Ray’s Daily
June 9, 2022
“Life presents many choices, the choices we make determine our future.”
Catherine Pulsifer
We all are faced with the need to make choices. Most of the time we make good ones. Sometimes it would have been better if we waited and thought our choices through a second time. This story reminds us of the value of a second perspective.
Choices
I am a great fan and admirer of Cirque Du Soleil and over the years have been very fortunate to see a number of their absolutely sensational shows.
At each of these shows, I have joined thousands of other people in the circus tent to reflect in total awe on the amazing and seemingly impossible acrobatic feats in each performance. When this is coupled with the larger than life sense of theatre that engulfs everyone, it leaves you inspired and full of appreciation for what you have just seen.
Just recently I had the opportunity to see the same Cirque Du Soleil show for a second time within a space of about a month. At the first show, my wife and I were seated about thirty rows back from the stage, so you could imagine it was not easy to see all the expressions on the faces of the performers or for us to fully appreciate the passionate effort that they put into their individual performances. However, what we were able to enjoy was the wonderful panorama of the overall performance.
At the second show, we were fortunate to be seated in the second row just a couple of metres from the stage and we could now see close up the performers and their expressions. Equally, having seen the show before, we both looked forward to seeing our favourite segments for the second time.
Driving home after the second show, we talked about which of the two shows we enjoyed the most and also whether it was better to sit close to the stage or further back. We agreed that both shows were equal in terms of their spectacle and enjoyment, but from two totally different perspectives. In seeing the show for the second time, our appreciation of the absolute brilliance of Cirque Du Soleil was significantly enhanced and without doubt will always be remembered.
In the days that followed it occurred to me that there are some parallels between the experience we had at the two Cirque Du Soleil shows and what happens in our every day lives when we deal with the many challenges that face us.
How often do we make a decision about something important to us based on one single viewing of the facts or act just on what are our first impressions of the situation, without taking the time to gain a better feel for things. By way of example, when we read a good book or watch a movie for the first time it is so easy to believe that we now have a full understanding of all that we have just read or seen. Then at some later point, if we read the book or watched the movie for a second time we are almost certain to discover lots of other important things that we missed the first time around.
Whilst we often don’t have the opportunity to consider an important challenge or situation for a second time before we make a decision about the course action we will take, we should always endeavour to make time to stand back and view things from afar in order to gain a perspective of the bigger picture, and then be able to revisit the challenge or situation close up to see the finer detail and further improve our understanding.
In the light of the different perspective that a second viewing can provide to us, we would then be in a better position to make a more balanced and considered decision about the action we should take. I am sure if we all strived to do this, the outcome may very well be as enjoyable and uplifting as my second visit to Cirque Du Soleil.
Written by Keith Ready
~~~
“Your life changes the moment you make a new, congruent, and committed decision.”
Anthony Robbins
~~~
I just wanted to let you know that I have recently been diagnosed with AAADD – Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder This is how it goes…
I decide to do the laundry, start down the hall and notice the newspaper on the table. OK, I’m going to do the laundry…
BUT FIRST I’m going to read the newspaper. After that, I notice the mail on the table. OK, I’ll just put the newspaper in the recycle stack…
BUT FIRST I’ll look through the pile of mail and see if there are any bills to be paid. Yes. Now where is the checkbook? Oops… there’s the empty glass from yesterday on the coffee table. I’m going to look for that checkbook…
BUT FIRST I need to put the glass in the sink. I head for the kitchen, look out the window, notice my poor flowers need a drink of water, I put the glass in the sink and there’s the remote for the TV on the kitchen counter. What’s it doing here? I’ll just put it away…
BUT FIRST I need to water those plants. I head for the door and…
Aaaagh! stepped on the cat. Cat needs to be fed. Okay, I’ll put the remote away and water the plants…BUT FIRST I need to feed the cat.
END OF DAY: Laundry is not done, newspapers are still on the floor, glass is still in the sink, bills are not paid, checkbook is still lost, and the cat ate the remote control… And, when I try to figure out how come nothing got done today, I’m baffled because… I KNOW I WAS BUSY ALL DAY! I realize this condition is serious… I’d get help…
BUT FIRST… I think I’ll check my e-mail.
~~~
An error doesn’t become a mistake until you choose to ignore it.
~~~
She said: Waiting for our aerobics class to begin, several of us were standing around in our leotards chatting about fitness and diets. One woman said that her brother-in-law had quit smoking, gone on a diet and lost weight all at the same time.
Thinking to myself that no human being could possibly do this without acquiring at least one other undesirable habit for compensation, I jokingly asked her, “What did he start doing instead of these things?”
After a slight pause, she smiled and said, “Well, my sister is pregnant now.”
~~~
Last night I dreamt I had insomnia.
~~~
A wholesale dealer who had a lot of trouble getting a certain retailer to pay his bills finally lost patience and wrote the merchant a threatening letter.
He received the following reply:
“Dear Sir: What do you mean by writing me a letter like that? Every month, I place all my bills in a hat and then figure out how much money I have to pay on my accounts. Then I have my bookkeeper draw as many bills out of the hat as I have money to pay. If you don’t like my way of doing business, I won’t even put your bills in the hat!”
~~~
When you take a risk and step out of the norm, you run the risk and sometimes you fail.
But you only fail if you give up.
J. Peterman
~~~
Three pastors went to the pastor convention and were all sharing one room.
The first pastor said, “Let’s confess our secret sins one to another.
I’ll start – my secret sin is I just love to gamble. When I go out of town, it’s cha-ching cha-ching, let the machines ring.”
The second pastor said, “My secret sin is that I just hate working. I copy all my sermons from those given by other pastors.”
The third pastor said, “My secret sin is gossiping and, oh boy, I just can’t wait to get out of this room!”
~~~
The road to success is marked with many tempting parking spaces.
~~~
A woman who plays cards one night a month with a group of friends was concerned that she always woke up her husband when she came home around 11:30.
One night she decided to try not to rouse him. She undressed in the living room and, purse over arm, tiptoed nude into the bedroom – only to find her husband sitting up in bed reading. “Dammit woman!” he exclaimed. “Did you lose everything?”
~~~
Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.
Henry David Thoreau
~~~
A West Virginia couple, both genuine rednecks, had 9 children. They went to the doctor to see about getting the husband “fixed”.
The doctor gladly started the required procedure and asked them what finally made them make the decision–why after nine children, would they choose to do this.
The husband replied that they had read in a recent article that one out of every ten children being born in the United States was Mexican, and they didn’t want to take a chance on having a Mexican baby because neither of them could speak Spanish.
~~~
I wouldn’t touch the Metric System with a 3.048m pole.
~~~
No matter which girls he brought home, the young man found disapproval from his mother. A friend gave him advice. “Find a girl just like your mother — then, she’s bound to like her.” So the young man searched and searched, and finally found the girl. He told his friendly adviser:
“Just like you said, I found a girl who looked, talked, dressed, and even cooked like my mother; and just as you said, my mother liked her”.
“So,” asked the friend, “what happened?”
“Nothing,” said the young man. “My father hates her.”
~~~
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.”
Amelia Earhart
~~~
Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.
Ray’s Daily has been sent for more than twenty years to people who want to start their day on an upbeat. If you have system overload because of our daily clutter, let me know and I will send you the information via mental telepathy. If you have not been getting our daily you can request to be added by e-mailing me at raykiwsp@comcast.net. Back issues are posted at http://rays-daily,com/ currently there are hundreds of readers from around the world.
Ray's Daily 
Leave a Reply