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. 

sports and honor

There is something that has bothered me for a while about America in general and sports specifically. I grew up with a belief that honor is important. The old Vince Lombardi quote "Winning isn't everything it is the only thing." seems to me at best amoral and more likely plain old immoral.
  I think sports are a reflection of society. Recently I have become aware of a whole group of thought that "chaps my hide!" "I don't make the rules I just use them." is used to justify "legal"cheating. "Everybody else is doing it" Another justification of lying cheating and other unlikable hobbies.
   My idea of sports has always been practicing excellence honor and teamwork. I believe that especially in sports where lives are not at stake, one MUST practice honor and fairness. If one cannot support honor on the field of play, how is one to practice it when there is real danger.
  I remember the first year Lance Armstrong won the Tour De France. He fell at one point and the German who was competing against him waited as honor dictated. Armstrong went on to win. The next year the German fell. You can guess what Armstrong did. Not cheating but not honorable. These people often state that honor and morality are weakness.  Another funny thing is that I find it hard to trust someone in life if I believe they will cheat in sports. Many disagree with me and claim that sports is separate from the rest of life. Interesting eh?

let's be honest

I like to think that I am honest, mainly because I heard somewhere that good people and heroes are always honest. Quite often I find myself in a situation where I sense honesty will cause me stress(mainly somebody I respect may think less of me) Sometimes in those situations I will lie(usually by omission ) Then of course I will feel bad and lose respect for MYSELF . I also talk to myself a lot,luckily not enough to be put away,definitely enough so that we..I mean I never feel lonely anyway I ask myself did you lie? The answer of course is yes but then I will lose respect and feel worse about myself so sometimes I lie ... Of course then we have a real problem.  As some English guy said "...when first we practice to deceive...."

Privacy policy

Watching a tv show with people running around in hospital gowns. The weird thing is that nothing was showing. Seems like the real life gowns should somehow come under the "we won't share your private parts with anybody without your permission, doesn't it?  Seriously why do the actors get cool gowns and if we go to the doctor we get something that doesn't fit