The Hills of Park North

Commentary

The Sense of the Goose

Whatever we do, we do because we want to do it. For every decision we have to make, we have choices. It doesn’t make any difference what the decision is, we still have choices. Sometimes the choices are not that pleasant. Sometimes we have to look at the big picture rather than the immediate issue. What's the bottom line - the ultimate consequence? When we consider all of the factors, sometimes we make decisions that on the surface we don't like, but we live with them in order to get the big picture.
You and I, the residents of The Hills of Park North, have some major choices to make in the coming days and weeks. We are at the beginning of a new journey together as neighbors and friends. Our ultimate destination will depend on the choices we make now. Our decisions in the next few weeks and months will affect the quality of life we will experience here in The Hills of Park North now and in the for-see-able and not so for-see-able future.
When we go on a trip we are constantly looking at the map and making decisions. We look at the newspaper, we listen to the news and weather reports, we call the weather bureau, and we talk to travel agents to get good information so that we will have a smooth and enjoyable trip. Should we not do at least as much to have a smooth and enjoyable “journey” called “living together” in The Hills of Park North?
To help us get started in the right direction, I would like to share a little wisdom I have learned about journeys from Canadian Geese. This Spring when you see Canadian Geese heading North for the Summer, flying along in a "V" formation, you might be interested to know what scientists have discovered about why they fly that way.
“It has been learned that as each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in a "V" formation the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if a bird flew on its own.
Basic Truth # 1: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are travelling on the thrust of one another.
Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front.
Basic Truth #2: If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation with those who are headed the same way we are.
When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point.
Basic Truth #3: It pays to take turns doing hard jobs.
The geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Basic Truth #4: We need to be careful what we say when we honk from behind.
Finally, when a goose gets sick, or is wounded by gunfire and falls out, two geese fall out of formation and follow it down to provide help and protection. They stay with it until it is either able to fly or until it is dead, and then they launch out on their own or with another formation to catch up with their group.
Basic Truth #5: If we have the sense of a goose we will stand by each other.
The question that we all have to ask each other is just that, "Do we have as much sense as a goose?"

The Burning Bed by Dale Anderson

This article is directed primarily to the young people in our neighborhood, although I am not so stupid as to think that adults are immune to this type of thinking as well. I was reading an article not too long ago that quite simply blew my mind. It seemed that E.M.S. was called out to a house where smoke was pouring out of an upstairs window. Upon breaking in, the E.M.S. crew found a man in a smoldering bed. They managed to rescue the man and he lived. When asked how it happened, the man's response was, "I don't know. It was on fire when I lay down upon it."

My first response was, "How could anyone be so incredibly stupid as to lay down on a burning bed?” but the more I thought about the man's answer the more I realized that we're really not much different from him. The only difference is what we choose to lie down in. We are doing things all the time that are just as "stupid" and/or just as deadly. They are just not as obvious, and we try to kid ourselves into believing "that it won't ever happen to me!" We may as well lie down on a burning bed.

You may be asking, "What in the world is this guy talking about?" I'm talking about substance abuse, driving while drunk, unprotected sex with multiple partners, gang involvement, smoking cigarettes knowing the medical consequences, and the "get even" mentality just to name a few. I'm talking about simple actions such as the desire to "get even" when someone cuts me off while I am driving down the highway, or fighting someone just because of the way they look at me. All we are doing is deciding in which burning bed we are going to lie down. I challenge all of us to think before we lay down on a burning bed.

In my first article last month I talked about choices as well. You will find that I revert back to this topic frequently. After all, life is nothing but one choice after another. The alarm clock rings in the morning. Immediately, we have choices – we can get up, we can turn the alarm off and roll over and go back to sleep, or we can hit the snooze button. If we hit the snooze button, ten minutes later we will have the same three choices. When we do get up we are confronted with many more choices. Many of the choices we make automatically as a result of how we were raised. Even here we must realize that even though we think we do not have choices, we do. In other situations that are not familiar to us, we need to make choices as well. Many times this is where the problem lies.

We have a tendency to be reactors instead of actors. We tend to let the actions of others determine the choices we make, conveniently forgetting that we made the choices. We tend to let others push our buttons and, believe me, there are a lot of people who make an art of knowing just what buttons to push.
We do things based solely on what others say or do without thinking of the consequences of our actions, be it consequences that affect us, our family, and/or our neighborhood. The nice thing about choosing “because they made me”, is that we, conveniently, have someone to blame for our actions. We do not have to take responsibility for what we do. It’s the other guy’s fault. In reality we still made the choice, usually out of several available, and we are ultimately responsible for everything we do. I would issue a challenge for all of us to live our lives as actors being responsible for our own actions, instead of living as reactors allowing others to push our buttons and decide for us. Let’s stay out of those burning beds.