Sometimes We Learn As We Age

Thinking back to when I was a child the world was quite different in my expectations and desires.  Most children are quite selfish because they are always being taken care of by loving parents and it seems the world revolves around them and it does I suppose. When I was hungry I was fed. When I needed clothes I was dressed. When I needed schooling I was sent to school to learn even though I really didn't want to go.
My beliefs were based on what I was told by my elders, by what I perceived to be happening all around me. The problem of being bullied was taken care of in my setting by fighting back and if that didn't work then an older sibling or parent would step in. To set the world right one had to fight back by any means possible.

The God I believed in was the one presented to me first by my family, then by my church. I really didn't like what was presented to me. God never laughed, He always was mad until you said you were sorry. I wanted a softer less demanding God. My Mom and Pop even though they placed restrictions on me were far better than the God I was being exposed to, they laughed a lot, and even if I was hit by my mom I'd be in her arms soon again because she loved me and I knew that.

As I grew it became obvious to me the strongest survived and the weakest perished. My experience in the Army only gave credence to that philosophy and I survived because I was bigger, stronger and smarter than my adversaries and I knew how to make friends with the right people. I was getting to know God a little better but I realize now that back then he was made in my image instead of me being made in His Image.

The more I aged the more it became clearer to me that the world didn't revolve around me but it revolved around all of us collectively. That what I do has ramifications that if not thought out my actions could result in disastrous outcomes that could change not only my life but the lives that I touch. This led to some actions on my part which were very difficult for me at the time but proved to be the only action that was right.

One time while coming back from a visit to my in-laws which I disliked to begin with since I was alone with five of my kids in the back seat of my station wagon, they were very young. For some reason a driver in another car took umbrage to my passing him and he chased me for about a half of mile finally cutting me off and getting out of his car, he was bigger than me, and he had a wife holding an infant in her arms yelling for him to come back into the car. I was assessing the situation. I couldn't take this big guy but I had a lug wrench under my driver's seat. I figured I'd wait till he came close and I would swing the door open driving him back and I would jump out of the car and bash his skull in. He came up to the car and he started to insult me in front of my kids making me very mad since my manhood was being challenged. The thought suddenly flashed through my mind that I could kill this guy or most certainly maim him over what? Over a stupid challenge to my macho feeling and I could go to jail and then my kids and his infant would have no father all because I had to feel like a man. So I let him call me a coward and he finally got back into his car calling me a "yellow belly coward". I never carried a lug wrench again. What I was afraid of, my kids losing respect for their father never happened, in fact they don't even remember the situation. Hopefully that guy learned from the experience as I did and had the great pleasure of watching his kids grow into fine human beings always having a father with them that didn't expose them to what could have been a life changing experience for them. Discretion is the better party of valor or something like that.

As I age I am learning that the real God that is out there is nothing what I thought him to be when I was a child, young adult and middle aged person. First thing is that for me knowing God is a slow process as He reveals himself oh so slowly to some of us. I have learned that being made in His image has to do with the spiritual, the ability to reason and to learn that true love is easy for those who want to give rather than take. And as funny as it seems my God while He created the universe and is certainly the center of everything really doesn't want everything revolving around Him (it does of course) because He is intimately concerned about all of His creation, animate and inanimate.  I have learned He has a helluva sense of humor. Peculiar as it seems He doesn't take Himself too seriously and wishes we would follow that. He takes all of us very seriously we should be seriously concerned about the world, environment, the people who live on the other side of the world, the animals that we abuse by simply ignoring the fact that He created them too AND if He loves them we should also. He is still revealing much of Himself to me and I guess until we meet face to face I shall never get the full impact of who He is. This much I know for sure, He exists, is real and wants all of us to love never hate, and believe that there is a much better place waiting for all of us, animals included.

  

Jesus My Friend

One of the Gospels has Jesus talking with his Apostles and he call them friends, saying they are no longer servants but elevated to "friends". He did command them, never giving up his Godly right, "To love one another!". He also said that they were friends because he held nothing back from them, no secrets between friends. And he passes this on to all who want to be his friend as long as they "love", no room for hate.

One of the reasons I really like Jesus, as well as respect and love him, is he really was and I suspect is still an old softy. He never was afraid to castigate those in authority for compelling those under them to do things they never did, for living high off the hog while many were living in absolute poverty.

I maintain he might have been the world's first feminist. He lived in a time when a woman was nothing, she was less than property. A woman caught in adultery was to be stoned while her John walked away scot free. A prostitute was to be scorned while being used by the male population who frequented her services.
We all know the story of the woman brought before him to be stoned that wasn't even disrespected by Jesus, after the accusers all left because of what Jesus wrote in the sand he just said, if I might paraphrase, "No one is left to accuse you? Well neither do I. Just make sure you are careful because they are out to get you, so stay away from that sin, if you can.". In Samaria , he stopped by Jacob's well to ask a Samarian woman for a drink of water and had a real conversation with her. Upon the return of his disciples they were in a confused state probably thinking Jesus shouldn't be talking to "HER", she's a Samarian, not a holy person and worst of all she is a "WOMAN". His love for woman's right to be treated fairly was paid back when except for John, one of his male "friends" the only one not to have fled the scene, was surrounded  by the only other friends of his to stand at his cross which were women led by his mother.

We can't separate Jesus' humanity from his divinity, they are one just as the Triune Deity is one, so while The Father, The Son, The Spirit are separate yet one. Which means they are are our creator, they are our friend, all bound together in the command to "Love One Another, As I have loved you". No hate, no condemnation, no revenge or retribution just "LOVE". What a great friendship to have.

Grahame Greene's Book/E.C. Redding's Song

So I walked a little too fast, and I drive a little too fast
And I'm reckless it's true, but what else can you do
At the end of a love affair?

So I talk a little too much, and I laugh a little too much
And my voice is too loud when I'm out in a crowd
So that people are apt to stare

Do they know, do they care
That it's only that I'm lonely, and low as can be
And the smile on my face isn't really a smile at all

So I smoke a little too much, and I drink a little too much
And the tunes I request are not always the best
But the ones where the trumpets blare
So I go at a maddening pace
And I pretend that it's taking her place
But what else can you do at the end of a love affair?

So I smoke a little too much, and I drink a little too much
And the tunes I request are not always the best
But the ones where the trumpets blare
So I go at a maddening pace
And I pretend that it's taking her place
But what else can you do at the end of a love affair?

Question - Lyrics - Moody Blues

* Some 40 odd years ago Justin Haywood  penned this song and the Moody Blues have recorded it and performed it ever since. I was at Westbury, Long Island New York this Friday last and in front of a packed house they rocked the place they were as good as ever and the song spoke to us in truth never losing it's truth about war and love. Take a moment to read the lyrics then go to uTube and play it. Dream of love lost, and how we humans keep asking the same questions and making the same mistakes over and over again.

When it is over try and ask new questions about war, competition, life and perhaps your latest love.

  

Why do we never get an answer

When we're knocking at the door
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war?
'Cause when we stop and look around us
There is nothing that we need
In a world of persecution that is burning in its greed

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door
Because the truth is hard to swallow
That's what the war of love is for

It's not the way that you say it
When you do those things to me
It's more the way that you mean it
When you tell me what will be
And when you stop and think about it
You won't believe it's true
That all the love you've been giving
Has all been meant for you

I'm looking for someone to change my life
I'm looking for a miracle in my life
And if you could see what it's done to me
To lose the love I knew
Could safely lead me through

Between the silence of the mountains
And the crashing of the sea
There lies a land I once lived in
And she's waiting there for me
But in the Grey of the morning
My mind becomes confused
Between the dead and the sleeping
And the road that I must choose

I'm looking for someone to change my life
I'm looking for a miracle in my life
And if you could see what it's done to me
To lose the love I knew
Could safely lead me to
The land that I once knew
To learn as we grow old
The secrets of our soul
It's not the way that you say it when you do those things to me
It's more the way you really mean it when you tell me what will be

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war
'Cause when we stop and look around us
There is nothing that we need
In a world of persecution that is burning in its greed

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door

Play Song On Your Computer

Songwriters: Hayward, Justin

Question lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, T.R.O. INC.


Lyrics term of use

Golf Losing Popularity In The USA

Back in 2008 The New York Times published an article by Paul Vitello entitled "More Americans Are Giving Up Golf". More recently news has been published that Golf in the USA is continuing to drop in popularity and in the next ten years will drop by the tens of millions.

There have been a bunch of ideas as to why there is a loss in popularity by Americans in the game of Golf with much of the people guessing it takes too much time to play in this current hectic life in America. Which is true in many respects but I think the experts are missing the mark because it isn't only one or two things but many reasons why popularity is dropping.

The popularity of Golf in the USA was never really very popular by those who weren't of the upper economic class, Country Club living wasn't available to a depressed country. After WW II a very popular President who was a wartime hero by the name of Dwight D. Eisenhower loved the game and played it almost every day. His love of the game was carried by most newspapers of the time. Along came a successful golfer named Arnold Palmer, who came from common stock. Palmer's father was a Country Club Professional Golfer, but at that time they weren't looked on as peers of the members of the country club, rather looked upon as indentured servants. So this enormously talented, Golfer, Arnold Palmer was an ex Coast Guardsman coming from common stock like most Americans. Then along came Television which was able to televise the Golf scene, this electric personality, Palmer and a very popular President called affectionately, "Ike", which confluence of these people and events thrust Golf before the American public. Additionally Golf had great characters like Chi Chi Rodriguez, who was a poor Puerto Rican with a great sense of humor and showmanship as well as other characters which were emerging from the common people, Lee Trevino, a Mexican golf hustler with a great personality kept everyone glued to the sets and wanting to get out an play, after all if Chi Chi and Lee could do it why can't I?  Add to that the great rivalry
between Palmer the commoner and Jack Nicholas who came from the country club setting and the popularity soared.

All sort of Sport Stores sprung up among them "Herman's" which sold golf equipment from very cheap to very expensive. Herman's went out of business some time ago. Public Golf courses took all day, from the wait before dawn to the five and a half our rounds but the cost was very inexpensive. Sales of complete sets of clubs, bags, carts, clothes fit almost every pocketbook because the costs went from cheap to expensive and you purchased what you could afford. But soon the stores became fewer, the prices became very expensive,and the cost to play even on a public course became very expensive. Here in NYC a round of golf can cost from forty upwards a far cry from twenty bucks only fifteen years ago. Some drivers and special clubs cost hundreds of dollars for one club alone. A full set of clubs costs anywhere from five hundred to fifteen hundred. And it still takes about five and a half hours to play a round. Hell one might have to work those hours just to afford playing. Get my drift?

On top of everything else Golf has lost it's Palmer's, Rodriquez et al. Every week we have vanilla out on the course. The only real exciting character was Tiger Woods and his body is falling apart from his extremely torque filled swing and whatever else he did with his body during off hours.  There was never a lot of players of color but there were a few now there is Tiger. There is no Chi Chi reveling in his climb from a barefoot boy from Puerto Rico rising to the top of his trade or Lee Trevino, a Mexican-American, hustler having the last laugh there is only Vanilla from Country Clubs, extremely expensive colleges, and an old Arnie Palmer and Jack Nicholas both part of the establishment sort of removed from the everyman Golfer.

Golf will continue to lose popularity unless the people involved make it affordable, and fun to watch. Golf will slip into it's past and always have the rich but if it is to be a sport of kings it will have to figure out how to keep us peons interested.

     

Human Existence Is based on Beliefs

Many times people confuse having faith as a belief in a specific religion or theocratic version of creation. Those who reject religion or theocracy claim to live a faithless life. I challenge that premise. I believe everyone of us lives a life of faith grounded in the belief that what we do, choose and pass on is logical and scientific in it's very premise.

The Atheist for example like to say that they live a faithless life but that is not true. Many live a life that is grounded in moral values. Moral values lived in how one defines them. The Mafioso lives a moral life which is one that is grounded in family, do unto others before they do unto you, and even murder is only "business". They seem to be living a life that gives benefits but only to themselves, whomever they define as "family".

Other Atheists live a life rejecting religion as based on a fairy tale we call holy writings but bear no real credence to truth. The fact of the matter is, according to some, religion has committed more atrocities in the name of God than all other institutions that have ever existed. Their life of faith is the belief that there is no supernatural spirit and those that believe in one are duped by those manipulators like Popes, or Imams.

Those who are Theologists sometimes confuse their belief in the religion practiced with the God they are supposed to worship. Religion should be the vehicle one uses to worship their God therefore that specific religion takes a back seat to the Godhead being worshiped. Catholics for example should realize that they are Christians believing in a Triune Deity with Jesus as their bridge to the Father through the Spirit and that they are Christians first and foremost who choose their religion to become better Christians, followers of Christ. Christ always first, Catholicism always second to that. The Muslim or Jew too or any practicing religionist should put the specific religion second to the God they are worshiping.

My argument is that we humans live a life built of faith, belief in something we think we know all about even though we know very little. We go to sleep, lie our heads down and enter a coma like state that refreshes us and makes our life better. We are confident we will wake when we lie down but what is that confidence built on? The experience we have gone through from birth, our mother telling us we "need" sleep but it is through blind faith that we permit ourselves to lose consciousness knowing we will wake refreshed for another day of work, love and laughter. We get into an Air Plane with the full faith, belief that the pilot knows what he is doing and we will safely arrive at our destination. But what is this faith based on? Certainly nothing that we have scientifically proved and in fact sometimes that faith is wasted as the pilot fails us and a crash ensues.

This discussion can be ended by saying I guess we should be more tolerant of ideas that are floated about because each and every one of us lives a life of faith based on beliefs formulated in our lifetime that bear truth and non-truths. Perhaps we all have a semblance of the truth and should do our best to weed out what isn't true and include what is true.

Or perhaps we exist only in the mind of some great giant existing only when he is awake and ceasing to exist when he stops thinking of us. But I don't think so.

          

Be An Easter Person, Resurrected and Whole

How many times have you heard it said about some grouch that "He or she is not a morning person"?  A version of that is the one who arrives home after work and wants silence so he or she can unwind.  They want to keep the people around them under their control because they really want the world around them to mourn their existence just the way they do. They are unhappy about the conditions of their life and want everybody around them to be unhappy too.

Now I realize that there are medical or psychological conditions that may affect some upon waking that can make them feel miserable. But I know those who have some conditions and because of their attitude that it is better to smile than to frown they overcome the pains and help make their world better and the world around them much better also.

There are people around us that require quiet, so much so that they never hear the joyous sounds around them. The sounds of a baby crying suddenly changing to loving cooing as they receive soothing comfort from their mothers. The sounds of a soldier or some loved one returning home after a long and arduous journey elsewhere. The sounds of lovers enjoying their love just by being with one another. The sounds of nature such as the wind blowing through the trees, the birds singing, a dog barking, a cat mewing.

Have you ever sat at a festive table that was without raucous laughter, friendly arguing, loving sharing of experiences that make life worthwhile that was quiet and without noise? If you have been there then you just don't know what it is like to live life to it's fullest as joyfully as you can.

The quiet of the night is good for sleep but the dreams that the Greek God Morpheus sends are full of success and tasting of the joys of life. The one who sleeps without dreams is like being in a coma, or dead but the one with dreams has experienced a sense of loving, succeeding, living life to its fullest. And so it should be for those awake, a life full of dreams, of reaching further than where you are, a joyous existence that wants all to come along and enjoy rather than to be quiet and sulk in despairing loneliness.

So drop those morning grouches and tired and bored human beings and come along the river of life joyfully shouting to God "How good it is!", "How Great Thou Art"!..