When I was young birthdays were not a very big deal. It wasn't until maybe the forties and fifties that the celebrations of them really got into gear. This may (or may not) have been related to Hallmark & all of that, not sure. But there was a shift beyond a point where you were more or less obligated to be happy about birthdays, including yours. Now, to take it back, it seems to me that what should be celebrated is the day that one was conceived, not the day one was birthed (?). But that date is much harder to nail down, yes? No birth certificate is to be issued for that one.
To many people my views on this will appear contentious, perhaps anti-social (heaven forbid). Talking to an acquaintence several years ago he said: "No big deal, man, the birthday thing is definetely financial, presents, cards, the whole nine yards," which is a simplification for sure, but seems to have some truth to it (Hallmark mentioned above, people defintely have a feeling of guilt if they fail to remember and send in time a card to deal with all of this.) But presents are another thing, and this dials in young and younger. My son's children seem to have a steady social calendar of birthday parties, the question is how many can be celebrated, and perhaps afforded? To this cynical, old codger it seems that for certain social classes this may be a line item.
Now, to the point. Several years ago when I began "farming" in a community in Wisconsin one of the farmers said that if you made it to 80 you deserved a party, and could expect one. So when this self same man reached the age he was roasted and toasted in a local bar, his son was the M.C., it was a terrific event. Well, later on his younger brother (Lester had passed on by this time) came of age and a roaring party was given for him, at the same place. Now, on the cusp of 80 I am qualified and am in the process of having a party in June. I have some serious question about this but will go ahead with the idea that I am actually celebrating those who come, and will toast them for having stayed with me, bless their hearts
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Pre Adult
On a recent radio program on NRP a woman author described what she considers a common condition in our society, people in a pre adult status. The individuals used to be called young adults but game has changed. I guess in earlier times the YAs were people in transition to adulthood, pre adults are people who do not want to move on to adult status. Why do it anyway? It will probably compromise you even further than when you were stuck in some kind of young adult transition situation (?).
The author cited a book which has been on the New York Times best list for books for weeks and weeks, "I hope they serve beer in Heaven," I think that is the title. & thus other parallel attitudes and conditions might be called up to describe a situation where you would rather dwell in a middling pre adult situation rather than making choices otherwise. As I mentioned earlier, elsewhere, in response to my question about involvement on vicarious sports on television one of my sons described the event (Superbowl?) as a national holiday. Why not drink your ever loving brew during a national sports holiday, what else to do? Wine, come on.
How do you grow up in a world as confused and compromised as this one. Why not ride it out with a twelve pack or better a keg? We are encouraged to indulge in pastimes which are bathed in violence and self forgetfulness, and the advertisements tell us all that it will all go better with a libation of some kind. Kick back, brothers and sisters, this too shall pass.
The author cited a book which has been on the New York Times best list for books for weeks and weeks, "I hope they serve beer in Heaven," I think that is the title. & thus other parallel attitudes and conditions might be called up to describe a situation where you would rather dwell in a middling pre adult situation rather than making choices otherwise. As I mentioned earlier, elsewhere, in response to my question about involvement on vicarious sports on television one of my sons described the event (Superbowl?) as a national holiday. Why not drink your ever loving brew during a national sports holiday, what else to do? Wine, come on.
How do you grow up in a world as confused and compromised as this one. Why not ride it out with a twelve pack or better a keg? We are encouraged to indulge in pastimes which are bathed in violence and self forgetfulness, and the advertisements tell us all that it will all go better with a libation of some kind. Kick back, brothers and sisters, this too shall pass.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't 3/28, 6:30 pm.
Instead of listening to President Obama's descriptions of the situation in Libya I am going to take the questionable elder's semi- right to "say the obvious." Mr. Obama's speech at the Novel Prize ceremony has already set the stage for what he has said earlier and will say again this evening. War is hell, contradictory and full of devastating compromises, including the death of so many women and children and elderly who do not make the news. As a "centralist" our Commander-in-Chief has to drive what to most people will not be an equatable position.
Following in on eight years of Bush and a foreign policy based upon questionable foreign adventures during and since the so-called Spanish American War, the "empire strikes back," lots of money and blood is spent, and we hope to shift part of the guilt & battle ribbons to NATO and our other partners abroad. And what if our President had not done what he did, what would the hawks and their many accomplices have said and done? Would they have dwelled on the probable victims in their denunciations of a soft foreign policy?
I have at times felt "sorry" for President Obama, it seems that he has inherited even more contradictions and problems than George Bush did. But his record is not good so far in dealing with the hands he has been dealt, including the advisers he has chosen to make his way through to another term. Our former Vice President, Dick Cheney, said in a moment of his usual "candor" that Mr. Obama will be a one term president. "Damned it you do, damned if you don't." War is Peace.
Following in on eight years of Bush and a foreign policy based upon questionable foreign adventures during and since the so-called Spanish American War, the "empire strikes back," lots of money and blood is spent, and we hope to shift part of the guilt & battle ribbons to NATO and our other partners abroad. And what if our President had not done what he did, what would the hawks and their many accomplices have said and done? Would they have dwelled on the probable victims in their denunciations of a soft foreign policy?
I have at times felt "sorry" for President Obama, it seems that he has inherited even more contradictions and problems than George Bush did. But his record is not good so far in dealing with the hands he has been dealt, including the advisers he has chosen to make his way through to another term. Our former Vice President, Dick Cheney, said in a moment of his usual "candor" that Mr. Obama will be a one term president. "Damned it you do, damned if you don't." War is Peace.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Plutocracy Now
As Jim Hightower reminds us (over and over) that our present "Power Elite" is a relatively small plutocracy which has taken over what was left of our so-called d e m o c r a c y lock, stock and barrel. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to prove that a tiny minority is running the economy and that minority is running the media and government as well. Sounds simplistic, and is, in a sense; but true none-the-less. So what are you going to do about it, wise guy, crying in our beer?
Right now there is a brand new book out by Michael Polenti on our American history as startup plutocracy, one that has been left out of the history books, some how. Yes, it turns out that the framers of the Constitution were pretty much 100 per cent landed gentry, who could afford to be away from home and work for long enough periods of time to draw up the rules for our so-called d e m o c r a c y (don't do as I do, do what I say). And then if you followed that into our foreign expansion exploits (eg. with the Spanish colonies we took away), you are just building your way to the empire we find outselves stuck with now.
Plutocracy then, plutocracy now. And I'm not saying that I feel we haven't done anything for anyone, that our Nation has not been there when the chips were down both for us and others. We know there's an aircraft carrier off the coast of Northern Japan right now, that we are helping not only with the ever loving bandaids, but with some hard core rescue work down in the rubble and waste, contaminated by nuclear technology from the good old U.S.A., of course. The costs of empire are way too great, we have to find a better way to do things, and quick.
Right now there is a brand new book out by Michael Polenti on our American history as startup plutocracy, one that has been left out of the history books, some how. Yes, it turns out that the framers of the Constitution were pretty much 100 per cent landed gentry, who could afford to be away from home and work for long enough periods of time to draw up the rules for our so-called d e m o c r a c y (don't do as I do, do what I say). And then if you followed that into our foreign expansion exploits (eg. with the Spanish colonies we took away), you are just building your way to the empire we find outselves stuck with now.
Plutocracy then, plutocracy now. And I'm not saying that I feel we haven't done anything for anyone, that our Nation has not been there when the chips were down both for us and others. We know there's an aircraft carrier off the coast of Northern Japan right now, that we are helping not only with the ever loving bandaids, but with some hard core rescue work down in the rubble and waste, contaminated by nuclear technology from the good old U.S.A., of course. The costs of empire are way too great, we have to find a better way to do things, and quick.
I told you so
I was raised in a culture (described elsewhere) where one heard the phrase "I told you so" fairly often. And then I found myself saying it occasionally. It usually gave next to no satisfaction, and thus remained one of those troublesome, echoing "inner narratives" which can threaten your sanity if not disposed of. I can well remember one of my uncles, or was it an aunt (?), being angry at something stupid I did, which hurt me, and then the somewhat predicable "I told you so" was delivered and I wanted to remind him or her that it was me that got hurt, and I made the mistake, and I paid for it already, thank you.
But they had compounded that by saying the obvious, which was not only insulting but not helpful. My understanding was that uncles and aunts were mentors, people who could back you up when you needed it. & that was usually the case, fortunately. Well, the other day in the face of all the absolutely absurd stuff going in this bewildered world the deadly phrase came out of no where, a ghost in the machine, a survivor for an incredulous past.
Well, it seems that the phase is showing up in the media, probably using other words, but more or less the same meaning. & it almost seems like a version of the apocalyptic, cross wielding christian prophet warning about the absence of a defunct
panacea which has been rendered completely obsolete by the very mentality of the wielder. Ouch, was that I swoosh I felt just over my bewildered head. & as the apocalyptics remind us there isn't much time for fooling around, especially with religious panaceas, as "we struggle toward Jerusalem...."
But they had compounded that by saying the obvious, which was not only insulting but not helpful. My understanding was that uncles and aunts were mentors, people who could back you up when you needed it. & that was usually the case, fortunately. Well, the other day in the face of all the absolutely absurd stuff going in this bewildered world the deadly phrase came out of no where, a ghost in the machine, a survivor for an incredulous past.
Well, it seems that the phase is showing up in the media, probably using other words, but more or less the same meaning. & it almost seems like a version of the apocalyptic, cross wielding christian prophet warning about the absence of a defunct
panacea which has been rendered completely obsolete by the very mentality of the wielder. Ouch, was that I swoosh I felt just over my bewildered head. & as the apocalyptics remind us there isn't much time for fooling around, especially with religious panaceas, as "we struggle toward Jerusalem...."
Buddhist Fly II
A Buddhist friend did a followup poem to my earlier post, and has approved my sharing it.
I could wind up a fly on the wall of eternity
with fantastic faceted eyes to see a thousand worlds
and no chance to make sense of any of it
waiting 'til whap!
and somebody says
"damned fly."
Dan Kemp 3/17/11
Moving along among some destructible and indestructible bugs, I want to comment on the Deer Tick. There are bugs that I sometimes spare, ladybugs, box elders, etc., but as a would be Buddhist I can't imagine sparing a bug that has put me in the hospital once, and threatened to another time. Lucky with antibiotics I was able to get along with my life. Other people, including the local Tibetan Lama have not been so lucky. Life long illness and possible serious ramifications may be the result of a bite from one of these critters. And the cousin wood tick is also a suspect here, a probable source for lyme disease as well.
from the IX - TICK tm IDENTIFICATION CARD: Treatment: If detected early, Lyme Disease is usually treatable with antibiotics."
Usually, watch out, and I don't suggest Buddhist mercy for this critter, and quick action if you suspect you have been hit.
I could wind up a fly on the wall of eternity
with fantastic faceted eyes to see a thousand worlds
and no chance to make sense of any of it
waiting 'til whap!
and somebody says
"damned fly."
Dan Kemp 3/17/11
Moving along among some destructible and indestructible bugs, I want to comment on the Deer Tick. There are bugs that I sometimes spare, ladybugs, box elders, etc., but as a would be Buddhist I can't imagine sparing a bug that has put me in the hospital once, and threatened to another time. Lucky with antibiotics I was able to get along with my life. Other people, including the local Tibetan Lama have not been so lucky. Life long illness and possible serious ramifications may be the result of a bite from one of these critters. And the cousin wood tick is also a suspect here, a probable source for lyme disease as well.
from the IX - TICK tm IDENTIFICATION CARD: Treatment: If detected early, Lyme Disease is usually treatable with antibiotics."
Usually, watch out, and I don't suggest Buddhist mercy for this critter, and quick action if you suspect you have been hit.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
"Real-Life Economics"
The book, "Real-Life economics" is edited by Paul Ekins and Manfred Max-Neff. I first heard about it when Max-Neef was awarded an alternative Nobel prize for economics last year and was featured on "Democracy Now" with Amy Goodman. Max-Neef is from Chile, and is well known as a "bare foot economist" whose work deals the base of societies vs their superstructures. So, he studies how people work, how they live, etc. as the basis for his economic theories, prescriptions and solutions. Seems a little "unreal" in an economy/civilization of neo-conservative thinking. where the stock market, the corporate power structure, and the top down plutocratic structures rule almost everything.
At least for now, with fissures, cracks and holes seemigly apparent most everywhere. The volume mentioned is highly recommended as a way of looking both at the present and (if we have one) the future. The editors both have essays in the volume, and are joined by an array of international economic experts which share their from the ground up views. Part l is "On the Nature of the Economy and Economic Science, Part II On Economic Activity, Progress and Development, Part III On the Mechanisms of Economic Policy, with a brief Conclusion, an ample Appendix: contacts and addresses, Bibliography & Index. The book is published by Routledge in London and New York, c1992. A new volume of Max-Neef is due out later this year.
At least for now, with fissures, cracks and holes seemigly apparent most everywhere. The volume mentioned is highly recommended as a way of looking both at the present and (if we have one) the future. The editors both have essays in the volume, and are joined by an array of international economic experts which share their from the ground up views. Part l is "On the Nature of the Economy and Economic Science, Part II On Economic Activity, Progress and Development, Part III On the Mechanisms of Economic Policy, with a brief Conclusion, an ample Appendix: contacts and addresses, Bibliography & Index. The book is published by Routledge in London and New York, c1992. A new volume of Max-Neef is due out later this year.
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