How Do You Prepare?
HOW do you prepare?
How DO you prepare?
How do YOU prepare?
But,... how do you PREPARE?
Today I was thinking of the Decorator Crab
and wondering if decorator crabs
ever have to explain themselves
to all the other kinds of crabs.
"Dude,
I know this sounds crazy but...
I'm just going to cover myself with sea anenomes
and then just...
see how it goes!"
Prometheus
in Greek mythology
steals the secret of fire from his powerful cousin Zeus
to give to mankind.
Prometheus
in the Greek language
literally translates to "forethought".
Forethought takes fire straight from the stormclouds
and gave it to all humans to use.
The idea is physically
and metaphysically
a tinderbox
to consider that Greek mythology
might have been more straightforward
than we were commonly led to believe.
Forethought didn't MAKE humans,
but every time we make ourselves
we can thank Forethought
for the fire
that helps us to do it.
Planning is not my strong suit.
Once in a Leadership Class
our teacher was one of those blustery old walruses,
the ones with a long white mustache,
and the habit of harumphing
bombastically.
He shouted,
"Whats your MOTTO!?"
at his students on the first day
and pointed at students he recognized from other classes,
and they shouted their motto,
trained like barking seals
for his fishy approval.
But he quickly began the game with us newbies.
When someone stumbled or balked,
he encouraged with an energetic stride
across the classroom
and querulous shout,
"What drives you?
What matters to you?
What's your MOTTO?"
When people haltingly recited some religious or military slogan
he gave them a nod and moved on,
But when someone else gives the same answer,
he breaks in
Is that who are you going to be?
What THAT guy said? No!
Who are YOU going to BE?!
WHAT are you going to BE?
"WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO!?"
He pointed me out;
about halfway through the class roll,
I beamed a smile
and projected
with a staccato Sousa march in my voice
and a punctuating fist pump in the air
like I was leading the chant
at a protest march:
"Live happily!
Die eventually!"
He cocked an eyebrow
and clocked me.
I didn't really plan to say ANYTHING,
that's just what
**came out**.
And, ya know what?
I'll stand by it.
In fact,
I'd recommend it to anyone
who enjoys positive emotional input/output
and doesn't want to die quite yet.
But its not a PLAN
like "do unto others"
or "semper fi"
which require you to think of others
or commit yourself to a path
or believe in something more complicated than
life, death, and the possibility of happiness in-between.
I'm back to the decorator crab.
They work hard,
and they're meticulous
but do you think they PLAN?
I don't know.
How DO you prepare?
How do YOU prepare?
But,... how do you PREPARE?
Today I was thinking of the Decorator Crab
and wondering if decorator crabs
ever have to explain themselves
to all the other kinds of crabs.
"Dude,
I know this sounds crazy but...
I'm just going to cover myself with sea anenomes
and then just...
see how it goes!"
Prometheus
in Greek mythology
steals the secret of fire from his powerful cousin Zeus
to give to mankind.
Prometheus
in the Greek language
literally translates to "forethought".
Forethought takes fire straight from the stormclouds
and gave it to all humans to use.
The idea is physically
and metaphysically
a tinderbox
to consider that Greek mythology
might have been more straightforward
than we were commonly led to believe.
Forethought didn't MAKE humans,
but every time we make ourselves
we can thank Forethought
for the fire
that helps us to do it.
Planning is not my strong suit.
Once in a Leadership Class
our teacher was one of those blustery old walruses,
the ones with a long white mustache,
and the habit of harumphing
bombastically.
He shouted,
"Whats your MOTTO!?"
at his students on the first day
and pointed at students he recognized from other classes,
and they shouted their motto,
trained like barking seals
for his fishy approval.
But he quickly began the game with us newbies.
When someone stumbled or balked,
he encouraged with an energetic stride
across the classroom
and querulous shout,
"What drives you?
What matters to you?
What's your MOTTO?"
When people haltingly recited some religious or military slogan
he gave them a nod and moved on,
But when someone else gives the same answer,
he breaks in
Is that who are you going to be?
What THAT guy said? No!
Who are YOU going to BE?!
WHAT are you going to BE?
"WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO!?"
He pointed me out;
about halfway through the class roll,
I beamed a smile
and projected
with a staccato Sousa march in my voice
and a punctuating fist pump in the air
like I was leading the chant
at a protest march:
"Live happily!
Die eventually!"
He cocked an eyebrow
and clocked me.
I didn't really plan to say ANYTHING,
that's just what
**came out**.
And, ya know what?
I'll stand by it.
In fact,
I'd recommend it to anyone
who enjoys positive emotional input/output
and doesn't want to die quite yet.
But its not a PLAN
like "do unto others"
or "semper fi"
which require you to think of others
or commit yourself to a path
or believe in something more complicated than
life, death, and the possibility of happiness in-between.
I'm back to the decorator crab.
They work hard,
and they're meticulous
but do you think they PLAN?
I don't know.