Fair Findings

Fair Findings

Eat an apple every day from the tree of wisdom
and plant the seeds in someone's garden

DB - The Vagabond

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September is almost over. And that means the end of Vagabondisms for a while (Whew! What a relief.) Oh, they will pop up now and then.
Today's quote defines my life in many ways. Especially now, in my senior years, when I have so much time to read and think about things.
The odd thing, I've discovered, is the strange reactions one can get from sharing things. Quite often an original word of wisdom, or a new way of seeing something, or a refined idea or even a clever or funny remark about life will be met with scorn or disbelief. "Where did you hear that? You couldn't possibly have thought of that yourself." And sometimes it's resentment, as if I'm trying to ridicule someone's lack of understanding. Often I'm just ignored. All I'm trying to do is share something with someone.

"Everyone knows actors and actresses are a vain, ignorant group who only read the sports pages and visit the beauty parlor, who primp and posture and are only concerned with how they appear to others. He says he reads philosophy? Don't believe it. He's just grandstanding, putting on an act, trying to make us think he's smart."
Underestimate me and you hurt me. Overestimate me and you hurt yourself.
I'm an artist. Only a true artist knows what that means. There are a great many things I can't do. I defer to scientists, athletes, doctors and others. But I do know the things that I can discover and determine on my own. And why not share those things with other people? It is a joy and privilege for me.
I have shared some of my experiences as an actor, not to brag, but to find examples and metaphors for life lessons. When I first began to uncover the ideas, the truths behind things I thought I had been blessed with a wonderful opportunity to explore every cave and summit and see what I could find.
I have found that, while there is no wisdom in the plow, there is in the plowman. More than we know. More than he knows. And that there is no music in the cello until the musician draws his bow across the strings and then only if the music is already in the musician. These may seem like simple truisms, and they are, but they point to a great and fundamental fact of our existence. It is the pursuit of the understanding of that fundamental fact that is my principle activity now.
The bites from the apple are healthy even if the apple is a little sour sometimes (and please don't make any lame jokes about worms).
Exploration, curiosity, observation, concentration, imagination, challenging standard ways of thinking, speaking and doing things, originality, persistence, expectation of discovery: these are the tools of this baffled vagabond as I go through the orchard and along the road.
I intend to keep chewing apples and planting seeds for as long as I can. It seems to be what my life is about.
Thank you for reading this entry.


Throw love at them. If they throw scorn back, throw more love and duck.