What Matters Most: June 2011

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Birds

What Matters Most…… Commentary by Jim High

I was only about ten years old, but I remember killing Lewis like it was yesterday. Lewis was our family’s Parakeet, and like any pet, we all considered him a member of the family. After playing most of the morning with my BB gun, shooting at almost everything until it ran out of BBs, I was called in for lunch. Lunch at our house in 1950’s was a sit down affair with the whole family present. It was a time before television, pre-packaged food, fast food or take out, and drive through windows had yet to be invented. I don’t think I actually went out to a restaurant to eat a meal until I went away to college.

But this is about the death of Lewis, not how old I am. After I finished lunch, I jumped up and got my BB gun and stood in the front hall announcing to my entire family still sitting at the table in the dining room that I was going to shoot Lewis. They could all see me clearly through the double doors between the front hall and the dining room. It was summertime and with no air conditioning the front door was open with just the screen door between me and Lewis’ cage hanging on one of the columns on our big front porch. Now, of course, I didn’t intend to kill our family’s Parakeet because the gun had no BBs left in it. But I did intend to antagonize my Grandmother, who I knew would think that I had lost my mind. And right on cue she began to holler, “Jimmy don’t.”

I raised the gun and took careful aim before slowly pulling the trigger. Everyone could tell the gun had fired, but only I could see that poor Lewis had been hit and fell instantly to the bottom of his cage. I was stunned and then devastated. I fell to the floor and began to cry uncontrollably. The whole family got up and rushed to see what had happened, to me and to Lewis. The bird was dead with a perfect BB shot right through its little head. Only my uncontrollable sorrow and my brother’s confirmation that I thought the gun was not loaded saved me from punishment, or worse, some institution for the criminally insane.

That afternoon when we were all calmed down, and had corrected the rumors in the neighborhood about me killing Lewis, the boy who was my friend and lived up the street, we buried Lewis, the Parakeet, in a matchbox in the back yard. Lewis wasn’t our family’s first Parakeet, but he was our last. We just couldn’t have enjoyed another bird in a cage after that horrible day.

Now that I’m all grown up, I have come to understand that birds probably don’t like living their lives in little cages. Scientist now think birds probably evolved from the dinosaurs. Isn’t that strange, stranger even that me announcing to my family that I was going to kill Lewis and then actually doing it.

Have you ever really thought about all the many birds you see every day? They live among us, build their nest, raise and feed their young, and find food and water every day. The migration of birds with the seasons is a miracle in itself. How do the birds stay warm when it is bitter cold outside? Birds always seem to know where to go and how to live their lives. Maybe we should pay more attend to the birds; they could teach us lots of things.

What matters most...... is the direction, purpose and meaning for our lives that we can learn from observing, not just the birds, but the whole natural world that is all around us. I believe that Nature has put the same instincts into our lives that exist in the birds, and all the other animals on the earth. What we need to do is become more aware of the world in which we live and of our own internal instincts, and then use those instincts to give our lives direction, meaning and purpose.

Oneness

What Matters Most……… Commentary by Jim High

Sometime during the 1990’s I attended an Economic Conference in Memphis, TN, to hear Jim Barksdale talk about this new company called Netscape, and something called the Internet. During that speech he made a most remarkable statement that I have never forgotten. He said, “The Internet will change the world more than the invention of the printing press.” Most of us in the room that day didn’t even know what the Internet was and, of course, were not using it. I didn’t even own a computer at that time.

Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1439, and began work on that now famous Gutenberg Bible in 1450. By 1455 he had completed an estimated 200 copies of the Bible. Before that time, books had to be hand copied by scribes, and no two turned out exactly alike. Books were only for the wealthy and the church, because only a few people could read and even less could afford to own a hand copied book.

But here’s the real explosion of knowledge caused by the invention of the printing press. In only a little over 50 years, printing presses were established in 2,500 cities throughout Europe and 15,000,000 books representing 30,000 titles had been printed. Of course, today we have Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble Bookstores, and billions of books. How could something I knew nothing about and didn’t understand change the world more than this?

The Internet has a long history, probably going all the way back to a science-fiction comic book from 1946 that laid out how it might work along with its strengths and weaknesses. And we all now know that Vice President Al Gore really didn’t invent the Internet, even though he is supposed to have said once that he did. But during the 1990’s a lot of things came together and the Internet was created. The Internet is just what its name implies. It is a network of lots of computer networks and systems all talking to each other with a shared understandable language.

During the early part of 2008 Oprah Winfrey teamed up with Eckhart Tolle to host a worldwide live Internet seminar about his book, A New Earth. A friend and I met every Monday night for ten weeks to read, to listen, to watch and to participate in the discussion of the chapters of this book. The worldwide audience grew to over one million people, and we could watch as people from all over the world asked questions and got answers. That was surely the largest classroom event ever. And it gave both of us a special feeling to know that people just like us were gathered in front of their computers, and like us were learning and hearing the discussion all at the same time.

As of June 30, 2008, an estimated 1.463 billion people use the Internet. Yes, the Internet is truly changing the world more than the invention of the printing press. And right before our eyes. Jim Barksdale was correct.

What matters most is that through this radical change now taking place in our world, we have the opportunity to bring about the oneness and connection between all the people of the world that has always been present, but not recognized until now. And the realization of our oneness with each other will ultimately create a positive change in our personal lives, our communities, and our nation. And this change is happening in all nations for all of the world’s population.

Connections

What Matters Most… Commentary by Jim High

You can never look at the Grand Canyon long enough. Have you ever been there? I have on several occasions. One time when I was there it was filled from rim to rim with clouds. They were not above it, the day was actually clear with not a cloud in the sky, the clouds had all settled into the canyon as if someone had filled it up with whipped cream. It was really strange to look at something so huge and not be able to see it.

But every time I have actually seen the Grand Canyon and been able to look down into it, I get a real sense of connection to time – to the Universe itself. And when I think I have seen it all and turn away, I immediately realize that I have not looked at it nearly long enough. Besides the feelings of grandeur and the immense beauty that go with me when I finally do have to leave, I take with me this real feeling deep down inside that I have not looked at it nearly long enough.

There is a huge meteor crater in northern Arizona, created some 50,000 years ago when something large from outer space crashed into the earth. Have you been there? On my one trip to this site, I stood on the rim and looked across this miles wide hole in the ground. I gazed up at the sky and thought about that day long ago and what it must have been like. The connection I felt to the Universe standing there on the edge was as strong a connection to space and time as I have ever experienced in my life.

Have you ever been to Australia? I went in 1975 for a month to visit an exchange student who had spent the previous year in Tupelo. She invited me, so I went. I flew 18 hours with only a brief stop in Hawaii. I didn’t even get off the plane until it landed in Sidney, which is on the bottom on the world, compared to the top half where Tupelo is located. I took a tour of the city and a wonderful harbor cruise before flying out that night to Dubbo, New South Wales, where my friend and her family lived about 200 miles northwest of Sidney. That whole first day in Australia I felt upside down, like I was standing on my head or pointing in the wrong direction, which actually I was considering where I had started. It was a physical feeling of being out of sorts. Everything looked the same, no different than if had I flown to New York City or over the Atlantic to London, but it sure felt different and upside down to me.

Now I know that most everyone has stood on the shore of an ocean at least once in their lives. And I know that you felt that same tug or pull of something that is hard to put into words, a connection of some kind, a sense of belonging, of being home. Did you know that your blood plasma, minus its cells, is chemically indistinguishable from sea water? No wonder we always have these feelings as we stand in awe and look at the enormous expanse of ocean before us. The feeling is the same no matter on which ocean beach you stand, and I’ve stood and looked at almost all of them.

What matters most about all of this is that we, the human animal, need to become aware of our connections to Creation, to the Universe itself, because we are a part of it and these connections are all around us all the time. When you understand these connections, you better understand life.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Friends

What Matters Most……Commentary by Jim High

Last weekend one of my special friends arrived back in Tupelo for his 30^th High School Reunion all the way from Sweden. Jonas was a Rotary Club Exchange Student from Helsingborg, Sweden, during the 1980-81 Tupelo High School year, and was a guest in my home for two months of the year he lived in Tupelo with various Rotary Club members and other families. That began a friendship that continues to this day.

Jonas has returned to Tupelo several times over these thirty years, and I have been to Sweden to visit him and met his brother and sister, as well as his Mother and Father, who have also visited Tupelo more than once during these thirty years. When Jonas married, I and two others from Tupelo attended his wedding in Sweden. I’ve also visited with Jonas and Cecilia while then lived in Paris and in London. Once I flew over to spend just a weekend with Jonas and Cecilia who were living in Brussels, Belgium, at the time. All that’s left will be to visit Stockholm again to see Jonas and Cecilia’s three children.

However, Jonas is not my only international friend, not even my only Swedish friend. Lars, who now lives in Luxembourg and works for the World Bank, was also a Swedish exchange student who spent a year in Tupelo. Back in the late 1980’s I visited Lars in Stockholm, and then we traveled through Europe together by train.

Rotary’s first two exchange students were from Australia, and in 1975 I went to Australia to visit them. In 1979 I visited a girl from France who had come to Tupelo as part of the advance team with the “Up With People” singing group that preformed in Tupelo. My traveling companion and I stayed with her and her family for several days.

In the late 1960’s I met a young Filipino girl while taking a Gray Line bus tour of Chicago. She was traveling alone all over the United States. We sat together on the all day tour of Chicago. She had not planned to go to New Orleans, but I convinced her that seeing the Big Easy was a must. We later stayed in touch by mail. And I found out that she had indeed changed her itinerary and loved New Orleans. When my family attended the World’s Fair in Japan in 1970, I arranged the trip so we could go to Manila to see her and her family.

On a trip in 1986 to Nairobi, Kenya, I took a three day safari to see the big game animals with a private driver in a small white van. We got to know our guide very well, as we were totally dependent on him as we toured the African savannah on dirt tracks to see the animals, as there are no official roads in the huge game parks. All of my travels have been on independent trips and not on prearranged tours. And I’ve stayed in many very small hotels and B&B’s where you get to know the people who run them.

Meeting and getting to know people from all around the world gives you a very different perspective and outlook about the connections that actually bind the whole world and its people together. You have heard it said that people are alike all over the world, and it’s true. It’s a valuable lesson and one that you can only learn by experiencing it.

It means you don’t make judgments about people as quickly, because when you get to know them and see how they live, you come to understand them. And understanding another person and another culture makes you realize that maybe we Americans are not the world’s greatest people. You find out that the world’s people are much more alike than they are different.

What Matters Most…….Anybody can be your friend when you realize that everyone everywhere actually wants and desires your friendship. If you accept people for who they are, where they are, they will also accept you in return. Friends make life wonderful and meaningful. I have a new friend on Facebook who lives in Izhevsk, Udmurt, Russia. I’d like to meet him in person. Someday I’ll find a way to make that happen.

“To know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and, though distant, is close in spirit..…this makes earth for us an inhabited garden.” ---Johann Wolfgang von Goethe