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Monday, December 30, 2013

False quality

I stopped at a convenience store today to get something to drink and to use the restroom.  Oh, the restroom... what a room that was.  On the mirror over the sink was a sign saying that if the restroom wasn't clean to contact management because they wanted only quality restrooms.  A quick survery showed stains of coke drips all over the inside of the door.  The floor around the toilet was littered with toilet paper.  The sink had not been cleaned in a while because drink stains were all over it.  Water drips appeared all over the floor, not merely around the toilet.  A cardboard core of a roll of toilet paper was uncurled and half-floated near the bottom of the water in the toilet bowl.  Plaster splotches adorned the walls of the small room.

I'm not sure why management bothered with the sign on the mirror.  But then, part of the work I do is exactly like this scene - figuratively speaking - so I understand the need to keep up an image.  People's rhetoric is one thing, but if one takes a look around the words that are spoken, such as people's actions, or their words in other circumstances, one finds that the pledge to be a decent person is mere talk, empty words.  I try hard to expose people's stories that don't match their rhetoric.  It's not that hard either, and I have found that people whose lives don't match their rhetoric are habitually out of kilter.  If I were to stop at this convenience store again, I am quite certain that nothing will have changed.

It was a good snapshot to remind me, coming into a new year, that people live behind images created by words, their facades, and surveying the environment will bear out the emptiness of the words being used.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Looking ahead from the mist


The night was dark.  Street lights lit the street, but could not be seen easily since the fog hid all but the bright orb around the light.  A light mist lived in the fog, so the next morning's early drivers would have to scrape a light layer of ice from their windshields.  The wind would make the chill in the air 10 degrees lower if anyone were to get out in it.

All the people in the house were sleeping already, resting in order to be ready for the next day's activities that would start in the pre-dawn hours.  So, the night hours yielded a lot of time for the one person who remained awake to review the year's twisting path. In many ways, the path had led by "still waters."  Yet, it had had moments of unpleasantness, and one moment that meandered across the edge of "the valley of the shadow of death."

In two days the year would end.  So, in the late hours of this night, the lone wakeful person tried hard to see where the trail would lead him over the next 365 days.  Of course, there was no way to tell.  But, his greatest hope in life he would keep as his priority.  He wondered where the peaks and valleys would occur, knowing that he would see both.  And, short of death, he knew that next year at this same time, he would have a chance to review the year again.  And, maybe, just maybe, the fog would not be hiding the street lights, the wind wouldn't further chill the freezing air, and mist would give way to dry ground.  It would certainly be a welcome change.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Among those shining stars

Depending on how you look at it, humanity's records of itself have either been kept a long time or they are a recent development of the our race.  Somewhere between 3500 BCE and 2800 BCE records began being kept.  The records of Sumer are the earliest records found (although the Chinese say differently, they are not forthcoming with their earliest records).

These early records record a god named Enki.  He later was more famous under the name Ea, but he was the keeper of life because he was in charge of life-giving water.  Also, in the ancient world, celestial observers tended to let things on Earth become reflected in the skies.  So, in ancient astrology, there is a portion or field of the sky known as a water area.  In this area, Ea's area, there is a faint constellation. Stars in the galaxies of this field of the sky range from 39 to 340 light years from Earth.  It is the second faintest constellation from old, but it is one of the original constellations, one mentioned in the ancient Babylonian astrological records.

Ea had a number of different symbols for himself but two of the most enduring ones were the sign of the fish because it was a sign of water which symbolized life and the other was the sign of life on Earth, fertility. The symbol for this was the goat.  Goats sustained the people and multiplied easily.  The two signs combined to represent him.

The constellation now is represented, after all these years, still by the mountain goat and the fish, the head of the goat, the body of the fish.  It is best seen in the sky from December 22-January 21.  It made its way into the zodiac under the sign name of Capricorn (Latin for goat horn).  The people born under this sign are said to be some of the best, brightest, most surefooted, regal, brilliant, ambitious, discrete, and dependable people on the planet.

So, I look to the skies every single night of this Capricorn cycle, and I see the stars of Capricorn in the sky, think of the ancient meanings and signs, try to see the star that is 340 light years away, and then change my thoughts to one who was brilliant in every way, whom I enjoyed more than anyone else in my life, who was truly regal, dependable, and ambitious.  I say, "Shine brightly" aloud to myself as I stare upward.  And each night among those shining stars, I see face and a person's unforgettable form, I hear a laugh and the sound of a voice, and I bring to mind the happiest scenes of my life.  My next 30 nights give me pleasant, peaceful rest.


Thursday, December 26, 2013

I still wish

The year is about to end, and it is at this time that I reflect on the year behind and look at the hopes I have for the next year.  It seems that this year my goals were accomplished at about a 50/50 level, half accomplished, half not.  Disappointed? Not at all.

Life is not a fair playing field.  And, sometimes there are so many factors entering into accomplishment of a goal that it is hard to know which one contributed the most.  And, when a goal hasn't been accomplished, it's not always apparent what happened exactly to cause the goal from being fulfilled.  My number one goal for the 4th straight year was not realized.  I still wish for it to happen.  I am hoping that what will broaden my horizons and make me the happiest man alive will happen this year.  As far as assets go, there was a mixed bag.  50%.  Job related goals and personal health goals were above 50%.

For the hope of next year?  I have two great hopes - one financial, one personal.  We'll see.  I have learned that there are bound to be some twists and turns this next year.  I'm never ready for those.  But for those that I have a hand in, I will work hard to make them come to pass.

So here's to a good year.

Next December I want to write that all my goals have been realized.  There is always hope and faith, and I still am holding out both.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Another year-turner


Every 12/24 starts with a single-minded thought.. happy birthday to a person who achieves the highest of ambitions, both for herself and in what the world has to offer.  When the room is stale or dark, she brightens it.  When people have lynch mob mentality, she quells it.  When people are sad, she consoles them.  And when a situation needs someone to figure out an answer to a difficulty, she produces the solution.

She's an amazing person, worthy of accolades in so many areas of life.  One day her children will find out what a tremendous mother she has been to them.  Everyone else already knows this quality in her.

Nothing but the greatest of birthdays for this, your day!

Monday, December 23, 2013

Breathing good air

It's the eve of the eve before Christmas.  All through the house everything is stirring, even the mouse (I killed one in the garage recently. Who knows but that there might be another one).  My daughter just finished building a 108 piece kitchen for her 2-year-old.  There is a lot of satisfaction in the air tonight.

And maybe that is the best contribution of Christmas each year.  It gives a sense of satisfaction to everyone.  People are in giving moods, pleasant moods.  The air around town is much easier than at other times of the year.  I certainly like sleeping on a night when satisfaction, giving, pleasantness, and ease have filled the air I breathe.  For tonight, my soul rests,

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Child's play

"Stanford University:2013"


That was the caption that started the segment on the science channel program Futurescape.  What followed surprised me.  I'm not usually surprised.  I work hard to recognize trends so as not to be surprised in the next moment or two.  The program was called How to be Superhuman.

Yeah, I was expecting that too.  Another program on how bionic replacement of human parts makes humans superhuman.  Oh, but not this program.  The narrator went on to show the research and conduct interviews with the researchers about his statement that followed the caption of the segment.  DNA can be added to because now there is a micro thinking machine (I doubt the word computer will ever be used here) made from bodily membranes that can retrieve and store files from within a  DNA splice.  The genes can now hold any information that can be digitized, which is nearly all information.


That's not bionics.  And, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities for how people will look and act in the future because the information is not externally controlled anymore but internally.  Even behavior can be programmed.  One experiment with mice showed that they could have a gene implanted that would make them sensitive only to blue light and not have any sensitivity at all to orange light.  Even though that experiment is simple, the implications are staggering.  As you might imagine, the last part of the program was about the agendas to expect from people and governments in the future.

Genetics no longer is about inheritance, nor is it about merely tampering with portions of the DNA strand.  Now it is a human frontier waiting to be explored, exploited, changed, reformed.   It has been made ready for tremendously great alterations, for tailoring every human being for living on Earth, Mars, or any other planet with specified behavior, appearance, brain function... everything.  Brave New World can now be relegated to the past.  It can definitely be shown to be  pure fiction since what is going to happen in the real future has now supplanted the prediction of Aldous Huxley.  As shocking as it has been for 3 generations since it was written, Brave New World is child's play.



Saturday, December 14, 2013

Supplements to each other


The modern world has taken science to new levels because of all the advancements in technology.  Whether you stay here on the Earth or go into outer space, science has advanced in every area.  I'm thankful that I live in this world on the threshold of quantum leaps in science advances.

But, it has set up a battle in the minds of those who decide religion needs to be a priority in their lives.  I try to understand some of the religious viewpoints, but they elude me most of the time.  I don't understand, for example, why people refuse to believe that the history of the world only goes back to around 4500 BCE when it is so clear that humans arrived late on the scene and that many other animals current and extinct preceded them.  I don't get it when people think that stem cell treatment and perfections in medicine and food are "playing God."  I find it hard to comprehend that people say we have never been to the moon (or Mars) and that the vast, immense, unlimited amount of space cannot hold other life.


So, for a person living in the modern world to accept some of the tenets of religion is many times not to consider what is helpful and possible for humanity in the advancement of becoming better as a civilization and, therefore, better as an individual.  Not everything in religion boils down to a bottom-line, but it seems to me that the main force of religion is to live decent, respectable, respectful lives benefiting ourselves and our posterity as a society.

That's a little off the beaten path for the rule keepers among us.  But, I think religion has less to do with keeping rules and more to do with living in harmony with others and in contentment with our own inner peace.  Rules for societies vary and take care of themselves.  So, religion is not needed for that function in the modern world.  But, decency and contentment are always needed .  Part of decency and contentment requires progress to be made in every realm of life.  Science is a really necessary ingredient for that to happen.  What both religion and science yield to humanity are not at cross-aims.  They are supplements to each other.



Sunday, December 08, 2013

About a half hour more


"How much longer, Dad?"

"Not long." he'd reply. "It's about a half hour more.  Right up here around the next bend or so."  Then he would chuckle, knowing it was one of those routines he would be remembered by and knowing the trip would be enjoyable even if the trip didn't end in about a half hour.

Two bends later I would ask, "I thought you said about a half hour more."

"I guess it was a little farther than I thought," Dad replied.

That was Dad's standard answer no matter what trip we were taking, long or short.  Then, I had a son. Yep, I had the same conversation.

The conversation has really been a good primer for life.  No one knows exactly how far it is to the next goal or chance to make things better.  It helps the pacing if you tell yourself it is only a half hour more.  Plus, it's an approximation in case you don't exactly reach your goal according to the timing you had set or reach it at all. Life has a lot to do with timing.

Really it didn't matter if we made the trip end in a half hour or not.  We always got there and enjoyed it after we did.  And with life...  Yes, I enjoy the trip  usually and the time after the next mile marker has been achieved.

I have a few more half hours left... and more laughter I am sure.

Saturday, December 07, 2013

Red indicator light

On last night's news, the news anchor was reporting the effect of Dallas' new superintendent after his first year.  Anyone with any sense at all could have predicted the effect.  The superintendent was former military and has been superintendent in only small school districts in Colorado.  He had a no-nonsense approach to management of people, had very limited experience in dealing with a diverse number of teacher and community interest groups, and he established goals and deadlines that had very little to do with the human condition, as if delivery of education was the same as delivering boxes through UPS trucks.

Yeah - you're right. That's exactly what happened.  Dallas has 25% fewer teachers after year one.  Almost 10% of the 25% were due to contract non-renewals.  Unheard of.  The rest had varying reasons, but many of the teachers felt forced out.  Some knew they couldn't work under the testing goals and the policies instituted to accomplish those goals.

It's a good thing that unemployment is high in the private sector.  Otherwise teachers historically would be hard to come by.  The line to get into teaching ranks is longer when private jobs are fewer and farther between.  But, then that's the irony of this debacle.  Why would people leave a job when the economy is dictating difficulty in finding a new one?  

Professionals, whose business it is to educate human beings, know when someone at the helm is ridiculously out of order.  They will have no part of maniacal behavior.  Humans are not inanimate objects and teachers do not make a product.  They leave the classroom for a variety of reasons, but when principles of good education are not the principles they see in their classrooms, fallout is inevitable.  Incongruity takes its toll.

The Dallas superintendent is holding the line.  But, the reality will be that his line of action won't achieve his goal of having higher test scores because those are achieved as a by-product of good education rather than the product of deliberately teaching test answers.

25% - horrendous!  Well, the board of trustees are business people.  They'll miss the point.  But at most companies a 25% turnover in employees is an indicator that a strategic error on the part of its leadership has been made.

Friday, December 06, 2013

White all around

What a white day!  The Christmas tree is decked in white lights, snowflakes, pearls, and icicles.  The white wooden mantle over the fireplace contains all white candle holders, white pelicans, white roses, white angels, and a white picture frame with a pier leading to the blue sky covered in white clouds.  That's the inside.


On the outside the yard is covered with about 3 inches of snow and ice.  All the hedges, cars, trees, rocks, play equipment, and mailbox have the same blanket of snow and ice.

In my heart, I am loving my little white-headed granddaughter who is loving all the trimmings of Christmas.  And, I'm loving the memory of a face that has the purity of whiteness all around it, remembering the laughter, joy, contentment, and total, melting affection of its flashes in front of my eyes.

Wednesday, December 04, 2013

Life's tenor

Edgar Allan Poe's works are always intriguing to me.  I wonder what went on in his mind as he wrote his various works.  He had such a talent.  There is hardly a better poem written than his Bells because of all the literary figures of speech he includes.  His short stories entertain because of his strategic use of irony.  And his personal life was more eccentric than most of those around him, so he he created quite the reputation.  Some refer to his drug use.  However, that part of his story is largely unconfirmed.

I think the main reason I like him is that he was able to write about whatever he wanted including sentiments in his heart that society thought were out of place.  The sterling example is from his poem Anabel Lee.  I have found that most students coming through school these days can tell you about the Raven (and his reported drug use while writing it) his Cask of Amontillado, Tell-Tale Heart, or Masque of the Red Death, but rarely have people been exposed to Anabel Lee.  Society can even rob a world class author of the sentiments he wants to put forth for people to read if they think he wrote something unacceptable.  And by unacceptable, I mean against the value system of the conservative right morally and religiously.

But I say kudos to Edgar Allan Poe for penning his thoughts for the one he loved.  People commonly thought that the poem was intended for someone he wasn't married to.  Maybe that's true.  In fact, one woman, named Sarah said he told her the poem was about her.  Two other women also named Sarah claimed the same thing.  No one really knows.  But, even if true, I am glad for him that he found love.  It is so important to have that bond in life because everything else in life comes hard, drains your energy, causes restlessness, and makes existence not worth the living.  Having that one person to love and be loved by changes every dynamic one faces in life.

The poem has 5 stanzas of 6, 8 and 12 lines.  But stanza four represents the tenor of the poem and its passion.  

But our love was stronger by far than the love 
   Of those who were older than we -
   Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
   Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
   Of the beautiful Anabel Lee.

Anabel Lee was a lucky woman and Edgar a lucky man for finding each other, regardless of what the rest of society had to say about it or tried to exclude from the public and from posterity.  Modern conservative scholars have even proposed that Poe wrote this about his wife, and in that way have tried to squash the controversy.  Typical hogwash.  Whatever -   

Yes, a lucky man that Edgar Allan... 

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
   of the beautiful Anabel Lee.

I should be so fortunate.

Sunday, December 01, 2013

Showing through the pane

Over the front door is an arched window.  It's too high to really see very much of what is going on.  But it is good if you want to know what the weather is.  One of the trees in the front yard can partially be seen.  So, if the wind is blowing the limbs on the tree are moving and bending.  If it is raining or lightning the pane on the glass is wet or brightens up.  You can see if it is light or dark outside.

The window from the inside of our minds works much the same way.  We see out based on what appears in front of it - everything making up our experience.  Of course, what I see out the physical window is cyclical and bound by the four seasons of the year.  But, then, our experience is bound as well to the cycles our lives are in.  I understand that, but I sure don't like it.  Some of the best times of life are rotated out of existence by the cycles.