THE END OF SILENCE / NOVEMBER 2nd, 2009:

Many members of the “Pineapple Peeps” brigade have been curious as to my on-line whereabouts… this is my attempt to answer those inquiries.

First, I have to say how proud I am of all of you. We ran a very competitive campaign on behalf of Huckleberry and Doodle in “The Cutest Dog” competition, but more than that, we all started to recognize the philosophical, psychological, conceptual, and even spiritual dividends that were becoming realized by participating in that campaign… plus it was a whole lot of fun for all of us, too. I thank you all for an amazing ride.

So when you start to define what is “winning” and what is “losing”, remember this: Just like trying to convince people to look beyond the surface appearance of a dog contest to see the unseen abundance of gifts within the act of participating in it, the appearance of not achieving our collective “goal” is also deceiving, if taken at face value.

It’s easy to hit a target two feet away from you and appearing to be a “winner”… but there isn’t a whole lot of abundance to be harvested by creaming a cupcake task.

But by aiming at a lofty and distant target, the net cast under the trajectory is cast wide. You may not hit the target, but the abundance of harvestable fruit under that trajectory is vast… I don’t know about you, but I do know that I have harvested gifts that will last me a lifetime. Appearances can, and always will be… shallow intelligence, if you will.

That’s why I always underscored the phrase “Its better to aim for a distant star in the outer reaches of the galaxies and end up beaten and bloodied in a back alley behind Pluto, then remaining Earth-bound with feet of clay under a mountain of regret for never having made the attempt”. That’s why those “Epic Failure File” blogs were posted on “Huck and Doo”.

The unwritten epilogue to that phrase might read as this: “Now you’re closer to the target, now you know how to fly. Pick yourself up, re-load, and take another shot… you just got a whole lot smarter than you were before you decided to make the attempt.”

The Wright Brother’s created the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903. They went a distance of 120 feet, and got up to an altitude of approximately 10 feet. It lasted about 12 seconds. Perhaps not very impressive if judged by modern aviation’s standards, but impressive to aviation’s history none-the-less.

Someone has to make the first attempt, and usually that attempt is made under the added pressure of social ridicule. Just what did these two bicycle repairmen think they were doing? How dare they have the audacity to dream of a better imagined reality?

Or, “It’s just an effin’ dog contest”.

I wish all of you could have been with me in the room at the train wreck last weekend of week 12 of “The Cutest Dog Competition”. It was exhilarating, exciting, and an absolutely intellectually mind bending review of what is ethical, what is right, what is wrong, and a complete underscoring of the principle that I had worked so hard to share with all of the “Pineapple Peeps”: Instead of being reactive to stimuli, take a breath, become mindfully aware, triangulate three dimensionally around a problem (or goal)… and then craft an appropriate response, fully taking responsibility for the subsequent outcome”…and of course, call upon all of your strengths and creativity as you craft that response.

Unfortunately, I am the one that threw the pebble in the pond at the onset, and 13 weeks ago, I saw what happened as a probable outcome, so it was my responsibility to be subjected to the trial by fire, alone.

But I wasn’t alone, really. You were all there with me. And in the end, although unverified at this time, we very possibly may have all rose up as one and prevented of all people, Oprah Winfrey, from receiving a public relations black eye at the hands of what at least appears to be, a wholly unethical corporate entity.

I love Oprah, and the principles that she stands for, and all of the Pineapple Peeps need to know just exactly what we did for her, even if she never will.

I have always underscored that: “When large groups of people focus on a goal for the common good, and collectively throw their creative energy into the Universe, wild stuff happens”.

Wild stuff indeed did happen. We flew 120 feet, and we may have taken Oprah Winfrey along for the ride, albeit briefly, on the “Pineapple Express”.

So with that in mind, underneath this blog will appear a link to a timeline of the events of October 12-27, 2009, from my perspective. It is dry. It is tedious. It is long and voluminous. Very, Jack Webb-esque, “Just the facts M’am” sort of tedium.

Some names have been changed to protect the innocent, but some have not. It isn’t my job to protect the guilty.

Things aren’t always as what they appear to be. Those of you that emotionally invested heavily in the campaign of Huck and Doo, I urge you to take the time to read it, because at the very least, it will put you in the room with me. You deserve no less.

In the act of finding unity, we find ways of how to love each other.

I love you all.