Priorities

Recently, I've been getting some pretty rabid emails from folks who seem to be certain that the effect on our country of the Health Care legislation recently passed by the Obama administration should be counted on a par with what that pesky meteor did to the dinosaurs. Well, maybe it should. But I came across something on the web today that suggests that I'm not the only one who wonders what standards folks are applying in reaching their conclusions, and why some are suddenly awake to goings on in Washington, when it would have seemed to be to them a fairly uninteresting topic for much of the past decade. So, in case you missed this, I thought I'd share.....

"You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed energy company officials to dictate energy policy.

You didn't get mad when the president ignored the clear and timely warning that terrorists were going to hijack planes and fly them into the WTC towers.

You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

You didn't get mad when the weapons inspectors, who said there were no WMDs, were ignored.

You didn't get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.

You didn't get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.

You didn't get mad when you found out we were torturing people.

You didn't get mad when hundreds of thousands of people died in Iraq.

You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.

You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.

You didn't get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.

You didn't get mad when we didn't catch Bin Laden.

You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.

You didn't get mad when we let a major US city, New Orleans, drown.

You didn't get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.

You didn't get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark.

You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick.  Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans...oh hell no."

Being silly...a calling

My granddaughter, Caris, a while back (when she was 2-3-ish) began to say that Popi is silly, and then giggle with the fun of it. Later, it became a point of pride with me that, when questioned by her dad about who's the silliest person she knows, the answer is always: "Popi". Sometimes my exalted status is also expressed by her as: "Popi is soooo silly." And now her younger sister has taken up that refrain - and seemingly spontaneously.

So here I am.....a 65 year old lawyer, accountant, business executive, mover and shaker.... and one of my greatest joys in life comes when Caris or Caleigh giggle ferociously, point, and once again confirm that there's something at which I am the very best......

To Do List Conundrum

Getting organized is a great idea, but only so long as it leads to action and progress. In my own case, I've found that too often I spend time making "To Do" lists, prioritizing them, attaching notes and early ideas for action to the items, and then moving on to other matters, acting as if the making of the list accomplished the jobs. Of course, I know better, and the thought that a project or a task is done never actually enters my mind, at least consciously. But the upshot of my list making, my behavior, has not been to lead me down some nicely ordered path toward having accomplished the things on my list.

In the making of lists
is hidden a risk
It's surprising, and subtle,
but real

For writing things down
can make one a clown
to the sense they're now done
that we feel.

So what's the lesson? Fewer lists? Less rigorously ordered lists? More time DOING things and less time making lists? Yes, probably all of those are good ideas. But maybe it's simpler yet.

My Dad used to work in a job that required him to travel several times a year, often for up to 6 weeks at a time. As you might imagine, his inbox would be filled when he returned from a trip, and I recall asking him one day how he managed to deal with all the things that had backed up in his absence. I figured that as he had been successful in his career, he might have some powerful insight to share on how he organized his time and attention. "Well", he told me, "I just pick up the top item on the pile and I deal with it. When I'm done with that, I tackle the next item."

Does anyone else share my penchant for over complicating my life?

Could this be next?

Recently, as I approach age 65, and with the business where I work probably in line to be sold within the year, I've been thinking a lot about what comes next. Like so many others, I've thought about traveling some, but that only goes so far in filling time. And it is not a life, not a reason to get up in the morning feeling motivated, and needed.

Muhammad Yunus no doubt arises each morning with a strong sense of purpose - a mission really. He's the creator of the concept of micro-credit - making small loans to poor people to enable them to begin to pull themselves out of poverty, and to begin to build a new way of life, based on micro-businesses.

Consider the work Dr. Yunus has begun, and is doing...

At the Yunus Center
http://www.muhammadyunus.org/

And in loaning money to the poorest of the poor - with fantastic results.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxpTFwQx-A8

So I wonder, in the spirit of "And now....", can I help here, learn from this man, and build on it with my professional and life experience?

"A journey of a thousand miles....."

I came across this today, and it seemed like something I'd like to remember......and share.

So for all those who might be interested.......

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will.

You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken.

You'll fight with your best friend.

You'll blame a new love for things an old one did.

You'll cry because time is passing you too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love.

So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.

- Anonymous

Celebrating Memories

Recently, I've gone on something of a cyber-binge, joining social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and My Space, and even beginning this blog, which I've thought about doing for some time. In some cases, setting up my Profile or populating the templates for these sites has sent me looking for pictures to use as my "avatar" on the site, or to tell something about me. And it's been a ball, as it's given me an opportuntity to review some older shots, to remember some of the many, many fun times I've enjoyed, and to revisit a few of my favorite pictures of people and experiences. Here are a few that I wanted to share.

In 2004, Suzanne and I turned 60, and Chuck, Kathie and Allie gifted us with a trip to Alaska with an "adventure" outfitter. We went hiking, kayaking, and biking with a few other familes and a couple of guides from the outfitter.


Dave - one of our guides - took the picture. Obviously he's had some practice in making sure that he gets in these group shots.

Along the way, Suz and I got to experience some of the most wonderful country and scenery.






And share this wonderful adventure with The Montclair Bonds




Even when the "adventures" had us feeling like we wanted to collapse..


And just a couple more.......two shots I came across again that are favorites of mine.....of the lady who makes my life a Disneyesque party.




And now, another birthday approaches. No adventure trip awaits, but that is not to say I'm not expecting adventure.

Trailhead

I have no idea how many times I’ve started to write a journal in the past, only to have the effort devolve into an unattractive exercise in whining about what my life was not, or had not become – or at least what I thought I wished it was, or had in it, at that point in time. Alternatively, too many of those forays into self-examination skidded and stuttered their way to becoming lists – like to-do lists, or shopping lists, or lists of dream trips, or lists of activities/sports/adventures that I hoped to motivate myself to pursue. Some even morphed into the most depressingly detailed analyses of whatever diet or exercise program I was involved with that time. But no matter by what route, all of them ended up aborted and abandoned, until some later time, when the itch to use the journal form to help me to examine my thoughts in a disciplined, organized way – to figure out “what it’s all about” (ack, ack, gagging going on here) - drove me back to the journaling project, and a brand new journal book. Oh, and I have lots of nice, new journal books, plus an embarrassingly large number that are only partially filled – Moleskin books of various sizes and page layout, leather-bound journals that look great and just feel worthy, even 3-ring binders I acquired after I read that Mario Cuomo had amassed an enormously detailed collection of journals he had written on punched sheets and kept in 3-ring binders, and, lastly, a totally uninspired collection of mismatched journals picked up at one bookstore or another, mostly on impulse, and often only to assuage the nagging feeling that I SHOULD keep a journal, but with no actual plan as to how I wanted to use them.

And now, here we are together at the first post of my new blog, which looks suspiciously like a cyber version of a journal, and which I urge you to watch carefully for any sign of emerging lists, of almost any sort – a signal that perhaps the end is near, and you might do well to be eyeing the exits for the quickest route out. But don’t worry. While I am indeed once again involved in another version of my perpetual struggle to lose weight and get in shape (some shape other than round), we’re not going to discuss that here – at least not now.

However, if you’re expecting me now to explain to you what my vision of how I would like this blog to develop might be, what its “mission” is, and how we will travel there, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but that’s not what’s coming next. Instead, I’m hoping and trusting that the impulse to which I have surrendered by starting this blog is really just the seed of an idea that will germinate and push up a trembling, fragile shoot whose genus and species will only become apparent as it grows and matures into whatever form and function its karma and its DNA will lead it to take. Part memoir, I suppose, part dreaming “on paper”, a bit of trying to understand and make sense of experience by virtue of the discipline and orderly thinking one hopes accompanies writing things down – all of those things may happen here at various times and in varying degrees, one hopes with at least sporadic success. Come on along if you like - comment, criticize, encourage, condemn, supplement, redirect, or just listen. Let ‘s see where we end up.

And now…