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NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies....
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Noreen Date: 09 Dec 09 - 08:27 PM pick more daisies |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: CarolC Date: 08 Dec 09 - 11:18 PM Appropriate to be refreshing this thread also because at least two of the people who posted to it before have since passed on, and the eighth anniversary of the passing of one of them, LR Mole, will be in just a few days. From Mr. Mole's post nine years ago... Pick daisies or daze pickers? Were I a daisy I fear I'd be picked soon enough for me, I suppose, but I'd rather it be by the wind. Fair sailing, Mr. Mole. |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Noreen Date: 08 Dec 09 - 10:27 PM Hmmmm.... nine years (NINE YEARS!) down the road from the original posting, on the way back from the funeral of a friend, and considering great personal upheavals to come at home, I remembered this thread... It is salutary to read through again, and I hope, will provoke more thoughts from contributors new and old. Oh, I have picked lots of daisies in the last nine years, and I know the world has many more- tonight's positive thought to go to bed with! Thanks, friends. |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Cluin Date: 17 Dec 02 - 04:49 PM You know, I get a lot of this sort of inspirational glop in my e-mail every day. And my first inclination is to just hit delete without bothering to read through it. That's what I would have done with the above message. But here's one I did get that I kept becauise I felt there might actually be some use in it. So I'll post it here in rebuttal. Cowboy Axioms * Don't squat with your spurs on. * Don't interfere with nothin' that ain't botherin' you none. (That includes daisies) * If you find yourself in a hole, the first order o' business is to stop diggin'. * The easiest way to eat crow is while it's still warm. The colder it gets, the harder it is to swaller. * If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some importance, just you try orderin' somebody else's dog around. * Always take a good look at what you're about to eat. It ain't so important to know what it is, but it is downright crucial to know what it was. * Just 'cause trouble comes a-visitin' don't mean you gotta offer it a place to sit down. * Never get into a stinkin' match with a skunk or an ass-kickin' contest with a porkypine. * Never ask how big an ass somebody can be 'cause they'll by God turn around and show you. * It's always pref'rable to keep your trap shut and look stupid than open up and prove it. * If it don't seem to be worth the effort it probably ain't. * It don't take no bonafide genius to spot a goat in a flock of sheep. * Never ask the barber if you need a haircut. * Don't worry about bitin' off more'n you can chaw; your mouth is probably a whole lot bigger'n what you think it is. * A good horse don't never come in a bad colour. * Always drink upstream from the herd. * Gen'rally, you're learnin' nothin' when your mouth is a-jawin'. * Lettin' the cat out of the bag is a damn sight easier than puttin' `er back in. * If you're a-ridin' ahead of the herd, take a look back ever now and then and make sure they's still there with you. * Good judgement comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment. * Good timin's got a lot to do with the fav'rable upshot of a rain dance. * There's two theories to arguin' with a woman. And neither one works no hell. * They's three kinds of men: them that learns by reading, them that learns by observation, and the rest who just gotta have a piss on the `lectric fence for themselves. * Never kick a cowchip on a hot day. * If you give a lesson in meanness to a critter or a feller, don't be surprised when they learn that lesson and teach it back to you. * When you're a-throwin' your weight around, you best be ready to have it thrown around some more by somebody else. * The biggest troublemaker you'll ever deal with watches you shave his face ever' damn mornin'. * Never miss a good chance to shut the hell up. Oh.... right. |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: CapriUni Date: 17 Dec 02 - 03:39 PM LoL, Micca! Just walk out very, very carefully... and be careful not to step on any tails... |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Micca Date: 17 Dec 02 - 03:19 PM This thread still retains its power even 2 years on, even if,as the man said... " when you are up to your arse in crocodiles, it is hard to remember the original intention was to drain the swamp" still, Carpe diem.. |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: CapriUni Date: 17 Dec 02 - 02:14 PM Hey, Noreen! happy third day of your Birthday Octave! (your birthday eve was the first day, your birthday proper was the second day, and this is your third day -- you have eight in total... just like the notes of a scale ;-)). Anyway, I like this philosophy! But I'd ammend it just a bit: Not only do I wish to pick more daisies... I'll endeavor to plant more as well... Just a thought... |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Noreen Date: 17 Dec 02 - 01:24 PM I was reminded of this thread in mudchat last night; and it did me good to be reminded. There are still lots of daisies to be picked... |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: katlaughing Date: 29 Oct 00 - 12:22 AM Joerg, It works perfectly well in English, in fact you have a very good command of English. Thank you.... "patience is a virtue for which we all strive" kat |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: GUEST,Joerg Date: 28 Oct 00 - 09:12 PM "Never felt better in my life" - why should it be too late to say that on my death bed? I don't know how good I would feel if I could tell to myself that I managed to get there in dignity and if somebody I feel loved by (does that construction work in english?) was there. It's never, NEVER too late to feel better than ever before. And anyway - *garrrinnn* - wouldn't that be kind of FAMOUS last words? Sad and cynical of course ("Thank God this BS has come to an end.") but what if I want to express exactly that? At the moment I'm far from believing that life is BS but opinions change as we get smarter ......... uhm .............. as we get, err, at least different. Still much better than having to die without being able to express anything. Well, that's only some longer refresh, because it doesn't refer to what I'm really interested in. But I don't object any more to situations when nobody knows something to say. Maybe they're all thinking. As I am. Patience. Joerg |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: katlaughing Date: 28 Oct 00 - 12:15 AM Yes, I agree, Micca, that is what the original posting was about and I think Mary made a very important point, as did you. Joerg, I look forward to your further postings; I am really enjoying them. Also love the circular motion/notion, as long as they spiral upwards into the next, and so, that the consciousness is growing is evident. With that comes the At-one-ness. Thanks, kat |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Troll Date: 27 Oct 00 - 11:11 PM If you don't take care of your own head, you will soon find that you cannot take care of those who depend on you. never neglect the spiritual side of your nature. As the late Don Grooms wrote: "When you're layin' there in that coffin, And they're about to close that lid, It's too late to say you never felt better in your life, And you think it'e 'bout time you did." troll |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: GUEST,Joerg Date: 27 Oct 00 - 10:05 PM Maybe some day you will knock me down. NOT YET, but this attempt was not so feeble. :-) Mary - I love you for that remark. Not only because I feel understood but also - mainly - because: How could I forget CONSCIOUSNESS? Why did something that important not come to my mind? Another evidence that also the best of us all (that's me, of course, heheh) are in no way protected against not seeing the most essential... Naemanson - whether Mudcat is a daisy or not does not depend on Mudcat but on those who participate. That's not the same to me! Please also note what I think I must tell to Mousethief - to me you didn't add something to the problem, you rather added some very good suggestions for words to understand what we are talking about. Thank you, that helped me. (Nevertheless I still don't know what kind of thread this is. I never know what doesn't seem important to me. My fault.) Again you said something that tells something to me: "WHAT you DO affects HOW you BE". Correct! And what about: "HOW you BE affects WHAT you DO"? Very trivial but still correct. Do you notice that this makes up a circle? Every time I notice a circle of this kind I get a feeling of "Ouch!" that is very difficult to explain. I would very much appreciate knowing your opinion of such circles, because I think we (at least I) might obtain still another key to the problem we are talking about here. kat - Hmmmm... May I mark your posting just above with a CAPITAL ASTERISK? It gave me some completely new idea I first have to understand myself, so please give me some time... Joerg |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Micca Date: 27 Oct 00 - 07:14 PM I take your point kat, but I think the difference intended by the original poster is more to do with too much time spent in "being for others" as opposed to time spent in "being for oneself". to some there is no difference in these two things. But to others, we often have to function for partners , family, etc. and no time is spent on the "inner person" , sometimes the effect of this , if it goes on for a long time is we lose touch with ourselves and all our life/living seems to be from reflection in others. and their needs of us. This is not to say "daisy gathering" cant be a wonderful shared event, but the prime choice must rest with you, not them. and I think MiK is accurate on the difference to "smelling the roses", daisy gathering is more pro-active than that. This is why there seems to be 2 strands at least to the discussion above and why Naemanson and others identify it with the apparent (and real) spiritual nature of "gathering Daisies" because that too is " being for oneself". |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: katlaughing Date: 27 Oct 00 - 02:25 PM My daughter called me out on the front steps this morning for a moment of being still and picking daisies with our ears. It sounded as though we were in the wilds of Alaska. Very faintly, then growing into a perfect crescendo were neighbourhood dogs about two blocks to the north, gathering their voices in one concerted, continuous howl, like a wolfpack. It was marvelous! She hasn't been living up here but for the past two months and hadn't heard it before. She thought someone had a pack of sled dogs or something. After we listened for a few minutes, delighting in the chaotic, yet ordered-sounding chorus, I told her we'd probably hear a siren in a minute because that's generaly what it means. They always hear them before we do and sure enough, we could barely hear one a couple of minutes later. Joerg, I undersand what you mean, I think, that we BE all the while we are DOING, then we would always BE and not have to stop to do some noticing or whatever. I would call it being in the flow of the Cosmic, to always be at one with the Creator, thus noticing the beauty in all things while doing whatever we need to do or have chosen to do at any given moment. Thus it would be unnecessary, redundant even, to say "stop and listen or look or whatever" because we would naturally be aware already, at all times. kat |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: mousethief Date: 27 Oct 00 - 12:42 PM I think it's possible to over-analyze certain concepts until the original point -- which had something to do with simplicity -- is completely lost in a string of philosophy. This is something I know a little about, having earned a couple of degrees in philosophy. Part of the problem is that this is a feel-good thread in a music environment, not an analytical thread in a philosophical environment. For ways I have added to the problem, I apologize. Nevertheless, I must say just one thing more: what you DO affects HOW you BE. You can't BE the same sort of peaceful while you're busy as you can while you're not. Unless you're the Buddha himself, perhaps, but how many of us have attained to that level of inner peace? Thought so.
Ciao for now, |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Naemanson Date: 27 Oct 00 - 12:04 PM What a great thread. Dave O. I have experienced the same thing. I do not consider myself spiritually inclined in the common sense. I do not go haring after power places in the Earth nor do I follow mediums or gurus. Yet my dear friend and former vocal coach, who does all of those things and more, calls me the most spiritual person she has ever met. I too am floored by the site of a tree decked out in her autumn foliage and half shrouded in the mist. I love to sit on my porch and watch the setting sunlight reflected from the trees on to the glass smooth river. Look at radiant joy on a child's face or the tears of anger when denied some pretty plaything. My life is full of daisies. And, Joerg, I leave them all in place and consider every one of them picked and cherished and, whenever possible, shared with my friends. One last point: Is the Mudcat a daisy? Or can it be considered a daisy only if we read a beautiful post?
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: GUEST,Mary in Kentucky Date: 27 Oct 00 - 12:01 PM Joerg, I thought I understood what Daisy Picking was until you brought up some new ideas. At first I thought Daisy Picking was like "take time to smell the roses." But now I think that "smelling the roses of life" refers more to an attitude of awareness and appreciation. It really doesn't require a significant change in one's daily activities. Daisy Picking, on the other hand, seems to me to be a conscious choice in one's activities (and time), and thus is a different metaphor than "smelling the roses." I can "smell the roses" when I enjoy the sunrise as I'm doing my morning chores. But to go "daisy picking" I choose to sing songs, take my children out to see the stars, visit my neighbor, log on to Mudcat...;-) |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 27 Oct 00 - 05:30 AM Vin Garbutt's metaphor of taking snapshots is helpfuil here - it's not necessarily a matter of taking time out, but rather of conscious detached awareness. |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: GUEST,Fibula Mattock Date: 27 Oct 00 - 04:45 AM Daisies are often regarded as a symbol of innocence, and picking daisies is therefore reminiscent of time spent in innocence and innocent pleasures, not just a personal indulgence, but time spent away from all the worries and problems and jaded outlook that come with experience, knowledge and age, and away from the drudgery of day-to-day life. So although you can "be" now, and enjoy your everyday life with such awareness of existence, the daisy picking is a return to the essence of an imagined perfect childhood, oblivious to the darkness in the world. ...Now that was a bit deep for me at 9.45 am. And, of course, my views do not represent the views of affiliated daisy picking people in any way. And perhaps the old lady genuinely did want to pick actual daisies. That's just as nice as picking metaphorical ones. |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Wolfgang Date: 27 Oct 00 - 04:19 AM Here's the link to the obvious song relevant to the thread: THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER. I've seen daisy pickers neglecting basic needs of their children and I've seen parents neglecting emotional needs of their children like laughter and all that while caring for today's or future's basic needs. I dislike both errors in living. My impression is that for many of you it is less different lifestyles you are talking about than different verbal descriptions of the same lifestyle. Wolfgang |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: GUEST,Joerg Date: 26 Oct 00 - 10:14 PM Still not quite "d'accord". In my feeling there's some great magic in the fact that it doesn't take time to notice things or to 'be' (kind of the same in this context). I 'am' always, regardless what I'm doing. So why not take this for serious and really BE, not although, but WHILE doing. Isn't that likely to improve my doing? So to say something like "take time to be" is a contradiction to me because only acting takes time and by saying something like this 'being' is again confused with 'acting' where it is so important to understand that there is some essential difference. Of course 'being' isn't free. You just can't pay for it by spending time. You must 'raise' or 'procure' "something of yourself" for it which is the best expression I can figure out. (Calling it "heart" or "soul" might be correct if understood the right way, but that isn't guaranteed.) And once you 'spent' it you won't have less of it but more. It's not like money, no. Therefore I also think that some concept like "stop doing, start being" won't work. Being works best while doing (NOT 'by' doing!!!!! You can't 'do' 'being'.). Metapher: Don't try to 'be' tomorrow when you suppose yourself to be 'free' for it. And be sure that there is always enough of "yourself" to be spent (and gained!) for precious things like 'being' today. Joerg |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: mousethief Date: 26 Oct 00 - 11:57 AM CamiSu, yes, I saw that in the other thread, and should have responded as to how much I enjoyed reading it. Especially the little birds. Jeorg makes an interesting point about being vs. doing. I guess what "picking daisies" means (when I use the metaphor) has to do with contemplation or enjoyment of the world around us, more than with doing some particular act. Of course sometimes it takes a little doing (for instance, walking to a place where there's a pretty view) in order to have the moments of contemplation or enjoyment (which DougO might call "spiritual" moments, I think). But Jeorg is right to point out that it's not a matter of "doing" -- if I understand his point correctly, sometimes we have to stop doing for a bit. Reminds me of the Taoist idea of the uncarved block, doing without doing, .... 63.
Do without "doing."
The difficult problems in life
Now light words generate little belief, And hence, never has difficulty. ----------------- But what do I know?
Alex |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: wysiwyg Date: 26 Oct 00 - 09:23 AM There area lot of daisies that will never grow if we do not plant them when we can. And sometimes the Great Planter has entrusted the seeds to us by planting, first, in us. So we will bear seed to scatter. As much as I can, I live now in a frame of mind that stays poised between thanks to that Provider and accepting personal responsibility as well for what I may plant. It took me a long time to settle for myself that question, who has the power, us or some Big SkyDude. (Duh!! If you live in relationship with the Dude, you see the answer is, BOTH!) So back to daisies. I like picking them, and have gotten pretty good at picking them on the fly, sometimes all day long. But I find, at this time in my life, that there is even more satisfaction in planting the daisies. (And at pointing out the ones people have growing out of their ears that they may not see.) Not the real ones. I do not garden. But I do plant a lot of seeds. I used to focus on MAKING THOSE FLOWERS GROW. Now I just scatter seed wherever I go, and trust dirt to receive it along with the eventual spring rain to make them sprout... and you know, the sun seems to come up pretty reliably without my forcing it to. You can really wear yourself out there! Joerg, these are all metaphors, and I am glad you sent me your e-mail address awhile back. I owe you a reply. I have been having to limit my daisy time these past few weeks, seeing them but not having time to stop and describe them. But I will write you. This thread has helped me know you better, too. I look forward to corresponding with you. There is a Biblical parable about sowing seeds, and it does not have to be read only as planting seeds of The Gospel. I recommend looking at it to see some ancient wisdom about daisies. There are SO MANY good-news items to share with people, so many opportunities to impart a word of positivity and hope when you see folks wandering around seeing only bleakness in the manhole covers. So I see it like this-- that what a lot of you have been doing in this thread is PLANTING DAISIES that will bloom quite unexpectedly in the years to come, in the hearts of people reading and thinking about this thread, and the lives they touch... Aren't you blooming, where YOU were planted? Isn't your life the bouquet of those seeds you have tended, that were sown along the path of your life? Aren't we all doing that throughout our lives, intentionally or not? This has become a nicely long thread. Perhaps if there is merit in continuing discussion along those lines, it's time to think about Part Two. I'm saving this thread. It's the start, I just realized, of an article I have wanting to write, about the difference between evangelizing and proselytizing. And I found it in the Mudcat Garden. There's a metaphor for you, creative geniuses. Do we have a garden yet? Songs, traditions, jokes about the Mudcat garden, anyone? ~Susan |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: GUEST,Fibula Mattock Date: 26 Oct 00 - 05:59 AM I think (ahhh, dangerous words those - means an opinion's coming!) DaveO nailed it on the head when he talked about "spiritual experiences". I'll just put in my usual "I'm not religious" disclaimer here, but if religion is a feeling or an emotion at the amazing beauty and wonders of nature, then with the risk of sounding trite, I'd say that the best "religious" experiences are those moments when we "feel" a sense of awe and a welling up of emotion. It's like the "homesick" feeling where you're homesick for something - some time, place or emotion, but you're not sure what it is, just that you want to experience it. For A-Level English I had to read D.H. Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers" and I couldn't stand it - I found it depressing and disturbing, but reading papers about him I remember coming across a quotation about his view on religion being the moments when you are toatlly aware and in awe of nature. I tried to find that quotation to add here, but couldn't locate it, but I did find this one, which is perhaps even more relevant: "Brute force crushes many plants. Yet the plants rise again. The pyramids will not last a moment,compared with the daisy. And before Buddha or Jesus spoke the nightingale sang, and long after the words of Jesus and Buddha are gone into oblivion, the nightingale still will sing. Because it is neither preaching nor teaching nor commanding nor urging. It is just singing. And in the beginning was not a Word, but a chirrup." -- Sketches of Etruscan Places, Tarquinia
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 26 Oct 00 - 05:47 AM "In fact I did, but in some different sense..." Exactly. Vin Garbutt sings a song he wrote called "Photographic memory:
Take a look now, use your photographic memory |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Micca Date: 26 Oct 00 - 05:33 AM the interesting things that have come out in this thread... Thanks Noreen, Jeorg, it isnt the daisies or there picking ,its is the time to notice the small , apparently trivialities of life , and taking time to notice them and the things around you, for yourself and their sake, time to BE, not just to DO all the time.To define your self in terms of you, not what you are to other people, breadwinner, father, SO or whatever, but be YOU, the unique. I put this in another thread but it is almost as applicable here in the spiritual sense Click here |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: CamiSu Date: 25 Oct 00 - 11:49 PM Alex, here is a daisy I posted yesterday. (My threads don't seem to last long.) clicky Enjoy! Cami Su |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: GUEST,Joerg Date: 25 Oct 00 - 11:09 PM Now we get much closer to what I am thinking/feeling in this context. Please understand that I'm not trying to play some quiz with you. It's just much too difficult to me to express (even to myself and even to understand myself) what I mean. We are talking about some very general problem here. What problem exactly? Everybody is giving hints to answer ... what question? What's the point? MT gave some good hint: "take time and enjoy life, and not be so busy that you will look back, from the edge of the grave, and regret how you spent your time on earth". That's good. Not yet completely what I'm thinking of but the best we have until now, so let's work on it: Picking daisies means taking time and enjoying life. But what's the metapher for the opposite? I couldn't find one yet. So I am no longer able to only talk metaphorically (please forgive me that I first tried). Looking back from the edge of my grave is something I already had to try. Not completely because there still was hope and as you can see this was justified. I remember WELL how I then realized that there were things I could in some sense take with me. What things? Good question. There are things that are essentially different from things like money or what is bought for it. You still can get them but only as a present. Trying to buy them won't work and if you try to pay for them you are likely to destroy what you got. You only can accept that you are in dept forever. Really forever, because this dept you can take with you when you go. (BTW: Just because of this I also consider it wrong to talk - and think - of things like these in terms you talk of money. There's e.g. a widely used expression in german like "investing emotions/feelings". Never heard it in english, though. Silly.) So you might understand that I have some problems with Noreen's initial quote in general and especially with that metapher "picking daisies". To me it doesn't hit the point because it is just another activity and that quote is also focused on things to DO. But IMNSHO you will never find the answer to that (what?) question by considering or discussing different activities ("black/white" problem) or how much time should be spent for them ("grey" problem). You will have to take PERCEPTION into account and how much (not only time) you spend on it. So the question leads to a problem of action vs. perception rather than to one of action no. 1 vs. action no. 2. Metaphorically: What use is picking daisies if I can't see them, smell them or even just feel them (trying to listen to them won't work)? On the other hand - if I can, why do I have to pick them? (To take them to somebody I like, of course, but that doesn't apply here.) Leaving them in situ will leave them in vivo and I won't have to bend down or get on my knees thus avoiding the risk of an aching back (a "witch shot" in german) or green stains on my trousers. Wouldn't that be "stress" too? The only reason for plucking daisies is also the thought of looking at them later - exactly the problem, yes, yes, yes. DaveO (and Matt) - when my grandfather died I was in the army and couldn't get to this funeral in time. But I visited his grave just a few days later. The flowers from the coffin had been put on top of the grave, and there were some pinks among them - frozen as it had been very cold in the meantime. It was a very cold morning again and hoarfrost was lining the edges of those pinks' petals - tiny, delicate ice needles, perfectly even, yet meaning death to the flower itself. Beauty? What do people know of beauty? And - how should I have been able to pick that flower in order to take it with me? In fact I did, but in some differnt sense... Love to you all (at least peace) Joerg |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: CarolC Date: 25 Oct 00 - 10:10 PM DaveO, Maybe it has something to do with the fact that, after thirty seven years of marriage to your wife, you still call her beautiful. I think that is a sign of a beautiful soul. Carol |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 25 Oct 00 - 09:51 PM This is not really thread creep, I think. It's brought to mind by Mousetheif's sunrise. So hold on. The people at my church (NOT what you'd call a normal or Christian church, where you might expect to hear that word) talk a good deal about spirituality. I see myself as a rationalist, a here-and-now, physical world, bread-and- butter person who believes in the semantic proverb, "Find the referrent". Frankly, I don't know what that word "spirituality" really means. So I've been frank to say to my wife, my minister, and to others. BUT.... I have had ONE (count 'em, one) experience in my life which I have to--must!--count as spiritual. It was like this: Some years ago,one morning in early springtime I walked from our house to the mailbox to pick up the morning paper. It was March or early April, and the trees were just budding out, just enough to make a sort of haze you could look right through. As I faced the street, toward the lovely pink-with-a-few-clouds sunrise, the neighbors' cottonwood tree was silhouetted against the sunrise, a perfect smooth-edged oval green haze against the new morning. I was struck with amazement. I stopped in mid-stride and gaped for about 20 seconds. Then I got the paper and went on with my day. I can visualize it to this day, some fifteen years later. If THAT was not a spiritual experience, there is no such thing. That was one daisy I'll always have. Strangely enough, by my lights, my Beautiful Wife, in an e-mail to our mnister (which I really wasn't intended to read, but ran across by accident) said something like: "Dave professes to have no idea what spirituality is, but over thirty-seven years of married life I've found him to be the most spiritual man I've ever met." I'll take her word for it, but I STILL don't quite understand the content of the word. But I'm sure it has something to do with picking the daisies, with finding daisies even in the ashheaps, and in Matt's darkroom and manhole covers. Dave (the rationalist skeptic) Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 25 Oct 00 - 08:54 PM Fortunately, they haven't put a smell facility on the Internet yet... Maybe that's why we're talking about daisies rather than roses, they don't have a scent that I've ever noticed. |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Matt_R Date: 25 Oct 00 - 08:50 PM Help I smell like epoxy & Dektol! |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: CarolC Date: 25 Oct 00 - 08:28 PM I don't think it's an either/or question. In my life, I'm the one who has made all of the sacrifices, and I'm the one who has taken all of the risks. And believe me, I've taken a lot of them. I've had a very hard life. I don't want to understate this. But I wouldn't change any of it, because it all has meaning for me. I think when you can find meaning in every part of your life, both good and bad, you are engaging in an act of daisy picking. When you do that, you can look back on your life with no regrets. Regrets are the opposite of daisy picking. I have no regrets, and I am at peace with my life. Carol |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: GUEST,mousethief (at the library) Date: 25 Oct 00 - 08:04 PM MMario, get mad at yourself for being so literal-minded. It was shorthand for "my sunrise description" or "my description of the sunrise I witnessed." It was meant to be a daisy, and I was hoping other people would pick up on it and share something they had experienced in much the same vein. Alas, for everybody who "got it" but didn't really "get it," or at least were unable to "give it" when prompted. If you pick daisies, you must give at least some of them away, or they don't help you any.
Alex |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: BigDaddy Date: 25 Oct 00 - 07:24 PM Just had to add one more quote: "Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours." That's from Richard Bach. |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: BigDaddy Date: 25 Oct 00 - 07:16 PM This thread is beginning to remind me of the recent "past lives" thresd. Some of us get it and some of us don't and the twain just don't meet. Thanks to those who believe and all our best to those who don't. |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 25 Oct 00 - 06:40 PM Some of those words might be off a bit - it's a scratchy record. If anyone knows better, let us know. |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 25 Oct 00 - 06:38 PM Here's Darling Daisy, by the Carter family, recorded back in 1934, which I mentioned earlier. A deceptively simple song. It hits the spot.
When first I met my darling daisy
She was sleeping in a bed of roses
If you want to see a bright-eyed beauty (And thanks kat and bert. Sometimes maybe I hit the spot too.)P> |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: MMario Date: 25 Oct 00 - 03:59 PM alax, I'm still trying to decide whether or not to be mad because it's "your" sunrise. MINE was very nice, thank you! *grin* (Maybe "today's"?) |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: mousethief Date: 25 Oct 00 - 03:54 PM Mary, good point.
Alex |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Mary in Kentucky Date: 25 Oct 00 - 03:49 PM mousethief, I see the sunrise every morning. (I have to begin work at 7:30, and this week the sunrise isn't until 8:01) And yes it has been beautiful. I know what your point is, but also, my point is that those of us who have picked daisies have also made sacrifices in security. |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: mousethief Date: 25 Oct 00 - 03:42 PM Mary in Kentucky: Thanks; that was exactly what I was referring to. Most men in our society don't have the option of staying home and picking daisies while the wife works. Few women are "liberated" enough to want a man who doesn't work. Studies have shown that even women who achieve great things in the business world want to marry men who earn more than they do! Thus, dumping on the men who are trapped in this cycle for not picking enough daisies is a little unfair. (And don't even get me started on the "afraid of commitment" bullsh*t.) How sad nobody has commented on my sunrise.
Alex |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Mary in Kentucky Date: 25 Oct 00 - 03:33 PM I like Mousethief's first post about picking too many daisies and the kids go hungry. All of my life I've had the luxury of picking lots of daisies, and I have, it's just my nature I guess. But there was always someone else making sacrifices (parents, hubby, good friend) so that I had that luxury. If I had my life to live over, I would pick fewer daisies and establish a career that I could go back to instead of trying to break into a new field every few years. It's easy for me to look down my nose with disdain at people who are in my opinion "materialistic," but I sure do enjoy my computer, and my dependable car, and the college education I have, and the freedom to choose my daily activities for the most part. I'm very grateful to those that have made it easier for me to have daisy pickin' times. Anyone remember the thread about the song "I''ll Bring You a Daisy a Day?" We had trouble finding the sheet music for that one. It's a smarmy song, but one with fond memories for me. (Hubby pulled up several plants, roots and all, and said, "Am I ahead for awhile?") |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Bert Date: 25 Oct 00 - 03:15 PM Yeah Kat, that McGrath is one superb songwriter isn't he - the rotten bastard *BG* When you look at a manhole cover you should be able to see the designer sitting at his drawing board, the pattern maker with his funny rulers that account for shrinkage in their measurements, the foundry man pouring the molten iron, the fettler removing the frills from the edges, the truck driver delivering it and the installer putting it in place. And that's just the manhole cover. What about the driver who's wheels run over it every day, or the poor sod who has to go down through it to get to work? Now there's a photography exercise for you. Would you make it one picture, a collage or a whole gallery wall? It's all there waiting for your eyes to uncover. Bert. |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 25 Oct 00 - 02:47 PM That'd be Eastern North Carolina I take it?
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Matt_R Date: 25 Oct 00 - 01:46 PM McGrath, in the University of North Carolina College system, we have East Carolina University, Western Carolina University, and Central Carolina University. I happen to go to East Carolina. BTW Eastern Carolina the REGION is NOT made up. The people here in "Down East Carolina" are totally different from the folks from the Western part of the state. Especially the "Hoi Toiders" from Harkers Island. |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: mousethief Date: 25 Oct 00 - 11:42 AM Lovely sunrise this morning. Reds and pinks and oranges spread out across the flat clouds, it looked like the whole eastern sky was on fire. Very stirring.
Alex |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 25 Oct 00 - 11:24 AM Clicked on your clicky, Matt - "East Carolina" - I've heard of North Carolina, and South Carolina, but East Carolina sounds like something out of an alternative history. Or it should back in the Atlantic.
A bit like the region they've tried to invent which includes where I live called "West Anglia". Which sounds OK, except that the Angles never got down this way, so poor old King Harold is turning in his grave I imagine, down in Wakltham Abbey. (What's left of him anyway - they never found his head I believe...) |
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Subject: RE: NotMusic: I'd pick more daisies.... From: Bernard Date: 25 Oct 00 - 08:00 AM They told me 'Go for it!' So I went for it. It had gone... |
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