Hi, my name is David Wilson, this is Fred Wilson, this is Mommy Wilson, and this is Daddy Wilson. What’s your name?
My name is Bob.
What’s your last name?
My last name is Harold.

Elevator opens and another man comes in.

Hi, my name is David Wilson, this is Fred Wilson, this is Mommy Wilson and this is Daddy Wilson. What’s your name?
My name is Neal.
What’s your last name?
My last name is so hard to pronounce.
What’s your last name?
My last name is Tanaka.

While we were in Las Vegas David went through the above process with several different people at different times. I observed with a smile in my heart and I thought how sweet it was to live in the present moment as my son asked his questions with joy. I felt joy as we experienced the moments together, David Wilson, Fred, Wilson, Mommy Wilson and Daddy Wilson and the people who used to be strangers when David asked the Question, “What’s your name?”

As adults we sometimes find it difficult to just ask the questions we are curious about. My son is living proof that at four years eleven months old it is possible to effectively communicate with people he has not met before. I was going to say he found it easy to communicate with strangers but I do not believe David has ever met a stranger.

Think for a moment and then tell yourself and me what a child can teach you about living life in the moment.

Hi, my name is Daddy Wilson. What’s your name?

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.

– Thomas A. Edison

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.

Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn’t possess,
acts but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these. 

– Susan B. Anthony  

Reason is man’s faculty for grasping the world by thought, in contradiction to intelligence, which is man’s ability to manipulate the world with the help of thought. Reason is man’s instrument for arriving at the truth, intelligence is man’s instrument for manipulating the world more successfully; the former is essentially human, the latter belongs to the animal part of man.

– Erich Fromm