Musings Of A Wordsmith

I may be biased here but I feel there is a certain magic we give ourselves in the act of reading. I suspect you feel that way too as you’re reading this blog. However if you’re anything like me, you give yourself less and les time TO read. The challenges of the day eat up more and more of our time while movies and TV shows scream louder and louder for our attention. More series to binge, games to bet on, scandals unfolding.

As they drew near the sound of howling winds was overcome by the collision of thunder. Urk could feel Al’s hesitation more than see it. Moving through the gale had been difficult enough, but now they would surely be blind and the strokes of lighting writhed through the cloud like hungry snakes.

Urk looked back to the heap of furs covering his mate and extended a hand. “Do you trust me?

~Al tumbled through the air, screaming as sky, pier and water spiraled about her, then she was wrapped in ice and a thunderous sound. A green wash of darkness blanketed her vision and water tried to rush into her lungs. She could hear nothing but the overlapping crashing of popping bubbles and feel currents like massive hands rushing around her.~

We have a saying in America, a very young saying, as sayings are aged, “I miss nine-twelve.”

September 11th was a tragic moment in U.S. history that kicked off a great deal of change and pain the world over.

That’s not what we mean.

It’s a national holiday, schools are closed, banks are closed, the government is closed all to honor those hard laborers.

Those hard laborers who probably did not get the day off. You, specifically you reading this probably do not have Labor Day off.

The point is, while I was sitting on that cool beach watching the sun peep between a cage of clouds I saw this dump truck pull up and dump a load of stones on the beach. Montauk point is a rock beach but the winds and waves erode tons of sand and stone every year shrinking the beach incredibly.

Or they would, were it not for the construction crews who do the very difficult and perhaps dangerous task of restoring it. And if I had not arrived today, had I arrived perhaps tomorrow or last week as I initially intended would I have seen this?

That being said I was listening to one that said, essentially, yes people are dumb, but you are too. And that struck me as something very real, and more importantly, something that we too often forget.

The emergency radio band flooded his helmet, the overlapping voices of first responders and dispatchers struggling to make sense of the disaster bouncing around his head. Most of it was a repetition of the same few facts. Responders inbound. Civilians in need of help. Hospitals being told to expect casualties. But one transmission stuck out above all the rest. //Unconfirmed reports of a super human. We may have some super powered pyro!//

Sometimes it’s easy to look out at the world around you and think. “Things are only getting worse. Thins can only get worse.”

And I get that, truly I do. Honestly I feel the same way sometimes.

Now I didn’t use a chainsaw … I used a hatchet. Partly because I like using the hatchet, partly ‘cause I was lazy.

But I think the lesson holds, be prepared for inclement weather to deal with the problems that arise as a result.

I feel it is our purpose to be the best version of ourselves that we can be for those around us. I hope by doing this we are positive influence on those around us and even if we do not go forward with them in life the good we do will.

And we experience this all the time, do we not? Good teachers, good coworkers, helpful strangers in foreign cities. They are only in our lives for a short time but the impact is substantial.

I am a big proponent of the idea the “truth” that we are more capable than we realize and can accomplish more than we thought possible if we simply set our goals a little higher. People perform up to expectations as well as down if you give them the opportunity.

That includes you.

Sirens warred with the sound of explosions and screams. The ground rumbled as the squeal of buckling steel and crumbling concrete filled the air followed by a thin mist of building dust. Ramirez eyes were pulled to the sounds of the collapsing building but he dragged them away. There was nothing he could do there, he was here to save lives.

That being said reflection on one’s self is vital to self improvement. Dealing with your mistakes teaches you a lot about yourself, what your flaws are, how you handle them and so forth. It also teaches you a lot about those around you.

Don’t trust anyone that gets mad when you apologize.

Perhaps it’s fear, or caution, or a feeling that we do not deserve such things. Silence such thoughts for they are poison to the soul.

I say this not because I hate my nation or any other, quite the opposite in fact. I say this because mythologizing the past ignores the extremely hard and difficult work done by our forebears and encourages us sit idle when our nation needs us to improve.

I had no idea what kind of impact I had,. was having on these children, and that is the lesson here. The one I learned and hope you do to.

I share because I imagine many of us will soon be in similar scenarios. Doing things once again we had not done in moths. Going out into greater perhaps oppressive heat. Needing to honestly asses where we are from where we were,

Squirrels aren’t uncommon of course, I live in a suburban area and there are several in the local trees.

No, this one struck me as odd as it was standing right in front of my door as I approached and I expected it would race off like a bat out of Hell. But it didn’t. It froze. I froze, and then it relaxed.

What will you do if you loose power for a day, for a week? If a tree blocks off your road or your neighbors house catches fire?