Love, Life and Beauty As Viewed By Some of OUR Elite

Anais NinLove never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of withering, of tarnishing.

Dorothy ParkerLove is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch it, and it darts away.

Kahlil Gibran Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

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John Greenleaf WhittierFor all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are those 'It might have been.'

G. K. ChestertonThe way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.

Barbara DeAngelisYou never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

The best way to end this little jouney through life and love is the following:

Laughter Is The Best Medicine!!!

What is best? Love or Competition?

When he was younger he was always ready to do battle. Coming from a very sports oriented  family competition was always in play. There was a very brief moment he considered entering boxing because the competition there was the greatest as it always had the element of danger involved. But then he soon realized that no matter how long it took, sooner or later there would always be someone who would be better leading to a serious beating and humiliation. He decided to heed the words of a favorite uncle who was involved in many battles

during WW II, "He who stops and runs away lives to fight another day.".

However his involvements in other sports such as baseball, basketball, horse racing and gambling such as cards, craps and betting on fights kept the competitive spirit alive and well. As he matured he also became aware of the competitiveness between the sexes especially in the matters of romance.

 
Somehow dating became a game. Have a good time dancing, good food, a couple of drinks. Then came the kisses and what-have-you when he would try to get to first base and she would maybe let him get as far second but third and home was a real strategic battle that involved many moves which included words and negotiations that resembled at times nations at the peace table.  The outcome of such could lead to a longer relationship where the war of words continued until the game was declared over and the teams returned home to rest and enter the fray another day.

As he matured, he hated the term "Got Older", he realized that romance was not really a game to be played but an experience that was a shared loving not a competitive battle. He finally met the one who didn't want to play a game but live a life. But she was a victim of her past as was he and without realizing it there were elements of the game being played.

But this time he decided not to compete. This wasn't a game to win or lose. This was a situation that would have a profound affect on his life forever.  so he had to stifle his desire to compete and channel his energies to do the right thing even if it meant being humble, although he wasn't exactly sure how to be humble. There was no need to argue. No need to win the arguments. There was only the need to be aware of her needs and then hopefully she would be aware of his needs.

In other words he replaced competing with loving which is different than loving to compete. Competing is winning. Loving is not concerned with winning but just being happy when the loved one is happy.
St Paul said it best:

 He still competes but at this stage of his life he keeps the competition to sports as he tries to let love rule the other areas of his life. It ain't easy but it is a helluva lot more fun and life-affirming.

Thoughts About This And That

The President of These United States is going to make a major address about combating our enemies, which for now is ISIS more so than al-Qaeda  or Syria, or the Taliban or whatever. Sometimes it gets very confusing as to is our enemy; who hates us or just has a very deep dislike for us.  Right now the Middle-East has taken our attention away from Russia and Putin but just a little while ago it almost felt that the Cold War was thrust upon us once more. The whole mess in the world is so complex, and there is very little real information we have that our government lets us have that none of us little guys can really make a good judgement as to what we should or not do. At times I feel like that little kid in the 1950's that practiced what to do when the bombs were going to start to drop, mainly, get under the desk, kneel in a crouched position with your head between your legs and your arms hugging your knees and if it got real bad, kiss your ass goodbye. However there other things going on in the world which I do have opinions about and can express these opinions even though I haven't all the information. But I am going to do just that. What the hey?

Kirsten Gillibrand is the smartest move our then Governor, David Paterson,  made. He was criticized if your might remembered because there were others mentioned including Caroline Kennedy but he picked her  to succeed Hillary Clinton in the Senate. She is a gem. Fights gallantly for women's rights and is liberal enough to keep in mind the middle class and worker's rights. David Patterson doesn't get enough credit for this.

This has been the last year of Dereck Jeter's active playing career.  Truly a great career at a position that requires great athleticism. But come on now he was great but not the greatest. The guy who saved baseball and had a stadium called the house that he built was Babe Ruth. True he came from the hated Red Sox and was Baltimore born but he truly took baseball out of the "Black Sox" scandal by hitting more home runs than some teams did. He brought people into the stands. He was a great picture holding some records for pitching in the World Series for more than 30 years. The Yanks kissed him off to the Boston Braves for his last playing days and then the Brooklyn Dodgers as a joke of a coach. They gave him a day when he was dying of cancer in 1947 and a plaque.  He was flamboyant and had a personality bigger than Baseball and the guys he played with.

 
All I am saying is Jeter was great but not the greatest and all this going on with him is lifting his pedestal so high that if he is ever knocked off it the crash will be stupendous and he will never be able to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. The Yanks are doing all this because it brings in money but when stars like Joe DiMaggio left he left with nothing more than a press conference. His day came much later.

 
Robin Williams was a great funny man and a very good actor. But he was flawed. He had a fragile personality and should have been looked after much more closely than he was. But he was on a pedestal and too revered so he ended up committing suicide. We should mourn losing him, but recognize he was not to be idolized because he was a god with clay feet.  Joan Rivers seemed to be a very compassionate woman but not in her comedy. She was rough and hurtful. But this is what got her to the top of her profession. At her death it was reported that she too was lifted high on a pedestal and she would be missed.
Some say Williams and Rivers will never be replaced but I predict they will and soon the cry will be, "The King and Queen are dead. Long live the King and Queen".

By the way, I predict this year, 2014 will not be a playoff year for the New York Yankees which is too bad because it would have been a nice ending to Jeter's 20 year career with the Yanks. But I predict next year, 2015, the Yanks will win their 28th World Series. Remember you read that here, but don't bet your fortune on it.