Old Guy's Rambling Remembrances #39

WHAT HAVE I DONE????
6/19/03  (There is nothing new under the sun)


It’s now official.  The once Democrat, now Republican  Governor of Texas has called a special session of the legislature to reapportion the state for the express purpose of securing the dictatorial authority of the Republican Party in Texas.

I can remember when I voted for any Republican who managed to make it onto the ballot, because I believed that Texas needed a two party government.

I remember when, in the days of Governor Mark White, I had my “Gee, I miss Governor Clements” bumper sticker proudly displayed on my pickup.

In retrospect, I can’t help feeling guilty.

Tom Delay says that this reapportionment, having no connection whatsoever with the census, is necessary, because most of the major offices in the state have gone to Republicans, and that we need to change the voting boundaries to reflect the “will of the people”.

When my co-worker Chuckie said, back in the aborted election of 2000, that “the person with the most votes should win the election”.  That would have made Al Gore president.   I strongly disputed that concept, although as everyone knows, I would much rather have seen Al Gore as President.

When we have finally become a single party Republican state, I will remember that many of the politicians who were Democrats in the seventies are now Republicans, and that little has really changed in Texas.

I sometimes wonder what Thomas Jefferson would say about his United States of America if he could see what we have done to it, but I also sometimes wonder what Jesus would say about Christianity if he were to speak out about what we have done to it.

An Old Guy's View Of Mankind

Many years ago, I'm thinking it was when I had children yet to be born, and when TV was mostly black and white, some news program I was watching had dug up an "old philosopher"...a fellow with strong opinions, a person, I suppose, very like me, except he was much older and seems not to have had much formal schooling.

Among the things he said, the one (and the ONLY one) I remember is, "Man ain't got no business going up around "Sput-Nick" and stuff like that.  He ain't powerful enough!"

Believe me, if the old feller had said "He ain't SMART enough", instead of, "He ain't powerful enough", I might have become a loyal fan.  Mankind is powerful well beyond the ability to reason.  We are so willing to think that we can do anything with no concern for the consequences.

Sitting among the flints on the lakeshore can inspire dreams...One can sit for hours fantasizing about the diminutive worlds they represent.  What were the dreams of the first homo sapiens who sat among the flints and said, "Hey, I think I can use this!.  I can make tools and weapons to make my dreary existence better!  I can invent technology!"...?


We can never really know, can we?  We can only guess, and continue to study, and have dreams of our own as we try to imagine.


Then, we can look up from this primitive dreamworld and see where we are now.....  

To me, this expanse of liquid sustenance is full, but those who are supposed to know such things say "only about half a foot to go".

It almost brings a tear to my eye that soon it may be overflowing, or may be much depleted.  If the forces of nature do not provide more, it could easily be very, very low by the end of summer.  Such is the need for water to sustain our lifestyle today.

My wife's mother would  tell the story of when she visited her grandmother as a girl, grandma would hand each of the kinder a teacup of water in the evening with orders to "take a bath".  My dad's Uncle Fred owned a house in Rosenberg, but he also had a few farms in different places, and when I was about six, Uncle Fred and Aunt Annie were living on a farm near Kenedy.  Even now, whenever I pass through Kenedy, I find myself looking down roads that we pass, wondering if I could spot a landmark that could give me a clue to the location of that long ago farm.  Uncle Fred's lights were powered by electricity produced onsite with an Aermotor windmill generator connected to 6v storage batteries.   In those days, people often needed no more electricity than required to power lights and a family radio.  Imagine, if you will, how little that could do for us today.  Uncle Fred's water came from a shallow well through the power of a hand pump.  Of course, by the time I was nine, he was back in Rosenberg, with all the comforts of big city life, but that's somewhat irrelevant to this tale of what we've done  to ourselves.

From before I was born until I was approaching middle age, a cap on the price of gasoline was enforced by our Federal Government.  I feel pretty sure that it was because of this, that citizens gradually moved from public transportation to a "family car", to households where everyone "required" his own automobile.  The once valuable public transportation became intolerable to the "average" citizen...at least here in Texas it has.

I also think that it was this gasoline subsidy of the twentieth century that stifled the development of electric and steam powered vehicles, and even some of the more adventurous alternative fuel vehicles that we're slowly trying to figure out nearly forty years after our addiction to gasoline became something to consider.

There are so many things besides petroleum and water that we have come to squander, with little thought other than our own "immediate needs" of what we're doing to ourselves.  I can't begin  to consider them all.

I'm very fond of living in comfort myself, but when "the city" tells us we need to turn up our thermostats, turn out lights we're not using, and limit our lawn watering to avoid their having to build more facilities they can't afford, I'm happy to say, "Maybe I'm smart enough to give it a try."


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AQUAMANIA

My Granny was born in 1885, five years before the massacre at Wounded Knee finally settled the physical aspects of our differences with the natives. There were no gasoline powered vehicles used in combating the native people of our land.

I was born in 1936, and my mother was 26 years old. Granny was 51. Until they moved to Houston, Granny got her water from a hand-dug well in the back yard, and her brother, who lived "out in the country", also used a hand dug well, which was connected to the back porch for convenience. One could look down into these wells and see the water.

Granny never learned to drive an automobile. When my mother was growing up, she began driving at 14 so she could transport Granny. When Mom wasn't available, Granny had to hitch up a horse to her buggy and drive herself.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the media's insistence that this drought, so seemingly inconsequential to me, is the "worst of the century". Perhaps "worst" is the keyword. It's easy for me to see that springs in our limestone country which once ran freely and dependably, have begun to flow more sporadically and infrequently. Our immediate ancestors were able to subsist on the precious water which flowed so freely. In places where there was no spring, an atmospheric windmill could provide plenty of fresh water from a source only a few feet below the surface (maximum draw depth for a windmill is not quite 34').

A drought in "the old days" was much more serious than today, but the people were more flexible in adapting to it. Right here in central Texas, adobe, which is now considered an expensive fashion in the desert areas of the southwest, was once used as a building material because labor was virtually all that was required to convert your site into a usable living space. It required very little water or mechanical devices.

I think we have come to take water for granted, just as we take petroleum for granted, in fact, down south of San Antonio, a great deal of water is expected to be used for the extraction of the last dregs of gas and oil through a process called "fracking". I do not deny that we need that petroleum. For forty years at least (and much longer from people who have greater vision), we've known the resources we've squandered are becoming much more difficult and expensive to obtain.

I complain constantly about the gu'ment using that large dam they built upriver to steal our river for the use of citizens who want green lawns.....and though it's all in fun, there certainly is a tone of seriousness to it.

Water wells which once cost a few hundred dollars to drill are now many thousands, as they must go deeper and deeper to find a dependable source. This not only disturbs the natural flow of the everpresent limestone country springs, but, in the Houston area, it once caused entire subdivisions which were built on dry land to gradually subside below sea level, as the water table which supported the land was sucked up by Houston's need for water.

I think, although I hate to admit it, that this may truly be our "worst drought", because we, as shortsighted humans, cannot accept that we should learn to live with nature rather than try to conquer it and constantly demand tribute from it.

We can never do that. "The earth abides".



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Old Guy's Rambling Remembrances #37

THE DIVERSITY OF MANKIND
10/10/98

‘Way back on memorial day my 11 year old granddaughter Christa was spending the weekend with us. Among other things we had been doing to amuse ourselves, we had spent the whole weekend with the TV tuned to “Animal Planet”. Monday evening at 8:00 PM my wife said “OK, now we’re going to watch our show. You’ve had control of the TV for the whole weekend, Christa.” She changed the channel, to the mutual disappointment of Christa and me.

When she saw what we were going to watch, Christa said “Allie McBeal? I never thought you’d watch that!”

I responded “What do you mean? It’s the best show on television.” “Except maybe for “King of the Hill.”

“Well, you don’t watch Seinfeld or the Simpsons.”

I almost smacked my little granddaughter before I took the time to reflect. Why don’t I watch those shows? The most revolting person I’ve ever encountered, a talk show host from Temple, thinks that the Simpsons is the best TV show ever to grace the planet. That could be the reason, except that I wasn’t watching The Simpsons before I ever heard of that talk show host.

Seinfeld, we have always thought, is just a dumb show about nothing. Not long ago I surfed right into a piece on Court TV about a man, a watcher of Seinfeld, who had been fired from IBM because of an incident related to his being accused of sexual harassment. Part of the testimony included his having shown the woman a copy of a dictionary page which described the notorious body part from one of Seinfeld’s shows. She said that he made her look at the dictionary, and went on about making sure she understood the definition.

I’m glad he won his judgement, about 1.3 million dollars from IBM, but I hope that he never sees a penny of it. The man is too dumb to be let out of the house, much less given a large sum of money.

My wife, who was in the kitchen during the Court TV thing, asked what body part they were talking about. I told her.

“That’s not the way to pronounce it, anyway” she announced.

“Are you sure?” I replied as I grabbed for the dictionary.

The first dictionary did not even have the word, the second had a definition but no pronunciation; when I finally found it a third dictionary, I saw that of two ways to pronounce the word, neither of them rhymes with “Dolores”.

THAT’S THE KIND OF SHOW SEINFELD IS..



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In The Spirit of The Holidays, Life Goes On, Conflict Goes On.....

And today, the TV, the newspapers, and the Facebook is seething with references to the Holiday Season Battles! The tired old efforts to make the winter solstice a time to fight among ourselves linger on.

'way back in early December of 2005, I got an email from an old friend which linked me to this, by Debbie Daniel. (It appears that this link to Debbie's Christmas rant has expired, and you will not be able to view it.  She simply raves about the demeaning of OUR Christmas season by trying to "politically correctly" make it a holiday for everybody.)

I thought about what she said, and tried to apply it to what I think, and made the following response. I sent a copy to my friend, and another to Debbie. I don't recall any reply from my friend, but Debbie and I exchanged a couple of emails.

I found that she loves Santa Fe, as I do, and that, although we disagree on a lot of things (which, of course, makes her disillusioned), she's not nearly the nasty person I expected her to be.

OH, MY GOODNESS, I JUST TOOK THE TIME TO
FIND OUT WHO DEBBIE DANIEL IS!

12/1/05

And now it will no longer be necessary for me to take that e-mail message from my dear old friend seriously. Debbie is offended by everything. Although I’m offended by a number of things (old guy’s privilege), I could never live up to her standards.

I can truthfully say that I’m offended by our taking of the ancient American custom of Potlatch and incorporating it into the celebration of our Lord’s birthday.

I suppose I shouldn’t be offended, because such things have been standard practice throughout the history of Christianity. When the early Christians were getting started, there were pagans everywhere, and few Christians. In order to win friends and influence people, those early Christians were just oozing with political correctness.

The birthdate that we celebrate as that of our Lord Jesus was selected to conform to the pagan celebration of the winter solstice. The Christmas tree was originally a pagan symbol as well. These were good things for the Christian faith, because they helped to make converts.

There is nothing being done to keep Christians from celebrating Christmas in any way they choose. Our Constitution allows freedom of religion for everybody.

In the tradition of Potlatch, which is the core of the American Christmas celebration, is it not a noble thing that the merchants try to court as many potential customers as they can? The early Christians would have approved. They knew how to respect people’s cultures (as long as it suited their own purposes).

Hooray for Richard Branson!!!!! Debbie could never live up to his standards, and what’s more, he’s had fun doing it. In the spirit of our early Christian forbears, why not make a truly American holiday of ChristmaHanukaWansa, and decline to worry about Debbie Daniel being offended?

I think Jesus would say that his birthday could best be celebrated by doing good works for people less fortunate. Does Debbie practice that? Or does she just bitch?



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Handy=?

This lunchtime I was squeezing out a little dab of honey mustard for my sandwich, knowing that when I discarded this squeeze bottle, it would not be completely empty.

I recalled the summer of 1968, when I purchased my first plastic tube of Brylcreem. I thought it was such a wonderful thing, and wondered why it would not work for toothpaste, etc. Apparently it would.

In 1968, toothpaste was still packed in metal foil tubes, which could be squeezed flat and rolled from the bottom until the very last drop of toothpaste could be evacuated from the tube. Some rather short time after I'd discovered the plastic tube for Brylcreem, I began finding toothpaste also in plastic tubes. Now, as far as I know, there's no place in this country where one could buy a metal tube of toothpaste.

My wife bought me a new tube (plastic) of toothpaste about three or four months ago, thinking I'd just about exhausted my old tube.....BUT, I'm still squeezing toothpaste from it. And you know what? When I finally decide I'm finished with this tube, and discard it, I'm sure there'll still be toothpaste lingering inside the plastic tube, which can't really be flattened as were the old metal ones.

After the plastic toothpaste tubes I began to see squeeze bottles for all sorts of food products, such as mustard, mayonnaise, honey, etc. It is very, very difficult to completely empty these squeeze bottles using the recommended procedure.

Is it essential that "convenience" also involve waste?



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Old Guy's Rambling Remembrances #36

WHAT IS IT ANYWAY?

7/6/98

At noon I went over to Lowe’s. Whenever I do that, I hear Rush for a little while.

In the short time I listened, there was a lot of discussion of oral sex. Those two words seem to combine a lot whenever people with too much time on their hands are talking about Bill Clinton.

I was immediately reminded of a hilarious story that Doctor Laura once told about a woman who was trying to sue a company because someone from that company had told her that he would get her a job in exchange for oral sex. She complied, and a couple of days later, when she called the company to inquire about her job, she was told that the job description of her “interviewer” gave him no authority to hire anyone. Let’s say that she had been “tricked”.

I didn’t give it much thought at first, but later began to ponder. How did that woman administer the oral sex in question? Did she crawl under the fellow’s desk, or lean back against it? What does the phrase mean? Naturally we have our immediate first impressions, but there are certainly more meanings than one for that particular combination of two words. Isn't kissing “oral sex”?

Once, many years ago, when I was a younger fellow and an enthusiastic thespian, I was engaged in deep conversation with our director, a woman several years my senior. I can’t remember what we were discussing, but when someone approached, she looked up from our huddle and casually remarked “we’re having sex.” As I think about it, I can truthfully say that we were having oral sex. Actually vocal. We had been exchanging points of view, and since we were sexual opposites, surely sex was involved.



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Old Guy's Rambling Remembrances #34

LANGUAGE BARRIER

10/4/98

Friday, someone at the place where I work was iterating the phrase vaca caca. Since this did not come from a real Spanish speaking person, I let it pass at the time, saying only that a Spanish speaking person would never say that.

Since then, however, my mind has wandered to the Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, an excellent movie starring Edward James Olmos.

Gregorio Cortez is based on a corrida written by Americo Paredes, who, along with his other great accomplishments, was my freshman English teacher at the University of Texas.

The story, which is supposed to be based on a true story, happened in Karnes County, Texas around 1912 or so. The sheriff went out to the home of Gregorio to question him about a horse trade he had been reported to have made. In his best Spanish, the gringo asked Gregorio if he had traded a caballo that morning. Gregorio, who knew almost no English, answered truthfully (in Spanish) that no, he had not traded a caballo. The sheriff interpreted this as a lie, and pulled his gun to arrest Gregorio. Not understanding what was happening, Gregorio pulled a gun, and in the ensuing gunfight the sheriff was killed.

Gregorio hit the road, and was pursued over a large portion of Texas until finally apprehended. He was tried and sentenced to life, even though the State of Texas released him a few years later. The root of all of poor Gregorio’s trouble was that the sheriff had asked him if he had traded a caballo (horse) and Gregorio had actually traded a yewa (mare). A simple misunderstanding had turned a case of self defense into murder, and done great damage to the lives of two men, the sheriff of course, and Gregorio Cortez.

When Humble Oil Company decided to become not so humble, going blantantly international, they chose the name “ENCO”, a cute name for “Energy Company”. This worked fine in the good ol’ USA, but in some foreign countries with which they did business, it was an offensive word. After much careful research, they became “EXXON”, so that they wouldn’t offend anyone (until they killed all those fish at Valdez).

For more than forty years, my lack of fluency in the language of women has caused me a great deal of torment. It is very difficult to know what to say, and when to say it, and when to not say anything at all..

Be careful what you say, you never know who might be listening.




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Old Guy's Rambling Remembrances #32

FUN WITH CATS

9/4/98

For most of my life, I have thought that the best way to treat a cat would be to catch it napping, and smash its head in with a rock. But lately, I have come to be somewhat fond of the obnoxious black critter we had to adopt because Christa “desperately” needed a puppy, and couldn’t have both.

Last Tuesday, when I was on my way home I had to stop on Country Club Road because the car in front of me had stopped for a very small kitten. After the little fellow scampered to the side of the road and the other car got out of the way, I noticed that the kitten was a bobcat. I found myself hoping that its mama was somewhere close around to look after it. Every day since then, I have kept my eyes peeled along that section of road, hoping not to find that he had made an unsuccessful attempt to cross the road. Willie is getting to be an old softie.

Back to the black pestilence. Gradually since the Fourth of July, with the help of
Christa, I have developed a portion of the front yard into what I first called my “Meditation Station”, then my “Serenity Stop”, and now most often my “Tranquility Base”. (My life is “relatively” mellow now, but I’ve had my moments of stress).

Every morning and evening the black beast and I will sit out there for a few minutes while I have a hot cup or a cold glass of tea, and savor the delicious peace of the trickling water, the gurgling splashes of the fish in the pond, the wind bells, and the soft fur of the black critter who always makes a point of being right under my free hand.

Last evening we were doing our serenity thing when I heard a strange and unusual noise which I couldn’t place. It seemed to be coming from everywhere, but I suspected the cat. I even put my ear down close, and found it wasn’t he.

It turned out to be the sound of raindrops falling down through the varnish trees and hitting the big leaves at various levels. After taking a few hits, we decided that no matter how lovely the gentle sprinkles were, neither of us wanted to get really wet, so we went our separate ways. I know, however, that we’ll get back together soon.




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Why Stop Now?

When I was a freshman at The University of Texas, a long, long, time ago, when Austin was less than half the size it has now attained, I lived with an aunt and uncle who lived about three miles from the campus. They lived 'way out near Robert Mueller Airport.

When I was home for the Christmas break, I petitioned my dad for a bicycle, which I thought would be very handy for getting to school, and I could save about a dime a day if I didn't have to ride the bus.

Pop vetoed the idea, thinking that there would often be bad weather, and I'd still have to ride the bus when it was raining, or too hot, or too cold, etc. He had found a superlative deal on a five-year old Chevrolet, which had been traded in by one of his coworkers, so he bought me a car. I enjoyed using the automobile, but I had only been driving my car for one semester when The University initiated "parking permits", and I could no longer park just anywhere I chose. So I still dreamed of bicycles.

Before I finished at The University, I had gotten married, and less than a year after that, while still in college, I became a dad, so it was about ten years after my freshman year that I finally bought a bicycle. Since that time, I have not allowed myself to be without one.

When I ride, I try very hard to follow the rules of the road. A bicycle is a vehicle, and must follow the same rules as an automobile. An exception is that the cyclist is allowed to ride on the shoulder, while motor vehicles are not.

At a red traffic light or a stop sign, the cyclist must come to a complete stop, the same as an automobile driver. I will always stop at a light, but at a stop sign, I will frequently, in fact, invariably, make a "rolling", or "California" stop, coming to a complete stop, but not long enough to require putting a foot down.

I have noticed, however, that my stop lasts longer than at least half that of the cars, and at least as long as most of them. That has caused me to wonder.......would it be possible to change the way that traffic is directed, in order to make it more convenient for drivers as well as cyclists, without sacrificing safety?

In our small town, except for a couple of very busy streets, and bottlenecks where these streets cross the interstate, traffic is reasonably light. However, even in larger towns, very frequently a stop is forced when there is no cross traffic at all.

Wouldn't it make sense, wherever there's a "two-way" stop, which affects traffic in only one of the streets, to replace the stop signs with yield signs? Stop signs would continue to be required when traffic conditions demand equal treatment of both streets (there can be no "four-way" yield signs), and lights would continue to be necessary at certain intersections.

I think that requiring a complete stop where conditions do not warrant, contributes to driver apathy and scorn for the traffic laws.

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Old Guy's Rambling Remembrances #31

SMILE A WHILE
3/25/00

When I was a callow college youth, without the consummate wisdom with which I am now endowed, I would brag to my buddies, “I know how to get any girl to smile at me.  Just walk along with a cheerful attitude, smiling instead of leering, and they’ll smile at you”.

Much, much later, when I finally became a man, I learned that the smile was a primal feminine defense mechanism that transcends species. It is widely used among human females, as well as others of higher forms of life to say, “I acknowledge that you are stronger than I, and that I have something that you desire greatly, but if you can resist your natural impulses to make the unspeakable demands, then, as an individual like yourself, and not an object to be exploited, I can become an affectionate and loyal friend, for as long as we both may live. If you like, we could have a cup of coffee, and some meaningful conversation. My husband would think it’s OK, so long as you behave yourself.”

The smile rarely means (as the college youth might be inclined to surmise), “She wants me”.

I’ve tried to remember this throughout my adult life, and the very knowledge of it has earned me a lot of nice hugs over the years.

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Inspired By My Facebook/Flickr Friend Don....

Today, I was moved to tears (sort of) by the video posted by Don on Facebook. Long before I saw the movie "Cold Mountain", but after I'd fallen love with Alison Krauss, I saw a piece in the paper that inspired me to watch the Oscar presentations, something that normally interests me not at all.

WAS SHE OR WASN’T SHE?
3/1/04

A memory, almost six years old........


Saturday, I read in the Austin American-Kiddierag that, at the academy awards, my beloved Alison Krauss would be wearing a pair of 4½" heeled, diamond encrusted shoes. The shoes are said to have cost two million dollars.

I was not necessarily impressed by the two million dollar part, because such things are common in Hollywood. I had never seen Alison wearing 4½" heels before, however, and wondered if it wouldn’t detract from her wonderful, wholesome presence.

I so love Alison Krauss that if she had been standing there naked as a newborn, but singing, I would have loved her still. She was, however, wearing a beautiful white floor-length gown, which completely covered her feet. I could not tell, and maybe will never know, if she was wearing the Cinderella shoes, but she sang like an angel.

Trying to console, my wife said, “ It’s possible that they found the shoes would not fit her (what would be the chances, anyway), and she didn’t wear them”. I really should say “Who cares?”, but I may spend the rest of my life wondering.
Footnote:
I decided today that maybe I should attempt to settle this question once and for all. And so, I present to you the evidence that I was able to find. Simply be advised, that no one should ever take as gospel truth what he finds on the WWW. All I can say with certainty is that the dress in the photo is the same one she was wearing on that evening. And I can also say, that glamorous as she looked on that night, the photo seems to indicate that she's still the gal I've come to admire so much.

Footnote to footnote:
Do not bother with the "find" link in the footnote...It is a website that has long since moved on to other subjects.

Today In The Kiddierag, Plus A Memory

This morning, my wife was calling my attention to a piece in the paper. I can come to tears any time I hear about an innocent child losing its life for whatever reason, so I honestly feel that the little ones deserve to be as safe as possible, but how can anyone really decide what's "safer", when traffic accidents come in all shapes and sizes?

She also mentioned the extensive new road construction in the Austin area (I stay away from that place nowadays, whenever possible, but it still has an impact on our lives).

When will they ever learn that they can build cars a lot faster than they can build roads, and that they can never eliminate traffic and its resulting consequences by building roads? It seems so very difficult, bordering on impossible, for them to get the new commuter rail going, yet our lives have been plagued with road construction continuously for as long as I can remember. As they build, widen, and "improve" the roads, the cars just keep coming.

Safety gadgets are constantly being mandated, or voluntarily added to promote sales, but I know that by far the most effective safety device on an automobile is a driver that uses good judgment! No one can ever be completely "safe" in a motor vehicle crash!


A Rambling Rembrance:

AIR YOU GOING TO LOVE THIS?

6/20/98

Yesterday on the radio they were doing a piece on air bag testing. It seems that up to
now, all the crash dummies have been made in the image of men. They will now have by the end of the year a whole family of dummies. There will be a Mama dummy, a Papa dummy, a six year old kid dummy, and a little baby dummy.

It has been disturbing to many that a number of recent deaths of small women and children under twelve have actually been caused by the air bags that the government says we must have to save our lives.

At the end of the program, we were assured that after new research, a future generation of air bags will be able to sense the size and weight of the person in its care, and make a decision whether or not to inflate.

Well this is great, isn’t it? If the inflation of this air bag is so essential to saving lives, then if, when we have the wonderful new technology of sentient air bags, my small wife and I are going to Alice and crash into one of those jack knifed 18 wheelers in Austin, what is going to happen?

It would seem that the bag would probably decide to save me, but since there would be the possibility that my wife may be killed by the bag itself, the bag would no doubt determine that she should be left to her fate.

Has anyone in Washington thought about the possibility of maybe making air bags an option, so that people who want them can pay a little extra (or a lot extra in the case of the future smart air bags), and those of us who trust seat belts could say “no thanks, I love my wife”.


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Last of the Rufus musings until he calls for more....

[Sir, just stopping by to say..."Hey"...How you be??? Need a blog topic??? How 'bout the pros and cons of being drafted or volunteering for the military. Religion and personal choice...on a higher power...i'll think of more...:}]

Son, it seems to me that I'm down to the final segment. I really can't think of anything really inspirational to say about a higher power.

It's obvious that the human race has, since its inception, sought after a higher power, and all I can say about it is that there certainly could be one, and probably even is one.

I have mentioned in statements in the past that, "everybody makes his own Jesus", and by that, I mean that this higher power is subject to the whims of the puny human race. That simple statement, in my mind, seems to be the key to the whole thing.

No one can actually see that higher power, and, in general, conversations with that higher power tend to be very one-sided. Have you heard a song that goes, "Jesus is on the hot line, tell Him what you want"? To me that's appalling. Is the sole purpose of Jesus to give us what we want? What about what He wants? Nothing in the song says, "Ask Him what He wants".

Have you ever noticed that everyone who claims association with a supreme being knows with absolute certainty that what the supreme being desires is exactly the same as that person himself desires? I find that sort of odd, too, because everyone's "desires" seem to be different, sometimes slightly, sometimes radically!

Someone long before me said, "In the beginning, God created man, then, soon afterward, man created God" (or something like that)

When I once said that the most religious people all claim to know God exactly, while agnostics claim that they just don't know, I decided that the agnostics are probably closer to God than anybody!

I hate it that God has to be a scapegoat. The name of God is used to justify the most horrible manifestations of mankind's cruelty to his own kind. The name of God has been used to justify us to ourselves. For two semesters when I was in college, in order to register, I was required to sign a paper that said that I believe in a supreme being. Our country's motto was changed from "E Pluribus Unum" to "In God We Trust" in those early years of the Cold War when we felt the need to distinguish ourselves from the "Godless Communists". I still wonder what God must think of the communists? I know what Phyllis Schlafly thinks about them, but I really want to know what God thinks.

So what do I think regarding a higher power? I believe I'd like to know the nature of that higher power, but I'll never find the answer in the theology of the various religions.

I feel fairly confident that all I've learned about the higher power falls well short of the truth.


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Next For Rufus, Do You Mean Religion Or Personal Choice, Or Both?

Not sure what's next, son. Maybe you ought to go ahead and start thinking of more...

[Sir, just stopping by to say..."Hey"...How you be??? Need a blog topic??? How 'bout the pros and cons of being drafted or volunteering for the military. Religion and personal choice...on a higher power...i'll think of more...:}]

You say "Religion and personal choice", and I suppose that means one thing, but it could mean two. I am going to assume today that it means "Religion and personal choice". I'm thinking that means, "Do we have a personal choice of religion?"

I think that those who are most inclined to flaunt their religion would say, "No". These are the people who have the answer. If you do not agree with them, then you have to be wrong. I have said many times before, "Everyone creates his own Jesus". Otherwise, we would all be in agreement about religion, and personal choice would be irrelevant. It would not even be an issue.

So, son, if you're asking, "Is religion based on personal choice?", I'll have to answer, "It must be, and, generally speaking, all who proclaim religion have made a personal choice to believe what they want to believe". For that reason, I have also said that I think "Agnostics must be closer to God than anybody". The more I see of bickering, petty and otherwise, about the finer points of religion, the more I feel that my thought about Agnostics must be true.

I sincerely believe that God is, and God does, but we as humans are hopelessly inadequate to know the truth about God.



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Trying To Figure It All Out, "What's Life All About?"

Found the following on my Facebook page a few days ago, and it scared me. My boy is asking me to get serious. I'd like to do that, but I'm not really sure I know how.

[Sir, just stopping by to say..."Hey"...How you be??? Need a blog topic??? How 'bout the pros and cons of being drafted or volunteering for the military. Religion and personal choice...on a higher power...i'll think of more...:}]

Probably, topics such as this cannot be handled all at once, so I'll start at the top of the list, and spread it out over time. I know he'll think of more....;^}

Concerning the pros and cons of being drafted or volunteering for the military. When the draft was discontinued, my eligibility had already run out, and at the time, I thought it was a good idea.

Without the draft, people in the military would be there because they made the choice, and would put more soul into being military. That seemed to make perfect sense during a time when there was nothing really serious going on in the way of military activity.

Up until the time of President Daddy Bush's 'Desert Storm', I thought things were fine the way they were. But then I began to hear, "The recruiters dint tell us nothin' like this. We joined for the educational opportunities, and a chance to better our lives. What's this business about going to war and putting our lives on the line?????"

Some of my fondest memories are from my teenage days, when many of my dad's friends were veterans of WWII. Back then, the military was a pretty good life, and, in general, it was well respected. They spoke with enthusiasm about their experiences in "The War". Most of them chanced to be non-combatants, serving in mail service, but the best stories came from those who claimed (whether in fact or in fiction) to have been subjected to extreme danger in Europe.

My dad was a volunteer. He was in his early thirties, slightly older than those who were the major target of the draft, but he felt certain that, if the war continued, everyone would eventually be called up. He chose the Navy because he claimed, "I can take a lot of hardship, but I'd really rather eat off a table and sleep in a bed. In the Navy I won't end up in a foxhole".

I was a draft dodger, because I started college as the Korean Conflict was ending, and college students needed only to apply for a "student deferment" to postpone their obligation to the draft. Time went by, and by the time I finally became almost eligible for a diploma, I was married with an infant daughter. Nothing urgent was going on at the time, so, as a family man, I managed to avoid being called. In most of the numerous places I looked for employment after leaving The University, it was mentioned, "And because you have a child, you're not likely to be drafted away from us". Although the deferments extended my eligibility for the draft from 27 to 35, I was never drafted. I was a draft dodger by happenstance, not by design.

I have great respect for the armed forces of our country. They serve a useful purpose, even though that's not always apparent. I was an inadvertent draft dodger, who never served in the military.

I think that it's time to return to the draft as a way of recruiting our military forces. Knowing fully well that things would not change drastically in the demographics of enlistees. With a draft, there's a much better chance that, when really needed, the military can be expanded as required, with a much better representation of the overall citizenry, who should serve their country as an inherent obligation.


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An Old Man's Rambling Remembrances #30 or 31

Properly, this memory should not be posted until a more appropriate date. It's several months until 1/16/10, but if I wait that long, I may have forgotten. Memories rely on memory.


A DAY FILLED WITH BEAUTY
1/16/05

TODAY WAS CELEBRATED AS MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY. AS I WAS DRIVING TO
WORK, MY FAVORITE RADIO STATION WAS PLAYING A RECITAL BY A TEENAGE
CHORAL GROUP OF THE “I HAVE A DREAM” SPEECH. I WAS OBLIGATED TO SPEND A
FEW MINUTES SITTING IN MY CAR IN THE BELCO PARKING LOT WHILE THEY
FINISHED THIS BEAUTIFUL WORK OF ART.

I AM PROBABLY, AT THE VERY LEAST, ONE OF A VERY FEW PEOPLE AT BELCO WHO
HAVE ADULT MEMORIES OF THE DAYS BEFORE DR. KING, AND IT SADDENS ME EVEN
WHILE GIVING ME A SOMEWHAT HOSTILE FEELING TO HEAR ANYONE MAKING FUN
OF OR BELITTLING THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THIS GREAT AMERICAN.

WHILE DRIVING HOME, I WAS TREATED, ON THE SAME RADIO STATION, TO AN
INTERVIEW WITH BETTY CLAIBORNE, A BLACK LADY WHO, AFTER FORTY TWO YEARS,
WAS PARDONED TODAY BY KATHLEEN BLANCO, THE NEW GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA.
MS. CLAIBORNE WAS APPREHENDED AND CONVICTED IN BATON ROUGE IN 1963, AT
THE AGE OF 20, AFTER ATTEMPTING TO ENTER A PUBLIC SWIMMING POOL.
http://theadvocate.com/stories/011505/new_blanco001.shtml

ARRIVING HOME, I WAS HANDED A CAN OF ”CAMPBELL’S CHUNKY GRILLED SIRLOIN
STEAK WITH HEARTY VEGETABLES” SOUP. MY WIFE HAD TO ATTEND A MEETING,
AND I WAS ON MY OWN FOR DINNER. I HAVE HAD THIS SOUP BEFORE, AND,
ALTHOUGH MORE COSTLY THAN I THINK SOUP SHOULD BE, IT’S JUST ABOUT MY
FAVORITE. SOMEHOW CAMPBELL HAS BEEN ABLE TO PRODUCE A SOUP THAT TASTES
AS IF IT WERE SLOW COOKED ON A COLEMAN STOVE AT AUNT LIZZIE’S. A VERY
NOSTALGIC FLAVOR. MY GRANDMOTHER HAD ELECTRIC LIGHTS WHEN I WAS A TOT,
ALTHOUGH SHE COOKED ON A WOOD STOVE AND DREW WATER FROM A HAND-DUG
WELL. HER SISTER° HAD THE SAME, EXCEPT WITHOUT THE ELECTRICITY. KEROSENE
LANTERNS, WITH THEIR ACCOMPANYING AROMA, LIT AUNT LIZZIE’S HOUSE.

I WAS ABLE TO FINISH THE DAY WITH “THE BLUES BROTHERS” ON AMC, AND THEN
TO READ A CHAPTER FROM “COLD MOUNTAIN”. ON THE WHOLE, A TRULY
WONDERFUL, SENSUALLY PLEASING DAY!!!!! ALTHOUGH I FREQUENTLY WALLOW IN
NOSTALGIA, I’D STILL NEVER LONG FOR THE DAYS BEFORE MLK.


°A footnote:
I grew up thinking that Aunt Lizzy was Granny's sister, because when I was little, I thought they looked alike. In truth, if you study old photographs, you'll easily see that, in the early days of my youth, everyone looked alike. From the generation before my parents, it was often hard even to distinguish the men from their women, except for the way they dressed.

Living with Aunt Lizzy was Uncle Tom Allen. But Granny's maiden name was Allen! In all the years, I never asked my mother the question I should have. My mother only confirmed that Aunt Lizzy's husband was her Uncle Tom Allen.

It was only after my mother was deceased, and after I originally wrote this memory, that it occurred to me that Uncle Tom was Granny's brother, and Aunt Lizzy was Granny's sister-in-law! Such a simple answer to a puzzle that had hounded me all my life!

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Whose rights?

Today, in the Kiddierag, I saw a very well written letter from a lady in Horseshoe Bay. She questions the "objectiveness" of the newspaper which published 23 letters on Sept 12 supporting President Obama's speech to children.

According to the paper's own comments, those were the letters they received. Perhaps the citizens whose letters caused school administrators from all over the state to exclude the speech felt they'd done all they needed to do.

The lady from Horseshoe Bay admits it was a good speech, but goes on to talk about the president. According to her, "every piece of legislation Obama (she never calls him President) supports calls for dependence on the government and giving up individual rights and responsibilities." I don't believe that, myself, but we all have the right to our own opinions (so far) in this country.

But, lady from Horseshoe Bay, you mention "rights". I feel very strongly that the last three Republican presidents have done more to attack our "rights" than President Obama. You really should think about that. The government has a responsibility to protect the rights of all Americans, not just those of your friends.



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Imagination is funny....

I once got a personalized "rejection" letter from Time Magazine in response to my submission to "letters to the editor". This is the only one I ever got that was not a simple form letter.

I cannot even remember the exact wording to the article to which I was responding, but it had something about President Jimmy Carter erroneously including hydroelectric, wind, coal, oil, and gas with solar energy.

Although I had never given this subject any previous thought, I almost cried out loud, "Wait a minute! The president's right!" When I mentioned this to my dad, he said, "Doesn't oil come from dead fish!" So my dad's right, but how did the "fish" manage to live and grow in the first place, in order to become dead?

Mankind has been living throughout its history on stored solar energy! The sources of energy on which we depend the most, the fossil fuels, are finite. When we've used all the oil and coal, they'll be gone.

Perhaps gas continues to be manufactured naturally through the decomposition of our waste, but in no way to the extent it was with the decomposition of prehistoric animals which died in abundance.

All the "fossil fuels" are products of solar energy, and I had never thought of that before, but the president did!

Hydro power, which is created by the solar driven process of water being evaporated from the oceans by the power of the sun, and dropped on the land, being carried by rivers back to the oceans, can be converted to electricity by running the water through turbines to drive generators. That makes it solar energy, because without the power of the sun, it wouldn't happen. The same with wind power. It is the action of the sun throughout the day that causes the winds to move the air. It doesn't happen without the motivating power of the sun.

When I wrote a letter to Time Magazine telling them that the president was not "erroneous", and explaining why I believed that, I got a very nice little letter from a junior editor saying that "most people think of solar energy as being solar panels". Yeah, that's right! But Jimmy Carter was NOT WRONG!

At the time I wrote my letter, back in the late '70s, solar panels were just beginning to be taken seriously, and that's how people visualized "solar energy".

I look back on the 30+ years that we have been absolutely positive that our fossil fuels were becoming more scarce, and that as other countries began to want to develop to the standards set by the US, these fuels would be depleted at an accelerated rate.

So, Amy, you little junior editor from Time Magazine, I think you have it right, although you didn't say it in just this way.....our imagination is far and away too limited to really tackle the problems that face us.

After these 30+ years of so very little innovative thinking, it's time to look outside the box! I'd like to see some of us right here in the good ol' USA to really begin to "think outside the box", but will it be US, or will it be some of those from a "developing" country, who really "takes the bull by the horns".

Having heard numerous comments from fellow citizens condemning the extremely sensible "Cash for clunkers" program, I tend to suspect that it won't be US who has the imaginative ideas.



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What's the logic in that?

A lot has been screamed at President Obama about his health care reform giving free health care to illegal aliens.

President Obama says no health care reform bill being considered includes any care available to anyone in this country illegally. One representative from the right side of the room called the president a liar for saying that.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/politics/ ....

Is there really anybody in that screaming crowd unaware that hospitals are required to treat emergency cases without respect to ability to pay? Under the current system, this indigent care is paid for by the fees the hospital charges paying customers, whether through their insurance companies or from their pockets.

No hospital care is free, it's paid for!

Is there really anybody in that screaming crowd unaware that group insurance is less costly to the individual than individually purchased policies, and in fact, very few people can now afford individually purchased policies? The larger the group, the less expensive per individual. That's what groups are all about, so, screamers, would it not make sense to broaden the base of the group to make insurance more affordable?

You say that the government can't do anything efficiently, but if they were to compete with the free market by providing a single option, they'd run the efficient free market companies out of business? What's the logic in that?

Do you know that the government is "we the people", and if we don't like the government that we are, we have a vote to change it? If enough people agree on an issue, it becomes the will of the people. That's the way we make our wishes known. That's the way we MADE our wishes known last year.

You have a right to scream, but please use a little reason, and think about what it is you're screaming about, if it's not too much for you.

A footnote:
This entry was created as a Facebook note, but I've copied it here to "increase the base", because I'm just a little disturbed, and somewhat puzzled, by the childish behavior of our current vocal minority.

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