I AM A TREE who can’t read, so I don’t know what kind of tree I am. I can see many other trees around where I live, but I don’t look like any of them. I must be special.
I go to work every morning at sunrise and spread my leaves to face the sun as much as possible to catch the solar rays and get my engines running. I have an important job; I create oxygen from carbon dioxide in the air.
It has taken many years for me to create enough leaves to make a difference large enough for humans to measure, but they are getting better at it now. They are frightened by what they call global warming. I help them as much as I can by reducing carbon dioxide, which holds heat on the earth, warming it.
All humans are rather ignorant. That means they lack the information to make wise, informed decisions about things. It is OK to be ignorant because all humans are ignorant about 99.9% of their surroundings. Human knowledge is only a grain of sand on the beach of knowledge.
Being stupid is not OK. That means you have the knowledge available to make a good decision but don’t use it. These humans are killing my cousins in the forest. They are building new houses to live in and to burn in the fireplace for warmth. They don’t seem to understand how hard trees work for them. Sun-up to sun-down, we work for them.
We also work hard for other animals like birds. They build their homes in our branches and raise their babies.
The shade we provide is enjoyed by all the animals and we also protect farms so heavy winds will not destroy their crops and use our roots to hold the soil in place.
We keep the ground cool when it is hot. And that helps humans with global warming.
The children that climb in my branches have a great time, laughing a lot and building good muscles.
I hope they don’t cut me down. I may be safe because I’m the only tree in this part of the park and if I am killed, all the things I do every day won’t be done here in this place.
I’m only 40 years old now and I can still work for about another 100 years or more. My death would be a big loss to this community in the small picture, as well as to the world in the big picture.
I love to live and help my environment survive. My leaves dance and sing their songs in the wind to calm those who sit in the shade I provide.
Please pass the word that I’m not dead yet and don’t want to be.
Be a tree, not a bush. Stand strong. Use your talents. YOU ARE SPECIAL.
If you are reading this, YOU’R NOT DEAD YET, don’t act like you are.
1. You must let the past go or it will interfere with your future.
2.The more you are aware of the mistakes you make, and not in denial, the
fewer mistakes you will make.
3. Confusing Mistakes with failure, is a mistake.
4. Believing other people have it easier than you do is a mistake.
5. Rejection and happiness are in the head. We can choose the reaction.
6. Mistakes are our portals for discovery.
7. It is easy to adapt, if you do not have pre-programmed ideas of what you deserve.
8. If you wish to be free, then you must allow me to be free also.
9. The music created by the wind moving the leaves of a tree is far more complicated than that created by the Best Symphony Orchestra. It calms my inner self.
10. Are rocks alive? Are they just living on a timeline that we do not understand. They form from the earth, and they erode back into it. That is what all living things do. Different building blocks but the same bottom line of existing. Only on a different timeline.
11. I visited the 2000 year-old pines, high in the mountains. They were all bent out of shape. I heard another tourist, like myself, say. ”They are ugly things. I can’t even call it a tree anymore. They are useless.”
When I looked at them, I saw history. They were telling us about the earth and its history. The dendrochronologist can read the rings in the trees. They write a history book of the earth. I read the book and fell in love with the tree. It had a hard life, but it handled it and left us its autobiography.
12. I would like to have a T-shirt that has written on it, Don’t count me out. I’m not dead yet.
13. Life is like a bowl of cherries, but you must know how to spit out the pits,
14. Old age doesn’t sneak up on you. You start the process when you are one day old. If you become old, be thankful. Most people never have that privilege, and you won’t get a second chance to make it work. Don’t waste time thinking about what you’ve lost. Think only about what you have. And be thankful.
15. A bit about hearing. A couple of conversations between a hard-of-hearing person and one who isn’t. : )
“I like this book I’m reading. Would you like a copy
No, I don’t think so. I don’t need any more coffee. This morning. I’ve already had two cups.
Do you read much?
No. I set my cruise control at the limit, and I never speed.
Have you ever sat down and wondered how you got into the situation you find yourself in? Everything seems to be happening at once, and you feel overwhelmed.
Life is what goes on around you. 99% of it is not in our control. Our life is what goes on in our world that we live in. We like to think we are in control of that. Occasionally, we lose control and end up in the situations described above. I have just had such an experience and would like to share it with you.
I had a two-week period where the following things all were happening. I am selling my condo, and the real-estate lady is doing a great job of keeping me informed on the activity about the sale. She calls me often so I stay informed. A good thing.
I had gone blind in my left eye due to a cataract and needed surgery to remove it. I made an appointment for the surgery.
I developed bad pains in my abdomen. I went to the local emergency room. They decided that it was my gall bladder and put me in the hospital. I was told they could not take it out until the infection was cured. I spent four days in a hospital bed. The only clothes I had on was a gown that only covered my front half.
I was told I was being discharged in an hour. I needed someone to take home. I called Karin; she could not come, she was at her doctor’s office. She said she would find someone to come get me.
There was a man , asleep, in the other bed of my room.
I’m all tucked in bed and have to empty my bladder. All the above is needed to know, to understand what happened next.
I was alone with my roommate sleeping. I took my urinal, pushed down the blanks and pulled up my gown, so I could place the urinal in place just as three visitors came to visit my roommate. I quickly pulled my blankets up to my waist to cover the urinal.
A nurse came in with discharge papers for me to sign and put them on my table. I was signing them when my phone rang. My daughter was calling to tell me she was coming to pick me up. I went back to signing papers. The phone rang again. It was my real estate lady wanting to tell me about the open house she had just come from. I told her I was busy and would call her back. I signed one more paper and that nurse left, then the phone rang again. It was Karin telling me she had reached Diane to pick me up.
All of this took place in 15 minutes while I was covertly urinating and hoping the urinal was in the proper location. I had no way of telling. The roommate’s visitors stayed for 15 minutes more and left.
I carefully pushed the covers down to see if I had a mess or a successful challenge. Once again, I cheated death. The urinal was full.
My life is like a play on the Act III stage. The only hard part is I don’t always get to write the script. When I left the hospital, I was hungry for some real food and went out for dinner. I told the waiter that I was really hungry, asked what was on the menu would he recommend? He thought for a few seconds and said, “A bowl of rice, (I must have looked confused because he added), It comes with 1,500 pieces”. I thought my trainer was the only one who understood me. When I asked him what exercise machine I should use to make me irresistible to beautiful women? He said, “For you it would have to be the ATM machine”.
Life is so much fun if you live it and don’t sit on the sideline and just watch the game. Get in there and catch a few passes. If you want to move ahead, you must choose friends that want to, also. Don’t let them leave you behind. Push them, make them keep up with you.
As I watch the Olympics, I am reminded of how much everything around us in our life Changes. I was watching the Judo matches and couldn’t figure out what was happening. There were penalties being called that I didn’t see occurring. There was no mat work allowed at all. The contestants didn’t look or fight like the Judo I competed in. I participated until I was well into my 40s, and took a third place in the nationals in my teens. We competed then under Kodokan rules, straight from Japan. They were very different. All competitors lined up in a single line, with the loser rank at the start progressing to the highest ranked at the other end. The competitors are then counted off by twos — 1..2..1..2..1..2, etc. All the ones formed a line on one side of the room. Keeping the same order, low to high rank. All the twos formed a line on the other side of the room, also keeping the same order. The person at the first of each line were the first match. This meant they were close to or the same rank. The winner stayed up and took on the next person in the other line, who was the same or a higher rank. If you won, you stayed up to take the next in line. There was no rest period between matches, and each time you had a higher rank competitor. One way of earning a higher rank was by staying up and beating three consecutive people of the next higher rank. In our competition we could win with a choke that made your opponent tap-out, or a hold down of your opponent on their back controlling their head and an arm or leg for 30 seconds. A clean throw of your opponent to their back was an instant win.
I guess like in football, the rules have been changed to support fewer injuries. Everything I was taught to do when I played in the early 1950s is illegal now. I think the changes have really altered the sports. I hope for the better. At least they are safer.
What changes can you make in your life to make it safer? Remember cars are not the only things that can be recalled by their maker.
Do you stand up when they play the Star-Spangle Banner?
Do you remember the lessons the world should, from World War II?
And recognize the Hitler syndrome when someone has it?
If you bump into someone on the sidewalk, do you say, “I’m sorry”?
Do you hold the door open for the people behind you?
Do you get embarrassed if someone cusses in front of a woman, or
angry if it is around children?
Do you brag about your grandchildren and not about yourself?
Do you respect the military, past and present, because you realize they
are the ones who have kept our freedom intact?
If you answered yes to all the above, you are a true TOPATEOTS and we need you to act as mentors/examples for the rest of us. Keep your head up and be proud of who and what you are –
When I was younger, I always had more things to look forward to than I could do. Now at 90 the list is much smaller. I am not physically able to do much of anything. It is very important to have a carrot on a string right out in front that we keep striving to reach. It is a good reason to keep yourself working at staying alive. At 90 staying alive is your default job.
When I looked at my list a few years ago I found trips on Cruise ships were on the top. We, Karin and I, took a 14-day cruise to Alaska to see if we could stay happy on the boat that long. That was a mistake. We discovered that wasn’t long enough.
The next year we took a 35-day cruise. Still not enough.
The next year it was a 95-day cruise. Still not enough.
Next year, 2025, we are signed on to a 133-day cruise. It goes from pole to pole.
I love Alaska. It is an environment that speaks to my heart. Over the past fifteen years I have taken nine cruses up the inland passage just to see what a true wilderness is and keep the image fresh in the front of my mind.
I did one trip on the ferry from Port Hardy in Canada to Skagway Alaska at the end of the in-land passage, then flew home. I got off at every stop and stayed for two to four days in each town/village. It was a great way to see the culture and meet the true Alaskan.
On another trip we flew to Anchorage and rented an RV. We spent two weeks seeing the inland parts, Fairbanks, Denali, and even flew in a small plane and landed on a glacier area half way up the Denali Mountain.
On another trip we were going to see the Northen light in the winter. We were gone for four days. Flying to Anchorage and having a great train ride from Anchorage to Fairbanks, we stood out at night for over three hours in minus 27-degree weather and think we might have seen some Northen lights. In four days, we only had six hours of sun light. It was winter. I decided not to move there.
My most recent voyage was a nine-day trip from Seattle to Skagway at the end of the inland passage. It is day eight on our way home and we haven’t seen the sun once. It has been raining every day and we could not stop at Icey Striates where I wanted to do the zip line. It is the longest one in the world, over a mile long. I will keep it on my bucket list. Perhaps in the summer of 2024 I will get back, to zip line from the top of the mountain to the town a mile below.
Even with rain every day and fog most days, it was still a great trip. My heart knew where we were and my memory archives, my collection of yesterdays, let me see it all again. One of the advantages of old age is a large archives bank. I can travel to all the continents, whenever I want and never even leave home.
(This is the title of the book I am working on now.)
I have been on a 95-day cruise to Australia, New Zealand and a lot of islands.
A great way to start my 90th year. I had time to do a lot of searching through my collection of ‘yesterdays,’ that I have storied in my brain. It reinforced my opinion that I am living a wonderful life. If anyone was ever blessed it has to be me. My life is filed with a family I am proud of, friends that understand what a friend is, and more adventure than I ever deserved.
In past comments you have told me you enjoyed my poems. It gave me joy. I know nothing about how you should write a poem, I just write what I feel in my heart. These are two that have been very significant to my mental stability if I have any. I hope they may speak to you too, even if just a little bit.
ATTITUDE
Changing my path
(I WROTE THIS IN 1979)
I HAVE TRIED TO LIVE BY IT EVER SINCE.
MY CREED
It is today, not tomorrow.
This is today, yesterday is history.
Every morning when I wake up it will be today.
I will start each of my todays with a positive attitude.
I will not criticize anything for it accomplished nothing.
I refuse to utilize my time at things that accomplish nothing.
Today has one thing in which I know I am equal with all others, time.
We draw life’s paychecks in hours, minutes, and seconds; no favorites.
Today I will not waste any of my given time.
The minutes I wasted yesterday are already too costly.
Today I refuse to use my time worrying about what might happen.
Instead, I’m going to utilize my time by working to making good things happen.
Today I am determined to improve myself.
For tomorrow someone may need me to help them.
I must work hard today so I will not be found lacking tomorrow.
Today I must accomplish something, and not waste any of my limited time.
Today I will do the things I should do.
Today I will stop doing things I feel are bad for me.
The end of each week I will be a better person than when it started.
My worth to myself and others is in direct proportion to the way I utilize my time.
Things in my world are not different.
I will not imagine what I would do if they were.
I will make my life a success with what I have now.
I will arrange what time I have to make the most of my talents.
I will take time for my people.
I will not wait till tomorrow to say, I love you.”
I will treat everyone I encounter in life as a true friend.
If I do these things, it will be a good day for me, and those around me.
I DID THE BEST I COULD. I HOPE IT WAS AS GOOD AS I SHOULD.
and,
I wrote this many years ago.
When I read it now, as I live my 90th year, it seems much more relevant.
(I wrote this while sitting on the beach watching the waves rolling in.)
Patience is a Virtue
Hi there old salt.
Your kind of in-between, aren’t you?
Your face is smooth or nearly so,
Ah’ But your edges give you away.
Your swells peak up and break, gently.
They roll in, caress my toes, then disappear around my feet.
If I were to take you at your word,
I would run and fling myself into your embrace.
I would jostle your white caps and
Relax among your peaks and hollows.
But I know better than that.
Even as I watch, you are losing control.
You grow impatient.
I have noticed it at times.
Even like now when you are calm.
That upheaval of emotion that comes
Just when you don’t expect it.
That one breaker that is less controlled
Then all the rest, shows your impatience.
It does not caress my toes and
Then depart through the sand.
Ho! It grabs at my knees and
Pulls at me with fierce enthusiasm.
There is no need my friend for your impatience.
Think about it.
From you I have learned to be strong,
Without a show of force.
From you I have learned to be placid,
But never complacent.
In your depth I have had great joy,
And near death.
You have taught me to trust,
But never to rely.
I have learned what I do is important,
And what I would like to do stays insignificant.
No, my friend, be not impatient.
Two billion years ago I was created from you.
I would not deprive you if I could.
Yours is a millennium, mine but half a grain of sand.
I have been absent from my blog for about a year. The pandemic caused some unsuspected turmoil in my world. I had four good friends and one family member die with Covid 19, and several others including me getting sick. We were vaccinated and recovered. The ones that died were not vaccinated. In my biological world that was very significant. Enough said about that.
Life is back on track for me and I am still writing books. I decided that it was time to write a book that had something to say of value to everyone, not just a few. From global warming to sex, there are 28 different subjects I believe deserve consideration. The title of the new book is, “How to live according to Grandpa. The Wisdom and Philosophy of Tomateots “. It is available now in paperback and e-books from Amazon, Barnes and Noble as well as Apple. It will also be an audio book by the end of January.
The best way I can tell you what it is about is to share with you what I wrote on the back cover. I hope you will read the book. I wrote it for you. It is the only book of the 18 I have written that I am asking the public to buy. It will speak to you.
THE BACK COVER PAGE
“We are presented with several million options during our life that we have to make a choice between. The choices we make create the way we see the world and establish how we live in it. The environment, which we have created for ourselves, is called our world. Everyone has a world that is unique and personal to them.
Of course, our worlds are based on assumptions that for one reason or another, we choose to believe and call facts.
We are sure that what we believe takes precedence over everyone else’s beliefs, and that can make our world a bit of a challenge to live in at times. I have decided to share my world with the rest of the world. Not to convince anyone that my world is better than theirs but to share some of the things that I found helpful for the world at large.
In my eighty-nine years as a well-educated wonderer, many of my assumed facts have been proven wrong. I see that as progress, a good thing. The challenge is to be able to accept that one of your lifelong facts just isn’t true. I have only a few things that I learned that have stayed true for me so far and have been stabilizers in my world. I think they can be of use to almost everyone and need sharing.
I am not writing this book to encourage you to think like me but rather to just think. There are things changing all around you. So many new things to learn. So many new places to visit. So many edges out there you haven’t walked on yet. No matter how intelligent you are, your areas of vast ignorance are greater than your areas of knowledge.
There is so much to learn that when you throw your arms up and say,” I know nothing.” It will be true, but it is ok. Every other human on earth is in the same situation, they just don’t know it.
We have robots with Artificial Intelligence (AI) far beyond any human right now that are working for us. What will happen when they decide we are too dumb and of no use to them? I believe this could be a greater threat to human survival than global warming. What do you think, and why?”
The book is an easy read and covers many subjects that we encounter in our everyday life. I think much about them. This book is meant to stimulate conversation and perhaps provide some useful tips.
Thank you in advance for your help in spreading the word. I WROTE IT FOR EVERYONE TO READ, NOT JUST A FEW.
First, I want to apologize for the long delay from my last Blog. I have a couple of reasons but no excuses. I had an adventure with the Omicron virus that wasn’t too bad, then I did a face-plant on a tile floor, in the middle of the night, that was bad. Thirty-three stitches and four weeks later, I was good to go – – so I did.
I was rearranging my office when I got home and came across something that I’ve saved for 50 years. It’s a very special letter. It wasn’t to me but rather from a son to his parents. How I obtained the letter is of no consequence however, what it says and the environment in which it was written are.
The year, 1943 (the world was at war – WWII), the age of the writer, 22 years, his country, Japan. His letter defines the word commitment. To some extent, every warrior in every war has made the same commitment to protect his family and country.
I can’t help but to tear up when I read the letter. I wrote a similar letter to be mailed if I didn’t come back, 60+ years ago. Fortunately, it was never mailed. I came back.
“Dear Parents:
Please congratulate me. I have been given a splendid opportunity to die. This is my last day. The destiny of our homeland hinges on our victory. I shall fall like a blossom from a radiant cherry tree.
I shall be a shield for His Majesty and die cleanly along with my friends. I wish that I could be born seven times, each time to smite the enemy. How I appreciate this chance to die like a man! I am grateful from the depths of my heart to the parents who reared me with their constant prayers and tender love. I am also grateful to my country which has been my home, my entire life.
Thank you, my parents, for the 22 years that you have cared for me and inspired me. I hope my present deed will in some small way repay you for what you have done for me. Think well of me and know that your son died for his country. This is my last wish. There is nothing else I desire.
I shall return in spirt and look forward to your visit at the Yasukuni shrine. Please take good care of yourselves.
We are 16 warriors defending our precious Japan. May our deaths be as clean and sudden as the shattering of a crystal.
My eternal love, …………”
I have nothing to add but a thank you for reading this. I think it applies to all who have given their life to protect their country. It applies to both those that didn’t come back as well as to those that did. All I can say is, THANK YOU.
John's Book of Life 