Author: Philo

human

There are Things…

Taking Jack to the airport at 3am for a drop off was painful. I certainly shed a tear but I had hope that out west where he was going, that he would find a home. I wanted to be that home but it was not to be. I handed him over and helped into a small kennel. I put his favorite toys into the kennel and when I stood up I looked down and looked at his sorrowful eyes looking up at me.

He wasn’t making a sound and this was odd. He hated kennels. During the past few weeks he had hurriedly become a part of our household, making himself at home and irritating our old dog, Maggie. He was happy and would not let me out of his sight. He went everywhere with us and when we did have to leave him alone, waited patiently.

Jack was a foster that had a “planned outcome”, so it was called, in Utah.

I don’t make any allusions to the fact that fostering can be difficult, especially with a companion such as Jack. But fostering helps dogs out of situations that are not so good and into situations that are hopefully loving and secure. Fostering is fulfilling but be ready to leave a piece of your self with the animal that you foster. The hope is that there is enough to go around, enough for the next, and the next.

If there were issues, it was with people, not with Jack or any other dog including one we tried to foster before and simply didn’t work out. So I’ve been told by others that they couldn’t foster because they couldn’t bear thought of letting go but I cannot bear the thought of animals in need not getting the help. It is simple to do and although painful, fostering is a way to do good for an animal that often has little chance if any.

I will miss Jack and continue to do so, but I will find another to foster, to help, because there are things that are worth bearing the pain and shedding the tears for.

No Time

There are many platitudes that hide in the shadows of excuses. There are many fears disguised by procrastination. But there is no greater shame than having no time. As time goes by we become comfortable in our excuses and procrastinated plans are forgotten. A blinder replaces the blue skies of possibility.

We have time. That is all that we have. We sell our time cheaply or give it away to the shiny machinery that makes up our days or we can choose to value that which we do have. There is a chance to start but there is no way to bring back the days spent wasting precious time. Time is a one way street.

There is no time to waste. There is no better time than now. There is yet time but no time like now.

Music

There’s a magic to music. Take the time to find it. If you don’t play, then listen. Listen closely. In the pieces it can be heard. That is, the feeling of the musicians and their abilities, their willingness to listen to each other.

Music can be ignored but it cannot be dismissed. There are those times when playing, sometimes late at night on a stage to an empty club, drunks at the bar, no one paying any attention, TV’s blaring, when the magic happens. It might be between the bassist and the drummer, or the guitarist hitting a particular note at a particular time.

Music can be analyzed and understood and still be an allusive and rare species. There are many pathways to “it” but “it” changes. “It” is not a destination or a goal, just a temperamental touch of time in a passing slice of space. There are people who are musicians and there are people who are able to play music. The difference is the ability to recognize the magic when it happens, if it happens, and to be able to tell the difference.

Music is a language that takes a lifetime to learn it is one of the few things that is actually worth it.

Evil

At the animal shelter of any town or city one can see, firsthand, the final results of ignorance and greed, of those that bring down the rest of us, that take away the good in a community. It is easy to recognize and difficult to face. There is no place for cynicism or complacency. It is there, staring you in the face with frightened eyes, or anger, or defeat, and even hope.

It could be that those that create the need for these places have reasons to feel forlorn, forgotten. It could be that they themselves were or are abused. It could be many things that bring an individual to break a spirit, or to answer a hopeful look with a violent attack. It could be drugs. It could be depression. But there is one thing that it could not be; that is, it could not be a person.

A person wouldn’t create an innocent and broken spirit. A person would not cause panic and pain. A person would not do the things that it takes to create an being that no longer wants to be a part of the world that it has been thrown into. A person could not look at the faces at an animal shelter and feel nothing, feel a disconnect, or feel the need to inflict even more evil.

And that is what it is. Evil. There is no other word, no other concept. Evil is not given to humanity, it is made. It is in the faces of those that have experienced it. At the animal shelter of any town or city one can see, firsthand, the final results of evil.

All the While

Perspectives change and change they should. The bubbles that we live in daily are facades, they are buildings that we have erected and have been erected for us. every brick shields us from the ever-changing reality that just sometimes becomes too much. They are so much a part of our lives that we hardly notice them. After time they themselves become our realities.

We all love our own perspectives. they are, after all, those things that define us. This, we are told, is the ultimate goal of life: to build a lovely life filled with good things and to like ourselves. And this is the goal as long as it is not at the cost of all else. Perspectives exist within a reality and they have consequences within that reality. They affect that reality and visa-versa. That is how it should be.

But perspectives have a way of creating their own realities. They have a way of shielding us from things that might change them, that might change the way we think. They have a way of parenting our decisions, and holding an ever-protective defense over our eyes. And while this happens and we go about our lovely lives filled with good things, the bricks are laid.

Soon we forget who we are and what we are, and we don’t realize what we’ve become. Good and bad cease to have meaning outside of our own opinions. Arguments become ideologies and reality becomes what we want it to be. And all the while…

The Cowboy

The cowboy’s life is sometimes a hard one. He stays up night worrying about the days.

And when the light comes over the horizon he promises himself to mend his ways.

And the years roll by like the highway beneath him and he knows he’s been trying to hide.

Hide from the truth that life is mistreating and it’ll beat you down until you cry.

He’s been taught that crying is wrong and he’s been told to lie is a sin.

He believes that there’s someone somewhere who will on day understand just where he’s been.

The cowboy knows that time is sacred and he knows that life is short.

The cowboy feels each heart that’s broken and he cries a tear.

So if your a cowboy that tired of fighting and you feel that life has let you down.

Find a road that leads you somewhere and wait for the good to come back around.

Because life’s not fair for the cowboy but life doesn’t care who you are.

Life goes on for the cowboy, but he never knows just how far.

Helping

There is something about helping that can raise the spirits, make the world seem brighter. Even if it is a thankless thing, an anonymous hand that pulls the string, a minute to stop is all it takes.

Don’t expect to be thanked. Don’t expect the world to stop and graciously bow before your helping hand. Don’t expect anything but know that it does make a difference. Just look in the eye of that dog you stopped to help, or that cat that needed a hand. Just look in the eye of that person.

Money, yes, but better is time. Help by giving your time. If you can, give as much as you can. It’s amazing how fulfilling, how wonderful, and how life opens up when you give that thing that we all take for granted. Time is amazing.

Do what you can. Do what is needed. Do the right thing. Give the world your time and smile as the warm feeling of happiness fills you. Help til you’re tired. Help until you need to help others. Help yourself.

Help is that sort of happiness that so many don’t believe exists. Help them to understand that it truly does. It truly does.

Pay Attention

Don’t let a phone get in the way of looking at someone while they talk. Visit with the flesh and blood sitting in front of you. Share their smile or grimace. The picture doesn’t matter. The text can wait. Turn off the ringer. There is nothing more important than that person that you are sharing a minute, an hour, a day with. There is nothing on that screen that can give you as much or that you can learn more from.

That small, magical box is Pandora’s. Let her have it. Give it away freely. Forget about it. Let the battery run dead and find your life once again. People are flesh and blood, and they have given you their time. The silicone and plastic, the oil and electricity soaked entertainment takes your time and sells you an illusion. Put it down. First for an hour, then a day. Then a week.

It’s worth the pain. Don’t look at it while it sits and lures you in the the fake imagination and shiny promises of a preacher. Let the wires retract from your veins and let the sun shine through the backlit LED lies that flash so quickly as to not be seen. Don’t be fooled. Be bored. Don’t look for information. Find knowledge. Find yourself. Find what friends used to mean.

Pay attention to the moment. Pay attention. Now.

Search for Truth

Happiness is fleeting and probably overrated. This seems cynical but it is not meant to be. We in the west tend to desperately desire to be happy, all of the time. In Denmark, rated the world’s happiest country for several years in a row, the question was asked: how? How is Denmark so consistently happy?

The answer: lower your expectations. This also seems cynical, but it is not. The truth does not always lead to happiness. It does not always feel good or adhere to your particular ideology. The truth is often in simple statements. The truth is often simple and most often does not meet our personal expectations. It does not always give us what we want. But it is the epitome of human existence, at least that part of human existence that matters.

But what is this truth? What is this concept that matters so much?

True, justified, belief is the short answer. But there is one other possible answer. Consider it.

Truth is the quality of the relationship between an idea of a thing and the thing itself.

The search for truth is an unending process to raise that quality, the quality of our thinking and of our thoughts. We must raise the quality of that relationship. The search for truth leads down dark paths and contemplative nights but the search for truth is our only justified means. It does not rely upon happiness, but it is perhaps the only way of lowering our expectations.