One of the movies that impacted me earlier in my life was The Graduate. There was a scene when Dustin Hoffman had taken Katherine Ross to the drive-in burger joint. They were sitting in his little sports car eating burgers. In the background played Paul Simon's "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" song. Dustin states, "It seems like there comes a time when I think I really understand life and how all the rules work. In that very moment, all the rules change."
Such if life! There is no logic or rationality to the flow of life. My wife taught me the phrase 'it is what it is.' This phrase attempts to understand in a small way the zaniness of life.
This brings up one of the really strange set of facts about life. We have had a love-hate relationship with squirrels for years. For a long time we had bird feeders; much of our effort was coming up with ways to have the birds get the food and not the squirrels. It was an absolute battle; we were often surprised at how stubborn squirrels can be. But it was in learning about squirrels that I again realized that life is quirky and humor is everywhere.
Squirrels actually have more memory capability in the fall when they bury their food than at other times of the year. It's almost as if God is saying 'since your life involves remembering where you have hidden your nuts I will give you extra memory.' So they then can do a better job of finding the nuts when it is time to retrieve them.
However I recently heard that squirrels will forget up to 80% of the locations of their stashes. So then this led me to wonder if squirrels are not one of the reasons we have so many trees. This would be from the nuts that remain in the ground and grow to be new forests - just because the squirrels forgot.
Now I realize why we project human characteristics onto the squirrel. We see them as frantic, driven, and always in the urgent mode. I don't ever remember watching a relaxed squirrel in our backyard.
So at some point in the future when you are feeling frantic and urgent; when it doesn't seem like you will get everything done, take a breath. Even when you feel you're forgetting 80% of what you are trying to remember, then the other side of the equation can kick in.
We are not squirrels and once we realize the truth of Dustin Hoffman's quote we can start to realize that it is never about trying to figure it out. It is about experiencing it. Just experience it!
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