It’s now January 4th, 2020. The chaos continues as it always has. If you look at the history of each day as I now do, you’ll realize that chaos is our natural state. The Buddha, in his 3rd Noble Truth said that if we give up our desire to have the world conform to our wants, the frustration we feel will go away. While it’s not possible to completely ignore what’s going on, we can turn away from it and focus on what we can control which is what we will do on this day. For example, we can celebrate Fruitcake Toss Day, or National Spaghetti Day, National Trivia Day, Tom Thumb Day, Pop Music Chart Day or World Hypnotism Day. Tom Thumb was an English fairy tale character. He was the size of your thumb. This day isn’t for him. It’s for General Tom Thumb who was a dwarf in P. T. Barnum’s circus. Since I don’t have a fruitcake to toss, I’ll go with Spaghetti. Now let’s look at the historical events of this day. In 1847 Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government. In 1863 the 4 wheeled roller skate is patented by James Plimpton of NY. In 1885 Dr William Grant of Iowa performs the 1st appendectomy in America on Mary Gartside, aged 22. I wonder what the pre-surgery consultation was like? “You’re going to what?” In 1903 Topsy the elephant is electrocuted by her owners at Luna Park, Coney Island and filmed by Edison Manufacturing movie company. In 1954 Elvis Presley records a 10 minute demo in Nashville. In 1970 Walter Cronkite ends hosting weekly documentary. He was known as “the most trusted man in America”. If you read his quotes, you’ll quickly understand how we’ve changed. “Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine.” He ended his show by saying “And that’s the way it is”. I’m going to end this post with another quote from Buddha “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” That’s exactly what I try and do everyday. It’s my way of getting the most I can out of each one. Abide
