In your terminational years, friendships change. Now your best friends are your health, your financial security, time to do the things that interest you, your spouse (hopefully), your kids (to varying degrees---but my own observation is that the stress and disappointment here is not inconsequential), pets, eating, and your own peculiar interests. These individual peculiar interests need to be the focus in your terminational years---these interests alone can make your days contented simply because you control the when, how long, and how to pursue these interests which you selected. Look, the supporting cast of your productive years will be steadily disappearing, fading away, be too far away, or become irrelevant to your or their current lifestyle. This is natural, necessary, and part of the dying process. What is, is. So much of what was, is now extinct. Extinction is forever. Gone with the Wind. I think to be happy in your terminational years you have to learn to focus on what is left, be driven by an appreciation of having had a good life, enjoy pursuing your interests of the moment and be independent about it, not trying to burden others with the responsibility of amusing you, especially those in their productive years. I think every person in their terminational years needs to find contentment in ways which do not put a lot of burden on others to give him/her that contentment. Especially now that us terminational age-frazzled plodders often live so long, there comes with that blessing of longer life an obligation to not be an endless drag on those in their productive years. There is no hard fast rule here except I suspect most err on the side of pushing themselves to hard too often on those from whom they seek to find contentment. Don't, in your terminational years, seek contentment from others; rather, look within. If you can't find ways to please yourself how possibly can you expect others to find ways to please you? At best that will be nothing more than a sometimes thing. It will be like planning a wedding----you go through hell for a few moments of joy. Once the terminational years hit it is time to leave that mentality behind.
There is no need to go through your terminational years wound up tight as a drum, fussing, fussing, fussing about others; and scheming, scheming, scheming to get others to do things and do them in such a way to bring you contentment. I sense if one finds themselves scheming most of the day one is on the wrong track. To the extent a need exists to teach others a lesson you are on the wrong track. I'll put it this way---a terminationist is as relevant to those in their productive years as old age-frazzled prodders were to our productive years. If ever there is a time to let go, it is in your termination phase of life. If one can't find a way to amuse him/herself by one's terminational years, then misery, in varying degrees, lies ahead.
Being irrelevant, which is basically a realistic definition of the terminational years, is not a bad or good thing, it is a necessary thing. I think one either learns to live with irrelevance, like it, use the freedom that comes with irrelevance to have endless pleasant days, or you waste energy, time, and a peaceful state of mind to resist being irrelevant. The end result will be misery, disappointment, frustration, and anger. If one reaches the terminational years chances are one has had ample time to be somebody; honesty dictates it was stressful and hard to have been a young person, a lover, a parent, an athlete, an employee, a boss, a wage earner, etc. I prefer to think I have earned the right to be irrelevant. If you do as you want in your terminational years who is going to charge you are selfish and ignoring your responsibilities? On what basis can they charge that? Hey, wear your irrelevance with honor and pride.
I think, if one is pleasant, kind, and supportive of others you meet in your daily activities, whatever these activities happen to be in your terminational years, then the days will go by pleasantly, relatively stress free, and barring the inevitable health problems, generate contentment. Others don't have any obligation to amuse you, rather you have an obligation to amuse yourself. I know this is not as clear cut as I make it because everyone finds themselves in different situations, but in general I think this applies to most people to varying degrees. Even I put limits on this---there will be no Terrellesque-like "you don't talk to me unless I talk to you first". For most (there are exceptions) terminationists I think it is a mistake to force, encourage, or let yourself be surrounded a lot for companionship by those in their productive years. When I observed those kind of relationships I was mostly struck by how little the terminationist had to say. Now I realize of course they had little to say---the two worlds are polar opposites. I recall, for some reason, a time when this gal was telling her husband's mother about the tortuous journey her husband (the son) had made to be appointed some titled persona in his company. After the lengthy recounting, the son's mother smiled and said, "that's nice". That was the totality of her response. Most people probably notice it becomes more and more difficult to engage terminationists in lengthy conversations---except those aged wind mill chasing windbags who think they are still relevant, and they never shut up. You can always tell they are coming your way by the stampede past you by others who see them coming.
My conclusion on these matters is to let those in their productive years be productive, and l will busy myself enjoying the liberty to follow my own interests at my own pace. Right now I intend to spend hours twice a week at the Morton Arboretum, 1 day at Cantigny, I day in Chicago, 1 day at some place new, I day/month at the River Walk in Naperville, and amend this schedule as the mood moves me. So far I find this most relaxing and contenting. Cantigny is the former estate of Robert McCormick---it is a huge estate, a mile on each side, and perfectly manicured with gardens, ponds, sculptures, a museum, etc. If I arrive there around 3 PM and stay to 6 or 7 PM I pretty much have the place to myself. The other day I never passed a single person the entire time I was there. I walked, sat, napped, read a book, and investigated the assortment of splendid trees growing all around the expansive lawns. Maybe I will suggest they replace the benches with large hammocks. Smile. The last time I was there some sort of professional meetings were being held in one of the buildings on the estate. At 5PM when the meetings ended, the men literally raced down the walkways to the parking lot obviously feeling pressed to get a zillion needed things done before the end of the day. Not a single person took any time to stroll around the magnificant grounds. Of course that is fine with me, I don't need them intruding on my adopted preserve of bliss. Years ago that could have been me racing around in high gear all charged up to keep ahead of a busy schedule. The rat race. They will arrive home exhausted and stressed. I will arrive home relaxed and content, ready to pig myself out on a meal of my choice, watch debates on current issues via local/national public TV and decide what I want to do for the evening. Often I get involved in this or that and don't get to bed until 2 or 3 AM. But no matter, I had taken a nap out in nature and can get up when I want in the morning. From my viewpoint I have a luxury condo and a millions of dollar private estate to patrol any day I want. Soon enough the party of life will be over, and irrelevance of a more eternal sort will nail my ass, as it has every other ass ever to peripateticate on the planet. Since there are no exceptions I guess 'fair is fair' ---we may not start out on a level playing field but we sure as hell end up on one. Death levels all.
My situation in life may not be the ideal for the terminational years, but I do have a couple of important factors in my favor. I have always been intrigued by what makes differing people tick. A high percentage of books I read are biographies. This is probably the reason I place Lincoln so high on my list of admired figures in history. No one understood human nature better than 'Father Abraham'. No one had a better handle on the endless struggle to achieve justice and fairness in a diverse society. Secondly, I like to observe people and nature. And observe is the right word. I am no rugged nature adventurist climbing peaks or backpacking under strenuous conditions. I end each day with a gobble-gobble feast and close the day swallowed by a large comfortable bed. Same with people---I am an observer, not a gregarious companionable herdish fraternizer. I love all sorts of people---from a respectable distance, not close up in my face and never to any point of obligatory bonding. It is really these kind of personal attributes which makes it easy for me to enjoy the terminational years. Those terminationists who seek power, control, undivided attention from select others, and meaningful personal involvement with others in their productive years are always going to be disappointed, with most days being a disappointment to their expectations. There is nothing in life which has a prayer of succeeding without a good game plan. And a good game plan does not guarantee success. I think most of those in their terminational years make the mistake of simply "taking it one day at a time", hanging on to priorities and interests no longer appropriate for the terminational years, depending on others to keep them contented, and tie themselves, as some sort of increasingly heavy and lengthy genetic burden, to their offspring. In times past at least the burden was merely a few years, now it could likely be decades. Both my parents lived to be quite old, and both---bless their souls---found their own ways to live a contented terminational life without being an endless burden to anyone. As a reward, countless people took the time to come to them as time permitted, never fearing they would get trapped into some endless obligation to be some sort of constant companion/protector. I am not sure how much of the advice my mother and I ever gave to each other was followed, but when I tried hard to impress on her not to take health frustrations out on the staff---that if she did they would avoid her room like the plague---she either listened or already knew that, and as a consequence the staff visited her room a lot and some even came up after work to play some sort of game she liked to play, the name of which escapes me. I have already noticed in my early terminational years that the less I demand, the more I get.
In short, I am quickly learning that irrelevancy works both ways. I used to say 'in the long run we are all dead'. Now, for me it will be the short run, hopefully a long short run. There is a plaque on my wall which reads, "God, Grant Me The Serenity To Accept The Things I Cannot Change: Courage To Change Those Things I Can And Wisdom To Know The Difference." Amen. (Part 5 summary to follow)
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Are You Going to Heaven?
Are You Going to Heaven?
I was at Cantigny (Robert McCormick's former estate) sitting on a granite bench at Exedra (the sort of hidden graveyard of Robert and his wife) reading a book about 7PM, when a small group of gals came by. The estate is almost always desolate at that hour and they were startled to find an odd older man tucked away reading a book. "Are you the curator?" one asked. I was tempted to reply "No, I'm Jack the Ripper's grandson, how nice to meet you in such a perfectly secluded spot". Cantigny is my favorite place to be---it is really a gorgeous estate, spacious, perfectly organized, with beautiful gardens and mammoth unique trees. There must be security police somewhere but I have yet to meet one. At any rate I chatted with the gals for a bit, during which they asked to see the title of the book I was reading. That was a bit awkward as the title was "The Sins of Scripture." "What kind of book is that" one asked? "Certainly different" I replied and they decided to let that line of talk end. When they left one of the gals ran back and handed me a pamphlet titled "Are You Going to Heaven?" I looked at the title and smiled, "Now lady if I could answer that I would be smart beyond any human limits or some sort of faith based fool." She scurried away as fast as she had scurried over.
This is a terrible way to feel and perhaps a reach, or at least an assumed generalization, but given the serious personality she projected I bet to myself that this deeply religious gal was probably supporting the war in Iraq, thought Bush was a moral man, was against universal health care, thought religious dogma should be part of a school curriculum, was against raising the minimum wage, and probably thought Pat Robertson really had conversations with God, and her favorite hymn might be "Onward Christian Soldiers".
The book, by the way, is very thought provoking and written by the former Episcopal Bishop of Newark. He wrote something quite interesting: "Spirituality and fundamentalism are at opposite ends of the cultural spectrum. Spirituality seeks a sensitive, contemplative, transformative relationship with the sacred and is able to sustain levels of uncertainty in its quest because respect for mystery is paramount. Fundamentalism seeks certainty, fixed answers and absolutism, as a fearful response to the complexity of the world and to our vulnerability as creatures in a mysterious universe."
"Lady, I really don't know if I am going to Heaven or whether there is a Heaven. I do know that ethics demands we are our brother's keepers, that the rich must share their good fortune with the poor, that ethical politics is always aimed at creating a level playing field for all, that our place in the evolutionary scale of this created universe behooves us to protect the environment and other species so that this complicated ecological system, with so many mutual inter-specie dependencies, can be sustained. We are a part of the whole system, not meant to rule over everything as personal favorites of the Creator, but rather use our superior talents to sustain the evolving process. Nature bats last. We better tread carefully.
I was at Cantigny (Robert McCormick's former estate) sitting on a granite bench at Exedra (the sort of hidden graveyard of Robert and his wife) reading a book about 7PM, when a small group of gals came by. The estate is almost always desolate at that hour and they were startled to find an odd older man tucked away reading a book. "Are you the curator?" one asked. I was tempted to reply "No, I'm Jack the Ripper's grandson, how nice to meet you in such a perfectly secluded spot". Cantigny is my favorite place to be---it is really a gorgeous estate, spacious, perfectly organized, with beautiful gardens and mammoth unique trees. There must be security police somewhere but I have yet to meet one. At any rate I chatted with the gals for a bit, during which they asked to see the title of the book I was reading. That was a bit awkward as the title was "The Sins of Scripture." "What kind of book is that" one asked? "Certainly different" I replied and they decided to let that line of talk end. When they left one of the gals ran back and handed me a pamphlet titled "Are You Going to Heaven?" I looked at the title and smiled, "Now lady if I could answer that I would be smart beyond any human limits or some sort of faith based fool." She scurried away as fast as she had scurried over.
This is a terrible way to feel and perhaps a reach, or at least an assumed generalization, but given the serious personality she projected I bet to myself that this deeply religious gal was probably supporting the war in Iraq, thought Bush was a moral man, was against universal health care, thought religious dogma should be part of a school curriculum, was against raising the minimum wage, and probably thought Pat Robertson really had conversations with God, and her favorite hymn might be "Onward Christian Soldiers".
The book, by the way, is very thought provoking and written by the former Episcopal Bishop of Newark. He wrote something quite interesting: "Spirituality and fundamentalism are at opposite ends of the cultural spectrum. Spirituality seeks a sensitive, contemplative, transformative relationship with the sacred and is able to sustain levels of uncertainty in its quest because respect for mystery is paramount. Fundamentalism seeks certainty, fixed answers and absolutism, as a fearful response to the complexity of the world and to our vulnerability as creatures in a mysterious universe."
"Lady, I really don't know if I am going to Heaven or whether there is a Heaven. I do know that ethics demands we are our brother's keepers, that the rich must share their good fortune with the poor, that ethical politics is always aimed at creating a level playing field for all, that our place in the evolutionary scale of this created universe behooves us to protect the environment and other species so that this complicated ecological system, with so many mutual inter-specie dependencies, can be sustained. We are a part of the whole system, not meant to rule over everything as personal favorites of the Creator, but rather use our superior talents to sustain the evolving process. Nature bats last. We better tread carefully.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Never Alone or Weary of Life
Never Alone or Weary of Life:
CONTENTMENT. That is always the goal. All seek it. No one, of course, can be content all the time; probably most would not really care to figure out what percent of the time contentment is actually their state of mind. Money, fame, sex, titles, friends, kids----none of these can realistically be shown to bring lasting contentment. On the other hand the total absence of these sort of things can make contentment unattainable. Whatever the machinational meaning of life, clearly the creative process of life is not geared up with any goal to make each of us content. Even if a lot of things go our way a lot of it has little to do with us but are attributable to things beyond our control---like parents, place of birth, the neighborhood within which we grow up, our physical attributes, our personalities, etc.
The trick then, is to find some contentment within the context of your own peculiar reality. All this praying to bring contentment to yourself or to others for whom you are concerned seems to be a waste of time. Either that, or God is kind of a sadistic cruel bastard. I think those who have a strong sense of justice, for themselves AND others, seem to reach the highest levels of contentment. Those who have high tolerance for diversity seem to reach higher levels of contentment. Those who build their lives around something other than the accumulation of wealth, fame, sex, titles, friends, kids, etc seem to reach a more consistent and higher level of contentment. This is not to say one can ignore these natural tendencies and achieve contentment. But they are not an end to themselves.
Whatever the source of contentment, it seems to vary from one person to another. This is clearest in matters such as sex, music, hobbies, etc. We can babble on and on about the sanctity of marriage, but let's face it---longevity of marriage has more to do with compatibility than any specific rules of engagement. "What God has put together let no man put asunder" is an absurd attempt to claim God is somehow sanctifying the marriage. Please. Let's be real. With the divorce rate hovering around 50% let's not dump it all on God. He couldn't possibly be that inept. Either God sanctified the marriage or He didn't. I think, myself, that if He did, the marriage would last, period. So I say He didn't. Sorry.
The nature of life is such that contentment is never a constant state. A good deal of our time is not going to be any endless zippy do dah sequence of moments. The best we can do is to find things which we can turn to for some contentment, once in a while, for a little while, which give us the strength to carry on. Without these moments we will not be able to successfully withstand the varied personal tribulations that thrash us around. Some people get thrashed around more than others.
For me the greatest contentment is to be found in nature itself. My favorite area of nature are the redwood forests. Rachel Carson advised, "Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are NEVER ALONE OR WEARY OF LIFE." The biggest redwood trees are 2000 to 3000 years old---they go back to the days of the Parthenon. Wow. The existence of redwood trees predated human existence. Some go up 35-40 stories high---that is almost 4 times higher than my 11th floor condo. Redwood forests are quiet, extremely quiet, eerily quiet, religiously quiet, motivationally quiet, and when I want to admire the sanctity of life, I look to these giant forms of life that live a lifetime lasting almost the length of our entire human history. The biggest are probably gone now, and certainly most are gone. Americans didn't just eliminate the Indians as an exercise of our manifest destiny, but 97% of the redwood forests were cut down in just a few decades of time. I hate that humans are so selfish and destructive of nature. Humans cut the biggest ones first just to watch them fall. 3000 years of history wiped out for amusement. Sometimes I just hate the American Way, which, after all is said and done, is identical to the Human Way.
I try to get out each day now and spend time in nature, alone---and it rarely fails to recharge positive feelings about life, others, and put me in a contented state of mind. I can't wait to get back to the Redwood forests and the Pacific coastline after a two or three year absence. This is a world which still exists just as it was created, untouched by human intervention. Just the size of redwood trees sort of puts your own existence in perspective. Spending a lot of time walking through the varied wonderlands of nature is good exercise for the body and soul. For me, the best highs in life come from communication with nature, some sort of mystic connection with a timeless evolution driven by God's creative forces. Individually we are clearly insignificant, but the totality of species existence is at the apex of astonishment. All other highs are transient, tarnished, and come with varied risks and negative down sides. Recreational drugs, sex, dogmatic religious notions, food, money, power, sports, gambling, winning, kids, internet surfing, and all the other kinds of addictive pursuits in life are highs which are unsustainable---not evil or criminal, but lacking in fulfillment to the extent that ultimately, in varying degrees, they leave us disillusioned, left with a vague sense of failed nirvana---a kind of 'there must be more to life than this'. You can always tell those addicted to these transient highs by the level of their desperation to achieve new heights of some high, but trapped mostly in the lows that follow the infrequent peaks. These are the fussers, the haters, the angry, the on edge addicts of this or that, living lives of tense desperation. False addictions always do that, lead to tense desperation. To paraphrase Barry, 'moderation in the pursuit of justice, tolerance, and self improvement is no virtue. Extremism in the defense of personal liberty, in the absence of harm to others, is no vice."
Live and let live. He/she who behaves otherwise cannot reach contentment. I always get the urge to grab dopeheads, corporate greedheads, religiousbetterthanthouheads, familyvalueheads, foodheads, patrioticflagheads etc. and just shake some sense into them, make them stop their addicted madness, and just get real. Live and let live, appreciate diversity, see the humor in all our varied frailties, level the playing field for as many as possible, spend time in nature striving to acquire the sense of being a part of creative forces beyond our comprehension. Ask not what God can do for you or for anyone else, but seek to be in tune with the creative process, and for the short miniscule time we exist, be able to smell the roses, to side with those less fortunate, to share wisdom or wealth with those in need, to see nature and all those living forms in nature as treasures, gifts of wonder, as part of the family of life. To me, therein lies the source of a more lasting contentment. Always keep a certain distance from the noise of the world. Noise that is static. Noisy static. Avoid all the huffing and puffing over contrived selfish greed for wealth, power, and putting others in, or keeping them in, their place. Share, tolerate, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you. We know all this in theory but too little in practice. If there is any singular trend worldwide today it is for differing groups to disrespect each other with increasingly perverse vengefulness. Killing and persecution has become the mantra which gives meaning to life for more and more people. The Bush mentality of kill before 'they' get a chance to kill you is spreading across the globe with only the 'they' differing. More and more have found their some sort of 'they' to go after. We live in a world of intensely personal diabolic crusades driven by an overpopulated human population competing for limited natural resources. The absurdity of the waste and extravagance of some is matched only by the hopelessness and dire poverty of the many.
The westcoast redwood is the tallest species of tree on the earth. The tallest of the ones surviving today are between 350 and 380 feet tall. The tallest ones are not necessarily the largest ones in terms of mass. In the absence of a constructed path it is very difficult to walk through any redwood grove. You don't just step over fallen logs which are way over your head and the underbrush is brambly, thick, and the footing unstable. Those who seriously study redwood forests are typically young, smart, rough hewed loners---the Daniel Boone type. Climbing a redwood tree to the top is a real dangerous proposition. One mistake and you are dead. A fall more than 50 feet is invariably fatal. These rough hewn guardians of the redwood forests would view the likes of me with disdain. I am hardly any Daniel Boone. More a gentleman (if I can use the word loosely) punk who likes to sort of tiptoe along nice little paths in the forests for the day followed by a sumptuous meal and plush bed to sleep in. The real redwood forest guardians sleep in the canopy of the redwoods. Showoffs.
A redwood can go from a seed to a large tree in about 600 years. I planted a Dawn Redwood tree in the yard of my former home about 18 years ago. It is not yet impressively big. Maybe the new owner has already cut it down. In terms of volume of wood the largest species of tree living on earth is the giant sequoia, not the coast redwood. But let's not fuss over a few feet. Besides, from the ground, looking at one of these tall trees no one can accurately judge how tall it really is. Interestingly, you never find giant sequoias and giant redwoods in the same forest. The largest living thing in the world today is a giant sequoia named General Sherman. It is 27 feet in diameter at chest height and 275 ft. tall. Redwoods are evergreen and keep their foliage all year. Each leaf of a redwood lasts about 7 years.
The forest canopies of the earth are believed to hold roughly half of all the species in nature. With the widespread destruction of forests across the globe all sorts of species are becoming extinct before they are even discovered. All of us have a bit of President Bush in us---ignorant brash mindless trashers of anything in our way, and what we want at the moment we just take, to hell with consequences or the impact on others. Might makes Right. In 1850 the Redwood forests amounted to about 2 million acres of virgin, old growth forest stretching from Big Sur to southern Oregon. In just 150 years 96% of these forests are gone. No matter, we could plant new trees and poof, just like that, thousands of years later we would have new ones. In an age of live fast, love hard, make your perceived enemies die young, redwood trees are out of place.
Here's a useless but oddly interesting observation: humans are the only primates who spend no time in trees. That is too bad for the redwoods. We probably wouldn't destroy what we live in. The trouble with liking trees is that one doesn't live long enough to really see a tree mature and become the giant many trees can become. The natural human tendency is to like action packed instantaneous adventures. Not too many are like me and love to spend the day watching redwood trees in action, again using the word action in very loose terms. The massive depopulation of the redwoods has come with a trade-off. In 1900 the world's population was 1.5 billion. In 2000 it was 6 billion and we are rapidly heading for 10 billion. Next time Presidential candidates debate listen real carefully to any mention of this. Hey, who really cares, we are on a reproductive and technological roll, a roll out the barrel let the good times roll mindless binge.
I guess to most, wandering around a redwood forest is a useless dull adventure. Maybe so, how can I speak for anyone else on such a subjective manner. But for me, it seems to change the way I feel and think and see life. Your mood generates the kind of things you think about and how you perceive life. A day amongst the redwoods changes me because it creates a mood for contemplation otherwise unattainable. Everything seems so vast, so quiet, so eternal. I never feel as much at ease or in touch with the essence of life as in a redwood forest. I would elaborate but words fail, as I am sure everyone experiences this in their own way under certain conditions. Some sort of inapplicable brilliance, an approach to some sort of mystic appreciation of the creative process of which we are such a miniscule part. In a sort of non threatening way one realizes personal goals and nuances of life are irrelevant, simply transient self limiting bursts of pleasure/pain.
Redwoods don't die and then fall, they fall while still alive. There is a message therein but I am not sure what it is. There are so little redwood forests remaining that one might assume there are no unexplored groves left. Not true. Getting through a virgin redwood forest is a difficult task. Those that do this sort of thing, once discovering some real tall ones, never approach their found trees the same way so as not to leave any path. Many of the tallest redwoods are known only to a few who keep their location secret. I don't blame them at all. Man cannot be trusted. Let these giants live in peace. Like many of us, these giant trees are in their terminational years----the ever exploding global human population will find and destroy them soon enough.
One of the biggest coast redwoods studied has 222 trunks. The crown takes up 31 thousand cubic yards of space. The top is so dense with foliage that one could put on a pair of snowshoes and walk around on top---maybe come face to face with some of the many unknown species living up there. It takes water from the ground 2 weeks to get to the top of the tree. There are very few birds in the canopy of a redwood. These trees produce poisons in their wood which discourage insects and without insects, the birds stay away. When I first hiked in redwood forests I was puzzled why there were so few birds.
Somewhere in all of the above are found the reasons I see truth in: "Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are NEVER ALONE OR WEARY OF LIFE."
While all the above might work for me, this aspect of life as a means of achieving any sort of meaning of others to their lives is almost extinct. I can walk the trails of Morton Arboretum on a late Sunday afternoon and rarely pass more than 3 other parties on the trails. Sometimes I pass no one over a 3 hour period. Even though I live in a metropolitan area of millions, nature is really a forgotten irrelevant aspect of modern living. There is no way I can pass any judgment on what others seek to give meaning to their lives. Clearly I don't like the results of whatever people are using to form the dominant views of interpersonal and international relationships that abound across the globe. It all saddens me. I don't want to get caught up in it for my remaining years. NATURE BATS LAST. Nature, which we all are a part of, is God's creation. To the extent humans can find a way to fit in, to protect our natural resources, to find harmony amongst differing groups of ourselves--- peace, justice, and prosperity are possible. To the extent the current self centered madness prospers, the lives of all are endangered, the needs of no one will be met, and the corrective power of nature---the final arbitrator---will rule the result.
CONTENTMENT. That is always the goal. All seek it. No one, of course, can be content all the time; probably most would not really care to figure out what percent of the time contentment is actually their state of mind. Money, fame, sex, titles, friends, kids----none of these can realistically be shown to bring lasting contentment. On the other hand the total absence of these sort of things can make contentment unattainable. Whatever the machinational meaning of life, clearly the creative process of life is not geared up with any goal to make each of us content. Even if a lot of things go our way a lot of it has little to do with us but are attributable to things beyond our control---like parents, place of birth, the neighborhood within which we grow up, our physical attributes, our personalities, etc.
The trick then, is to find some contentment within the context of your own peculiar reality. All this praying to bring contentment to yourself or to others for whom you are concerned seems to be a waste of time. Either that, or God is kind of a sadistic cruel bastard. I think those who have a strong sense of justice, for themselves AND others, seem to reach the highest levels of contentment. Those who have high tolerance for diversity seem to reach higher levels of contentment. Those who build their lives around something other than the accumulation of wealth, fame, sex, titles, friends, kids, etc seem to reach a more consistent and higher level of contentment. This is not to say one can ignore these natural tendencies and achieve contentment. But they are not an end to themselves.
Whatever the source of contentment, it seems to vary from one person to another. This is clearest in matters such as sex, music, hobbies, etc. We can babble on and on about the sanctity of marriage, but let's face it---longevity of marriage has more to do with compatibility than any specific rules of engagement. "What God has put together let no man put asunder" is an absurd attempt to claim God is somehow sanctifying the marriage. Please. Let's be real. With the divorce rate hovering around 50% let's not dump it all on God. He couldn't possibly be that inept. Either God sanctified the marriage or He didn't. I think, myself, that if He did, the marriage would last, period. So I say He didn't. Sorry.
The nature of life is such that contentment is never a constant state. A good deal of our time is not going to be any endless zippy do dah sequence of moments. The best we can do is to find things which we can turn to for some contentment, once in a while, for a little while, which give us the strength to carry on. Without these moments we will not be able to successfully withstand the varied personal tribulations that thrash us around. Some people get thrashed around more than others.
For me the greatest contentment is to be found in nature itself. My favorite area of nature are the redwood forests. Rachel Carson advised, "Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are NEVER ALONE OR WEARY OF LIFE." The biggest redwood trees are 2000 to 3000 years old---they go back to the days of the Parthenon. Wow. The existence of redwood trees predated human existence. Some go up 35-40 stories high---that is almost 4 times higher than my 11th floor condo. Redwood forests are quiet, extremely quiet, eerily quiet, religiously quiet, motivationally quiet, and when I want to admire the sanctity of life, I look to these giant forms of life that live a lifetime lasting almost the length of our entire human history. The biggest are probably gone now, and certainly most are gone. Americans didn't just eliminate the Indians as an exercise of our manifest destiny, but 97% of the redwood forests were cut down in just a few decades of time. I hate that humans are so selfish and destructive of nature. Humans cut the biggest ones first just to watch them fall. 3000 years of history wiped out for amusement. Sometimes I just hate the American Way, which, after all is said and done, is identical to the Human Way.
I try to get out each day now and spend time in nature, alone---and it rarely fails to recharge positive feelings about life, others, and put me in a contented state of mind. I can't wait to get back to the Redwood forests and the Pacific coastline after a two or three year absence. This is a world which still exists just as it was created, untouched by human intervention. Just the size of redwood trees sort of puts your own existence in perspective. Spending a lot of time walking through the varied wonderlands of nature is good exercise for the body and soul. For me, the best highs in life come from communication with nature, some sort of mystic connection with a timeless evolution driven by God's creative forces. Individually we are clearly insignificant, but the totality of species existence is at the apex of astonishment. All other highs are transient, tarnished, and come with varied risks and negative down sides. Recreational drugs, sex, dogmatic religious notions, food, money, power, sports, gambling, winning, kids, internet surfing, and all the other kinds of addictive pursuits in life are highs which are unsustainable---not evil or criminal, but lacking in fulfillment to the extent that ultimately, in varying degrees, they leave us disillusioned, left with a vague sense of failed nirvana---a kind of 'there must be more to life than this'. You can always tell those addicted to these transient highs by the level of their desperation to achieve new heights of some high, but trapped mostly in the lows that follow the infrequent peaks. These are the fussers, the haters, the angry, the on edge addicts of this or that, living lives of tense desperation. False addictions always do that, lead to tense desperation. To paraphrase Barry, 'moderation in the pursuit of justice, tolerance, and self improvement is no virtue. Extremism in the defense of personal liberty, in the absence of harm to others, is no vice."
Live and let live. He/she who behaves otherwise cannot reach contentment. I always get the urge to grab dopeheads, corporate greedheads, religiousbetterthanthouheads, familyvalueheads, foodheads, patrioticflagheads etc. and just shake some sense into them, make them stop their addicted madness, and just get real. Live and let live, appreciate diversity, see the humor in all our varied frailties, level the playing field for as many as possible, spend time in nature striving to acquire the sense of being a part of creative forces beyond our comprehension. Ask not what God can do for you or for anyone else, but seek to be in tune with the creative process, and for the short miniscule time we exist, be able to smell the roses, to side with those less fortunate, to share wisdom or wealth with those in need, to see nature and all those living forms in nature as treasures, gifts of wonder, as part of the family of life. To me, therein lies the source of a more lasting contentment. Always keep a certain distance from the noise of the world. Noise that is static. Noisy static. Avoid all the huffing and puffing over contrived selfish greed for wealth, power, and putting others in, or keeping them in, their place. Share, tolerate, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you. We know all this in theory but too little in practice. If there is any singular trend worldwide today it is for differing groups to disrespect each other with increasingly perverse vengefulness. Killing and persecution has become the mantra which gives meaning to life for more and more people. The Bush mentality of kill before 'they' get a chance to kill you is spreading across the globe with only the 'they' differing. More and more have found their some sort of 'they' to go after. We live in a world of intensely personal diabolic crusades driven by an overpopulated human population competing for limited natural resources. The absurdity of the waste and extravagance of some is matched only by the hopelessness and dire poverty of the many.
The westcoast redwood is the tallest species of tree on the earth. The tallest of the ones surviving today are between 350 and 380 feet tall. The tallest ones are not necessarily the largest ones in terms of mass. In the absence of a constructed path it is very difficult to walk through any redwood grove. You don't just step over fallen logs which are way over your head and the underbrush is brambly, thick, and the footing unstable. Those who seriously study redwood forests are typically young, smart, rough hewed loners---the Daniel Boone type. Climbing a redwood tree to the top is a real dangerous proposition. One mistake and you are dead. A fall more than 50 feet is invariably fatal. These rough hewn guardians of the redwood forests would view the likes of me with disdain. I am hardly any Daniel Boone. More a gentleman (if I can use the word loosely) punk who likes to sort of tiptoe along nice little paths in the forests for the day followed by a sumptuous meal and plush bed to sleep in. The real redwood forest guardians sleep in the canopy of the redwoods. Showoffs.
A redwood can go from a seed to a large tree in about 600 years. I planted a Dawn Redwood tree in the yard of my former home about 18 years ago. It is not yet impressively big. Maybe the new owner has already cut it down. In terms of volume of wood the largest species of tree living on earth is the giant sequoia, not the coast redwood. But let's not fuss over a few feet. Besides, from the ground, looking at one of these tall trees no one can accurately judge how tall it really is. Interestingly, you never find giant sequoias and giant redwoods in the same forest. The largest living thing in the world today is a giant sequoia named General Sherman. It is 27 feet in diameter at chest height and 275 ft. tall. Redwoods are evergreen and keep their foliage all year. Each leaf of a redwood lasts about 7 years.
The forest canopies of the earth are believed to hold roughly half of all the species in nature. With the widespread destruction of forests across the globe all sorts of species are becoming extinct before they are even discovered. All of us have a bit of President Bush in us---ignorant brash mindless trashers of anything in our way, and what we want at the moment we just take, to hell with consequences or the impact on others. Might makes Right. In 1850 the Redwood forests amounted to about 2 million acres of virgin, old growth forest stretching from Big Sur to southern Oregon. In just 150 years 96% of these forests are gone. No matter, we could plant new trees and poof, just like that, thousands of years later we would have new ones. In an age of live fast, love hard, make your perceived enemies die young, redwood trees are out of place.
Here's a useless but oddly interesting observation: humans are the only primates who spend no time in trees. That is too bad for the redwoods. We probably wouldn't destroy what we live in. The trouble with liking trees is that one doesn't live long enough to really see a tree mature and become the giant many trees can become. The natural human tendency is to like action packed instantaneous adventures. Not too many are like me and love to spend the day watching redwood trees in action, again using the word action in very loose terms. The massive depopulation of the redwoods has come with a trade-off. In 1900 the world's population was 1.5 billion. In 2000 it was 6 billion and we are rapidly heading for 10 billion. Next time Presidential candidates debate listen real carefully to any mention of this. Hey, who really cares, we are on a reproductive and technological roll, a roll out the barrel let the good times roll mindless binge.
I guess to most, wandering around a redwood forest is a useless dull adventure. Maybe so, how can I speak for anyone else on such a subjective manner. But for me, it seems to change the way I feel and think and see life. Your mood generates the kind of things you think about and how you perceive life. A day amongst the redwoods changes me because it creates a mood for contemplation otherwise unattainable. Everything seems so vast, so quiet, so eternal. I never feel as much at ease or in touch with the essence of life as in a redwood forest. I would elaborate but words fail, as I am sure everyone experiences this in their own way under certain conditions. Some sort of inapplicable brilliance, an approach to some sort of mystic appreciation of the creative process of which we are such a miniscule part. In a sort of non threatening way one realizes personal goals and nuances of life are irrelevant, simply transient self limiting bursts of pleasure/pain.
Redwoods don't die and then fall, they fall while still alive. There is a message therein but I am not sure what it is. There are so little redwood forests remaining that one might assume there are no unexplored groves left. Not true. Getting through a virgin redwood forest is a difficult task. Those that do this sort of thing, once discovering some real tall ones, never approach their found trees the same way so as not to leave any path. Many of the tallest redwoods are known only to a few who keep their location secret. I don't blame them at all. Man cannot be trusted. Let these giants live in peace. Like many of us, these giant trees are in their terminational years----the ever exploding global human population will find and destroy them soon enough.
One of the biggest coast redwoods studied has 222 trunks. The crown takes up 31 thousand cubic yards of space. The top is so dense with foliage that one could put on a pair of snowshoes and walk around on top---maybe come face to face with some of the many unknown species living up there. It takes water from the ground 2 weeks to get to the top of the tree. There are very few birds in the canopy of a redwood. These trees produce poisons in their wood which discourage insects and without insects, the birds stay away. When I first hiked in redwood forests I was puzzled why there were so few birds.
Somewhere in all of the above are found the reasons I see truth in: "Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are NEVER ALONE OR WEARY OF LIFE."
While all the above might work for me, this aspect of life as a means of achieving any sort of meaning of others to their lives is almost extinct. I can walk the trails of Morton Arboretum on a late Sunday afternoon and rarely pass more than 3 other parties on the trails. Sometimes I pass no one over a 3 hour period. Even though I live in a metropolitan area of millions, nature is really a forgotten irrelevant aspect of modern living. There is no way I can pass any judgment on what others seek to give meaning to their lives. Clearly I don't like the results of whatever people are using to form the dominant views of interpersonal and international relationships that abound across the globe. It all saddens me. I don't want to get caught up in it for my remaining years. NATURE BATS LAST. Nature, which we all are a part of, is God's creation. To the extent humans can find a way to fit in, to protect our natural resources, to find harmony amongst differing groups of ourselves--- peace, justice, and prosperity are possible. To the extent the current self centered madness prospers, the lives of all are endangered, the needs of no one will be met, and the corrective power of nature---the final arbitrator---will rule the result.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Terminational Years--Figuring It All Out, Part 3
The question now becomes, "what kind of things would I enjoy most in my terminational years?". In no particular order I have listed animals, redwood forests, Chicago, zoos, museums, nature trails, reading, music, National Parks, feeding deer, eating out, writing out my thoughts, watching football, cooking, arboretums/botanical gardens, rented movies, wandering around, and just observing people/politics.
I don't like social situations involving prolonged small talk and cleverisms. A little bit of that goes a long way with me, no where's near as far as it used to. I don't like competing for anything anymore and find it increasingly difficult to care all that much about winning anything that involves a lot of pushing, shoving, and arm twisting. I am simply done with that sort of thing. After all, at some point in the terminational process you have to quit striving hard to be liked, or to be important, or to have a lot of power, etc. I don't feel any pressing need to impress anyone about any of my past or present. There is no point trying to be relevant when you no longer are. My sole social obligation to others during my terminational years is not to mistreat others. Period. You may never mistreat someone and they yet want little to do with you. Big deal. If you are not depending on others for your own contentment, what does it matter? What they think of you should have little impact on what you think of them. Some people who have little use for me I happen to think are neat people.
Much as I criticize the increasing lack of social interaction, outside of immediate family, rampant in our country today, I think the greatest negative impact of this is, and will be, on the younger population. Much of the tragedy happening to this country, including the use of violence to solve conflict and the growing disparity of wealth between the have's and have not's, is because the younger generation have become indifferent and non involved. But for those of us in our terminational years, the internet opens up a whole new opportunity to stay mentally involved with a lot of things from which we would otherwise be isolated. There is little reason any more for an older person to feel isolated from whatever their interests. I spend a good deal of time every morning on the computer and it is very stimulating. In the past, grandma or grandpa got input from precious few contacts during their days. They could spend whole days just being a bother to others and that is not said in any kind of hurtful way to any of the parties involved. It was just hard on all involved no matter how noble and kind and dutiful the motives.
I am glad I can't be of any real bother to others. Of course given my penchant for dispersing my thoughts on so many topics, some of which most others would only keep to themselves, my notions on this or that CAN be a bother to others. For years, those who suggested I consider a blog for my musings, I pretty much ignored. I didn't want any possibility of total strangers interacting with me, or returning the favor by bothering me. Still, even though I only sent the musings to those who request them, I did't feel comfortable with that. Part of me says only send certain musings to certain people, but then that grants them some sort of thought police power. I mean why do people need protection from thoughts? I read all kinds of books on all kinds of topics purposely to understand matters from differing perspectives. I never watch network news programs anymore or read a daily newspaper. I don't need someone else slanting everything a certain way and then feeding it to me, like press secretaries do to the public for politicians. If I had my way Presidents would not be allowed to have speech writers or press secretaries. There is no need for us to hear from the President everyday with contrived sound bites. The President should be busy leading the government, not reading sound bites written by others and wandering all over the country raising money and making pitches to his special interest political bases. When the President has something to say to us or tell us, he should have to write it himself. To avoid being part of anyone's brainwashing I get my news off the internet and watch only the Public Broadcasting national and local news casts in which they simply let opposing viewpoints duke it out on topics relative to the news or topics of the day. I prefer to make my own decisions after hearing the arguments of both sides. At any rate I have now set up my own internet site for my musings in a format whereby no comments are possible except by those who know me well enough to have my personal e-mail address. I think this set-up is the fairest for all concerned.
When I was a teenager I used to tell others I was going to be a hermit when I grew up. I only became a semi hermit. My mother used to say, even in my older years, "When are you going to grow up?". Well, I finally have and finally, in my terminational years, will become my own customized hermit, some sort of delayed career objective. I have decided it is possible to become a hermit without living out in the wilderness somewhere. I choose to be a comfortable hermit, living a life of solitude amongst an overpopulated ever increasingly contentious mob of 'busy bees' seemingly now hell bent on tearing up the whole hive in an attempt to stash off for themselves as much of the community honey as they can. Just interacting with those I see often in my daily simple life is sufficient social interaction for me. Everyday now, till health ends it, is mine to live as the mood dictates. Like most, I am a creature of habit. The great thing about retirement, if you are financially secure, and if you are alone, is that everyday the slate is clean---you do what you want, when you want, how you want, at any pace your mood dictates. My cats are perfect companions because that is their nature too. I don't even have a usual time to get up or to eat, or to go to bed. The pattern I am beginning to be most comfortable with is mornings with musings and the internet, then a couple of hrs of house cleaning or paperwork, then afternoons and/or evenings wandering around nature or down town Chicago mixed in with reading here and there amongst my wanderings. I always take a book with me. Cooking no doubt will become an increasing part of my living now that getting the condo together is done. Evenings are for reading, watching Public Broadcasting national and local news, catching the Jay Leno monologue, and sometimes just lending an ear to this young security guard who struggles to make ends meet and thinks about ways to improve her lot in life. She is a security guard and her 7 yr boyfriend works at Target. Between the two of them they don't make enough to make ends meet. Maybe all the trickling down has been diverted elsewhere, like rebuilding areas we have blown up across the globe. I am glad such conversations take only a small part of my day. It is depressing. Both her and her boyfriend grew up on the West Side of Chicago, about the worst area of Chicago possible. Her father died when she was 13, he was one of many kids raised by a single mother. She needs a lot of dental work, is in debt to the IRS, their one car is a jalopy, and advising them on how to improve their lot in life is a real challenge. Maybe it is hopeless. She has no health insurance, he works for Target and probably has a health insurance policy whose deductible is equal to several months salary. And nobody cares anymore. We are busy fighting all sorts of foreign wars, giving tax breaks to the wealthy, doing away with inheritance taxes, and now I am told we are going to take our 12 million 'slave labor' force and deport them. We don't know who they are exactly but we are going to deport them. Let me see, we still have the disastrous War on Drugs, the disastrous War in Iraq, and now we are going to engage in a new War on these 12 million slave laborers. And just like that, boom, they will be deported. Sure. They will disappear underground, criminal activity will soar, and a new 12 million domestic terror cell will be born in this country. At some point this country has to accept responsibility for it's own actions. We had no business all these years leaving porous borders, we had no business letting work places hire illegals, and we have no business ever allowing any kind of slave labor force to exist in this country. They will be replaced by "Guest workers"!!!!! These are imported slaves, and nothing less. And I suppose we assume Mexico is going to allow millions back into their country. Oh well, we can always smuggle them back into Mexico I guess, after we catch them of course.
I will now focus on finding the best way to gradually part with some of my financial portfolio in a way which will directly help some of those most in need. As long as I am alive I want to give it in such a way that I can see the results. Until this house move I never kept track of my worth, maybe tally it up every couple of years. Now it is all under the umbrella of Fidelity and I get monthly reports. I have moved from 'Joe' client, to Silver Client, and now to Gold Client. A while back they assigned a 'senior' consultant to work with me on my portfolio, and after some harassment I finally did. Nice friendly gal who, after chatting with me, said "You have an interesting disbursement of of your money. Definitely different, but you have done well---I don't really want to take any risk of disturbing what is working for you. If what you are doing begins to sour, then give me a call."
Thus, with all the above as a background, I sense I am ready for my terminational years---however many years that might be. It starts with LIVE AND LET LIVE. That includes, DON'T BOTHER OTHERS----DON'T TRY TO USE OTHERS AS THE SOURCE OF YOUR CONTENTMENT---DON'T FALL INTO THE TRAP OF THINKING YOU CAN'T ENJOY YOUR OWN PECULIAR INTERESTS UNLESS YOU CONVINCE OTHERS TO PARTICIPATE IN THESE INTERESTS WITH YOU. EVERY TIME YOU DO THAT YOU HAVE OBLIGATED YOURSELF TO RECIPROCATE AND PARTICIPATE IN THEIR INTERESTS. THE WHOLE RELATIONSHIP IS THEN TAINTED WITH ENDLESS WHEN AND WHERE TO DO WHAT HOW OFTEN. THE TRUTH IS, IF WE ARE HONEST WITH OURSELVES, IF SOMEONE WANTS TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY OF THE ACTIVITIES WE LIKE TO DO AND WANT TO DO IT WITH US, THEY WILL LET US KNOW. This is not to say I will never suggest someone do this or that with me, but the smart thing is to make the suggestion once, then let it drop. If they really want to do it, they will follow up. If they don't, for whatever reason, they won't. How many times do people end up doing something finally only after being badgered about it to varying degrees. Life in the productive years gave us all ample time for the "Ok, Ok, I'll do it" stuff. Part 4 to follow.
I don't like social situations involving prolonged small talk and cleverisms. A little bit of that goes a long way with me, no where's near as far as it used to. I don't like competing for anything anymore and find it increasingly difficult to care all that much about winning anything that involves a lot of pushing, shoving, and arm twisting. I am simply done with that sort of thing. After all, at some point in the terminational process you have to quit striving hard to be liked, or to be important, or to have a lot of power, etc. I don't feel any pressing need to impress anyone about any of my past or present. There is no point trying to be relevant when you no longer are. My sole social obligation to others during my terminational years is not to mistreat others. Period. You may never mistreat someone and they yet want little to do with you. Big deal. If you are not depending on others for your own contentment, what does it matter? What they think of you should have little impact on what you think of them. Some people who have little use for me I happen to think are neat people.
Much as I criticize the increasing lack of social interaction, outside of immediate family, rampant in our country today, I think the greatest negative impact of this is, and will be, on the younger population. Much of the tragedy happening to this country, including the use of violence to solve conflict and the growing disparity of wealth between the have's and have not's, is because the younger generation have become indifferent and non involved. But for those of us in our terminational years, the internet opens up a whole new opportunity to stay mentally involved with a lot of things from which we would otherwise be isolated. There is little reason any more for an older person to feel isolated from whatever their interests. I spend a good deal of time every morning on the computer and it is very stimulating. In the past, grandma or grandpa got input from precious few contacts during their days. They could spend whole days just being a bother to others and that is not said in any kind of hurtful way to any of the parties involved. It was just hard on all involved no matter how noble and kind and dutiful the motives.
I am glad I can't be of any real bother to others. Of course given my penchant for dispersing my thoughts on so many topics, some of which most others would only keep to themselves, my notions on this or that CAN be a bother to others. For years, those who suggested I consider a blog for my musings, I pretty much ignored. I didn't want any possibility of total strangers interacting with me, or returning the favor by bothering me. Still, even though I only sent the musings to those who request them, I did't feel comfortable with that. Part of me says only send certain musings to certain people, but then that grants them some sort of thought police power. I mean why do people need protection from thoughts? I read all kinds of books on all kinds of topics purposely to understand matters from differing perspectives. I never watch network news programs anymore or read a daily newspaper. I don't need someone else slanting everything a certain way and then feeding it to me, like press secretaries do to the public for politicians. If I had my way Presidents would not be allowed to have speech writers or press secretaries. There is no need for us to hear from the President everyday with contrived sound bites. The President should be busy leading the government, not reading sound bites written by others and wandering all over the country raising money and making pitches to his special interest political bases. When the President has something to say to us or tell us, he should have to write it himself. To avoid being part of anyone's brainwashing I get my news off the internet and watch only the Public Broadcasting national and local news casts in which they simply let opposing viewpoints duke it out on topics relative to the news or topics of the day. I prefer to make my own decisions after hearing the arguments of both sides. At any rate I have now set up my own internet site for my musings in a format whereby no comments are possible except by those who know me well enough to have my personal e-mail address. I think this set-up is the fairest for all concerned.
When I was a teenager I used to tell others I was going to be a hermit when I grew up. I only became a semi hermit. My mother used to say, even in my older years, "When are you going to grow up?". Well, I finally have and finally, in my terminational years, will become my own customized hermit, some sort of delayed career objective. I have decided it is possible to become a hermit without living out in the wilderness somewhere. I choose to be a comfortable hermit, living a life of solitude amongst an overpopulated ever increasingly contentious mob of 'busy bees' seemingly now hell bent on tearing up the whole hive in an attempt to stash off for themselves as much of the community honey as they can. Just interacting with those I see often in my daily simple life is sufficient social interaction for me. Everyday now, till health ends it, is mine to live as the mood dictates. Like most, I am a creature of habit. The great thing about retirement, if you are financially secure, and if you are alone, is that everyday the slate is clean---you do what you want, when you want, how you want, at any pace your mood dictates. My cats are perfect companions because that is their nature too. I don't even have a usual time to get up or to eat, or to go to bed. The pattern I am beginning to be most comfortable with is mornings with musings and the internet, then a couple of hrs of house cleaning or paperwork, then afternoons and/or evenings wandering around nature or down town Chicago mixed in with reading here and there amongst my wanderings. I always take a book with me. Cooking no doubt will become an increasing part of my living now that getting the condo together is done. Evenings are for reading, watching Public Broadcasting national and local news, catching the Jay Leno monologue, and sometimes just lending an ear to this young security guard who struggles to make ends meet and thinks about ways to improve her lot in life. She is a security guard and her 7 yr boyfriend works at Target. Between the two of them they don't make enough to make ends meet. Maybe all the trickling down has been diverted elsewhere, like rebuilding areas we have blown up across the globe. I am glad such conversations take only a small part of my day. It is depressing. Both her and her boyfriend grew up on the West Side of Chicago, about the worst area of Chicago possible. Her father died when she was 13, he was one of many kids raised by a single mother. She needs a lot of dental work, is in debt to the IRS, their one car is a jalopy, and advising them on how to improve their lot in life is a real challenge. Maybe it is hopeless. She has no health insurance, he works for Target and probably has a health insurance policy whose deductible is equal to several months salary. And nobody cares anymore. We are busy fighting all sorts of foreign wars, giving tax breaks to the wealthy, doing away with inheritance taxes, and now I am told we are going to take our 12 million 'slave labor' force and deport them. We don't know who they are exactly but we are going to deport them. Let me see, we still have the disastrous War on Drugs, the disastrous War in Iraq, and now we are going to engage in a new War on these 12 million slave laborers. And just like that, boom, they will be deported. Sure. They will disappear underground, criminal activity will soar, and a new 12 million domestic terror cell will be born in this country. At some point this country has to accept responsibility for it's own actions. We had no business all these years leaving porous borders, we had no business letting work places hire illegals, and we have no business ever allowing any kind of slave labor force to exist in this country. They will be replaced by "Guest workers"!!!!! These are imported slaves, and nothing less. And I suppose we assume Mexico is going to allow millions back into their country. Oh well, we can always smuggle them back into Mexico I guess, after we catch them of course.
I will now focus on finding the best way to gradually part with some of my financial portfolio in a way which will directly help some of those most in need. As long as I am alive I want to give it in such a way that I can see the results. Until this house move I never kept track of my worth, maybe tally it up every couple of years. Now it is all under the umbrella of Fidelity and I get monthly reports. I have moved from 'Joe' client, to Silver Client, and now to Gold Client. A while back they assigned a 'senior' consultant to work with me on my portfolio, and after some harassment I finally did. Nice friendly gal who, after chatting with me, said "You have an interesting disbursement of of your money. Definitely different, but you have done well---I don't really want to take any risk of disturbing what is working for you. If what you are doing begins to sour, then give me a call."
Thus, with all the above as a background, I sense I am ready for my terminational years---however many years that might be. It starts with LIVE AND LET LIVE. That includes, DON'T BOTHER OTHERS----DON'T TRY TO USE OTHERS AS THE SOURCE OF YOUR CONTENTMENT---DON'T FALL INTO THE TRAP OF THINKING YOU CAN'T ENJOY YOUR OWN PECULIAR INTERESTS UNLESS YOU CONVINCE OTHERS TO PARTICIPATE IN THESE INTERESTS WITH YOU. EVERY TIME YOU DO THAT YOU HAVE OBLIGATED YOURSELF TO RECIPROCATE AND PARTICIPATE IN THEIR INTERESTS. THE WHOLE RELATIONSHIP IS THEN TAINTED WITH ENDLESS WHEN AND WHERE TO DO WHAT HOW OFTEN. THE TRUTH IS, IF WE ARE HONEST WITH OURSELVES, IF SOMEONE WANTS TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY OF THE ACTIVITIES WE LIKE TO DO AND WANT TO DO IT WITH US, THEY WILL LET US KNOW. This is not to say I will never suggest someone do this or that with me, but the smart thing is to make the suggestion once, then let it drop. If they really want to do it, they will follow up. If they don't, for whatever reason, they won't. How many times do people end up doing something finally only after being badgered about it to varying degrees. Life in the productive years gave us all ample time for the "Ok, Ok, I'll do it" stuff. Part 4 to follow.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
The Incredibly Oddest of Peculiar Wars
Heads You Win; Tails I lose: OR The Incredibly Oddest of Peculiar Wars:
I bet immediately the War in question is identifiable---perhaps a war generated by the incredibly oddest of peculiar Presidents. History, not I, will of course be the judge, but history is also moot, inert---unmodifiable in fact, but not in retrograde perceptions. I guess at some point the past really doesn't matter anymore since the future will not be what it used to be.
Most wars are about territorial expansion, genocide, or religious differences. The cruelest always seem to be those of genocide or religious warfare. When God is on somebody's side, WATCH OUT. If all the followers of various religions took the precepts of their religion as the real dictates of their behavior there would be no killing kind of war except of defensive nature.
At any rate, Iraq takes the cake. Consider the following:
I can't think of any war where the reasons for the war have changed so much so fast for so long. We must be now on the 5th or 6th reason for the War over a 5 year period.
There are no standing armies attacking each other.
Never has there been a war with such an imbalance of military power which has lasted so long.
Never has there been a war with such an imbalance of killing by one side which has lasted so long with the possible exception of the Vietnam War. There the side which killed the most lost the war.
Never has there been such a long war with such huge casualties without a military draft.
Never has there been such an expensive war.
Never has there been any other expensive war accompanied by tax cuts and no domestic economic sacrifices of any sort.
With the exception of the Pope, who opposed the war, the strongest support for the war continues to come from the religious right of all persuasions including Catholics, the Pope not withstanding.
The U.S. President, who recently met with the Pope and said he was in awe of the Pope, apparently is not at all awed by his dictates about the war. That Bush is truly awesome himself. Unfortunately.
The volunteer U.S. army is almost exclusively from rural and smaller suburban areas of the country, mostly from families who have supported the war from the beginning, and on a percentage of the population basis, is heaviest from the Red States. This weird reality prevents any riot of young people as in previously unpopular wars.
This is essentially a war by one country to determine what form of government another sovereign country is to have.
This is the first U.S. pre-emptive war. The invaded country had attacked no one, had no weapons of mass destruction, was not involved in the Al Queda attack on the U.S., and was invaded without the support of other international bodies.
This war is also unique in that ahead of time the plan was to blow up much of the infrastructure and important buildings, then rebuild them, along with a putting in place a desirable form of government. When did this become our mission in the world?
This war is more costly than any other war.
This war is being financially supported on the backs of the next generation. When the War ends, if it ever ends in the foreseeable future, the financial burden, with interest, will then fall on everyone at a later date.
This and the Vietnam War are the first Wars by the United States (I think) to be wars of occupation. Even in the many invasions of South American countries we were in and out rather quickly. Same with the any Middle East invasions of the past. In Lebannon, when dissidents blew up the army barracks of the U.S. soldiers, Reagan got the troops the hell out of there. So did Clinton in Somalia. When push came to shove, Reagan knew when to fold. Reagan may have liked to play John Wayne, but he was responsible enough to do so with places like Grenada. In the middle East he rode in and rode out with due speed, while with the Soviet Union he used negotiation and charm to solve conflict and break down barriers. We all knew Ronald Reagan and George Bush is no Ronald Reagan.
This is the second war now (Vietnam was the first) where military power and modern weapons of mass destruction have been rendered useless against forces with primitive weapons. With no clear targets and no uniformed soldiers to attack, we have been reduced to lobbing bombs at suspected enemies mixed in with innocent people of all ages, including children.
This is the first or second war where the United States makes no attempt to document how many of the enemy has been killed, only how many of our own soldiers are killed. I guess it would look foolish to be reporting that for 5 years we have killed 10 times as many of them as they have of us, and yet we are losing the war. War is just not like it used to be.
This is a war in which the enemy ends up being defined by after the fact deaths. In other words when a particular bomb kills several hundred people, then those dead become the labeled enemy. Before they were dead, in many cases, whether or not they were enemy was pure speculation.
Starting with the Vietnam War, high ranking officers in our military are never killed or even wounded. The deaths are almost always low level recruits finding themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time, killed by a suicide bomber or a planted roadside bomb. There are no high ranking soldiers being killed leading troops into battles. Well, that is comforting, who wants to lose high ranking military leaders like Al Queda does, almost every week. Damn, Al Queda must have a bunch of important leaders.
The American army in Iraq rarely includes the sons or daughters of our affluent population. These young people engaged in our "defense" are by no means remotely a cross section of our population. They are, for the most part, good people suckered into a situation which is unpardonable. No American young person should be dying in such a sordid war for all the wrong reasons.
This war and Vietnam War are the only American involved wars where the more we kill the more numerous become our enemies, and not just in Iraq, but across the globe.
This is the first American war where those who fight against our invasion are all referred to as terrorists, rather than enemy soldiers. This classification is useful to justify torture, imprisonment with no time limits, no access to courts, and God knows what else. Thus, this is the first war where any citizen of a foreign country who fights to get American military forces out of their country is labeled a terrorist, which I guess is supposed to mean they are plotting to come to this country and blow up our buildings and people, like we do to their buildings and people. Something is a little disingenuous here and too arbitrary.
Anyway, I am tired of all this now. But there is enough here to justify calling this Iraq War the Incredibly Oddest of Peculiar Wars. I never have liked war, but this war is way over the top, too scary, and creating too many crazy-with-revenge relatives of dead victims with access to methods of revenge which we will not be able to defend ourselves against. Ask Israel. Ask our former soldiers in Vietnam. Mass killing to solve conflict has never been a good choice and never in history has it been a worse choice. Despite the Bush Rhetoric, I feel increasingly like we all may become the ones with no place to hide.
I bet immediately the War in question is identifiable---perhaps a war generated by the incredibly oddest of peculiar Presidents. History, not I, will of course be the judge, but history is also moot, inert---unmodifiable in fact, but not in retrograde perceptions. I guess at some point the past really doesn't matter anymore since the future will not be what it used to be.
Most wars are about territorial expansion, genocide, or religious differences. The cruelest always seem to be those of genocide or religious warfare. When God is on somebody's side, WATCH OUT. If all the followers of various religions took the precepts of their religion as the real dictates of their behavior there would be no killing kind of war except of defensive nature.
At any rate, Iraq takes the cake. Consider the following:
I can't think of any war where the reasons for the war have changed so much so fast for so long. We must be now on the 5th or 6th reason for the War over a 5 year period.
There are no standing armies attacking each other.
Never has there been a war with such an imbalance of military power which has lasted so long.
Never has there been a war with such an imbalance of killing by one side which has lasted so long with the possible exception of the Vietnam War. There the side which killed the most lost the war.
Never has there been such a long war with such huge casualties without a military draft.
Never has there been such an expensive war.
Never has there been any other expensive war accompanied by tax cuts and no domestic economic sacrifices of any sort.
With the exception of the Pope, who opposed the war, the strongest support for the war continues to come from the religious right of all persuasions including Catholics, the Pope not withstanding.
The U.S. President, who recently met with the Pope and said he was in awe of the Pope, apparently is not at all awed by his dictates about the war. That Bush is truly awesome himself. Unfortunately.
The volunteer U.S. army is almost exclusively from rural and smaller suburban areas of the country, mostly from families who have supported the war from the beginning, and on a percentage of the population basis, is heaviest from the Red States. This weird reality prevents any riot of young people as in previously unpopular wars.
This is essentially a war by one country to determine what form of government another sovereign country is to have.
This is the first U.S. pre-emptive war. The invaded country had attacked no one, had no weapons of mass destruction, was not involved in the Al Queda attack on the U.S., and was invaded without the support of other international bodies.
This war is also unique in that ahead of time the plan was to blow up much of the infrastructure and important buildings, then rebuild them, along with a putting in place a desirable form of government. When did this become our mission in the world?
This war is more costly than any other war.
This war is being financially supported on the backs of the next generation. When the War ends, if it ever ends in the foreseeable future, the financial burden, with interest, will then fall on everyone at a later date.
This and the Vietnam War are the first Wars by the United States (I think) to be wars of occupation. Even in the many invasions of South American countries we were in and out rather quickly. Same with the any Middle East invasions of the past. In Lebannon, when dissidents blew up the army barracks of the U.S. soldiers, Reagan got the troops the hell out of there. So did Clinton in Somalia. When push came to shove, Reagan knew when to fold. Reagan may have liked to play John Wayne, but he was responsible enough to do so with places like Grenada. In the middle East he rode in and rode out with due speed, while with the Soviet Union he used negotiation and charm to solve conflict and break down barriers. We all knew Ronald Reagan and George Bush is no Ronald Reagan.
This is the second war now (Vietnam was the first) where military power and modern weapons of mass destruction have been rendered useless against forces with primitive weapons. With no clear targets and no uniformed soldiers to attack, we have been reduced to lobbing bombs at suspected enemies mixed in with innocent people of all ages, including children.
This is the first or second war where the United States makes no attempt to document how many of the enemy has been killed, only how many of our own soldiers are killed. I guess it would look foolish to be reporting that for 5 years we have killed 10 times as many of them as they have of us, and yet we are losing the war. War is just not like it used to be.
This is a war in which the enemy ends up being defined by after the fact deaths. In other words when a particular bomb kills several hundred people, then those dead become the labeled enemy. Before they were dead, in many cases, whether or not they were enemy was pure speculation.
Starting with the Vietnam War, high ranking officers in our military are never killed or even wounded. The deaths are almost always low level recruits finding themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time, killed by a suicide bomber or a planted roadside bomb. There are no high ranking soldiers being killed leading troops into battles. Well, that is comforting, who wants to lose high ranking military leaders like Al Queda does, almost every week. Damn, Al Queda must have a bunch of important leaders.
The American army in Iraq rarely includes the sons or daughters of our affluent population. These young people engaged in our "defense" are by no means remotely a cross section of our population. They are, for the most part, good people suckered into a situation which is unpardonable. No American young person should be dying in such a sordid war for all the wrong reasons.
This war and Vietnam War are the only American involved wars where the more we kill the more numerous become our enemies, and not just in Iraq, but across the globe.
This is the first American war where those who fight against our invasion are all referred to as terrorists, rather than enemy soldiers. This classification is useful to justify torture, imprisonment with no time limits, no access to courts, and God knows what else. Thus, this is the first war where any citizen of a foreign country who fights to get American military forces out of their country is labeled a terrorist, which I guess is supposed to mean they are plotting to come to this country and blow up our buildings and people, like we do to their buildings and people. Something is a little disingenuous here and too arbitrary.
Anyway, I am tired of all this now. But there is enough here to justify calling this Iraq War the Incredibly Oddest of Peculiar Wars. I never have liked war, but this war is way over the top, too scary, and creating too many crazy-with-revenge relatives of dead victims with access to methods of revenge which we will not be able to defend ourselves against. Ask Israel. Ask our former soldiers in Vietnam. Mass killing to solve conflict has never been a good choice and never in history has it been a worse choice. Despite the Bush Rhetoric, I feel increasingly like we all may become the ones with no place to hide.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
The American Way
The American Way:
Some words or phrases carry with them some sort of virtuous truth wrapped in a layer of beyond-discussion sanctity. When reason or logic fails these words are employed as the last and final measure to put the matter to rest. Sort of like the parent ending the matter with the ultimate closure "because I say so, that's why'. I know as kids we always naively saw this final edict as some sort of logical victory on our part, an admission by the parent that the only reason for their victory was their power over us. It took a certain amount of maturing for us to find this a useful tool ourselves. Many sophisticated tyrants learn to camouflage their personalized arrogance with words or phrases like "the American Way", "unAmerican", "motherhood", "sanctity", "manifest destiny", "the flag", "unpatriotic", "family values" etc. There must be at least a dozen of these phrases used to close down an argument when all else fails. These are kind of neat tools to use. If anyone persists after you lower the boom, you can simply ask, "What part of the word "unAmerican" don't you understand?" Admittedly, these words or phrases don't work too well unless you represent the majority viewpoint on something.
Some of us never supported attacking Iraq. Today a huge majority think it was a mistake to have done so. Nevertheless, it is claimed, right or wrong this venture, we are obligated to support the troops. I agree. I think I have supported our young people. I said don't send them in the beginning. That would have saved the lives of well over 3000 of our troops. And I still support the troops by saying bring them home, take them out of harm's way in an ill advised war which is just generating an ever increasing number of terrorists across the globe. Our behavior in Iraq has become the rallying cry for dissidents of all ilk and location across the world. No American soldier should ever be asked to die in a war with such ever changing nebulous reasons for the war. The rallying cry now is "America cannot afford to lose this war". Really? Wasn't that the final desperate plea for not ending the Vietnam War? And since when should any country win a war when the reasons for entering the war were false? "My country, right or wrong", is hardly a noble notion for wrapping yourself in any kind of flag. This country never achieved any greatness by the blind leading the blind. A really strong and secure country should not be afraid to admit mistakes, to face the truth, to apologize for arrogant behavior. We need a President honest enough to tell the world: "We screwed up in Iraq. As a consequence we have become a large part of the problem. We have ended up in a position of being just another faction over there trying to impose our will through violence and killing. If the other factions won't stop killing each other, we will. Hopefully in our absence they will tire of killing each other, or accept the UN or the Arab League, or some outside party to help them negotiate a settlement amongst themselves. It is not the business of America to dictate the form of government or who runs Iraq. As long as we can purchase oil at market prices, we will respect the sovereignty of Iraq. America will remain ready to assist all countries in the global problems of the environment, poverty, civil rights, religious freedom, and work collectively with other countries to address these pressing global problems. We reject the use of violence to solve conflict except in cases of territorial invasion of one country by another or genocidal attacks by any government against it's own people. In these cases the U.S. will join with others, also outraged by such behavior, to militarily protect the victims. To fully support the use of negotiation, compromise, and world courts to solve global conflicts we will no longer be in the business of selling vast amounts of arms to other countries which end up mostly being used against their own people. The vast amount of money now being used to support a huge military presence all over the globe will be redirected to the global problems listed above. Our new foreign policy will be one seeking to help ourselves and others find ways to foster responsible reproduction, efficient use of global natural resources, protection of the environment, improving health care for the people of the world, achieving a global economy with minimal living wages, and the use of non military means to resolve conflicts. The frontier in America is gone. The wild west mentality that characterized it needs to disappear too. The world has changed. The principles upon which America was founded have not. In the spirit of Lincoln, adopting the wisdom of Lincoln, using the founding principles of freedom and justice for all, the U.S. will once again strive to be a beacon of hope for all those oppressed at home and abroad."
So the question begs, "what is the American Way?". There is no pat concise definitive answer considering the breadth of American diversity. I have no clear answer why, lollagaging on a bench one late afternoon at Cantigny (an estate I while away many hours of my terminational years) I pondered a matter of this sort. It is odd, but in my productive years thoughts were along the lines "why are we doing this or that?". In my terminational years my thoughts are more along the lines of "why are they doing this or that?" It is not just from my 11th floor condo that things seem more distant. I think from a more neutered distance one is more likely to see the forest for the trees, albeit maybe that is more me than any generalized truth. Strange, but all this introspection about life has a mellowing impact on me, a sort of calming predominance tinged with a good dose of inevitability---a variant of whatever will be will be. The miniscule role each of us plays in this created evolutionary process of our universe begins to register, at long last, on my consciousness---and I begin to finally accept I will not get out of this world alive. This is not so much any sadness as it is acceptance, a willingness to go gently down the terminational stream of life. On my short little trip back home from the estate I wouldn't care to guess the number of cars I pass on the road all filled with people looking more and more to me like colonies of ants scrambling hither and thither, each with this inflated concept of their importance in the overall scheme of things. The only thing I conclude from it all is that it is not important to be that important at all. Just observe, enjoy, let the only meaningful unique thing about any of us---our thoughts---be the substance of our sustenance in the final lap of life. As I come spinning off the final turn of the final lap of life it finally dawns on me there is no first, second, third or any other place finish to this race. After all the pushing and shoving it is a dead heat, death is the ultimate leveler and we are all dead in the long run. Damn, who says God has no sense of humor. Why aren't you laughing? Whatever happened to youthful invincibility? Perhaps it is true, "Only the Shadow Knows". Suppose he died? Uh Oh. then nobody knows.
But back to the American Way. To me, the American Way is based on liberty and justice to all. The key words are LIBERTY, JUSTICE, and ALL. It is easier to understand liberty and justice as it applies to ourselves, but far harder to genuinely accept the ALL part of it, and a good deal of the time the ALL gets overlooked. Far too often liberty and justice for ourselves suffices. Do we have good health insurance? Good enough. Do we have the where with all to compete successfully in life? Good enough. And so it goes, this constant perception of liberty and justice seen through the prism of our own existence. That others ick up the picture becomes an annoyance, like liberty and justice have obvious limitations---after all any pie is just so big. We spend a lot of life teaching ourselves and those close to us to grab a piece of the pie, the bigger the better, run home with it, and guard it with intensity. To the extent we succeed all is well. Of course all is not well with a bunch of others. If our piece of the pie is big enough we can even gate ourselves off well away from those less fortunate. Outside of some vague patronizing mumblings, often in some church pew, we really don't like these others, we fear them, don't trust them, and rarely hesitate to support any laws which will put them in jail, or at least keep them contained in their place. What their place is or why they are where they are is not something much on our minds.
Lincoln said this about his concept of good government: In our system of government "we proposed to give all a chance; and we expected the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant wiser; and all better, and happier together." The key words here are ALL, CHANCE, GROW, BETTER, and HAPPIER. He also made clear, "I am for the people of the whole nation doing just as they please in all matters which concern the whole nation; for those of each part (the states) doing just as they choose in all matters which concern no other part; and for each individual doing just as he chooses in all matters which concern nobody else." This neatly clarifies how far the freedom of the whole and it's parts extends, especially the clause "in all matters which concern nobody else". Lincoln again: "I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this (nation) so long together. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence." Again key words here are ALL and "EQUAL CHANCE". Finally, Lincoln advised, "To correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy, and from positive enmity among strangers, as nations or as individuals, is one of the highest functions of civilization." I guess each of us has to assess where we as individuals and as a nation are today on any "want of sympathy" or "positive enmity" among strangers.
To me, the last two paragraphs kind of sum up what I perceive to be the spirit of the 'American Way". Others may well interpret the American Way differently. Freedom of religion is under assault by those who think their own religious beliefs should be the law of the land and only to the extent govt laws match their own religious beliefs are they satisfied. When Lincoln was pressed as to why he did not belong to any church he replied, "When any church will inscribe over its alter, as its sole qualification for membership, the Savior's condensed statement of the substance of both law and Gospel, 'Thou shalt love they Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all they soul and thy neighbor as thyself', that church will I join with all my heart and all my soul." That is pretty much is my sentiment too. I am just sick of the religious right of most every major religion creating so much hostility across the world. I suppose they are at least up front with their "want of sympathy and positive enmity". I wish, if anger is the substance which gives meaning to their lives, that they would at least direct their anger toward those people and policies which promote suffering, injustice, unequal chances, lack of freedom, lack of good schools, lack of health care, etc. If all these people across the globe waving flags, waving bibles, and chasing heathens with a glazed fiery look in their eyes were to approach the issues of health, education, protecting the environment, living wages, etc. with the same zealousness, think how much progress could be made toward liberty and freedom for all. I admire their determined energy and despise the focus of their efforts.
In the end maybe their is no 'American Way'. We are a diverse country with diverse cultures, talents, religious beliefs, personalities, etc. Still, the words of our founding fathers and Lincoln remain the last best hope of governance for such a diverse population. Where are Abe and the founding fathers when we need them? "Gone to graveyards every one......when will we ever learn?...."
Some words or phrases carry with them some sort of virtuous truth wrapped in a layer of beyond-discussion sanctity. When reason or logic fails these words are employed as the last and final measure to put the matter to rest. Sort of like the parent ending the matter with the ultimate closure "because I say so, that's why'. I know as kids we always naively saw this final edict as some sort of logical victory on our part, an admission by the parent that the only reason for their victory was their power over us. It took a certain amount of maturing for us to find this a useful tool ourselves. Many sophisticated tyrants learn to camouflage their personalized arrogance with words or phrases like "the American Way", "unAmerican", "motherhood", "sanctity", "manifest destiny", "the flag", "unpatriotic", "family values" etc. There must be at least a dozen of these phrases used to close down an argument when all else fails. These are kind of neat tools to use. If anyone persists after you lower the boom, you can simply ask, "What part of the word "unAmerican" don't you understand?" Admittedly, these words or phrases don't work too well unless you represent the majority viewpoint on something.
Some of us never supported attacking Iraq. Today a huge majority think it was a mistake to have done so. Nevertheless, it is claimed, right or wrong this venture, we are obligated to support the troops. I agree. I think I have supported our young people. I said don't send them in the beginning. That would have saved the lives of well over 3000 of our troops. And I still support the troops by saying bring them home, take them out of harm's way in an ill advised war which is just generating an ever increasing number of terrorists across the globe. Our behavior in Iraq has become the rallying cry for dissidents of all ilk and location across the world. No American soldier should ever be asked to die in a war with such ever changing nebulous reasons for the war. The rallying cry now is "America cannot afford to lose this war". Really? Wasn't that the final desperate plea for not ending the Vietnam War? And since when should any country win a war when the reasons for entering the war were false? "My country, right or wrong", is hardly a noble notion for wrapping yourself in any kind of flag. This country never achieved any greatness by the blind leading the blind. A really strong and secure country should not be afraid to admit mistakes, to face the truth, to apologize for arrogant behavior. We need a President honest enough to tell the world: "We screwed up in Iraq. As a consequence we have become a large part of the problem. We have ended up in a position of being just another faction over there trying to impose our will through violence and killing. If the other factions won't stop killing each other, we will. Hopefully in our absence they will tire of killing each other, or accept the UN or the Arab League, or some outside party to help them negotiate a settlement amongst themselves. It is not the business of America to dictate the form of government or who runs Iraq. As long as we can purchase oil at market prices, we will respect the sovereignty of Iraq. America will remain ready to assist all countries in the global problems of the environment, poverty, civil rights, religious freedom, and work collectively with other countries to address these pressing global problems. We reject the use of violence to solve conflict except in cases of territorial invasion of one country by another or genocidal attacks by any government against it's own people. In these cases the U.S. will join with others, also outraged by such behavior, to militarily protect the victims. To fully support the use of negotiation, compromise, and world courts to solve global conflicts we will no longer be in the business of selling vast amounts of arms to other countries which end up mostly being used against their own people. The vast amount of money now being used to support a huge military presence all over the globe will be redirected to the global problems listed above. Our new foreign policy will be one seeking to help ourselves and others find ways to foster responsible reproduction, efficient use of global natural resources, protection of the environment, improving health care for the people of the world, achieving a global economy with minimal living wages, and the use of non military means to resolve conflicts. The frontier in America is gone. The wild west mentality that characterized it needs to disappear too. The world has changed. The principles upon which America was founded have not. In the spirit of Lincoln, adopting the wisdom of Lincoln, using the founding principles of freedom and justice for all, the U.S. will once again strive to be a beacon of hope for all those oppressed at home and abroad."
So the question begs, "what is the American Way?". There is no pat concise definitive answer considering the breadth of American diversity. I have no clear answer why, lollagaging on a bench one late afternoon at Cantigny (an estate I while away many hours of my terminational years) I pondered a matter of this sort. It is odd, but in my productive years thoughts were along the lines "why are we doing this or that?". In my terminational years my thoughts are more along the lines of "why are they doing this or that?" It is not just from my 11th floor condo that things seem more distant. I think from a more neutered distance one is more likely to see the forest for the trees, albeit maybe that is more me than any generalized truth. Strange, but all this introspection about life has a mellowing impact on me, a sort of calming predominance tinged with a good dose of inevitability---a variant of whatever will be will be. The miniscule role each of us plays in this created evolutionary process of our universe begins to register, at long last, on my consciousness---and I begin to finally accept I will not get out of this world alive. This is not so much any sadness as it is acceptance, a willingness to go gently down the terminational stream of life. On my short little trip back home from the estate I wouldn't care to guess the number of cars I pass on the road all filled with people looking more and more to me like colonies of ants scrambling hither and thither, each with this inflated concept of their importance in the overall scheme of things. The only thing I conclude from it all is that it is not important to be that important at all. Just observe, enjoy, let the only meaningful unique thing about any of us---our thoughts---be the substance of our sustenance in the final lap of life. As I come spinning off the final turn of the final lap of life it finally dawns on me there is no first, second, third or any other place finish to this race. After all the pushing and shoving it is a dead heat, death is the ultimate leveler and we are all dead in the long run. Damn, who says God has no sense of humor. Why aren't you laughing? Whatever happened to youthful invincibility? Perhaps it is true, "Only the Shadow Knows". Suppose he died? Uh Oh. then nobody knows.
But back to the American Way. To me, the American Way is based on liberty and justice to all. The key words are LIBERTY, JUSTICE, and ALL. It is easier to understand liberty and justice as it applies to ourselves, but far harder to genuinely accept the ALL part of it, and a good deal of the time the ALL gets overlooked. Far too often liberty and justice for ourselves suffices. Do we have good health insurance? Good enough. Do we have the where with all to compete successfully in life? Good enough. And so it goes, this constant perception of liberty and justice seen through the prism of our own existence. That others ick up the picture becomes an annoyance, like liberty and justice have obvious limitations---after all any pie is just so big. We spend a lot of life teaching ourselves and those close to us to grab a piece of the pie, the bigger the better, run home with it, and guard it with intensity. To the extent we succeed all is well. Of course all is not well with a bunch of others. If our piece of the pie is big enough we can even gate ourselves off well away from those less fortunate. Outside of some vague patronizing mumblings, often in some church pew, we really don't like these others, we fear them, don't trust them, and rarely hesitate to support any laws which will put them in jail, or at least keep them contained in their place. What their place is or why they are where they are is not something much on our minds.
Lincoln said this about his concept of good government: In our system of government "we proposed to give all a chance; and we expected the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant wiser; and all better, and happier together." The key words here are ALL, CHANCE, GROW, BETTER, and HAPPIER. He also made clear, "I am for the people of the whole nation doing just as they please in all matters which concern the whole nation; for those of each part (the states) doing just as they choose in all matters which concern no other part; and for each individual doing just as he chooses in all matters which concern nobody else." This neatly clarifies how far the freedom of the whole and it's parts extends, especially the clause "in all matters which concern nobody else". Lincoln again: "I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this (nation) so long together. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence." Again key words here are ALL and "EQUAL CHANCE". Finally, Lincoln advised, "To correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy, and from positive enmity among strangers, as nations or as individuals, is one of the highest functions of civilization." I guess each of us has to assess where we as individuals and as a nation are today on any "want of sympathy" or "positive enmity" among strangers.
To me, the last two paragraphs kind of sum up what I perceive to be the spirit of the 'American Way". Others may well interpret the American Way differently. Freedom of religion is under assault by those who think their own religious beliefs should be the law of the land and only to the extent govt laws match their own religious beliefs are they satisfied. When Lincoln was pressed as to why he did not belong to any church he replied, "When any church will inscribe over its alter, as its sole qualification for membership, the Savior's condensed statement of the substance of both law and Gospel, 'Thou shalt love they Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all they soul and thy neighbor as thyself', that church will I join with all my heart and all my soul." That is pretty much is my sentiment too. I am just sick of the religious right of most every major religion creating so much hostility across the world. I suppose they are at least up front with their "want of sympathy and positive enmity". I wish, if anger is the substance which gives meaning to their lives, that they would at least direct their anger toward those people and policies which promote suffering, injustice, unequal chances, lack of freedom, lack of good schools, lack of health care, etc. If all these people across the globe waving flags, waving bibles, and chasing heathens with a glazed fiery look in their eyes were to approach the issues of health, education, protecting the environment, living wages, etc. with the same zealousness, think how much progress could be made toward liberty and freedom for all. I admire their determined energy and despise the focus of their efforts.
In the end maybe their is no 'American Way'. We are a diverse country with diverse cultures, talents, religious beliefs, personalities, etc. Still, the words of our founding fathers and Lincoln remain the last best hope of governance for such a diverse population. Where are Abe and the founding fathers when we need them? "Gone to graveyards every one......when will we ever learn?...."
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