Traveling And All It Holds

I am departing from the heavy thoughts of what took place in Upstate New York for now because frankly I'm weary and still processing it all and will comment on some of my observations and annoyances of the past week away.

Traveling on highways has never been completely easy or without peril but this past week has really illuminated how insane many drivers are these days. Speed limits are not only unobserved, for the most part, but they are basically scoffed at. As we were about to fling ourselves onto the Delaware bridge on I-95 which by the way has a 50 MPH posting I noticed two police cars planted in the median. I was doing something reasonably close to 50 and watched as cars flew by not only me but the two police cars. I have to believe these officers must have been making dinner plans or just enjoying the rest because I never so much as saw a shudder from those two cars. Perhaps they were suffering from writer's cramp as for every car that was doing something even remotely approaching the speed limit, there had to be 4 or 5 flying by with their tires barely making contact with the pavement.

This brings to my mind one question; What is everyone in such a hurry for? You could pick almost any portion of I-95 and be amazed at the sheer disregard for life or safety by an astounding number of drivers. I will never question how parts of I-95 can be completely shut down due to a 1000 car pile-up. Speeding is of epic proportions now and unless car manufacturers or our wonderful liberating government takes some sort of action it will continue. Perhaps this is a covert attempt at population control. So I guess my point here, if there is a point to be derived, is driving on any major interstate highway these days is not for the meek. I would close by telling you what my wife said about traveling on the highways but suffice it to say she will be flying most everywhere in the future no matter what the cost.

Another thing I realized this trip is I really miss the North. I know the winters are extreme and long but I miss it. I also know the economy is stagnant there and jobs are few and far between but I miss it. I miss the more relaxed life. I miss not being able to take a drive on a quiet road and just enjoy my surroundings. I miss the clean fresh air and the beautiful majestic mountains of the Adirondacks. Mostly I miss the ability to achieve solitude if one seeks it.

I know I should not complain. I live a good life all in all, taking into account that economic stress is bearing on me a bit as it is many but I have a great deal to contemplate and be thankful for. I have a great family. I have a wife that I look so forward to growing old with and I have a daughter and sons that I am proud of . I may not have a lot of "things" but what I do have can never be taken from me and that is my family. I also have a church family that is a vital extension of my own family. They are always there to encourage me and to help me and to strengthen my faith. So thanks be to God for all that I do have!

Back to traveling as I was beginning to drift away from point which is a signature of mine. I used to be very unapologetically cruel to Northerners about lack of courtesy. I have rethought this attitude a bit. I noticed when I was in the North this time that people are people. You do have a mixture of friendly folks and rude folks no matter where you live. There is a hard edge to many in the North that may be interpreted, at first glance, as rudeness. If you talk to these people you will probably find out they are very friendly after all. The tough environment of the North, I think, can draw people into a sort of survival mode that can be misinterpreted. So what I'm saying is many in the North may not make a first impression of being amiable but if you actually spark a conversation you will probably learn otherwise.

I know there is more to think on about my recent travels and more to process and as I do I will impart my small slice of wisdom upon all who dare venture down that treacherous path. For now, I am weary, both physically and mentally so I must now search for some solitude of my own.

How To Move Forward?

I've been away from blogging for the past number of days. I am currently in upstate NY visiting my Dad as he is dealing with some serious health issues. My wife and I are hunkered down in the hotel for a day of rest.

While the rest is much needed it also avails my mind to do its sometimes twisted thinking. This blog is serious so if you are looking for laughs it may not be your cup of tea. This blog is concerning family but really is mostly about my Dad and really about how we all must deal with our aging parents. There is a finality about life or I suppose you could say a stark reminder of our mortality that stares us in the face sometimes. I'm certainly trying to deal with that process right now. The problem really is not how to deal with my own mortality but my Dad's.

Even now as I look into his eyes I see that solid strength that makes him so very special. The strength that comes from a steadfast belief in God and knowing that the next step for him will be the most joyous of all. The issue I grapple with is one we all do from time to time. It is how we cope when that awesome display of strength has left us here on Earth.

I have been trying to come to terms with losing the focal point of my family and how that void will be filled or even if it can be filled. My immediate family is spread all over this country. My family, which I suspect like others, has its challenges. These challenges tend to become less important when in the company of our Father. When that changes I wonder how our family will change.

These feelings I'm having are admittedly selfish. My hero is suffering and with that so am I. His will, his faith and his love are never in doubt but his body is now starting to fail him. He still moves forward and functions better than many much healthier among us and watching his body falter is the most difficult thing I may ever have to deal with. Please pray for everyone in my family and also for every family dealing with these same issues.

I am very fortunate to have my own faith which is absolutely vital right now in giving me comfort. I know the Lord will be even more blessed to have this man among his army of faithful souls. My immediate selfish conflict is still mostly about how our family will move forward and yet stay connected. The need to believe in the power of faith and love must keep me moving forward with optimism. No answers here mostly just thoughts.

Your Computer and Television Please?

So I’ve been thinking lately which in of itself is dangerous but give me a little slack. I want to propose a completely hypothetical situation and make you think yourself about just how you would or even could handle it. Let’s assume that this circumstance would be nationwide and affect everyone from Bill Gates down to minimum wage employee.

Here it is: In an instant we are completely and simultaneously separated from both our computers and our televisions. Now before you just shut down and close this think about it…I mean really think about it. I do realize that there are a group of people that would be mostly unaffected by losing their televisions and perhaps even jubilant about it. How would these same people feel about losing their computers?

I will speak for myself in how this technological void would affect me. I pay a majority of my bills online now so that would cost me a fortune in postage alone. It would mean if I had a question about something, I would have to actually open up an encyclopedia. Let’s think about how e-mail has become such an integral component of how we communicate both personally and in business. How in the world would we be informed about the weather? How about hurricanes and being able to prepare? If one of your answers is the newspaper good luck on that one. Our paper here seems to more and more mail in their columns or so called news stories and they always seem to be a few days behind most events. (Kind of like putting a sign up on your street saying “you just hit a bump”)

The computer has become not only a venue for playing games or socializing but has also become almost instrumental to the way many of us function. It has taken this large sphere we live on and made almost everything in this life instantaneous. This unfortunately has also created a whole society of impatient people who not only take for granted that they can find out immediately how sharks defecate but expect it. Think about the last time you were on Facebook and your computer froze. It probably ruined your day. We are literally attached with a lifeline to our computers.

Television might seem the easier of the two to give up. I invite you to really give that some thought as well. Many of us are entertained quite a few hours of our day by TV. (Yes Jim I know some don’t give a wit) Listening to conversation at work or even on Facebook you would think that we live and die by television. I would have to be honest here and tell you without TV it would take some getting used to. I am beginning to read more. Perhaps that’s the law for folks as they get older. Television by enlarge is a younger person’s medium. All you need to do is watch the commercials. About the only thing for older folks are the Viagra commercials and the History channel which by the way I would really miss.

How about how some parents would have to actually entertain their children besides planting them in some sort of prison-like little chair and putting them into a pupils dilated trance by the glow of Barney. I remember distinctly as a child being in a Bugs Bunny trance for most of my young age. The cartoons these days are just psychotic if you ask me. I like simple cartoons but them I am a simple man in many respects.

How would we survive without infomercials? I would have never found out what a supreme waste of money the Topsey Turvey planter is, for instance. Billy Mays would not have had a career or the Geico Gecko would have been out of a job. How would the car manufacturers waste hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising?

I think my point is being made here. I surmise if terrorists really wanted to bring our great country to a grinding halt, all they would need to do is confiscate our computers and televisions and we would certainly then be ripe for the picking!

Social Networks and My Take

This is my comment about the social networks and how they’ve pretty much exploded on the internet scene. I am speaking, in case you’ve been under a rock for the last year, of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and the like.

I would not be so hypocritical to unequivocally deem them to be of no value because I do participate in some of the frivolity on specifically Facebook. I have found it entertaining as well as a vehicle to reconnect with friends and family of my past and I also play an occasional word game and more. I have pretty much abandoned MySpace and have no use for Twitter probably if for no other reason but I do have to have a life of some sort away from my computer.

I have heard the pros and the cons about the networks. The privacy issues that are breached at times and the underbelly of society making use of these networks to stalk and even ultimately assault the more gullible as well as innocent among us. That is a very unfortunate by-product of these internet networks but I would suggest that these predators usually find a way to achieve there despicable acts. Another way this would be less of a problem would be to have parents actually pay attention to what their children are doing although this may be too much to ask in this day and age.

I read an article just today how the Defense Department is now studying whether these networks and their armed force’s members are being too fast and loose with sensitive information dealing with national security. There are even Generals on Twitter from what I understand. I would find it quite unbelievable to see a General revealing classified information. This could be just another attempt at our government trying to control anything and everything. Perhaps there needs to be a social networking czar.

So my take on these networks is really that they are a benefit as long as they are somehow monitored by the companies that have created them. It would seem to be a minimal responsibility of these companies to comply with that standard. As with all things in this life there are always pluses and minuses to be weighed. I am hopelessly optimistic about humankind and the general population actually doing the right thing and that will always be my first instinct.

Don't Ever Forget

Today was that day. That day most Americans will and should never forget. That day when the world came falling down around us. That day when reality met complacency. That day when we were given a prescription of the most evil actions and people on the planet. That day when heroes were born among everyday people just doing their jobs.

Don’t ever forget that day and what it meant to all of us. Don’t ever forget.

More thoughts On Religion

As I sit here in somewhat minor sacroiliacal (yes I made up the word-get over it) discomfort at least my arguably fertile mind still works so it seems the perfect opportunity to think and write about that thinking. I invite you to hang on for this literary ride.

I love talking about this topic because it ruffles so many people's feathers and riles the rest. I will not speak of the advantages of one faith over the other because frankly I'm not qualified to make those judgements. I am Christian and quite comfortable in my Christian skin. The thing that really fascinates and puzzles me about the topic of religion is how so many are uncomfortable even broaching the topic. Perhaps it is similar in how people tend to avoid mirrors. It's much easier in many people's eyes to avoid anything that might spur self examination. I will go a step further. There are three words that strike mind numbing fear in many people. Three words that cause almost a physical reaction paramount to intellectual hives. Three words that may, in some cases in history, have stopped ethnic cleansing or wars or more. The three words you ask? I am wrong. Those are three very simple words when put together are one of the most powerful statements a person can make. I may have strayed from my religious comment but I believe that admission of being wrong is directly related to believing there is a higher power who already knows whether you are right or wrong. When you actually believe this you are forced through your faith to examine yourself and when you do this exercise in self examination you must be able to say you are wrong and ask for forgiveness.

I think there's another reason people are afraid of religion. Perhaps it coincides with many things in life and also relates to our modern society as a whole. It takes effort. Why do so many marriages fail? Why let someone else take care of you and all your needs instead of doing it on your own? It takes effort. We are fast becoming a culture of the easy way out. I hope and pray that the many people in this world that have given up on making an effort find resurrection of hope and worth at some point. Life on this planet is too short to not make an effort and because of my faith I also know that the effort made now will pay dividends in my spiritual and ultimately final destination.

Are there answers to this? I have none at the moment. I merely make a couple of points for you to consider. This is a complex issue and one that man has grappled with since the beginning of time I suspect. There is much to think about where religion is involved. It is a challenging time to be a Pastor as I've come to witness. I do believe we are in a cycle that will change at some point. I see my particular faith in the Episcopal Church as in serious upheaval. In my eyes it all boils down to who our leaders in my church believe is the ultimate authority. If they conclude it to be God, I remain stoutly in their corner. If, on the other hand, they are to conclude it is man, that could pose a serious problem for me in the future. Time will tell as time always does.

Words Mean Things...Or Do They??

I thought I would examine a few words and phrases in life that have become nearly extinct or at the very least on the endangered species list. You may be thinking this is a political rant but it’s not the specific intention although many things in this life do dovetail in politics. So let us delve into the mystery of lost English shall we?

One of my pet peeve words that, although is spewed out by many, is not sincerely spewed: responsibility. Webster’s defines the word as this: 1 : the quality or state of being responsible: as a : moral, legal, or mental accountability b : trustworthyness 2 : something for which one is responsible : burden ; has neglected his responsibilities.

This is becoming a more difficult concept to grasp with our wonderful government taking hold of all parts of our lives. The easy way out of most every hurdle in life these days is to claim it is someone else’s responsibility. Health care is not my responsibility it is my governments. Isn’t that great? No need to take any of those difficult tasks on anymore as our government will take care of us even if we aren’t willing or able to take care of ourselves. It’s all about being easy now. No need to actually work for anything any longer because everything now is a right and nothing needs to be earned.

I love this phrase because it is a way of completely disarming a discussion without ever coming to some sort of logical understanding: “Who are you to judge?” Everyone seems to want the answers to difficult questions in life but when they perhaps hear something they don’t want to hear it is almost always followed by “Who are you to judge?” If you don’t want a judgment then I suggest you don’t ask any questions because most answers to difficult questions in this life require a judgment of some form. We make judgments ever day regarding most every facet of our lives. So don’t make a transparent attempt at political correctness by asking that question. You will be wasting your time with me on that one.

How about this phrase that people seem to gloss over in trying to explain this difficult situation in our country: Illegal aliens. It’s quite simple in my eyes. We are either a nation of laws or we are not. If the justice system is indeed to be applied evenly for all then if you are breaking a law it should be dealt with accordingly. If you fail to do this then it basically gives no incentive to the rest of us to actually follow the law. I won’t go deeper on that topic so as to not be asked “Who are you to judge?”

How about this phrase? “Self-reliance” It kind of goes hand in hand with that responsibility word I suppose. Forty years ago it was not only the way to survive it was the accepted practice to live by. Where I lived you actually did wear boots with straps and more than occasionally had to pull them up and move on. In many cases you had people willing to help as long as you displayed you were actually trying to help yourself as well. These days if you want help just run to your government with your hands out and don’t worry too much about whether you really need it; it’s your right.

· Here’s a word that used to mean something: journalism.
1 a : the collection and editing of news for presentation through the media b : the public press c : an academic study concerned with the collection and editing of news or the management of a news medium2 a : writing designed for publication in a newspaper or magazine b : writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation c : writing designed to appeal to current popular taste or public interest

I love these definitions but especially 2 b. direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation: When did this change? I challenge you to watch any network and I don’t care on what side of the aisle you are politically there is always a very open attempt to interpret and often without the facts. Journalism in its purest initial form is, for all intensive purposes, dead. You are now forced to try to filter through everything you hear and see and try to ascertain the truth. And while we are talking about that word let’s define truth.

1 a archaic : fidelity, constancy b : sincerity in action, character, and utterance2 a (1) : the state of being the case : fact (2) : the body of real things, events, and facts : actuality (3) often capitalized : a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality b : a judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted as true c : the body of true statements and propositions3 a : the property (as of a statement) of being in accord with fact or reality b chiefly British : true 2 c : fidelity to an original or to a standard

Isn’t it fascinating that such a short simple word can have such complex definitions? Compare that to lie;

1 : to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive2 : to create a false or misleading impression

There you have it. It’s much simpler to lie than ever tell the truth but then while it occurs to me:
“Who am I to judge?”

Technology (Part Two)

Keeping with the theme of my last post on technology, I must tell you my excitement about converting my albums to cds has been tempered just a bit after finally figuring out the process. The instructions (not that I tend to do instructions well) are quite vague and seem to be written by audiophiles for audiophiles of which I am not. The terminology might has well have been written in Sanskrit. Where I did find answers was on this particular software developer's website in a FAQ area. It seems there was another inept audiophile want-to-be who simply posed the question I was trying to formulate and voila the answer was there written in a language I understand: English!

I'm certain that as time goes on and I become more experienced it won't take me the better part of a week to copy one album! So yes as much as I do still like and am impressed with technology it must be entered without any misconceptions that there is a significant learning curve for rookies like myself.

I started looking through all my albums and can't believe some of the crap I have hung on to. I actually have an "All In The Family" album full of skits from that show. I have albums like one my Dad gave me years ago, The Best Of The Osmonds! They gave it as a gift thinking, and I remember this distinctly, that it was hip and popular. I don't believe a needle has ever touched that album and I'm not thinking it's one I will be converting. I will go through more and sometime give a more complete list of all the hideous albums I will never copy. Should anyone want an Osmonds album let me know. It's ripe for the picking.....hey perhaps Craig's List might be the way to go. I might get like a quarter for this thing.

So I was reading an article in today's less than impressive paper about the apparent war beginning between two types of technology. Companies have, in the past six months or so, introduced something called a Netbook. It's basically a junior sized laptop with most of the features of a laptop with a few limitations. Now the Iphone and the Blackberry have competition of sorts for mobile computing. It should be interesting to see this thing unfold and who the winners and losers will be. Personally I could care less about either but I know many are addicted to their "crack"berries and Iphones. My fingers tend to be too large for most anything but a standard keyboard and I'm already way too connected so you may hang on to your mobile computing devices and I will just gawk and wonder if anyone has a life other than the Internet and/or texting.

Another device I have a love-hate relationship with is my printer and my wife's printer. Her HP printer uses up half a cartridge, it would seem, just running the initialization when a cartridge is changed. Pretty slick marketing HP and all the different ink cartridges out there. What's that all about? Could they not become more standardized? It's insane really but a huge moneymaker for all the printer companies.

That's all for now and I will move on to new topics in the future. I am thankful to John for getting me back a real computer that I can actually use. This summarizes the computer and what it means to us all; To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer. ~Farmer's Almanac, 1978