FootprintsintheWind.com

In order to design a ladder to get us to someplace we cannot touch, we need to engage a certain level of imagination. In order to climb that ladder across the yawning abyss, we need to put aside our imagination so we see only the ladder and the firmly planted ends of it.

:- Doug.

Why do we put such effort into sending people into space and on to the stars? Are not the pictures our robots take, and the samples they bring back enough for us?

Why is it less satisfying to see a travelogue than to visit the place?

:- Doug.

When we meet others, we both have blind spots. Between us we can point out things the other misses, have us each turn our heads just a bit so we can see more of the real. Experts as well as lay people have blind spots. The key characteristic of blind spots is that we do not see what we do not see. It takes someone else with a different vantage point calling out what he or she sees, to call attention—and this indirectly! So when we are stuck with looking at some­thing as so many facts and figures, Dollars and numbers, or in some other concentrated way, we should be alerted. Are we not doing all this to support and nurture life? Whether it be starting a business, earning money, or building a warplane, is not our ultimate the advancement of life? If it is not, what use is it? So this needs to be part of our equation: life. If it is not served, then we need to question what we are doing.

The idea here is to be gentle with ourselves and each other. We need to call our attention to where life lives.

:- Doug.

We want to do larger things, and those things come in I-Thou. If the human is more important to save than the horse, why is that? What do we have that the horse does not? We have intellect to be sure. But we also have dreams. Dreams and story and laughter and the ability therefore to power our intellect. Our imperfections lead to our dreams, often directly. We see things that are possible when we do not go in the straight lines our intellect draws. Drawing the really real takes curves as well as straight lines, shadows as well as light, colors as well as black and white, missing pieces as well as wholes. The rabbit hole we stumble over can lead us to whole new worlds.

:- Doug.

Who is a person? A person has dignity. A person has worth. A person has uniqueness. A person is someone. On the other hand, an individual is one example of the people, a single number, but not special beyond being an example. An individual is expendable, a person is irreplaceable.

:- Doug.

Touch, taste, smell, sight, sound, beauty are interwoven for strength. Durability.

:- Doug.

What’s most alive
is what’s between us
you are here

:- Doug.