S3 E39 — Ready for Your Big Leap Forward?

This morning my knee weather is tight, with a chance of pain, but dull achy in my left hip bone, feeling like a COVID vaccine site, with a slight chance of improving if I wear a sleeve.

“5” Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “It appears that someone took a big leap forward, when, in fact, this was just a series of small but consistent steps over time — doable for anyone with the tenacity. You are most certainly in the category.” Taurus

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 39 in Season 3 of “My Paradoxically Normal Year” on this 2nd day of May in the spring of 2021 — which is a three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic year and then in the pandemic year, and now months after.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Previously from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E38 — Sliding on a Super Slippery Slope to 2nd or 3rd Cousins; S3 E37 — Tell Me More Lies I Can Believe In; S3 E36 — Placebo, Meaningful Coincidence or Just Feeling Lucky

Related from Season Two, The Pandemic Year

S2 E39 — The Best Tau for the Pandemic Year, Don’t You Agree?; S2 E38 — What Should You Do If You Stumble Across Loaded Information?; S2 E37 — How Deep is the Chasm? What Do We Do?; S2 E36 — Turning Lemons into Margaritas

Related from Season One, The Normal Year

S1 E39 — What’s Up with Facebook?; S1 E38 — Day 38 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E37 — Day 37 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E36 — Day 36 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

You know when you sprain your ankle sometimes you can walk it off? And then later when you sit down for any extended period of time the pain sets in with the swelling and stiffness?

Really?

Thank your lucky stars, then. Well, Saturday was that day. Only I tripped over a 6 inch sprinkler next to a fading green telephone utility cylinder which brought me unexpectedly to my knees.

They hyperextended buckling under me until in the same motion I rolled on the cement edge of our driveway. Luckily releasing the mower handle’s squeeze bar automatically shut it off so I didn’t have to use my feet to push against the mower rolling towards me.

Ouch. I struggled to stand. Once I assured myself with Emma the Baroness’ help that I could walk some of it off I hobbled over to our garage and sat in a tan plastic molded chair, rested, drank an energy drink and calculated I’d better walk it off like a sprain.

I did.

I finished mowing the lawn. Like an ankle sprain, the swelling ache with occasional sharp pain here and there took over for the rest of the afternoon and into my dreams last night.

This morning my knee weather is tight, with a chance of pain, but dull achy in my left hip bone, feeling like a COVID vaccine site, with a slight chance of improving if I wear a sleeve.

P.S. The grass looks fabulous.

Evidence

Will rest and pain pills and positive thinking take me through the upcoming week? What’s the forecast?

Holiday Forecast for the Week Ahead:

People cannot talk themselves into happiness, and people who demand smiles from others are unlikely to get real ones. Why? Because feelings speak their own language, a tongue as complex and nuanced as it is raw and verbless.

Even those who exist inside a feeling state are often at a loss as to the particulars of its communication, let alone how to recreate it. Even though emotions seem to defy spoken command, they are not impossible to conjure. ‘I have’ and an accompanying misconception that possessions are the key to emotional satisfaction.

The theory has remarkable resilience. No matter how many times it’s disproved, the desire to acquire never seems to abate. But at least our quest to own things tunes us in to our senses and gives us an appreciation for the material world that often ends up aiding our journey to a feeling. While owning things, claiming people or chasing the material cannot create an emotion, the quest makes us aware of how we join the moment. Appreciation, wonder, criticism, frustration, joy and other feelings are conjured not by life but by our choice of response to life.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Yeah, right. Funny you mention “lend a leg up,” right? But not to worry. As you know, this ain’t really my birthday. I hope it is yours and you find relief from self-regulation.

Today’s Holiday Birthday:

Your love-hate relationship with self-regulation is about to change into all love. You’ll get into the swing of treating yourself so sweetly and nudging, nay, seducing yourself into the habits that give you the life and look you want. You’ll leverage social vibes skillfully; relationships lend a leg up in the professional world and vice versa.

Boy, for two singers and a comedian your Holiday Tau is especially mean. I’ve been working with my physical therapist on my left knee to straighten it out, rebuild my muscles around it and master my balance. So don’t give me “someone took a big leap forward.” That was probably your idea, right Colbert?

What is it about today? Oh, right two more comedians. I don’t appreciate your Holiday Tau emphasizing “a break and a distraction” as a benefit. Luckily it wasn’t a break, more like a hyperextension in both knees. As far as a distraction, “Emma the Baroness, will you bring me another pain pill, please darling?”

“4” Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “Once your heart sets a quest in motion, it’s pretty difficult to stop the search. However, since things often show up when you’re not looking for them, you’ll benefit from a break and a distraction.” Leo

At least your Holiday Tau feels a little more reality-based, except for your first part, G&G. We’d been working on my balance issues, my physical therapist and me (or I?), and you can’t not take chances even though they involve stomach-churning risk, right?

“3” Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61: “You’re open to the magical, wonderful happenings, but you’re also aware of the stomach-churning risks involved. One won’t happen without the other, and most likely, the risk comes first.” Virgo

Oh, okay. First I didn’t expect today’s Holiday Tau to come from someone like you. And second, being laid up on the couch made me appreciate Emma the Baroness’ interior design talent. But, pain trumps all else in my internal environment.

“4” Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “Your internal environment is worth addressing since it’s the temperature and lighting scheme you live in all day. Give intentional thought to what would make you feel more comfortable.” Pisces

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

- @KnowLabs suite of digital magazines jumps from 8003 to 8088 organically grown followers

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

- I enjoy any of the Harry Bosch detective books in the series authored by Michael Connelly. “A Darkness More Than Night,” described “A strange constricting feeling filled his gut. He didn’t believe in coincidences… (It) was a coincidence that even a believer in coincidence would have a difficult time accepting.”So much for detectives, tying up loose ends, relying on their hunches and reordering data, information and witness first hand accounts.
- Or, in “Black Box,” Connelly’s latest Harry Bosch adventure he writes, “But Bosch stayed positive. He’d gotten lucky with Pistol Pete and the serial number. There was no reason to think it wouldn’t hold.” Of course, Harry had a run in with his newer Lieutenant a page or two later … “So much for his luck holding… he felt that more than his luck suddenly ebbing away. His momentum and positive attitude were eroding. It suddenly felt like it was getting dark out.”
- “Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler, a classic I feel which still holds up. As the pace of change quickens we experience self-doubt, anxiety and fear. We become tense and tire easily, until we are overwhelmed, face-to-face with a crisis situation. Without a clear grasp of relevant reality or beginning with clearly defined values and priorities, we feel a deepening sense of confusion and uncertainty. Our intellectual bewilderment leads to disorientation at the level of personal values. Decision stress results from acceleration, novelty and diversity conflicts. Acceleration pressures us to make quick decisions. Novelty increases the difficulty and length of time while diversity intensifies the anxiety with an increase in the number of options and the amount of information needed to process. The result is a slower reaction time.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

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