Author: claredibble

When I think about superpowers, I think about Batman and notice that technologies that are clever enough are virtually indistinguishable from magic. So when considering superpowers I am interested in, I also consider the logistics.

Are we choosing a super power for personal use or to fight bad guys? Super strength is not so interesting to me recreationally, but if random bad guys are planning to attack, I could see it as way more interesting. A better constitution (moving faster, being more coordinated, needing less sleep, etc.) would be interesting, but since some people already have it, I’m not sure it qualifies as a super power.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could teleport? I have dreamt of this super power since I was a child. Except actually getting it might lead to an existential crisis.

Humans, me among them, have been obsessed with flight. I love the moment my plane leaves the ground and marvel that I have seen the tops of clouds. Before the pandemic, I had aspirations to try hot air ballooning or paragliding, but I have gotten out of practice in going out into the world for that kind of recreation right now. Maybe I’ll put it on my list in the spring.

While I don’t have an immediate death wish, I don’t think I’m interested in immortality. I think it is good design to have a younger generation have their chance to steer the world. I have seen it argued that this is a logical flaw because no one complains when their life spans lengthen, especially if the quality is good. I am not likely to turn down life saving or extending medicine. There is something to be said for a longer memory, as a species. As a species, we are prone to, for example, try war again as a solution when we forget the devastation. But elderly people are not as flexible or as fast as young people, so it would be nice if there were a balance that included both. If we had ever more people and the old did not die, we would have a population explosion and an even crazier economy. To some extent, it has happened in developed countries with big gains in life expectancy.

When it comes to superpowers, it is easy for any individual to want them, but they would tear apart the fabric of society as we know it if they become wide spread. The society forms anew around the “new normal.” When I was a kid, many of the things the internet has made common place, like video chatting, would have seemed magical. I guess I would most like for us all to upgrade together – to create and distribute magical technologies in a sustainable way. That would be super for everyone.

There are two different types of ideal days in my mind.

One is the exceptional ordinary. That’s the day that you wake up rested just before your alarm, and do the normal everyday things you have to do in a healthy body. It’s productive, but not remarkable. You have dinner with your family or friends. At the end of the day, you are closer to your goals than when you started. I have heard that these are what people miss when they get sick, but they can be hard to appreciate because of their regularity when you are in the midst of them and can still leave you exhausted.

The other kind of ideal day is an exceptional ideal day. People make bucket lists to describe these special once in a lifetime experiences they want to have. I have some of these checked off and some still incubating. Exploration is a true joy for me. Travel is one method for me to tap into that joy. My honeymoon hiking in the Galapagos Islands twice a day and relaxing on the boat the rest of the day with my new husband would be hard to top. But then, exploring the Greek Isles with the family we created together was also pretty spectacular.

But are those trips better than a beautiful day walking the same route around our home that we have journeyed hundreds or thousands of times together? Or the forest where we watch the seasons come and go in a never ending cycle that still holds surprises no matter how many times I experience it? Better is not the right word. They are certainly different. I do not think there is just one perfect day. I am lucky to have a bunch of both kinds of perfect days in my life.

This is one of the prompts that I have been waiting for, as this idea of meeting a challenge and overcoming it can be so ubiquitous in our current culture. We greet a challenge and win, making ourselves the Hero of our Own Story.

This is all well and good. We certainly don’t want to be our own antagonist (adversary or person who actively opposes our desires), but it seems to have become a dominant narrative. So much so that I have actually gone out to research other story structures besides the Hero’s Journey. It seems the Hero’s Journey is credited to Homer’s Odyssey, supposedly told since the 8th century BC and published in English since 1614.

Before every story was a Hero’s Journey, people also enjoyed Tragedies and Comedies. In a Tragedy you watched someone, typically talented, ambitious, and powerful, become somehow undone and typically die, through an error seemingly anyone could make. In a Comedy, there is also some sort of error or challenge, but instead of leading to death and destruction, it leads to humorous situations. If you’ve been around long enough, it might also seem to you that life could go either way too. One thing that either a Comedy or Tragedy constantly has that is not as much of a focus in many Hero’s Journeys is a supporting cast.

Perhaps we could do better if we could figure out how to better navigate the modern world in small or medium size groups of real social support. Yes, these types of bonds can lead to drama, like the kind that would be featured in a Comedy or Tragedy. Your friend tries to make your life easier and inadvertently triggers mayhem by switching identities. Or you accidentally sleep with your cousin or mother because you meet them in a context where you don’t know you are related. These things don’t happen to me, but they were popular story themes for a while.

The structure of trying to have everyone be their own epic Hero, alone on an adventure with an audience of adoring fans, can be lonely. Your heroic journey might not be trying to pass advice about herbs down through the generations. So right now, I am more interested in stories that happen in the context of a larger group and society at large.

One of my perennial challenges is keeping my mental health in order, balancing the twins of anxiety and depression. Anxiety was never a problem in my youth, but has increased as now I have some stuff to loose. Depression on the other hand, has somewhat reduced overall, but I tend to be seasonally affected and living further north than I ever have is a challenge every single year. But these are not a Dragon I can slay and declare myself done and over. They are managed by an ensemble cast of myself with the partnership support of loved ones, and must be enjoyed as a comedy to keep it from becoming a tragedy.

The pandemic we are all living though is also a continuous challenge. Certainly it has shifted the world in ways that have revealed and accelerated trends. I am sure that for some it has created opportunities, while for others it has been an ultimate tragedy. While we all live with it, it does not affect us in the same ways or provide the same risk to us all. One of the crazy parts is we don’t even know exactly what risk it poses to us specifically. I suppose that is true of every challenge. Managing risk seems to be best done with clear decisions and continuous small corrections.

Some of my most meaningful challenges are not so much overcome as managed and integrated. It is not that there is a win or a loss. It can be either, depending on where you stop the story. Most of my life now takes place in my happily ever after, but it still is not without challenges. The challenges that define you and become part of you are the real opportunity – making the most of getting up and trying again until you actually can not.

❤️💌😉🙏🏻🎉🤷‍♀️😝 are my top emojis, and I would say they feel representative of my life right now. I can communicate just fine without them, but they do add a little extra color in friendly notes.

On the other hand, here are the emojis my daughter does not want to go without: ☺️😏😌😂🤣🙄🏠❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤💔❤️‍🔥💖 I guess emojis are another language where she is more fluent than me. And she really is a full spectrum of love and laughter.

Emojis as a topic did get me to blog on my phone with the app. I can do everything I want to make a post except use a plug-in to set an external featured image.

A nice thing about forming a habit is that when I’m not crazy about a given day’s prompt, I can look forward to posting again tomorrow.

Since this question focuses on the meaning of living boldly, I went to the dictionary. My general sense of audacious, brave, courageous, and daring was reinforced. The negative view of bold is to be unabashed, brash, cheeky, and defiant.

The part that surprised me was the origin of the word. Bold comes from the German “bald”, which roughly translates as soon. Bald is a relatively common German word, common enough that I know and use it at my relatively low level of usage. My most common usage is with “Bis bald,” which roughly translates to “see you soon.”

Fortune favors the Bold.

Latin proverb quoted by Virgil in the Aeneid

So apparently what it means to live boldly is to not wait… until then, for permission, for approval, for a special occasion to use the good stuff, for recognition that might not come, for an apology, for better weather, for retirement, for this pandemic to pass, for anything Dr. Seuss lists about getting stuck in the Waiting Place in his guide to life, “Oh the Places You’ll Go.” Since we are talking about living boldly and I need a reminder, I went and found the relevant verse and put it at the end of this post in case you could use a reminder too. There is a good reason that people give this book when people graduate and go out into the world.

My take away from this reflection on what it means to live boldly is a reminder that living a bold life requires both bravery and beating procrastination. There are some areas of my life where I tend to be good about this and others not and it can shift which is which. Maybe living boldly in all areas of our life all the time can be too much. But not living boldly at all is worse. Luckily every day, every minute, every breath is a new chance to choose to be bold. So, right now, if you are reading this, choose one area of your life that might be waiting for some fresh energy, pick one small thing you can do now, an action you can accomplish today, and do it. Then build on it tomorrow. And again the next day. That’s how it is done.

How will you choose to live more boldly today?

Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don't.
Because, sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.

You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or the waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for the wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

Five things I am grateful for today:

• I woke up today in a warm bed, next to a loving husband, with my kids in their rooms, all of us reasonably healthy.
• Today was the first day back after Christmas Break, and it seems to be going pretty well.
• The sun is out, which is not a given here this time of year so I appreciate it extra when it happens.
• I got in a bike ride to the grocery store. Exercise + errands = winning!
• My dragon fruit/ pitaya seeds are sprouting. I love growing plants and I love the idea that we might be in one place long enough that I can grow something from seed. May we all appreciate the opportunity to germinate when we are warm enough after a period of rest and dormancy, break out of our shell, stretch out into the world, find a place to put down roots, and reach toward the sun.