Your life: Paradise or Dump? By Leland Sapp

Your life: Paradise or Dump?
By Leland Sapp

(It's been a month since I posed the following question and wrote the below story; the changes are profound. I feel more peaceful, eat healthier, read more, play more chess, meditate, workout, and am trying to learn a couple of languages. I am confident that this same question, when reflected upon throughout the day, will move the world (and me) toward paradise.

A little over two years ago, I had the not so distinct privilege of working with the laziest man in the world. After observing him for several months, I asked

Leland Sapp: The artistic process of grazing

Grazing

By Leland Sapp

Grazing is one thing that the type 'A' personalities, ESTJ's (if you are familiar with the Meyers-Briggs personality profile), and non-artists, just don't understand and probably never will.

Artists are great if they can survive being an artist. They help us see things from new perspectives, make our world more colorful, and make us cry and laugh more than we would otherwise. We artists have bigger 'holes' in the bottom of our souls though. We drain easily and recover slowly.

If it sounds like I am complaining, I'm not; this is just the way it is. Artists need to sit around and do what seems to be nothing in order to fill them up so that they can produce again. Much like cows seem tostand around grazing a bit here and there. They look as though they are doing nothing, but in reality they are producing milk. (I got this idea from a book titled, 'Orbiting the Giant Hair Ball' great book for artists and people who want to understand them.)

Leland Sapp: Overcoming division with humor

Overcoming Racial Division with Humor: Why are burdensome gifts referred to as white elephants?
By Leland Sapp

I was recently invited by three black women to attend a “white elephant” gift-exchange luncheon. “Why does the elephant always have to be WHITE?” I responded. After the  laughter ended, I added,“Until we can all sincerely laugh at and appreciate jokes like this, racism will still be alive in America”.

I have always found humor to be an effective tool for addressing controversial or potentially divisive issues. It's easy to compare the state of things as depicted in movies like Django Unchained to the present think that we've resolved race problems, but we haven't.

Most people still perceive issues through the lens of their skin color.The conversations that I hear at work about a person's opinion of President Obama, the Trevon Martin case, or politics in general confirm this.

We're no longer physically enslaving entire groups of people, but many of us are enslaved by the opinions of our race. Until we learn to empathize emotionally and logically with other groups and make an informed decision ourselves, racism will continue.

I'll keep using humor to lighten the mood.

On getting old

Top 10 differences between playing softball at age 21 and age 51

By Leland Sapp 

1. At 21, a squeeze play was bunting a runner in from third. At 51, it's trying to get into the shorts I wore last year.

2. Before a game at 21, I always took a couple of swings. Now I skip batting practice and take a couple of ibuprofen.

3. At 21, a dirty uniform was a badge for playing hard and diving for the ball. Now, at 51, the stains are from losing my balance while missing a ball as it goes by.

4. At 21, swinging for the fences was rewarded by rounding the bases and sliding safely into home. Now when I swing for the fences, I land dizzily on home plate before I even get to first base!

5. At 21, they put me in the outfield because I chased down fly balls like a cheetah chasing down gazelles. Now, because of I have bum knees, they put me into catch at the plate like a wounded water buffalo waiting

Empathy and the Motorcyclist's Perspective

By Leland Sapp (1200 Harley Sportster)

There are many types of drivers on the road and each has a different way of responding and reacting to the motorcyclists they share the road with.

Some drivers are oblivious. They just don’t see motorcyclists. They are so focused on the cars they are used to, the majority, that they don't see motorcycles. More dangerous, are drivers who talk on the phone, text, read, or eat a five course meal with dessert while attempting to drive. These drivers are downright dangerous! They stop abruptly and swerve unannounced while reaching for the tomato slice that escaped their Whopper and landed in their lap.

More frightening are drivers who get aggressive with motorcyclists. Maybe their ex-husband road a Harley or they got the s#*t kicked out of them when they, being an oblivious driver, cut off a biker who decided his near death experience warranted kicking someone’s ass.

I’ve only had one driver get aggressive with me. I was riding on a country road. No one else in sight but the two of us.

I Have Nothing to Say -- Leland Sapp

I Have Nothing to Say 

By Leland Sapp



     “I have nothing to say,” responded my friend when I asked him if he would say a few words during communion at our next church service.

      “I have nothing to say.”

I nodded, perplexed, but took his answer as a “no”.

      Twenty years later, I am still not exactly sure what he meant in that moment, but I find myself identifying with his seemingly self-defeated phrase. I know it's not entirely true, for I have many useful things to say. I'm just no longer motivated to say them aloud. I'm coming to believe that the world, for the most part, is not listening. It seems that more and more of us have the attention span of a shooting star. We thrive on seven second sound bytes that are too short to offer substantial solutions to complicated challenges. We experience bursts of emotion as our hot buttons are pushed by the media for the purpose of ratings rather than the betterment of society. In political debate, our passions flare like a match when struck before dying moments later leaving us empty and tired like the after-affect of a cheap energy drink.

      Then, there are people like Ron Paul who do have something to say. His ideas, if heeded, could fix the mess of Washington, but no one listens; not the media, not other politicians, and certainly not the rich and powerful. Nothing productive comes as pearls are thrown away on the passionate and misguided masses who continue to vote for the ideological color of the month. Yet, he continues to talk. I admire him as a man, who for decades has had something to say, and said it. But is Ron Paul better for it? Is America better for it?

I have yet to be convinced.

Creative Writing: "Blue Poles" by Leland Sapp

A little something found in my files recently. I edited it down, but hopefully it's near enough to the original to be enjoyed. Without further ado--

Blue Poles

By Leland Sapp
(Mar, 2008)

“Something has to change,” I thought as I lay on the bathroom floor barely conscious, right cheek throbbing.

I could feel my eyes blinking like a caution light only faster and more erratic, like our political leaders when they try to explain why we’re still in Iraq or that TV preacher from the big church in Texas as he proclaims a castrated gospel. “Does blinking really blind us from the inconsistencies spewed forth from our churning souls?” It seems to work for most of them. Light, dark, light, dark, light, dark, my eyelids opened