselves to the bone & certainly doing a great job.  Still, nearly 250 structures have been lost & many of which are peoples homes.  Some people have been really crappy about it too which brought up the thought, "What do you do when a hero fails?" or more specifically "What do you do when a hero fails you?" Another thought: "How do you go on when you fail someone?"  In any of the previous questions we'll assume the hero (whether that was you or some one else) did all they could, gave it there all & still could not succeed.  What did you do? How did you treat them?  How did you treat yourself?

I feel that this one of the hardest things for anyone to deal with.  Forgiveness of self & forgiveness of others is rough; or it can be.  I started this blog with something heroic in mind.  I would love to live a heroic tale!  But things in this world don't always work out as smooth as they do in a story.  More often we'd like to admit, things are painfully not in our control.  For me that is hard to deal with but I'm working on adjusting & forgiving & adapting in moments where I don't make it.  Anybody else have a hard time with this?  Anybody have any tested secrets?

IT HAS BEGUN

21^st - 22^nd June 2012     "IT HAS BEGUN"

Here I am at 12:14 a.m. – writing.  I’ve gotta be up in 6-ish hours to go to work.  I’ve already had a long day.  I should be tired. . . What am I doing?!?!

Writing.

Why?  Because the words have to get out.  If I don’t write, the words are just going to keep me restless; or worse yet, I’ll lose them.  It’s not that what I’m writing is so paramount that I’m uncontrollably driven to write.  I’m not scribing the Bible here!  Nor am I saving the world . . .

I’m writing because there’s something I feel and I cannot be the only one who does.  It’s an unsettling feeling that sometimes keeps me up at night.  Sometimes this feeling leaves me screaming angry.  Sometimes this feeling leaves me depressed & lost.  I can't always describe this feeling, outside of the fact that I perceive it, & I know at times this brings out questions that we all have asked: "Why is this happening?"  "Why am I here?"  "What is wrong with this world?"

To quote Morpheus from the movie The Matrix:

“Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know, you can't explain. But you feel it. You've felt it your entire life. That there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there...like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?

And we all know what he's talking about.  In the movie Neo answers Morpheus with the question "The Matrix?" but in real life we can answer Morpheus' question with questions of our own: "Why is life so mundane?" “Where is the grand adventure?" "Why aren’t there Heroes anymore?”

I’m starting this Blog because I’d like to know the answer to these questions & I don’t believe I’m the only one who does.  I believe Heroism is in the heart of every person.  We live in a messed up world with many needs.  I believe the choice of Heroism tugs at our very being every day & every day we decide if we’ll listen & respond to it or not.

My intention with this blog is to write about what I see and hear and feel and I invite you to respond in kind.  Some days the posts will be serious & some days they’ll be comical.  My hope is one day the questions a fore mentioned can be answered with an uproar of people saying “Send me, I’ll go.  I’ll be the Hero.”

At the end of the day, all that’s here are words & all I’m doing is writing.  But, words in their basest form are the conveyance of ideas & ideas have the potential to become something more, something greater, if you let them.  What you choose to do with what you see here is up to you.  So whether this blog is your call to arms, a wind of inspiration, or just a breath of fresh air, I hope it leaves you feeling better then when you found it, whatever ‘better’ might be.