The Mysteries of Life

One of the cool things about blogging is that it's an avenue along which a writer can practice writing. "They" say to be a good writer, one must write regularly. Which only makes sense, if you think about it. How good a tennis player would you be if you only played now and then, compared to every day?

The challenge, I find, is deciding what to write about. Well, that's an easy one if something exciting has happened to you -- of course that's what you're going to write about! But what if nothing exciting is going on in your life? Then, it seems, you resort to writing about the ordinary.
I begin by asking myself, "So, what's on your mind, Ginny?" Today there are three things which, at first glance, seem unrelated. But maybe not.

1) Does anyone know, can anyone tell me, why birds will fly into a window pane of glass and fall to the ground dead, having broken their own necks? This happened three times within a two week period (months back), and it occurred to me that one of our trees has berries of some sort, and it might be that the birds ate the berries which somehow affected their brain (the way alcohol does), and they were drunk, so to speak. This theory makes more sense than the possibility of deliberate suicide, since there were three incidents spaced so closely in time. If it were just a matter of seeing the outdoors reflected in the glass and mistaking it for reality, that would make sense also, but then why only three birds over two weeks, instead of a bird now and then year round? It's a mystery to me. I was sitting in the living room two out of the three times, and I really hate when it happens. First there is the sound that occurs, then the fleeting hope that the bird survived, then the running to the window to look onto the ground, only to have my hopes dashed.

2) What in the world is going on with General McChrystal and Rolling Stone Magazine? As I understand it, a reporter was embedded in the General's workplace in Afghanistan for a month or two, observing as well as interviewing. He then wrote disparaging remarks that were made there regarding our President and his administration. I realize this is a serious no-no, because I've had family members in the military refuse to comment on the then/now sitting president, in observation of military regulations and out of fear of reprisal. So I'm thinking if McChrystal's people said what they are quoted as saying, what the hell were they thinking??? Factor in that McChrystal comes from black ops training and installation, and you would think that he would be particularly keen on discretion. Wouldn't you? It seems that he has flown into a pane of glass. But why?

3) I woke up a little after five this morning, happy to be awake because I had just had a nightmare. It had a holocaust theme to it, with a group of coal miners returning on a train to a scene where all their women and children had been... done away with... in a quite grizzly fashion. What the? Where did that come from? One theory is that bad dreams such as this one, is our brain's way of preparing us for future crises... providing an opportunity to rehearse our reactions so that, should the need arise, we will be able to deal with reality better. Hello! I'd rather skip the rehearsal, if you don't mind! If ever I need to totally fall apart, I'm sure I'll do quite well at it without practice. Another theory is that, because (thank God) our lives are pretty darned good -- we really do have it made in comparison to other cultures and other areas of the world -- bad dreams are a way of introducing some bad into the good, to create psychological balance (as in yin and yang -- In all bad there is good and in all good there is bad, and the balance is, Taoism teaches, what keeps the universe from spinning out of existence). So maybe a nightmare is Nature's way of helping us out? I could research this, of course, but I won't. Too many other things to do, with higher priority.

So those are the three things on my mind this morning, and I can see how the first two are interrelated, but the third has me stumped. I'm not Jewish, I'm not German, and in past life regression (a viable form of therapy often misused as entertainment or as source of undeserved income) I've never regressed to a time or place involving the holocaust. So I can't figure that one out, but I do have a busy day ahead of me so I'll distract myself, with all due respect to the underlying reality of the dream. One thing about life that I will never comprehend is man's inhumanity to man. If I dwell on it, however, I'm sure to have a crappy day and that serves no purpose that I can see.

So I'm changing my focus now to stop thinking about the bad, and to think about the good. Those who realize we actually have a choice are the fortunate ones. Reminds me of a quote I used in my book, The Rising Tide Model for Self-improvement -- "I cried at first... and then, it was such a beautiful day, that I forgot to be unhappy.." (Frances Noyes Hart (1890-1943)