Everywhere it's holiday madness- -
At the end of Every Year!
This
is bright and early Monday morning just after nine, when once upon a time
people used to show up for work. That’s
before school kids all over the plains states had to shiver in the dark waiting
for the bus to pick them up at six thirty.
Some of Johnny Wendell’s points are well taken this morning. I on the west coast have noted that there is
a whole lot more prominence of weather stories particularly this year where
this whole business about cold and ice and storms in the winter time is somehow
seen as news. I feel for anybody who has
to contend with this stuff. However
even I have noticed a whole lot more intellerance for even normal amounts of
snow on the ground now. That said- - I
think Johnny Wendell is a bit of a cold blooded freak like Peter that ex
roommate of Mike Guerero, ex roommate of mine.
One time when Peter was visiting here on a cold day we were lucky enough
to have heat in here, he kept remarking about it being like a chicken egg incubator
in here and kept saying stuff like ‘I hope those eggs hatch”. He says this morning he was barefoot and
went outside in the frost wearing nothing but shorts and a tee shirt to get the
newspaper (people still do that?) and the official reading then was 38
degrees. This is in the valley and for
those on the east coast “valley” does not necessarily translate as “warm”. Some people may have been born back east
but they’ve been out here a long time.
Some (not that I’d have anybody in mind) were born out here but spent a
number of years “back east” when they were in grammar school, but since then
(and I hear this a lot) their blood has thinned out. People, at least me, tend to become less tolerant
to cold the older they get. With me I’ve
often wondered whether it is the medication that has “thrown off my thermometer”
in recent years.
Saturday night I
watched the Mc Laughlin group. China is
showing true foreign aggression in claiming vase areas in waters off its
shores- - islands claimed by other nations and such- - and seem willing to go
to war over it. The United States sided
with Japan - - because - - WW II not withstanding- - Japan owns many of those
disputed islands. But they say China now
has a campaign to extend their military influence way out into the Pacific- -
as kind of a warning to western nations not to even think of an invasion. But if the United States thinks like me- -
and I see the other side is really paranoid and “on guard’ about something- - I’m
going to ask myself what that “something’ is that they are so paranoid
about. The rest of the show was
dedicated to the discussion of either Obama Care or else the economy. I can’t fault Mort Zuckerman for his distrust
of the vibrancy of this economy. But if
he’s talking about more tax breaks for the rich - - in the immortal words of
John Lennon - - “You Can Count Me Out”.
And on Stephanie Miller Chris and Jim (?) had some right wing economist
guy on and of course he talked about this whole idea of how- - “We need to fix
this economy by finding new areas in the US budget to cut” but we dare not
attempt to raise so much as another penny from the rich.
[this paragraph typed Saturday] Even
these Texas boys aren’t used to the fourteen degree or whatever they are
experiences. There is ice people have to
scrape off their car windows, or hit the bleachers with a hammer to get the ice
off of those benches. The ice has
snapped power lines and tree limbs and been the source of countless spin-outs. It’s coming up on five to two on a Saturday
December 7, 2013 and we have had rain for most of today. But when Anita and I were looking up at the
sky before breakfast neither of us thought there’d be rain. Every day I hope for two things, that the
weather will get warmer and that I will get over this flu I’ve had since just
after mid day Sunday. I think I jinxed
myself at breakfast Sunday morning doing one of these “fleece things”
psychologically. Since them there has
been the overall weakness, chills, and persistent cough. And I had that fear we were going to be
kicked out of our room with one of these major scrubbing downs of the
walls. I have the Lifeline envelope
opened up and need to respond to that.
Just to catch you up on old stuff, last Sunday I believe, was when I
changed the wallpaper from purple flowers to “Metro”, a photo I tend to use
this time of year. Now Federico is
saying that Dr Levy will not be here today but he will be here tomorrow “if it
don’t rain”. That’s an expression my
seventh grade math teacher was fond of over-using. So I guess I’ll spend another dollar on
coffee from the store, if they still have it.
Today
is Monday December 9, 2013 and the 23rd anniversary of the Sunday
that Bill Halliday got confirmed as pastor of my parents’ church. Were he to still be there now (and I have
heard rumors, thankfully, that he is NOT) it would be a 23 year reign which
would blow out any previous record for a reigning pastor by a factor of about
three. (And the majority were substantially
shorter) As you know that Saturday night
December 8th I was recording John Lennon songs- - and had had a fair
amount of some kind of whiskey – probably Black Velvet - - and Sunday morning
had this splitting headache that “was so bad at times I felt like vomiting”. But somehow I went to church that morning
and everything was fine. Bill got voted
in as pastor with one dissenting vote, and my one regret is that it wasn’t two
(as in my vote). Then we went out to
Howard Johnson’s for lunch- - and as you know at that time they had the
segregated smoking and non smoking sections and my Dad complained about the
cigarette smoke wafting in. There is
another “hysteria complaint” topic for Johnny Wendell another day. Of course yesterday was the day John Lennon
died, and I’m not going to cover all the events of the surrounding days of my
life then, although that is an interesting period and I’d like to tell you
about it sometime.
One topic I resolved to
lead off my next blog posting with was yesterday after lunch. As you know we had a lousy lunch with their weird
type of open faced turkey sandwich and mashed potatoes and corn. But then Janet greeted me in the hall and
offered me a big muffin and a big cup of coffee. It’s no doubt the first time I’ve been in her
bedroom in three months and the first time I’ve gotten either coffee or any
kind of pastry from Janet in just about three months. This was a humungus muffin if you call it
that- - with cinnamon topic and goodies.
But now I’d like to jump back to Sunday morning. Every day I wake up and wish another of
things. That lamp switch is getting screwier
and screwier- - - as far as being able to get the thing to turn on. I’ll have to have you-know-who look at it and
maybe he can slip it into his schedule sometime in 2015. I had the Today show on briefly. Then I got a visit from John Lennon. This is something else that hasn’t happened
in a long time. John just wanted to tell
me that he agrees with my coming down hard on Mandella because he embraced
violence. However later during Meet the
Press said something else to me a little less reassuring. He said “You are like Mandella in that you
use non violence as a tactic rather than it being an overriding principle with
you”. That’s kind of a hard statement
when looked at first off. But I will say
that I am like the police dept in that I believe in resolving things peacefully
if I can. But yes I do believe in “the appropriate
escalation of force when that becomes necessary”. We had oatmeal for breakfast followed by a
waffle and a half. Before breakfast I
weighed myself and found I’ve lost four pounds in less than eight days. When you cough you expel a lot of moisture
from the body. I think Stephanie
probably has it worse than me, because it affected her voice. But it’s like every day you dare to believe “this
is the turning point” of both the sickness and the cold. But I’d like to mention that in the “Arimid”
period John Lennon would know about - - that I regarded violence or at least “forceful
response” as a God given right or even “natural right” if you will- - in
situations. Where the glitch comes is
when I first heard that I thought “Oh you mean when your enemy has his back
turned you knife him in the back in a moment of weakness”. That isn’t how I mean it. But as I said I believe non violence is “the voluntary
act of giving up rights you have”. It
does you no good for your enemy to know things you will NOT do to retaliate
against me. If your enemy has a list of
all the things you will NOT do, then he’s able to work you like a yo yo. This is why as President I would never
promise not to use water-boarding, for example.
I believe it’s a promise almost by definition- - I as leader of the free
world have the inherent right NOT to make.
Maybe it’s some misplaced
reliance on the Golden Rule but I expect my enemy to reason if he sees me
acting in a civil manner tword him to think “My enemy is being civil. Perhaps now is an opportunity I should take
to revolve my differences with him, before things change”.
In terms of John Lennon
songs, on Breakfast with the Beatles they said they would “go year by year”. They played tracks from just about every
major studio album except I didn’t hear tracks from the following - - “With the
Beatles”, “Yellow Submarine”, “Let It Be”, “Lennon” or “Sometime in New York
City”. Chris Carter said he played “Isolation”
off of “Lennon” and that it was Julian’s favorite song, but I was out of the
room. The last some of the morning that
I heard was “I’m Losing You”, which is a some that always takes me back to my
relation with Laura at the time- - and that’s another story to be told on
another day. It’s funny that Mandella
Lived to see his dream. John Lennon and
all those “non violent’ people like Ghandi and Martin Luther King, or even
Malcolm X - - didn’t. I see Malcolm X
as a prophet of the Black Muslem church who was killed for his beliefs in
racial tolerance. It’s funny today how
many are trying to rewrite history saying that is- - for example Ronald Reagan
would have embraced Mandella if it were today and how Ronald Reagan support
Mandella. Now people like Ted Cruise are
even in praise of Nelson Mandella. The
right appears to be adopting him as if he were their own. Well excuse me if
this is one writer who doesn’t engage in this orgy of “piling on”. I will say this about Mandella. It surprised the hell out of me that there
was NOT a blood bath after he won the election in 1994, just like there was in
Cambodia in 1985 when the hard core communist Poh Pot took over then. So
maybe to that extent I mis gauged the situation. If you ask me whether I would vetoed a bipartisan
bill in 1986 passed by the US Senate- - my answer is “I don’t know”. After all I was a Christian and my leaders on
TV were advising me not to embrace Mandella.
After all I couldn’t even bring myself to vote for Dukakis but sat out
that whole election of 1888 - - and I’ll be frank- - one of the big things were
those Willie Horton ads.
They passed out the
diabetic syrup packets yesterday at the table early. Actually I’ve had those and they are pretty
convincing. John Powell got one. The rest of us had to wait till five to eight
- - thereabouts- - for our waffle and a half and sausage link. I was musing- - and thinking that what if
Ghandi were kicked off that train in South Africa for being “colored” and it
turned out that the Apostle Paul had been waiting at the next train station and
praying for a car in first class to open up so he could spread his Missionary
stuff. And Ghandi sees him boarding and
kind of eyes him suspiciously. And
others around question St Paul’s racial credentials and say “He writes in
Greek. He’s not one of us”. And Paul says “I am a White - - Greek” along the line of you-know-who. And the train official says “Actually this
man’s father is a pure blooded Roman- - - he represents this Empire’s finest.” And then I was thinking of that Beatle song
and now it would be parodied with man skits such as these on fractured world
history. “Everywhere it’s bigotry- - -
at the end of every year”. And I
thought “I must have tapped into John Lennon’s energy to come up with that one”
and John Lennon, who was still there says, “It’s a lot easier to “tap into
someone’s energy, as you put it, if they are still Alive”.
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