More Random Thoughts of an Old (Weird)
Geezer
Chapter 12
Is All of this Real?
I’m not so sure
that it is. When you take all of the
things that make up this life down to the bare basics, it’s all just
energy. Including us. The objects and materials around us look
real, feel real and even sound or smell real.
But everything is still just a form of energy. Are we all living in a giant movie set? Is this just an artificial environment
assembled for our benefit? Maybe old
William Shakespeare knew what he was talking about when he wrote “All the
world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” I wonder…
A Related Thought
God is a comedian
playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. – Voltaire
I Really Don’t Need to Know…
… that anyone
thinks our current President is a sneaky snake-in-the-grass, that we are about
to lose our right to bear arms, that our government is trying to completely
take over our health care system, that most of our tax money is being spent
supporting illegal aliens, that the Muslims will take over the world, that the
ACLU is trying to ban crosses from the military cemeteries, and that the words
“In God We Trust” is being removed from all our currency. These “Oh No” e-mails accomplish nothing
other than promote the spread of misinformation and/or negativity. If folks are really concerned about a
particular issue, they should send these kinds of e-mails to their
congressman. Send me the jokes
instead. Thank you.
How Ya Doin’?
Super! Most of the time that’s my answer to the
question “How are ya?” or “How
are ya doin’?” Once in a while I’ll toss out “Fantastic!”
just to rock folks’ boat, but most of the time I’m “super”. Why do I answer that way? Well, because it’s the truth. Several years ago, I was operating almost
entirely in the survival mode. I’d
perform my duties as a husband, father and provider. Day after day. Month after month. Even though I felt I was doing a fairly
decent job, I kept wondering – is this as good as it gets? Isn’t there more to life? Yep, I was in a rut. A really deep rut.
Then one day, the
light bulb came on. I was presented with
the idea that if I wanted out of my rut, if I wanted to experience more of life
I would need to change my thinking. I
would need to change how I thought about myself, about my situation and about
my hopes for the future. I would need to
develop a more positive approach to life.
One of my very first changes was to modify my reply to the question “How
ya doin’?” I switched from “Not bad” or “OK” or “Pretty
good” to “Super!” Even though I didn’t
completely believe that I was super at first, I noticed that this answer
started helping me feel better about myself and the folks around me. It was my first small step toward a much
happier, more enjoyable lifestyle. And now? Yep, I
really am “super”. Sure, like everyone
else some of my days are better than others.
On the more challenging days, “super” helps me to put things in
perspective and get crankin’. On the better days, “super” helps remind me that
it is honestly a really great day. And
yeah, sometimes it’s just fun to see folks’ reaction to my answer. Sometimes it will even prompt a smile. Maybe my answer has helped make their day
just a little better. I hope so.
Quill Pens & India Ink
OK, so the quill
pens were just slightly before my time.
But I did show up on this earth in time to experience using the old
wooden pens with the nib (yes, that’s really what it’s called) on the end. The nib being the little metal doohickey that
held the ink picked up from an inkwell and deposited it on the paper. As I remember, there were a couple of tricky
parts to this whole operation. First,
you had to be careful to dip just the nib into the ink. Getting the ink on the wooden shaft would
probably result in either a dribble across the desk or in the absence of any
basic coordination (like me) leaving large ink stains on the fingers. I experienced both scenarios. Several times. The other trick was to NOT press too hard on
the paper. Doing so would cause the ink
to dump from the nib and produce a large Rorschach blob. I was able to attempt self-analysis many
times throughout my first few years of school.
I was able to validate only my total lack of coordination.
Since those early
days and with the backup of the Number 2 pencil, I’ve transitioned through the
use of the fountain pen (still requiring some coordination in the sucking up of
the ink into the pen), the ballpoint pen (now why the hell is this sucker
skipping some of the lines I’m try to lay down), the felt tip pen (is it my
imagination or are these lines getting fatter…?), the typewriter (damn, where’s
that correction tape…?) and finally… finally…
to the computer. Finally! No more smudged or torn paper trying to erase
my screw ups. No more crumpled paper
balls in the wastebasket after changing my mind about how I said what I thought
I wanted to say. No more ink blobs. No more carbon paper in the old typewriter if
I wanted to produce duplicates. Now all I have to worry about is replacing the
ink cartridge in the printer and remembering to use the spel
chek…
A Personal Thought
Our job is to leave
the world a little better than we found it.
Not the same… not worse… better.
One More Time
Keep off the damned
cell phone while you’re driving! You’re
going to hurt somebody…
And a Big Thank You
To Dr.’s Bliese and Bichel for the time you spent with me many, many years ago
at what is now the
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