Wild Apples

How To Become Practically Perfect

I sometimes feel we all show the mental alacrity of the governor of Illinois! Our economic woes could be solved by letting the consumer drive the market by their needs, not by their wants and the wants of corporations. My son is Director of computers for a pasta making company and their stock is way, way up! When the people are broke, they eat pasta! When the people are poor, they buy cheap things! Business here is fine in Walmart, Sears and Target. Colleges - same way. Time has a good article on the plight of the small liberal arts college. At $38000 a year there aren't as many takers as there used to be and lots more demand for financial aid! The moral for most Americans is clear - scale back, cut down, live simply! Duh! Where have I heard that one before? What was it Thoreau told us over 160 years ago? Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned here - a woman I know who cleans houses said she wants to give her son everything she didn't get as a child - now here is a desire that is putting tremendous strains on that family. I asked her if she didn't feel that she would be raising him to expect too much in the way of material things - she said she thought he should expect a lot. "A lot" to some people means all the gadgets and goodies of an extravagant lifestyle. "A lot" for others means a rich loving family with other goals and aspirations rather than the accumulation of goods. Let us define 'the good life' more readily in our media and government programs. Let us make cars that will be good for the environment and develop advertising and media presentations that make that something the people desire. (I'm not sure we know what we want until someone tells us!) If we continue to collect Hummers like flies on flypaper, we are dead as a human race. We decry the downfall of the daily newspaper, and yet it is we 'oldies' that still take the paper. If we don't support it it will die. After all this meandering around, we really don't know what is good for us. We wait until time and lack of concern turn the page of history, and then say, "OHHH, the sky is falling! Help! Help! What have THEY done to us???" Yes, let's not make fun of the Illinois gov. He's no more stupid and self-centered, and lacking in solid goals than most Americans. This turndown has made a slight change in my thinking: I refuse to buy anything from China. We have cut way back on this spending orgy we call Christmas. I have put on the sweater and turned down the heat and I drive a '95 Previa and don't intend to change that at the present. This winter is a time I have set aside to go through the trash we have collected in 50 years of marriage and get it to people who can use it. It is a winter to tidy up our Ark to keep it from sinking in this tide of stupidity in which we find ourselves. Do you see my halo and my pulpit?? Yes, you're right - like Mary Poppins, I'm practically perfect in every way!! ;> )

The Free Market

Tell me about the free market system. Where is it? It surely is not the system we have in the USA. Substities to farmers, small business loans, substities to oil companies, regulation of monopolies, and addressing issues that threaten the market forces - all of which occur frequently and are NOT a part of a free market economy.

Laissez Faire is a dream - not a reality and let's admit it. Anytime things are not running right, who are the first to the trough - businesses that have gotten into messes never refuse a government hand out. It is only when that hand out is given to others that it is heavily criticized. "Our medical system is "good enough". Our schools are "Good enough".

We have always been a mixed economic system - the government builds roads, maintains an educational system, justice system, military system and intervenes when business in the country needs to be stimulated.

I am happy to be an American. However, I don't think we have a perfect world here, and being the liberal I am proud to be, I am not, like some, satisfied to be happier than the people in Darfur or other places in this world. Count my blessings. Yes, I do. Count other peoples blessings - here is where I foul up. Liberal means in one sense that one believes that certain activities will make things better for all. The Conservative says "they're good enough now. Don't worry about the discrepencies." I guess I'll never learn.

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A Few Early Flakes

We are feeling rather helpless because we concentrate so much on our expectation that our politicians will solve our problems for us, and then we become angry and depressed when our chosen leaders are found wanting. Recently some of my friends were discussing the coming election and one finally said, "Oh, let's not talk about it all! It depresses me!"

It may be depressing, but in a democracy citizens are responsible to learn, judge and make decisions they feel are good for their country. It’s not pleasant to think about, but perhaps our leaders are what they are because we are what we are. It hurts to admit that but it needs saying.

I saw a movie yesterday with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford and Tom Cruise (he's not a favorite!). It was a rather heavy handed propaganda movie but since the propaganda was to my liking I sat and enjoyed it. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but it's theme describes how a corporate-owned media and a populace willing to believe 'whatever' as long as it doesn't interfere with their personal lives is doing to America. As a result the Lions are using the lambs unreasonably and to the long-term detriment to our country.

"It depresses us!" The depression comes, among thoughtful people, because we don't follow our hearts to tell us what to do except, perhaps, vote. Yes, we'll do that but what else? We can be our best selves as Thoreau did, regardless of the cost to personal comfort and disruption of our private comforts. If we are writers, let us write letters of condemnation to CNN, CBS, NBC and ABC for the news that is not news. If we are artists let’s design posters that say to the world that we are willing to remake our country on our founding principles. If you talk – then tell the world that you will not spout their propaganda – propaganda that is killing our best and brightest while we cozy up to a warm fire.

This day following Thanksgiving is a very cold day here in Denver, and outside it is just beginning to snow. There are only a few scattered flakes floating slowly as they search for grounding, but more will follow these early pioneers. They will not search alone for the good, the true and the beautiful. Soon a flurry of beautiful white flakes will gently fall on our world to tell everyone that the good, the true and the beautiful are still desirable goals.

God bless.

Bless the Bloody British!

God bless Queen Elizabeth. It is a favorite American custom to debunk the British Monarchy - after all, didn't we fight a war to get rid of them? Yes, of course. But recently we have realized that friends are a good thing and should be encouraged. We don't have that many friends left in the world, so we best look after them.

In such a mood, our own Prez George W is "entertaining" this evening in white tie and tails. Rumor has it that Laura had to stomp her feet to get him to gussy up like that, but with a lot of Texas grumbling it looks like he's doomed to take off the boots and spurs at least for the evening. But, even with his discomfort, it should be a great evening. Long live the bloody British!

Bless The Bloody British

Long Live the Queen! It is a favorite pastime of we American Rebels to sniff at the monarchy, but, God bless her, she's been a stalwart symbol of the understated, and often underappreciated British. For gosh sakes, who else could get Our George W to wear white tie and tails. Today she visits the White House with full military honors, pomp and circumstance, but rumor has it that Laura really had to push George to gussy up a bit for her highness. Won't hurt him a bit to shed his Texas spurs and dress up a wee bit.

The British have been long time friends and allies of the US and sometimes we have helped them and sometimes they have helped us. We like to think that they may owe us a bit more for our help in WWI and WWII. But stop and think; the Magna Carta, the basis of our Common Law, and the fantastic addition to our literary and artistic world from Shakespeare forward. Theirs is a proud heritage, although I would prefer the French for coq a vin, chanel # 5 and fabulous fashions.

Hail to the Queen!! Welcome.

A Day of Renewal

Back from the nether regions - as you can see it's been a long time between posts, but I want to get back into the swing of things. Blogs are so great, so democratic, so human and so, so....well, you know what I mean. Today's blog is a rant against sitting for three hours waiting to renew a driver's license in the state of Colorado. About a 150 of us sat there seething watching the little numbers, hoping for ours to pop up in red lights and starring into space.

Ever feel totally powerless? This is how it feels. What can one do when the system is broken? No, not broken. The system isn't. There is no system. Then the lies. I was told it took three hours because of identity theft and terrorism. What did they learn about either of those decidedly serious problems by putting my name into the computer, slapping a bill for $15 in front of me and telling me to smile. As I walked to the spot to have my picture taken, the little gum-chewing operator said, "Take off your glasses." I thought she said, "Take off your blouse." "Blouse? " I asked. At this point, I would have believed anything. At least I gave our civil employees a great laugh!!

Better luck to you when you meet this dreaded day of renewal.

A Message At Easter

In Iran and other places in Muslim communities the New Year has recently been celebrated with visits and parties with all of one's family and friends. The Seder is being celebrated in Jewish homes and in Christian homes, all mothers are getting ready for an Easter feast. In every corner of every culture this is a time of togetherness and deep prayers for peace and understanding. My Easter feast is a message from my Iranian friend, Alireza Taghdarre who, by the way, is a Shiite Muslim and has family ties to the Dervish communities in Iran. In his words I think we can all find room to feast.

"Every page of every word of wisdom we hear or read kills the old ego and gives birth to a better existence that lives on better spiritual foods. But there's the pain we have to endure for it. Everything comes at a cost. The pain of knowing we were wrong before. The pain of asking the things we don't know. The pain of being aware of our ignorance and of knowing that this ignorance is part of a greater ignorance that we are not even aware of. That is the kind of pain I endure while reading Walden: it's all about birth."

Together, perhaps, we can all survive this pain that we all feel around the world. Perhaps - just perhaps - an answer is to be found by taking off our cultural blinders and finding out how much we have in common?

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

"An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come."
- Victor Hugo

It took only a mini-second. I looked at the photo and I knew what she represents: the hope of the world. It was so clear to me! This small child holds the future like a fragile flower in her tiny hand. Delazin is her name, she is three months old and she lives in Tehran. She is the daughter of a friend I have made on the Internet.

What matter all your bombs? What gain is there in all the conniving and commotion when it is so simple? Life is short, and too dear to waste on conundrums and conquests. It is her small, wee life that is at stake; hers and the lives of millions of others like her who were born this year around the world.

Shall we make payable tasks for the diplomats and the generals, or shall we simply say, “Let us make the world a safe haven for Delazin’s future” ? Tell the senators and the mullahs and the reverends, and the prime ministers that Delazin will decide the next move. She will play the queen in this international game of “Who Wins If No One Wins”. The insanity, the arrogance, the greed, the no-win game of cat and mouse of all the leaders of all the world are as unimportant as dust compared to the hope and love in her eyes. Why protect the games our leaders play if they are death to the dreams she holds? The moment is all, and the moment is now. Now in the history of man it is time for a clear eye and a wise heart to prevail – for the sake of this small child and for the sake of the Sallys and Joes and Helgas and Ivans of the world.

Is pride more important than her happiness? Is world domination more important? How can a nation or nations want power, power, power, without realizing that the only justifiable reason for power is for the health and wellbeing of its children? Those of us who are older carry in worn hearts the faces of damaged children from Europe, China, Japan and almost all adults have a mental snapshot of the burned and doomed children in VietNam, Cambodia and Laos. We see the starving African children in our sleep and we wince at the thought of the children of Iraq.
We can but ask ourselves, “Will it never stop?” Here is a beautiful, healthy little baby who is well cared for, and in her eyes we witness the hope and eagerness for life that she possesses. The killing must stop. The ruination of human lives must end. Life must triumph. Delazin must prevail.

Preemptive Law?

A Texas friend tells me that in his home state they have started arresting people who are in a bar, if they appear drunk, for “public drunkenness”, on the assumption that they are likely to try to drive home drunk. One man was arrested in a hotel bar – the hotel where he had booked a room for the night.

Like most things in life, there are depths to this seemingly well-meaning action that need to be fathomed. For one, I submit that our laws are not always aimed at preventing harm to other citizens, but are based on a certain segment of society's desire to 'make a better world'. Each of us envisions a Utopia in our mind's eye - a perfect world for our children's children. It may be a more intellectual world, or a world in which everyone can do as he or she wishes if it doesn't harm others, or it could even implode into a world in which all matter of what we call evil might exist. I read a recent article about the intellectual hippies(Clinton, for one), the wigged out hippies that evolved from the earlier ones, and finally, the evil hippies (Manson, etc.) and how each morphed into the other because of misinterpretations of the original ideas of 'hippiedom. It changed from giving man more freedom to "I will create my law and you will obey.”

Here is an interesting thought in a story written by Ron Suskind and posted to Jonathan Larsen on "Petty Larceny", 3/30/06.

“In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out."
The quotation would have been no more clearly a product of The Evil Hippie if it had read, "We create our own reality, man."

Arresting one for being drunk when no harm has been done seems unreasonable, but is it any more unreasonable than preemptive war? In the mind's eye of the public servants, they see themselves as creating reality - preventing possible further trouble - even though it might not ever happen. Until this president we have never acted in such a blatantly preemptive fashion - but once accepted as a norm - we can arrest someone who glares at another, who swears at another, or even...makes ad hominem attacks. Arrest them! Put them in jail before they sully my nice clean community. So, in short, the question is, does a society have a right to take preemptive action against possible trouble, not actual trouble? Or should America remain a place in which your freedom stops where my nose begin? Can we, or should we create our own reality?

Conversation

Conversation – sounds passive enough, doesn’t it? Is it something we do to pass time, or wax chummy with our friends or use as a stiletto with our enemies? Conversation; the organic association of people – the sharing of ideas, the opening of one’s self, and the spontaneous sharing of human beings – ah! Of such is the undergirding of a free society.

Andrew Sullivan pointed out in his blog on February 19th, “an open-ended conversation is, of course the opposite of fundamentalism, which in its extreme forms, demands no interaction, merely submission to a sacred, pre-ordained text.” So, let us talk on! Open up! Use our language skills to create a world in which the transfer of ideas is not a frightening thing!

Sullivan also pointed out in this very astute blog, that Winston Churchill spoke about sending the English language into battle. He saw it as a great weapon against tyranny. It still is. What richness of the human spirit there is in sharing a book or essay with others! What joy there is in glimpsing a hidden idea that a friend has unearthed! And the question of our day is, what accord can come from a major effort to have conversation with those of all faiths, races and nations?

From the highest office holder to the lowliest soldier, or American civilian, the need is to change our diplomatic stance from “what is good for America” to what is good for each individual. on our globe. For too long our diplomacy has mimicked our Madison Avenue ad techniques, but they don’t seem to be doing the job. What do we have to offer the youth of the world, particularly the Arab world? We can listen. Our leaders can converse with Al Jazeera without presumptive threats, but with a listening attitude. Interactive blogs, internet lists, email conversations, talk, talk, talk – all of it is absolutely necessary to reform some of our bad past performances in the conversation arena and let the world see the real, at-home America.

Print or pixels or word of mouth – conversation is still conversation – often unappreciated, but seldom without value.