Friday, December 17, 2004
Live Every Day As If...
I never thought I would live this long. Between an immanent nuclear World War Three that we constantly prepared for and the deeply morbid suicidal need for release from constant worry and depression, it is still amazing to me that I would see 2005. Actually, I have been shocked to still be around since 1984! And quite frankly, there are not as many changes to the world as one would hope.
But one thing that has changed--my adage to live by. “Live Every Day as if it Were Your Last” did not serve me well. It did not prepare me for middle age.
I did not learn as much as I could have. I did not choose as well as I should have. I did not keep my body in good working order as well as I would have. I did not keep track of the good people that graced my life. I did not pay attention to the details. I was not ready when Opportunity Knocked–and it knocked a lot–albeit sometimes very softly. And despite all those errors, I am still planning to be around to see 2050 or beyond. Don’t worry, kids, I will keep working as long as I can support myself in my simple but tasteful fashion and will try to not be a burden.
I have a new adage.
“Live Every Day as if You Will Live to Be One Hundred.”
Save for your future hard times as well as future good times. Know where your friends are. Learn stuff (hopefully by experience) every single day. Answer, READY OR NOT, every time Opportunity Knocks. Value every penny you have worked for as a means to do good in our world. And spend a little more time listening to the universe and a little less time yelling at it.
I never thought I would live this long. Between an immanent nuclear World War Three that we constantly prepared for and the deeply morbid suicidal need for release from constant worry and depression, it is still amazing to me that I would see 2005. Actually, I have been shocked to still be around since 1984! And quite frankly, there are not as many changes to the world as one would hope.
But one thing that has changed--my adage to live by. “Live Every Day as if it Were Your Last” did not serve me well. It did not prepare me for middle age.
I did not learn as much as I could have. I did not choose as well as I should have. I did not keep my body in good working order as well as I would have. I did not keep track of the good people that graced my life. I did not pay attention to the details. I was not ready when Opportunity Knocked–and it knocked a lot–albeit sometimes very softly. And despite all those errors, I am still planning to be around to see 2050 or beyond. Don’t worry, kids, I will keep working as long as I can support myself in my simple but tasteful fashion and will try to not be a burden.
I have a new adage.
“Live Every Day as if You Will Live to Be One Hundred.”
Save for your future hard times as well as future good times. Know where your friends are. Learn stuff (hopefully by experience) every single day. Answer, READY OR NOT, every time Opportunity Knocks. Value every penny you have worked for as a means to do good in our world. And spend a little more time listening to the universe and a little less time yelling at it.
Sunday, December 12, 2004
They Liked Me :$
Did you ever realize a group of people like you? I mean really like you? How embarrassing!
We had a department move from an off-site location to our building. The company converted a huge windowless space into little work pods. False rumors rampaged through our many departments that there wouldn’t be enough parking since the new group had earlier shifts. The day finally came for the big move-in. And not one welcoming banner, plate of donuts, or friendly face greeted them. Kind of like being the new kid in a school of cliques. Just awful for them.
People did peek their heads into the new department to see, to look, but not to smile or say “Hi” or tell them anything about where restaurants and shopping are handily located.
On their first day, I happened to overhear a group talk about how they didn’t like sitting near the door because they were getting stared at all day. And how they had heard no one wanted them there.
I started sitting with them at breaks. Every day, when possible.
And after a while, I have grown to realize how much I appreciate them. My face is better for it.
I have laugh lines and eye twinkles and lots of good jokes and stories from this new department. And, I have to admit, I have given them a few chuckles in return. They really know how to break. In fact, now-a-days, if the break room is empty during my break time, I just return to my desk. They have spoiled me that much.
So when I had to go back into their department during regular work time, I was amazed and really taken aback by them. Every one of them brighten up when they saw me, each wanting eye contact and conversation, and surprisingly stressful things like that.
It is amazing how a little kindness and respect can affect all of us?.
Flipping through the channels the other day, I caught a bit of Dr. Wayne Dyer on the PBS channel. He said there have been studies done that prove an act of kindness actually does three things!
1--Increases the endorphin levels of the doer. 2--Increases the endorphin levels of the receiver. And 3--Increases the endorphin levels of any witnesses!
Isn’t it remarkable how little it takes to make the world a happier place?
Did you ever realize a group of people like you? I mean really like you? How embarrassing!
We had a department move from an off-site location to our building. The company converted a huge windowless space into little work pods. False rumors rampaged through our many departments that there wouldn’t be enough parking since the new group had earlier shifts. The day finally came for the big move-in. And not one welcoming banner, plate of donuts, or friendly face greeted them. Kind of like being the new kid in a school of cliques. Just awful for them.
People did peek their heads into the new department to see, to look, but not to smile or say “Hi” or tell them anything about where restaurants and shopping are handily located.
On their first day, I happened to overhear a group talk about how they didn’t like sitting near the door because they were getting stared at all day. And how they had heard no one wanted them there.
I started sitting with them at breaks. Every day, when possible.
And after a while, I have grown to realize how much I appreciate them. My face is better for it.
I have laugh lines and eye twinkles and lots of good jokes and stories from this new department. And, I have to admit, I have given them a few chuckles in return. They really know how to break. In fact, now-a-days, if the break room is empty during my break time, I just return to my desk. They have spoiled me that much.
So when I had to go back into their department during regular work time, I was amazed and really taken aback by them. Every one of them brighten up when they saw me, each wanting eye contact and conversation, and surprisingly stressful things like that.
It is amazing how a little kindness and respect can affect all of us?.
Flipping through the channels the other day, I caught a bit of Dr. Wayne Dyer on the PBS channel. He said there have been studies done that prove an act of kindness actually does three things!
1--Increases the endorphin levels of the doer. 2--Increases the endorphin levels of the receiver. And 3--Increases the endorphin levels of any witnesses!
Isn’t it remarkable how little it takes to make the world a happier place?
Sunday, December 05, 2004
YOUNG MEN: BEWARE
The Pepsi Generation strikes again.
In our obsession with youth, we have generated another monster.
Please consider. We have convinced our society that no one can be too young nor too thin. We photograph anorexics and tsk tsk the meaty. We idolize women with preteen bodies who have lost their ability to menstruate. We have convinced our men they need children to satisfy their desires. Vice sting operations have arrested thousands of child molesters armed with Viagra, sex toys and drugs, for luring young people from chat pages. They are out there right now. These men are selfish and desperate for satisfaction. Despite all the publicity about the many arrests and convictions, they still stalk our youngest.
We call them perverts. But just how can that be correct? They are not behaving in an abnormal way. They are conducting themselves with total rational responses to the stimulations we provide in movies, tv, and magazines. Who are the real perverts? Those who respond logically to the culture? Or those who have perverted the culture for their own economic gains? Who are the perverts? Those who find the pictures in Vogue sexy or those who paint make-up on the faces of erotically clad 13 year olds? Those who find little girls sexy or the John & Patsy Ramseys who dress their little JonBenets to look like sexual objects?
Now, we would like to introduce you to the newest money making perversion: the Passion Patch -- an approved drug to make women want more sex. Equal opportunity? You're right, unfortunately. Did you see the Graduate? Mrs. Robinson was not a comedy bit. She was the prelude to our coming crisis. Women stalking young boys.
Think: that same desperate need to have sex, at any cost, and some old she-hag of the "I, Me, Mine" generation, who is selfish enough to not care who she hurts and at what age her victims may be. More than likely, a person in that state of mind probably thinks she is not doing as much harm as we think or that the young victim doesn’t really mind that much or won’t remember that much.
I have a horrible picture that has been inside my mind for decades. It comes from an old black and white foreign film with subtitles. A young boy crossed the rocky and sandy hillside of some European landscape. A group of old hag gypsy-women grabbed him, molested him, threw him on his back and took turns with him. But the horror of their warty faced toothless grins became that horrible picture that has been inside my mind for decades. Shudder. Shudder. Maybe the purpose of that memory is to understand the significance of all this Viagra and Passion Patch society of youth worshipers.
We need to stop the madness.
The Pepsi Generation strikes again.
In our obsession with youth, we have generated another monster.
Please consider. We have convinced our society that no one can be too young nor too thin. We photograph anorexics and tsk tsk the meaty. We idolize women with preteen bodies who have lost their ability to menstruate. We have convinced our men they need children to satisfy their desires. Vice sting operations have arrested thousands of child molesters armed with Viagra, sex toys and drugs, for luring young people from chat pages. They are out there right now. These men are selfish and desperate for satisfaction. Despite all the publicity about the many arrests and convictions, they still stalk our youngest.
We call them perverts. But just how can that be correct? They are not behaving in an abnormal way. They are conducting themselves with total rational responses to the stimulations we provide in movies, tv, and magazines. Who are the real perverts? Those who respond logically to the culture? Or those who have perverted the culture for their own economic gains? Who are the perverts? Those who find the pictures in Vogue sexy or those who paint make-up on the faces of erotically clad 13 year olds? Those who find little girls sexy or the John & Patsy Ramseys who dress their little JonBenets to look like sexual objects?
Now, we would like to introduce you to the newest money making perversion: the Passion Patch -- an approved drug to make women want more sex. Equal opportunity? You're right, unfortunately. Did you see the Graduate? Mrs. Robinson was not a comedy bit. She was the prelude to our coming crisis. Women stalking young boys.
Think: that same desperate need to have sex, at any cost, and some old she-hag of the "I, Me, Mine" generation, who is selfish enough to not care who she hurts and at what age her victims may be. More than likely, a person in that state of mind probably thinks she is not doing as much harm as we think or that the young victim doesn’t really mind that much or won’t remember that much.
I have a horrible picture that has been inside my mind for decades. It comes from an old black and white foreign film with subtitles. A young boy crossed the rocky and sandy hillside of some European landscape. A group of old hag gypsy-women grabbed him, molested him, threw him on his back and took turns with him. But the horror of their warty faced toothless grins became that horrible picture that has been inside my mind for decades. Shudder. Shudder. Maybe the purpose of that memory is to understand the significance of all this Viagra and Passion Patch society of youth worshipers.
We need to stop the madness.
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
What's Going On?
I’m asking. Really, My nose is so stuffed up one moment and runny the next I can hardly sleep, work, drive, or think. Did Arafat die yet? Is that little blond slut he married the richest woman in the world now? Is Falluja over? Did anybody get snow yet? Where’s my tissue? Where’s the Sudafed?
This is my first year without a flu shot in over a decade and really, I forgot what it is like to get this sick. I have eaten gallons of chicken soup, drank gallons of low carb citrus juice, and eaten V-C’s and Echinacea, Zinc, and Alieve like they were all red, yellow, green, and chocolate M & Ms. By the way, how many Sudafeds can you take in a day? I hope a lot.
Now I hear Our Fearless Leader has gone to Canada to get his flu shot. Unfair, I say, nay, more then unfair, unsportsmanlike, and downright dastardly! Maybe it’s not true. Maybe it was just a fever dream.
Furthermore, I am starting to resent all those panic mongers (i.e. the dreaded press) who so convincingly created this flu shot panic in the first place--just to sell papers.
People who have never had flu shots in their lives were desperately standing in line for hours at a time just to get a coveted poke in the arm. How many people have died from the vaccine after being tricked into thinking they must have it or die?
What makes me mad is that they have already given out more flu shots this year then in any previous year! Shortage–what shortage! They created a shortage by creating a panic.
Don’t you just love the capitalists? Anything to make the economy go around.
Ya’all do your loved ones a favor.
Buy some of that new Kleenex tissue that kills 99% of virus germs. Be sure to cover your mouth at every cough and sneeze. Wash your hands every time you are near a sink (not because you may have touched something dirty, but because we all touch all things all day long). And especially wash your hands after touching money! Gets lots of sleep, drink lots of water, and be aware of healthy habits.
This winter, spread the love, not the virus.
I’m asking. Really, My nose is so stuffed up one moment and runny the next I can hardly sleep, work, drive, or think. Did Arafat die yet? Is that little blond slut he married the richest woman in the world now? Is Falluja over? Did anybody get snow yet? Where’s my tissue? Where’s the Sudafed?
This is my first year without a flu shot in over a decade and really, I forgot what it is like to get this sick. I have eaten gallons of chicken soup, drank gallons of low carb citrus juice, and eaten V-C’s and Echinacea, Zinc, and Alieve like they were all red, yellow, green, and chocolate M & Ms. By the way, how many Sudafeds can you take in a day? I hope a lot.
Now I hear Our Fearless Leader has gone to Canada to get his flu shot. Unfair, I say, nay, more then unfair, unsportsmanlike, and downright dastardly! Maybe it’s not true. Maybe it was just a fever dream.
Furthermore, I am starting to resent all those panic mongers (i.e. the dreaded press) who so convincingly created this flu shot panic in the first place--just to sell papers.
People who have never had flu shots in their lives were desperately standing in line for hours at a time just to get a coveted poke in the arm. How many people have died from the vaccine after being tricked into thinking they must have it or die?
What makes me mad is that they have already given out more flu shots this year then in any previous year! Shortage–what shortage! They created a shortage by creating a panic.
Don’t you just love the capitalists? Anything to make the economy go around.
Ya’all do your loved ones a favor.
Buy some of that new Kleenex tissue that kills 99% of virus germs. Be sure to cover your mouth at every cough and sneeze. Wash your hands every time you are near a sink (not because you may have touched something dirty, but because we all touch all things all day long). And especially wash your hands after touching money! Gets lots of sleep, drink lots of water, and be aware of healthy habits.
This winter, spread the love, not the virus.
