Autobiography?

Often when people hear the stories of my childhood that I remember....what is that Chinese curse? "may you live in interesting times" The listeners tell me I should write a book. That sounds fun. Now that I am writing a little, maybe not so much. The funny thing is that sometimes I run into people with similar stories. We commiserate ,but still no book.  Once in a while you get the real tragedies(you know... death,starvation,stuff like that) and that does make my childhood seem like a fertile ground for dramedy.
    Anyway I told someone I respect I was thinking of writing a book. She asked the perfectly reasonable question of "why". Of course my answer was because people think I should. She did not think that was a good reason. I do not know that she is wrong,but I really cannot think of a better one.

Took the boys to the zoo yesterday. I struggle with the morality of this. The boys enjoy the zoo and learn some. They also get to hand out with their buddies who went with us.
The animals are trapped in these little cages,sort of a life sentence,although I guess most of them would be dead if they were not in confinement.
   So are we supporting the imprisonment of animals or the education of children,or in some kind of creepy ozymandias making a weird compromise?

Facebook vs google?

So on my cool profile thing I was asked to let people know about other blogs. I do another blog which is apparently associated with Facebook. So I tried to get this blog to talk to it NO WAY! Maybe they don't like each other?

Luddite?

Um ,not really, I just have a hard time focusing on things that do not interest me. I remember 9th grade(high school for you home-schoolers ) when friends and teachers tried to get me interested in computers. Fortran? Binary? I just could not be interested in them. Do not know why. So I started this blog about a year ago and today I was messing around and found something called a profile and an option to edit profile. cool.

Honor?

As a young person I read King Arthur, Robin Hood, The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and many other hero stories. One underlying theme of all these myths is honor. I understood honor to be courage, honesty,integrity,and a sense of something greater than oneself.
   When I started to compete in sports,I understood sports to be a practice field for life and conflict. I internalized the message that honor and integrity were and are concepts greater than the individual. One did not sacrifice these values even to the point of early death. Thus sports. A place where one could practice bravery honor teamwork and self sacrifice without death.
  Lance Armstrong. "Everybody else is cheating so it is okay for me to do it." Vince Lombardi "Winning is everything." (Later claimed it was out of context)  Mark Grace "If you aint cheating you aint trying."
  I know that these people are wrong, more than wrong,they are the conception point of evil. When a person starts to bend the rules of goodness for their own profit or in order to hurt others, that is evil. I hear people say that Armstrong did more good than bad.
  To them I say do you expect a cheat not to lie? Do you expect a liar not to Steal? Do you expect a thief not to kill? This man cheated out of ambition and greed. He later started a foundation. Is he less likely or more likely to embezzle. because he cheated? I will say no more.
    This is the same personality that was cheating in the financial markets. How did that turn out? We like to blame the system or the government or the other guy who was cheating.
  A friend of mine was saying that Armstrong could not have won without cheating. To that I say so? Did he have a right to win that made cheating okay? Did he not have the integrity to point out what was happening?
   I know of at least one person who quit a sport rather than cheat. I have much more respect for that person than any person who gives up part of their humanity in order to win and or gain.
   We all have these theories about all the problems in the world. I think that in the US most of our problems come from these three statements quoted  earlier we reward liars and cheaters and punish honor and integrity. We worship success by fair means or foul. This is wrong and it is not what we should be teaching on the fields of play to our young.
   Honor integrity and courage are values that reach beyond the individual. Let us try to live that way

pollyanna anyone?

I was telling my sister that I did not want to be Pollyanna and she asked me "What is wrong with Pollyanna?"  Well for one thing she is a girl.
  She told me that there is a book and the character in the book puts the best face on everything without being unrealistic. The Pollyanna I always heard about is the drowning person thinking at least I am not thirsty. Apparently that is not what the actual fictional character was about. My image is a caricature made up from depression and hopelessness.
 Interesting. I guess for me the conclusion to draw is once again moderation in all things. The fine art of being realistic without being pessimistic and of being optimistic while understanding the whole reality.

COOL

In MY day....

I was asking my older brother if we really had to walk 5 miles home from school when I was in first grade. He said "Yep".  Any way I remember the innocent wonderful days of the past. I think it was late 1970's and early '80's when there were many advertisements regarding social issues. "Please do not drive drunk because you might hurt somebody". "Join the state Police and help people out." The tone was more Mr. Rogers than Clint Eastwood.
  Now we have Cops shouting and waving assault rifles with the message join us and KICK _A**. Don't drive drunk or we will put you in the slammer.  In times like these when everybody is stealing you gotta protect yourself.
   One reason I doubt that my sense of this is real is my memories of the first president of my adulthood constantly reminding me that things were soooo much better in the "Good old days" when women and those other guys could not vote and nobody got divorced because all the women died in childbirth and lynching was was a nice /Saturday event that people took their kids to and sent pictures of to their relatives. I could go on but I think I have made my point.
  I believe that for most of us our childhood (even Mine) is the good old days because we are not aware of reality. Most of us also have a desire for Utopia where the society is fair,just and beautiful.  Since it is not now it must have been before....right?
   My memory of those old messages may be inaccurate just as I suspect President Reagan's were.  I think that if I can ,at least for myself, change the picture and instead of worrying about the past, take those messages and create an image of the future, I will be better able to go forward.
  If we look accurately at our past we will find that America has less violence and repression than anytime in our history.