Marlow's Musings 11/26/23
Insights, adventures and fun stuff from this week.
Audio narration by David Marlow
I picked up my grandson ‘E’ from school a while back, and we ran some errands together.
One was to pick up a jar of natural honey.
Something I really enjoy about ‘E’ is that he is eager to learn and open to hearing the rationale for decisions. We were looking through the honey selection, and he spotted the container pictured below. "This looks like a good one."
It was a good choice though the price per ounce is more in the 'bear' container. I started to explain to him the bigger jar of Concord Farms honey was the same and less expensive.
Then I paused and looked at him for a moment.
This beautiful little boy filled with confidence and excitement about being helpful.
“Little children marvel at the universe…With the mysterious experience of being loved and looking around, we enter the era which we first remember. We remember just that we were fascinated with the universe…Every child is a poet.”
R. Buckminster Fuller
Every moment of the day, the world is working to rob us of our genius or, as Buckminster Fuller describes, to de-genius us. Pounding the stuffing out of us every time we dare raise our heads above the line.
This is especially true for kids. If it’s not the education system, it’s other kids, and if not them, it is well-meaning parents trying to get through the day.
And there I was in aisle eight of the Good Harvest store, about to de-genius that little boy looking up at me with his cobalt blue eyes.
Instead, I smiled, told him this was a good choice, and bought the bear.
There will be time to explain costs per ounce, the value of money, and a host of other seemingly ‘vital’ things.
That day, that moment was about the most vital thing of all: recognizing him and what he thought was best.
Sometimes, you just have to buy the bear.
Word of the Week
Gratitude (n )
grat·i·tude /ˈɡradəˌto͞od/
1: the quality of being thankful
2: readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness
Here’s something to be grateful for during a week centered on gratitude.
Your chance of winning the Powerball Lottery Jackpot is roughly 1 in 292 million.
That number is almost too significant to grasp.
To put it into context, I’ll share an event with the same likelihood of happening.
Imagine taking an ant, placing a dot of white paint on its back, and releasing it onto a high school football field.
Allow it to roam around a bit and then throw a pin into the air and have it land on the dot of the moving ant’s back.
It’s the same odds as winning the lottery.
Here’s another circumstance that is even more unlikely to occur than hitting the ant.
YOU!
The likelihood that the complete expression of creation that is you is a 1 in 400 trillion longshot.1
Living on this earth is astronomically less likely than winning the Powerball lottery.
And yet, here you are.
Makes it hard not to be grateful, especially during a week with a holiday dedicated to giving thanks.
In case you missed it…
🌀An Ikigai Thought for Today: How to Be a Square
Ikiquest+
This week in Ikiquest+…
The Coffee Contemplation was the second of a series of three reflections to energize your end-of-year thinking. I 'dig' deep into a couple of ideas in this one.
Plus subscribers can read it here.
Quote I’m Pondering
This week, I’ve pondered this passage from Poet Robert Browning…
“Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made. Our times are in his hand who saith, 'A whole I planned, youth shows but half; Trust God: See all, nor be afraid!”
Robert Browning
Comment of the Week:
This week’s comment comes from Marcia in Embracing the Wonderful Things.
It just so happens Marcia is the drum major (on the left) that I’m partially hidden behind. It has been years since we have spoken. This was a marvelous surprise and bonus from blessing sharing this memory.
Ah, I remember that day! It was so cold - but we had a blast. It didn’t help that I was wearing shorts - ha! At least those in uniform could hide long-johns underneath.
I spent many a happy Thanksgiving visiting my grandparents’ farm in northern Vigo County. This would always include aunts, uncles and cousins as well. That farm was my home away from home!
Hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving, David and thank you for posting this pic of the “Marching Patriots”!
You can read the article here.
Fun Thing I Saw This Week
Coding Robot has a new writing analyzer app named ‘I Write Like’, which has many features. One I like in the free version is literally an I Write Like analysis of your writing style.
You can try it without even having to download the app. Here’s what I got when I used last week’s muse piece.
I thought, how cool is that?! For fun, I bought Wallace’s book of essays, ‘Consider the Lobster.’ Three essays in, and I have to say…I hope I don’t always write like David Foster Wallace. 😉
Final Thoughts
In researching material for this musing I uncovered some things I never knew about Buckminster Fuller.
Though considered by many to be one of the world’s great minds he never finished college being twice expelled from Harvard, mostly for goofing off.
He repeatedly failed at business and was at the point of suicide after the death of his young daughter. Fuller attributed her illness to poor living conditions resulting from his financial setbacks in business.
What changed that made him the distinguished innovator and thinker often called the Leonardo da Vinci of the 20th Century?
He uncovered his purpose.
"To make the world work for 100 percent of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone."
And that purpose launched him on a quest to understand and solve the world’s problems.
Uncovering our purpose is a gift available to everyone.
Quest well.
🌀 Can you articulate your Ikigai in a single sentence?
Having an Ikiverse clarifies how to live out your Ikigai.
✅ Being able to state it invites others to support you in your Ikiquest.
You can learn more about Ikiquest+ here. Check it out!
There is lots of math involved so do what I did and Google it to find the explanation easiest for you to understand. Or take my word for it and simply be grateful you are here which is both easier and more fun. 😉
Wow...the way that ikigai mirrors the very conversations that have been going on this week about walking our dharmic and karmic paths as well as opportunities for presence found whilst cleaning up broken honey bear bottles ("I get to clean these") at the Chopra Center is indeed magical!
PS Full disclosure...I am the intellectualizer who learned from the wisdom of my body how not to ask "why are we ordering honey bottles that randomly and routinely broke in the first place" after spending a great deal of time and presence cleaning up said honey bottles and it paradoxically...makes me smile :)
It's a whole different experience when you buy the bear; every time you use the honey you feel it and imagine a story. Yes, it's a great marketing ploy, but it's also a magical prompt to our emotions and imagination! Lovely story and decision, David!