Cheerful Curmudgeon

I very much enjoyed the time that I got to spend with my father-in-law, Lester Start. Sadly, he was taken from this world much too soon.

My wife and her siblings have created a web site as a publishing platform for his sermons and talks. Please visit Lester Start’s Works.

You might have noticed a bit of “uncertainty” in the economy these days. I was fascinated to see these two articles show up within 24 hours of each other:

We do not know who is right, of course, but I am an optimist and strongly biased toward Updegrove’s view.

I believe that we live in a plentiful universe, that there is more than enough of everything to go around and our challenges are in distribution and not in production. We have, for instance, more than enough food to feed everybody; we just need to get the food from where it sits to the mouths of the hungry people. I believe that we are bright enough to solve this problem.

I also believe in the basic generosity of human beings. Innumerable projects have been accomplished through the donated time of unemployed and under-employed people. People with full-time jobs and plenty of money also donate their time, of course, but history proves that unemployment does not transform normally generous people into the selfish animals which Keen predicts.

Open source software is good for everyone. The programmers get to do stuff which they enjoy, learn new technologies, and bask in the warm fuzzies of seeing the works of their hands thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated. The companies which use open source software see lower costs and (hopefully) higher profits. And last but certainly not least, the people who use open source software get to enjoy a much wider choice of solutions to their problems than would exist if only commercial software were available. With all of this goodness in a naturally abundant universe, we are certainly going to see new bounties in the open source software cornucopia.

I just got some bad news and thought to myself, “I sure as hell don’t want ____ to happen.” That made me wonder, why hell? Of all the things in the universe to be absolutely certain of, why hell?

As with so many colloquialisms, I do not actually believe in this one any more than I believed Jesus was G-d when I crossed my fingers as a child; or believe that demons invade the body after a sneeze, necessitating the warding spell, “G-d bless you!”

So if I really really really don’t want something, and I want you to know that my desires are as unshakable as the existence of something absolutely indisputable, why choose hell as that something? I know: habit.

Since I do not believe in hell, and you probably do not believe in it either, let’s pick something else which we can unequivocally agree exists. And since we are going to invoke it at times of distress, why not pick something strong enough to withstand the stress, something unstoppable, something amazingly powerful. And, because four letter words are fun, let’s be sure that it has a four letter name.

Try this on for size: “I sure as love don’t want ____ to happen.” Sounds funny, doesn’t it? But think of something truly terrible and fill in the blank and say it out loud. Saying “love” feels better than saying “hell,” doesn’t it? You can kind of feel that love coming your way, just in case ____ happens.

Remember:
You’re not alone.
People care.
Sure as love.

I sat down to write about something mundane and got distracted reading the NPR This I Believe stories.

Mary Chapin Carpenter just got out of the hospital after suffering a pulmonary embolism. Now, recuperating, she is climbing The Learning Curve of Gratitude. I found her article shortly after the shock of reading a friend’s name in the newspaper this morning: he lost his daughter and three grandchildren to a murderer’s rage.

Thank you, Mary, for inserting a bit of peace into my overly busy life. Today I will breathe, take the dog for a walk, savor the taste of my food, and be thankful for my family and friends.

Tragedy struck on Monday when 33 people died at Virginia Tech. Flags fly at half mast as we grope through feelings of hurt, anger, helplessness, and grief. President Bush was so moved that he offered personal condolences,

It’s impossible to make sense of such violence and suffering. Those whose lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now they’re gone — and they leave behind grieving families, and grieving classmates, and a grieving nation.

Why are these deaths so painful for us?

On the same day, about 116 people died in traffic related accidents. President Bush’s words fit here, too.

It’s impossible to make sense of such violence and suffering. Those whose lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now they’re gone — and they leave behind grieving families, and grieving classmates….

…but not a grieving nation. Why not?

One of those 33 victims at Virginia Tech took his own life. On that same day, about 83 other men and women did the same thing. Again, President Bush’s words apply.

It’s impossible to make sense of such violence and suffering. Those whose lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now they’re gone — and they leave behind grieving families, and grieving classmates….

…but not a grieving nation. Again, why not?

Yesterday evening, a 19 year old young man in my congregation took his own life. It is impossible for me to make sense of his suffering. He did nothing to deserve his fate. He is simply gone and he leaves behind a grieving family and grieving classmates…

…but not a grieving nation.

Why do we publicly mourn 33 deaths at Virginia Tech while ignoring the other senseless deaths in our lives? Why do we order investigations and ask tough questions about one situation and not all of the others?

Here’s a suggestion: take your feelings about a recent death and channel it for good. The next time you are angry with a loved one or a friend, remember that you do not know if you will see them tomorrow. Make peace. Love them now. And, God willing, you can love them tomorrow, too.

This seems to be good-advice day. I am reading Exceeding Customer Expectations, about Enterprise Rent-a-Car’s highly successful business practices. As expected, it is full of good advice. Key seems to be: assure that your customers are completely satisfied.

And then, reading a completely unrelated magazine article, I ran across this adage:

Learn from the mistakes of others; you won’t live long enough to make them all yourself.

How true.

I hope that I am always open-minded enough to learn from others, both from their mistakes and their successes.

Chanukah starts tonight, our annual “festival of lights.” It gets tangled up with Christmas because, well, because kids (big and little) like to get presents. Who can complain? Our holiday is completely different than Christmas, though. Several themes comprise Chanukah and, over the next eight days, I will be writing about the ones that seem most important to me.

At its root, chanukah is a celebration of the right for each of us to worship in his or her own way. Around 200 BCE, the Syrian king tried to forbid the practice of Judaism. The Jews fought back and won. This has come repeatedly to the forefront of my mind as I listen to NPR reports on the Iraq war and the American government’s reactions to 9/11.

It is awfully important that each of us respect the practice of others. I approach G-d in my way; you in yours. We share our non-religious lives and try to keep them neutral with respect to how to worship. Then when it is time to talk to G-d, we each gather with friends of like minds and have holy conversations that are completely fulfilling.

And now for something completely different. Turn up your speakers and click on the menorah.

I hope that this first day of chanukah brings you joy and appreciation for the freedom we have today.

This seems to be the year for in-my-face opportunities for thankfulness. My family is having its problems; life isn’t perfect. But it ain’t nothin’ compared to lots of other people that I know.

At least three of the women in my life are battling breast cancer and one man has another kind of cancer. One person is getting divorced, two families are actively fighting with troubled marriages, and another person is struggling to marry and combine two chaotic households. One parent has a young-adult-child living at home again, after being released from federal prison.

On the mending side, one young woman just received a heart transplant and is still in the early stages of recovery. My cousin is recovering from Guillain-Barré syndrome. My brother-in-law is recouperating from a heart attack.

So right now I am acutely aware of some of the things that are going particularly well in my life. I wake up every day and go to sleep each night deeply thankful that I am married to my wife, that none of the people (two and four legged) living under our roof are battling major health problems, and that all of us get along well with each other. We have enough stuff to be happy and enough time to play.

Life is very, very good and we are all very, very blessed.

NewLaunches.com brings news that Samsung develops machine gun sentry robot.

Samsung has partnered with Korea university and developed the machine-gun equipped robotic sentry.

Do you remember the scientists who worked on the atomic bombs and later regreted their decisions to do so? I am afraid that we are about to see history repeat itself. One of these days, an innocent person is going to be killed by an armed machine that fails to work right. Machines fail; it is only a matter of time.

When that person dies, who will be responsible?

Joseph poses a good idea in his posting on Changes in Lobbying Practices

Lobbyists would be required to hire a Congressional stenographer to record the entire interaction, every single time they interact with someone in Congress. The transcript would then go on the Internet.

Better yet, the whole thing also would be videotaped, and the recording would then become public information.

For decades, I have advised people who write email messages, usenet postings, forum messages, etc., to avoid writing anything which they would not say face-to-face in a public place. Following this guideline would almost completely eliminate flame wars. We rarely see one person “go off on” another during a conversation at Denny’s. Why? Because when talking to another person “in person,” you see the humanity in him. You see the reactions in his eyes and sense the impact your words are having on his heart. This feedback keeps you from saying things which are outrageously hurtful or inflamatory.

Now combine my suggestion for written communication with Joseph’s idea for publicizing lobbyist’s conversations with congressfolk: What if you lived your whole life as though it were open to public review? Oh sure, I know that everyone has private moments, lots of them. I am not suggesting that you remove the curtains from your bedroom window. I am talking about the stuff that you do “out there,” in public but not really in public. Like the time you get really angry and are about to say *&^%, do you get that little feeling in the pit of your stomach that hopes that ___ won’t find out? Or what about the time you want to buy ___ but pray that ___ won’t discover your purchase? I am sure that you can imagine a few more situations.

When one of my sons grew to teenagerhood and became intensely interested in the telephone, we had a family talk. I reiterated our family tradition of respecting closed doors. (We never open a closed door without knocking and being invited to do so.) I also added the notion that, while some phone calls deserve privacy, if there are a series of conversations which seem to demand secrecy then a big red warning flag should be waving in your mind.

The deceptions and lies add up and eat at your soul, each one just a tiny bit. Like gossip, they also hurt the other people involved. How much better would your life be without all of these little pin-pricks of nagging guilt and worry?

Try this the next time you are about to do something and you feel a little knot forming in your stomach. Imagine explaining it to your daughter or your father or your closest friend. Are you explaining it with pride? Are you hoping that this person will emulate your actions?

Living transparently is living as through everyone could see everything that you are doing. How much better would your life be without the burdens of secrets?