This is a fascinating and thought provoking quote. It is so obvious, if you think about it very hard, that almost everything about this world we live in is wondrous beyond our ability to comprehend, and is truly beyond all reason. It is simply too easy to go through the motions of life, and forget to notice this most important truth. So in an attempt to remind myself and whoever happens to run across this, here are a few things that amaze me, and are truly incomprehensible.

Human Consciousness – This is the single most mind boggling thing of them all, the hands down winner in the amazing race. By consciousness I mean our awareness of ourselves. Where does it live, and what is it? It has no physical existence at all. Does it float around inside our body? Sometimes it even seems to be hanging out elsewhere. It is one thing to imagine a computer like brain that can do stuff. It is something altogether different to imagine that that brain is aware of itself. This is actually so mysterious and wondrous that we can’t even explain in the most basic of ways how it exists at all. About the only other thing I can say about it is that if I think about this too hard my brain starts to hurt, which leads me to another wonder, pain.

Pain – I read a fascinating book a few years back called “The Gift of Pain.” Most of us don’t instinctively think of pain as a gift. I know I don’t. But life would be impossible without it. Leprosy is a disease that has been around for all of recorded history, and was, until fairly recently thought of as a disease that caused flesh to rot, because that’s what we observed on victims. But actually Leprosy is a disease of the pain system in our body. A leper has no sensation of pain in his or her extremities. As a result they constantly hurt themselves, and don’t know it. This is a disturbing image, but if a leper were sleeping, and a rat came and nibbled on a finger or toe she would never know it. The next morning she would wake up and her finger would appear to have rotted away overnight, when in actuality it was eaten. She might touch a hot stone near a fire, never realizing that it would hurt her body, only a short time later to look down and see that her hand seemed to have very quickly become a mess. It still wouldn’t hurt though, since she has no ability to feel pain. The leper is missing one of the most amazing things healthy folks possess, and without it their lives are horrible and sad. Pain warns and protects, but logically fear of it should also effectively paralyze us. It doesn’t because we have no ability to remember what it feels like. I know touching a hot stove hurts, but my brain can’t duplicate it when I am not touching one. If I could I’d go insane, because that sensation is so intense that it would take over my brain. We all would. You may think you can remember what hot feels like, but think about it a little harder. You can’t. Pain is such an extensive subject that some folks spend their lifetimes studying it. I only think it’s very existence is amazing, and is closely related to that consciousness thing.

Hummingbirds – If Hummingbirds don’t amaze you then I don’t know what to say. See my earlier post.

Last for today, but certainly not least, this simply astonishing story that made all the British papers is beyond belief. TIC

David Beckham helps stranded family
Associated Press
WARE, England — David Beckham stopped to help a stranded family whose car broke down on the way to school.
Beckham pulled over during morning rush hour near a roundabout in the town of Ware in England. He assisted photographer Paul Long and his two children.
Long had been ignored by other motorists before the soccer star came to his rescue. He said Beckham asked if they were OK, and Long said he asked for a push to the side of the road.
Long told BBC Radio on Wednesday he said, “Thanks David, I love you” as the former England captain returned to his car.

Astonishing, Simply astonishing.

Ok, I got some comments about how this didn’t seem that amazing.  It’s not, obviously.   In a flippant moment I  decided that it might be funny here, simply because it’s amazing in it’s total lack of anything approaching amazing, yet it was reported worldwide.

Dan Fogelberg was a big star during my college days. His song called There’s a Place in the World for a Gambler was one of my favorites. Very romantic lyrics, and with a melody that fits them just right. They would probably seem silly without the music though. Shortly after we moved to Colorado Springs, some 25 years ago now, Camie and I went with some friends to a concert of his at Red Rocks. If you are not familiar with Red Rocks, I can’t imagine a more majestic spot to witness a concert. It sits high above Denver in a natural amphitheater of gigantic red rocks. Dan’s first hour or so was mainly upbeat rock and roll type songs, and they were excellent. But he was most famous for his ballads. One of them, Longer, was the love song of the day way back when. So when his band left the stage, leaving Dan alone with his guitar and a stool, murmurs of anticipation rumbled through the crowd. Off in the distance a lightning storm was exploding over Denver’s expansive sea of lights, and doing some rumbling of it’s own. But at Red Rocks all was peaceful and quiet. As he started to sing and play his timeless mellow ballads, an impossibly large red moon appeared on the horizon, underneath the distant glowing clouds and just above the so close you can almost touch them lights of the city. It was breathtaking and perfect. We took it all in, my wife and I, hand in hand. Pretty sweet huh? I’ll have to see if there is a video of it online somewhere. Not us holding hands, of Dan playing with the moon and lights behind.

Here are the Gambler lyrics. I guess they don’t sound so silly after all. They do seem way better with music though. That’s the magic of good pop music. Music and lyrics ever so often combine in a way that is much greater than the sum of the two.  The video

There is a place in the world for a gambler.
There is a burden that only he can bear
There is a place in the world for a gambler.
and he sees, oh yes he sees

There is a song in the heart of a woman
that only the truest of loves can release
There is a song in the heart of a woman
set if free oh set it free

There’s a light in the depth of your darkness
there is a calm at the eye of every storm
let is shine oh let it shine

I watched the movie The Young Victoria on one of my recent long flights, not sure which one, and thought it was quite good. One interesting lesson from it is that the grass is rarely greener on the other side, no matter how appealing it might appear.

My favorite musical play is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream-coat. It’s funny, poignant, has amazing choreography, fantastic tunes, and is also quite an accurate telling of an amazing and, I believe true, story. Ok, I doubt Pharaoh was an Elvis impersonator like he is in the show, but you never know. It doesn’t say he wasn’t. If you don’t remember the story, Joseph is his dad’s fav, and he gives him a stunning multicolor coat to prove it. His brothers, all eleven of them, are jealous, so one day they sell him to some Egyptians, where he becomes a slave far from home. But he doesn’t stay a slave forever. His life looks bleak for awhile, but his ability to interpret dreams enables him to move up quickly, all the way up to Pharaoh’s number two. When the famine Joseph predicts comes to pass, Egypt is in good shape because they have stored up tons of food. You see Joe had forecast the famine many years before and advised Pharaoh to prepare. His starving brothers and dad come to Egypt looking for food, and they end up in Pharaoh’s court talking to you know who. Joseph recognizes them, and despite having every reason in the world to hate them all, he ends up forgiving them, providing them food, and revealing his identity. But not before using their love for the beloved younger brother Benjamin to torment them just a little. There was a reason for this though. He was testing their hearts. He wanted to find out if they had changed from jealous brothers who had so callously sold him into slavery may years before. His father, who thought him long dead, is reunited with his favorite son before his dies. The 12 brothers become the 12 tribes, and thus was born the kingdom of Israel. You couldn’t make that up if you tried. There is no spoken dialogue in the play, it’s all sung, and it’s brilliant.

I just watched a terrific little movie called Einstein and Eddington. It’s the story of Albert Einstein and the British scientist Eddington who proved his astonishing theory of General Relativity to be correct. The time frame of the movie is WW1. Since Einstein was German and Eddington was British, there are political and personal ramifications to their unlikely partnership. Physicists are among the most fascinating people I know, and these two are no exception. They are both passionate about the science and the ultimate importance of truth. Both are flawed individuals, as we all are, and are portrayed that way, particularly Einstein. If Einstein is portrayed accurately here, then he was nothing like I imagined him to be. The unlikely, but true, ending is as moving as it gets. It ranks right up there with the finales of movies like Sea Biscuit or October Sky, two other essentially true stories. I was riveted, and highly recommend this movie if you can find it.

by Paul O’Neal

In the night

Was the dark

In the dark

Was the dream

In the dream

Was the Child

And myself

There unseen

In the book was the word

In the word there was truth

In the truth there was age

In the age there was youth

And I said to the Child

Do your hands they still bleed

After all of this time

Do you think there’s still need

But the Child only smiled

And said not a word

And the snow it came down

As if it hadn’t heard

And all that night the snow came down

To heal the scars our lives had found

And the dreams that lay broken

And there upon a bridge of dreams

Across the night we walked unseen

With no words ever spoken

And then on through that night

We did walk for a while

And our steps turned to blocks

And the blocks turned to miles

Then we followed a path

For as far as we could

Till we found ourselves there

In an evergreen woods

There were thousands of candles

Upon every tree

It was beautiful

But there was one mystery

For with all of those candles

You must understand

That the only one lit

Was now in that Child’s hand

And there upon that Christmas scene

The candle wax of melted dreams

And the years they had taken

And as the snow did gently fall

He one by one relit them all

Till each dream was awakened

And there to that light

That young Child showed to me

All the things that he dreamt

All the things that might be

How for everything given

That something was gained

Strike one match in the dark

And all the world’s not the same

And then I asked that Child

Why this night has a star

And he said, “So we’d know

That we could see that far”

And these candles are wed

To that distant star’s light

And it all came to be

Upon that long winter’s night

That long winter’s night

And when I awoke, well the Child he was gone

But somewhere in my mind

I believe he lives on

And somewhere in my life

Between here and the end

On a long winter’s night

I will dream him again