What a Wonderful World

By G. E. Shuman

 

          This time of year, my four-year-old granddaughter and I often go for walks, visit playgrounds, or just hang around outside our Barre home. She loves the outdoors any time of year, come snowflakes or sunshine. I have two favorite seasons, springtime, and fall.

          We will discuss fall in the fall, but right now spring is upon us, and it is just beautiful here in the green mountain state. Life is simply exploding across our land, right now, and people my granddaughter’s age may actually appreciate it most. She is always bending down to examine an ant hurrying down the sidewalk, or to pick the biggest, yellowest dandelion she can find. (Bending down to see an ant, for her, is easier than it is for me.) Yesterday she chased robins across the playground, giggling at them as she ran.

          I was recently reminded of the Louis Armstrong rendition of “What a Wonderful World,” somewhat because those same words came to mind as I worked on my small, raised garden patch the other day, but mostly because that song is on my Spotify recordings. Are they called recordings anymore? No, I don’t think so. In any case, it is on my playlist.

          The following is possibly because the advancing years seem to now be advancing my way, but this world, in all its natural beauty, seems, to me, more and more infinitely intricate, vivid, and brilliantly designed lately. (Yes, I said designed.) The earth, the skies, the seas, all teem with life; it is life that is sustained, life that eats, that reproduces, and life that is profoundly complex, from the largest tree and animal down to the smallest amoeba and bacteria. 

          People who know me best also know I am an avid follower of NASA, SpaceX, and of every other avenue of space exploration effort available for me to read about and observe. I have always been this way, watching everything the media had to offer, from even before Apollo 11 landed on the moon fifty-two years ago. I have corresponded with one NASA administrator, several apollo astronauts, and Neil Armstrong’s biographer over the years. That biographer sent me a signed copy of his book, titled “First Man”, to give to my grandson Jackson, and even sent a column I had written about Mr. Armstrong to the astronaut, the first man on the moon, to read. Pretty cool.

 I understand the reasoning behind searching for life on other planets and agree that the search is important. Still, we have, so far, found no such life, not even one single, single celled form of life. It amuses me a bit that if a little robin like the one Nahla chased across the playground yesterday, or if even one of those ants she bends down to touch on the sidewalk ever wandered in front of the Perseverance mars rover’s cameras, it would rock the scientific, political, and religious worlds to their cores.

As we, as humans, experience our world and all its beauty, here is a quote that should rock us.: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”  Romans 1:20, The Holy Bible, NIV version.

Neil Armstrong saw the earth from the moon and thought it was beautiful. Louis Armstrong saw the earth from here, and thought it was wonderful. I agree with both.

 

         

  

       

Sometimes Less is More

 

By G. E. Shuman

 

          Early this morning, and I mean EARLY this morning, I was lying in bed, trying to get back to a few more hours of sleep, but could not. This happens to me more often than I wish it did.

          Part of what often keeps me awake is not being able to get thoughts of things I need to do, projects around the house I need to finish, and other nagging stuff like that out of my mind. Does this ever happen to you? I would bet that it does.

          This morning, though, I woke up to thoughts about a thing that we owned, that was in our cellar. It was a thing I once knew I needed to fix before summer. Suddenly, I realized that the ‘thing’ I was concerned about getting parts for, taking apart, and fixing was no longer down there in that cellar. In an effort to do some ‘hoeing out’ this spring we had gotten rid of it. I would not be able to use it, but I would also not have to work on it.

          Wow! What a sudden relief it was to realize that I WOULD never, COULD never take that old thing apart and fix it... EVER! It was gone, and I was glad of that.

I then began thinking, (still not sleeping) of other things we had gotten rid of recently and the time that would be saved not having to fix, clean, store or even use some of those things. I remembered reading a few old adages and ideas long ago. One was: “The more things you own, the more things own you.” Another: “The happiest man in the world is the one who just bought a boat. The second happiest man in the world is the one who just sold a boat.” And, yes: “Sometimes less is more.” I remembered my dad once telling me that the more ‘things’ (equipment) on a car that you’re buying, the more things there are to break. That sounds a bit negative, but also a bit true.

Years ago, I wrote a column about the excess of things that people own, of storage units full of ‘stuff’ that will no longer fit in our homes, and about collections.  In that column I also talked about those wonderful big black trash bags, and the fact that whatever you put into that black hole, after you tied the top, you never, ever would see again. Your life and your space would be freed up just in not owning the things in those bags. You may not agree, but to me there is great relief in such simplifying of life. By the way, about collections of ‘collectables.’  I think we need to understand that ANYTHING is collectable. You can collect dust bunnies from under the bed if you want to. That does not make them valuable, (unless you happen to love dust bunnies.) Then I guess they’re valuable to you.

          Here at our house, we’re still hoeing out and simplifying. We will have fewer things to dust, fix, and find time to use. For us that is a good thing.

          By the way, I never did go back to sleep this early morning. I came downstairs and wrote this column.