Sometimes failure is an option

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I am proud of my accomplishments. However, each accomplishment is
built upon the silent soldiers of any task well done; failure.

I was recently at my yoga class and found one particular move quite
difficult. Jordan is my yoga instructor and she could see I was
struggling and maybe felt bad for me that I was failing at the
particular move. I told her it was okay, I had come to her class to
fail. If I perform every move accurately then it is time for more
difficult positions. If I don’t strive to accomplish something new
then I am wasting my time. In order to accomplish something new, I
will sometimes fail. A football coach once shared the following
phrase with me, “if all we ever do is all we’ve ever done then all
we’ll ever do is all we’ve ever done.” Think about that phrase for a
little bit and consider the despair of successfully completing the
same task day in and day out for your whole life without the
challenge of something new. It sounds like hell to me.

I have spoken about my projects in the past. Recently I built a
device to grow hydroponic fodder for my cattle. I did a few dry runs
with it and found it took too much time to fit into my life. I had
spent much of the winter working on this project and to find it a
poor fit in my life was nothing short of-failure. I began removing
boards from my “fodder monster” but soon re-used the material to make
a pretty good greenhouse. I used several window sashes, left over by
someones failure to measure properly, to cover the frame. We would
not have the greenhouse without a failure. I would have always
wondered if hydroponic fodder worked in our little cattle operation;
I know now it was impractical. I am embarrassed when I don’t risk
failure to accomplish something I really want, it seems such a waste
of life and so cowardly. The emotion connected with failure pales in
its comparison.

I do not plan to fail, I plan everything out to reach success. I can
make mistakes however and learning from those mistakes is how I reach
success. I’ve said before that it takes 100 ideas to find ten good
ones and only one of the good ones will reach completion. You gotta
expect to get lost occasionally is you’re gonna break trail. I have
seen folks who master one of life’s golf clubs and that is all they
ever take out of the bag. I prefer to try different things and accept
failure as the cost of learning of what I am capable. I try to live
each year in an effort to accumulate experience. To live otherwise
is simply living the same year over and over again. The safe and
comfortable life of the coward is unacceptable, I choose failure.

Old and simple

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I like old stuff. I like honkytonk music and seventies rock, old
pick-ups and decent morals-I guess I like things old and simple.

Okay, first off I do not like all things old. I prefer electronic
fuel injection to carburetors and electronic ignition to points.
I would much rather use the internet than encyclopedias and prefer
pdf files as opposed to traditional mail when I gather information.

When I say old, I mean simple. I like my morals simple, from a time
before some folks created “gray area” as a mythical place in which
their own justifications and excuses create a smoke screen to hide whatever
they did the night before Sunday services. A time before even some
pastors suggested that the Bible doesn’t always mean what is says or
was simply a book of parables and really just written for our
entertainment.

You know, I didn’t even mean for this to be a column about religion;
I probably turned some people off with that last paragraph. That’s
okay, it’s probably best to separate the tourists from the locals
right off the bat.

I have recently considered a new project for winter 2013-2014. I love
large trucks from the thirties. There is something so beautiful about
their styling and simple mechanical operation. These vehicles were
from a time when simplicity was not only accepted but rather a needed
commodity just to struggle through life. You can see it in the
vehicles of the time; they were built for work with only a subtle suggestion
about their owner. It seems today like most vehicles suggest nothing
so much as scream “I just put my owner deeply in debt and he lost
$5000 of equity the second he took me off the lot!” I am always
fascinated when people tell me their new car or motorcycle is an “investment.” It is an
investment all right, an investment in their ego. It is a complicated
way to live.

I have also taken an interest in something else old- me. I have found
that one of the most direct steps I can take to keep things simple is
to take care of my body. I can replace so many machines with a
well-operating mind and body that a little care is a good investment.
It is much easier to stay healthy than to regain health. Also,
regular maintenance of my relationship with Lisa is a way to keep our
good thing working; a little talk is much simpler than any of those
“big talks.” Lisa is a big part of my life and her health is shared
by me-it’s that simple.

It doesn’t get much older or simpler than nature. I think people
sometimes complicate their relationship with nature. I can either
choose to work with nature and let it do the heavy lifting or I can
fight nature, exert my own will and try to make it do what I want. It
is a losing fight and simply not one worth making. I am old enough to
know better. I would rather keep it simple.

Bullit

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Bullitt

Occasionally I write a column which consists of unrelated topics
which I call bullets, as in “bullet points.” If you read this week’s
title aloud it sounds appropriate however it’s spelling is kind of an
homage to the great Steve McQueen movie of the same name.

Bullet One: Taking out the garbage

I write my column and then go back and edit out everything that
doesn’t make sense. I do the same thing in life; I do whatever
interests me for a time and then remove that which does not work. I
found a website that encourages people to live a simplified life of
careful editing, it is called Life Edit.com. The site encourages
people to de-clutter their life which I encourage also. I am never
happier than when I remove the stuff from my life that I considered
my property which in reality had owned me the whole time.

Bullet Two:   Keep your laws

I can’t remember the last time a tragic death was reported nationwide
which wasn’t soon followed by the story of the deceased’s family
mounting an effort to create a law in the decedent’s honor. I respect
loss and believe family should be given time to grieve and honor
their dead. However, I should not have to change my life or live it
in a different way just because a new law is created via emotional
tidal wave; new law should be created only after logical debate and
the support of facts.. I often wonder if people really want more
safety then why they do not ban automobiles as they are a tool that
creates an amazing amount of tragic death. The more security you
have, the less liberty you enjoy. I do not want more of my liberty
taken so someone else may take cold comfort from ineffective laws
that do not even create more security.

Bullet Three:   Politics is Politics

I have very definite ideas about politics however I am tired of the
whole mess. Talking politics has become so fashionable that anyone
can listen to one news cycle and then parrot whatever pablum the
national media has created for easy digestion by even the simplest
brain. I believe it is our duty to use the freedom of speech to
maintain our freedom but I do wish people would marry a
responsibility to be well-informed to this freedom. Honestly, I am
tired of politics and would rather talk about cows, four wheelers,
hay trolleys or even Lindsey Lohan.

Bullet Four:  Whose child is this?

Region’s Hospital in St Paul recently placed the remains of two
stillborn babies in the outgoing laundry. This story was met with
much sincere outcry over the sanctity of life and people said the
remains of these children should have been treated with more respect.
I wonder why people have such a strong reaction to respect life when
nature makes the decision as opposed to situations when human
intervention decides who lives and who dies. When God decides death
we are so concerned yet when humanity decides to take a baby’s life
it doesn’t even make the news. I suspect humanity now regards its own
authority as greater than God’s authority. We will pay for this
attitude.

Letter to Dave

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Dear Dave,

If I were to look out my window and see spring’s progress and then
look at the calendar and note that it was mid to late march, I would
be satisfied. It is not and I am not.

Honestly let’s not talk about the weather, Dave; we all know that the
clock is ticking. The time we lose towards spring planting is paid
for this fall in the propane farmers use to dry their late maturing
corn. Honestly, our big days of growth seems to come in July so maybe
spring isn’t the greatest factor for row crops however the ground is
a long way from warm and you can’t even plant potential until the
ground thaws.
I heard Marv Bossart died this week, Dave. Marv Bossart was the
Anchor for WDAY television news for decades. He was the old-time sort
of announcer who simply gave the facts and trusted the viewer to be
informed enough to decide what those facts meant. It was that trust
that made me want to trust him. I wish newscasters today would
realize that giving the facts and leaving their personal opinions at
home is the only way to build trust with their listener. Bossart was
a true gent and did the news a great favor in how he delivered it.

Dave, do you remember the story of “the Great Chicken Heart” on the
old “Bill Cosby show?” The chicken heart grew larger and larger until
it could eat whole cities. I have a similar situation with my
hydroponic fodder project, the Fodder Monster. The hydroponic fodder
unit will one day sprout barley seed into a lush, green, palatable,
nutritious mat that I can feed to my cattle. Unfortunately, the
completion of this project is inversely effected as I continue to
increase its size. The fodder monster will never grow large enough to
eat a city however it may eat us out of house and home. Anyway, it
has been a fun project and will hopefully pay me back for all of the
loving attention it has received from me during construction.

I think we are all too dependent upon technology, Dave. The world’s
infrastructure was once made of stuff that a country boy could fix
with a stick welder and the large tube of JB Weld. Our infrastructure
has changed in that we are no longer as concerned with moving cars,
electricity and water as we are in moving information. The internet
and accompanying technology has made life more efficient, work less
taxing and the transfer of information less expensive-right up until
it does not work, then technology sucks. I never feel more helpless
than when the computer doesn’t work, as there exist no duct-tape
remedies for this problem. It reminds me of how important it is stay
able to solve math problems in my head and keep an abacus handy.

Hope all is well out in Carrington, Dave. Darrel and I still plan to
eventually travel through on our way to Garrison.
You’re little bro’

the Pavek Museum

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Sometimes people give gems of information to each other, gems which
are worth more than their mineral counterparts. Paul Maloney is a
friend of mine who gave me such a gem and I want to share it with you
today.

Paul and I are former radio broadcasters. Actually, considering I
work with several former radio broadcasters, it appears that there
may actually be an afterlife for us. Paul and I occasionally exchange
books or movies that include the broadcasting industry as a central
or collateral focus. This week he gave me a tip which turned into a
personal trip back in time.

Paul told me about the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting in St Louis Park,
Minnesota. The Pavek Museum features many radio receivers,
transmitters and old televisions from the early twentieth century. I
worked with some older equipment in my long-ago career in radio and
it was more hands-on than today. We used to have a massive patch
board that looked like an old telephone operator’s panel through which
we could connect any piece of in-house radio equipment. Today most of
that work is done with computers, networks, permanently installed
category five cable and some pretty handy computer programs.

There are many people who found magic in radios off all purpose in
past decades. In the case of the radio receiver it linked people to
an outside world they would never have experienced without radio and
for those with a transmitter set, it must have been like talking to
the moon. You could sense the technology back then, unlike today. A
radio tube has real heft and creates some heat when it works. You
maneuvered a mechanical dial when choosing a radio station and in a
world prior to digital signals, anything was possible. You may have a
poorer signal some evenings however when the ionosphere was low, you
could receive a program in another language. Although I have not
visited the Pavek Museum, I have spent a pretty good amount of time
on their website and found some of that radio magic, sealed inside my
computer screen.

Fifty years ago most people traveled little beyond a twenty-five mile
perimeter around their home. People really depended on their radio
station for news, commerce and socialization. The local newspaper and
radio station were an integral part of life and almost a part of the
family. People felt so grateful for good announcers that the
Minnesota Broadcasters Hall of Fame was created and is featured on
the Pavek Museum website. I spent a lot of time looking through all
of the old broadcasters whose accomplishments were noted as reasons
for their induction. I recognized many of the names from the Hall but
one in particular was Jerry Dahlberg who worked at KROX in Crookston.
Dahlberg interviewed me once at the Marshall County Fair when I was
young. I listened to KROX for days afterward but never heard the
interview. It was one of the events in my life that made me want to
try radio as an adult. As I wandered virtually through the
Broadcaster Hall of Fame, I was surprised that I did not find Howard
Rokke among the names. Rokke worked as the radio instructor at
Northland College (back then it was an AVTI) where he schooled and
created some of the better talent in radio for the last several
decades. This is talent that rippled across the nation and created
much of the radio we enjoy today. Howard Rokke was also a talented
broadcaster but his real talent was in creating broadcasters that
understood the importance of reading, knowing the community in which
they lived and HARD WORK.

Anyway, if you like radio or just plain enjoy history you should
check out the Pavek Museum. Their website is www.pavekmuseum.org and
they are located 3517 Raleigh Ave in St Louis Park. I will probably
never see the actual building as I am more like those people from
decades ago who never traveled beyond the twenty-five mile perimeter
around their home. Radio broadcasts were originally an abstract world
only made whole through the listener’s imagination. Perhaps it is
right that I enjoy this museum in such a virtual way that my own
imagination provides the magic.