Reference: "Brain Wave Diary" (07/19/00)

Best chance for reality checks – strangers!

This is one of the few good uses I have seen for guns, or more rightly, rifles.

This parable was explained to me in another time and another place so the illustration provided seemed more natural then, although I still like the metaphor. "If someone aims to feed their family from the forest larder, it is well to look after yourself and the means of gathering sustenance, for if either becomes wonky, your family is liable to feel the pangs of winter hunger".

This is that lesson as passed to me.

Times are different now but the story moral stands the test of time. A well sighted rifle aims true at a mark chosen over a paced out distance. With practice the tool can reliably be used for providing. Keeping the aim calibrated is another thing entirely, for the slightest change to the sighting mechanism alignment makes an enormous difference to trajectory. Shot at anything close the difference won't be noticed, you will hit your mark about where you expected, but over distance, you will miss by country miles. Food is invariably at a distance, so maintaining calibration is the thing.

Sighting alignment can be lost either gradually, through normal bumps or knocks or immediately by traumatic blow. One thing's for sure–it will not remain the same for long. Always check and adjust alignment–before you go out, or disappointment will be the order of your day. A well-centred tool works best.

And what of self, in this combination?

Centred alignment of your soul can be lost either gradually through normal bumps or knocks of life or dramatically by traumatic blow. One thing's for sure–it will not remain the same for long. Always check and adjust soul alignment before you go out, or disappointment will be the order of your day.

Work folk and tools need to be rightly in conjunction so–just as much, a person has to look toward their own calibration. As with the rifle, close proximity covers or compensates for misalignment, so those close about you are not the place to test yourself.

Finding the true-ness of your own centred-ness needs someone from a distance--a stranger.

Find a stranger and talk to them. Strangers are far enough away from you the slightest off-centred shot will readily register in their reaction, manner or expression to your talk. Checking with two strangers or more is better, for consistency of warm or alarmed reaction to your words can confirm your aim is on or off.

Maintaining personal calibration this way, uses up strangers and makes them friends or at least acquaintances, so more good comes from it than just your self centred self.

Proof of pudding is said to be in the eating so ……………..

Howdy stranger, how am I today?

"Whatever you pursue gains credibility... even undeserving things."