Recession?

Can't get in the door 

at the restaurant 

to have breakfast.  

Twenty people 

waiting.  

All of the traffic 

on the main 

north south 

highway 

is backed up.  

No one moving.  

Three hours 

to drive 

to Denver 

or from Denver 

when it 

normally takes 

one hour.  

Ski areas packed.  

What recession?

My list

People walking down the street talking to themselves and they are not on their cell phone.

Ideal Market, Wegmans, save the planet, looks like a Prius sales lot.

Somebody says you are beautiful say thank you as it is a test of self respect.

Is a BMW Station Wagon an oxymoron the same way a Porsche SUV and a Mercedes SUV are?

Why do bicyclists have bumper stickers saying "Share the Road" while at the same time they never stop at stop signs or signal their turns?

Compliment people whenever you can because you may not get another chance.  It is the "Wendy Rule."

United States Navy Captain Kelly wants to meet with the parents of the shooter.  What an honorable man.

My weather forecaster is the street light down the road where I can see if it is snowing so very early in the morning.

Peggy Lee sang "Is that all there is?"  an anthem to growing older.

Someone wrote a letter to the editor saying that he remembered a Breckenridge restaurant, "Shamus O'Toole's Roadhouse Saloon" from the 1960s when I remember it first opening in the summer of 1977.  What's up with that?  Maybe he wanted it to be there in the 1960s.

Review

I have been asked 

to review 

a new 

first edition 

of a new 

Sociology text book.  

Look it over.  

Let them know 

if what they 

are saying 

lines up 

with what 

I am saying.  

Am I wrong?  

Are they wrong?  

Who judges?  

Who tells?  

Another legacy.  

A book 

is normally 

used 

for one year.  

One year of notoriety 

with my name 

inside on a page 

that no one will ever read.  

Not unlike the person 

who spends thousands 

for a tombstone 

and then 

no one 

ever visits 

the grave.  

I guess 

I will know.  

I guess now 

you will know.  

I care.  

Do you?

Spring has sprung, fall has fell, and here comes winter again

All of my good friends in California, Arizona and Florida can get ready to laugh.  Today we are having our third major snow storm in five days.  Yes, five days.  The snow on the level in my front yard is over six feet deep.  Yes, six feet.  Not drifted.  Not pushed up by the plow.  Six feet.  Last year I ran my snow blower once.  Yes, once all year.  In the past week I have blown snow nearly every day and two or three times on some days.  Now that is not bad if you are a winter sports person.  Alpine skiing.  Cross country skiing.  Snow shoeing.  Ice skating.  You know the routine.  I have lived in Colorado for nearly forty-one years and I gave all of those things up as a bad habit years ago.  Now my only winter sport is sitting in the house, looking out the window, watching it snow, looking for the sun.

Education and then mental health

I have always thought that health care has a tendency to take care of itself.

It is self correcting. 

You don't feel well or you suffer some injury and you take care of it as soon as possible.  

Health care is not the problem.  

Paying for health care is the problem.  

It eventually gets paid for either by the patient, their insurance or the government.  

Case closed.  

I think the two most pressing issues we have to deal with today are education and mental health.  

People do not always solve their own education issues.  

It is not like getting sick and then go get an education.

Without a good education you will go through life with a serious handicap.  

Mental health is another major issue.  

Many people suffer from mental health issues and then do nothing about it.  

They do not bleed.  

No broken bones.  

Just a bleeding broken mind.  

There is no negative connotation about getting health care.  

No one looks down on someone because they need education and then go get an education.  

With mental health the issue is totally different.  

The person who is suffering feels guilty for having mental health issues.  

They do not want to go to a therapist and pour their heart out for fear of people finding out what their issues are.  

They keep their feelings to themselves and try to cope the best they can and then, one Saturday morning in Arizona, they go to a Safeway store and fire thirty-one bullets into a crowd killing a few and seriously injuring many others.  

Getting good mental health trumps just about everything.

The Tucson shooter is reported to be a Nihilist

In the aftermath of the tragic shooting at the Safeway store in Tucson, Arizona the big question is why.  

People are blaming talk radio.  

I guess they are blaming free speech also.  

People are looking into the shooter's personal life to find a reason.  

They say he was a loner and anti-social.

The ability to buy a handgun with a thirty round clip is an issue.  

The fact that Arizona is one of four states that allows anyone without a background investigation or permit to carry a handgun concealed in any place at any time is something that bothers some people.  

One discussion has centered on the issue of the possibility that he is a Nihilist.  

I teach philosophy among other things and other than some discussions of the philosophy of  Friedrich Nietzsche.

Nietzsche I can't remember Nihilism coming up in class.  

I am sure that you all know the definition but just as a refresher, here is a definition that I found on the Internet this morning.  

1. Philosophy.
a. An extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence.
b. A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.
2. Rejection of all distinctions in moral or religious value and a willingness to repudiate all previous theories of morality or religious belief.
3. The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement. 

Knowing this makes me feel even more sad.

Keeping in touch is so very important

At times I will write a BLOG every day.  

At other times I will go for days and sometimes weeks without writing a word.  

I would say that it has been too cold to write.  

My fingers do no work well when they are frozen.  

Or I might say that I have not been inspired.  

I can always write about the weather because there is alway some to write about.  

I could always write about politics because it is like the proverbial bad penny.  

It keeps showing up.  

I think that I always get the best response when I write about my personal thoughts and feelings.  

When I strip myself naked (figuratively) and expose my true self.  

People like to see others in a bright light showing all of the wonderful things and all the imperfection. 

You know.  

The way you see yourself.  

I am always amazed at the number of people in this world who prefer to not expose themselves.  

They prefer to be alone or out of the limelight.  

They are reclusive and try their darnedest to be invisible.  

I think that they are in the majority.  

It always reminds me of the experiments that are conducted in public places where they feign a person in trouble.  

The majority of the people passing by ignore the plight of the person.  

They remain invisible not stopping to help someone for fear that they might be discovered.  

The minority will stop.  

The minority will give aid and attention.  

The minority is not invisible.  

Maybe it is the old 80/20 rule.  

Eighty percent of the people are invisible and do nothing while the twenty percent could never not do something.  

I guess we need to give thanks for the twenty percent and pray for the other eighty percent.