Tag: wisdom

March 23, 2022 – Total Domination

March 23, 2022 /

I remember this vividly. I was 17 and I was wrestling in high school. My brother (15) was also a wrestler and cousin(15) was a football starter. We challenged my dad and uncles to a 3 on 3 basketball game. I figured that they were all smokers and out of shape that this would be a cake walk.

I can still remember my grandfather cackling as they proceeded to beat our asses badly. I think that the final score was 40-2 or something like that. I don’t really remember the game itself other than they were way more physical that we were. Not in a fouling or nasty way but more like aggressiveness.

When getting the family settled into the beach house on Sunday, we play a couple of hours on the ping pong table. My sons recently started playing tennis. So, my younger son thought that he was going to school mom. No way Jose. Mom played several years when she worked at a youth residential treatment facility. It was closer than my loss in basketball, but my son was shocked. He proclaimed that he was going to beat her 10-0 in the next game.

I have noticed over the years that youth are not as strong as I think they should be. I don’t know if it is mind over matter or they are just not fully developed. I have had my nephew or kids help me move furniture around and they seem to not be able to move or lift things despite spending hours a week “working out”. Don’t get me wrong, I am out of shape and they can run circles around me. I am talking about practical fitness however.

I have spoken about wisdom in the past. Back to basketball, my guess is that we were in top physical shape, but they used wisdom to play to their strengths. Maybe if we were all basketball players instead of wrestlers the game would have ended more like the ping pong game. I just dont know but I have seen this enough times in various forms to know that it is more complicated that how much you can squat, bench press or deadlift.

Back when I was in high school, I used to play Dungeons and Dragons with my friends. Your character has both wisdom and intelligence. Intelligence is analogous to knowing pi is 3.14159 (plus a whole lot more) versus wisdom of using 3.14 when calculating the area of a circle. I can’t remember all the severely complicated math I learned to prove pi as a number but I certainly remember where to use it.

End Your Programming Routine: It very well may be that high schoolers competing against other high schoolers are at a roughly equal mental development. At that age, we don’t realize the influence that our mental ability has on the physical. We also don’t realize that we have not mentally peaked or that we don’t know what we don’t know. As I sat there watching that ping pong game, the great memory flashed back of my grandfather just howling as we got schooled.

July 31, 2020 – Got to do something, even if it is wrong

July 31, 2020 /

Remember back in high school English, one of the techniques to getting started writing was just to write something? I would say that it is much easier with a computer to just start going and then switch to something more on topic than when we used to have to write it out by hand. I never really did it much because it was so much more extra work, I would delay until I was ready.

Today is kind of one of those days. I wasn’t totally sure what I wanted to write about. However, I have been thinking about a phrase that my grandfather used to use. When it came to sort of a guessing situation, he used to say “We have got to do something, even if it is wrong”. That was his country wisdom way of saying we will figure it out when we need, if it is that important.

Being the analytical type, I prefer to look at all the data and weigh decisions based on factors such as cost, difficulty, potential risk and upside. Many decisions are not worth such analysis or all those factors are roughly the same. So, that is where you pick a direction and go and change course later if needed.

It is interesting that life can be both ways. It is us that picks a method of handling it. Part of me envies the free spirited type because I think that likely ends in a more self-fulfilled destination. My type picks a direction and never looks back because changing direction is too difficult. Hopefully you picked the right one.

Doing something is what I have been doing for the last year. I have been hoping that the right thing would come along if I was busy doing something else. It is why I have thrown myself into intense projects and at times have ignored job searches and business development at the same time. I am avoiding the pain of stepping backward. This strategy hasn’t proven to fully work out.

As a Christian, I keep telling myself that there is a plan, I am waiting for it to be revealed. But I can’t help but wonder if I was busy painting or hammering and totally missed the signs. My wife says that her friends are flirty with me all the time, I don’t really see it.

Despite all of that, this is Friday and it shouldn’t be a downer. What I am trying to get across is don’t sweat the small stuff and don’t get paralyzed by indecision. I am so grateful to have spent quality time with my grandfather. All the skills he taught me and to think that I am still dwelling on his phrases, you can’t buy that.

I have been getting up early to let the dog out and it has been a great time to get the day started and get my computer work done. Here is a few pictures of my puppy one month later.