Wise Old Birds

It effects one of us and it effects all of us when, like a bird a stranger arrives with his differences. With his hat, cloak, bag and funny looking britches, just rest assured he catches our attention, whether in sporty nice clothes and with a healthy shine, or whether he's poorly dressed and is sour and has a stink. Or perhaps he's dressed of royalty, and yet still sour and still has a stink. But another variation could be that he is very modestly dressed and has a sturdy smile and a good countenance with perhaps a mysterious squint in his distant looking eyes. One asks; where is he from? Who Is he? What is he all about? Intrigued, we press closer to know him and to find out about him. What can he tell us? Is he really that mysterious or is he just packaged in the clothes of a different culture?

Its difficult and sometimes very hard to describe a mans accent, but easy enough to list his differences, dialect and his origin. Its harder yet to capture his mysteriousness and presence with words, where though a picture capture his image, rather hard as it is, some can make their words into artful mastering of human description. The canvas becomes the image and each word is the stroke of art that illustrates the precise subject and the character in question; He is then captive to the interpretation of the writer.

After describing his time in the army, and as a platoon Sargent leading his troop over a hill and witnessing 25 of those men being gunned down in the Bay of Pigs; this dear friend of mine shared his thankfulness with me of being spared, and admonished me that it was that terrifying moment that shaped his life into what he became. He still was a leader of men, He was using his wisdom to show others that when you are spared a disaster or calamity, then know that each time in life that you fall down, "just get up one more time than you fall and you will make it!" -Ref: D.J, Carnley

At the young age of seventeen, while working already at an old folks home in Alaska, my boss would send us out to get supplies, But in his own unique way to say we were young and the possibility of getting sidetracked, he would send us away with the words ringing in our ears, "take your time going, but hurry back!" (which we always did!) - ref: Arthur Jeppeson

My own father, with much sincerity, many times, after a lecture regarding some wrong action we as boys had taken, would then stress. "Son, you need to get your priorities right!" Well did he know the cost of mistakes in certain levels of life's adventures. - J. H. Jones

Why do you think that naval captains fire a warning shot over the bow of alien ships? Do they mean, "surrender, back off and declare your intentions or else suffer the consequences?" An F-15 pilot pulls alongside a potential enemy aircraft and when in full sight of the other pilot, he makes a gesture for the other pilot to descend and land at the nearest airport. He is not fooling around and he has the air power to dominate his foe. Perhaps first he tried to radio "Military Operation Area, Leave Immediately or be Shot Down!" Yes, he was very precise and he is trained to make his intentions known in any language.

We each have a vocabulary set that changes as our life progresses. After a stressful divorce of her mother and father(me); I would express my unhappiness, and my own daughter came to the place where she finally said, "Dad, we can talk and converse under these terms only!" until I slowly realized she was right. That those other times were lost. Move forward, Carry on with a new outlook or lose precious relationships in life.

The Wise Old Birds of our lives drop their seeds before us and we sometimes can adapt and grow, bypassing the mistakes we would have made. Who, more than ourselves holds us responsible if we fail ? More than our own families do? Each day is an opportunity to change. Change ourselves, or help someone else to change. Grandmothers and grandfathers help us change. Hard work and simple work ethic was their inheritance to me. What about mothers? I remember my mother saying to me, "son, I love your father, and I will always try to support and help him". She also would tell me to "to speak slower" and to listen more!" Other things I remember was when she said "son, never sing louder than the leader!", And,"son, chew your food slower!", because I was always in a hurry. Well, you know what I'm going to say to all of that; "Mom's know best!".

Working at a school district just a few years ago, my boss, Jim, taught me a little more about the need to affirm my own value to others. I'm sure it was born of people taking him for granted as school teachers would ask great favors of him, to fix this or to fix that. But what stood out to me, was his parting shot at them as he left. He put a big smile on his face and beamed at them while stating,"that's why we're so good at what we do!" Another co-worker who was actually under my supervision part of the day, showed great conflict with others by undermining them and using his own supposed importance to cut others off, to cause trouble by spreading rumors and covering his own liberal use of school properties just by trying to cast doubts towards others to the school board of those he didn't like and when he couldn't succeed with discrediting our boss, then he would turn and be-little me. A word here, a little scene there, and in my sincere opinion, his being wrongly validated by those he played golf with and influenced with his lies. Skulduggery? -Yes. was it right? No. People however are who they are, Spots or no spots, leopard or no leopard.

As a small airplane pilot, I had to learn many acronyms and terms, as well as safety systems for landing and for safe flight. One saying was this; " there are old pilots and there are bold pilots; but there are no old bold pilots!" A visual guidance system used for VFR landings (visual flight reference) based good judgement on your eyesight. The VASI landing approach angle to the runway depended on you seeing a white and red light through two slits in the light box set at the runway threshold. " White over White and you're out of sight! Red over White and you're all right, but Red over Red and you're good as dead!" So, for the untrained; you're either too high, or you're too low; or if you landed with reference to the red over white, you are safe and on the ground!

Kids have their slang, their slogans and their code of honor. One that my daughter Rebecca was so very fond, "whatever, Dad!" It showed her attitude in so many ways, but it was her, through and through. Her older Sister, Naomi, was a little more optimistic while growing up, with terms like "its all cool!", "Right On!" or, "I'm going to do it anyway, Dad!" Both of my daughters are much loved and I would give my right arm for either of them.. Actually, I feel that I have done that. one of my sayings. " too bad, so sad, so glad, your Dad!" what does that mean?

I don't know where these senseless sentences came from , but they are good for a chuckle from time to time. "I feel more like I do right now, than I did while ago!" "It feels more like tomorrow than it does today!" "I'm sorry, I left the rest of me at home!" "I can't help you until I help myself!" "I found the answer, but I forgot the question!" "Life is a process of taking out the garbage; there's always more to take out!"

Making the best of life is always a challenge. if it comes to easy for you, then maybe you aren't living to your fullest potential. Handicaps create opportunity, as long as you face them and embrace them. A tree does not look like a board, It does not look like a house, and a rock doesn't look like a stone fireplace until someone cuts, shapes, designs and creates it.

When a Bird flies over your head, Just remember its carrying seeds over the hill to plant them in another meadow. One day you may be a Wise Old Bird.