See The Light

If you want to learn the truth of something imagine looking at it from the side you can't see.

Dana Bate
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I used this idea once before, about 2 years ago. I don't remember what I wrote about and can't find that entry at the moment. But I'm a bit older and wiser(?) now.

I know I wrote about my great drawing teacher Gregory DiLessio, who one day had us draw the model as if we were seeing her from the opposite side of the room. It was a very tricky exercise. I was seeing her from the side so it wasn't that hard. I can't imagine what it was like for those seeing her from the back.

When it comes to politics, religion and social issues I read what those I disagree with write and say and respectfully try to imagine seeing the issues from the opposing point of view. It's just as tricky as the drawing exercise.

But now I've assumed another level of that exercise. From the smug anti-narcissistic practice of standing in my own shadow, I now contemplate myself in my mental mirror and wonder, and try to imagine what I look like from the other side. I want to know who the invisible individual is, the one not made of skin, eyes, tongue, organs, blood and bones. Who is the individual of pure spirit, of pure idea? When the mortality is dropped and let go off, when the old man is put off, what is the new man, the man that has always been there but who has been covered by the imperfect.

In simpler life forms the root, stem and blossom of the flower may easily and gracefully collide with it's real, invisible being. In art the human figure may be defined by the important parts of the figure, the cranium, rib cage, pelvis and the legs, arms and jaw attached to it. But it is the real story, the invisible story of that figure that the artist tries to capture in his drawing. or painting.

I try to look past the mask I see in my mirror and imagine what I look like from the face that is looking back at me, the nonmaterial, unsubstantial face. What invisible figure is apparent, beyond age, race and gender, beyond limitations. fantasies and illusions.

I think the secret is not in us but beyond us, on the other side of us. I look at other people and know there is a spiritual creature there not represented by the human figure I see. Who are the substantial ones, those I see on the street or those I see in my dreams?

I was told by my family that "light" was the very first word I uttered in the wisdom of my infancy. Creation begins with light. And then what follows, love (in its universal sense), power, joy?

After all these many decades I begin to see only slight slivers of light, but enough to tell me it's there. I continue to look for it in myself and in all those I meet and know, because I must.

DB - The Vagabond
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AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

1 response so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
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Out To Pasture

Never let oneself be guided by the opinion of one's contemporaries.

Gustav Mahler
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Sometimes the best advice is the worst advice. Often our friends and colleagues, thinking they are doing the right thing, will want us at the end of some journey where everything is settled, and will coax us in that direction with the advice of what we should do. Those people may mean well but they are not considering the fact that there may be as much doubt and confusion in our lives, as much a sense of un fulfillment, as there is in their lives.

For example, I once knew a broadcaster who was very good. He was articulate, intelligent, friendly and informative. He was the only radio announcer I ever knew who could tell you the time accurately, right down to the minute, without looking at a clock. And he had other talents.

When he reached retirement age he was encouraged to retire. He had his social Security, his pension, his 401K and other investments. His kids were grown. He was in good health. He and his wife could move to some bucolic setting and live "happily ever after." It was the American dream. So he retired.

But then he kept coming back to the radio station to visit. He would hang around with the announcers and engineers and feel like he belonged. One day he said he wished he hadn't retired and that he still had a lot of expression in him that needed to come out. Here he had fulfilled his obligations expertly, turned in a good life's work and did what all his friends and colleagues expected him to do and yet he wasn't happy. So he took another job, at a different shop, where his talents could be used effectively.

It happens to many people. "Out to pasture" is not the answer for some. When I was forced to retire from the stage for physical reasons in 2001 I moved down here to a bucolic setting (pastoral, compared with New York City), started reading plays for the local theatre, bought books through the mail, joined the local library and settled down to a life of leisure. That lasted a couple of years. And then a friend bought me a computer and within a few months, in 2004, I started this "Vagabond Journeys" in which I have written every day since. I've also added some stories on other blogs. All because, like my friend the radio announcer, I still have things in me that need to be expressed.

If life gets boring it's time to make it creative. One doesn't need to set out to do great works. With enjoyment and enthusiasm great works appear. What's important is to do things that enable one's talents, maybe even hidden ones, to display themselves. And what's doubly important is to avoid living one's life according to other people's opinions and judgements, no matter how compassionate they may seem to be.

DB - The Vagabond
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AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

1 response so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
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Enough Of What?

I just go on thinking that I have a lot to learn. And I hope I still have that attitude 30 years from now.

Tobey Maguire
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I don't know how old Maguire was when he made that statement but 30 years from now I'll be 101 and I hope I will still be learning things, one way or another.

One has to have a love of learning, I think, to really learn anything. As an actor I spent hours on top of hours learning lines and what they meant. It didn't leave me much time for learning anything else. I managed to learn something about drawing and painting along the way, but most of my other education got left in the dust. Now I try to make up for it by learning what I can about a lot of things.

Why fill your head up with a lot of useless information, one might ask. Isn't what you know now enough? So called "useless information" leads to knowledge, knowledge leads to understanding and understanding leads to wisdom, and of wisdom there is never enough.

There are three areas about which I wish I knew more: music, language, science.

MUSIC: I was a music major in college and got to know how to play a few instruments elementally. But my musical training was discontinued when I was lured away by the theatre. Now I know a lot about acting, and that is probably enough even though I know I could never know it all. But I maintain a great respect for composers and musicians. I learned to never underestimate musicians or to judge them by what music they play. I once met a guy who had an MFA in music from a big southern university. His specialty is the history and performance of Blue Grass.

When Benny Goodman performed and recorded the Mozart clarinet concerto people were amazed. I wasn't. The important thing about that is not that he could play it, but that he wanted to. Naturally.

I have books on music: harmony, counterpoint, orchestration and contemporary harmonics. I read them with interest but without a musical instrument to my name the learning is fragmentary and superficial.

LANGUAGE; I admire people who can read and speak more than one language as much of the world seems to be able to do. I have no gift for languages. I took a course in Latin in high school and one in French but I don't remember any of it. In college I took a smattering of Greek and of German but soon left them for life upon the stage. I can speak whatever language I'm looking at like a native, if I know the sounds, because I have a musical ear. People assume I must know the language because I pronounce it so well. I do okay with vocabulary but when it comes to grammar I'm lost.

Whenever I see something written in a foreign language I'm fascinated and want to know what it means, especially if the writing is in a different alphabet: Russian, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic or one of the Asian tongues. I stare at the characters and am amazed that someone can turn them into sounds and sense.

Right now I have a home study course in Latin which I'm struggling through. I also have teach yourself books on Arabic, Greek, Hebrew and Spanish. I fantasize.


SCIENCE; In college I took a course in Chemistry for dummies and a rather exhaustive introductory course in Geology. I wasn't interested in either one of them and retain very little information, particularly about Chemistry.

As a child I was very interested in Astronomy as many kids are. And I knew a lot about the Solar System. But what I knew then is no longer relevant. Today I have books and magazines about Mathematics and sciences. I enjoy watching the programs on science shown by NASA TV. I might have made a good scientist if I hadn't been handed a script and coaxed onto a stage.

I can write about the art of acting, but now in my procrustean retirement the greatest joy I have, other than writing and painting, is to read what thinkers have to say about their fields of knowledge and to learn some things along the way to my 101st year.

DB - The Vagabond
********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

1 response so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

I Hear You

Freedom of speech carries with it some freedom to listen.

Bob Marley
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To listen is one of those freedoms few people ever seem to take advantage of. It's easy to get people to stop listening. If I tell you everything you want to hear you won't listen to anything else I have to say. That's the secret behind political rhetoric.

As an actor one of the best lessons I learned was the importance of listening. Even if you've heard the other character's speech a hundred times you have to listen to it carefully and let it sink into your thoughts or you won't be abler to respond accurately and artistically.

I used to teach a seminar in public speaking and one of the things I told my class was that when you are addressing a room full of people on a controversial issue there are three types of listeners: those who agree with you, those who don't and those who aren't sure. Those who agree with you will continue to agree. You want to convince those who aren't sure and make them believers. The best you can probably hope to accomplish with those who disagree is to make them unsure. But in any case they are there to listen to you.

If you are talking only to people who agree with you then there isn't much need for rhetoric of any kind and any argument is pointless. Such was the case with the recent rally in DC to honor our troops as if they weren't being honored. Who doesn't honor our troops even if one disagrees with the wars? Where was the argument? What was the issue?

When there are opposing points of view they have the right to be heard and considered. But at some of the various town meetings across the country in regard to the health care program people came not to discuss or to listen to their elected representatives or to learn the facts, they didn't come in with polemics or opposing arguments or to reason but to yell, insult and disrupt, all under the banner of freedom of speech. The freedom to listen was not exercised.

There is no doubt that the freedom of speech, as with freedom of the press and other rights, are misused. But the freedom to listen isn't.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

1 response so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Weekend Puzzle Answer

WEEKEND PUZZLE ANSWER

You're at the end of a dark tunnel.. There is no turning back. The way out is through one of three doors. Behind the first door is a pack of fierce hungry tigers that haven't been fed in a month. Behind the second door is a raging fire. In front of the door is a large bucket of clear liquid which is either water or gasoline. Behind the third door are a bunch of assassins with daggers, swoon to kill anyone who opens the door but they are all blindfolded. Once you open one of the doors you can't close it and change your mind.

Which door do you choose? Why?

There were several interesting proposals to solve this problem but the best one, in the opinion of the persnickety judge, was door number 1. If the tigers haven't eaten in a month they are either dead or too weak and debilitated to be of any threat.

That answer comes from Diane of the Email Lions who wins the grand prize of a genuine Tupperware door key. Congratulations Diane and thank you all.

DB

Wake Up Call

A myth is something which is not true on the outside, but is true on the inside.

Anonymous 4 year old girl.
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Life is a journey through the jungle of the senses. I think the two most important activities of the human race are art and science. In fact, viewed in their essence, everything we do is a combination of those two things. There are many great, young ideas lurking in the corners wanting to be found. But how can humanity survive and reach it's full potential of perfection by accepting only the appearance of things?

The senses don't give us anything except closed doors. The poet knows that. Every flower is a prayer of desire and exaltation, pleading to the earth and the sun for life and embracing it. And the earth and the sun, globes like millions of others in the vast universe all circling around the invisible idea of existence.

Our lives are filled with myths. There are ancient and modern myths, all wanting to be understood and yet we stare at the myth instead of what it tells us. There are people today trying to figure out just what body of water Moses and the Israelites crossed on their way out of Egypt. Others are trying to locate the remains of Noah's ark. Still others are searching for the stones that once were the tower of Babel and the original Garden of Eden. To me that's like counting the beans in a pot instead of cooking and eating them.

Some people say that we never went to the moon. Did Neil Armstrong make his "one small step" on it's surface? Sure. But it was more than the achievement of centuries of science and technology and more than the culmination of centuries of poetic wonder. It was a mythic act, and it's real meaning is still lurking and wanting to be understood.

John Adams wrote "Politics are the divine science, after all." And yet when we look to politics what do we find? People yelling and insulting each other, fist fights, corruption, people grappling in a pit over issues that should unite us but that are dividing us, rage, hatred, fear. Where is the divinity? Why has it become impossible for anyone to see the moon walk of inspired human government? Here we are, like the flower, pleading for life and trying to embrace it but ignoring our own human spirit. We have become so enamored and confused by the hissing beasts and tangled vines of the jungle of our senses we forgot we were trying to go through it. We have accepted as true only the outside of the myth and discarded the inner truth.

There are those who cannot accept that time and space are human concepts and therefore malleable. What will be left when the doors of our senses finally open and the great waking up occurs, and where will we be?

DB - The Vagabond
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WEEKEND PUZZLE

You're at the end of a dark tunnel.. There is no turning back. The way out is through one of three doors. Behind the first door is a pack of fierce hungry tigers that haven't been fed in a month. Behind the second door is a raging fire. In front of the door is a large bucket of clear liquid which is either water or gasoline. Behind the third door are a bunch of assassins with daggers, swoon to kill anyone who opens the door but they are all blindfolded. Once you open one of the doors you can't close it and change your mind.

Which door do you choose? Why?

2 good solutions so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB
****************

The Life Of Jane

For man, as for flower and beast and bird, the supreme triumph is to be most vividly, most perfectly alive.

David Lawrence
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Among my other moldy piles of regrets, I rue the hours I spent watching aimless, inane television programs because I couldn't find anything better to do. It was before the days of the science and history channels and the banquets served up by the networks were of feeble fare.
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Years ago, when I was a teenager, I met a young woman named Jane. She had a particular physical problem, I don't know what it was, I wasn't interested in knowing, that confined her to what resembled a large baby carriage. When she was awake she was unable to control her arms and legs. They would continually move in a twisting manner. She was always well dressed (I never asked her about that), she had a pleasant face, with bright eyes, a pretty smile and a focused mind..

I would sometimes stop by for a visit on my way home from school. I enjoyed sitting by her crib and having a talk. I don't know how she got her learning, probably partly from asking pertinent questions, but she seemed to know a lot about almost everything. Our conversations were always pleasant and interesting.

She lived in a nice home with her parents and, I think, some siblings. Whenever she went out she had to be pushed in her conveyance, or carried. But her parents were determined she wasn't going to miss out on life just because she couldn't take care of herself.

After high school we moved away and I never saw her again. A few years later I heard that she got married which didn't surprise me in the least. She was one of the most vividly alive people I ever knew.

Who doesn't have problems in life? There is an army of things lined up in rank and file to deprive us of our vitality and joy. People like Jane are a lesson in life, as are people like Helen Keller and Stephen Hawking, and all ordinary people who live the supreme triumph of full lives no matter what.

DB - The Vagabond
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WEEKEND PUZZLE

You're at the end of a dark tunnel.. There is no turning back. The way out is through one of three doors. Behind the first door is a pack of fierce hungry tigers that haven't been fed in a month. Behind the second door is a raging fire. In front of the door is a large bucket of clear liquid which is either water or gasoline. Behind the third door are a bunch of assassins with daggers, swoon to kill anyone who opens the door but they are all blindfolded. Once you open one of the doors you can't close it and change your mind.

Which door do you choose? Why?

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB

Build A Bridge

All things must change to something new, to something strange.

Longfellow
""""""""""""""""""""""
Strange: outside of one's previous experience; hitherto unknown.
(Webster)

"Impossible be strange attempts to those that weight their pains in sense."
(Shakespeare.)

He: If God had meant us to fly He would have given us wings.
She: Didn't give us wheels neither.
(From "Foxfire" by Hume Cronin)

I think if some people had their way we would still be living in caves. Why is it that a new idea, a new way of doing things or a new way of looking at things is so frightening to people? Some folks absolutely cannot deal with a vision, a visionary individual, an "I have a dream" person. Afraid of losing what they have, as unsatisfactory as it is, they will not take the chance to rise above it if it involves risk. Blind to the possibilities of a new idea they will put it on the shelf and not use it.

Before there was rock music there was the electric guitar. People said it was a curiosity but would never replace a regular guitar. Then one fell into the hands of Jimi Hendrix and others like him. The world of music changed.

A bunch of guys in Philadelphia decided to establish a brand new nation of independence and individual freedoms. A bunch of other guys said it wouldn't work and they should stick with the British no matter how miserable they were.

Better to stay on this side of the river if it means taking the risk of building a bridge.

"It won't work." That's the statement you hear all the time for things that haven't been tried. "You'll never get that thing off the ground, Orville."

And then they will put as many obstacles in the way as they can to prove that it won't work. And they will keep doing that until it works.

Now we have a bunch of guys with vision, with dreams of a "new world order" that fits who we are and the new century that we're living in. And what do we hear? "It won't work." In other words "Let's stay here in the cave. We may lack a lot of things that would make life better but here at least it's familiar."

Human life means progress and progress takes vision, persistence, adaptatilon and courage.

"Forget it Henry. It'll never replace the horse and buggy."

DB - The Vagabond
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WEEKEND PUZZLE

You're at the end of a dark tunnel.. There is no turning back. The way out is through one of three doors. Behind the first door is a pack of fierce hungry tigers that haven't been fed in a month. Behind the second door is a raging fire. In front of the door is a large bucket of clear liquid which is either water or gasoline. Behind the third door are a bunch of assassins with daggers, sworn to kill anyone who opens the door but they are all blindfolded. Once you open one of the doors you can't close it and change your mind.

Which door do you choose? Why?

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB

Don't Miss It

There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them.

George Eliot
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Aw, who wants to sit through a loud boring opera? Who wants to sleep through Sleeping Beauty? Take me out to the ball game!
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Years ago there was a story in the New York papers about some Japanese men visiting New York on business. They came frequently to work on a very complicated business deal with some American company. Whenever they came the company made sure they were lavishly entertained with top grade hotel accommodations, fine restaurants and always a box seat at Yankee Stadium or at Madison Square Garden to watch the basketball games.

finally one of the Japanese men said "We have baseball in Japan. We have sports. We don't have your opera and your ballet. Why can't we see those?"

The Americans were stunned. Most of them had never seen a ballet, they didn't know where it was or how to get tickets.
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When Rudolph Nurayev came to dance "Sleeping Beauty" for the New York City Ballet a woman I knew got a phone call from her mother at their humble home in small town Indiana saying that her daughter had to see Nurayev dance and tell her all about it;
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I worked for a while at a classical music radio station in New York and one day I had a conversation with an American concert pianist who had just returned from a tour of Europe where he had given a series of solo concerts. He told of giving one concert in Moscow. It was winter there with below zero temperatures.

At mid day they drove him to the concert hall to rehearse with the newly tuned piano. On the way he noticed hundreds of people on the sidewalks, huddled in there coats. He asked about them and was told they were lined up to get a chit at the box office which would enable them to come back later and stand in line again to buy a ticket to his concert. He asked how long they had been there and was told they had started lining up before daybreak.

He said he knew he had to be excellent because those people had suffered for hours through a severe Moscow winter weather just to came and hear him play.

He also said their hunger for music was huge and so was the ovation they gave him.

DB - The Vagabond
*****************
AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
************************

Picking the Weeds

One person's weed is another person's wild flower.

Unknown
*******************
Let's dig up all those weeds and build condos.

There once was a famous Ukrainian operatic bass named Alexander Kipnis. He was born into a poor Jewish family in 1891. He got his early musical training singing in the synagogues of Europe. He eventually came to America where he was a featured singer with the Chicago Opera, making his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1940. He was a world class singer.

I worked for a short time at a classical music station in New York. The station owned some very rare recordings that Kipnis had made in Europe. They were old recordings which had made it out of Russia and had been through a lot of rough treatment. They were scratchy, but that magnificent voice was clear. One day I was playing one of the records on the air. The music director had scheduled one of the Kipnis arias for my program.

A short time earlier the station had hired a new general manager. He came into the studio while the record was playing, leaned over to look at it as it was spinning on the turntable, remarked at how scratchy it was and said "That one will have to go."

It was the kind of remark that makes one want to sneak the records away and hide them in a vault somewhere where a man like that couldn't get his hands on them.

Fortunately many of those old records have been cleaned up, remastered and are now on disks. But what about the magnificent old buildings that have been torn down and replaced by aluminum and glass monsters? One day, before anyone realized it, they took down the old Metropolitan Opera House, where Kipnis and many other great artists had sung. True it was an old building and true they have built a newer one, quite majestic in its way, but the gold curtain, the beautiful sculptured balconies and the glorious chandeliers were left lying on the ground for the wreckers to come and take away. Opera lovers in New York were going through that mess trying to salvage as much as they could before it was gone. I don't know what is in that location now but whatever it is is not remarkable.

They also took down the beautiful Penn Station and replaced it with a very pragmatic one which is basically the back door of Madison Square Garden.

They were about to take down that marvel, Grand Central Station, but the lessons had been learned and instead they cleaned it up and reopened whole sections of it that had been closed. And there it sits in its great beauty.

Things change, progress happens, life goes on and the condos must be built. But we should never forget about the little girl out in the field collecting wild flowers for her mom.

DB - The Vagabond
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SUMMER QUESTION ANSWERS


Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?
===========================================================

I'll go with President Obama being one of them. He is trying to change things in this country to make it more equitable for all. He definitely is a transformative presence, and we shall see if he succeeds in more of his efforts. He's actually accomplished quite a bit so far...but there is still much to be done. He has done much to repair our reputation and standing around the world.
I'll give the other one to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He is a religious fundamentalist who is a Holocaust denier and says there are no homosexuals in Iran. He is on the verge of having a nuclear bomb, and I feel he poses a very big threat to a peaceful existence.
There are other big players, of course, including Stephen Hawking, various medical researchers...but as far as global importance, I'm good with my choices.
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2 Most Important People. Hmmm. Angela Merkel because Germany's form of capitalism will survive (ours, doubtful)and she's got a good grasp of the model. Hu Jintao, China, because their state-run version of capitalism is positioned to ride this global recession.
----------------------------------------------------
Cindy and me. The reason is obvious.
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1. Barack Obama
While he's becoming less important with each passing day of his presidency, he is undoubtedly the most important person alive now because of what he could accomplish if he really started to use his intellect and make the obvious decisions regarding putting America and the world back on the right path.
Decision #1: Admit he made a mistake regarding his current Iraq/Afghanistan policy and then unilaterally declare victory in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring the troops home ASAP (i.e. everyone out of there by January 1, 2011).
Decision #2: Admit that "Obamacare" as it was passed by Congress is a confusing mess that doesn't immediately address the sky-rocketing cost of health care in America and introduce a voluntary, single-payer, federally run "Medicare for All" along the lines of what I sent to you, Dana, in August 2009 to you review.*
There are many other decisions Obama could make immediately that would revive his failing presidency but he has to lead first, forget about bipartisanship and building consensus and listening to everyone’s opinion, and just tell the citizens and the Democrats in Congress: “This is what I want to accomplish in the remaining two and ½ years of my term. Are you with me or not?”
2. Hu Jintao
“Hu's political philosophy is summarily described as aiming to found a basis for Harmonious Society domestically and for Peaceful Development internationally, the former generated by a Scientific Development Concept, which seeks integrated solutions to tackle China's various economic, environmental and social problems.” (Source: Wikipedia)
Dana, China is now the most powerful nation in the world economically. Whoever leads China has to be my second choice.
_____________________________________________

Me and you.
---------------------------------------------------
Q. Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today?
A. You and me.
Q. Why?
A. For this question to be asked and answered it requires two people who are willing to listen to each other.
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The two most important people alive today in my minds eye are:
1. Myself, for without myself there would be no one else alive that I could choose as my second choice. You must believe in one's self before you can believe in anyone else and feel they are the most important people in the world. So indeed I feel I am most important to my inner self and whom I project to others.
2. Our Lord is the most imporant person alive today, as he lives in the hearts and souls of many in this world today. Without Our Lord, there would be no world and no Trees R Green and indeed no Db to ask the question that I am answering today.
Thank you for your quizzes and your questions and for you and your blog. God bless, Db.
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you & I
====================================
Thank you all.
Don't miss the AUTUMN QUESTION beginning tomorrow.
DB

What Is Life?

The ways of the world are weird.

Walter Kaufmann
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There have been great thinkers in the fields of Science. So why doesn't Science have all the answers? Our museums are filled with great works of art. So why are people still painting? We have been given inspired music. So why are people still composing? We have wonderful poetry to grace our lives. So why do poets still sing? The world is full of great books. So why do people still write?

While Science is still searching at the bottom of every cave or at the vast galaxies of the universe for a law that will explain everything, artists are looking into the same caves and at the same stars through the lens of imagination for the same law.

Why things are, is the big question. As irritating as it is the child will eventually get over the bad habit of peppering your life with the inane repetition of the word "why" but the question remains on the table nevertheless. That the answer to the question is "I don't know" is what sends people to the cave, the cosmos and the easel.

But there's another question lurking in the cave. A question with facets of wonder and dooubt: "What if?" What if there is no fundamental law of nature which explains everything? What if there is no ultimate achievement of wisdom from the exercise of rationality? What if there is no absolute beauty to be found by any artist? Does that mean there is no point to life, no meaning to our hopes, dreams, plans and actions, no value to anything we are or do? It's a question to be seriously considered by those who have the courage to think about it.

That brings me to another question. If it is true that life has fundamentally no meaning to it will that stop me from hoping, dreaming, planning and doing? Kaufmann also says "It does not follow that nothing is worthwhile if the world is not governed by a purpose."

It isn't enough to say that I do what I do because I want to. It's a step better to say I do what I do because I feel like it. The best answer is that I do what I do because I have to. A personal obligation, a personal duty, is the best justification for doing anything worthwhile. Think of the geologist who has a bit of moon rock under his microscope for the first time. Is there any doubt in his mind about the value of what he is doing? Or think of the ballet dancer who will undergo enormous physical effort to tell a mythic story of human legend by describing it in space with his own body.

Without negating anyone's perception and faith in deity, I keep returning to a humanistic philosophy in my thinking. We are capable of some of the most extremes forms of stupidity and destruction. But we are also capable of amazing beauty, greatness and genius.

Maybe there is no fundamental law of existence, but life is there to experience and to fashion for ourselves and others in the best way we can.

What is life? Who knows? I like this quote from Grandma Moses “Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.”

DB - The Vagabond
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ONE MORE DAY
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

Only 8 responses so far. Summer is about to close her gates. Get with it.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************

Who Art Thou?

One of the reasons why it is so difficult to "know thyself" is because there are things about thyself you don't want to know.

Dana Bate - The Vagabond
********************
Like everyone else who has ever lived I come far short of being an expert at fact facing about myself. Why should that be? After all I know more about myself than anyone else does. I live with myself 24 hours a day. I know where my aches and pains are. I know what my dreams are. I have records, both material and mental, of my failures and successes. I can wave the banner of my good habits and hide the dirty linen of my bad ones.

Like many people I am not satisfied with how I planned my life. I take life as it comes and sometimes what comes is not that good. "As the twig in bent so grows the tree" so the old saying puts it. Two things my mother said to me I distinctly remember. One was "You'll probably always have trouble with your teeth>" I don't know why she said that but her prescience was accurate. The other was "You'll end up being a lonely old man" Well guess what? I'm a lonely old man. But there are antidotes for that and the most important is that I haven't "ended up" yet.

I"ve read a lot of self-help books and I always joke that those books all start with chapter two: You can achieve whatever you want in life, blah, blah. But chapter one, which is newer included, says: You can figure out what you want in life.

Contentment may or may not be happiness, and if it isn't it's the next best thing. But if we aren't careful contentment can be akin to tolerance, putting up with things the way they are even though you might want them to be better.

"I'm always wanting something" said Robert E Lee. "The opposite of desire is death" wrote Tennessee Williams. The sky gives me sunshine, clouds, rain and snow flakes. What more do I want from it? The earth gives me food to eat, tress and flowers to please me and the aroma of newly cut grass. What more do I want from it? I do not want my face on a coin or a place in the Guinness Book. I don't look forward to being remembered or memorialized. So what is the something I want, the desire that keeps me alive? Is there anything that once I've accomplished I can say "There. It's done." Or is my life just one long, continuous process of discovering myself? And if it is are there really things I don't want to discover?

One thing I know is that I am not content with contentment. If I were I wouldn't be writing every day. I've been bent and so I grow. I accept the sun shine, the rain and the aromas of life. And all along the root filled trails of my vagabond journeys the questions remain Who am I? and Do I really want to know?

DB
******************
SUMMER QUESTION
The curtain is coming down on Summer any minute. Have you made you entry yet? No? Well get cracking.
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

Only 8 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

(I'm open to suggestions for an Autumn Question.)

Thank you.
DB
********************

Weekend Puzzle Answers

WEEKEND PUZZLE ANSWER

Let us now praise middle names.
2 almost winners Val and Sue, both from the Blogspot Tigers although Val got one wrong (she just repeateed herself) and Sue I don't think Calvin Clark Coolidge is right, He was John Calvin Coolidge. So no one wins the Harold Stassen button.

These are the middle names of some famous and infamous wh dwellers.
Who are they? The hint was "wh"

James ABRAM Garfield
Chester ALAN Arthur
Herbert CLARK Hoover
Dwight DAVID Eisenhower
James EARL Carter
Warren GAMALIEL Harding
William HENRY Harrison
William HOWARD Taft
James KNOX Polk
Gerald RUDOLPH Ford
Ulysses SIMPSON Grant
George WALKER Bush
Ronald WILSON Reagan

Val's answers

ABRAM James Abram Garfield
ALAN Chester Alan Arthur
CLARK Herbert Clark Hoover
DAVID Dwight David Eisenhower
EARL James Earl Carter
GAMALIEL Warren Gamaliel Harding
HENRY William Henry Harrison
HOWARD William Howard Taft
KNOX James Knox Polk
RUDOLPH James Rudolph Garfield (no no)
SIMPSON Ulysses Simpson Grant
WALKER George Walker Bush
WILSON Ronald Wilson Reagan

Sue's answers

ABRAM Garfield
ALAN Arthur
CLARK Coolidge (??)
DAVID Eisenhower
EARL Carter
GAMALIEL Harding
HENRY Harrison
HOWARD Taft
KNOX Polk
RUDOLPH Ford
SIMPSON Grant
WALKER Bush
WILSON Reagan

Nice going girls

DB
*************************

S And T

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

Mark Twain
****************
One of the surprises awaiting you as you grow older is to realize that a day comes when most of the people in the world are younger than you are. I don't know if age secures what can genuinely be called wisdom, but at the very least it provides experience and hopefully the ability to see with broader vision the affairs of life.

The famous saying "There's no fool like an old fool" is certainly true. If you are a fool at 18 you may be criticized for it though it is essentially forgivable, But an 80 year old fool has no excuse.

I remember very little of what I learned in school. There were some theories of math and science, something about the time line of world events and an awakening, like the spreading of a peacocks tail, of the realities of great literature from an inspiring English teacher. Otherwise it was just bits of information that caught my attention and sent my imagination blasting off in one direction or another. What I didn't retain was easily rediscovered whenever I wanted or needed it.

One of the things I have seen to my chagrin as my education has developed is the younger generations inability to look at a broad picture of the world's doings. People will quote the U.S. Constitution (usually incorrectly) without having read it and knowing what it says in its totality. Freedom of speech applies to my ideas but not yours. Freedom of worship applies to my religion but not yours because yours is using up resources and convincing people erroneously. Freedom of assembly means that the members of even the most peaceful demonstration against the majority opinion should be reported to the FBI.

People will take a phrase out of context to prove someone is wrong when they're not. People will doctor videos to make it appear as if someone said something they didn't and other people will believe it. And it's all done in the false name of righteousness.

Years ago I read a book written by an American Army general about strategy and tactics and the difference between them. What is an actor doing reading a book about military theory, you ask? I don't know but I enjoyed it. (A former girlfriend thought I was reading it to learn how to win arguments with her. I left her behind with her arguments.) What that book taught me was that there are always tactics involved but they must be measured against an overall stated strategy. It also taught me that some strategies were valuable and progressive and others were not. These days most people just look at the tactics and misread them.

When General Sherman tore up rail lines, burned fields and left a trail of utter destruction on his march through the South it wasn't because he was an evil man, in spite of what some people said and still say. It was a tactic. The strategy was to cut off the Confederate Army's supplies and communication in order to weaken and demoralize it so that General Grant could win the war for the Union side. As a result we became one nation, indivisible.

If you want to win an election to beat or unseat your opponent then that's your strategy. That's it. And you will use whatever tactics, overhand or underhand, to do it. But if your strategy is to put yourself where you can effectively provide valuable and progressive changes for your country then winning the election is just one of your tactics. Why is it so many people can't see the difference? You don't learn about this stuff in school, evidentially.

DB - The Vagabond
*******************

WEEKEND PUZZLE

Let us now praise middle names.

These are the middle names of some famous and infamous wh dwellers.
Who are they?

ABRAM
ALAN
CLARK
DAVID
EARL
GAMALIEL
HENRY
HOWARD
KNOX
RUDOLPH
SIMPSON
WALKER
WILSON

Good luck
DB
*************************

By The Brook

Music owes as much to Bach as any religion does to its founder.

Robert Schumann
********************
If you want to know what nature does go into the forest, sit by a brook, watch and listen.

Most people who have ever read Vagabond Journeys are not classical music lovers. That's a shame and a condition I wish I could change. Don't mistake me. There is nothing wrong with preferring country music, folk, rock or jazz. I enjoy the best of those kinds of music myself. But I was blessed with an ear for concert music and opera when I was very young.

There are and were many inspired composers. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Mahler, Wagner (a particular favorite of mine), Strauss, Stravinsky, just to name a few, were all inspired composers.

Johann Sebastian Bach was not one of them. Bach was beyond inspiration. He was music. Music issued forth out of him like breath. Every serious music student has sat with Bach, watched and listened to him describe music effortlessly. They have analyzed his chorals and fugues. And at last the music they make is traced right back to the source.

Someone estimated that if you sat down with a ball point pen and printed music paper just to copy all the music that Bach wrote and worked at it 7 hours a day, 5 days a week it would take about 40 years. And Bach did it with an ink well, a quill pen, in a house full of kids, with no electricity and no indoor plumbing. Plus he had a fill time job as choir director and organist at the cathedral.

And the music? It's astonishing. Crystal clear, beautiful, grand and never repeats itself. He was gifted, that's certain. But more than that he was a gift to the entire world.

If nothing else one should hear the opening section of the B minor mass. It's a long 4 part fugue for chorus and orchestra. It lasts 10 to 12 minutes depending on who's conducting (I suggest van Karajan). And the chorus only repeats the two opening words: Kyrie Eleison. Bach was not a Catholic and the Mass was written at various times but altogether it is a work of pure genius. If you want other suggestions, ask me.

"Bach" is the German word for "brook."

DB - The Vagabond
*************************

WEEKEND PUZZLE

Let us now praise middle names.

These are the middle names of some famous and infamous wh dwellers.
Who are they?

ABRAM
ALAN
CLARK
DAVID
EARL
GAMALIEL
HENRY
HOWARD
KNOX
RUDOLPH
SIMPSON
WALKER
WILSON

Good luck
DB
*************************

Behind The Drape

The friendship that can cease has never been real.

Saint Jerome
**********************
How many ways have I been fooled? Let me count them. No, let me not. I'll just count one. My propensity for allowing the linen drapery to be pulled over my vision when it comes to assessing other people's character. I have written, and I believe, it is the network of friendships that keeps civilization intact. When that net is broken it needs to be repaired.

A friend is one with whom you agree and disagree, one with whom you share secrete and confidences, one with whom you can laugh and cry. A friend is one you must visit in the hospital or the prison. A friend is one who knows what's wrong with you and doesn't care. A friend is one who forgives you and whom you forgive if necessary. A friend is one who supports you in your ambitions. A friend is one who gladly shares your successes, who is not jealous of your good fortune or contented to see your failures.

I used to have a goodly collection of friends. Or so I thought. But over the years so many of them have disappeared from my life without a reason. My attempts to contact them and understand their coldness have been without response.

In one case it was someone I had known for 20 years. In another case it was people I had known for over 30 years. I thought there was real friendship there. I was fooled. The drapery finally came off and the charade was over.

The one time I broke off a relationship with someone it was unnecessary because the "friendship" was already over, in fact it had never been there. Someone I had known for decades suddenly became hostile and malignant toward me. The lies he told weren't even in disguise. There were sign posts along the way and I paid no attention to them. I was very forthright and honest with him about why I no longer considered him a friend.

But another person I knew well convinced himself I had done something to him (which I didn't do) and that I had lied about it. He would not believe me and so I was written out of his life without a word.

There are others who have gone with no explanation even though I have asked for one. I have often said that I probably like people better than they like me. In all these cases the coldness hasn't changed my feelings about them. If one of my former friends showed up at my door I would probably take him in. But now I am much more cautious about offers of friendship and professions of love. A false friend can be more hurtful than an enemy.

Now I have a small collection of friendly people thanks to Google. But I've actually only met one of them, and he's a good guy. The rest are invisible. They are behind the drapery for now. Will they be lasting friends? I hope so. Time will tell.

The lesson is to be careful about who you take into your heart as a friend. If it doesn't come back to you in a way you can believe is real keep at least an arms length between you. Call me naive but I never want to believe there is a dagger hiding behind the drapery. I'm finally growing up.

Shakespeare had the best advice, as usual: "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."

DB - The Vagabond
***********************

WEEKEND PUZZLE

Let us now praise middle names.

These are the middle names of some famous and infamous wh dwellers.
Who are they?

ABRAM
ALAN
CLARK
DAVID
EARL
GAMALIEL
HENRY
HOWARD
KNOX
RUDOLPH
SIMPSON
WALKER
WILSON

Good luck
DB
*************************

Who Has The Flowers?

We never fully credit the interdependence of wild creatures, and their cognizance of the affairs of their own kind.

Mary Austin
******************
My usual ride to the market was unable to take me today because her car wasn't working. So the two of us took a pull cart and walked there. It was good for me to get that exercise even though the walking was difficult. I also got to enjoy some of the fecund September greenery and flower beds along the way which I don't get to see from the car. I wonder what it is that makes us want to own every beautiful thing we see. It's one thing to enter an antique store or an art gallery and take something home of grace and aesthetic value. But why don't we leave the fields and forests alone?

I find myself increasingly impressed at the size and energy of the small people, the new humans. I have seen two babies talking to each other. Whatever strange language it is they both seem to understand it. At the supermarket I have learned to look down every once in a while because there might be a minute creature at my feet. They may hold the hand of an adult but the attachment is temporary and of secondary importance. Primary is taking in all the information available at whatever eye level they are allowed, which includes removing things from the shelves, most of which the adult has to return.

Several of the houses along my street have nice flower beds out front. There is a particularly lush one at the house next door, After my trip to the market I was tired and was resting on the front porch when a family came by including a girl who was so small she seemed no bigger than my thumb. She was wearing a little pink back pack and had a flower in each hand. Her father was telling her not to pick the flowers she saw along the way. He explained that the people planted those flowers so the front of their houses were pretty and that they should be left there.

The girl was not convinced. In her brand new, just off the shelf logic flowers were for girls to pick and carry with them. She obeyed her father and successfully passed the next door neighbor's array of blossoms. But she was tempted.

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

(Pete Seeger)

DB - The Vagabond
**********************
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

Only 8 responses so far. Summer is about to close her gates. Get with it. Don’t be left out in the heat.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************

Grandma Is Here

There are more fools in the world than there are people.

Heinrich Heine
**********************
So yesterday URLAI, after careful analysis of my journal, which lasted about 5 seconds, determined that "vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com is probably written by a female somewhere between 66-100 years old. Her writing style is personal and happy most of the time." Well they got the age range right and I hope that I am happy most of the time, but they messed up just a little bit about the gender. It reminds me that somewhere on the Internet it lists me as "the actress who played Gus."

Furthermore they claim that the overwhelming number of readers to my blog are old females. Take that Ken, Mark, Bill, Charles, George, Stuart, Bruce, Marty, Patrick, David (if I left out your name don't fuss).

So now I know who I am, at last, a sweet old lady who writes happy little personal entries in her journal. Just call me Granny.

The great lesson here is how absurd it is to try to categorize people, to put labels on folks, to standardize and create sameness. Even a bunch of ferns in a field are slightly different from each other and we are much more intensely complicated than ferns.

What's even worse is that when a person has difficulty understanding himself (and who doesn't) the label very often prompts him to behave in a certain way because those around him wearing the same label are behaving that way. After all, it's the courteous thing to do, they say.

I have suffered the abuse of having teachers, critics and others describe me to myself and the world in simple pithy statements of character and opinion. If I try to rebut, my remarks are met with a smirk. Everyone thinks they can figure other people out in an instant by making a quick comparison. Well "comparisons are odorous" as Shakespeare said. It's foolishness.

While it is a good thing to be proud of one's heritage and ancestry, I'm for removing the political, religious, ethnic and national labels from people and letting their true character shine, unobstructed and unfettered to any preconceived notions, good or bad, of their traditions and propensities.

I realize that this attitude comes from my Beatnik days and a lot of people don't agree with me. That's okay. But I still feel having to put down on a form your race, age, gender, religion, national origin and (soon probably) your sexual preference in order to apply for something is a moral cobweb.

I remain faithfully yours, the old lady who writes Vagabond Journeys.
DB
********************
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

Only 8 responses so far. Summer is about to close her gates. Get with it. Don’t be left out in the heat.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************

Look Out Below

Hatred at bottom always desires to make itself independent - but never can, and can all the less the more it hates.

Martin Heidegger
********************
We're all pagans. If we are Christians, Muslims or Jews we may believe we are monotheists and live comfortably under the shadow of an Almighty God that cares for us and controls and governs the world. We may even trust that our brand of monotheism is superior to someone else's. We think we worship the true God and other people don't. But woven through the tapestry of our seeming holiness are mud dwelling mortal traits that belie any sense of true godliness.

Rage, lust, fear, revenge, selfishness perch like gargoyles on the sides of buildings, leering down at us as we go about our days activities, waiting to spread their wings and fly down as the dangerous predators they are, to grab our thoughts and feelings, to find a home there and set up their own temples of worship. And when that happens have we adopted a false god or has it adopted us, or both? Either way we have given up our claim to monotheism and become a pagan like those of old. We have justified destructive behavior, irrational beliefs, inhumane desires. But those pious sorts who believe in the Ten Commandments and pride themselves at obeying them, have just broken the first one. There is an idol or two, or three, lurking in the corners of their sacred temple. False gods have set up residence.

The worst of these demigods is hate because hate is the opposite of love, which is the most powerful positive force in existence. If hate has a grip on one he can always find someone or something to hate without realizing that it is hate itself that is doing the hating.

What's worse is when one goes slithering back into his monotheistic skin and ascribes to his so called one God the hatred he feels, as in "God hates fags" or some other object of one's ignorance, fear and scorn. It's unimaginable the number of crimes that have been committed at the feet of and under the name of "God."

One who thinks about it must wonder what the purpose is of thousands of years of religious thought and teaching from philosophers, theologians and saints if we have emerged into the 21st Century unable to understand or even conceive of a truly benevolent all inclusive deity.

Is it any wonder there are atheists? Who wants to worship a god who visits despair, disease and destruction upon his own creation? A lot of people do, evidently. But are they worshiping the one god, or the gargoyles of paganism?

There are no excuses and no exceptions. In my own rather extensive reading into the sacred writings of the ages I've found no evidence of a hateful, angry,god, capable of despicable acts against humanity except for some dead end paths which attempt to make God manlike instead of the other way around. Hate, rage, lust, fear and so on have no life of their own. They have only the life we give them. Otherwise they are just stone statues perched on the sides of buildings, threatening but lifeless reminders of our vulnerability.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************

SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

Only 8 responses so far. Summer is about to close her gates. Get with it. Don’t be left out in the heat.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************

Life Is A Crazy Thing

Dare to the level of your capability then go beyond to a higher level.

Alexander Haig
*********************
Yesterday afternoon I was talking with my neighbor Ken. He's 77, smokes cigars and drinks beer. He's been married twice, has three daughters here and there around the country and a bunch of grandchildren. He currently has a lady friend who lives nearby. He works around the neighborhood, tending to people's property, cleaning up the sidewalks, fixing things, taking out the trash, tending gardens, small paint jobs, things like that. He tells of an interesting life traveling all over the country, time in the Navy. When his car broke down in Texas he got a job with the mechanic to pay for fixing it. Then he sold it to the mechanic, bought a pickup and headed north.

As I listened to him I thought back on my own life. I am a crazy man. I've always been crazy. When I was a preschooler I amazed people by climbing up to the top of a diving tower and jumping into the lake feet first while the other kids were diving from the low diving board. It made sense to me. Not knowing what was at the bottom of the lake I wanted to find it with my feet instead of my face.

In Elementary school I loved climbing trees as most boys did. I would climb to the top of a pine tree, jump out on to a branch and ride the branches down one after the other until I reached the bottom as my buddies watched. I got a lot of pine needles in my underwear but it was worth it.

In Junior High School I climbed a brick wall because my buddies said it couldn't be done. When I finally sat up on the cement top they were amazed.

In High School I was elected editor of the year book and student council president on the same day. I gave the year book job to the second place winner who messed it up. Big lesson there.

Bored with college I took off and hitchhiked across the country, from Boston to Los Angeles even though everybody said I was crazy.

When I got back home I began a career as a performing artist in the entertainment industry. My family and others said it wouldn't work. I played a wide variety of characters, including a bear. I've done musicals even though I never learned to sing and dance. Even after I retired my family wanted to know what I had retired as.

I confess, with no sense of shame, that almost all of the things I did in life I did because I was bored.

Now I'm 71. I have trouble walking and I have to read with a magnifying glass. Whenever I'm tempted to feel sorry for myself I think of people like Stephen Hawking who can't speak and can't move but who is still a world class scientist, physicist and cosmologist. He won't quit. Ken won't quit. He enjoys his life too much. And I won't quit. I'm still bored. I've written two novels and am working on a third as well as a bunch of short stories. I hope to publish them some day, as crazy as that may sound to some people.

I have an apartment full of paintings and I'm working on a new one. Maybe they will find their way into a gallery some day.

I am an uneducated scholar, a writer who flunked English class and a desperately near sighted painter. What more could you ask for?

DB - The Vagabond
***********************
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

Only 8 responses so far. Summer is about to close her gates. Get with it. Don’t be left out in the heat.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************

Weekend Puzzle Answer

WEEKEND PUZZLE ANSWER

Here we go. There was one winner, the unstoppable Val of the Blogspot Tigers. She wins a solid cellophane coconut. Good going Val.

A man is walking down the street and comes upon a store that sells coconuts. He goes in and buys half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. When he gets home his wife shakes her head and wonders what she's going to do with all those coconuts.

He gets an idea and goes out and buys a bottle of rum. But on the way he passes the same store with the coconuts, goes in and buys half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. When he gets home his wife has opened one of the coconuts and is ready to make a nice cocktail with the juice.

The man is so delighted that he goes out again and buys half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. Upon returning home he finds his wife has made them some delicious rum and coconut cocktails.

He drinks one which inspires him to go to the store again and buy half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. When he leaves the store that time there are no coconuts left. No one else bought any coconuts. They're all kiwi or papaya freaks or something. Who knows.

Back home he and his wife have a very pleasant evening drinking their rum and coconut cocktails.

"You poot thee rum in thee coconautt and than yoo dahnce cahleepso.

Questions: How many coconuts were there in the store when he went in the first time?

The answer is 15.
Half of 15 is 7 1/2 plus 1/2 makes 8 which leaves 7
Half of 7 is 3 1/2 plus 1/2 makes 4 which leaves 3.
Half of 3 is 1 1/2 plus 1/2 makes 2 which leaves 1.
Half of 1 is 1/2 plus 1/2 makes 1 which leaves 0.

He thought of going back and starting all over again with the mangos. But he was so tired from all the rum and dancing he stayed home. Another day for the mangos.

DB
*******************

Rest Me

Life is strenuous no matter how young you are. Yesterday I took a day off, no writing, no painting. I hope it doesn't become a habit.

I spent 5 hours on the front porch reading. There were no visitors except some desperate geriatric mosquitos.

Part of my exhaustion and need to rest comes from a deep feeling of sadness and disgust with what's happening in my country. I can't remember a time when there was such overt bigotry and ignorance. I was in high school during the McCarthy era. Then it was supposedly the Russians who were going to take over America. Now it's the Muslims. The Russians never would and the Muslims never will. No one can take over America unless we give it away. The Russians are now our friends. And if we deny the Muslims their rights we might as well tear up the Constitution.

I am not at peace, not at rest. Ignorance will not win the battle, I know that. But the fact that it is so apparent and so loud hurts my heart.

DB
************************
************************


WEEKEND PUZZLE

Here we go.

A man is walking down the street and comes upon a store that sells coconuts. He goes in and buys half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. When he gets home his wife shakes her head and wonders what she's going to do with all those coconuts.

He gets an idea and goes out and buys a bottle of rum. But on the way he passes the same store with the coconuts, goes in and buys half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. When he gets home his wife has opened one of the coconuts and is ready to make a nice cocktail with the juice.

The man is so delighted that he goes out again and buys half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. Upon returning home he finds his wife has made them some delicious rum and coconut cocktails.

He drinks one which inspires him to go to the store again and buy half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. When he leaves the store that time there are no coconuts left. No one else bought any coconuts. They're all kiwi or papaya freaks or something. Who knows.

Back home he and his wife have a very pleasant evening drinking their rum and coconut cocktails.

"You poot thee rum in thee coconautt and than yoo dahnce cahleepso.

Questions: How many coconuts were there in the store when he went in the first time?

Goog lub.
DB
*******************

Night Wisdom

To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand.

Jose Ortega y Gasset
************************
We are all space ships that never land. Any one who claims and embraces an idea, a book, a ritual, a practice, a system of thought or a theory of life, who comfortably believes it is the whole truth and who refuses to consider or even listen to an opposite or evolving pattern of thinking is in a room with no doors.

"Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge." Psalms 19. We are very fortunate creatures because we have the ability to be confused. It is the darkness of doubt and uncertainty where we groan and strain and strive for answers that wisdom is truly found.

In the occasional dark night of the soul the real essence of who we are is brought to the examination table and it is viewed under a powerful microscope. That is where the dirt and cobwebs of ignorance, despair and fear are wiped away.

The readership fo this journal has dropped so low that I am at the point of closing it down and taking my vagabond journey somewhere else.. And yet I know that many who are not reading my journal are exactly the people who need to hear what I have to say. I have been in that dark night of the soul many times in my life. I am one who used to believe firmly in a system of thought and rules for living and working. I was repeatedly brought to my knees in front of a deity I didn't understand. I tried to harmonize my life to one of the various gods that emerge from divinity schools and I failed.

I found trails through the wilderness, some easy, some rough, in philosophy because it doesn't tell me what to think but enables me to think for myself, to think originally. Nothing in this mortal life is ever settled. There is constant change, reevaluation, reinvention. "Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning" the old hymn says.

The joy that comes to me is knowing that I don't have to accept as truth any incomplete theory, that I don't have to close the door on discovery, that I can be amazed, that I can throw out old ideas when better ideas open their petals in the daylight, that I can be patient with my ignorance and vigorous with my striving. I can be at home in the endless space of reality.

I say to those who are not reading me today "Drop your silly pretence at spoon fed wisdom and join the rest of us in the brotherhood and sisterhood of the perplexed and beware those who have found the truth."

DB - The Vagabond
************************

WEEKEND PUZZLE

Here we go.

A man is walking down the street and comes upon a store that sells coconuts. He goes in and buys half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. When he gets home his wife shakes her head and wonders what she's going to do with all those coconuts.

He gets an idea and goes out and buys a bottle of rum. But on the way he passes the same store with the coconuts, goes in and buys half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. When he gets home his wife has opened one of the coconuts and is ready to make a nice cocktail with the juice.

The man is so delighted that he goes out again and buys half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. Upon returning home he finds his wife has made them some delicious rum and coconut cocktails.

He drinks one which inspires him to go to the store again and buy half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. When he leaves the store that time there are no coconuts left. No one else bought any coconuts. They're all kiwi or papaya freaks or something. Who knows.

Back home he and his wife have a very pleasant evening drinking their rum and coconut cocktails.

"You poot thee rum in thee coconautt and than yoo dahnce cahleepsoh.

Questions: How many coconuts were there in the store when he went in the first time?

Goog lub.
DB
*******************

Taking The Steps

It takes a lifetime to grow. People haven't the patience any more.

Lawrence Durrell
*********************
Anyone who has ever run a marathon knows that there is no other athletic event like it. It rquires strength, stamina, endurance and comfortable shoes. A marathon race is precisely 26 miles, 385 yards. To vigorously put one foot in front of the other for that distance without stopping is a formidable task.

At the New York City Marathon the finishers are given a light, plastic silver colored robe to wear. After the race one can see people wearing the robe around town. When you see someone with one of them you say "How did you do?" And the answer will be "7 hours, 29 minutes." "4 hours, 17 minutes." "3 hours, 36 minutes." And so on. You hardly ever see the front runners, the 2+ hours people, because they are scooped up and taken to celebration parties. It takes great skill to win a marathon race or to even come in close to the winner.

Yesterday I read an article which said that writing is like a marathon. It also takes strength, stamina, endurance and skill. There is one big difference however. The marathon runner doesn't take a break. He doesn't make another cup of coffee, answer the phone or go down for the mail. A writer has a powerful advantage that he is able to stop what he's doing and think about it.

There are some similarities to both activities. At the start of the race the runner may wish to be at the finish line and all his energies are focused on that. The starting gun of an idea may provoke the writer to begin and wish the novel or essay was finished. On the other hand when the runner crosses the finish line he knows the race is over. The writer is never quite sure. Nobody is going to ask the writer "How did you do?" And even if they did the answer is not going to be "5 hours, 47 minutes."

There are two qualities they both absolutely have in common: faith and patience. The runner has to call on reserves of strength and energy he doesn't feel he has, to trust that those reserves are there and to keep running until they appear. And when the writer gets stuck and can't seem to proceed he must ask himself what the words and phrases, the ideas are that he needs and then wait patiently for them to occur to him.

I, like most writers, will enter a word knowing it's the wrong word, just to keep writing, to keep running, knowing that the right word will occur to me eventually. And it does. Sometimes after I think I've finished the piece I get a sudden knock on my mind and there's the word I want.

And just as a marathon is not an aimless run of 26 miles with no direction but a clearly defined path from beginning to end, so writing is a precise art form where every sentence and every paragraph should be a precise equation of thoughts and ideas. (So mine aren't always, I admit it. But I'm getting better.)

Another great, silent harvest of running a marathon or writing a novel is that when doing it you learn a whole lot about yourself that you didn't know. a growing of yourself, a self discovery. And that is a grand, life changing thing.

Dana Bate
The Vagabond
******************

WEEKEND PUZZLE

Here we go.

A man is walking down the street and comes upon a store that sells coconuts. He goes in and buys half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. When he gets home his wife shakes her head and wonders what she's going to do with all those coconuts.

He gets an idea and goes out and buys a bottle of rum. But on the way he passes the same store with the coconuts, goes in and buys half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. When he gets home his wife has opened one of the coconuts and is ready to make a nice cocktail with the juice.

The man is so delighted that he goes out again and buys half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. Upon returning home he finds his wife has made them some delicious rum and coconut cocktails.

He drinks one which inspires him to go to the store again and buy half the coconuts in the store plus half a coconut. When he leaves the store that time there are no coconuts left. No one else bought any coconuts. They're all kiwi or papaya freaks or something. Who knows.

Back home he and his wife have a very pleasant evening drinking their rum and coconut cocktails.

"Yoo poot thee rum in thee coconautt and than yoo dahnce cahleepso.

Questions: How many coconuts were there in the store when he went in the first time?

Goog lub.
DB
*******************

The Iroquois

If nothing is at risk, nothing is established.

Brian Ferneyhough
*********************
Across the avenue from where I used to live in New York was a simple restaurant, The Morning Star, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all year round. It had a small counter with about 5 stools and a flock of tables and chairs. Everything on the menu, from breakfast to dinner, was available at all times. During the overnight the waiter was a mild medium height middle aged Greek man.

One block away a very tall building was going up. I could see the construction from my window and noted that the final structure was just about finished.

I was in The Morning Star having dinner one night at about midnight when the door opened and in burst four big, rowdy men, acting as if they were about to turn the tables over and beat up everyone in the place. They made their way to a table by the window and sat down. One man had a Mohawk haircut and by the way they were dressed it was plain they were Native Americans. The waiter, risking a confrontation, calmly took four menus over to the table and in one minute had them relaxed and quiet.

The men at that table were Iroquois. The Iroquois Nation, also known as Haudenosanee (the people of the long house) consists of six main tribes: the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora. They were known as the Five Nations until the Tuscarora joined them. They figured prominently in the history of Northeastern America. They are a closely unified and successful nation. Their League of Peace and Power is a document which many historians believe was a great influence on the founding fathers and parts of it inspired some of the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution.

In the 1920's the Iroquois developed their own passport, which has been recognized by many nations at many times, except recently by the British. In the early 1940's the Iroquois Nation declared war on Germany.

There have been many well known Iroquois. Among them: the boxer Henry Armstrong, George Armstrong of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Hiawatha (a real person), Graham Greene, Ely Parker, a Union officer in the Civil War and Commissioner of Indian Affairs under President Grant, Robbie Robertson of The Band and Jay Silverheels (Tonto) just to name a few.

In 1876 it was discovered during the building of a bridge that the Iroquois have no acrophobia, fear of heights. As a result they are much sought after for high constructions jobs. So when the skyscrapers go up in New York and the building gets too high for the average worker, builders get on the phone and call the Iroquois who come down to New York City to finish the job and then some of them have their late night dinner at the The Morning Star.

DB - The Vagabond
**********************
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

Only 7 responses so far. Summer is about to close her gates. Get with it. Don’t be left out in the heat.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************

Don't Count The Drops

When I discover who I am, I'll be free.

Ralph Ellison
******************
Understanding ourselves is a formidable task. It's easier to count the rain drops in a storm. What makes it so hard is the vast tool shed we have of ways and means to avoid finding out and facing the truth about ourselves. Excuses, justifications, pretences, opinions and simple harmless lies are among them. Some things about ourselves are hard to face so we don't face them and eventually they slide into subconscious nooks and one day have to be dug out. Those things are beyond regret, so they are safe in their hiding places.

But they can't hide forever. During the past 4 days while folks were kicking up, beach combing and barbecuing I went through a deep dunk of solitary introspection which resulted in two things. One, it gave me a big eye opening realization about myself. And two, it sent me into an obscure night of the soul during which I felt like a pile of uncollected crud.

There isn't one particular nasty deed from my past but a whole string of them based on a particularly bad character trait that I didn't even realize I had. That flaw in my person accounts for a great many things I did wrong. I realize they were wrong but was unable to tell why I did them until yesterday.

I can't go back and apologize to all the people I must have hurt. I don't even remember some of them. I can't return and dry the tears of those who wept. I can't even dry my own tears. What's done is done.

The best thing to do now is to be grateful that this knowledge about myself finally came to the surface, to see the impulses and urges in me that caused the behavior and to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

One can watch his life go by like a magic lantern show, forever repeating the same fantasies or one can welcome the liberating light when it comes and resolve to live in it. It's better than counting rain drops, or tear drops.

Dana Bate
The Vagabond
********************
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

Only 7 responses so far. Summer is about to close her gates. Get with it. Don’t be left out in the heat.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************

Bury The Hatchet

Politeness is to human nature what heat is to wax.

Arthur Schopenhauer
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Today I got an email from Bill telling me that I should develop a more harmonious relationship with my printer, that we should develop a workable synergy between us, that we should, in short "bury the hatchet" and become friends. Bill is right. I know it's hard but I will no longer get upset if it says "out of paper" when it clearly isn't, or rant if it says "you're printer is off line" just before it prints. And if it wants to take three sheets to print one I promise to try to understand it's needs and be sympathetic.

One of the nastiest people I ever knew was my sixth grade teacher. She wasn't abusive to everyone, only to those she didn't like and she sure didn't like me. One didn't dare sass a teacher back then or you would get a knock on the head, a twisted ear or a ruler across the knuckles. These day I hear horrible stories about things students say to teachers in public schools. And about how teachers' hands are tied from dealing with it.

Is it any wonder when you see the examples children get to see. We are supposed to respect or government figures and yet we see some of them flinging poisoned verbal darts across the aisles. In the old days we were told that it was good to play sports because it would build character. And yet look at the over aggressive "characters" that show up in professional sports today.

It isn't easy to be polite and gentle in the face of rudeness and hostility, Bullies are hard to deal with merely because they are so ignorant. If someone is having a bad day what gives them the permission to take it out on other people. Certainly there are times when a person needs to be aggressive: a fighter, a debater and chess player, a rescuer. But why be aggressive when it isn't necessary? Why is it the norm that we must watch out for other people's behavior? Why is it that some people have to ridiculously "get even" with people they don't know and have never met?

We have TV shows, both fictional and reality, that entertain by showing human beings in their worst possible behavior. That's the way the world is? That's human nature?

Is it? Okay. In that case I suggest you all meet in some desert where you can all fit, beat each other to death and get it over with. In the meantime I'm going to be a gentleman with my printer and also with my fellow man, no matter how much of a skunk he is.

DB - The Vagabond
**************************
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

Only 7 responses so far. Summer is about to close her gates. Get with it. Don’t be left out in the heat.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************

Weekend Puzzle Answer

PUZZLE - WEEKEND EDITION - ANSWER

Labor over this.
***********************
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC UWTO EPG GUFE PCY FQ, GF ZOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC XBPGG EPG XBOOC PCY XBPWC EPG HOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC HFD EOBO P KOCYOB PCY VPUUFE TOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB, PCY WT HFD BOZOZSOB
KQOC TFUUFE.

KEZ RFCOG

2 contestant, one winner. The Grand Prize of an genuine aritificial Autumn leaf goes to Val of the Blogspot Tigers. Here's her answer.

Try to remember the kind of September
when life was slow and oh, so mellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
when grass was green and grain was yellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
when you were a tender and callow fellow,
Try to remember and if you remember then follow.

Tom Jones

Good going Val.
DB
*********************

Smiles From The Depths

Whenever I find myself in the cellar of affliction, I always look about for the wine.

Samuel Rutherford
************************
When I worked as the morning DJ for a local radio station in New Hampshire, I used to arrive for work between 5:15 and 5:30. The station signed on at 6 and there was a lot to do to prepare for the very busy morning shift. One of the first items of business was to set up the coffee pot. There was always a big can of Chock Full O' Nuts (an appropriate choice of brand to describe my colleagues, I thought) and a coffee pot to brew it in. There was always a mug available and a bowl of sugar. There was a problem about the spoon, however. There were usually nothing but cheap plastic spoons around, so I brought my own metal spoon from home and kept it in my breast pocket.

Later on one day another announcer came in to the studio and remarked about always seeing the spoon. I explained why I had it, and he issued a statement which I consider a piece of wisdom which I've never forgotten. "Keep a spoon in your pocket and a smile on your face."

If Mr. Rutherford frequently finds himself in the cellar of affliction he would do well to carry a cork screw with him at all times. As a matter of fact whenever we find ourselves in any kind of fix it's a good idea to be armed with the proper mental utensils.

A positive attitude is a useful tool to start with. I believe in the basic equality of people. You've heard the saying "All men are created equal, but some are more equal than others." Affliction can be the big equalizer of men and women. I think about the Chilean miners in that respect. Even though there are many who are trying to help them, they are completely dependant upon each other to keep up their spirits and hopes for rescue. That's a deep cellar and they are the wine for each other. Because of their videos their story is known the world over. But only they know what it is really like for them. As long as they keep finding the wine and keep smiles on their faces they will survive.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************

PUZZLE - WEEKEND EDITION

Labor over this.
***********************
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC UWTO EPG GUFE PCY FQ, GF ZOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC XBPGG EPG XBOOC PCY XBPWC EPG HOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC HFD EOBO P KOCYOB PCY VPUUFE TOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB, PCY WT HFD BOZOZSOB
KQOC TFUUFE.

KEZ RFCOG

Good luck.
DB
*********************

Play Your Song

The older the fiddler, the sweeter the tune.

Pope Paul VI
***************
Age doesn't give us wisdom. Wisdom is always there. What age does is enable us to catch up with it. I have a quote somewhere which says don't complain about being old, it's a privilege denied to many.

Many years ago I lived in northern New Hampshire. There are a lot of mountains there. On one bright, sunny summer day I was climbing Middle Moat Mountain. I was about 35. I had my shirt off, tucked into my back pack which was over my shoulders. I was feeling great. like primary man.

On Middle Moat the timber line is very near the base, so the climb is basically on rocks and surrounded by open space. As I climbed I noticed two people way up ahead of me coming down. They saw me, I saw them. As they got closer I could see they were teenage girls. As we passed each other one girs was talking to the other one about a boy she knew and I heard her say "I still see him but he's old now. He's almost 20." I felt like turning around and saying "Come here girls. Let me teach you something about age." But I walked on.

A few months later I was directing a production of "The Fantasticks" for the local high school. In the play the boy has a line about the girl which says "She makes me young again." The high school kid playing the part kept getting it wrong and saying "She makes me feel young again." which is cute, but it's not the line. "She makes me young again" coming from a youngster is much funnier.

Finally, after correcting him many times, I had them all sit down and I told them the story of my trip up the mountain. Then I asked the kid how old he was and he said he was 18. "Oh, my God" I said. "You're almost 20? You're old. You've hit your peak. It's all down hill from now on, buddy. You're living on overtime. You're already rusting out. I suggest you get to the drug store and buy a cane, you're going to need it. Look at yourself in the mirror tonight and see the wrikles and the gray hair starting to form. You're old and done for."

They all laughed, of course. Then I asked him "And what does she do for you?" "She makes me young again" he replied. He never got the line wrong after that.

What do older people do? The same things as younger people do. They may do it with less energy but with more experience and, hopefully, with some wisdom. Life can get sweeter when our fiddle is in tune and we finally know the song.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************

PUZZLE - WEEKEND EDITION

Labor over this.
***********************
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC UWTO EPG GUFE PCY FQ, GF ZOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC XBPGG EPG XBOOC PCY XBPWC EPG HOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC HFD EOBO P KOCYOB PCY VPUUFE TOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB, PCY WT HFD BOZOZSOB
KQOC TFUUFE.

KEZ RFCOG

Good luck.
DB
*********************

With A Clear Head

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

Albert Einstein
*******************
Is it possible the human race will ever be saved from itself? The human intellect is an amazing thing. It is capable of great imagination, control and design. And when properly employed it is responsible for marvels. But the improper use, the misuse of the mind, can cause tragedy and disaster.

When theories, opinions, false rhetoric, buzz words, sound bites. self justification, jealousy, revenge, hatred, anger, tangential suppositions, dogma, orthodoxy, cliches, bromides, intimidation, fragmentary ideas and gossip take the place of reason and genuine thinking the mental landscape is blurred by trash.

There has never been a human being who is totally innocent of messing up his head and his heart with presumptions and errors, We are led by the nose into the dark alleys of ignorance almost as easily as we breathe. It is one of those dangers that beset humans, a gremlin in disguise, a gang of marauding pirates masquerading as our own thoughts.

It may seem like a harsh and humiliating discipline, an annoying exercise and pointless task to stop and ask ourselves what we are thinking, to apply an antiseptic bandage to our mouths and a cold shower to our emotions, but if it is the only way we can stop ourselves from being fools then it's worth it.

Wisdom is an evolutionary thing. Truth is always truth but it can take many forms. Public opinion is often quite wrong and ought to be challenged at every step. It has been said that a true leader doesn't create followers, he creates more leaders. Original thought is met with scoffing and abuse, sometimes with violence, until it is honed and shaped to fit the average man's mind set and then takes it's place in the tapestry of the acceptable and soon becomes more of the same general opinion, adhered to without thought.

There will always be a real thinker in some lonely outpost, aloof and remote from the rest of us who sees clearly and knows his own heart. There's your genius. There's the leader.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************

PUZZLE - WEEKEND EDITION

Labor over this.
***********************
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC UWTO EPG GUFE PCY FQ, GF ZOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC XBPGG EPG XBOOC PCY XBPWC EPG HOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC HFD EOBO P KOCYOB PCY VPUUFE TOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB, PCY WT HFD BOZOZSOB
KQOC TFUUHE.

KEZ RFCOG

Good luck.
DB
*********************

Bathtime Bliss

I can't think of any sorrow in the world that a hot bath wouldn't help, just a little bit.

Susan Glasee
*****************
I don't currently have a bath tub and I miss it very much. I'm always amused at those pragmatic sorts who say that a shower is better than a bath because it uses so much less water, as if somehow they were both to serve the same purpose. A shower automatically wastes water as it plummets to the drain. If you stayed in the shower as long as you stay in a bath just think of the water you'd waste.

To get clean take a shower. It's a good vigorous walk in the rain.

But to slide slowly into the warm and waiting arms of acceptance, to float weightless in the ocean of the universe, to bask in the womblike center where reason and fantasies meet, to be enwrapped in the magic carpet where the mundane matters of life become just drifting clouds, to travel on warm waves of solitary journeys into unknown lands where you are wanted and loved, to visit pastoral fields of calmness and stillness, to feel the knots slowly untie themselves and the doors slowly unlock, to be where the friendly sages of the world unite in harmonious song, to float through revelations of beauty, to visit secret places where dwell the water nymphs, to glide with ease along the winds and waves of flowered paths, to be lifted up to the mystical plateau where the invisible siren song caresses you, to fly through rainbows and ascend to where the worlds hum as they glide by, to know the serene state of your own being, to let your thoughts be washed of all doubt and worry, to be safe, where no trouble can touch you for an eternity and to rise renewed, regenerated, cleansed and reborn, take a bath.

DB
************************

PUZZLE - WEEKEND EDITION

Labor over this.
***********************
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC UWTO EPG GUFE PCY FQ, GF ZOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC XBPGG EPG XBOOC PCY XBPWC EPG HOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB KQO NWCY FT GOIKOZSOB
EQOC HFD EOBO P KOCYOB PCY VPUUFE TOUUFE.
KBH KF BOZOZSOB, PCY WT HFD BOZOZSOB
KQOC TFUUHE.

KEZ RFCOG

Good luck.
DB
*********************

Were You There

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.

Emerson
******************
In life's grand quiz show of understanding ourselves called "Who Am I" there will always be unanswered questions.

I moved into my apartment here on September 9, 2001, two days before the attack on the World Trade Center. If I had still been in New York I either would have seen it happen or I would have been stuck in a subway station underneath it.

It wasn't long before the films and video tapes were processed and we could see the results on the ground and how people reacted to it. I noticed that there were basically three types of people. There were those who stood in stunned, shocked silence. I knew one of them. There were those who ran away from it in panic. I don't refer to the inhabitants of the building. They had a perfect right to run away from it. I also knew one of them. I mean the ones in the vicinity who turned and fled the scene as fast as they could. And then there were those who ran towards it.

There were the first responders from the police and fire departments. But there were ordinary people who ran to see what they could do to help. A temporary clinic was set up in a local church. That church also housed a theatre where I had performed several times. I could have been very helpful directing people to that church and seeing that those who needed it were in and comfortable. I could have helped the medics who were caring for the injured. Who knows what I could have done?

Of those who did not run away there were a great many volunteers, ordinary people, who found some way of helping those who had barely survived the disaster and the police and fire fighters who had been overcome with smoke and exhaustion.

I have often wondered over the past 9 years what I would have done if i had been in proximity to that event. I was only a few blocks away from it waiting for my train. I had a clear view of the WTC from where I was standing. If I had already boarded the train I would have been underneath it when it happened. In either case I could have been very helpful to people who were suffering. What would I have done? Would I have stayed as far away from it as I could? Would I have stood post and pillar still in shock? Or would I have gone towards it and gotten involved?

The answer is: I don't know. It took a lot of courage to be in that neighborhood. Nobody really knew what was going to happen next. The building was on fire. People who could were jumping out of windows to their deaths to avoid being burned alive. I had worked off and on at a firm in the upper floors. People I knew and had worked with were dying, nice people, good people. The surrounding streets were strewn with body parts. Frantic evacuations were taking place in overcrowded elevators and stairways. The building was collapsing. How much of it would fall on the surrounding structures and the people below? It took heroic courage for anyone to go there and stay there. Would I have done it?.

That is a question I will never have the answer to. I like to think I am a brave man. I've faced up to other frightening experiences. But about that one I will never know. I wasn't there.

Dana
The Vagabond
********************
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

Only 7 responses so far. Summer is about to close her gates. Get with it. Don't be left out in the heat.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************