“There are not many things in life/You can be sure of/Except rain comes from the clouds/Sun lights up the sky/And hummingbirds do fly” [Quincy Jones — Everything Must Change lyrics]
I was a curious child and have grown all aspects of my persona since I was knee-high to a duck…this includes the quintessential question — why?
“Water flows up to the clouds/Bows come with the rain/Light lifts up the roof/Falls reverse their flow/As rivers flow upstream” [Diem Jones — Why Must lyrics]
As a walk on member of the Franklin High School debate team, extemporaneous speech was my natural specialization. One of the bi-products of my evolving, probe-like curiosity was (and remains) a compassionate empathy to equally present opposite points of view…I would argue either side of an answer with convincing passion.
This type of internal processing seems to keep running in the background as I journey through life and co-process enigmas. This turned into an asset in collaborative song writing circles as well as a sometimes annoying edge of my cornball jokes…[I spent time in Iowa and sometimes my jokes are corny…]
I love opposites as they do attract and can reside within me, which is perhaps the glue that holds me together on cold, rainy days — My approach to my sensory perception of cold and wet creates a mental framework of telling myself that it is warm & dry, decreasing my need for extra layers of clothes and eliminating shivering.
Bada-Bing, Bada Boom, how big is the room?
This strategy has prepared me as an adult to make lemonade out of all challenges. I see no reason why I should loose patience, become frustrated and upset because other(s) have a point of view I could frame as idiocy — I understand the root of their point(s) and choose not to agree with their posture. This leaves me fresher, less drained and empowered to fly up with the rain.
Why must we default to judgement and sour grapes? The burden of carriage is on the shoulders of the holders of the opinion.
Originally published at medium.com