Wisdom Can Come From Changes In Perspective

A number of years ago after having seen The Shawshank Redemption my brother-in-law asked me what my favorite part of the movie was.  Not thinking too much into it I said it was the scene where Andy Dufresne (played by the great Tim Robbins) was sitting on top of a sewer pipe holding a rock and timing his strikes with that of the lightning and thunder strikes. 

My brother-in-law obviously had been looking a little bit deeper into the movie, his favorite part of the movie was the scene when the prison warden had ordered that Andy's cell been "tossed."  Which basically means that the prison guards can throw anything they want, including, or especially, anything they find that is breakable.  At the end of this scene, after the warden had picked up Andy's Bible, he handed it back to Andy through the bars of his cell and said, "Salvation lies within."

What is important about this scene is that the Warden's arguably hypocritical statement was somewhat ironic in that even though one can find salvation by studying The Bible, if the Warden had actually opened this one in particular he would have found Andy's modus operendi of escape.  For hidden within it was his rock hammer.  The tool that he used, painstakingly for years, to facilitate his escape.

The change in perspective that I gained in this conversation allowed me to view movies, and read books, differently, which opened my eyes to plenty of other aspects of them that I had been missing.  Or as an old high school teacher of mine pointed out when I was struggling to grasp the concept of "higher level meanings;"  as Sarah was told by the worm, in the movie Labyrinth, "you ain't looking at it right."

Later on I gained some additional knowledge in watching movies and reading books from someone else who showed me some "patterns" or "rules" writers use when putting together a story.  Basically, if a writer sticks the set of rules they set out with then the story should be well put together and entertaining.  But is when they start breaking these rules that cause the story to become ridiculously stupid (I am looking at you The Lake House).  There are times when it is ok to break your own rules when writing a story, as long as you do it successfully, and it fits well with the plot of the story.

******

Something else I discovered about Perspective, or more importantly, Perception, is in complete contradiction to what many people understand about it.  About a year ago while I was at a previous job I was getting ready to go through what is called a 360 degree review.  Basically what happens is a bunch of people who work with you, over you, or who are in significant contact with you, are given a survey to fill out to give their opinion of you.  What the coordinator said to me about this process was, "Perception is reality."  This basically means that what you perceive to be real, is real.  At the time they said it something didn't quite jive well with me about the concept.  Later I realized that this line of thinking was inherently flawed.  Though I do understand that there are people who live by this credo.  These are the people who are considered narrow-minded and can be easily duped by scams.

A more accurate statement would be, "Perception is part of reality."  By this I mean that what you perceive is not reality, but can affect it.  Reality is made up of many different things, mostly it is made up of actual events, but it is also made up of how people react to those events.  And that is where perspective, or perception, comes in.  What a person perceives happened, can be markedly different from what actually happened.  This is where conflict comes from, and ultimately leads to other events that lead to other conflicts.

The only way to rise above causing, and possibly being affected by, these conflicts is to understand that your perception may not be the same as someone else's, and that it is possible that one or more of the parties involved may not completely understand what was really the cause.

There are plenty of examples of this throughout history, but the truly wise understand that what they perceive is not necessarily the whole picture.

Co-Ed Softball Rules Are Almost Too Efficient to be Fun

Recently I joined my church's co-ed softball league after not having played in over 15 years.  Not expecting the rules to have changed any over the years I thought I would be able to pick right up where I left off.  Boy was I wrong.  There were so many changes I spent half of the first game getting accustomed to most of them.

Back when I played the last time, which was in Wisconsin, the basic rules included:

• You get 2 strikes and 3 balls;
• There was no "mercy rule";
• You played either 9 or 10 players, depending on whether or not you wanted a deep shortstop;
• The strike zone consisted of solely the carpet behind the plate, everything else was a ball;
• When running to first you are required to step on the orange bag (basically first base had two bags)

Other than that everything was pretty standard.

Some of the changes I discovered were:

• The strikes and balls part is pretty much the same, they just have a different take on it, thus you began each at bat with 1 ball and 1 strike;
• There is now some rather convoluted mercy rules that basically prevent the game from being a complete blowout;
• You play 10 players;
• The strike zone now includes the plate and the carpet behind it;
• First base still has the double bag and you are required to run and step on the orange one;
• There are now two additional things to worry about when rounding third for home:  First, there is a line perpendicular to the base line about two-thirds of the way toward home plate.  The purpose of this is if the person intending to make a play home does not have possession of the ball by the time the runner has crossed that line they must get out of the way.  Second, regardless of what is happening at home plate, the runner must run wide to the right and if they cross a line that is running straight off of the first base line to the backstop, prior to the catcher having possession of the ball they are safe.  If they step on home plate they are out.
• The game, regardless of what is going on, has a time limit.  So if you have not completed the normal 7 innings in the time allotted the game is over anyway and the team with the most runs wins.
• If a batter is walked without any strikes counted against him he can take two bases if the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter is aligned with Mars.  Just kidding, the rule actually states that if you are walked without any strikes against you you get to take two bases if there is no one on first or second, and if there is a woman in the line-up behind you.

Now I understand some of the rules were implemented for safety reasons.  After all if you have a sprightly woman at home plate waiting for the ball to be thrown to her, you don't want some 250lb behemoth bowling into her to ensure he gets the run.  And I get that we want to make sure that the game does not last forever, but do we really need all this rules allowing extra bases on walks, increasing the strike zone, and the two different rules for making sure you don't run into anyone at home?  These last two just seem redundant.  I mean if the runner is going to be required to run to the right of home plate and cross the provided line why bother having the other line farther up the third base line?

These could just be differences between league rules developed independently in California than what is being used in Wisconsin.  Of course Wisconsinites aren't afraid of a few minor injuries, and we don't mind taking a little extra time to play a sport if we are having fun and want to actually finish the game.

Ah well, I have embarked on this little journey and will see it through.  Hopefully our team will be able to build on our last win and become a contender for the tournament at the end of the season.

Wish us luck!

Inspiration Can Come From the Most Unlikely of Places

One of the things I find ridiculous is when a dictionary, whether online or in an actual book, use the very word they are defining in the definition.  For example, recently I came across an AP news story about how the CEO of BP was being raked over the coals because of how his company is handling the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  The term the author of the article used was "pilloried."  Obviously this is a word that is not used very often.  And I have to admit, before seeing it in this article I have never heard it before.  So, in order to understand what they were saying I turned to this fancy thing called "the internet" to find out what this word means.

Americans as a Whole Couldn't Care Less About the World Cup

The FIFA World Cup is getting under way in South Africa this week and the general reaction from American's is: meh.  Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people who follow this world wide tournament in this country, but those people are usually those who have most likely come over recently from one of the many nations where this is huge.  The rest of us pretty much could care less.  The reason?  We want to see some action! (i.e., broken bones, blood, etc...)



The idea of watching a bunch of guys run around on a huge grass field where, every once in a while, someone eventually scores a goal is not exactly entertaining.  This is really the only exciting part of the matches, and they are few and far between.  It is common for matches to be really low scoring.  We, as Americans, want to see a lot of points on the board, and will always tune in for even the remote possibility of seeing someone get taken out in a horrifically spectacular fashion.



Sure soccer has its fair share of injuries, but they are more likely to happen in sports such as American Football, Ultimate Fighting Championship, Hockey, and Basketball to name a few.  Sure there is Rugby, but this is one sport that few Americans even understand, aside from Cricket (no one understands Cricket).  It is a bit like football but without the pads.



Basically Americans require a sport where, even if they have never played it, they think they know more about it than both the players and the coaches combined.  This is also why Baseball is popular as well.  Sure Baseball is not as fast-paced as Football or Hockey, but it has enough going on, most of the time, to keep spectators interested in the outcome.

Football, has action pretty much on every play, and the potential for seeing someone get creamed, whether they are anywhere near the ball or not.  Plus there is the possibility for some really high scores.

UFC, is pretty self-explanatory.  It is even becoming more popular than boxing.  This is where grown men, who have been studying every form of fighting from Karate to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, climb into a cage and beat the snot out of each other.  Oh, and break a few bones as well.

In Hockey you wait with baited breath for a break in all the fighting to see a goal scored.

Basketball is non-stop action from the very tip-off, and the scores usually end up somewhere between 80 to over 100 points for each team.  And there is the chance to watch your favorite player flop around on the floor like a freshly caught trout, which is always fun to see.

Really, the only way they could make Soccer more watchable is by making the field smaller.  It would help speed up the action, since they would not have to run as far, and there would be a greater chance for someone to score.  Even on accident.  Regulation soccer fields at the level they play at the world cup is longer and wider than a standard football field.  The dimensions are 130 yards long and 100 yards wide.  They should reduce that by at least a third, if not a half.  Then we will see some much higher scoring matches.



After all, it is just for entertainment, right?

Politicians are Considerate, Honorable People

If you believe that statement then you haven't been following politics since the dawn of time.  Ok, maybe not the dawn of time, but at least within about 100 years since then when people started forming committees to decide whether or not it would be a good idea berries off of a particular bush.  After all they had no idea if there would be adverse effects to it, such as death.  So they would get together, force feed some of it to the village dog, then stand back and see what happens.

BP Oil Spill is Obama's "Katrina"

In poll results that should surprise virtually no one, except maybe his most staunch supporters, most Americans consider Obama's response to the BP oil spill to be worse than Bush's response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

That being said there are some things that have shaken out of this recent catastrophe, as many are calling it, that most people are seemingly oblivious to.

Tiger Woods, a Byron Nelson he will never be.

Recently I have been catching up on American Chopper (the show about Orange County Choppers, which has since ended after 6 seasons) via Netflix, and I came across the episodes where they built the three identical bikes for the Byron Nelson Golf Classic.  Every year I try to catch at least the last two rounds of this tournament that is tied to his foundation (which, by the way, is their only fund raiser the entire year) that benefits students at the Byron Nelson High School in Trophy Club, Texas.

Never Answer the Phone if the Number is "Unavailable"

Or one that you don't recognize for that matter.

Today I was sitting at work and I get a call on my cell phone from an "unavailable" number.  Normally I ignore them, but something just made me curious.  So I decided to answer it, and was ultimately confirmed in my suspicion that I never should have bothered.

The Tide is Turning

At least it appears that way so far.  With the first round of mid-term primary elections having occurred this past Tuesday in various states we are already seeing that many Congressional seats, both Senate and House, will have some serious Republican contenders.  This is due in large part to support from Tea Party groups, which I have expressed to have not much faith in.  Though, we have seen at least one candidate come out of a Tea Party group and won the Republican primary in Kentucky.  For those that are unfamiliar with him, his name is Rand Paul.  This is the son of Ron Paul, the famous Republican Congressman from Texas that ran for President in 1988 as a Libertarian, then again in 2008 as a Republican, but did not make it past the primaries having lost to John McCain.

I live for Spelling and Grammar Errors

Yesterday we received this notice from the leasing office of our apartment complex:

Apparently, according to our leasing office the Mayor of our city has some "plumbing issues" which requires them to turn off the water to our entire community.

Though to clarify, it is just for our apartment complex.