Tell it to the Frogs

There is an old Tibetan story about a frog that goes something like this.

Once, there was a frog who lived his whole life in a dank well. One day a frog from the sea visited him.
"Where do you come front?" asked the Well Frog.
"From the ocean," replied the Sea Frog.
"How big is the ocean?"
"It's gigantic"
"You mean about a quarter the size of my well?"
"Bigger."
"Bigger? So, half as big?"
"No, even bigger"
"Is it...as big as my well?"
"There is no comparison."
"Impossible!" said the Well Frog.
After this, the two frogs set out to see the ocean together. When the Well Frog saw the ocean, it was such a shock that his head just exploded into pieces.

How often do we find ourselves in the position of the Well Frog? We live our whole lives in our own little world. Blinded by the walls we have surrounded ourselves with, ignorant to the mysteries the world has to offer.
We believe that regardless of what others say, we are right. We have the best that life has to offer, and no one can tell us any different.
When we are confronted with what the others around us have, and those things exceed our own, we handle it in a way that is less than flattering, and often times outright bad for us. Why can't we just be happy for our fellow man and their great fortune?
We find that we have spent so much time focusing on our lives and our world, that we are completely unaware of the world that surrounds us is so full of wonder and happiness that when we are finally confronted with it, it's too late for us to be able to enjoy it.

Sometimes we need to reach out, see how the other half lives, and understand what a better place our world could be if we just found a way to balance our world, with the worlds of those around us. What if we spent a little time reaching out to those around us, and seeing what the world is like through there eyes?

The Clinging Fire

"Cling to the power of higher truth" I Ching, Chapter 30


We all have times in our lives when it's easier to let things fall to the back burner than to deal with them. Than to give them the time and attention they deserve. This blog for instance. It has been easier for me to not deal with it than to continue writing. And though I have not continued writing, it doesn't mean that I haven't continued musing.


When we allow things like this to fall by the wayside, we are letting them die. We are taking something we enjoy, something that makes us happy, and whole, and we are refusing to fuel this thing. Refusing to let it continue to burn. But this should not be the case. We should be allowing ourselves to fuel those fires that give us heart in times of need. That give us strength in times of weakness. That give us joy in times of sorrow.


So like fire, clinging to the wood that fuels it's flames, let us cling to those things that fuel our souls. Whatever those things may be, cling to them, and never let them go out. Make life what it can be, and what it should be.

"Don't Let Me Die Still Wondering...."

"...What it was, I left behind...."

What kind of footprint am I leaving on this earth? How am I making and impact on this world, and more importantly, is that impact positive or negative? We are all going to leave our legacy on this earth. I think it's important to know what that legacy is.

I haven't been on here for a while, because I haven't been inspired in a while. I have been looking for inspiration in all the wrong places, namely, anywhere. Inspiration is something that looks for us. Our only job is to be ready for it. I was out for a run today, and my walkman played this song, which got me thinking about what impact I'm going to have and how important it is for me to know what that is. If I don't know that, how can I possibly move on? For a lot of us, a lot of our fear of death stems from not knowing what comes next, my fear of death stems from not knowing what I did before.

I guess what I'm saying is, instead of always focusing on what we have to look forward to, we need to balance that time with looking back on what we're leaving behind us, and decide whether or not we're proud of that. That is our legacy. We can't guarantee any tomorrows in our story, but it's full of yesterdays.

Number 7

A woman nearly died today. She was in the shampoo aisle of her local grocery store when she had a caridac episode. She slumped up against her shopping cart, stumbled to the back of the aisle where she came to a stop when he cart wedged under the counter. For ten minutes, she was standing there, in and out of consciousness, supported only by her arm being caught in her cart. During this ten minutes span, six people walked past this woman. Six people stepped within five feet of a woman who was dying. Six people did nothing to help her. Six people did not even acknowledge her existence. Luckily, there were seven people who walked by.

What has happened to us? What does this say about us as a society? Is this the best we can do?

How is it that six people can walk past a person and not respond to their distress? Are we really that broken as a society? Have we all become so self centered that we didn't notice a dying woman? Or did we notice and just not care?

Obviously I'm disgusted by this turn of events. I had such high hopes for humanity. Unfortunately most of humanity isn't living up to those expectations. We have to come together or we are going to fall apart.

Stop for a moment, and be a human.

Self Centered Preservation

It seems to me that I circle back to a lot of topics from time to time in one way or another, and this is one that I circle back to quite regularly. We seem to be heading down a road of "survival of the fittest" but in a very unique way. Instead of the people who are smart, charismatic, or even just good being rewarded for what they do, the people who are willing to push as many other people out of their way as possible are the ones who reap the rewards. Why is it this way? Why do we allow things to become this way? Most importantly, why do we think this type of behavior is acceptable?

If we were placed into a survival situation, let's say we're involved in a shipwreck and end up stranded on an island somewhere, what are the odds that everyone would team up to improve the situation? Would this group of survivors band together, combine skill sets and resources, and find a way to improve the lives of everyone who is in this terrible situation? Would we hold back some of our resources and some of our skills, in case things get bad? Would we hold out completely and make a run for it on our own? Would we bully our way into getting the best of the supplies for ourselves and make sure we survived, others be damned?

Unfortunately, while we all like to say that we would be in the first group, struggling together to carve out the best of a bad situation, more likely than not, we'd be faced with a tough decision and see more and more people in the last few categories I mentioned above.

My question is, why? Why, do we continue to push toward self centeredness and self preservation, regardless of the lives affected by our actions? If we all spent as much energy on improving the lives of everyone around us as we did on improving the lives of ourselves, maybe we wouldn't have to improve our own lives so much because they'd already be great.

Just a thought....

The Fear of Helping

It amazes me just how often someone has the opportunity to help others and doesn't. I've been reading a bit on the genocide in Rwanda from 1994 and the thing that really stands out to me is the amazing number of people who were warned about the event, but did nothing. The UN knew about it, the Americans knew about it, the Belgians knew about it, and very very few people made any steps toward stopping it from happening. It got me thinking about why this was the case, and the only thing that makes much sense to me is that they were afraid of making enemies by stepping in.

There are a lot of people who say they are good people, and there are a lot of people who are genuinely good people, but unfortunately, there aren't a lot of people who back that up. There are times when being a good person, and knowing what we need to do isn't enough. There are times when we have to step in and do something. There are times when we have to stand up. Standing up is easy when there are no risks, and there are alot of people who are willing to do that. I'm curious as to how many people out there are willing to stand up when it is hard. When they are going to have to work to set things right. When it is going to cost them something to make the world a better place. When they are going to make some enemies.

My thoughts are a little disjointed on this subject still and I will probably make some revisions to this before it's all said and done, but for now I'm going to leave you with this. Stand up. Sometimes the consequences are worth the rewards, and sometimes the rewards aren't even yours. There may be times when you have to give up something in order to make this screwed up world a better place. And that is when we need to stand up. That is when we make a difference. Don't be afraid to help.

The Declaration

There are some things that should go unsaid, but there are a lot of instances where these things aren't apparent and need to be reiterated. Be a good person is one of those things.

The whole purpose of this blog, and of the Global Transfusion Movement as a whole for that matter, is to encourage others to go out and make the world a better place. Unfortunately, this is quite a large task, and there isn't a whole lot of help coming in from the world at large. This got me thinking about why this isn't happening the world over? Why isn't it human nature to make the world a better place? Why are we continuing to push against the societal good?

Unfortunately, I don't have the answer. If I did I assume there would be a peace prize in my future. What I do know is that we have to start standing up and fixing this problem now, before we reach the point of no return. We can fix this world. At least I hope we can fix it. We may already be too far gone at this point to be able to be cordial with one another again. We may be destined to continuously degrade beyond the point of casual disinterst to a genuine disdain or hatred for one another. But I personally can't imagine living in that world. I can't sit by and watch the world my kids are growing up in deteriorate into a world of hatred and strife.

I am making my declaration. I am taking a stand. I am not going to sit by and watch the world fall apart. And I'm not going to sit by and take baby steps any longer. The world needs to change and it needs to change on a global scale, and the only way the world is going to change on a global scale, is by recruiting people on a global scale. World change requires world participation. Let's go out and get it.