My friend Rick, recently had the grim task of consoling his young son Jordan, who was coming to grips with the loss of a pet. Jordan and his sister found a lizard in the back yard last week, and like good youngsters everywhere they adopted it. Jordan soon realized a lesson that many of us don't learn until we are much older. That lesson is that if you love something, you must often set it free no matter how much you want to keep it. With watery eyes, Jordan set his new pet free after a couple of days.
That might have been the end of the adventure, but I am sad to say for Jordan that it was not. He was on the lookout for his little pet and sure enough, a couple of days later he found him again. Jordan once again took the little critter into his care. As an adult it occurs to me that any lizard that allows itself to be caught twice, might not be in the best of health. Mr. Lizard I guess was not as he soon died.
Jordan wanted to have an official burial. His dad agreed to this, but was soon left with a problem as Jordan had decided that only a metal coffin would do. As the lizard was doing what dead things do, Rick went looking for a suitable container. I provided an Altoids box, painted for the occasion, and the funeral was on. With many tears, Mr. Lizard was placed in his coffin, which by now had to be placed in a zip lock bag to protect the innocent. Services were planned. Graveside services will be held today at 4:30.
This story, or one like it, has been played out many times across our country this very day. It is how our children learn values and learn how to live as adults. Some fathers have always flushed the lizard down the toilet, while others have looked for the metal coffin. My concern is about the ratio. I am afraid today we have a lot more "flushers" than we had 25 or 30 years ago.
Were Norman Rockwell here today he would have been moved to paint this scene, and we would all have understood what it meant when we saw it in the "Saturday Evening Post". We would all have smiled and felt comfortable. The scene takes me back to a time when we all felt closer to each other. I really miss that time, but the ritual of Mr. Lizard's funeral gives me hope. We need a lot less flushers.
If you are not old enough to remember the "Saturday Evening Post" you have really missed something. It is not to late to enjoy Norman Rockwell however, and we should all do so lest we forget how life once was in our country - - at a simpler time.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
It boggles the mind!
So much going on. I am a back-slid blogger, but I vow to change. Doctor says I am a diabetic. That sucks! All new rules for eating, no more "banking points" for a night time pig put. This only makes sense if you are a fellow Weight Watcher, or a least a former WW as I am. I am losing weight and my latest blood work was good. Enough about that.
This is my season - - politics! I am a confessed political junkie. I don't really know why, I don't believe any of them, but I sure do like to watch. It has been a very interesting election cycle. A black man, a white woman, and one very seasoned citizen. Who would have thunk it.
Last but not least, Rick has got me going to a welding class. It is not like he forced me, he just told me he was going and I sure do hate to miss anything exciting. I have burned up a lot of welding rods, and I still suck. The good news is I don't have to make a living at it so sucky is OK. Is that cool or what! The class was not cheap though. $175 to sign up and $500 for the welder I now think I can not live without!
Come to think of it my friend Rick is going to cost me a fortune. He keeps coming up with neat stuff he wants to learn about and do - - -and I am easily lead astray. I will be broke but well rounded. I am pretty sure that has the makings of a career path for a WalMart greeter.
Speaking of WalMart, I went to WalMart tonight to buy a shoe horn. (yes, I got some new shoes. I have been looking for a couple of weeks and can't find a shoe horn anywhere - -at least not one that I was willing to part money with to buy. Us greeters have to watch our pennies. I went to the shoe department and asked the lady where they kept the shoe horns. She told me that she had only worked their a week and did not know what a shoe horn was, so she went and got the department head. Turns out they had long plastic ones and fancy metal ones, but no "regular" shoe horns at all.
I had one of the long, plastic, $2 shoe horns in my hand and was telling the department manager that every shoe store used to give away shoe horns with every pair of shoes, whether you wanted them or not. As a matter of fact, I am sure that I must have 100 here in the house somewhere, if only I knew where. At any rate, I was telling her about how it used to be. OK, I was telling her back as she was walking away from me. She took about 10 steps to her official department managers cart, pulled out a drawer and gave me a very nice, regular old shoe horn. I know she was rich, ther must have ben 50 of them in her drawer. I sure hope the shows one to the first lady I met - -she needs to know what a shoe horn is if she is going to work in the shoe department don't you think. ay any rate, I was too embarrassed to put the $2 one back, so now in my house there are 102 shoehorns - - 2 of which I can now find - - at least temporarily!
This is my season - - politics! I am a confessed political junkie. I don't really know why, I don't believe any of them, but I sure do like to watch. It has been a very interesting election cycle. A black man, a white woman, and one very seasoned citizen. Who would have thunk it.
Last but not least, Rick has got me going to a welding class. It is not like he forced me, he just told me he was going and I sure do hate to miss anything exciting. I have burned up a lot of welding rods, and I still suck. The good news is I don't have to make a living at it so sucky is OK. Is that cool or what! The class was not cheap though. $175 to sign up and $500 for the welder I now think I can not live without!
Come to think of it my friend Rick is going to cost me a fortune. He keeps coming up with neat stuff he wants to learn about and do - - -and I am easily lead astray. I will be broke but well rounded. I am pretty sure that has the makings of a career path for a WalMart greeter.
Speaking of WalMart, I went to WalMart tonight to buy a shoe horn. (yes, I got some new shoes. I have been looking for a couple of weeks and can't find a shoe horn anywhere - -at least not one that I was willing to part money with to buy. Us greeters have to watch our pennies. I went to the shoe department and asked the lady where they kept the shoe horns. She told me that she had only worked their a week and did not know what a shoe horn was, so she went and got the department head. Turns out they had long plastic ones and fancy metal ones, but no "regular" shoe horns at all.
I had one of the long, plastic, $2 shoe horns in my hand and was telling the department manager that every shoe store used to give away shoe horns with every pair of shoes, whether you wanted them or not. As a matter of fact, I am sure that I must have 100 here in the house somewhere, if only I knew where. At any rate, I was telling her about how it used to be. OK, I was telling her back as she was walking away from me. She took about 10 steps to her official department managers cart, pulled out a drawer and gave me a very nice, regular old shoe horn. I know she was rich, ther must have ben 50 of them in her drawer. I sure hope the shows one to the first lady I met - -she needs to know what a shoe horn is if she is going to work in the shoe department don't you think. ay any rate, I was too embarrassed to put the $2 one back, so now in my house there are 102 shoehorns - - 2 of which I can now find - - at least temporarily!
Sunday, August 12, 2007
The Weekend
We are trained through out our lives to be very goal oriented. We are instilled with sayings that foster this - -"begin with the end in mind" , "don't take your eye off the ball". We are working to make a good grade, to get a promotion, or to achieve some status. To get ahead we are taught is a virtue. We work hard and save so that we can have a "meaningful" retirement, and leave something to our heirs. "He who dies with the most toys" and all that I guess.
This is all well and good, and I for one have not only learned this lesson well, but I have preached it to my son as well as to others who have come under my tiny sphere of influence over the years.
But what of the others, the ones for whom the journey itself is the goal. Louis and Clark, Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo, and countless other just like them. Artists, philosophers, musicians, and countless free spirits who have roamed the earth. A road less travelled?
How did I get here in these deep waters you ask? Well, I started out thinking about my weekend. It was great. Like most weekends, if I don't have a project, I take my hand off the rudder and let the current take me where it will. In most cases that random course to nowhere turns out to be very enjoyable. We roam the country side with no destination in mind except what is round the next bend. The joy is in the journey not the destination.
My mother always taught me that happiness is a journey not a destination. I forget sometimes and I really should not. This weekend I remembered!
Enjoy the ride, it is all to often a short one.
The journey really is important!
This is all well and good, and I for one have not only learned this lesson well, but I have preached it to my son as well as to others who have come under my tiny sphere of influence over the years.
But what of the others, the ones for whom the journey itself is the goal. Louis and Clark, Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo, and countless other just like them. Artists, philosophers, musicians, and countless free spirits who have roamed the earth. A road less travelled?
How did I get here in these deep waters you ask? Well, I started out thinking about my weekend. It was great. Like most weekends, if I don't have a project, I take my hand off the rudder and let the current take me where it will. In most cases that random course to nowhere turns out to be very enjoyable. We roam the country side with no destination in mind except what is round the next bend. The joy is in the journey not the destination.
My mother always taught me that happiness is a journey not a destination. I forget sometimes and I really should not. This weekend I remembered!
Enjoy the ride, it is all to often a short one.
The journey really is important!
Sunday, August 5, 2007
When do I get to vote?
My wife has gotten interested in politics of late. It may be the fact that she is a grandmother now and worries a little more about what we are leaving for our grandchildren. After all, every politician decries the misery of the mountainous debt we are leaving our grandchildren, even though none of them is really in favor of doing anything about it.
What ever the reason for her conversion, I am grateful, for I am a political junkie! I watch all the talking heads on TV. Heaven forbid that I miss "Meet The Press", or "This Week" on Sunday morning. At any rate today the Republicans held a debate in Iowa on a special addition of "This Week With George Stephapolis". All nine candidates lined up to tell us their positions on various matters. Mostly it was about how any of them would be better for us than than any of the democrats.
In the interest of open disclosure here, I must say that I agree, but that is a rant for another day. At any rate Barb and I watched together, and she commented when it was over that some of those folks had really interesting ideas for the future. I had to explain to her that non of those folks had a prayer of being the nominee. But I don't understand she said, they have the same chance as anyone else. I will vote for them and so will a lot of other people once they hear what they have to say.
That is when I had to break the news to her that she really did not get to vote! I explained it as follows:
The process starts with anyone in this great country having the right to run to be elected for the Office of President. Doesn't that sound great. Wait a minute not that easy, lets go through the process. First you have to already be a politician. It is not a rule, but if you aren't, everybody says you don't have enough experience. So somebody like say Bill Gates or Warren Buffet would not qualify. That's OK with me, no use to temp good men to go to the dark side. Beside those guys, and folks like them, acutally generate a lot of wealth for a lot of people. Better to leave those guys alone.
Secondly you have to raise a lot of money. For President now it is at least $100 Mil. just to get the nomination of your party. (Once you get that far the tax payers take over most of the tab.)
Now where do you spend that money? Well everybody knows if you want to be the nominee for your party, you have to win the early primaries of Iowa and New Hampshire. You will do anything, say anything, and spend whatever it takes to win those 2 states. Makes it real easy to understand why we "need" ethanol to go in our cars even though it costs way more than oil and is not very efficient. They grow a lot of corn in Iowa.
Now the real problem is we don't really want change! We want the status quo in a prettier package. So the guy with the new ideas stirs a little something in us, but in the end he or she makes us just a little uncomfortable, and we do not like uncomfortable. There is also a good chance that they are against ethanol, and that stance won't get you many votes in Iowa.
At any rate by the time the first 2 primaries are over it is usually pretty much decided. If it is close maybe South Carolina come into to play, but for the rest of us - - forget about it.
I finally explained to her that the best way for us to have an impact on choosing a candidate, was for us to send money to the candidate we liked so that he or she could spend that money on TV ads in Iowa and New Hampshire so that those folks could see what we saw and vote for the right person. Sounds simple doesn't it.
By the way I checked it out, the number one industry in New Hampshire - -you guessed it tourism. Don't be surprised if some politician doesn't suggest there be a law that says we all have to take our vacation there in a car powered by ethanol no less!
Maybe we should just let those folks get together and decide who the president should be as well. At least then we would have somebody to blame no matter how it comes out!
At least this week I did not have to hear any more politicians on TV talking about how awful the Iraq Parliament is for taking the month of August off. Why you ask, well because all of our leaders are on vacation this month. Hey, ease up, those folks in Iraq got real problems to deal with. Here of course everything is perfect.
Next time I will take on the water and school board! That is really where it all starts.
What ever the reason for her conversion, I am grateful, for I am a political junkie! I watch all the talking heads on TV. Heaven forbid that I miss "Meet The Press", or "This Week" on Sunday morning. At any rate today the Republicans held a debate in Iowa on a special addition of "This Week With George Stephapolis". All nine candidates lined up to tell us their positions on various matters. Mostly it was about how any of them would be better for us than than any of the democrats.
In the interest of open disclosure here, I must say that I agree, but that is a rant for another day. At any rate Barb and I watched together, and she commented when it was over that some of those folks had really interesting ideas for the future. I had to explain to her that non of those folks had a prayer of being the nominee. But I don't understand she said, they have the same chance as anyone else. I will vote for them and so will a lot of other people once they hear what they have to say.
That is when I had to break the news to her that she really did not get to vote! I explained it as follows:
The process starts with anyone in this great country having the right to run to be elected for the Office of President. Doesn't that sound great. Wait a minute not that easy, lets go through the process. First you have to already be a politician. It is not a rule, but if you aren't, everybody says you don't have enough experience. So somebody like say Bill Gates or Warren Buffet would not qualify. That's OK with me, no use to temp good men to go to the dark side. Beside those guys, and folks like them, acutally generate a lot of wealth for a lot of people. Better to leave those guys alone.
Secondly you have to raise a lot of money. For President now it is at least $100 Mil. just to get the nomination of your party. (Once you get that far the tax payers take over most of the tab.)
Now where do you spend that money? Well everybody knows if you want to be the nominee for your party, you have to win the early primaries of Iowa and New Hampshire. You will do anything, say anything, and spend whatever it takes to win those 2 states. Makes it real easy to understand why we "need" ethanol to go in our cars even though it costs way more than oil and is not very efficient. They grow a lot of corn in Iowa.
Now the real problem is we don't really want change! We want the status quo in a prettier package. So the guy with the new ideas stirs a little something in us, but in the end he or she makes us just a little uncomfortable, and we do not like uncomfortable. There is also a good chance that they are against ethanol, and that stance won't get you many votes in Iowa.
At any rate by the time the first 2 primaries are over it is usually pretty much decided. If it is close maybe South Carolina come into to play, but for the rest of us - - forget about it.
I finally explained to her that the best way for us to have an impact on choosing a candidate, was for us to send money to the candidate we liked so that he or she could spend that money on TV ads in Iowa and New Hampshire so that those folks could see what we saw and vote for the right person. Sounds simple doesn't it.
By the way I checked it out, the number one industry in New Hampshire - -you guessed it tourism. Don't be surprised if some politician doesn't suggest there be a law that says we all have to take our vacation there in a car powered by ethanol no less!
Maybe we should just let those folks get together and decide who the president should be as well. At least then we would have somebody to blame no matter how it comes out!
At least this week I did not have to hear any more politicians on TV talking about how awful the Iraq Parliament is for taking the month of August off. Why you ask, well because all of our leaders are on vacation this month. Hey, ease up, those folks in Iraq got real problems to deal with. Here of course everything is perfect.
Next time I will take on the water and school board! That is really where it all starts.
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