Willie Nelson was in the paper today. He's facing jail time for pot possession. This makes no sense to me because Willie's been smoking pot every day for 60 years and everybody on the planet knows it.
But then I, myself, like to occasionally give Willie a hard time.
Yesterday I listened to one of my favorite Willie Nelson CDs while I trimmed the Christmas tree. One of the most beautiful songs he's ever sung is "You Were Always On My Mind." But the message is:
Sorry babe, I couldn't take you to your chemo treatment, 'cause I had a gig in Amarillo. But it's OK 'cause you were on my mind.
And don't get me started on "She's a Good Hearted Woman In Love With a Good Time Man."
But Willie's done some wonderful things in his long life and seems to be a congruent person. And I love his voice. So I hope he gets out of this latest jam.
P.S. Do you remember years ago when Willie had a line of clothes at K-Mart? Of course it failed because who in the world would like to dress like Willie Nelson?
***
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Why I'm Happy
Dan Buettner has written a new book called "Thrive." It's a study of ways people can achieve happiness.
By the way, Dan says the happiest people in the USA live in San Luis Obispo, CA. Bummer for the rest of us!
But when he listed the four most happiness-producing elements, I knew I was golden. Here they are:
1. Sleep - Happy people get a good night's sleep. As those of you who read this blog regularly know, I have suffered life long insomnia. But about five years ago I started taking sleep seriously. One of the many things I do now is sleep in a cool room. Tonight it's supposed to get down to 15 degrees. Yes, I will open the bedroom windows as usual. Yes, Dave has a sense of humor about this.
2. Money - Yes, money's important. But we don't need much, just enough to feel secure about our shelter, food and medical care. That's about $75,000 for a family of four. So if you have more, share it. That will make you happy as well.
3. Physical Activity - Walking's the best, and it's free. Dave and I never miss a day.
4. Social Activity - Dave and I love being with other people. We love being with friends and family - and friendly strangers.
So those are Dan Buettner's top four elements. As you know, I'm a spiritual person so I would put that at the top of the mix. Being grateful every day for what I have makes me happy. But that's just me.
I do agree with his best advice for unhappy people who want to get happy: "You have to work at it."
Seems crazy to even say that but I see unhappy people all the time who seem to wallow in it.
***
By the way, Dan says the happiest people in the USA live in San Luis Obispo, CA. Bummer for the rest of us!
But when he listed the four most happiness-producing elements, I knew I was golden. Here they are:
1. Sleep - Happy people get a good night's sleep. As those of you who read this blog regularly know, I have suffered life long insomnia. But about five years ago I started taking sleep seriously. One of the many things I do now is sleep in a cool room. Tonight it's supposed to get down to 15 degrees. Yes, I will open the bedroom windows as usual. Yes, Dave has a sense of humor about this.
2. Money - Yes, money's important. But we don't need much, just enough to feel secure about our shelter, food and medical care. That's about $75,000 for a family of four. So if you have more, share it. That will make you happy as well.
3. Physical Activity - Walking's the best, and it's free. Dave and I never miss a day.
4. Social Activity - Dave and I love being with other people. We love being with friends and family - and friendly strangers.
So those are Dan Buettner's top four elements. As you know, I'm a spiritual person so I would put that at the top of the mix. Being grateful every day for what I have makes me happy. But that's just me.
I do agree with his best advice for unhappy people who want to get happy: "You have to work at it."
Seems crazy to even say that but I see unhappy people all the time who seem to wallow in it.
***
Saturday, November 20, 2010
How Scary Is the Inner City?
The other evening we watched the PBS special where writer and actor Tina Fey won the 2010 Mark Twain Award for American Humor. During the show they replayed one of the "30 Rock" segments where the character played by Tracy Morgan was having a flashback on his life in the 'hood.
Keep in mind that this was written for Tracy by Tina Fey, the self described "obedient white girl from the suburbs."
It's all coming back...I watched a prostitute stab a clown! Our basketball hoop was a ribcage!
I blocked all this stuff out for a reason.
Oh, Lord, some guy with dreads electrocuted my fish.
All my life I've tried to forget the things I've seen.
A crackhead breastfeeding a rat. A homeless man cooking a Hot Pocket on a third rail of the G train!...A puppy committed suicide after he saw our bathroom! I once bit into a burrito and there was a child's shoe in it! I've seen a hooker eat a tire!..A pack of wild dogs took over and successfully ran a Wendy's!
I, myself, grew up on the mean streets of inner city Indianapolis but I never experienced anything like this. Or did I just block it out for a reason? I think I'll call my brother and check it out with him.
***
Keep in mind that this was written for Tracy by Tina Fey, the self described "obedient white girl from the suburbs."
It's all coming back...I watched a prostitute stab a clown! Our basketball hoop was a ribcage!
I blocked all this stuff out for a reason.
Oh, Lord, some guy with dreads electrocuted my fish.
All my life I've tried to forget the things I've seen.
A crackhead breastfeeding a rat. A homeless man cooking a Hot Pocket on a third rail of the G train!...A puppy committed suicide after he saw our bathroom! I once bit into a burrito and there was a child's shoe in it! I've seen a hooker eat a tire!..A pack of wild dogs took over and successfully ran a Wendy's!
I, myself, grew up on the mean streets of inner city Indianapolis but I never experienced anything like this. Or did I just block it out for a reason? I think I'll call my brother and check it out with him.
***
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Those People in Wisconsin Are Crazy
Apparently a large number of Americans are surprised that Bristol Palin is still on "Dancing With the Stars". I've seen her on the show only a couple of times but she has really improved as a dancer - and isn't that what it's all about?
Some people have suggested that Bristol is getting votes because of her famous mom. But she was quoted a few days as saying that as many people dislike her mom as like her.
That makes sense to me. I'm willing to believe that Bristol is hanging in there on her own merits. And good for her.
In a related story in this morning's Minneapolis Star Tribune, a Wisconsin man, apparently fueled by several beverages, blasted his television with a shotgun, because (apparently again) he was enraged by Bristol's performance on "DWTS." Officers coaxed him out of his house after an all-night standoff.
When Dave told this story to the young lady who served us our lunch today, her only response was:
"Those people in Wisconsin are crazy!"
***
Some people have suggested that Bristol is getting votes because of her famous mom. But she was quoted a few days as saying that as many people dislike her mom as like her.
That makes sense to me. I'm willing to believe that Bristol is hanging in there on her own merits. And good for her.
In a related story in this morning's Minneapolis Star Tribune, a Wisconsin man, apparently fueled by several beverages, blasted his television with a shotgun, because (apparently again) he was enraged by Bristol's performance on "DWTS." Officers coaxed him out of his house after an all-night standoff.
When Dave told this story to the young lady who served us our lunch today, her only response was:
"Those people in Wisconsin are crazy!"
***
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Change of Scenery
Yesterday I went, with some of my girlfriends, to the Orlando Museum of Art to see the Festival of the Trees. Corporations and other sponsors produce glitzy elaborately decorated Christmas trees. It's a study in over-the-top- ness. It has nothing to do with the birth of the baby in the manger.
But I like it.
We had fun but I was a bit uncomfortable hoofing it across the park to my car because it was 82 degrees and the sun was blazing.
This morning Dave and I hopped on a plane and flew to his home in Minneapolis. As you know, it's been snowing in Minnesota. And I hope it snows some more before we drive back down south in Dave's car.
I know that thousands of people travel every day and a change of scenery is no big deal to them. But I'm still in awe of flying across the country and experiencing the opposite weather.
I hope I never stop being in awe of what's around me.
***
Monday, November 15, 2010
The Meaning of Life
The theory that man is nothing but the result of biological, psychological and sociological conditions, or the product of heredity and environment is wrong.
We are not fully conditioned and determined but rather determine ourselves whether we give in to conditions or stand up the them.
There is nothing conceivable which would so condition a person as to leave him (or her) without the slightest freedom.
- Viktor E. Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning," 1959
Dr. Frankl came to the above conclusions while he was a prisoner in Auschwitz during the Second World War. I read his book in 1962 and it helped determine the person I would become.
A few days ago Dave and I went with some family and friends to the Holocaust Center close to our condo to meet Helen Greenspun, a lovely 84 year old Holocaust survivor. She was taken from her home at age 14 and kept under Nazi control for 6 years.
Her story is as harrowing as you could possibly imagine. But it's also a story of triumph. I want to share with you what she called, "Three Miracles.'
1. The Germans came for all of the Jewish girls 16 and over. Helen's mother sent her to sneak a bag of food to her sister who was crammed, along with others, into the back of a truck. A guard saw Helen and forced her on the truck with the others. All the while she was screaming that she was only 14, but to no avail.
The miracle? All of the Jews who stayed in the village were murdered.
2. The job she was given was working with potatoes. The Miracle? She was able to sneak potato scraps back to the other girls in the barracks (most of the girls eventually died, many of starvation.)
3. All along the way there were a few Germans (very few) who bent the rules in order to keep these girls alive. Toward the end of her ordeal they were sent on a forced march with no food or water. As they traveled through villages some German women threw scrapes of food at them and a few of the guards allowed them to pick them up.
Helen was saved by American soldiers in 1945. She spent two months in a hospital and close to a year in a sanitarium.
Today, at age 84, she still speaks, as she has for all of these years, to groups of children and adults - so that we will never forget.
***
We are not fully conditioned and determined but rather determine ourselves whether we give in to conditions or stand up the them.
There is nothing conceivable which would so condition a person as to leave him (or her) without the slightest freedom.
- Viktor E. Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning," 1959
Dr. Frankl came to the above conclusions while he was a prisoner in Auschwitz during the Second World War. I read his book in 1962 and it helped determine the person I would become.
A few days ago Dave and I went with some family and friends to the Holocaust Center close to our condo to meet Helen Greenspun, a lovely 84 year old Holocaust survivor. She was taken from her home at age 14 and kept under Nazi control for 6 years.
Her story is as harrowing as you could possibly imagine. But it's also a story of triumph. I want to share with you what she called, "Three Miracles.'
1. The Germans came for all of the Jewish girls 16 and over. Helen's mother sent her to sneak a bag of food to her sister who was crammed, along with others, into the back of a truck. A guard saw Helen and forced her on the truck with the others. All the while she was screaming that she was only 14, but to no avail.
The miracle? All of the Jews who stayed in the village were murdered.
2. The job she was given was working with potatoes. The Miracle? She was able to sneak potato scraps back to the other girls in the barracks (most of the girls eventually died, many of starvation.)
3. All along the way there were a few Germans (very few) who bent the rules in order to keep these girls alive. Toward the end of her ordeal they were sent on a forced march with no food or water. As they traveled through villages some German women threw scrapes of food at them and a few of the guards allowed them to pick them up.
Helen was saved by American soldiers in 1945. She spent two months in a hospital and close to a year in a sanitarium.
Today, at age 84, she still speaks, as she has for all of these years, to groups of children and adults - so that we will never forget.
***
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Environmentally Responsible Cartoons
As you know, I'm green. I want to leave a small footprint when I go.
So I was delighted to see these cartoons in the latest New Yorker.
Most folks don't even notice when there's a theme running through the cartoons, but it happens often.
So hats off to cartoonists Farley Katz,
Paul Noth and Michael Shaw for being environmentally responsible in their tongue in cheek irreverence.
I don't even mind them inquiring about Jesus' "methods" in performing the loaves and fishes miracle.
Because, as you know, I'm a Methodist.
***
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