The Angel Ryan

Yesterday afternoon my computer caught a serious virus.  It began sneezing and spewing out pornographic images.

I hate when that happens!

I quick tried to get hold of my computer guru, Ryan, but by then the whole system had shut down - just before it started throwing up pea soup.  I was more than depressed but went to my meeting anyway.  Thankfully I saw my friend who has Ryan on speed dial.

When Ryan showed up this morning he had on his usual t-shirt and flip flops. 

But he looked like this to me!

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Bloom In Love

I love this latest New Yorker cover.  It reminds us that Valentine's Day day is coming.  It reminds us of Love in Bloom.

But, mostly it suggests that New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg has a big ego. Maybe a little narcissistic.

I don't have any knowledge of that, I think he's been a good, hard working mayor. And this is to be commended since he's the 10th richest person in the country.

But yesterday Dave and I looked at this cover and then talked at length about what it means to have a big ego. 

Not Freud's complicated Id, Ego, and Super Ego - but just the general concept of what a big ego looks like to us simple folks.

I think it's the opposite of self esteem.  I think folks who really feel good about themselves, process it from the inside.  They have a sense of compassion and personal vision.  They have respect for all living things, a sense that we're all divine as well as human. 

I think egotists are basically insecure and need constant feedback from the outside. 

Don't have any idea about where Mayor Bloomberg is in all this - but I love the New Yorker cover because it makes me think.  And I'm hoping this cover made the mayor laugh.


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Loneliness

My minister has been preaching an excellent series of sermons on our emotions. He doesn't call it that but that's what it is. The last three weeks have been on Worry, Guilt and, yesterday, Loneliness.

He referenced a very sad Web site called "A Lonely Life."

He also said this: Loneliness is one of the most miserable feelings a person can have.

Some folks have no patience with lonely people. Some folks think that genuinely Christian people are, by definition, incapable of being lonely.

But let's see....

King David was lonely (Read some of the Psalms.)
The Apostle Paul was lonely
Jesus was lonely (There's no sadder verse in the Bible than "The Son of God has no place to lay is head.")

All of the prophets were lonely. In my opinion, a couple of them were clinically depressed.

I've spent much of my life with the painful feeling of loneliness. I wrote the poem below a long time ago.

SURFACE FRIEND

She appeared at the door,
With her children,
The spend the day
Because she had heard me say
That I was lonely.

"Lady, you don't understand.

I am lonely because
The earth is such a small planet
In the universe.

Because 20,000 people died
In the Guatemalan earthquake,

Because I am a middle aged,
Motherless child.

I thought everybody felt that way,
Sometimes,
Don't you?"


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More on the Ever Changing Internet

Leonard Pitts' column yesterday mentions the video going around showing a 1994 clip of Katie Curic and Bryant Gumbel trying to explain what this new thing "The Internet" was. They couldn't do it because they didn't know.



Pitts says this:


...fundamental changes are occurring at unprecedented speed and you and I have not a clue where we're going, what we're going to be when we get there, or even much time to wonder. We are too busy bailing water from the sinking boats of former lives and professions.


Well, I certainly feel that way some of the time but I think younger people all over the world keep up pretty well. That's why things are happening at such a fast pace that some of our heads are spinning - and some of it is amazingly good.



The remarkable photo above, taken this past Friday and immediately posted on the Internet, shows Christians protecting Muslims as they say their prayers in Cairo's Tahrir Square. .




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Blue Valentine

We saw this highly acclaimed movie a couple of nights ago. Ryan Gosling is an amazing actor, as is Michelle Williams. As you most likely know, they play a couple who's marriage is falling apart.

OK, here are a couple of warnings. This movie is not easy to watch. It's painful and raw and then it's over. The explicit sex scenes are painful and raw and I thought they'd never be over.

The only sweet, funny scene is early on when they're on the street singing and tap dancing. But it's ominous.

You Always Hurt the One You Love.

I've read several reviews. Every one of them says it's an excellent movie about a marriage unraveling. And, of course, it is. One reviewer says they're just like you and me falling out of love.

But it's way more than that. It's about two decent but seriously wounded and scarred human beings. I don't see how either of their lives can move forward until they experience healing.

I say, no, they're not like you and me but I've known a few people like them. They're so individually scarred that they can't function well with anybody, including each other. They need a healthy community's comfort and healing.

But I guess in that sense they are like us.


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Social Media Power

After we saw "The Social Network" I wrote that I was amazed by the genius of Mark Zuckerberg but wished he'd invented something important.


But, of course, I was wrong about that.


As I write this we're in the midst of unrest in Cairo. A while back, during the elections, Iranian young people let their voices be heard around the world.


George Clooney and others have made the world aware of the conditions in the Sudan.


None of this could happen without the social media. We're seeing - and more importantly - experiencing -worldwide events in real time.


By contrast, the folks in North Korea put up with their miserable lifestyle because they're a closed society. They don't know what's out here.





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RED

I have a reputation for not being spontaneous. But yesterday afternoon, when Dave said "Let's jump in the car right now and go to the movies," I said "OK."

We saw RED. This is an acronym for Retired - but Extremely Dangerous.

The film is totally and completely silly. The cast is glorious.

What fun to see some of our favorite elderly movie stars as cold blooded C.I.A. assassins.

Bruce Willis, age 56, stars. He could do this movie in his sleep. His love interest: Mary Louise Parker, age 46.

John Malkovich, age 58 is hysterically funny. Morgan Freeman, age 73, plays a man 80 years old. He gets to wear a great turquoise and gold outfit. I'm guessing that's why he took the part.

Richard Dryfus, age 64, is evil. But he's never looked better. (My son used to call him "the Rat Man.")

Helen Mirrin, age 66 is a cold blooded killer and loves her work. Her lover, whom she shot three times (but he forgave her because it was all in the line of duty) is played by Brian Cox, age 65.

Ernest Borgnine, age 94, is the record keeper.

We didn't go on 75 cent Tuesday so had to pay the big money: $1.25. But it was worth it.

I wonder if people ever think of me as Retired - but Extremely Dangerous.


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