The blind man

Lyrics from one of Aerosmith's songs goes,

"Until I met a blind man, who taught me how to see".

Could be...

Beauty is only skin deep

Look for what is isn't there

Your imagination is greater than vision

Sometimes things aren't what they seem

Still trying to figure this one out... definitely something profound in such a simple sentence.

When the question is more important than the answer.

If you have a lot of time on your hands, you can read how 107 influential people answered the question posed by The Edge for 2009, i.e. "What will change everything?". However it wasn't these answers that intrigued me the most, it was a line that came out of an interview with James Lee Byars by Thomas McEvilley. In describing Byars, who defied being stereotyped and boxed into a single description...

Answer is the betrayal of the open spirit of Question

I thought about this. A lot.

Most, if not all of us, love closure. Knowing the answer, finishing the race, reaching our goals. But if you look back and really reflect on what made each experience memorable and life changing, it is hardly that final act of finishing. No matter how large that singularity may be, it is always the question that has driven us further, defined us, taught us and changed our lives.

Answers make us feel complete can comfortable. Knowing gives us a sense of power, self-confidence. Yet, is it not the question that drives us to advancement, invention, creativity? Once you have the answer, the value of the question and its importance diminishes rapidly. Ergo, the answer is the betrayal of the open spirit of question. To never have an answer means we continue searching. Searching means we travel down unexplored paths that ultimately enriches our lives by adding character and experience.

"I know" defines our past. "What if" defines our future.

The Best Gift Ever

This blog has been running a little dry lately. I guess I felt everything significant I wanted to say in the last 3 years since starting this blog, I have already said. Perhaps I was waiting for a miracle. Tonight that miracle happened.

It was New Year's Eve an hour ago. We had just returned from a ski trip and a tiring 9 hour drive. After dinner with friends, we declined an invitation for coffee to spend New Year at home. When we reached home, it was minus 15 degrees Celcius outside (5 deg. Fahrenheit). With the windchill factor it's probably another 5 degrees lower than that. My wife suggested I throw some salt down on our icy driveway.

I headed back out into the icy cold and started my chore. Suddenly I saw a tiny figure run towards me across the road. It was a small boy, crying hysterically looking for his mother. Thinking he had run away from a family busy loading a car, I looked up and down the street. There was no-one. As I scooped him up into my arms, I realized with horror, all he had on was a t-shirt and diapers. He had run barefoot down the road. He was no more than 2 1/2 years old by my estimation.

I took him into our house where my wife wrapped him in blankets while we called the police. After a long search, they found the right house. The boy was left alone in the house. He had woken up, scared and ran out into the freezing night looking for his mother. They say he would not have lasted long in the freezing cold. The circumstances I do not fully know and that is up to the authorities to determine. I am just so glad the little boy was safe.

I am no hero. I didn't leap through fire or jump into a raging river to save a life. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Had we accepted the invitation for coffee or my wife not persuaded me to salt the driveway, I would not have been there. Perhaps it was the brightly lit tree outside our house that we love to dress up every year that made him come our way instead of down the main road. Whatever it was, a miracle happened tonight.

I have always dreamed of making a difference, of being that successful entrepreneur, of writing the most successful software, of making a difference in people's lives. Tonight, none of my talents came to bear, none of hard work had anything to do with it.

It could have been anyone. Someone chose me.

I was just given a gift, to be part of the most wonderful miracle and the privilege to save a life.

If all the 300+ of my blog posts were deleted and I could only save one. This one would be it.

I feel so very blessed, what I thought was one of the worst years of my career just became the best year of life.

Happy New Year to you all.

And now I'm off to play my favorite Sarah Mclachlan song, Ordinary Miracle

The part that makes the most sense right now is...


...It seems so exceptional
That things just work out after all.
It’s just another ordinary miracle today...


Thank you for letting me share my ordinary miracle with you.