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Johnny Appleseed Day 2023
Among other things, today is National Johnny Appleseed Day. Given how sunny and 💐Springlike🌷 conditions have been of late, it won’t be long before we start enjoying fresh local fruit again. When it’s a little warmer, you might want to plant a few carbon 🌳 sequestration 🌲 units like Johnny did.
Insufferable 🧐 Arrogance
The insufferable arrogance of human beings to think that Nature was made solely for their benefit, as if it was conceivable that the sun had been set afire merely to ripen men’s apples and head their cabbages. ~Cyrano de Bergerac
Well, it’s called taking things for granted.
When you’re in a place of comfort, you tend to take for granted that it will stay that way, that it’s how things were meant to be.
I suppose some people feel the same way about places of discomfort. They’re so downtrodden that they think that their situation is how things were meant to be.
Very few people realize that they have the power to change things, whether for good or ill.
Some people ruin nice things inadvertently. Some people ruin them on purpose. The former can be excused for their carelessness, but the latter simply suck.
The thing is, a lot of people are broken inside. No matter how ideal their circumstances are, they are so damaged on the inside that they can’t appreciate the good that surrounds them.
That’s unfortunate because, for most people, a change for the better is a matter of making a decision.
Accentuate the positive. Live in gratitude. Appreciate what you have.
It’s okay to want more, but it’s not okay to want more than you can manage.
A lot of people are empty inside, so they try to fill it up with personal belongings. Such things never satisfy, so they get more and more with no chance to actually overcome the emptiness they feel.
I’m grateful not to be one of them.
It’s easy to give in to despair or envy or aimless consumerism, but I’ve found that it’s even easier to be happy with what you have.
I’m blessed to have a loving wife, healthy kids, silly fuzzies, a comfy home, a car that goes, food to eat and a burning urge to write.
I am blessed.
So are you.
If you don’t feel that way, maybe take some time to take stock of your life.
If you actually don’t have what you need, figure out what that is and make a plan to achieve it.
Chances are that you’re good already and you don’t appreciate what you have. Examine carefully and see where you actually stand.
Johnny 🌳 Appleseed
Johnny Appleseed: Man Behind the Legend
We all have callings, whether we realize it or not.
Some people know what theirs are and they lean into it. Those people are happy, because they’re pursuing their passion and they’re usually paying it forward.
One such man in American history is John Chapman. Nobody really knows why he made it his personal mission to plant apple trees from the East Coast all the way out to Iowa.
While people generally know about his habit of planting apple trees throughout his travels, we don’t remember that he also bought books and gave them out to people along the way.
We used to revere such men. Hopefully, we’ll mature to an age where it’s possible to tell stories like his again one day.
Walt Disney Legend of Johnny Appleseed 1948
Upset The 🍎 Apple 🍏 Cart
Why not upset the apple cart? If you don’t, the apples will rot anyway. ~Frank A. Clark
In real life, we seek comfort and stability.
In fiction, we seek turmoil and conflict.
How odd that we should take a passive observation of someone else’s troubles as entertainment.
Nevertheless, people get bent if you tell them a nice story about happy people living in contentment.
I’m rewatching Season 3 of Daredevil, and this principle is very much in play.
After the miniseries of The Defenders, everybody was led to believe that Matt and Elektra had been obliterated by the enormous wall of water that rushed into the dragon cave.
Season 3 opens with Matt washing out of the cave. He’s buffeted and battered on his way out of the cave, leaving him severely injured.
Once he wakes up in the care of the nuns who had raised him after the death of his father, he finds that his enhanced senses don’t work.
This sends him through a crisis of faith. Father Lantom and Sister Maggie do their best to shepherd him through the struggle, but he has to find his own way.
It’s a far different struggle than he faced in Seasons 1 & 2. During those and in The Defenders, he was on pretty solid ground about who he was and what he felt he had to do.
In Season 3, he’s struggling to figure out who he really is and what he actually needs to do. As he heals, he’s able to try to return to his old ways, but it’s not the same. He’s not giving himself time to heal.
Struggle, turmoil, loss of faith. That’s very out of character for Matt and it makes for a compelling story.
It’s the kind of deep story I want to include in The Sentinels. Still working on it…
That’s it for this weekend. I hope you’re healthy, whole and getting some rest. There are plenty of seeds to plant. Only you know what kind you’re called to sow. 💐Spring🌷 is right around the corner…