Stormy Seas

 

JOURNAL

Stormy Seas

Bill Barksdale, Columnist

When I was a kid growing up next to the Columbia River in Oregon, I had two uncles.  Each had a sizable boat that could sail down the river and cross the bar of river siltation into the Pacific.  We’d go with one or the other uncle to ocean fish.  To my Dad and my uncles this was a great adventure but to a child, something else.  I’ve never been particularly comfortable on the ocean.  There’s a whole mysterious world under that inscrutable surface.  I don’t recall there ever having been one of those “smooth as glass” seas.  We would bob on those powerful swells of ocean and the other boats nearby would disappear until our boat was on the crest of the swell and they would appear again. 

I remember, several times, when a huge ocean-going ship would sail past us and I would look up to see the massive wall of steel rising many stories knowing that we would soon be bouncing in the wake of that ship.  I felt so small and helpless as that wall sailed past, beneath me the unknown that I had no skills to survive in.  

I’m reminded of a final scene in the movie, The Perfect Storm, where the last survivor of the sunken fishing boat is floating on a rough sea as the camera pulls back.  The man becomes smaller and smaller amidst the waves and we know that soon he will drown, like his already dead crew members.  Strangely, I’ve always felt a sense of peace watching that scene. 

Our world today is turbulently unsettled.  It’s like that stormy sea but instead of floating on the rolling ocean of unknown perils, the ocean is social conflict, the stormy ocean of human power-lust.  Be it nations, religion, hunger for wealth – we’ve become our own hazardous unknown.  Fear is the classic tool of fascism.  Stirring up the dread of our insecurities is how people like Adolf Hitler and those who aspire to his ambitions seek to gain power over others. 

Fortunately, in the United States, our forefathers threw us a life preserver – the right to Vote.  The U.S. Constitution is a living document that has been amended 27 times to try to make it more relevant and perfect.  The first 10 of those Amendments are called The Bill of Rights.  At first the right to Vote was limited to white men who owned land.  Clearly, an inappropriate exclusive group.  That needed to change because the United States is a dynamic, ever changing tide of humanity attracting people seeking freedom. 

Expressing your wants and desires through voting is fundamental to the mechanism of freedom in the U.S.  How can I say this tactfully?  As my friend Gail recently said, “If you don’t vote you’re stupid”.  That says it pretty well.  People who try to suppress voting are afraid of not being in control over you. 

In the U.S. we have what we call a “democracy”, from the Greek dēmos 'people' and kratos 'rule'.  The more people that vote, the more real democracy we achieve.  When people don’t vote or are prevented from voting, the less of a democracy we have.  The United States was founded and is constantly evolving into a nation where, ideally, common man and woman have a government for “the common good”. 

Lately we as individuals, have had just too much thrown at us. Modern media makes world events and personal opinions instantly available and in your face.  Literally “in your face”.  It’s just too much information, and much of it not true.  Our brains can’t process it all so we often get angry.  When people feel overwhelmed we often tend to tune out.  The problem with that is, getting people to “tune out” is a tool of those who will then step in and take away your freedom.  Some people are even willing to trade freedom just make the complications of maintaining freedom, go away.  Nobody ever said freedom is easy.  Personally, I want my freedom, but there are limits on freedom and the limits are when you seek to hurt others in the pursuit of your own wants.

My column is about my own personal views and feelings.  If you don’t agree with me, that’s your right. 

Personally, I want you to be free but I don’t want you to hurt me.  I don’t want you to try to deprive me of my right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  When you consider your “happiness” contingent on hurting me or depriving me of my right to vote, you’ve overstepped.  Same thing for me. 

There’s that old Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”  Ostensibly a simple saying, but in reality a complex philosophy requiring a deep commitment to decency. 

I’ll close this difficult column that could go on and on, with this image that may seem like a total non sequitur.  When I used to live in the redwood forest up Sherwood Road, nothing delighted me more than walking through the woods on a snowy day with my excited dogs as they ran ahead flipping that mysterious fluff in the air with their noses then scooping the cold, wet stuff into their mouths.  Their joy became my joy. 

Bill was a 2016 inductee into the Realtor® Hall of Fame.  Although retired he was an active agent in Mendocino County for 30 years.  Read more of Bill’s columns on his blog at www.bbarksdale.com

 

COMPANION PLANTING

 

JOURNAL

COMPANION PLANTING

Bill Barksdale, Columnist

I’m growing two gardens.  My small veggie garden has been very productive.  I’ve already canned sweet & dill pickles, & pickled peppers.  Every evening I pick kale for salad.  My tomatoes are over 6 feet tall so I’ll be making tomato sauce again.  I’m directing a play and designing the set, LUV, that will open next spring - April 2022.  That’s the other garden.  Directing a play is a process that can easily take months or a year.  I begin the play with the script - the soil - then plant the seeds.  The seeds germinate in the director’s thoughts as he or she begins to see the play in their imagination. 

 I never know when an idea will grab at me so I keep notes as the play grows in my mind.  Ralph Waldo Emerson once said “A man is what he thinks about all day long.”  What does it mean anyway?  He’s referring to “The Creative Process”.  Where you put your attention. Creativity.  Creating is an unavoidable part of being a human being.  We’re always doing it, for better or worse.

Perhaps you don’t think you are a creator but you are.  Moment-to-moment you are always creating your life.  As Mr. Emerson alluded, it’s the thought that counts.  I think about what I want to grow.  I prepare the soil, not unlike preparing one’s own mind with thoughts & “beliefs”, then I plant what I want to grow there – and I tend that garden by watering it, feeding it, weeding out what I don’t want and taking good care of the things that I want to thrive. 

You are what you think.  Your mind is virtually a garden really.  What you think about, put your attention on – you tend to move toward.  As an example, when I’m working on a play it’s always in the back of my mind.  I may see an image, and I think “That would make a good setting for the play” so that goes into my creation.  I may see someone behaving in a way that gets my attention and I think “That’s how one of my characters would behave” so that goes into my notes, an idea to suggest to an actor when we begin rehearsals.  Actors are all about behavior and reacting.

A child is a tender young seedling.  If they feel safe and have an inspiring & supportive teacher or parent, they learn the basic tools that will help them figure out how to be their own unique self.  Something excites and inspires them.  Everyone’s different and has something all their own to offer.  The creative process is at work.  It’s not only the ABC’s, math or science, it’s also about how to feed those things in ones imagination to “grow” ones own life.  What a concept!  You learn to take responsibility, to decide what you want your life to be - not unlike a garden.  What do you plant?  What is a “weed” thought that you can let go of because it’s not where you want to go?

We’re always planting that garden – that garden of the mind.  LUV isn’t the first play I’ve thought about and directed, it’s one of many.  Each time I have to start over.  In business each client I worked with was a new start, a new set of circumstances & goals.  Business is like that.  There’s always a challenge – something to solve so a need is filled.  In business, what does the client need?  It’s the business person’s job to find a way to help fulfill that need.  Some possible solutions don’t work so they get weeded out.  Some things help fill the need and that’s the direction you go. 

Life is like this.  It’s also true that what you want can sometimes change.  In fact that’s pretty normal.  Change is a constant.  What a man or woman or child thinks about is the direction they go.  Positive reinforcement helps one move in a rewarding direction.  “You’re doing a good job.”  “Let’s try again.”  “I like the way you did that.”  “That felt good.” How the heck do you figure it out?  Anita Moorjani in her inspiring book, Dying To Be Me, said “Day-to-day problems never seem as big when viewed through a veil of humor and love.”  Thomas Edison invented much of our modern world.  He never had a failure.  He once said "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."  I love that!  He was an inspired gardener.

Why are the arts just as important as ABC’s, math & science?  Because the arts train your mind to free-up, to discover   solutions and help build self-confidence.  Unlocking your imagination is the key to creativity and problem-solving.  The challenge is to turn off the “judging voice”.  Whose voice is that anyway, an unsupportive parent or teacher, someone else?  That voice discourages creative growth.

Solving problems is a mixed-bag of things, some work and some don’t.  The things that don’t work are the weeds you discard.  If you plant weeds (harmful thoughts), you’ll get weeds.  How do you know what’s a weed?  The weed doesn’t really feel right or truthful.  It doesn’t move you toward your goal.  It’s always your choice of course. 

I have to “see” in my imagination where the action of the play happens before I can move on.  When cast & crew become involved it becomes a family, a creative family, all striving to realize the director’s vision.  The director is the gardener.  The members of the audience are the final element of any play.  Hopefully, each one will be nourished in some way by their experience with the play. Our play will be our garden.   The veggie garden gets weeded, bugs & pests removed.  The bounty is slowly maturing with good care.   My two gardens are growing.   Every garden is different.  I’m always excited to see how each will grow.  There are so many possibilities.

Bill Barksdale was a 2016 inductee into the Realtor® Hall of Fame.  He is a referral agent for Coldwell Banker Mendo Realty Inc.  707-489-2232.  CADRE# 01106662.  Read more of his columns at his blog at BBarksdale.com