The Things They Carried

by Tim O'Brien

The Things They Carried is a collection of related stories about a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War. It was originally published in hardcover in 1990. While apparently based on some of O'Brien's own experiences, the title page refers to the book as "a work of fiction."

[I’ll never die.] I’m skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story.

A dog for all seasons

I love the Samoyed dog. 

 Mostly because they always seem to be smiling. 

Wouldn't it just be exhilarating to have an animal

around that was all smiles and happiness. 

And their frivolous nature would mean that there would be lots of playful days 

spent frolicking in the snow...

...fetching logs for the fire in winter...

watch the sun set on a tropic isle in summer

dress up

more playing in the snow, looking for the first signs of spring

maybe swim an ocean

delighting in the sound of crisp leaves in autumn

taking each day one step at a time, pausing to admire the 

view every now and then

and at the end of the day, relax and chill out.

I love samoyed dogs.

The word that doesn’t exist.

Since being a student at University, particularly in Enterprise classes, I became aware of the saying, ‘There is no such thing as failure, there is only feedback.’ I remember being excited by two things:

• Firstly, not only can we assign specific meanings to words, but we can change our perceptions and associations of them; and
  
• Secondly, we can refuse to acknowledge their existence, completely.

As a consequence, whenever someone mentions the word, ‘failure’, it becomes natural to wonder about the experience they’ve had, the lesson learnt, not the abject misery of someone who hasn’t been able to achieve what they set out to do. It’s not about dwelling on the negative experience, but on the positive, i.e., perhaps there is another way that can better serve the purpose, aim or goal.
About the same time, at University, I came across, read and re-read, Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins, in which he states:

“There is no such thing as failure, there are only results. If it's not the one you desire, change your course of action and try again. Then you'll produce another result.”

Anthony Robbins

With no particularly strong meaning attached to the word, and through neglecting to acknowledge it, the word itself becomes foreign. I am amazed when I hear other people use it to describe something that didn’t work out, because it’s really an opportunity to employ a different way of doing, or a different way of seeing, of hearing, or feeling.

Some other ways to communicate that everything may not be perfect:
damp squib An enterprise that was to have been a great success, but fizzled out
lay an egg To flop or bomb, especially when performing before an audience
back to the drawing board. A similar phrase is back to square one, by analogy to a games board. Its meaning is the same—“We’ve got to start all over, from the very beginning.”
go up in smoke To come to naught, to be wasted or futile; to be unsuccessful
lemon An object of inferior quality; a dud; something that does not meet expectations

And now that the option for failure has been taken away,  it brings me to another of my favourite phrases to live by:

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

To Be

Paul Tillich was a German born philosopher and Theologian, who wrote mostly on aspects of faith, life, the spirit and the use of ‘being’ in systematic theology, as that of being in God, man, and Christ, needless to say he was a religious soul!
 
  “The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt.”
It does remind me of the nightly ritual, as a youngster, kneeling beside the bed, hands clasped, saying prayers to keep safe those who were close.The way in which faith is blindly given when so young, dissipates as we grow. Prayers of yesterday become our worries of tomorrow, and our cares for finding our niche, jobs, families, housing and other material possessions. As time marches forward, those people for whom we once prayed may change, a new set of people occupy our thoughts.

"I could not forget all the love that was made, only time left an armour of rustic-worn shreds."

It’s perhaps apt, then, in the first quote above, Tillich should express that when all else has vanished, and faith in the God you once believed in has been forgotten, it is the person who is left to pick up the courage to move forward that allows us to ‘be’. We must learn to have faith in ourselves before we have the courage to explore, to find our place in this world, to surround ourselves with people and objects that calm and relax us, before we become the person we always wanted to ‘be’.