Byron's Babbles

I loved the line, “Perhaps I was feeling more found than lost” in in Book 3 of Threads West An American Saga: Uncompahgre: Where Water Turns Rock Red by Reid Lance Rosenthal. The context was really the fact that the character, who was part of an 1855 wagon train westward, was feeling more found than lost because of being in such beautiful country, with newfound friends, and so much opportunity. And, feeling lost is many times a step toward feeling found. Also, all these characters left their familiar homes, friends, and families and were now with strangers in a very strange land. I heard it said once that sometimes we are never more found than when we are the most lost.

The members of the wagon train had become a very tight knit network offering vital connections between people who came to rely on one another. This network offered real, substantial support around a common vision. Unlike most our social networks of today. Another lesson we can learn from these emigrants is every one was aware of why they were doing what they were doing, I believe we learn from this how important it is for us to have a shared purpose and a network offering support.

Today, I had a person thank me for “flattening out the bumps for them along the way.” I appreciated the “thank you” and began to reflect on the bumps. Had I really done that much? She thought so. Then I got to thinking; it wasn’t about the bumps, it was about someone being there to flatten them out. Everyone needs someone to flatten out the bumps. Are you that person for someone?

“What happens when eventually comes too late?” ~ Nathan “Nate” Ford (Timothy Hutton) on Leverage. Those lines jumped out at me and really made me think. This should probably be one of this milestone/benchmark questions we should be constantly asking ourselves. I know we are at that time of year where everyone talks about New Year’s resolutions. Not me. But let’s contemplate the old adage that it is ‘never too late.’ While I believe that, I also believe we can wait too long. Sometimes I believe we, myself included, use ‘eventually’ and ‘it’s never too late’ as a crutch, or excuse, to not start something. This really is an avoidance to starting something we might really want or need to do. Think about these things: starting a business, going back to college, getting a doctor’s checkup, calling an old friend, or insert your own here, ____________. Now, look back at that list. Can eventually come too late? Can it really be too late? It sure can! By the time we finally do these things or get started we might just find ourselves in a difficult position and have to fight an uphill battle to get the things done or even stay alive.

“Sadly,
sometimes it’s too late.
And that’s the thing about time,
we cannot get it back.” ~ Kiana Azizian

Notice I made the title of this post ‘Eventually.’ I did not want ‘Eventually Is Too Late’ or ‘Eventually Is Never Too Late.’ Both could be right, but I want us on this New Year’s Eve to keep ‘eventually’ at the forefront of our thinking for 2023. While our calendar timeline is linear, our life’s timeline is not. We do not have complete control over when we are going to achieve something or when something will surprise us. Our lives are extremely unpredictable. Something might happen earlier than we think, it might happen later than you think, or it might not happen at all. So, as you think about that next eventually, remember life can be really long and really short and ask yourself, “What happens when eventually comes too late?”

As she was making her way westward on the the wagon train in April of 1855, one of the characters in Book 2 of Threads West An American Saga: Maps of Fate by the award winning historical fiction author Reid Lance Rosenthal made the comment that this was “the sanest insane thing I’ve ever done.” The characters in this book went west for many different reasons, but all carried a dream of creating a better life for themselves and their families in this new, undeveloped territory. I love the paradox of sanity and insanity that Rosenthal created here. Though the emigrant characters of the book may have been prepared for the trip physically by bringing the supplies necessary and hiring qualified wagon masters, few were prepared psychologically for the intensity of the pioneer experience. This could be said for many of our experience. Were we prepared for the intensity of the experience?

“You have to forget about what other people say, when you’re supposed to die, or when you’re supposed to be loving. You have to forget about all these things. You have to go on and be crazy. Craziness is like heaven.” ~ Jimi Hendrix

That’s why I love the quote above from Jimi Hendrix. Sometimes we just have to do the crazy. Over the last couple of weeks I have been to holiday gatherings with people from my past work of being a principal of a school we took over. Every person I have encountered has discussed the intensity of that experience. It was crazy insane to leave a great teaching position at a great school to be a principal of a failing school, but it really was heaven. Every student deserves a great school and we made that possible for students on the south side of Indianapolis. In the process, I became part of the family of one the greatest group of teachers and staff members in the world. One of the things that always gets brought up when visiting with those family members is just how much fun we had. It was crazy insane at times, but it was also heaven.

In A First-Rate Madness, author and psychiatrist Nassir Ghaemi, used the provocative thesis: “For abnormal challenges, abnormal leaders are needed.” I love this. I am not suggesting any of us had mental illness or disorders. Ghaemi argued, however, that “[w]e should accept, even celebrate” the possibility that our decision-makers have dealt with mental illnesses — disorders which, he wrote, tend to promote the qualities of “realism, resilience, empathy and creativity.” As Hendrix said, we have to forget what people say and “go on and be crazy.”