Only Jim Can Prevent Forest Fires

When I was a young boy, there was a commercial on TV. This commercial showed horrible fires in the woods, awful fierce-Bambi-Mother-killing type fires. Then a bear, we'll call him Smokey, came on, pointed at me and said, "Only YOU can prevent forest fires. Only YOU."

Being an impressionable youth, I took this literally. It was MY responsibility to prevent forest fires. The bear was very persuasive. I think it was the hat. (Never ignore the words of a bear in a hat. I was sure he even mouthed "Jim," at the end of it.

Just to make sure, I went to my mom. "Mommy" I asked, "Is it my job to prevent forest fires?"

"Yes Jimmy it is." (I had not yet understood the vastness of my mother's legendary sarcasm.) I trembled, then spent my entire 5 months allowance on a fire extinguisher.)

Night after night, I would watch the news and learn of another forest fire. "Damn! Too Late!" I said. Then the bear would come on and point at me again. My mom would then look at me and nod in agreement.

Cut to today. Well, yesterday. I took on a project that I had absolutely no business doing. I accepted it out of desperate thoughtlessness and the arrogance that I could add yet another daunting project to my schedule. I work 10 hours a day, and the rest is devoted to my Yoga training and doing other Jim type things that are very necessary to who I am. And I thought I was going to add another 8 hour a day project to this. Cause you know, I'm god.

Well I'm not. (I'm closer than most people, but still...) No. We have to be honest with ourselves and recognize what we can and can't do. Accept the things we can't change and have the courage to change the things we can. (That's the Serenity Prayer from Alcoholics Anonymous, I memorized it over a bottle of Scotch last night.)

As my fellow Yoga peeps know, when you are in Asana you have to know the difference between tension (fixable) and compression (that's all you can do, deal). So in hindsight I'm proud of this little life lesson and glad that I can share it with my discipl---I mean friends.