Moving On

And on we shall go!

I was at a public entertainment venue the other evening. A dear family member treated us to dinner and live music at Villaggio’s in Roselle. The evening began with our favorite arias from several Italian operas. A diva sang soprano, and the master of ceremonies sang a beautiful tenor. Both were trained in opera and were very good. Together they made an enchanting pair.

Coupled with an appreciative audience, attentive wait staff and good food, the evening was a rousing success. Table talk was subdued by both the music and the abundant food. But we did catch up on family and friends we hold in common.

Of course stories abound and many of them filled with drama. What family doesn’t have these intense moments of theater? But something said struck me with happy force. And this is it:

“I’ve moved on. I love them and care for them, but they have to find their own

 way in life. They will make mistakes and hurt one another, but in the end, it will

 be OK and we will all be the better for it. Meanwhile, I can’t control it or own it;

 best to move on and focus on my own life to live.”

That resonates with me. It is strong enough to apply to much more of life as well. Career, colleagues, neighbors, politics, and so much more. Our lives are filled with many things, all important. We cannot possibly control or manage all of it. Nor should we feel required to do so. Let it go. Tend to my own garden and see it grow. Share that abundance with others, and continue on my path. Not selfishly but determined to make a difference in the lives of others through sharing my abundance.

That abundance is not always advice, money or gifts. Abundance is measured in smiles, too, and attitudes, encouragement and comfort.

These lessons come slowly throughout much of life’s journey. When realized we pause in stunned silence – ‘that’s what that means!’  How many aha moments like this have you experienced? Do you even admit having them? Or maybe someone pointed out one to you sometime?

Aha moments are precious. They mean we are sensitive enough at times to actually understand what is happening and what it means in the larger picture of life. Modern life is complicated and often chaotic. Aha moments are mostly hidden and obscured. When they happen they are very special. The lesson dawns and is kept close in memory and heart.

Moving on with one’s life is one result of capturing an important lesson. Often we don’t move on but rather dwell on the negative and the suggested slights and insults made by others. Of course they are not all meant as slights; some are just misspoken words fueled by a moment of frustration and disappointment. It is easy to take offense. It is more difficult to slough it off and forget it. But we must.

That is our growth and strength of character. To live more in the moment and move on with all that life has to offer.

Not a bad lesson to think about from time to time. I’m glad I encountered it and it made an impression. So I share this aha moment with you.

Take it, use it, grow with it.

Peace!

March 14, 2017

Home Again

Well I wasn’t away very far and then only a few hours. But the medical trek taken last week was unexpected, a bit complicated but with fine results in the end.

The arterial blockage forecast by the stress test ended up a false positive caused by too much fat deposit in my waist area, or is that wastrel area? Hmmmm.

At any rate the angiogram found my arteries not only unclogged but, according to the cardiologist, not likely to ever become clogged. They are that healthy! Furthermore, he assessed my heart muscle to be very healthy and strong. No disease noted at all. So a clean bill of health in that department.

I still have atrial fibrillation but that is controlled very well by meds. Another treatment is available that may be one and done and it will be explored. That will eliminate two drugs and a lot of monthly check-ups. We shall see.

So the only regimen I’m likely to notice that is new is a diet to reduce body fat and weight. I’m about 70 pounds overweight. I’ve kinda grown accustomed to the adipose; find it friendly and comforting. But each of my doctors frown upon my sentiments!

As long as I can eat butter and eggs and lean red meat, I’ll be happy. It’s the sauces and cheeses I will miss the most.

So, for any of you keeping track of my doings last week, just know that good friends and family eased me through the process successfully. All is well.

And for that I say Amen and Good Night!

March 13, 2017

Truth and Consequences

Juxtapositions in life. So many juxtapositions. Fashion or food? And are we talking chic clothing or chic food? How does one actually describe the latter? And celebrities and news makers – which is which? Are news makers celebrities or people who actually make news that matters to each of us? Leaders, scientists, discoverers and creators of startling things that will or may change our lives?

Scanning the news exposes these stark contrasts. An earthquake with billions of dollars in damage and 28 deaths followed by a story of a rich, beautiful woman marrying a handsome actor. Somehow these two stories are of equal or near equal value? Or the new fashion line of a successful designer competes with the financial sector’s news of the day. Or maybe the news broadcast contains a ‘good feeling’ story for the day, showing a young boy leading an injured dog back to the worried, loving family.

I have always struggled with the dichotomy of stories reported next to one another. Seems to me the news should have departments that separate genres of ‘news’. After all, all reporting is not news. A lot of news is just entertainment. Like sports, celebrities, music, art, theatre, fashion and food. Yes, these things are important to us for many reasons. And yes, new trends in each of them are often fascinating and mind expanding. So they are important, each in their way; but the reality is they are not life altering.

Seems to me news is about subject matters that are or have the potential of altering our lives in some way. A new discovery by scientists that will lead to other important findings that is important to us. A skirmish in a foreign land that may grow into a hot war that could inflame a large region in which we have interests, that is important to us and it is clearly news. Or the death of a well-known leader either in our own nation or another country is news. The now-gone leader had a news worthy impact on our lives recently or in the past. Somehow we wish to remember him and give him his due.

A new social program that promises improvements in the standard of education, medicine or some other life-altering condition, is news. Or the collapse of that program is news as well.

The status of government and its leadership is news. It may deal with political matters and shenanigans but all of those are news if the outcomes may be affected. And so we read of these things day after day and hope resolution comes so we can move on to something more important.

Scanning the news for the important items is an increasingly difficult task these days. We encounter so much pulp junk, pulp fiction, manufactured public relations passed off as news. It is difficult to discern what is news and what is not news. How are we to know what is important and what is not?

That is our job – yours and mine. We are called on to discern what is truth and what is not, what is of value and what is not. If we don’t, the consequences can be dire. The outcomes or consequences of non-truth news items or misdirection can be serious. They are not games being played for childish results. They are serious matters with serious consequences.

Truth or consequences – an old phrase in our vocabulary lexicon, one even used for the name of a popular game show. Truth or Consequences. Also a town in New Mexico. Truth or consequences is a logic string that embraces a stark reality.

Be prepared for the truth, or live by the truth, and by all means understand the consequences of such behavior. The outcomes are important to us. If the items being reported are not important, then they are not news. They should not be reported.

I’m always dealing with this question. Have for decades. The big question is our nation doing this? Are we all dealing with the truth? Are we really prepared for the consequences come what may?

I wonder about that every day. I also worry over it. Do you too?

March 10, 2017

Running of Mind

So, it’s March and this is the season of doctor appointments. You know, the kind that doctors schedule to review your status. Complicated these days by age, doctors often have much to look at and find. Year after year these appointments are scheduled and met with very little emerging. And then one time or two something puzzling pops up and more tests are done, more diagnoses developed, and even more drugs prescribed. A new condition exists and is now treated.

And monitored. Yet another annual appointment to schedule.

The other day it was general health. OK for a near-74 year old. Monday was the cardiologist. Then a test to determine status on Tuesday. The results suspected a nefarious condition. I learned more in the afternoon. Possible blockage of an artery. Angiogram scheduled for Thursday. If blockage does exist, then they will do an immediate angioplasty.

Tuesday morning, meanwhile, I had an annual appointment with the pulmonologist (lungs and emphysema, you know). One wonders what he will find? Perhaps he and the cardiologist ought to get together? They practically share the same office space. I’ll suggest that! (he found nothing new)

Dental progress is being made. The partial plate on the lower jaw has been adjusted, an upper left tooth has been filled, an upper right tooth has been removed. We await a cleaning, and a fitting for a false tooth to fill the void caused by the extraction. And then the mouth should be pain-free and better functioning. Just in time for some other medical emergence!

The mind races for comprehension. Is this what the rest of life is about? The running around to doctors, dentists, oral surgeons, spinal pain clinics, pharmacies and medical labs? Poked and prodded, probed and swabbed. Such regimen! Procedure and conclusions. A whole industry of effort to tell us one inescapable fact: we are all aging and this is what it looks like.

Of course one prepares for the eventual end of it all. It is what we learn to do as human beings. We are born and we die. What we do with the time in between is what we call life. How well we live that life is up to each of us. If we feel burdened, that life is not well lived, I think. If we feel unburdened and free, then I think the life is well lived.

I have not always felt this way. Time and effort and exploration and discovery have broadened my mind and narrowed by expectations. It is a surprising fact, that last statement. Re-read it. “Broadened mind and narrowed expectations.”

This is a healthy view. It proves preparedness of mind and soul. And it yields peace.

Come what may, it is all good. As it should be. And it offers stark contrast for what is opposite. And that, good folks, is another stunning truth to ponder.

All is good. All is illuminating if we allow it to be so. Avoiding the process does no good and often results in added pain and suffering.

I seek peace instead. Might you as well?

March 9, 2017

  

Constitutional Crisis?

No matter who you supported in the last election surely you didn’t wish the chaos of recent weeks to be the result? I’m one of those orderly people who like procedures, process and rules to guide us through complicated matters. Governance is complicated. It must provide for all of the people within a jurisdiction, not just some. And certainly the needs of the few cannot be ignored by the wants of the many.

That’s what makes public policy so difficult to manage. In solving one problem one doesn’t wish to create another one. Unintended consequences are apt to appear at any moment. Then they must be managed in addition to the original target of attention.

Policy attempts to smooth things out, to make things orderly. Such effort builds reliability in our expectations. Life is better and more easily managed as a result. So, if public policy is to maximize accessibility of children to educational resources, for example, we must organize programs to do just that. Some kids, of course, will not be as ready as others, while some will be advanced and ready for much more. Ranking, sorting and channeling students into the right educational channel is critical in managing for excellent outcomes.

But that is not always what happens. Because children are ever present in the local schools, public officials (elected or not) have placed requirements on schools to carry out their social policy and programs. That often leads to complicated routines and unwieldy procedures. Education is thus forced a bit into the background. Efficiency of schools is thwarted. Intentional or not, this is the result. Our public schools have become a huge testing ground of sociological experiment and quick-fix schemes. All at the expense of schools, teacher time and results.

So that’s policy, and it takes care, finesse and discernment to get it right.

Look to the White House today, however. Do you see clear thinking? Clear logic? Discernment or any attempt to explain the basis of decisions? Are they making law, adjusting law, or eliminating law? And what role and right does the White House have in such matters. Executive function is implementation of laws and administration of the programs the laws have created. Congress makes the laws, not the White House.

In a chaotic milieu policy formation doesn’t have much of a chance. It is that simple.

So another look at the situation forms the question – Why is all of this going on?

Although many will answer that question with their own political bent, from conspiracy defense to New Federalism, to New Republic life – the reality is no one is in control of the situation. And that has me worried.

The President flies off the handle. He rants, raves and twitters. In moments of state he has someone write a speech for him; he changes it as he will; then he reads it off a teleprompter. Trouble is, the speech said nothing new, offered no explanation for recent actions, and certainly did not offer reasoning for what is going to happen in the future. What is the intent of the White House and this President? No one knows.

Worse than that, it is increasingly clear that no one is in control of the White House either.

In my world of order, that is a constitutional crisis. And it needs attention by those who are charged with knowing and working with the Constitution. The Department of Justice has this role and function. So does the Supreme Court. Congressional leaders have some responsibility but they are distracted by ideological conspiracies to have any grip on Constitutional matters evidently.

So what do we do? The Free Press is doing what it can. Freedoms of assembly appear to be in question. Freedom of Religion is being redefined. And the chaos continues perhaps as strategy.

I smell the distinct aroma of Steve Bannon in all of this. He is like Karl Rove on steroids. And with much the worse humor.

I want my senators and congressman to do their job as it is spelled out in the law and the Constitution. If they don’t, then I guess we will have to remove them en masse to gain control of the chaos.

Order? Chaos? Or Constitution? Which will it be? I know in the long run what it has to be. But who will help bring this about sooner rather than later?

Yes, this is a Constitutional Crisis of the first order.

March 8, 2017

Parallel Universe

What do I know? What do I not know? Same for you?

I’ve said this before – we don’t know what we don’t know. Until, that is, we encounter gaps that ache to be defined and known. That is the allure of research. To fill in gaps of knowledge and build toward fuller understanding, of anything. Anything at all.

Through the ages wise men have shared their wisdom. Perhaps the greatest piece of wisdom is ‘knowledge is power.’ Conversations pivot around facts and ideas. Those with more knowledge of those ideas and facts generally are more interesting. People gather around such a person. And they come to rely on them for more information in the future.

What then happens when people in positions of power do not treat others to honest reports of ideas, activities and facts? When interviews and position papers and press conferences represent what is not true, what then do we rely upon? How are we to know what our government is doing and why? What makes them believable? Who moderates the flow of such information? And how do we measure them for honesty, truth and accuracy?

When we speak of history, upon what bases of fact are we relying?

It is all confidence in sources, isn’t it?

Think about that a bit. You listen to someone and you instinctively believe him or her. You go on to think ideas based on those bits and pieces of information. This is how we create and grow our conscious universe. We live in that universe. We share that universe with others. We grow our universes together and expand our futures accordingly.

When an alternate universe is introduced to this scenario, we blink, pause, and reassess our previous thinking. How does this alternate universe change our thinking and conclusions? Ought it change our thinking?

Or is this a fresh challenge to renew our thinking and values and factual basis that aided our construct of our universe in the first place?

I guess the first thought that comes to mind is questioning why there is an alternate universe being presented? What reason has caused the new universe to be talked about? What is the benefit of it? Why now? Who benefits and who doesn’t?

Testing my previous conclusions becomes automatic. It is not a defense of my thinking but a testing of it. New questions are raised and research helps change my past conclusions or add to them, or reassert their value and steadfastness. The process helps me alter my universe as new information arrives on the scene and change in knowledge adds to my understanding of the world around me.

If the alternate view – the alternate universe – clashes and does not fit with whatever construct results of my universe with added thinking, then I would question the accuracy and appropriateness of that alternate universe.

That is what I’m experiencing today. There is the trump universe and my universe. Certainly there is your universe, and universes ad infinitum for each and every person on the planet. The combined weight of these universes, however, eventually form a norm of universes that bring the whole matter into focus.

Is that formation of history, then? And is that why history seems to shift with time as it is weighed with so many different changing elements? Our understanding of the past changes as we learn more from historical records and facts. As we become more reliant on past facts, we understand that past as historical underpinnings of our present. That is how we come to know and understand what is happening right now.

We are presented, however, with ‘alternate facts’ and alternate universes. We are told these are real when no evidence is shared to make the argument whole. We are stunned to be presented the alternatives. Ours is that trusting of a society.

This is when we come to doubt our underpinnings and realize just how propaganda works. It questions the real with the false, the made-up. With repetition it somehow becomes more real until one day we don’t know what is real and what is made up.

Good, logical, educated minds will hopefully protect and defend us from this scourge.

If not them, who? Are you and I so sure we know?

March 7, 2017

I Suppose

'Anti administrative government' is the core message of Steve Bannon as he advises Trump on strategy. It is his belief that the Federal Government has become a huge collective of administrative detail with embedded expertise in the persons of career government employees. He believes these employees have taken the place of government and made it unrepresentative of ‘the people’.

Well, I can understand his point of view without agreeing with it; but I suppose it is important to ask how we got to this place in history if in fact we have arrived there at all.

Regard this factotum: the Affordable Care Act was created by the Congress in an environment of deep political division. Many elected officials did not want the legislation to go through, let alone become enacted. So ‘poison pills’ were written into the legislation to deliberately weaken the ACA. The hope of detractors was that the bill would not be enacted, and if it was, then it would surely fail of its own weight.

The critical key here is embedded poison pills to cause the ACA to fail.

It didn’t. In fact it was quite popular even in its flawed state. So the flaws were rhetorically magnified to make a case to replace the ACA or at least remove it entirely. Mark it down to a failed administrative attempt to govern the people. The truth is quite different, isn’t it?

I suppose we can review much of Washington DC with these administrative eyes and find all sorts of flaws. The question is how deliberate were these flaws?

I suppose the administrative machinery of federal education programs could be viewed as flawed, eh? You know the drill: load the existing administrative channels with tons of additional tasks and programs so nothing works efficiently anymore, then accuse the system of self managing the nation’s future!

What rot.

I suppose we are to believe this? Bannon is playing to a mixed crowd at best; at worst the audience sees right through him. And Trump as well.

Instead of inserting ones own ideology and bias into our governance system, why not seek intelligent inputs before making such decisions? Why not ask for advice and counsel from experts to determine what is workable and what is not. I suppose such ‘due diligence’ is the better method to pursue? But is it?

No; not at all. It appears that expertise is suspect these days in Washington.

I suppose someone wants there own ideas to prevail. Regardless of impact or projected results. Shouldn’t we be asking what their objectives are? Ours is still a democracy isn’t it where the consent of the governed is required before assuming what that consent is?

Or is the Alt-right and Bannonism/Trumpism a new form of government we the people had no voice in?

The Constitution remains the law of the land. It holds sway over Congress, the White House and the Courts. The Constitution rules, not man.

I suppose we can ignore this and let the children play their games until we see better what it is they are proposing. But I recall much damage from allowing children unfettered freedoms in this manner. I dread the cleanup required by us to restore normalcy once we see what they have done.

I suppose we could save ourselves a great deal of time, effort and money if we maintained a reasonable control and oversight so the extracurricular shenanigans don’t get carried away in the first place.

Do you suppose they don’t think we will notice?  Just what is it they suppose?

More and more I get the feeling the fox is in the hen house and we chickens are marked for extinction. How about you?

What do you suppose?

March 6, 2017