I went out to watch the sunrise yesterday morning and there it was, the bit of color I was looking for in an otherwise gray day. It was magnificent in its fleeting beauty. Once the sun actually came up it quickly went back into the cloud cover but the 45 minutes leading up to the sunrise was grand. I pondered on love, compassion and empathy during this splendid, albeit short, light show. After leaving the beach, the sun had gone back into the clouds and we were back to overcast. On the drive home, I stopped and got another cup of coffee and planned what I wanted to get accomplished. When I got home, I just wanted to get another shower and take a nap. I have taken six showers in the last two days, maybe a futile attempt to wash off this anger, it was not working but the hot water made me feel a little better as I was starting to get the sniffles. I jumped back in bed and caught about an hour nap. After getting up I took another shower and went with Bride to a Doctor appointment. After that, we went and had Mexican for lunch, yummy! When we got home, we sat around just BS’ing about Dad and then I decided I would go run some errands.
Later in the day I went out to get some Theraflu, I was taking it after the airplane ride, kind of a preventative measure against cough due to cold. Seems silly I know but I am weird so to me it does not seem so strange. So there I stand, comparing the Theraflu Brand with the Tylenol brand and those with the store brand, they all seem the same to me, same exact ingredients, same exact packaging and I bet they are all made by in the same factory. Anyway, I am reading the boxes and notice that I should not be taking this medication if I am pregnant or breast feeding, good to know information I thought. If either of those were to happen, this oratory would be quite different indeed. I also notice that it was not recommended that I operate heavy machinery, like that would be an option for 99.9% of the people taking this stuff – what a dumb thing to add to the warnings. There was also a list of reasons I should stop taking this medication as well, things like my pain, cough or nasal congestion gets worse. So there are a list of symptoms that are temporarily relieved, temporarily because eventually your body will take over and fight off whatever it might be that has you taking this stuff in the first place.
That got me to thinking, my current anger troubles are not any different than a possible cough due to cold. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a powder that could be dissolved in warm water that would take away the bitter feelings I was experiencing? Maybe I should not be taking this cold medication, maybe if I were to let the cold run its course I would not have a tolerance to the medication and my body might build up an immunity. Hummmmmm, I remember thinking. I got to thinking that maybe I wanted to be angry for a while and that might be why it was still with me. Maybe the anger I am feeling should not be alleviated with some quick and easy remedy. Maybe it should be experienced fully and understood for what it is and more importantly, what it could do to me if left unchecked.
I realized, standing there in the Walgreens, that like a cold, my anger is a temporary thing, it had a beginning, it had a middle and it will have an end, after which I would feel better. If we take a quick fix remedy for our illnesses maybe it takes away our need to experience the feelings. If we do not experience deeply the feelings that are the cause of our pain, how will our minds ever be able to build up the coping skills for the next time a tough situation presents itself? It was weird, standing there with a box of Theraflu in my hand, for over 5 minutes, is when the anger totally left me. It literally felt like a weight being lifted off my heart. I, at that moment, was able to forgive and let the poison out. I remember feeling so relieved and overcome with happiness and joy. As I left the Walgreens I stepped into the sunshine, it was the first time I had seen it since the morning and there were blue skies. Wow what a sign that my anger was over. Trust me there are still issues there that need to be resolved but the bitterness and anger were gone and boy did I feel better.
I am not sure what all the issues are between my Brother and I. One of the problems is a lack of communications skills, on both our parts I think. When we were growing up my Mom was very passive aggressive in the way she communicated and Dad was not an engaging conversationalist so learning communications skills at home was problematic at best. Of course, we did not realize that at the time so it all seemed normal, until we got old enough to know what was going on but by then the damage was done. Anyway, I have built this wall of silence between my brother and I, when you couple that monstrous wall with poor basic communication skills it is easy to see how we wound up where we are. As I watched the surf coming in this morning, I got to ponderin – have we let the waves wash up and reshape the beach too long? Has the constant pounding of the surf eroded any hope of repairing what was? Maybe that is part of our problem, he and I, that we are trying to fix something that is irreparable. Maybe it would be best to just put what we have down. Maybe we need to start from scratch, in a new relationship. Maybe the winds of time have produced a different landscape that will no longer support our previous relationship, but something can grow there, things can grow anywhere if given the proper nutrients.
As we walk the path of life we stop along the way, we pick things up and later, we either put them back down or we carry them with us, in our pockets. Some things are wonderfully glorious, like a positive outlook, cheerful disposition, loving kindness. Those are the ones we put in our pocket, they are keepers, cherished valuables that are with us for the whole trip. Other things we might pick up are anger, greed, resentment or bitterness. We must pick these things up on our journey but no one can make us carry them very far, no one except ourselves. We have to put them down after a time though, we must or we risk having our trip cut short. Those things will wear out our shoes (soul) before the trip is over and I cannot imagine a worse fate. I do not live my Brother’s life, I have no idea what pressures he has to deal with, what issues he may face on a daily basis. I do not know why he could not attend Dad’s funeral and ya know what, who am I, to judge his actions. I realized something else this morning, he was not who needed forgiveness, I was.
The sunrise this morning was GLORIOUS! Not a cloud in the sky, nothing but blue skies as I say to my sister when it snows in Ohio. I am so joyous that the color and happiness has returned to my days.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Why does family dysfunction have to boil up at the worst of times?
I cannot remember a time when I have been so angry! My Dad passed away on the 24th and his funeral service was held on the 26th but I am not mad about that. I am strangely at peace with that, more oratories will come later on that subject. I am mad at my Brother! I attended the funeral services in Ohio, got back home on the 28th, and went to watch the sunrise on the 29th. When I left in the morning it was very foggy and damp and just kind of icky, but I really needed the meditative and recuperative powers of watching the sunrise to help me work through my anger. For those of you who know me you know I am not an angry person so for me to be angry is a rare thing and I do not like the way it makes me feel – AT ALL! When I get upset I work it out and move on and rarely does it ever get raised to the level of anger at all, I have learned it is easier to diffuse it then to let it in to fester. Once anger is let in, it sits there like a cancerous tumor, eating away at the soul. Forgiveness is the only tool I have found that is capable of removing the cancer, and it has to be used like a well schooled surgeon might wield the latest and greatest laser scalpel. For me, the serene solitude of watching the sunrise on the beach is my laser scalpel and I was determined to perform the operation. I was ready to cut the anger out by figuring out how to forgive my brother for his actions, and inactions, now and during the time following my Mom’s death.
After much contemplation today, I have figured out that I am not so much mad at him for his actions but more for how he treated my Sister, during Dad’s death now and 221 days early when Mom died. I was really looking forward to the beach but when I arrived it was cold (76), damp, foggy and colorless, it was the perfect metaphor for how I was feeling – colorless. I stayed on through the morning and all the way past when I knew the sun came up and still nothing but gray clouds, it was miserable and I left. On my way home, the sun never did come out, perfect, I remember thinking the day would mirror my mood and it did all day long. I talked with Bride and I talked with Niece, it helped but I still had this boiling anger that I could not seem to extinguish. I took a nap in an attempt to escape the misery of having to think about it, that proved nothing more than a fitful period and I got back up. Later in the day I felt like having hot dogs, that is not something I want often. I went to the store and picked up some dogs, buns an onion and sweet coleslaw and fired the grill. The dogs were good but there was no respite from the pain I was enduring. Later still, I thought I might go at least try to glimpse the sun going down on the river. Bride and I got coffees and off we went, as we pulled up we got about 2 minutes of seeing a bit of color and the sun. It made me feel better immediately, not healed but at least able to see the path. That little splash of color, in an otherwise colorless day was very helpful for my mood.
My sister, by default, has had to deal with end of life issues for both my parents. She has been dealing with Dad longer than she did Mom but both needed assistance for the last years of their lives. A lot of work, and sometimes I feel guilty about that. Her and I have talked about this and when I left 26 years ago to start my life outside of Ohio I had no idea what I was leaving her with. I had no idea, at that time, what my decision would mean for our family all these years later. She is a Saint, when Mom died, I wrote an oratory to that effect as well. http://mroatmealsoratories.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-believe-my-sister-is-keeping-secret.html My Sister and I were at Kiser Lake State park when my Brother called, we had spent a few hours there talking about our parents and our weird childhood. I was also taking some pictures of the trees before all the leaves fell off. The conversation with him lasted about 4 minutes and it is the first time in my life I heard my sister drop the F Bomb, I was furious that he had pushed her to that point – NOT fair! In a way, I wish my brother would have been able to just bow down and say “thank you” to my sister for dealing with ALL the things she has dealt with over the last 5 years with Dad. But NO, instead he tells her that “maybe if I had a better relationship with Dad I might try harder to make it.” when she was trying to convince him to attend. They had moved the service time up about an hour, some last minute issue with the preacher and the gravediggers. I am not sure what the issue was but NO ONE else had any problem with the one-hour time change, no one except my Brother. As I listened to the conversation I was struck by his last words, “well you can tell the preacher and the gravediggers to go “F*&K” themselves”, nice I remember thinking.
When our Mom passed her wishes were to not have a service right away, and since she had a husband who was following those wishes, there was no sanctioned service. My brother felt strongly enough to make the trip to the town Mom lived and have a service, because he needed it. Fine with me, but it seemed to somehow turn ugly in the process and it took its emotional toll on both me and my sister. Well when our Dad died, we had a service and somehow the process, for him, turned ugly again. I have pondered it and spent hours contemplating about what he may have been thinking when he said what he said and did what he did. I came up with nothing - I cannot figure it out. What I do know is that on both occasions my brother made it about him and his needs and wants and not about our parents. I think what really has me mad is the fact that I allowed him to highjack the loss of both of our parents. For me, he made it about dealing with him and the petty crap that swirls around him instead of spending some quality time with family remembering and honoring our parents. I am not sure how I let that happen but it did and I am angry about it.
I know the answer is forgiveness, it is so easy to say and yet truly forgiving is one of life’s largest struggles. Bitterness, anger, resentment, unchecked rage and animosity are the tools of evil and I liken them to the dark side, in the Star Wars movies. If they are allowed to seep in, they make you feel powerful and strong but they are like acid that will eventually erode the person you are. It will turn a person into someone who is unrecognizable, when compared to their previous self. I have seen this happen to others and have vowed to never let life turn me to the dark side. I know I will resolve this anger and eventually forgive my Brother but this has been the biggest struggle of this kind in my life and I see that it will take some time. I look forward to the day because then I will be able to properly mourn the passing of my Mom and Dad, 221 days apart from each other. I know the time is coming, I felt the spark when I saw the sun going down this evening. This issue will soon be no more than a memory, etched in my mind, just like the moment of sun I saw at sunset tonight.
After much contemplation today, I have figured out that I am not so much mad at him for his actions but more for how he treated my Sister, during Dad’s death now and 221 days early when Mom died. I was really looking forward to the beach but when I arrived it was cold (76), damp, foggy and colorless, it was the perfect metaphor for how I was feeling – colorless. I stayed on through the morning and all the way past when I knew the sun came up and still nothing but gray clouds, it was miserable and I left. On my way home, the sun never did come out, perfect, I remember thinking the day would mirror my mood and it did all day long. I talked with Bride and I talked with Niece, it helped but I still had this boiling anger that I could not seem to extinguish. I took a nap in an attempt to escape the misery of having to think about it, that proved nothing more than a fitful period and I got back up. Later in the day I felt like having hot dogs, that is not something I want often. I went to the store and picked up some dogs, buns an onion and sweet coleslaw and fired the grill. The dogs were good but there was no respite from the pain I was enduring. Later still, I thought I might go at least try to glimpse the sun going down on the river. Bride and I got coffees and off we went, as we pulled up we got about 2 minutes of seeing a bit of color and the sun. It made me feel better immediately, not healed but at least able to see the path. That little splash of color, in an otherwise colorless day was very helpful for my mood.
My sister, by default, has had to deal with end of life issues for both my parents. She has been dealing with Dad longer than she did Mom but both needed assistance for the last years of their lives. A lot of work, and sometimes I feel guilty about that. Her and I have talked about this and when I left 26 years ago to start my life outside of Ohio I had no idea what I was leaving her with. I had no idea, at that time, what my decision would mean for our family all these years later. She is a Saint, when Mom died, I wrote an oratory to that effect as well. http://mroatmealsoratories.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-believe-my-sister-is-keeping-secret.html My Sister and I were at Kiser Lake State park when my Brother called, we had spent a few hours there talking about our parents and our weird childhood. I was also taking some pictures of the trees before all the leaves fell off. The conversation with him lasted about 4 minutes and it is the first time in my life I heard my sister drop the F Bomb, I was furious that he had pushed her to that point – NOT fair! In a way, I wish my brother would have been able to just bow down and say “thank you” to my sister for dealing with ALL the things she has dealt with over the last 5 years with Dad. But NO, instead he tells her that “maybe if I had a better relationship with Dad I might try harder to make it.” when she was trying to convince him to attend. They had moved the service time up about an hour, some last minute issue with the preacher and the gravediggers. I am not sure what the issue was but NO ONE else had any problem with the one-hour time change, no one except my Brother. As I listened to the conversation I was struck by his last words, “well you can tell the preacher and the gravediggers to go “F*&K” themselves”, nice I remember thinking.
When our Mom passed her wishes were to not have a service right away, and since she had a husband who was following those wishes, there was no sanctioned service. My brother felt strongly enough to make the trip to the town Mom lived and have a service, because he needed it. Fine with me, but it seemed to somehow turn ugly in the process and it took its emotional toll on both me and my sister. Well when our Dad died, we had a service and somehow the process, for him, turned ugly again. I have pondered it and spent hours contemplating about what he may have been thinking when he said what he said and did what he did. I came up with nothing - I cannot figure it out. What I do know is that on both occasions my brother made it about him and his needs and wants and not about our parents. I think what really has me mad is the fact that I allowed him to highjack the loss of both of our parents. For me, he made it about dealing with him and the petty crap that swirls around him instead of spending some quality time with family remembering and honoring our parents. I am not sure how I let that happen but it did and I am angry about it.
I know the answer is forgiveness, it is so easy to say and yet truly forgiving is one of life’s largest struggles. Bitterness, anger, resentment, unchecked rage and animosity are the tools of evil and I liken them to the dark side, in the Star Wars movies. If they are allowed to seep in, they make you feel powerful and strong but they are like acid that will eventually erode the person you are. It will turn a person into someone who is unrecognizable, when compared to their previous self. I have seen this happen to others and have vowed to never let life turn me to the dark side. I know I will resolve this anger and eventually forgive my Brother but this has been the biggest struggle of this kind in my life and I see that it will take some time. I look forward to the day because then I will be able to properly mourn the passing of my Mom and Dad, 221 days apart from each other. I know the time is coming, I felt the spark when I saw the sun going down this evening. This issue will soon be no more than a memory, etched in my mind, just like the moment of sun I saw at sunset tonight.
Friday, October 23, 2009
My outing to the toys stores - what a suprise!
The other day I decided I would go look around toy stores and see what was new and what I might need. You have to keep in mind, we do not have kids but my Bride tells me I am childlike and compares me to a 12-year-old pretty often. I thought I would start with the Toys-R-us close to our house. On my way home from the beach this morning I noticed that it was closed. I used Yahoo yellow pages and looked them up to see where they had moved. Seems lots of places just move because their facility is getting older and instead of sprucing the place up, they pull stakes and move onto a newer facility. Anyway, I looked and it listed three stores, the one that I knew was closed and two others. I called the number for the closed one anyway, maybe they kept the same number, NOT. This line has been disconnected I was told by the electronic voice on the other end of the line. Undeterred I call the next closest one, and that number was also out of service. I am beginning to think maybe Toy-R-Us has gone out of business. I call the third number, this one is in Orange Park, about a 40 minute drive for me but they are open for business and the store will be ready to receive customers at 10am. Great I think, I will make the trip because I want to look at the toys and see what I might need. I pack up my stuff and off I go to Orange Park.
I pull up to the store and to tell you the truth I am not sure if this store is open anymore either. It is in much the same disrepair as the store I saw in the morning, in need of a facelift and most assuredly needing a paint job. I wondered why they might let the store get to looking that bad, it was obvious that no maintenance had been done in quite some time. All that from my first impression and I was not even out of my jalopy yet – what was I in for? Once inside I was pleased that it was clean and well organized, not what I was expecting from with the exterior appearance looking so poor. I thought I would make the rounds, walk up and down each isle looking at all the goodies available to our youths today. To my delight, some of the first items I came across were the Lego kits. I was impressed with how far the simple little building block of my youth had come. We had Lego sets when I was a kid, lots of them actually but nothing like the ones that are available now. We were happy with the set that had little doors and windows and now they have Indiana Jones sets and even a Lego digital camera. I kid you not. They have a Lego digital camera, it costs 50 bucks and has enough storage capacity for 80 pictures. Seems weird that a toy that lets you add things together to build more than the sum of the parts would not have a Lego digital camera that could be expanded, with the additional add on, to hold more than 80 pictures. At least I would think.
As I traveled around the store I began to notice one inescapable fact, the marketing machines drive the entire kids toy market. I saw things like a miniature Cadillac Escalade with the big 24 inch wheels. I saw all manner of items that were driven by a movie, or in some cases the movies were being driven by the toys. This is a new revelation to me, not having kids I did not know. I saw X-men Wolverine action figures and Match Box cars from the movie Cars. I saw a 1/6 scale battery powered hummer, with the 24volt system that even had a freaking Ipod docking station in it. On the same isle I saw a guitar hero computer game right next to the actually guitars. I saw Star Trek characters that had one piece of the Enterprise, you would have had to buy like 20 action figures to get the all the pieces. Seems that a person named Dora is just about as popular as some character called sponge Bob, he wears square pants evidently and lives in a pineapple under the sea from what I can tell from the packaging. I did finally find one isle that had toys I could relate to in it. A Nerf football and an actual basketball, there were skateboards and Frisbees not much shelf space but there it all was. I had NO idea that parents were being targeted and barraged with a tactical marketing plan that would have made Operation Overlord look like child’s play. Operation Overlord was the name of the plan for the invasion of France during WWII. Anyway how can a parent withstand a child who sees the movie and then has to have the toys and then they go back and forth the other way – toy driving the movie and vice versa. To my surprise I could not find a GI Joe, I hear they are making a movie about him so I thought for sure he would be here – nothing. Another thing that struck me was the fact I was in there just about 5 minutes short of an hour and not one of the employees asked if I needed help and even more surprising to me, averted their eyes when I was leaving. No come again, no have a nice day, no eat shit and die – no nothing.
I left the store somewhat confused, I decided to go across the street to the mall and go toy looking over there. I entered through Sears and made my way onto the promenade, somewhat excited about the possibilities. I walked the length of that mall and the only thing close to a toy store was a place called the Game Stop. It was an electronic gaming store, so kinda a toy store. After wandering around in there I started wondering – WHY. I looked at video games to play golf and tennis, with elaborate controllers that provide feedback to the player. I saw exercise games, EA Sport active and a cardio workout, all done on a little foot pad thingamajig. I also saw one with a steering wheel so you could play speed racer and the need for speed. I even saw something called Wii speak, this allows you to talk to the people you are playing with. I was lost now, and even more pleased I did not have kids. I do not believe I could do it and highly admire those who are parents. I think I would have to be more like my parents were, if you wanted to learn how to play tennis or golf, we got a racket and a club and we went outside and played with them. For a workout we, well worked out. No expensive video game machine needed for that, outside – run and play and ride bike. So as for the steering wheel and speed racer, we built go-carts and mini-bikes and actually went outside and played with them. Now as far as the need for a Wii speak – there was no need, we were actually playing with our friends. They were right there, having fun with us and making fun of us if we messed up.
Bride and I like playing with toys, just like coloring in coloring books it is great fun. I wish we had sold our racecar set. We a bought a slot car track at a yard sale many years ago and we built it into quite a system. It required three power supplies, we had track running through three rooms, and we had some HOT cars. I added additional pins to keep them glued to the track, I modified the little motors windings to get more poot out of them. Doing so ruined the bearings much quicker but it was fun in the short term and the cars were cheap to replace. Not sure why we sold that set but I think I will start looking for another one.
If slot cars are not your gig, get a Nerf ball and play outside with it.
I pull up to the store and to tell you the truth I am not sure if this store is open anymore either. It is in much the same disrepair as the store I saw in the morning, in need of a facelift and most assuredly needing a paint job. I wondered why they might let the store get to looking that bad, it was obvious that no maintenance had been done in quite some time. All that from my first impression and I was not even out of my jalopy yet – what was I in for? Once inside I was pleased that it was clean and well organized, not what I was expecting from with the exterior appearance looking so poor. I thought I would make the rounds, walk up and down each isle looking at all the goodies available to our youths today. To my delight, some of the first items I came across were the Lego kits. I was impressed with how far the simple little building block of my youth had come. We had Lego sets when I was a kid, lots of them actually but nothing like the ones that are available now. We were happy with the set that had little doors and windows and now they have Indiana Jones sets and even a Lego digital camera. I kid you not. They have a Lego digital camera, it costs 50 bucks and has enough storage capacity for 80 pictures. Seems weird that a toy that lets you add things together to build more than the sum of the parts would not have a Lego digital camera that could be expanded, with the additional add on, to hold more than 80 pictures. At least I would think.
As I traveled around the store I began to notice one inescapable fact, the marketing machines drive the entire kids toy market. I saw things like a miniature Cadillac Escalade with the big 24 inch wheels. I saw all manner of items that were driven by a movie, or in some cases the movies were being driven by the toys. This is a new revelation to me, not having kids I did not know. I saw X-men Wolverine action figures and Match Box cars from the movie Cars. I saw a 1/6 scale battery powered hummer, with the 24volt system that even had a freaking Ipod docking station in it. On the same isle I saw a guitar hero computer game right next to the actually guitars. I saw Star Trek characters that had one piece of the Enterprise, you would have had to buy like 20 action figures to get the all the pieces. Seems that a person named Dora is just about as popular as some character called sponge Bob, he wears square pants evidently and lives in a pineapple under the sea from what I can tell from the packaging. I did finally find one isle that had toys I could relate to in it. A Nerf football and an actual basketball, there were skateboards and Frisbees not much shelf space but there it all was. I had NO idea that parents were being targeted and barraged with a tactical marketing plan that would have made Operation Overlord look like child’s play. Operation Overlord was the name of the plan for the invasion of France during WWII. Anyway how can a parent withstand a child who sees the movie and then has to have the toys and then they go back and forth the other way – toy driving the movie and vice versa. To my surprise I could not find a GI Joe, I hear they are making a movie about him so I thought for sure he would be here – nothing. Another thing that struck me was the fact I was in there just about 5 minutes short of an hour and not one of the employees asked if I needed help and even more surprising to me, averted their eyes when I was leaving. No come again, no have a nice day, no eat shit and die – no nothing.
I left the store somewhat confused, I decided to go across the street to the mall and go toy looking over there. I entered through Sears and made my way onto the promenade, somewhat excited about the possibilities. I walked the length of that mall and the only thing close to a toy store was a place called the Game Stop. It was an electronic gaming store, so kinda a toy store. After wandering around in there I started wondering – WHY. I looked at video games to play golf and tennis, with elaborate controllers that provide feedback to the player. I saw exercise games, EA Sport active and a cardio workout, all done on a little foot pad thingamajig. I also saw one with a steering wheel so you could play speed racer and the need for speed. I even saw something called Wii speak, this allows you to talk to the people you are playing with. I was lost now, and even more pleased I did not have kids. I do not believe I could do it and highly admire those who are parents. I think I would have to be more like my parents were, if you wanted to learn how to play tennis or golf, we got a racket and a club and we went outside and played with them. For a workout we, well worked out. No expensive video game machine needed for that, outside – run and play and ride bike. So as for the steering wheel and speed racer, we built go-carts and mini-bikes and actually went outside and played with them. Now as far as the need for a Wii speak – there was no need, we were actually playing with our friends. They were right there, having fun with us and making fun of us if we messed up.
Bride and I like playing with toys, just like coloring in coloring books it is great fun. I wish we had sold our racecar set. We a bought a slot car track at a yard sale many years ago and we built it into quite a system. It required three power supplies, we had track running through three rooms, and we had some HOT cars. I added additional pins to keep them glued to the track, I modified the little motors windings to get more poot out of them. Doing so ruined the bearings much quicker but it was fun in the short term and the cars were cheap to replace. Not sure why we sold that set but I think I will start looking for another one.
If slot cars are not your gig, get a Nerf ball and play outside with it.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The American Dream, what does that mean, and more importantly what has chasing it done to us?
The other day in an oratory about some friends who were looking for work, I mentioned the American Dream and this morning at the beach I was contemplating what that really means. The term was first coined in the 1930’s and I think it was a byproduct of the industrial revolution. Before that, the American Dream may have meant something a little different, I think. When old Thomas Jefferson penned the words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” I doubt he had ANY idea what they would come to mean a scant 233 years later. When James Truslow published his book, “The Epic of America” the dialog revolved around that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. Martin Luther King Jr. pulled from that sentiment when he spoke in his “I have a Dream” speech. Click here for the entire speech, it is a great speech. http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html The American Dream is not supposed to be about fancy cars and high wages and all the materialistic things money brings. It is supposed to be a dream about the social order, a social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to achieve to the fullest extent possible, limited only by their individual capabilities. Our situation or station in life should not be reached, or enjoyed, simply because of a fortuitous circumstance of birth or societal position.
I believe that this might be the sentiment that was considered when the founding fathers spoke, putting those words in our constitution. I think somehow our American Dream has been hijacked, hijacked to mean something else altogether. I feel it has come to mean “I got more stuff than you” and as George Carlin used to say, it is my stuff and your shit. Which is kinda the issue, why do we think we have to have more stuff, to show off? The words to that Waylon Jennings song, Lukenbach Texas keeps ringing in my head. He sings on about this successful life we're livin' got us feudin' like the Hatfields and McCoys. He talks about how busy they’ve been keepin' up with the Jones, four-car garage and we're still building on. Keeping up with the Joneses is a catchphrase, referring to the comparison to one's neighbor as a benchmark for social caste or the accumulation of material goods. To not keep up with the Joneses might be perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority and God forbid that! In the days of McMansions and overly extravagant vehicles and gigantic big screen televisions, I think we are missing the point of it all. It has changed from living the dream, a peaceful, relaxing and emotionally rewarding thing to a ridiculous rat race to accumulate a big assed pile of latest and greatest material things. I am not sure how it turned from one to the other, but change it did.
So what has this shift in understanding and meaning of the American Dream done to us? I, of course, have some thoughts on that. We have done it to ourselves, with our distorted view of what success is. Success, to me, is having my health, finding a great mate, leading a good life, being happy and being able to pay the bills. I look on in sheer amazement as I see parents passing this crazy assed, unrealistic drive to achieve to their kids. The pressure is applied even before kids get to kindergarten for petes sake! The expectations that parents are pushing on their children to be high achievers seems crazy to me. I do have to have a disclaimer here, I do not have kids but that will not stop me from passing judgment on those who do. So we set these little ones up for this when they are still tricycle motors and from my perspective we are robbing them of the chance to have a carefree childhood. When I was a kid, I do not remember that kind of pressure and I assure you there was no fast paced pre-school in my world. Although I bet if it would have been available and my Mom could have afforded it, my troublesome little ass would have been sent, just to get me out of her hair. I was allowed, and expected to be a kid when I was a kid. That’s right, allowed and expected! I was encouraged to play and daydream and ponder the meaning of stupid things. Why, because that is what helps a kid develop into a well-rounded adult. Developing into a well-rounded adult does not involve pressure from preschool.
Ya know what else was different, there were none of my childhood peers taking Ritalan and ADD and ADHD were taken care of with a big wooden paddle, my Mom had several. So how did we get here, where we place so much importance on the non-important things, when considering the bigger picture of happiness in life? The race for all the materialist things has made our lives about that race and not about the everyday moments that we should be enjoying. Simple things that still make me sit in amazement, things like the Sunrise or how a hibiscus flower slowly opens in the morning. We are so busy with other things that most of us seem to miss the point. It is about the ride, not the destination. The American Dream should be a way of living our life, we should truly live and enjoy every moment of every day. The American Dream should NOT be a place that we can reach, by being able to get into that McMansion or being able to afford (with credit) that new Mercedes. I took this week off to “douche my brain” as one of my friends called it. To look at the clouds and daydream. Daydreaming is so important and we, as a society do not encourage it nearly enough, if at all. Without day dreamers where would we be? What if Wernher von Braun had never day dreamed, we might not have had the Saturn 5 rocket that carried men to the moon. What if Martine Rothblatt had not daydreamed, we might not have satellite radio today. What if some others had unbelievable pressure applied before the age of 5, would Thomas Edison have given us so many of the common place items in our lives today? Would Bill Gate and Steve Jobs have given us all the cool gadgets and software to run them? I think NOT!
The current economic situation has forced us to place a higher importance on our jobs, many are without work and with cutbacks it is important to do a good job. There is a distinction there though that should not be overlooked. We are not what we do and we should not allow our work to define who we are. If the Dream is about a way to live our life, then that has nothing to do with work. I refuse to be defined by what I do, the easiest way to prove this to yourself is this. If you won the lotto would you go back to work? For me that would be a HELL NO! My work is a means to an end, I use my job to support my life. I TRY VERY hard not to get that confused. When we have ourselves completely wrapped up in what we do and some economic or other situation that is of no fault of our own comes along, it makes our lives very hard. Well I am glad I can afford all my bills and still have a roof over my head and most of all I am HAPPY, HAPPY that I can take some time off to stare at the clouds and daydream. I am HAPPY I can watch the sunrise and contemplate the meaning of life. I am HAPPY that I can look at flowers and still be amazed at “how does that happen.” I hope and pray most of all that I never lose my sense of wonder, my sense of wonder about any of it and all of it.
I have one parting thought about the chase for more stuff, which is what I think the American Dream has turned into. If you do not play, you can not loose, that’s right - If you do not play, you can not loose. So as long as we are not fertilizing the grass, everything else is butter cream icing on a big ole cake!
I believe that this might be the sentiment that was considered when the founding fathers spoke, putting those words in our constitution. I think somehow our American Dream has been hijacked, hijacked to mean something else altogether. I feel it has come to mean “I got more stuff than you” and as George Carlin used to say, it is my stuff and your shit. Which is kinda the issue, why do we think we have to have more stuff, to show off? The words to that Waylon Jennings song, Lukenbach Texas keeps ringing in my head. He sings on about this successful life we're livin' got us feudin' like the Hatfields and McCoys. He talks about how busy they’ve been keepin' up with the Jones, four-car garage and we're still building on. Keeping up with the Joneses is a catchphrase, referring to the comparison to one's neighbor as a benchmark for social caste or the accumulation of material goods. To not keep up with the Joneses might be perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority and God forbid that! In the days of McMansions and overly extravagant vehicles and gigantic big screen televisions, I think we are missing the point of it all. It has changed from living the dream, a peaceful, relaxing and emotionally rewarding thing to a ridiculous rat race to accumulate a big assed pile of latest and greatest material things. I am not sure how it turned from one to the other, but change it did.
So what has this shift in understanding and meaning of the American Dream done to us? I, of course, have some thoughts on that. We have done it to ourselves, with our distorted view of what success is. Success, to me, is having my health, finding a great mate, leading a good life, being happy and being able to pay the bills. I look on in sheer amazement as I see parents passing this crazy assed, unrealistic drive to achieve to their kids. The pressure is applied even before kids get to kindergarten for petes sake! The expectations that parents are pushing on their children to be high achievers seems crazy to me. I do have to have a disclaimer here, I do not have kids but that will not stop me from passing judgment on those who do. So we set these little ones up for this when they are still tricycle motors and from my perspective we are robbing them of the chance to have a carefree childhood. When I was a kid, I do not remember that kind of pressure and I assure you there was no fast paced pre-school in my world. Although I bet if it would have been available and my Mom could have afforded it, my troublesome little ass would have been sent, just to get me out of her hair. I was allowed, and expected to be a kid when I was a kid. That’s right, allowed and expected! I was encouraged to play and daydream and ponder the meaning of stupid things. Why, because that is what helps a kid develop into a well-rounded adult. Developing into a well-rounded adult does not involve pressure from preschool.
Ya know what else was different, there were none of my childhood peers taking Ritalan and ADD and ADHD were taken care of with a big wooden paddle, my Mom had several. So how did we get here, where we place so much importance on the non-important things, when considering the bigger picture of happiness in life? The race for all the materialist things has made our lives about that race and not about the everyday moments that we should be enjoying. Simple things that still make me sit in amazement, things like the Sunrise or how a hibiscus flower slowly opens in the morning. We are so busy with other things that most of us seem to miss the point. It is about the ride, not the destination. The American Dream should be a way of living our life, we should truly live and enjoy every moment of every day. The American Dream should NOT be a place that we can reach, by being able to get into that McMansion or being able to afford (with credit) that new Mercedes. I took this week off to “douche my brain” as one of my friends called it. To look at the clouds and daydream. Daydreaming is so important and we, as a society do not encourage it nearly enough, if at all. Without day dreamers where would we be? What if Wernher von Braun had never day dreamed, we might not have had the Saturn 5 rocket that carried men to the moon. What if Martine Rothblatt had not daydreamed, we might not have satellite radio today. What if some others had unbelievable pressure applied before the age of 5, would Thomas Edison have given us so many of the common place items in our lives today? Would Bill Gate and Steve Jobs have given us all the cool gadgets and software to run them? I think NOT!
The current economic situation has forced us to place a higher importance on our jobs, many are without work and with cutbacks it is important to do a good job. There is a distinction there though that should not be overlooked. We are not what we do and we should not allow our work to define who we are. If the Dream is about a way to live our life, then that has nothing to do with work. I refuse to be defined by what I do, the easiest way to prove this to yourself is this. If you won the lotto would you go back to work? For me that would be a HELL NO! My work is a means to an end, I use my job to support my life. I TRY VERY hard not to get that confused. When we have ourselves completely wrapped up in what we do and some economic or other situation that is of no fault of our own comes along, it makes our lives very hard. Well I am glad I can afford all my bills and still have a roof over my head and most of all I am HAPPY, HAPPY that I can take some time off to stare at the clouds and daydream. I am HAPPY I can watch the sunrise and contemplate the meaning of life. I am HAPPY that I can look at flowers and still be amazed at “how does that happen.” I hope and pray most of all that I never lose my sense of wonder, my sense of wonder about any of it and all of it.
I have one parting thought about the chase for more stuff, which is what I think the American Dream has turned into. If you do not play, you can not loose, that’s right - If you do not play, you can not loose. So as long as we are not fertilizing the grass, everything else is butter cream icing on a big ole cake!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Being able to fix things can sometimes get a person into wierd situations
So for those who know me, you know that I fix things. I have made a living fixing electronic things for the last 23 years and aside from a living, it is a hobby as well. I have designed and built things ranging from control systems for my entertainment system to rewiring my jalopy to use an alternator instead of a generator. Mostly they were necessities, the control system for the entertainment center came after Bride told me that she wanted to press no more than three buttons to do ANYTHING. Anything, from listen to the radio or television to watching a DVD or listening to Rhapsody from the computer, three clicks was all I had. That was a pain in ass actually but with a self designed and fabricated electrical control system and programmable remote controls that I had to develop and write macros for I was able to meet her seemingly unobtainable goal. I have worked on electronics ranging from multimillion dollar radar systems in the Navy to copiers and fax machines to cameras at a television station. I really like to fix electronic gadgets, I find it very challenging and VERY rewarding.
I also am good at fixing other things as well, I ran a “fix it” business for 4 years, Almost Anything Inc. I fixed all manner of household items. From dripping sinks to leaking toilets to doors that would not close. I worked on pool pump motors and leaking skylights. I fixed sprinklers systems and garage doors that would not open. I fixed doorbells, added electrical service to a back yard shed and installed new mailboxes, and yes there is a code on how they are to be installed. I have replaced rotten wood on the eves and shutters on the front, I have widened driveways and pressure washed sidewalks. I have painted whole houses and patched holes punched through the sheetrock. I learned a great deal about home repairs in that period and can say with a high level of confidence that there is nothing around the house I cannot fix. I also am pretty handy when it comes to working on cars and other engine driven devices. I took auto mechanics in vocational school while in high school, just one year though. I also fixed lawn mowers and when I was younger even had a couple of the racing lawn mowers that would tool along at 30-35 miles an hour. I am not sure why but I was blessed with an understanding about how things work. This was first made apparent when I was about 4 years old. My Mom’s vacuum quit working and I took it apart and I was pretty sure the motor would work. I paid my Sister .25 cents to plug it in, and she, for some unknown reason, did. It immediately came on and chewed through the newspaper it was sitting on like a wood chipper might tear through small softwood. Scared her to death and she swore she would never do anything else like that for me, and hasn’t.
So I tell you all of that as a prelude to this part. I get home from the other day and my Niece is working on her homework. It was not long into the conversation and I can tell she has something she wants to tell or ask me. She goes on to tell me about her teacher has a printer that is broken and that he can not get anyone to fix it, he had taken it to a couple of places. She tells me how much he loves the printer and does not want to go get another one. She tells me that it is just a couple of little pieces of plastic that are broken off and then she drops the bomb. She tells me that while she is talking to him she tells him that her uncle can fix anything and that he could fix this printer. She tells me that they talk about it for a few minutes, a few minutes in which he asks several times, are you sure it is OK? To which she replies, sure he’s cool and will have no problems with it, volunteering my services without as much as a heads up. He even asks her, “are you sure you do not want to ask him first”? She says, NO. Well, I immediatly tell her that I will not do it, although I know I will at least look at it I am not going to let her know that at this early stage. She needs to sweat a little, volunteering my services without asking huh, we will see about that. I then ask her to describe the problem again to me, maybe it is something simple that I can just have her tell him what to do. Well that was NOT the case at all.
So the next day I get an email from her telling me that they have talked and she says “And he forgot the printer ;) I won't bring it up to him again!” Great I remember thinking, I am not going to have deal with some piece of crap busted disposable printer. Well it was only a couple of hours later when I received the following word, by the way, the printer is in my trunk, I could not help but think - what has happened. Apparently he did remember. We just happened to be parked next to each other she tells me and when school was out, he remembered. I'm so sorry and feel very bad she goes on to explain. She then puts the icing on the cake with the comment, and i quote here "Having thought about my idiotic actions, I will never do that ever again.” Well, obviously that made me laugh out loud, so it did not seem as bad as before, she had learned from this experience and that was the important thing. So she brings the printer in along with a ziplock baggy containing two parts, I could tell right away that they were from the paper path so I knew where my initial investigation would start. After poking around for only about 2 minutes I found the third piece of the paper feed assembly. These particular parts had to do with selecting the 8x11 sheets of paper or the photo sized pieces of glossy paper. In one mode it allowed the paper through and the other it stopped the paper, which allowed the photo paper to make it way in to the print area of the machine. It was an easy diagnosis.
Getting to the place where these parts needed to be reinstalled proved more difficult. None of the parts were actually broken, it appears that some paper got jammed and when it was forcibly removed it snapped these bits from there prescribed locations. It was going to be a matter of simply snapping them back into place. I wondered why no one wanted to fix the thing, the problem seemed simple enough – WRONG! I spent about 30 minutes taking this silly HP printer apart in order to get to the paper path where I needed to install the parts. It was at that time that I realized why no one wanted to fix this printer, it was a hundred dollar printer and it was going to take every bit of 2 hours to get it apart, repaired and put back together. It was not worth it, not even if it were my printer and since I was most likely not going to be compensated for it, it was most assuredly not worth it. I told my Niece and she at first she seemed a bit disappointed but when I explained she seemed to understand. Folks, your 100 dollar photo printer stops working, throw it away and buy new one, or at least do not bring it to me to repair. Besides that, Walgreens will print them out for you, cheap and at a much higher quality than a 100 dollar photo printer will ever produce.
I also am good at fixing other things as well, I ran a “fix it” business for 4 years, Almost Anything Inc. I fixed all manner of household items. From dripping sinks to leaking toilets to doors that would not close. I worked on pool pump motors and leaking skylights. I fixed sprinklers systems and garage doors that would not open. I fixed doorbells, added electrical service to a back yard shed and installed new mailboxes, and yes there is a code on how they are to be installed. I have replaced rotten wood on the eves and shutters on the front, I have widened driveways and pressure washed sidewalks. I have painted whole houses and patched holes punched through the sheetrock. I learned a great deal about home repairs in that period and can say with a high level of confidence that there is nothing around the house I cannot fix. I also am pretty handy when it comes to working on cars and other engine driven devices. I took auto mechanics in vocational school while in high school, just one year though. I also fixed lawn mowers and when I was younger even had a couple of the racing lawn mowers that would tool along at 30-35 miles an hour. I am not sure why but I was blessed with an understanding about how things work. This was first made apparent when I was about 4 years old. My Mom’s vacuum quit working and I took it apart and I was pretty sure the motor would work. I paid my Sister .25 cents to plug it in, and she, for some unknown reason, did. It immediately came on and chewed through the newspaper it was sitting on like a wood chipper might tear through small softwood. Scared her to death and she swore she would never do anything else like that for me, and hasn’t.
So I tell you all of that as a prelude to this part. I get home from the other day and my Niece is working on her homework. It was not long into the conversation and I can tell she has something she wants to tell or ask me. She goes on to tell me about her teacher has a printer that is broken and that he can not get anyone to fix it, he had taken it to a couple of places. She tells me how much he loves the printer and does not want to go get another one. She tells me that it is just a couple of little pieces of plastic that are broken off and then she drops the bomb. She tells me that while she is talking to him she tells him that her uncle can fix anything and that he could fix this printer. She tells me that they talk about it for a few minutes, a few minutes in which he asks several times, are you sure it is OK? To which she replies, sure he’s cool and will have no problems with it, volunteering my services without as much as a heads up. He even asks her, “are you sure you do not want to ask him first”? She says, NO. Well, I immediatly tell her that I will not do it, although I know I will at least look at it I am not going to let her know that at this early stage. She needs to sweat a little, volunteering my services without asking huh, we will see about that. I then ask her to describe the problem again to me, maybe it is something simple that I can just have her tell him what to do. Well that was NOT the case at all.
So the next day I get an email from her telling me that they have talked and she says “And he forgot the printer ;) I won't bring it up to him again!” Great I remember thinking, I am not going to have deal with some piece of crap busted disposable printer. Well it was only a couple of hours later when I received the following word, by the way, the printer is in my trunk, I could not help but think - what has happened. Apparently he did remember. We just happened to be parked next to each other she tells me and when school was out, he remembered. I'm so sorry and feel very bad she goes on to explain. She then puts the icing on the cake with the comment, and i quote here "Having thought about my idiotic actions, I will never do that ever again.” Well, obviously that made me laugh out loud, so it did not seem as bad as before, she had learned from this experience and that was the important thing. So she brings the printer in along with a ziplock baggy containing two parts, I could tell right away that they were from the paper path so I knew where my initial investigation would start. After poking around for only about 2 minutes I found the third piece of the paper feed assembly. These particular parts had to do with selecting the 8x11 sheets of paper or the photo sized pieces of glossy paper. In one mode it allowed the paper through and the other it stopped the paper, which allowed the photo paper to make it way in to the print area of the machine. It was an easy diagnosis.
Getting to the place where these parts needed to be reinstalled proved more difficult. None of the parts were actually broken, it appears that some paper got jammed and when it was forcibly removed it snapped these bits from there prescribed locations. It was going to be a matter of simply snapping them back into place. I wondered why no one wanted to fix the thing, the problem seemed simple enough – WRONG! I spent about 30 minutes taking this silly HP printer apart in order to get to the paper path where I needed to install the parts. It was at that time that I realized why no one wanted to fix this printer, it was a hundred dollar printer and it was going to take every bit of 2 hours to get it apart, repaired and put back together. It was not worth it, not even if it were my printer and since I was most likely not going to be compensated for it, it was most assuredly not worth it. I told my Niece and she at first she seemed a bit disappointed but when I explained she seemed to understand. Folks, your 100 dollar photo printer stops working, throw it away and buy new one, or at least do not bring it to me to repair. Besides that, Walgreens will print them out for you, cheap and at a much higher quality than a 100 dollar photo printer will ever produce.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The job market sucks right now and I feel for my friends who are stuck in that situation - and hurting!
We do not need to look very far into our rolodex of friends to know that times are tough right now. Tough is an understatement, it freaking SUCKS! I have several friends who are at their wits end trying to figure out what to do for employment. People who are confident and proud, folks who are getting worn down by the seemingly overwhelming, never ending shittyness of the current economic situation. Now I know fair is what you pay to get on a bus and where we go to get funnel cakes, but life for most in the United States just does not seem fair lately. That is, unless you are resting at the top of the socioeconomic pile, and the top of that particular pile is decidedly not where most of us are sitting. I fear that it will be years before the economy turns around, that will make the road a long hard one. With the gap between rich and poor growing ever wider, I sometimes wonder if the American Dream is a reality. Or, is it just that, a dream, that is being dangled like a chocolate covered pretzel from the stick of what corporate greed has turned capitalism into? We must believe that we can make it to the top. If we do not believe that, than none of the system works correctly. The American Dream, what is that – really? The American dream is a national philosophy that the United States holds dear - a set of democratic ideals, chiefly an ideal that promises prosperity for its all of its people. James Adams first expressed the sentiment in 1931, we the citizenry, of every rank, feel that we can achieve a better, richer, and happier lives. I wonder sometimes if that is not just a quaint little saying from yesteryear, perpetuated by God know who and for what reason. Maybe perpetuated from days when it was actually true, hell maybe it was never true and we have all been duped all along and did not even know it.
Anyway, I count my blessing every day that I am still employed, underemployed I suspect, but employed all the same. We have, where I work, had cutbacks. Staff reductions, pay cuts for salaried employees and reduction in workday length for the hourly folks, a polite way to say pay cut. I do not know anyone that the current situation has not touched in some way or another. We struggle in my house as well, Bride is not medically able to work right now. For a household where she was the sometimes the primary bread winner that loss of income has been an enlightening experience to say the least. Regardless of the reason for the loss of one, or more, of the family incomes, it presents MANY challenges. In the case of one of my friends, he lost his position and then later on his wife lost her position, a worse hell I can not imagine. Bride and I struggle but with only a house payment and utilities to worry about, it is at least doable. No new cars in our budget and no credit cards allowed. We were overly cautious during the boom years and looking back, I am SO glad of that.
So where does it end? I do not know, but I do know that I am MAD that my friends are struggling. Strong and independent folks who are getting worn down. I know the right things will come along for them but I do not know when. I pray that it comes before they lose their homes and other possessions to the machine that seems to be eating our economy. I know it is supposed to be over and I suppose for some it is, but we the middle class seem to be, like always, carrying the burdens of the ones at the top and the bottom. In a time when we can least afford it we are being saddled with even more burdens in the form of new taxes and fees from the local, state and federal level. I heard the other day that they are looking at taxing pig and cow farmers for the methane emissions of their livestock. To that I say WTFO!!!!! Since cow farting is the leading methane producer on the PLANET, I suspect that any fee will likely break many a farmer. And not because of the fee, they will pass that cost along to us. They will break because I do not suspect we will be willing to pay 12 bucks for a Big Mac. What are our elected representatives thinking, taxing cow farts, that is the answer?? UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! And we allow that, even more UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!
I am one who still believes that things would be no different if the other party had made it to office last year. Ya know what pisses me off, the fact that in the land of free and home of the brave that my choices were the ones I had. Could not our country put forth a better selection for me to choose from? I have been trying to figure out exactly what that means to me, McCain or Obama, I mean come on? Why were there not any better choices? Both men have outstanding qualities and are good people at their core, I believe, but for leader of the free world, under qualified. I just do not know anymore. I guess I am just ranting now, this was supposed to be about my friends who are job hunting.
What will this all look like in another year, where will we be? Will the unemployment rate be below 9% or over 15%, will the cost of gas be $2.75 or 6 bucks a gallon? Will the cost of a steak and bacon cost us less than 10 bucks or more? Will we, as a country, be more united? Will we be aimlessly wandering the wilderness or will we turn the ship around? Will we be able to stop talking about things that matter little to none to most normal folks and start actually dealing with the real issues? Will we be able to force real changes in government by taking our righteous indignation into the voting booth? I do not know the answers to any of those questions but I do know that I will continue to pray for my friends who are looking for stable employment. I will continue to pray for my friends who are trying to sell their homes to move to somewhere with more promise. And I will pray for my friends who are still holding on to those bitter feelings about where they have found themselves. I will continue to pray for my numbers to come through on the lotto, because if they do hit I will be able to help my friends through this, the most terrible times in a long time that we are currently sharing. Today’s oratory may seem a little more negative than normal, it is just that I really feel for my friends, who are suffering through very tough times and it hurts my heart to think about it.
Please try to remember, if they ain’t shoveling dirt on your faces, the rest is gravy so keep smiling.
Anyway, I count my blessing every day that I am still employed, underemployed I suspect, but employed all the same. We have, where I work, had cutbacks. Staff reductions, pay cuts for salaried employees and reduction in workday length for the hourly folks, a polite way to say pay cut. I do not know anyone that the current situation has not touched in some way or another. We struggle in my house as well, Bride is not medically able to work right now. For a household where she was the sometimes the primary bread winner that loss of income has been an enlightening experience to say the least. Regardless of the reason for the loss of one, or more, of the family incomes, it presents MANY challenges. In the case of one of my friends, he lost his position and then later on his wife lost her position, a worse hell I can not imagine. Bride and I struggle but with only a house payment and utilities to worry about, it is at least doable. No new cars in our budget and no credit cards allowed. We were overly cautious during the boom years and looking back, I am SO glad of that.
So where does it end? I do not know, but I do know that I am MAD that my friends are struggling. Strong and independent folks who are getting worn down. I know the right things will come along for them but I do not know when. I pray that it comes before they lose their homes and other possessions to the machine that seems to be eating our economy. I know it is supposed to be over and I suppose for some it is, but we the middle class seem to be, like always, carrying the burdens of the ones at the top and the bottom. In a time when we can least afford it we are being saddled with even more burdens in the form of new taxes and fees from the local, state and federal level. I heard the other day that they are looking at taxing pig and cow farmers for the methane emissions of their livestock. To that I say WTFO!!!!! Since cow farting is the leading methane producer on the PLANET, I suspect that any fee will likely break many a farmer. And not because of the fee, they will pass that cost along to us. They will break because I do not suspect we will be willing to pay 12 bucks for a Big Mac. What are our elected representatives thinking, taxing cow farts, that is the answer?? UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! And we allow that, even more UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!
I am one who still believes that things would be no different if the other party had made it to office last year. Ya know what pisses me off, the fact that in the land of free and home of the brave that my choices were the ones I had. Could not our country put forth a better selection for me to choose from? I have been trying to figure out exactly what that means to me, McCain or Obama, I mean come on? Why were there not any better choices? Both men have outstanding qualities and are good people at their core, I believe, but for leader of the free world, under qualified. I just do not know anymore. I guess I am just ranting now, this was supposed to be about my friends who are job hunting.
What will this all look like in another year, where will we be? Will the unemployment rate be below 9% or over 15%, will the cost of gas be $2.75 or 6 bucks a gallon? Will the cost of a steak and bacon cost us less than 10 bucks or more? Will we, as a country, be more united? Will we be aimlessly wandering the wilderness or will we turn the ship around? Will we be able to stop talking about things that matter little to none to most normal folks and start actually dealing with the real issues? Will we be able to force real changes in government by taking our righteous indignation into the voting booth? I do not know the answers to any of those questions but I do know that I will continue to pray for my friends who are looking for stable employment. I will continue to pray for my friends who are trying to sell their homes to move to somewhere with more promise. And I will pray for my friends who are still holding on to those bitter feelings about where they have found themselves. I will continue to pray for my numbers to come through on the lotto, because if they do hit I will be able to help my friends through this, the most terrible times in a long time that we are currently sharing. Today’s oratory may seem a little more negative than normal, it is just that I really feel for my friends, who are suffering through very tough times and it hurts my heart to think about it.
Please try to remember, if they ain’t shoveling dirt on your faces, the rest is gravy so keep smiling.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Where do we find our inner peace?
So what does internal peace mean for you? Does it mean a place of shelter where we can go and relax to get away from stressful situations? Is it a place of safety, away from the all the nervous tensions and cares of the world? Or does it refer to a place where we can be by our self, where we can take off the facade we erect when we go out into the world, the facade that many of us wear throughout the day so that people won’t know how we really feel? Can we only get to that peaceful place while we are in the safe surroundings of a specific physical location? Can we, no matter the shit storm swirling around us, go there anytime we want to and any place we might be hanging out? If you refer to Merriam Webster, internal is defined as: having to do with or situated inside of the body; of relating to, or existing within the mind. Peace is defined as: a state of calm and quiet; freedom from disturbing thoughts; and an agreement to end hostilities. For this rambling I will combine the two a bit and define internal peace as: a deep understanding of who and what we are, our true selves with a culmination resulting in a state of tranquility, harmony and balance within our self.
Internal peace is a BIG part of my life, a code I live by, if you will, and in this case, you should. My internal peace is very important to me and that is a big part of why I go to the beach and watch the sunrise. I use that time to contemplate my reactions to my surroundings, our lives are really nothing more than our reaction to the situations we encounter each moment of each day. We ALWAYS have the choice about how we react, if things are going poorly, whatever the situation, we can still chose to look for the positive of that situation, and EVERY situation has a positive in it. It takes practice and training to look for and see the positives, but they are there. If we chose to react poorly and blame someone or something for the situation we find ourselves in it tends to be self defeating, in effect it reduces our ability to look for the good. Once the sea of negativity washes over us, it is challenging to wash all that mess off and keep our head above the water. But wash it off we must, put on our life preserver if we stay with the analogy. Life is a bitch, it requires work – that washing off is not a one time deal, it is just like maintaining our teeth, a minimum of two scrubbings a day on the chompers will keep them functional for a long time. Each person has a different capacity for life, some will be scrubbing the negativity off 5 times a day, others a couple times a week and others maybe longer and some never realize they have to scrub at all – poor souls. It is not much different than the colon cleanse commercial I saw last night, we need to flush away the toxins, for internal peace the toxins are the negative outlooks and feelings we, for some reason, cultivate and harbor. They need purged, just like the potentially impacted and toxic fecal matter the colon cleanse product spoke about in the commercial – gross I know but that is what they said.
Over my life I have developed some techniques for helping me get through the days and maintain balance in my life. I think it is critical that we be able to honestly evaluate ourselves, that is much harder than it sounds at first. We must be able to listen to our self, in all matters good - bad or indifferent. On top of that we must be able to hear what we are saying, again sounds easy – sometimes not so much. We also must accept responsibility for our feelings, they are ours and ours alone. NO ONE can make us feel anything. It is 100% how we choose to feel, based on what and how we interpret any given situation. Blaming others gives away our power and when we feel like victims, we tend to react with anger and resentment - that solves nothing and it actually is counterproductive to finding internal peace. We should be careful about how harshly we judge ourselves, no one is perfect and we tend to forget that sometimes, especially when evaluating ourselves. We are not perfect and learning to accept ourselves for who we are, with all our strengths AND weaknesses will foster a calming peacefulness, at least it does for me. We do not have to be and will NEVER be perfect at anything we can do. When we strive for perfection, the exercise ends in failure, every time. When striving for perfection it creates feelings of not being good enough and when we do not attain it, it creates feelings of inadequacy. Why do we set ourselves up like that? When feeling inadequate we tend to be an even harder judge and no matter what we do, it will never be good enough. What BS, be nice to yourself, we should be your own best friend – first and foremost.
For any of this to work we also have to be able to let go of the past! The past is over and we did the best we could with what we had and knew at the time. And ya know what, even if we did not do our best, it is too late now to go back and do anything about it. If our past is full of painful memories, regrets and sorry, we have got to find a way to forgive ourselves and let it go. Without that forgiveness, the struggle to get past the past will consume us. Forgiveness does not mean we should condone the bad behavior of our past. It means we have released the memories and feelings so we can use our inner power to heal the wounds and provide ourselves with inner peace. We also need to learn to relax. We mostly seem to be uptight much of the time. That is why I go to the beach so often, to relax. There are many, many ways to stay in balance and harmony though. Practicing meditation as a daily ritual, reading, exercising, walking, or creating a sacred space where we can spend contemplating the good things in our life. Anything or anywhere that will allow us not to focus exclusively on what is wrong and to begin to see ourselves as being in full control of our life will work. This next trick is very helpful for me, we must practice gratitude – own the attitude of gratitude. When we start to pay attention to our surroundings and the plight of all humans on the planet, it will increase our energy and move our thoughts to peace, love, and abundance. Practicing the attitude of gratitude will remind us how blessed we are and multiply our odds for finding inner peace.
If you know me at all, you have heard me say, it is what it is. Good, bad or indifferent, things are what they are, and all we have is our reaction to them. I find it much easier to operate from the place of peace. Things are not inherently good, bad or indifferent – our reactions to those events are what cement the label to them. Let me say that again because that is the most important point, things are not inherently good, bad or indifferent – our reactions to those events are what cement the label to them. If we ride the emotional roller coaster of life, than we are going to have our emotion lives going up, down, over head, upside down and every other direction the new coasters will go. We tend to approach the coaster as if it were a new ride and we are unaware of the twists and turns that are coming. If we accept the fact that roller coasters are FULL of twists and turns and most are scary we can than look at the coaster with the knowledge that we know the ride may be rough.
Life is a bitch, if you let it be one. OR, OR we can take control of our life and live it like we mean it!
Internal peace is a BIG part of my life, a code I live by, if you will, and in this case, you should. My internal peace is very important to me and that is a big part of why I go to the beach and watch the sunrise. I use that time to contemplate my reactions to my surroundings, our lives are really nothing more than our reaction to the situations we encounter each moment of each day. We ALWAYS have the choice about how we react, if things are going poorly, whatever the situation, we can still chose to look for the positive of that situation, and EVERY situation has a positive in it. It takes practice and training to look for and see the positives, but they are there. If we chose to react poorly and blame someone or something for the situation we find ourselves in it tends to be self defeating, in effect it reduces our ability to look for the good. Once the sea of negativity washes over us, it is challenging to wash all that mess off and keep our head above the water. But wash it off we must, put on our life preserver if we stay with the analogy. Life is a bitch, it requires work – that washing off is not a one time deal, it is just like maintaining our teeth, a minimum of two scrubbings a day on the chompers will keep them functional for a long time. Each person has a different capacity for life, some will be scrubbing the negativity off 5 times a day, others a couple times a week and others maybe longer and some never realize they have to scrub at all – poor souls. It is not much different than the colon cleanse commercial I saw last night, we need to flush away the toxins, for internal peace the toxins are the negative outlooks and feelings we, for some reason, cultivate and harbor. They need purged, just like the potentially impacted and toxic fecal matter the colon cleanse product spoke about in the commercial – gross I know but that is what they said.
Over my life I have developed some techniques for helping me get through the days and maintain balance in my life. I think it is critical that we be able to honestly evaluate ourselves, that is much harder than it sounds at first. We must be able to listen to our self, in all matters good - bad or indifferent. On top of that we must be able to hear what we are saying, again sounds easy – sometimes not so much. We also must accept responsibility for our feelings, they are ours and ours alone. NO ONE can make us feel anything. It is 100% how we choose to feel, based on what and how we interpret any given situation. Blaming others gives away our power and when we feel like victims, we tend to react with anger and resentment - that solves nothing and it actually is counterproductive to finding internal peace. We should be careful about how harshly we judge ourselves, no one is perfect and we tend to forget that sometimes, especially when evaluating ourselves. We are not perfect and learning to accept ourselves for who we are, with all our strengths AND weaknesses will foster a calming peacefulness, at least it does for me. We do not have to be and will NEVER be perfect at anything we can do. When we strive for perfection, the exercise ends in failure, every time. When striving for perfection it creates feelings of not being good enough and when we do not attain it, it creates feelings of inadequacy. Why do we set ourselves up like that? When feeling inadequate we tend to be an even harder judge and no matter what we do, it will never be good enough. What BS, be nice to yourself, we should be your own best friend – first and foremost.
For any of this to work we also have to be able to let go of the past! The past is over and we did the best we could with what we had and knew at the time. And ya know what, even if we did not do our best, it is too late now to go back and do anything about it. If our past is full of painful memories, regrets and sorry, we have got to find a way to forgive ourselves and let it go. Without that forgiveness, the struggle to get past the past will consume us. Forgiveness does not mean we should condone the bad behavior of our past. It means we have released the memories and feelings so we can use our inner power to heal the wounds and provide ourselves with inner peace. We also need to learn to relax. We mostly seem to be uptight much of the time. That is why I go to the beach so often, to relax. There are many, many ways to stay in balance and harmony though. Practicing meditation as a daily ritual, reading, exercising, walking, or creating a sacred space where we can spend contemplating the good things in our life. Anything or anywhere that will allow us not to focus exclusively on what is wrong and to begin to see ourselves as being in full control of our life will work. This next trick is very helpful for me, we must practice gratitude – own the attitude of gratitude. When we start to pay attention to our surroundings and the plight of all humans on the planet, it will increase our energy and move our thoughts to peace, love, and abundance. Practicing the attitude of gratitude will remind us how blessed we are and multiply our odds for finding inner peace.
If you know me at all, you have heard me say, it is what it is. Good, bad or indifferent, things are what they are, and all we have is our reaction to them. I find it much easier to operate from the place of peace. Things are not inherently good, bad or indifferent – our reactions to those events are what cement the label to them. Let me say that again because that is the most important point, things are not inherently good, bad or indifferent – our reactions to those events are what cement the label to them. If we ride the emotional roller coaster of life, than we are going to have our emotion lives going up, down, over head, upside down and every other direction the new coasters will go. We tend to approach the coaster as if it were a new ride and we are unaware of the twists and turns that are coming. If we accept the fact that roller coasters are FULL of twists and turns and most are scary we can than look at the coaster with the knowledge that we know the ride may be rough.
Life is a bitch, if you let it be one. OR, OR we can take control of our life and live it like we mean it!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Today I witnessed someone I believe was muttering - I’m as mad as hell, and I am not going to take this anymore!
Peter Finch first uttered those words while he was playing Howard Beale in the 1976 movie “Network”, the satirical film about a fictional television network. I did not realize that he won the Oscar posthumously for that role. Here is a bit of the dialog leading up to that line. “I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE! Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it, I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
Kinda timely and ironic when I read those words to explain the quote. Now I am not sure if we need to worry about “punks are running wild in the streets” or the “Russians” anymore but boy doesn’t some of that fit, 33 years after that movie debuted. So after all that I almost forgot why I started this blog. Today on my way home from work I witnessed something that I was almost afraid to turn around to see if I saw what I thought I saw. Much to the chagrin of Bride, I do that, turn around and go look at things again to see if I did see what I thought I saw. Everything from flowers and lawns to Bogo’s on the Blue bell to a view of the sunrise or sunset that caught my eye from a certain perspective. Anyway today I saw a well dressed man crossing the parking lot of a strip mall towards the Dollar Store, he was walking like Buford Pusser might while tracking the bad guys. The whole scene was incongruent, a suit and tie wearing man, walking away from a Lincoln, looking like someone had just wronged him and everyone he knew. Oh yeah by the way he was carrying a baseball bat. I am pretty sure he was mad as hell and I was positive he was not going to take it anymore. I have learned the hard way to not mess with a pissed off man with a ball bat, although in my altercation the dude was not wearing a suit but the important thing was the bat. I drove on not really wanting to know who or what he was pissed off at.
As I drove home I could not help but wonder what it was. I was pretty sure he was headed to the Dollar Store so that got me to thinking what wrong could be perpetrated against a man in the Dollar Store? At first I thought maybe it had to do with the very bat he was toting back, was it not exactly as advertised? Was it possibly not the correct weight and maybe his son got kicked off the team for cheating because the bat was to heavy or maybe too light? I decided that could be it but it was more likely that it was something else, I am not sure why but I did. I wondered, maybe it could be he realized that the rolls of toilet paper had only 178 sheets per roll instead of 200 like the ones sold in the grocery stores. What if it was his wife found that the shampoo made her hair fall out because it was made in China and they found there to be some oddball chemical in there that ruined her follicles. Nothing worse than a follicly challenged wife to deal with, especially because his dumb ass bought the Prell knock off trying to save a few bucks, talk about something that would keep a man in the dog house. I am just saying! I wonder if by chance that the clerk had actually been rude to his wife, who did the initial shopping and he was going to make the unspeakable wrong committed against his wife right again. Could it be that the pair of size 9 shoes he bought were actually not even both the same size, I mean improperly fitting footwear can sure put me in a bad mood. I am not sure what the transgression was and when I related the story to Bride upon my arrival home she said we have to watch the 5 o’clock news, we may find out the answers to all my questions.
Well it was not to be, no story about a madman at the Dollar Store, I had mixed emotions really – I was glad no one was injured but sad that I will never know what the real story was. I guess it doesn’t matter because my possible stories are probably way better than the real one anyway. Like the original dialog from the movie, I too feel that I am mad as hell and not sure if I want to take it anymore. It is not the punks or the Russians I am worried about, sadly it is our own governments out of control antics that scare me the most. The inability to have a dialog that is working towards problem resolution is going to become more and more problematic as they seemly continue to bicker about inconsequential bullshit that revolves around party lines and political alliances and we seem to be the ones getting spun while we sit. So this is what I want you to do, I want you to get mad - All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!
There was no story at 11 about the madman I saw with the ball bat so maybe it was just a benign sighting that I blew out of proportion.
if you need an explanation about what a Bogo on the Blue Bell is here it is
http://mroatmealsoratories.blogspot.com/2009/08/so-this-oratory-is-going-to-explain.html
Kinda timely and ironic when I read those words to explain the quote. Now I am not sure if we need to worry about “punks are running wild in the streets” or the “Russians” anymore but boy doesn’t some of that fit, 33 years after that movie debuted. So after all that I almost forgot why I started this blog. Today on my way home from work I witnessed something that I was almost afraid to turn around to see if I saw what I thought I saw. Much to the chagrin of Bride, I do that, turn around and go look at things again to see if I did see what I thought I saw. Everything from flowers and lawns to Bogo’s on the Blue bell to a view of the sunrise or sunset that caught my eye from a certain perspective. Anyway today I saw a well dressed man crossing the parking lot of a strip mall towards the Dollar Store, he was walking like Buford Pusser might while tracking the bad guys. The whole scene was incongruent, a suit and tie wearing man, walking away from a Lincoln, looking like someone had just wronged him and everyone he knew. Oh yeah by the way he was carrying a baseball bat. I am pretty sure he was mad as hell and I was positive he was not going to take it anymore. I have learned the hard way to not mess with a pissed off man with a ball bat, although in my altercation the dude was not wearing a suit but the important thing was the bat. I drove on not really wanting to know who or what he was pissed off at.
As I drove home I could not help but wonder what it was. I was pretty sure he was headed to the Dollar Store so that got me to thinking what wrong could be perpetrated against a man in the Dollar Store? At first I thought maybe it had to do with the very bat he was toting back, was it not exactly as advertised? Was it possibly not the correct weight and maybe his son got kicked off the team for cheating because the bat was to heavy or maybe too light? I decided that could be it but it was more likely that it was something else, I am not sure why but I did. I wondered, maybe it could be he realized that the rolls of toilet paper had only 178 sheets per roll instead of 200 like the ones sold in the grocery stores. What if it was his wife found that the shampoo made her hair fall out because it was made in China and they found there to be some oddball chemical in there that ruined her follicles. Nothing worse than a follicly challenged wife to deal with, especially because his dumb ass bought the Prell knock off trying to save a few bucks, talk about something that would keep a man in the dog house. I am just saying! I wonder if by chance that the clerk had actually been rude to his wife, who did the initial shopping and he was going to make the unspeakable wrong committed against his wife right again. Could it be that the pair of size 9 shoes he bought were actually not even both the same size, I mean improperly fitting footwear can sure put me in a bad mood. I am not sure what the transgression was and when I related the story to Bride upon my arrival home she said we have to watch the 5 o’clock news, we may find out the answers to all my questions.
Well it was not to be, no story about a madman at the Dollar Store, I had mixed emotions really – I was glad no one was injured but sad that I will never know what the real story was. I guess it doesn’t matter because my possible stories are probably way better than the real one anyway. Like the original dialog from the movie, I too feel that I am mad as hell and not sure if I want to take it anymore. It is not the punks or the Russians I am worried about, sadly it is our own governments out of control antics that scare me the most. The inability to have a dialog that is working towards problem resolution is going to become more and more problematic as they seemly continue to bicker about inconsequential bullshit that revolves around party lines and political alliances and we seem to be the ones getting spun while we sit. So this is what I want you to do, I want you to get mad - All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!
There was no story at 11 about the madman I saw with the ball bat so maybe it was just a benign sighting that I blew out of proportion.
if you need an explanation about what a Bogo on the Blue Bell is here it is
http://mroatmealsoratories.blogspot.com/2009/08/so-this-oratory-is-going-to-explain.html
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The simple ceiling fan, that underappreciated 4-6 bladed thingamajig hanging from the ceiling.
The ceiling fan, probably one of the most underappreciated things in our homes. When I was a kid we did not have air conditioning or ceiling fans for that matter and I cannot remember anyone we knew who did. There may have been a window unit here and there but not many and I do not remember any central air systems. We had to leave windows open and in most cases we had these little fans in frames that slide open and closed to adjust to the size of the window it was being installed in.
The ones we had looked nothing like this sleek and clean looking model, ours were usually green (I do not know why I remember that), rusty, very noisy and butt ugly when compared to this model. The noise eventually fatigued our auditory system and that allowed us to sleep with what was basically a plane engine whirling in the window only a few feet away. As far as the amount of air that was moved by these somewhat worthless contraptions, it was minimal and once more than a foot or two away the thing the effect was essentially none existent.
So we also had these black fans that oscillated back and forth, now those things would move the air around, hot as it was at least it was moving. Looking back I am amazed that these things ever made it to market, the decorative grill that protected folks from the spinning blades, run by an extremely powerful electric motor were worthless when it came to protect peoples fingers. The most amazing part was that you, as a kid, could literally get your whole hand past the grill into the blades, and we still have most of our fingers – whodathunkit? I mean look at this thing.
I remember one time, as a kid, getting my hand in there and getting the skin tore off all my knuckles and having the blood and skin flung around the room by what I would learn later in life was an outstanding example of centrifugal force. Mainly because my hand was evidently not enough to trip the overload circuitry and turn this death machine off with some sort of electric brake similar to the ones on the newer circular saws. Oh, that is right, this thing would not stop, no safety measures what so ever. Looking back, we should have sued the manufacturer.
So now a day there a probably not a lot of fans like the black one, the window fans are still available and ceiling fans seem as prevalent today as running water, at least here in Florida. So we also have air conditioning throughout the house with one unit performing the tasks of cooling and the occasionally needed heat. We replaced our AC unit a couple of years ago and the computer controlled monstrosity caused me to ask about a 10 year parts and labor warrantee, which more than paid for itself when the computer controller board gave up a couple of months ago. We also have 5 ceiling fans installed in our house and that, even in summer, allows us to keep the AC temperature a bit higher and the costs of running the fans is quite a bit lower than the electricity needed to run the AC colder. All the ones installed now are Hunter brand, we have tried the lesser models but the Hunter ceiling fans have no rival, in my humble opinion. We have the 5 blade 52 inch models in plain white.
They have MANY, MANY model available from sleek retro looking things with only three blades to the antique looking brass models and even industrial looking ones for the home. They seem to range in size from as small as 22” to 60” and range in price from 19 bucks to ridiculously expense. All the ones we have cost right in the neighborhood of 100 bucks. Once properly installed they require very little maintenance really, as long as you routinely clean the dust off and occasionally tighten the blades they will provide you with years of service. Maybe not as many years as the bullet proof old black monster pictured above but they made that before the days of built in obsolescence .
And that, my friends, is all I have to say about fans.
The ones we had looked nothing like this sleek and clean looking model, ours were usually green (I do not know why I remember that), rusty, very noisy and butt ugly when compared to this model. The noise eventually fatigued our auditory system and that allowed us to sleep with what was basically a plane engine whirling in the window only a few feet away. As far as the amount of air that was moved by these somewhat worthless contraptions, it was minimal and once more than a foot or two away the thing the effect was essentially none existent.So we also had these black fans that oscillated back and forth, now those things would move the air around, hot as it was at least it was moving. Looking back I am amazed that these things ever made it to market, the decorative grill that protected folks from the spinning blades, run by an extremely powerful electric motor were worthless when it came to protect peoples fingers. The most amazing part was that you, as a kid, could literally get your whole hand past the grill into the blades, and we still have most of our fingers – whodathunkit? I mean look at this thing.
I remember one time, as a kid, getting my hand in there and getting the skin tore off all my knuckles and having the blood and skin flung around the room by what I would learn later in life was an outstanding example of centrifugal force. Mainly because my hand was evidently not enough to trip the overload circuitry and turn this death machine off with some sort of electric brake similar to the ones on the newer circular saws. Oh, that is right, this thing would not stop, no safety measures what so ever. Looking back, we should have sued the manufacturer.
So now a day there a probably not a lot of fans like the black one, the window fans are still available and ceiling fans seem as prevalent today as running water, at least here in Florida. So we also have air conditioning throughout the house with one unit performing the tasks of cooling and the occasionally needed heat. We replaced our AC unit a couple of years ago and the computer controlled monstrosity caused me to ask about a 10 year parts and labor warrantee, which more than paid for itself when the computer controller board gave up a couple of months ago. We also have 5 ceiling fans installed in our house and that, even in summer, allows us to keep the AC temperature a bit higher and the costs of running the fans is quite a bit lower than the electricity needed to run the AC colder. All the ones installed now are Hunter brand, we have tried the lesser models but the Hunter ceiling fans have no rival, in my humble opinion. We have the 5 blade 52 inch models in plain white.
They have MANY, MANY model available from sleek retro looking things with only three blades to the antique looking brass models and even industrial looking ones for the home. They seem to range in size from as small as 22” to 60” and range in price from 19 bucks to ridiculously expense. All the ones we have cost right in the neighborhood of 100 bucks. Once properly installed they require very little maintenance really, as long as you routinely clean the dust off and occasionally tighten the blades they will provide you with years of service. Maybe not as many years as the bullet proof old black monster pictured above but they made that before the days of built in obsolescence .
And that, my friends, is all I have to say about fans.
How do we meet new friends?
I have a friend I met at the beach, sounds odd to even say it. I go to the beach a lot to watch the sun come up and reflect on my life and have noticed others who come out a lot. After some time I felt I got to know some of them, vicariously, a nod one day, a good morning some other day and always a wave. You know how you feel about folks you see a lot but do not really know that well, kinda like the butcher at the grocery store or the server at the restaurant you frequent or the lady who sells you your coffee in the morning on the way to work. You know them, kind of, superficially, and you feel some connection to them even though you really know nothing of their lives outside the narrow confines of your relationship with them. Weird huh? Anyway, I try to develop those kinds of relationships because there are no expectations that a friendship will develop. Without those expectations it seems easier to kindle a friendship, it is unlike a coworker that you feel you are obligated to befriend. Or friends of your spouse or friends of friends, there seems to me to be an added level of pressure to make a friendship work, which usually sours the attempt which inevitably sabotages the entire effort. Now not every one of those types of relationships fail but there is that initial pressure to make the friendship succeed.
I have seen my new friend for a long time, he comes early and gets going on a vigorous walk up and down the beach, he is usually gone for close to an hour and half. He comes on the beach in the same location I do and he comes every day. After that vigorous walk he leaves the beach and gets his chair and the cooler, a drink and a snack, and makes his way back down to the beach to watch the rest of the sunrise and enjoy the sheer beauty of the process. I am not sure how long I have been watching him out there but the one thing I noticed about him was his tenacity, he is there every day for his walk. We waved and even said good morning for a while and I was amazed at what great shape he was in for being in what I would later find out was his mid 60’s. He appeared to be in great shape for a man my age let alone in his 60’s. I can’t remember the day or even the reason we started talking, it could have been the day of the crime scene that sullied our individual morning routines, but we introduced ourselves and started talking each time we met. I learned his first name and that he lived close by. Over time our relationship has grown into something I really like. I actually look forward to seeing him when I go out to the beach.
So not long ago we were talking, the day Bride and I were out watching the sunrise on our anniversary and he indicated that his birthday was Friday. I thought wouldn’t it be cool to come on down on Friday and talk some pictures and create the time lapse sunrise and give them to him on CD. So that is what I did, my camera is set up to take a picture automatically every thirty seconds so I wind up with anywhere from 125 to 200 shots and then just string them into a video using the windows movie maker program. Well while I was talking to him on his birthday another friend of his road by on her bicycle and gave him a nice birthday card with some pictures she had taken on the front and the inside. After leaving I downloaded the pictures to the computer and made the time lapse and then scoured through the 176 pictures and found a few of the best ones and one of my favorites from a couple of years ago and threw them on a thumb drive.
Off to CVS for some prints I went, the kind woman helped me get the photos picked and onto their machine for printing, I believe there were 8 of them. After I got my thumb drive back I asked, how much are those going to cost? I was not sure with eight of the 8x10 size what that would cost, she tells me 7.99 each. HOLY COW I thought I had seen them advertised cheaper than that at Walgreens I say to her. Her response was amusing to me, and I am not sure why she acted like this. She looks around, like a drug dealer might before producing the dope for the user, I in turn silently perform the same movements, crane my head from the far right side all the way around to the far left, I even bobbed my head up to look over the shelving units, it was funny. Then she moves closer to me and says ya know what, to which I respond, no what? She goes on to tell me she can give me those pictures for 3 bucks a piece, wow I thought but asked her if that was all she could do because I had seen them even cheaper than that at the Sam’s Club. She again performs the bizarre ritual of looking around and then tells me she has a buy one get on free coupon behind the counter she can give to me. A BOGO on the prints, wow I thought – I had to get them done and for 1.49 each I felt I had received a bargain.
So I put all the pictures from that days shoot as well as a bunch of the time lapse sunrises on a CD. I placed what I thought was the best of the 8x10’s in a frame I picked up at CVS and put them in the jalopy ready for when I made my next trip out to the beach. On my next visit to the beach, I gave my friend his belated birthday gift, he enjoyed the pictures and told me how much he appreciated the gesture. That was the moment that our friendship changed into something more than it was previously. I still do not even know his last name, or telephone number but I feel like we are best of friends and if he needed something and I could, I would help him out. So I am still just amazed that way in which friendships can develop, if we let them. How many people have you befriended in such an odd way. Since that time I have learned a lot about my friend, where he is from, what he did and still does for a living and about his family and why he comes out every day to the beach. I have, in turn told him about some of the things about my life.
I still, and hope I always am able to, just cherish the moments that take me by surprise, I mean when it comes to making friends at the beach, in the dark no less – whodathunkit! We have only ever met at the beach, when I go I know I will see him there and he knows he will see me, if not that day, soon.
I have seen my new friend for a long time, he comes early and gets going on a vigorous walk up and down the beach, he is usually gone for close to an hour and half. He comes on the beach in the same location I do and he comes every day. After that vigorous walk he leaves the beach and gets his chair and the cooler, a drink and a snack, and makes his way back down to the beach to watch the rest of the sunrise and enjoy the sheer beauty of the process. I am not sure how long I have been watching him out there but the one thing I noticed about him was his tenacity, he is there every day for his walk. We waved and even said good morning for a while and I was amazed at what great shape he was in for being in what I would later find out was his mid 60’s. He appeared to be in great shape for a man my age let alone in his 60’s. I can’t remember the day or even the reason we started talking, it could have been the day of the crime scene that sullied our individual morning routines, but we introduced ourselves and started talking each time we met. I learned his first name and that he lived close by. Over time our relationship has grown into something I really like. I actually look forward to seeing him when I go out to the beach.
So not long ago we were talking, the day Bride and I were out watching the sunrise on our anniversary and he indicated that his birthday was Friday. I thought wouldn’t it be cool to come on down on Friday and talk some pictures and create the time lapse sunrise and give them to him on CD. So that is what I did, my camera is set up to take a picture automatically every thirty seconds so I wind up with anywhere from 125 to 200 shots and then just string them into a video using the windows movie maker program. Well while I was talking to him on his birthday another friend of his road by on her bicycle and gave him a nice birthday card with some pictures she had taken on the front and the inside. After leaving I downloaded the pictures to the computer and made the time lapse and then scoured through the 176 pictures and found a few of the best ones and one of my favorites from a couple of years ago and threw them on a thumb drive.
Off to CVS for some prints I went, the kind woman helped me get the photos picked and onto their machine for printing, I believe there were 8 of them. After I got my thumb drive back I asked, how much are those going to cost? I was not sure with eight of the 8x10 size what that would cost, she tells me 7.99 each. HOLY COW I thought I had seen them advertised cheaper than that at Walgreens I say to her. Her response was amusing to me, and I am not sure why she acted like this. She looks around, like a drug dealer might before producing the dope for the user, I in turn silently perform the same movements, crane my head from the far right side all the way around to the far left, I even bobbed my head up to look over the shelving units, it was funny. Then she moves closer to me and says ya know what, to which I respond, no what? She goes on to tell me she can give me those pictures for 3 bucks a piece, wow I thought but asked her if that was all she could do because I had seen them even cheaper than that at the Sam’s Club. She again performs the bizarre ritual of looking around and then tells me she has a buy one get on free coupon behind the counter she can give to me. A BOGO on the prints, wow I thought – I had to get them done and for 1.49 each I felt I had received a bargain.
So I put all the pictures from that days shoot as well as a bunch of the time lapse sunrises on a CD. I placed what I thought was the best of the 8x10’s in a frame I picked up at CVS and put them in the jalopy ready for when I made my next trip out to the beach. On my next visit to the beach, I gave my friend his belated birthday gift, he enjoyed the pictures and told me how much he appreciated the gesture. That was the moment that our friendship changed into something more than it was previously. I still do not even know his last name, or telephone number but I feel like we are best of friends and if he needed something and I could, I would help him out. So I am still just amazed that way in which friendships can develop, if we let them. How many people have you befriended in such an odd way. Since that time I have learned a lot about my friend, where he is from, what he did and still does for a living and about his family and why he comes out every day to the beach. I have, in turn told him about some of the things about my life.
I still, and hope I always am able to, just cherish the moments that take me by surprise, I mean when it comes to making friends at the beach, in the dark no less – whodathunkit! We have only ever met at the beach, when I go I know I will see him there and he knows he will see me, if not that day, soon.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Jalopy - operational once again for a total of $3.58
Well I stopped by Fastenal today, the one on Martin Luther King Jr. Bvld in Jacksonville and picked up the parts I needed to repair the jalopy. They had no grade three bolts but was told that I could get the bolt in grade 8 and that would be more than enough to get it done. For the bolt, washers and nut I paid a whopping $3.58. Now most people will NEVER have to worry about their alternator bolt breaking but you will most likely not be able to fix your car for a paltry $3.58 so driving the jalopy pays for itself again. I can’t imagine ever owning a new car, most of them you can’t even see the alternator, let alone the alternator bolt and if you did have to change it you would have to remove the hood, left fender, right rear tire and you can only perform that action during the autumnal equinox. And on top of that it would cost you about 32 billion to have it done and you would have to have it done because there would be at least 17 specialty tools that are only available to the dealership mechanics.
I love driving old cars, for lots of reasons but mostly because I can work on them, I have the tools and the knowhow. Not many specialty tools needed to work on a 58 ford. Before this one I had a 66 GMC truck, before that I had a 99 F150 Lariat that I custom ordered – why I am not sure. I could not even find the spark plugs on that truck and found that the tune-up cost damn near $1000 dollars. A thousand dollars, I can buy points, condenser, cap, rotor and spark plug wires for a long time for 1000 bucks. Seriously my tune-ups cost me about 19 bucks and that includes the wires which do not need to be changed every time. I perform that task about once a year, and if you do the math on that I could have paid for every tune up that has been performed over the 51 years my jalopy has been around. So is all the fancy gadgetry in the new cars really a cost effective solution to the problem, or better yet is there a problem that needs such an expensive solution. Oh well, my old car is fun to drive, fun to ride in, cheap to maintain and I like it and with no car payment or costly repair costs I REALLY like it!
I love driving old cars, for lots of reasons but mostly because I can work on them, I have the tools and the knowhow. Not many specialty tools needed to work on a 58 ford. Before this one I had a 66 GMC truck, before that I had a 99 F150 Lariat that I custom ordered – why I am not sure. I could not even find the spark plugs on that truck and found that the tune-up cost damn near $1000 dollars. A thousand dollars, I can buy points, condenser, cap, rotor and spark plug wires for a long time for 1000 bucks. Seriously my tune-ups cost me about 19 bucks and that includes the wires which do not need to be changed every time. I perform that task about once a year, and if you do the math on that I could have paid for every tune up that has been performed over the 51 years my jalopy has been around. So is all the fancy gadgetry in the new cars really a cost effective solution to the problem, or better yet is there a problem that needs such an expensive solution. Oh well, my old car is fun to drive, fun to ride in, cheap to maintain and I like it and with no car payment or costly repair costs I REALLY like it!
Lettuce and the water – in the end it will be the lettuce and water that is killing us
I am making the bet now that they are going to find eventually that lettuce and the water has been killing us all along. I am convinced that the experts just don’t understand what any of it means and they are talking out their butts 95% of the time because their faces know better. Too many studies, too many studies that told us this is bad for us, that is good for us and then later on we get the news, it is decided that the evidence supports the exact opposite as being true. If smoking and drinking is what is killing us why did the cigar chomping George Burns live to be 100 years old? And then why would a seemingly healthy Chuck Hughes die of a heart attack before he was thirty. Chuck Hughes was a receiver for the Detroit Lions and he died on the field of a heart attack during a game in 1971. I bet you have all seen evidence and heard stories that support my conclusion that just because someone says that is bad for ya it may not be “all that bad”. If we side with Charley, Mr. Darwin to most, even a tiny little bit, then we must know that survival of the fittest is an evolutionary process and we are not immune to it. I should not say that too awfully loud as they may start working on a vaccine for that. So then maybe just maybe folks die from eating steaks and smoking tobacco because the evolutionary processes are silently and methodically thinning the herd, maybe that person was not amongst the ones whose genes are to remain in the primordial pool. A harsh assessment, maybe, but on the other hand maybe, just maybe, it is a cold hard truth.
I see where Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius tells us the other day that 600 people have died from the swine flu, or H1N1, a seemingly little known and less cared about fact is that over 13,000 people have died this year from the plain old ordinary flu. Why are we not calling the regular flu a pandemic when it has killed a couple of magnitudes of order more people in this country alone? Why do we allow these “crisis’s to be perpetrated against us? Yes I said it perpetrated against us! We are to be worked up into panic and get all the mechanisms of government and industry revved up to solve what seems to me to be nothing more than an anemic flu season with a relatively benign strain this year when compared to the normal flu. I am not saying it is not bad, any flu is potentially deadly but has it really risen to the pandemic level like we are being told, I say hardly. I have a very young relative that has it but since it is treatable there is no real threat of not getting through it, was it pretty NO, will it be OK, yes.
So I was shopping the other day and was looking for some hand soap, not hand sanitizer, just some soap to scrub the dirt from my hands. I was surprised to see the number of hand cleaning products that promise to kill anything that might have ever lived on your hands. God forbid if we actually get a germ on us. What if, and I am speaking strictly hypothetically here, what if we need to come in contact with a germ every now and again to keep our immune system operating a peak efficiency? If we sterilize ourselves at every step of the day what will be the long term impact of that? I have seen kids carrying hand sanitizer with them wherever they go, I cannot imagine my Mom buying us kids a small little bottle of hand sanitizer – it would have never happened. The hand sanitizers are not the only products that tout to kill 99% of germs, on contact is a claim I have heard before. Why do we need to do that? Maybe that is why we have situations like swine flu. Maybe we have weakened our immune systems to the level that normal little things that we used to be able to fight off now kick our asses. I am not a certified medical professional but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night - Opps nevermind but as a simple observer of my surroundings that explaination seems plausible to me.
If you listen to the doomsayers, about H1N1 and about eating red meat being bad for ya and all the other things we are told are bad for us then I am not at all sure how the human race has lasted so long. We have not really had what we might call effective pharmaceuticals for more than about 100 years, I know there are many natural and holistic medicinal remedies that have been around A LONG time and have worked with great success. While we are no longer “bleeding” people our understanding of the long term effects of pharmaceuticals are really not much better than the understanding, at the time, of the bleeders. That is not what they will tell ya but even with FDA approval it is really a crap shoot with most of the medications folks take. If you need proof read the FDA required list of potential side effects and you will learn that even an simple aspirin can, can I say cause death. Sure we are living longer than our recent ancestors but is that because of the pharmaceuticals that are available to us, as they would have us believe, or….. or is it because we have better food, clothing and shelter. The most direct comparison I can use is the pharmaceutical Viagra made by Pfizer, now if there were ever an example of nature taking care of eliminating genes from the pool this is it. Now one day when I reach the point I need those I may have a different opinion of them but until then………
I believe we are all here for a predetermined amount of time and it matters little what we eat while we are here, that is not the determining factor. So dig in and enjoy your lettuce, that has been sprayed with enough pesticides to down a horse and slurp up the water that has been run through a reverse osmosis filter that was in need of a good cleaning, it is OK and is “good” for ya.
I see where Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius tells us the other day that 600 people have died from the swine flu, or H1N1, a seemingly little known and less cared about fact is that over 13,000 people have died this year from the plain old ordinary flu. Why are we not calling the regular flu a pandemic when it has killed a couple of magnitudes of order more people in this country alone? Why do we allow these “crisis’s to be perpetrated against us? Yes I said it perpetrated against us! We are to be worked up into panic and get all the mechanisms of government and industry revved up to solve what seems to me to be nothing more than an anemic flu season with a relatively benign strain this year when compared to the normal flu. I am not saying it is not bad, any flu is potentially deadly but has it really risen to the pandemic level like we are being told, I say hardly. I have a very young relative that has it but since it is treatable there is no real threat of not getting through it, was it pretty NO, will it be OK, yes.
So I was shopping the other day and was looking for some hand soap, not hand sanitizer, just some soap to scrub the dirt from my hands. I was surprised to see the number of hand cleaning products that promise to kill anything that might have ever lived on your hands. God forbid if we actually get a germ on us. What if, and I am speaking strictly hypothetically here, what if we need to come in contact with a germ every now and again to keep our immune system operating a peak efficiency? If we sterilize ourselves at every step of the day what will be the long term impact of that? I have seen kids carrying hand sanitizer with them wherever they go, I cannot imagine my Mom buying us kids a small little bottle of hand sanitizer – it would have never happened. The hand sanitizers are not the only products that tout to kill 99% of germs, on contact is a claim I have heard before. Why do we need to do that? Maybe that is why we have situations like swine flu. Maybe we have weakened our immune systems to the level that normal little things that we used to be able to fight off now kick our asses. I am not a certified medical professional but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night - Opps nevermind but as a simple observer of my surroundings that explaination seems plausible to me.
If you listen to the doomsayers, about H1N1 and about eating red meat being bad for ya and all the other things we are told are bad for us then I am not at all sure how the human race has lasted so long. We have not really had what we might call effective pharmaceuticals for more than about 100 years, I know there are many natural and holistic medicinal remedies that have been around A LONG time and have worked with great success. While we are no longer “bleeding” people our understanding of the long term effects of pharmaceuticals are really not much better than the understanding, at the time, of the bleeders. That is not what they will tell ya but even with FDA approval it is really a crap shoot with most of the medications folks take. If you need proof read the FDA required list of potential side effects and you will learn that even an simple aspirin can, can I say cause death. Sure we are living longer than our recent ancestors but is that because of the pharmaceuticals that are available to us, as they would have us believe, or….. or is it because we have better food, clothing and shelter. The most direct comparison I can use is the pharmaceutical Viagra made by Pfizer, now if there were ever an example of nature taking care of eliminating genes from the pool this is it. Now one day when I reach the point I need those I may have a different opinion of them but until then………
I believe we are all here for a predetermined amount of time and it matters little what we eat while we are here, that is not the determining factor. So dig in and enjoy your lettuce, that has been sprayed with enough pesticides to down a horse and slurp up the water that has been run through a reverse osmosis filter that was in need of a good cleaning, it is OK and is “good” for ya.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Sometimes the old jalopy fights back!
So this morning I was just getting on my way to watch the sunrise when my old jalopy made a screeching noise, which it does not do. I let off the gas a bit, and it quits, which tells me it is the one and only fan belt that must be loose. I coast on into the gate station to a well lit location and pop the hood. There is not a lot that can wrong with the fan belt on my car, one fan, one alternator and the crankshaft. I could tell it was loose so I grabbed my little canvas tool bag from under the seat to get the 9/16 wrench I knew that allow me to adjust the alternator to tighten the belt. I start wrenching on the adjustment bolt only to find the whole assembly is loose. I also grab the 9/16th socket and ratchet so I can tighten the lower mounting bolt as well. It did not take long to realize that the lower mounting bolt was sheared off. Man oh man I thought, I was a couple of miles from the house, how was I going to repair this. It was only a bit after 5am and while there is a NAPA right beside the gate it would not be open for some time.
I keep a small supply of items in the tool bag, fuel filters, a set of points and condenser, a couple of spark plugs and what not but not a bolt like this. This bolt is almost 6 inches long and although the bolt in use was not a grade bolt I was pretty sure the replacement would be at least a grade 5. So back to how do I get home? It obviously has to be repaired somehow to get back home, I pondered the possibility of just taking the belt off and setting out for home and hope that we did not overheat, it is a small 6 cylinder car so I was pretty confident I could make it, that would be my fall back, last resort repair. What else could work in the short term? I removed the broken bolt and found that my quarter inch drive socket extension fit through the hole and the end was big enough to not fit through the alternator. I slipped it in and with the firm grip of a pair of American made Vise Grip brand pliers I had my repair and I was off to the house, squeak eliminated. I considered leaving the repair it had worked so well but I could hardly afford to give up the extension or the vise grips.
I made it home, transferred all my Sunrise watching gear from the jalopy to the Town and Country and we were off to watch a magnificent sunrise together. After all of that we cleaned house and later I went looking for a 6 inch long, 3/8 inch diameter, grade 5 (minimum) bolt and the necessary flat and lock washers to make the repair. Sounds simple enough huh? WRONG. I started where I always start when working on my car, NAPA. They are a bit more expensive but I have learned my lesson, over and over again sometimes it seems with going to the discount parts places. They call them discount places for a reason, you get a discount but you also get inferior crap so it is a trade off. Anyway my buddy at the NAPA tells me no joy on that, and asked what I was doing. I tell him it is for the alternator bracket on my 58 Ford, to which he replies, the 58 Ford did not have an alternator, it came with a 35amp generator. He knows his business for sure. I explain to him in my journey to having air conditioning in the jalopy I had to first get the generator changed out for a higher amperage alternator and I had to fabricate all the bracketry from scratch, that explains it he says with a laugh.
I continue my fools errand a with stops at three different discount places and even the Home Depot and Lowes and an Ace Hardware. The Home depot and Lowes representatives did not even know that bolt hardness was graded – should have not wasted my time going there. Anyway, I come home empty handed and know that I will be calling my fastener vendor tomorrow from work, he will be able to provide me that bolt I just know it. The old Jalopy will be as good as new and able to continue to take me to the beach for the sunrises for many a day to come.
Friday, October 9, 2009
President Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize, Extraordinary! Or maybe not.
I heard earlier today that President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and started wondering what that really means. When talking about the Nobel Prize for peace, some monumental figures come to mind, for example Mahatma Gandhi, one of the strongest symbols of non-violence in the 20th century, was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and, finally, shortly before he was assassinated in January 1948. Although Gandhi was not awarded the Prize (a posthumous award is not allowed by the statutes), the Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to make no award that year on the grounds that "there was no suitable living candidate". Since we are talking about Presidents I will stay there for my examples, Theodore Roosevelt was the first U.S. president to win the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. He received the honor in 1906 for his efforts in mediating the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), midwifing the Treaty of Portsmouth signed by Russia and Japan on September 5, 1905.
Or we can use Woodrow Wilson, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919 "in recognition of his Fourteen Points peace program and his work in achieving inclusion of the Covenant of the League of Nations, which would later morph into the United Nations, in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles." That pretty much revolved around the end of WWI. And then we have Jimmy Carter, he won the Prize in 2002 "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." He was the first U.S. president to accept the prize in person, in a ceremony in Oslo on December 10, 2002. His efforts at Camp David were instrumental in Anwar al-Sadat and Menachem Begin sharing the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. All truly impressive feats, ending wars, preventing Mideast turmoil and the like are pretty impressive and not easily attainable feats. Two non presidential figures I want to touch on are Martin Luther King Jr and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. They also won the prize and we all know of their accomplishments, they are clear to all. Come on folks as much as I like the President he is not in their league when talking about accomplishments toward peace, not even close.
So as I ponder it, I am trying to figure out the monumental feat that has been accomplished by our President. After quite a bit of ponderin I came to the conclusion that I have ZERO respect anymore for the Nobel prize, the committees who vote for nominees or anything to do with the prizes. Why you might be asking. Well if we look at what he has done recently I could only compare it to a not so distant past President who performed a similar act. President Richard Milhous Nixon expanded the unwinnable war in Viet Nam into Laos and Cambodia, assuring the American people that it would help end the war. Well we know with a short glance at the history we should be learning from that that did not work. I see the same tired rhetoric being used about expanding the war in Afghanistan, and I still see no clear and easy to understand mission or exit strategy. Do you know when our work (whatever it is) will be done in Afghanistan? I do not. To me nominating President Obama is hypocritical, he is expanding the war that is contributing to bankrupting our country at the same time! That statement in and of itself it a GIANT indicator - he does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, he is leading a active WAR!
After a bit of poking around I found that he was actually nominated some time ago, 2 weeks into his presidency actually. TWO WEEKS – what a crock and a symbolic gesture that tarnishes the validity of everything Alfred Nobel wanted to do by setting up the system, with 94% of his wealth, in his will before he died in 1895. With all the details worked out, the first of the prizes were awarded in 1901. So I thought I would investigate a bit more and see if there was something President Obama did as a Senator or community organizer before that that rose to the level of and had the merit the justified the award. Man I am having a hard time getting past the nomination coming only two weeks into his Presidency. In my research I could find no such event. I was able to find that the youngest Nobel Peace Prize Laureate is Mairead Corrigan, founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement, who was 32 years old when she was awarded the Prize in 1976. And I also found the oldest Nobel Peace Prize Laureate to date is Joseph Rotblat, who was 87 years old when he was awarded the Prize in 1995 for his efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics. I was not able to find the deed that propelled our president to the top of the heap, I know the answer is someplace out there – what is it? And more importantly is it grand enough to justify the prize?
This seems to me to be yet another example of the United States favorite pass time, lets whip up a bit of symbolism and place that over the substance of the matter. Who cares about such an obviously hollow award based solely on symbolism that has no defining event to make it actually mean something. I am so sick of the façade our government and country hold up to hide the ugly truths that they no longer teach our children – some people lose and some win and we are not and can not all be held up as stellar individuals. When we do that it, to me, is insulting my intelligence and invalidates the greatness of the people who are actually deserving of recognition for there actual deeds. I served in the US navy on 2 war ships and each had a ships motto, the first, USS Stump a Spruance class destroyer was “Tenacity: Foundation of Victory”. That means that something worth doing takes determination and hard work, that is what makes it worth while. We are a country of instant gratification and to me it is a damn shame.
On the USS Gettysburg the motto was “Deeds Not Words” which means we let our actions speak for themselves. In the case of President Obama, how do I reconcile these two mottos? I think they (our government, not just the President) are tumbling along without our interest at heart, the foundations of our country are based on representative government. Do you, deep down, feel you are being properly represented at any level of government, I do not. As far as the other, what deeds have we seen? Have we gotten out of Iraq NO, is there a plan to get out of Afghanistan – NO. We are just allowing ourselves to have the warm sunshine of symbolism blown up our asses and all we seem able to do is smile and enjoy it while we give meaningless awards to the folks running the fans that are doing the blowing. Giving the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama has tarnished the whole thing and sullied the accomplishments of true reformers who actually did the work, in the trench’s without an eye to how it might benefit them. I am thoroughly disgusted today indeed!
I have a Face Book friend who posted the following “For all the haters, the Nobel Peace Prize doesn't have to go to someone who had a world-wide effect on peace. It's someone who has made a great accomplishment in peace or equality. The fact that the US elected a president of African descent is a huge step. As someone on NPR said this morning, its not just only a prize for him but for the American people, that and he kept Palin from being in office…. Good point Brad.” All I could think was WOW, All the haters. Those are pretty tough words. I do not by any means hate the President, I voted for him – the first vote for a Democrat for president in my life by the way. So if the peace prize is not for someone who has had a world wide effect on peace I still do not understand this new definition of peace and equality. What – exactly – did the President do in his first two weeks in office, or before that could be considered a great accomplishment in peace and equality? The Nobel Peace Prize is not supposed to be a symbolic gesture for some nebulous accomplishments and when we water it down to mean less we disgrace the other winners, who have actually deserved it, those like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr and Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter and the list can go on and on. And what pray tell does the President being of African descent have to do with the Nobel Peace Prize? How, exactly, is his winning it a prize for the American people? I see no answer other than some nebulous crap that is supposed to make us feel good about our president and being American’s which is not what that particular prize is all about.
This is undoubtedly a topic that will get beaten to death in the media – this will be the last time I comment on it.
Or we can use Woodrow Wilson, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919 "in recognition of his Fourteen Points peace program and his work in achieving inclusion of the Covenant of the League of Nations, which would later morph into the United Nations, in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles." That pretty much revolved around the end of WWI. And then we have Jimmy Carter, he won the Prize in 2002 "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." He was the first U.S. president to accept the prize in person, in a ceremony in Oslo on December 10, 2002. His efforts at Camp David were instrumental in Anwar al-Sadat and Menachem Begin sharing the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. All truly impressive feats, ending wars, preventing Mideast turmoil and the like are pretty impressive and not easily attainable feats. Two non presidential figures I want to touch on are Martin Luther King Jr and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. They also won the prize and we all know of their accomplishments, they are clear to all. Come on folks as much as I like the President he is not in their league when talking about accomplishments toward peace, not even close.
So as I ponder it, I am trying to figure out the monumental feat that has been accomplished by our President. After quite a bit of ponderin I came to the conclusion that I have ZERO respect anymore for the Nobel prize, the committees who vote for nominees or anything to do with the prizes. Why you might be asking. Well if we look at what he has done recently I could only compare it to a not so distant past President who performed a similar act. President Richard Milhous Nixon expanded the unwinnable war in Viet Nam into Laos and Cambodia, assuring the American people that it would help end the war. Well we know with a short glance at the history we should be learning from that that did not work. I see the same tired rhetoric being used about expanding the war in Afghanistan, and I still see no clear and easy to understand mission or exit strategy. Do you know when our work (whatever it is) will be done in Afghanistan? I do not. To me nominating President Obama is hypocritical, he is expanding the war that is contributing to bankrupting our country at the same time! That statement in and of itself it a GIANT indicator - he does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, he is leading a active WAR!
After a bit of poking around I found that he was actually nominated some time ago, 2 weeks into his presidency actually. TWO WEEKS – what a crock and a symbolic gesture that tarnishes the validity of everything Alfred Nobel wanted to do by setting up the system, with 94% of his wealth, in his will before he died in 1895. With all the details worked out, the first of the prizes were awarded in 1901. So I thought I would investigate a bit more and see if there was something President Obama did as a Senator or community organizer before that that rose to the level of and had the merit the justified the award. Man I am having a hard time getting past the nomination coming only two weeks into his Presidency. In my research I could find no such event. I was able to find that the youngest Nobel Peace Prize Laureate is Mairead Corrigan, founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement, who was 32 years old when she was awarded the Prize in 1976. And I also found the oldest Nobel Peace Prize Laureate to date is Joseph Rotblat, who was 87 years old when he was awarded the Prize in 1995 for his efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics. I was not able to find the deed that propelled our president to the top of the heap, I know the answer is someplace out there – what is it? And more importantly is it grand enough to justify the prize?
This seems to me to be yet another example of the United States favorite pass time, lets whip up a bit of symbolism and place that over the substance of the matter. Who cares about such an obviously hollow award based solely on symbolism that has no defining event to make it actually mean something. I am so sick of the façade our government and country hold up to hide the ugly truths that they no longer teach our children – some people lose and some win and we are not and can not all be held up as stellar individuals. When we do that it, to me, is insulting my intelligence and invalidates the greatness of the people who are actually deserving of recognition for there actual deeds. I served in the US navy on 2 war ships and each had a ships motto, the first, USS Stump a Spruance class destroyer was “Tenacity: Foundation of Victory”. That means that something worth doing takes determination and hard work, that is what makes it worth while. We are a country of instant gratification and to me it is a damn shame.
On the USS Gettysburg the motto was “Deeds Not Words” which means we let our actions speak for themselves. In the case of President Obama, how do I reconcile these two mottos? I think they (our government, not just the President) are tumbling along without our interest at heart, the foundations of our country are based on representative government. Do you, deep down, feel you are being properly represented at any level of government, I do not. As far as the other, what deeds have we seen? Have we gotten out of Iraq NO, is there a plan to get out of Afghanistan – NO. We are just allowing ourselves to have the warm sunshine of symbolism blown up our asses and all we seem able to do is smile and enjoy it while we give meaningless awards to the folks running the fans that are doing the blowing. Giving the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama has tarnished the whole thing and sullied the accomplishments of true reformers who actually did the work, in the trench’s without an eye to how it might benefit them. I am thoroughly disgusted today indeed!
I have a Face Book friend who posted the following “For all the haters, the Nobel Peace Prize doesn't have to go to someone who had a world-wide effect on peace. It's someone who has made a great accomplishment in peace or equality. The fact that the US elected a president of African descent is a huge step. As someone on NPR said this morning, its not just only a prize for him but for the American people, that and he kept Palin from being in office…. Good point Brad.” All I could think was WOW, All the haters. Those are pretty tough words. I do not by any means hate the President, I voted for him – the first vote for a Democrat for president in my life by the way. So if the peace prize is not for someone who has had a world wide effect on peace I still do not understand this new definition of peace and equality. What – exactly – did the President do in his first two weeks in office, or before that could be considered a great accomplishment in peace and equality? The Nobel Peace Prize is not supposed to be a symbolic gesture for some nebulous accomplishments and when we water it down to mean less we disgrace the other winners, who have actually deserved it, those like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr and Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter and the list can go on and on. And what pray tell does the President being of African descent have to do with the Nobel Peace Prize? How, exactly, is his winning it a prize for the American people? I see no answer other than some nebulous crap that is supposed to make us feel good about our president and being American’s which is not what that particular prize is all about.
This is undoubtedly a topic that will get beaten to death in the media – this will be the last time I comment on it.
I found out the other day that we are now getting another tax levied against us!
I was at breakfast with a friend of mine the other day and he was telling me about the increase in the costs of our license plates. From what he told me the cost has nearly doubled and when you consider we can now get our tags in two year increments. It is possible that you might be paying 4 times what you paid last year when you visited the DMV, at least in Florida. I was stunned to hear that news, he also filled me on that drivers licenses also basically doubled in cost as well. Just when we can least afford new taxes we are hit with another one! Our city council recently voted to raise our millage rate, someone told me they raised it the maximum amount allowed by law but I have not independently verified that claim. This year we have also have been forced to pay new city fee, a waste water drainage fee as well. This and all the other shenanigans our political figures are involved with has forced me to conclude that instead of shrinking government, EVER, we will continue to be strapped with additional tax burdens.
I do not know about you but Bride and I are struggling to make ends meet. We are in that income bracket that is just high enough to remove us from the assistance lists and just low enough to that we are freaking struggling to make ends meet. I for one an sick and damn tired of being the guy getting screwed, nary or kiss or the KY yours + mine to at least make it fun! What I can not figure out is why the government bodies, local, state and federal do not seem to be able to cut spending. The size of government continues to grow, every year and when times are lean they still grow. During the last year we have had to continuously cut our spending in my household, as I am sure most folks have. Why is it that we allow our government to continue on, unabated, with what ever plans and programs they have to maintain. It is like we are feeding the machine but the machine has become huge and lethargic and I for one sometimes wonder what the hell the original purpose of the machine was and why do we have to continue to feed it.
I understand we need government and I am not one who thinks anyone should break up our union. I am not one who wishes for all government to go away, they do have some constitutional obligations to us, the people of this country. They have some programs that are beneficial to a great many people and they protect us with Police and Fire Fighters. There are, however, A LOT things, at all levels that they are doing that should at least be looked at. We need to at least slow the growth of government, I would say it needs to be rolled way back and I would prefer to stop the growth but knowing I need to keep my expectations realistic I would hope for at least slowing the growth. I for one can not afford to allow this continued growth, I simple just do not make enough money. I fear that I am headed for the poor house unless something is done to stop all the new taxes. They can call them fees or charges or whatever the hell they want to but it is a tax and I feel it is without proper representation, the folks that are supposed to be representing us are stuck in the wood chipper and unable to get themselves out.
It happens in a very controlled way, controlled by those who will benefit from it. Lockheed Martin for example, they build the F22 Raptor fighter plane. This approx 70 million dollar plane is a top of line fighter, it has no equal, it truly has nothing even in its league. This top shelf fighter costs in the neighborhood of 70 million per plane, not cheap but by military standards it is a bargain compared to the 2.2 BILLION we paid for each of the twenty one B2 bombers in our military arsenal. Well I will give you some insight into how that happens, in my opinion. So all the funding for the military has to come from Congress, you know the legislative branch of our three legged government. That spending bill is then signed by the President, the executive branch of our government. So how does Lockheed Martin sweeten the pot for the military to justify the purchases to the legislators in congress? Below is a map of the Lockheed Martin facilities around the country that have more than 200 employees.
I do not know about you but Bride and I are struggling to make ends meet. We are in that income bracket that is just high enough to remove us from the assistance lists and just low enough to that we are freaking struggling to make ends meet. I for one an sick and damn tired of being the guy getting screwed, nary or kiss or the KY yours + mine to at least make it fun! What I can not figure out is why the government bodies, local, state and federal do not seem to be able to cut spending. The size of government continues to grow, every year and when times are lean they still grow. During the last year we have had to continuously cut our spending in my household, as I am sure most folks have. Why is it that we allow our government to continue on, unabated, with what ever plans and programs they have to maintain. It is like we are feeding the machine but the machine has become huge and lethargic and I for one sometimes wonder what the hell the original purpose of the machine was and why do we have to continue to feed it.
I understand we need government and I am not one who thinks anyone should break up our union. I am not one who wishes for all government to go away, they do have some constitutional obligations to us, the people of this country. They have some programs that are beneficial to a great many people and they protect us with Police and Fire Fighters. There are, however, A LOT things, at all levels that they are doing that should at least be looked at. We need to at least slow the growth of government, I would say it needs to be rolled way back and I would prefer to stop the growth but knowing I need to keep my expectations realistic I would hope for at least slowing the growth. I for one can not afford to allow this continued growth, I simple just do not make enough money. I fear that I am headed for the poor house unless something is done to stop all the new taxes. They can call them fees or charges or whatever the hell they want to but it is a tax and I feel it is without proper representation, the folks that are supposed to be representing us are stuck in the wood chipper and unable to get themselves out.
It happens in a very controlled way, controlled by those who will benefit from it. Lockheed Martin for example, they build the F22 Raptor fighter plane. This approx 70 million dollar plane is a top of line fighter, it has no equal, it truly has nothing even in its league. This top shelf fighter costs in the neighborhood of 70 million per plane, not cheap but by military standards it is a bargain compared to the 2.2 BILLION we paid for each of the twenty one B2 bombers in our military arsenal. Well I will give you some insight into how that happens, in my opinion. So all the funding for the military has to come from Congress, you know the legislative branch of our three legged government. That spending bill is then signed by the President, the executive branch of our government. So how does Lockheed Martin sweeten the pot for the military to justify the purchases to the legislators in congress? Below is a map of the Lockheed Martin facilities around the country that have more than 200 employees.
As you can see they are spreading the manufacture of their products around the country, everyone gets a piece of the pie. I could not find a list of facilities with less than 200 employees but I would bet you anything they have all 50 states covered pretty well.
What has happened to our country? Maybe I am just jaded because I reside firmly on the bottom of the economic ladder and do not feel like my shitty economy has any positive outlook. It is hard for me, and getting harder, to feel optimistic about our countries future, this is not political for me it is about being an American and being proud of it. We should all know by now that it matters little which party is actually in office the machine is too big for any of them to control and it just keeps grinding away, just like a wood chipper, pulling them in and shredding them into little chips. I do not know what the answers are to these CRAZY times but I know I have turned off most all of my luxuries and am still struggling to get by. Seems like the stimulus has passed me by on its way to some obviously more deserving folks! I for one need government to control itself, it they are unable to and continue to tax me to death I will be looking for one of my friends to put us up!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Giant Head - Art at the Jacksonville International Airport
Last night I traveled to the Jacksonville International Airport to pick up a good friend. I actually left early and was going over the Matthews bridge when she called from Tampa to tell me she was late. Had I checked my Facebook I would have delayed my departure. I came back home and before long she told me that they were boarding in Tampa and she was on her way. I again loaded up, in her car, to go and pick her up. It was raining so I still left with plenty of time to get there early, I hate being at the airport and have to wait for your ride so I always get there early for my pickups. On my way I took several pictures of the sunset, pretty cool with all the clouds. Anyway I am pulling into the waiting lot to watch the board that will tell me when her plane lands and I notice this giant head strategically placed along the route into the terminal. I had never noticed it before so I was intrigued, here is a picture of the head in question.
Oh well I thought as I skulked back to the parking lot where my friends car was parked. As I make my way to the car I start thinking how is this going to work, I did not want to get mud all over her car. I mash the trunk button on the key fob and find one little cloth, a white affair with an orange border that was about the size of a wash cloth. I thought better to ruin that than the upholstery and carpeting in her car. I sat on a wooden bench that they have provided for folks who are waiting and wiped the mud from myself, realizing that several folks were watching from their cars. I could only imagine the snickering that was going on, I would have been outright laughing had I witnessed the circus act I just put on. Before long I get the call, her plane has landed, I had cleaned myself up and was nervous about the cloth. I asked my friend that I found this cloth in her trunk and what, if any, significance it may have. It was a good laugh as I told her the story, it was just a rag that she used to clean her hands, or anything other little messes that may crop up in her car. I can only imagine what she was thinking when i first asked that question. Well that rag now has a good story.
My friend travels much more than I so I asked about the giant head, she seemed think it had been there for a while. I told her I was going to find out about that Giant damn head when I got home, it had caused me so much embarrassment that I felt I needed to know the story. Well come to find out she is called the Goddess of the wind and while I could not find the exact commissioning date the first acticle I found was dated November of 2005. So our 14 foot head had been watching me for several years without my knowledge. I did find out that the sculpture cost a cool 150 grand, just when I thought that was bad enough I learned the airport authority moved the flag pavilion to create a home for the sculpture. And that granite walled home, with cascading waterfalls, cost an astonishing $450,000. It does have lighting that illuminate Hoy es Hoy (Today is Today) from the bottom at night so maybe that 450k was OK. Oh yeah there was another controversy with the Giant Head, the artist called it Hoy es Hoy but the airport authority renamed it to Goddess of the wind, he didn’t mind terribly as he still cashed the check. The artist, Javier Marin drew his inspiration from many different cultures—Mexican, Native American, and Asian. He says that this piece is representative of the Airport’s value of multi-culturalism and places the City on an international level for public art. Is he high, this is Jacksonville, a city that only begrudgingly supports the arts, and then barely at all.
No one involved claims to know exactly where the Goddess of the wind nickname came from. But those present when Clark visited the J. Johnson Gallery and first saw Hoy es Hoy agree they heard someone say she could be a "goddess of the wind." Though airport officials acknowledge she is no such thing, they have latched onto that label anyway. The artist, said Hoy es Hoy honors the intellectual and emotional side of humanity, those parts that are universal in everyone. But ultimately it is up to the viewers to decide what they see. "She could be a million things," Marin said from Mexico City. "They can call her Medusa," he said, laughing. "If that's what people see, then she's Medusa. ... I don't try to define things. I like things to be up to interpretation. I agree with him, while art is created with one thing in mind it moves different people in different ways and I wish I could have gotten close enough to the Giant Head to sit, stare and ponder it for a while. Yep, they can call it Goddess of the wind or Medusa or Hoy es Hoy but to me it will always be that “Giant head at the Airport” and I am glad it is there, even though I had a unique way of learning the story.
Have you ever noticed it or knew the story behind it?
So I thought, since I have my camera that I would get a couple of pictures of this piece of art, in hind sight I wish I would have left my camera at home. I got this picture from the internet but I took some shots from across the street in the waiting lot with the zoom on my little Nikon CoolPix all the way out. I then thought, I have time I will just walk across the street and get some shots from a closer vantage point and maybe sit and stare at this piece for a while and see what it says to me. Once on the other side of the road, why did Mr. Oatmeal cross the road, because he is a dumbass that’s why. Well what at first glance appeared to be a lush green lawn quickly turned into a freaking hellish swamp, I was up to my knees in slimy mud that sucked the flip flops off my feet and since they were actually brides flip flops I had to then reach my arm in and retrieve them. Once I was finally able to extricate myself from my swamp walking expedition I then realized that I was covered in mud up to my knees and on one arm up to my elbow and had gotten my shorts and shirt muddy. I must have been quite a sight for the folks driving past, what is that strange man doing walking around the airport grounds with mud all over himself, I am probably lucky I am not in jail or being shipped to the detention center in Cuba.
Oh well I thought as I skulked back to the parking lot where my friends car was parked. As I make my way to the car I start thinking how is this going to work, I did not want to get mud all over her car. I mash the trunk button on the key fob and find one little cloth, a white affair with an orange border that was about the size of a wash cloth. I thought better to ruin that than the upholstery and carpeting in her car. I sat on a wooden bench that they have provided for folks who are waiting and wiped the mud from myself, realizing that several folks were watching from their cars. I could only imagine the snickering that was going on, I would have been outright laughing had I witnessed the circus act I just put on. Before long I get the call, her plane has landed, I had cleaned myself up and was nervous about the cloth. I asked my friend that I found this cloth in her trunk and what, if any, significance it may have. It was a good laugh as I told her the story, it was just a rag that she used to clean her hands, or anything other little messes that may crop up in her car. I can only imagine what she was thinking when i first asked that question. Well that rag now has a good story.
My friend travels much more than I so I asked about the giant head, she seemed think it had been there for a while. I told her I was going to find out about that Giant damn head when I got home, it had caused me so much embarrassment that I felt I needed to know the story. Well come to find out she is called the Goddess of the wind and while I could not find the exact commissioning date the first acticle I found was dated November of 2005. So our 14 foot head had been watching me for several years without my knowledge. I did find out that the sculpture cost a cool 150 grand, just when I thought that was bad enough I learned the airport authority moved the flag pavilion to create a home for the sculpture. And that granite walled home, with cascading waterfalls, cost an astonishing $450,000. It does have lighting that illuminate Hoy es Hoy (Today is Today) from the bottom at night so maybe that 450k was OK. Oh yeah there was another controversy with the Giant Head, the artist called it Hoy es Hoy but the airport authority renamed it to Goddess of the wind, he didn’t mind terribly as he still cashed the check. The artist, Javier Marin drew his inspiration from many different cultures—Mexican, Native American, and Asian. He says that this piece is representative of the Airport’s value of multi-culturalism and places the City on an international level for public art. Is he high, this is Jacksonville, a city that only begrudgingly supports the arts, and then barely at all.
The pre-Columbian and classically inspired features are framed by Medusa-like ringlets of hair that seem to flow around her. She is truly quite impressive, or at least she seemed so from my vantage point in the swamp that surrounds her on three sides. This purchase used operating revenue as part of a larger effort to elevate airport art to an international level, have you ever been to JIA? There is not one international flights that leaves from JIA. For some unknown reason that hasn't deterred officials from clinging to the idea that it's the perfect place for Hoy es Hoy. Especially now that she has mysteriously acquired an aviation-appropriate nickname to go with her new perch. "It's a gateway; it provides a first and lasting impression," said John Clark, executive director of the Jacksonville Airport Authority. "To me, it kind of symbolized this blending of ethnicity. I didn't realize when I first saw it that it was the goddess of wind." WHAT! It had been there for 4 years and I just noticed it. I am relatively sure Mr. Clark is full of something and he can tell any story that makes him feel better about spending the money, what do I care.
No one involved claims to know exactly where the Goddess of the wind nickname came from. But those present when Clark visited the J. Johnson Gallery and first saw Hoy es Hoy agree they heard someone say she could be a "goddess of the wind." Though airport officials acknowledge she is no such thing, they have latched onto that label anyway. The artist, said Hoy es Hoy honors the intellectual and emotional side of humanity, those parts that are universal in everyone. But ultimately it is up to the viewers to decide what they see. "She could be a million things," Marin said from Mexico City. "They can call her Medusa," he said, laughing. "If that's what people see, then she's Medusa. ... I don't try to define things. I like things to be up to interpretation. I agree with him, while art is created with one thing in mind it moves different people in different ways and I wish I could have gotten close enough to the Giant Head to sit, stare and ponder it for a while. Yep, they can call it Goddess of the wind or Medusa or Hoy es Hoy but to me it will always be that “Giant head at the Airport” and I am glad it is there, even though I had a unique way of learning the story.
Have you ever noticed it or knew the story behind it?
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