10:03 p.m. | 2006-04-25 Country Roads Often Take Me Home. I come from ranchers and farmers, pretty much. Throw in a few teachers, civic leaders and really incredible people, actually. Politicians, inventors, bankers... the whole gambit. Cowboys too. The one thing we all have in common is, well, a remarkable ability to achieve while floundering. Seems odd. To excel at not excelling. I posits that it�s more common than not. The main culprit? Insecurity. That�s a main line in my family. Everyone feeds from it. Incredible talent, incredible work, incredible looks even, yet lots of floundering. My legacy. I figured I couldn�t ultimately change that. I was wrong. I can look at the past and appreciate all that�s been accomplished � I�m often astonished by my forefathers and foremothers � and see where things need to go for the future. And, there�s no future without the past. It all works together. Sometimes, that�s not comforting. I understand that. Trust me. Where I come from, I don�t want to go back to. Yet, my past is part of my present as much as it is my future. Those lines? They�re direct. You can run but you can�t hide. But you can change things. Only within yourself, of course. When you change yourself, however, you�ll find that it has some sort of ripple effect. I don�t know, I�ve always been a changing sort of person and I�ve always recognized that some people aren�t so changing, if you will. The changes I�ve made lately though? Good ones. And, I�ve received responses that I hadn�t expected. I�ve always been a recorder, in the sense that I�ve always studied people and waited for their response before I�ve responded. For the record, I believe that�s called �cold�. Apt reaction. Warranted too. The fact that I can be introspective doesn�t make me a great person. Introspection, while not always key, does keep me humble. For a day or whatnot. I�m not humble a lot I guess, but I do want people to know that I don�t judge, I don�t guess and I don�t know... about you. I think your past is part of your present as much as it is your future. In other words, we�re pretty much the same. Except I hope your past isn�t so much of your present that it destroys your future. But other than that? We�re good as gold. Just don�t hurt my heart. your thoughts? seed flower