Grandparents, cab drivers, palm readers

I just love Emerson. He's also great to just jump in anywhere to any of the essays, randomly. It's not like you had to see the previous show.

This morning I was returning to the Conduct of Life essays and was rereading Fate. He said a line that got me thinking about the palm of our hands. What he said was this:

"The gross lines are legible to the dull; the cabman is phrenologist so far, he looks in your face to see if his shilling is sure. A dome of brow denotes one thing, a pot-belly another; a squint, a pugnose, mats of hair, the pigment of the epidermis, betray character."

Let me elaborate, and in case his meaning aludes, let me throw in my ten-cents worth.

So here is the picture. The cabman--the carraige driver, who stops to give you a lift--checks you out to make sure you've got the money. The reason is because he's going to drive you somewhere and be paid at the end. If you run, it is difficult for him to collect because he has his horse and carraige. Same with taxi drivers now in the cities. I've seen them look at me this way too. Is the dome of my brow such that I don't look trust worthy? My pot-belly or my squint...do they tell the driver that I'll run? Does the pigment of my epidermis spell trouble?

So he calls the "cabman" a phrenologist.

Years ago on the plane an Indian (a mystic from India) read my palm. I wasn't quite a mystic myself yet. I was only 21 but I had already engaged in some shamanistic experiences. But no teacher had come to me yet, except a very, very subtle voice inside. Later I got a book on palmistry because he told me that the palm is just one small part, that there are signs on every part of our body and in our eyes. He said our whole story from many generations past and the whole universe story is there in each body, but that the palms are one place to look.

In Emerson's essay, he develops the story of qualities of character being passed down from family. He says, "It often appears in a family as if all the qualities of the progenitors were potted in several jars, --some ruling quality in each son or daughter of the house."

It struck me as I read further that each person is the most direct decendant of four individuals, the two grandparents on each side. So we're four people in one and then our own person. I looked at my hand with that thought and divided my two sets of fingers to make a vulcan salute. You know how Spock did it. So the two sets are each grandparent couple and then the thumb is you. They say it is our thumbs which make us human.

Anyway, just thought I'd share.

All that really matters

I had one of those "don't forget this" moments this morning when Anne and Darby were at church. It was a simple thought which ran like this. All that really matters--EVER--is the choice you make in the moment. All moments.

So if you're a rich person or poor, a crippled or an athlete, a rocket scientist or a bum on the street--the only thing that matters is the moment and the choices you make in that moment. So sometimes it is wise to immitate the squirrel and store nuts for the winter. Sometimes, instead of thinking or trying to make money, it is wise to hold hands with your wife, or talk to your daughter, or play music, or kick back and enjoy a flick like Jerry Maguire (wow, a really great movie). Sometimes it is a good thing to work. Just so you don't become addicted to the point of obsession. Also not a good thing to obsess over the funds in the bank, whether getting low or feeling on track for "retirement."

There's one for you--retirement. Life is about being in the moment and living. What will you retire from other than some kind of 9 to 5. Shame that a person can't be in that 9 to 5 mode as just another day of creating the art form of living.

We really are just in this string of moments of creating. So in this string of moments of making art--all that really matters is the choices you make in the moment. Whenever the choice is to neglect the moment, then you've really screwed up.