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Dalton
Roberts |
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In 1988 I clipped a cartoon by Jerry Szostek about a character named Ronald Rodpot. Each year in February, I set aside a “Ronald Rodpot Day.” In the cartoon Ronald’s wife sends him to the store to get her some mascara. Walking along, he notices some peas on the sidewalk and wonders how they got there. He sees a helicopter overhead and is impressed by a red hat a lady is wearing. He comments to himself about a half dozen other things he comes across in his stroll. When Rodpot gets home he tells his wife, “We certainly live in exciting times today!” She surely is a lot like him because she responds, “Yes, I can’t get over it.” Here’s a guy who not only notices the noisy helicopter overhead but the peas on the sidewalk. A detective at a crime scene would be thrilled to talk to him. He could give him the license number of the criminal’s vehicle and add the detail that there was a strange mud splatter on the right rear fender. I say the detective would be glad to have him as a witness but if the detective came up while he was talking to someone about the exciting peas on the sidewalk, there is a good chance he would write him off as a simpleton and miss all his detailed information. We need to remain aware that most of the things we learn in this life are from simpletons. Einstein admitted to being a simpleton about some things. If you don’t think I am a simpleton, get your 8th grade child to ask me to help with his algebra. We are all simpletons in some ways. I celebrate Ronald Rodpot Day every February by devoting a day to observing the smallest details about my surroundings. I find it intensely interesting to take a walk and come back and see how many things I can remember that I saw, heard, touched and smelled on my walk. If I sit and talk with someone on my Rodpot Day, I mentally note small details about them. I also observe myself closely to see if I say or do something that I had never noticed myself saying or doing. Say what you will about Ronald but he is not bored. A person with his attention to life’s smallest details can never be bored. In Hamlet, Shakespeare said, “How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world.” It would be good for William to spend a day walking around with Ronald. All psychologists write extensively about the importance of awareness. There is a pickup truck load of spirituality books today on staying in the moment. Ronald Rodpot teaches me how to stay in the moment. His way may seem too simple but it is really profound. Just remain aware of your environment and interact with it. The other half is to remain aware of your own interior life and many Christians are finding Buddhist techniques to be helpful in monitoring and managing mental activity. On talk radio I mentioned being a student of Buddhism. Someone wrote me an email wondering why. Buddhists have spent 2500 years developing a curriculum for controlling the mind. We will either learn how to control our mind or our mind will control us. Ronald Rodpot has something to teach us about excitement, too. As his awareness expanded, he realized, “We certainly live in exciting times today!” We all run into some non-exciting times but let us always be honest enough to admit that the cause of our boredom is the lack of attention to the many things that could excite us. Alfred North Whitehead said, “Ninety percent of our lives is governed by emotion. Our brains merely register and act upon what is telegraphed to them by our bodily experience.” Ronald Rodpot showed me how to send the telegram.
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