Give Em Hell

You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit.

Harry Truman
***********************
Hello Val
**********************
Harry Truman (1884 - 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States. He took office upon the death of President Franklin Roosevelt who had just begun his 4th term.

He ran for reelection against the very popular Thomas Dewey, Governor of New York, and won a surprising victory. There is a famous photo of him holding up a newspaper with a banner headline announcing Dewey's win.

During his presidency both Germany and Japan surrendered, NATO was formed, the United Nations was established, the Marshall Plan to reconstruct Europe was put into practice and the State of Israel was recognized. His history also included the dropping of the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which ushered in the nuclear age.

He was an outspoken fellow who didn't dance around issues. One of his most famous quotes, referring to the practice of avoiding responsibility by passing the buck was

"The buck stops here."

Here's another famous one referring to the dangers of politics.

" If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

About being President he said,

"All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway."

His supporters were always telling him to "Give 'em hell Harry." He said,

"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell."

He didn't care much for politics at all.

"I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here."

"My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference."

"When even one American-who has done nothing wrong-is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth-then all Americans are in peril."

Harry Truman was a Democrat and he didn't care much for Republicans.

"The Republicans believe in the minimum wage — the more the minimum, the better."

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a Republican. But I repeat myself."

I say, give 'em hell Harry.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
*************************

Give Em Hell

You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit.

Harry Truman
***********************
Hello Val
**********************
Harry Truman (1884 - 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States. He took office upon the death of President Franklin Roosevelt who had just begun his 4th term.

He ran for reelection against the very popular Thomas Dewey, Governor of New York, and won a surprising victory. There is a famous photo of him holding up a newspaper with a banner headline announcing Dewey's win.

During his presidency both Germany and Japan surrendered, NATO was formed, the United Nations was established, the Marshall Plan to reconstruct Europe was put into practice and the State of Israel was recognized. His history also included the dropping of the atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which ushered in the nuclear age.

He was an outspoken fellow who didn't dance around issues. One of his most famous quotes, referring to the practice of avoiding responsibility by passing the buck was

"The buck stops here."

Here's another famous one referring to the dangers of politics.

" If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

About being President he said,

"All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway."

His supporters were always telling him to "Give 'em hell Harry." He said,

"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell."

He didn't care much for politics at all.

"I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here."

"My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference."

"When even one American-who has done nothing wrong-is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth-then all Americans are in peril."

Harry Truman was a Democrat and he didn't care much for Republicans.

"The Republicans believe in the minimum wage — the more the minimum, the better."

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a Republican. But I repeat myself."

I say, give 'em hell Harry.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
*************************

In The Mirror

Reputation is what you are in the light.
Character is what you are in the dark.

Unknown
******************
Hello Ernie
******************
Years ago I followed a certain spiritual path that required me to sit in front of a mirror for a long time looking at myself. It was an exercise in self awareness. But the basic benefit was to engage in a dialogue with my conscience. I would go through the recent events of my life, noting my behavior in each case and measuring myself against them all to determine what I did that was true to myself and what wasn't. It's almost impossible to lie to yourself while looking yourself in the eye.

It was a very helpful exercise for a while. With each label I found to describe my actions I could determine what to affirm and what to discard. And with what was left I could illustrate to myself what I was at that given time. It helped me to be watchful and careful about doing or saying anything that did not fit with the character I had fashioned myself to be. It also astonished me to find out that I really did have a consience and that sometimes I ignored it.

I finally stopped looking in the mirror except to shave. Instead I began looking out from the mirror and back at myself as a person among others. In effect the world became my mirror. I grew more aware of how people responded to me and tried to be in person the character I had discovered "in the dark." Did I slip up? More times than I have the courage to admit.

I had a fairly good reputation as a broadcaster and actor. There's an old saying in radio "You're only as good as your last station break." A good reputation can take time to build up and you can lose it in a moment. It is really something owned by others and only loaned to you by them. But character, good or bad, is impossible to lose. It can only be changed or improved, because you own it. It's yours to find in the dark, in front of a mirror or in your own thoughts as you pick and choose between what to keep about yourself and what to throw off. And when you step out into the light that character is yours no matter what your reputation is.

Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up.
**************************

Being Free

Plunge boldly into the beyond, then be free wherever you are.

Shoitsu Omatsu
********************
Hello Margie
********************
The first time you plunged into the beyond was the day you were born. You were at last free of the confinement of the womb. You didn't have much to work with except a loud cry and the ability to grow. But you made the appropriate adaptations and survived.

From that point on it should have been plunging into each beyond as you came upon it. But what happened? You began to let the limitations gather around you and you were obedient to them instead of to your own courage of convictions. But that's okay, it helped you to continue to survive.

Then you plunged in to the beyond of school where you found more limitations. But maybe you were a good enough student to actually learn some things. Some of those things will be useful to you on your next plunge. Most of them probably won't.

So then you plunge into the world of adult living and what you found there was a confusing jungle. But you soon hew out a place for yourself, rearrange a few pieces of furniture and settle into some sort of a career.

Then did you plunge into the beyond of marriage and raising a family? Then you have assumed a whole new set of limitations to contend with on a daily basis.

But the plunging isn't over. The kids grow up and leave home. Maybe they visit you now and then. You're a success. Life is easier.

But the ocean awaits, the wind is calling, the Autumn leaves remind you that life rotates, that the cycles of light and learning are still there and you are still in orbit. The womb of your life is not enough. Another birth is coming, another plunge. The beyond of meaning has opened up it's arms to you and you are ready. All limitations drop away when you boldly take that plunge. You begin to understand what it was all about and you are free., wherever you are.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
*****************************

Beinf Free

Plunge boldly into the beyond, then be free wherever you are.

Shoitsu Omatsu
********************
Hello Margie
********************
The first time you plunged into the beyond was the day you were born. You were at last free of the confinement of the womb. You didn't have much to work with except a loud cry and the ability to grow. But you made the appropriate adaptations and survived.

From that point on it should have been plunging into each beyond as you came upon it. But what happened? You began to let the limitations gather around you and you were obedient to them instead of to your own courage of convictions. But that's okay, it helped you to continue to survive.

Then you plunged in to the beyond of school where you found more limitations. But maybe you were a good enough student to actually learn some things. Some of those things will be useful to you on your next plunge. Most of them probably won't.

So then you plunge into the world of adult living and what you found there was a confusing jungle. But you soon hew out a place for yourself, rearrange a few pieces of furniture and settle into some sort of a career.

Then did you plunge into the beyond of marriage and raising a family? Then you have assumed a whole new set of limitations to contend with on a daily basis.

But the plunging isn't over. The kids grow up and leave home. Maybe they visit you now and then. You're a success. Life is easier.

But the ocean awaits, the wind is calling, the Autumn leaves remind you that life rotates, that the cycles of light and learning are still there and you are still in orbit. The womb of your life is not enough. Another birth is coming, another plunge. The beyond of meaning has opened up it's arms to you and you are ready. All limitations drop away when you boldly take that plunge. You begin to understand what it was all about and you are free., wherever you are.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
*****************************

The Mental Mirage

If you believe everything you read, better not read.

Japanese proverb
********************
Hello Barbara
********************
Don't believe everything you read.
Don't believe everything you hear.
Don't believe everything you see.
Don't believe everything you think.

I have observed in my vagabond journeys that the human mind is arguably the subtlest trickster to ever confuse the unsuspecting man or woman. It is in league with the senses to fool us whenever it gets the chance.

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. We know that for a fact. Here's another fact. The earth is flat and if try to sail beyond the horizon you'll fall off the edge.

We now know that those "facts" are not facts at all, but there was a time when they were genuinely believed by everyone. How many so-called facts are there that are honestly held to be true by you and others today which will eventually turn out to be just a superstition or simply a plain misunderstanding of reality. Our heads are filled with suppositions, assumptions and theories that become like rumors which spread out to be accepted as truth. I call them mental mirages.

The mind is capable of great things, great ideas in art, design, mechanics, science, civilization, education and government. But it is also capable of forming the most absurd theories and ridiculous ideas known to man.

I knew a man who whenever he heard something foolish coming out of an otherwise intelligent person would say "Say that again and think about it."

Stanislaw Lec, the Polish writer said "Think before you think." That's good advice for staying out of the intellectual mud puddles and rubbing one's nose against a mental brick wall.

A primary rule of mental discipline is to not only question everything you read, hear and see but challenge everything you think. That way you won't fall off the edge.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
****************************

Never Lose

We must accept finite disappointment.
but we must never lose infinite hope.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
------------------------------

DB
Vagabond

How High The Moon

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

T. S. Eliot
***************
Hello Frosty
***************
I could, like many others, write an In Memoriam for Neil Armstrong, but I didn't know the man. I only knew about one amazing thing he did that changed my life and the lives of many millions of people for the better.

I could also write an In Memoriam for Mr. O' Conner. I did know him and I remember a very few things he did. But one thing in particular changed my life for the worse.

Like many young boys I became interested in the Solar System about the age of 7 or 8. I passed by the dinosaur age and went straight for the sun, the moon, the planets and their moons. This was the 40's, before the Sputnik, before any space travel at all. But by my many visits to the Hayden Planetarium in New York City and the books and magazine articles I looked at I knew there would be space travel someday and I fully expected that it would happen soon.

Even before Star Wars and Star Trek I knew the Universe must be inhabited by amazing creatures. And I had the benefit of Flash Gordon films on local television to encourage me to believe that space travel was inevitable.

One rainy afternoon in 1949 I was sitting in a class room at an elementary school in Westchester County. We couldn't go outside and play during our recess because of the rain so the teacher, Mr. O' Conner, asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. When my turn came I said I wanted to be the first man on the moon. Mr. O' Conner said "That's ridiculous. Man can never go to the moon." He was the school's Science teacher. I believed him. For a while.

Years went by. The Sputnik flew. Yuri Gagarin flew. NASA was invented. The word "astronaut" entered the vocabulary. JFK became President. And the time had come. Meanwhile I became an actor.

Then, one July evening in 1969, sitting in my apartment on West 58th Street in New York City, I watched Neil Armstrong put his foot down on the surface of the moon. Farewell Mr. O' Conner, may you rest in peace.

The Apollo program took a long time to develop, and many people, designers, technicians, engineers, scientists and pilots. We shot off rockets, we put men into space, we flew instruments to the surface of the moon and dropped them down. We flew toward it, flew past, even flew around it. But it just wasn't the same until an actual human foot placed itself on the surface. That "one small step" permanently connected the human race to the rest of the Universe from then on. And when Armstrong made his first step, he did it for me.

People with the mentality of a Mr. O' Conner should not be permitted to teach. But thank heaven there are still people with the mentality of a Neil Armstrong still at the wheel. Farewell Mr. Armstrong, may you rest in peace.

Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
**********************************

My Achin' Back

Let not the cares of this world drive your peace away.

Sheikh Abdul Jilliani
***********************
Hello Marty
**********************
I was doing some house cleaning today. Whenever I do that it turns into a stressful experience, because every time I clean something I find something else the needs my attention. And if I keep doing that the whole day turns me into my own janitor and I don't get anything else done, such as reading and writing.

So by the time I finally decided just to let things go and stay away from any further sanitary efforts, I put the soap and sponges away and settled down to what I really want to do. But by that time I had a back ache.

I sat down to rest thinking that soon the back ache would find it's way out the window. But it persisted. It was then that I was reminded that the back was not responding to the work I had been doing but to the stress of having to do it. What's wrong with a little stress now and then? Nothing much if it doesn't deprive me of my peace.

I had to think about this. What does cleaning my apartment have to do with being deprived of peace? After all I will feel better and more at peace with a clean counter. Was it resentment at having to clean the counter because it was taking me away from other things? Or was it the regret of having to leave things uncleaned for now? Or was it the simple annoyance of having to look after myself in general? Well, whatever it was I had a back ache. Clearly, the job wasn't finished.

I was reminded of how it was on the stage. I never was aware of a back ache or any other ache when I was performing. That was because I relaxed. I found a place of stillness and serenity on stage that enabled me to focus my energies on performing. If you do the work you love there should be no pain.

So I sat still and returned to that quiet state of peace and after a while I was unaware of any back ache.

So did I go back to cleaning? No. I went back to my books. Tomorrow for the cleaning.

DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
***********************

There Is Life

I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.

Anne Frank
*******************
Hello Stuart
*******************
Miguel Figeroa parked his Ford as close as he could to Fairton, or what had been Fairton. Torn apart by a massive tornado followed by an earthquake there was nothing left of Fairton but rubble. smoke, ashes and blood.

Miguel was there to inspect the ruins for the state. Those who had survived had been evacuated to shelters and hospitals. Those who did not were still strewn about or lost under piles of destroyed and collapsed buildings. Looking up Miguel could see the horizon in the distance, thee was nothing left of Fairton to block his view. There was a sharp and suffocating smell, worse than any aroma rising from a dump. And Miguel walked.

He picked his way through the rubbish and broken dreams as best he could, noticing odd things. A children's playground swing lying sideways atop a crushed car, a string of laundry one end still attached to the side of a demolished porch, the other end buried under broken glass and dented cans, a twisted street light which had fallen across a dead dog, a smoldering pile of clothes. Still Miguel walked. He saw what had been a school, caved in and with books and papers filing the spaces around the broken bricks, on a large chunk of wood he saw a welcome sign gently waving in the breeze as if beckoning him, a farmer's supply store had it's roof blown off and revealed burst bags of seed and farm equipment smashed up against each other.

He walked. He came to an almost completely torn down concrete wall. Lying next to it was a Maxwell House coffee can. He picked it up. Inside was a small blue flower. Miguel didn't know what kind of a flower it was but it was holding its small head bravely up to the sun while it's roots were busy drawing their needs from the still damp soil in the can.

Miguel placed the can upright, in the sun, on a part of the wall that was still standing., and walked on.

There is survival. There is a town that will grow again. There is life.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
**************************

Your Song

You find your soul and your destiny by responding to the world's call to you. That's how you find yourself.

Thomas Moore
*******************
Hello Sue
**********************
Did you ever have the chance to open the lid of a grand piano and look inside? You probably have at least once in your life. What you saw was a sturdy metal frame and stretched across it from just behind the keyboard to the back of the piano a row of strings tightly drawn into a state of tension. Each of those strings, when plucked or struck, has a different tone. 88 different tones in fact. A finite number but enough to allow for some of the greatest music in the universe. When a great pianist sits down at the key board those strings rest in calm tension waiting to sing.

Imagine a piano with an infinite number of strings each one ready to sing, play, dance, write, paint, teach, settle disputes, build bridges, design buildings or cars, find new words, explore new worlds, discover cures, and so on, all of them in calm tension waiting for the touch of the master, life, the world, to make the call.

My friend Ernie once said that work defines your life. He's a painter and he knows. A senior in high school complained that he didn't know what he wanted to do with his life. I told him to wait, be patient, look around and wait in calm tension for the call to come. And it will come.

The call often comes in unexpected ways. It may be as simple as a finger striking a key and making your string vibrate. It may be a phone call or a letter. It may come as a strong intuition or equally strong desire. Sometimes it comes as the world grabbing us by the collar and throwing us into the middle of our lives. It came to me as the result of a dream.

Troubles some, questions arise, but as I am fond of saying "There's no use asking what you should do with your life. You're doing it." Sometimes what you are doing is a pathway leading you somewhere, or it's a walk in the dark forest with no path to guide you, or it's a trip down a super highway at breakneck speed. But the destination, your destiny, is inevitable if you keep going.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
*************************

Mending The Mess

Reversing the treatment of the man you have wronged is better than asking for his forgiveness.

Elbert Hubbard
******************
Hello Kate
******************
Oh, how I wish I could go and reverse the wrongs I've done to people and myself, and the wrongs I don't know I've done. My heart is also open to those who have wronged me for forgiveness and reversal. But those people don't appear.

Sometimes we can wrong people carelessly, accidentally or unconsciously. Those wrongs are hard to make right. The opportunity is usually past. But what if it isn't? Is it worth it to seek someone out that you hurt and find a way to soothe and heal that wrong? Definitely. Because if you know you did it you will have the regret and he will have the resentment to live with.

And there are times when you wrong people and you don't mean to. You might give someone an inappropriate gift or make light of a situation which effects them deeply, a callous or wry remark when sympathy is due can leave a wound.

There even are times when you set out purposely to do something good and right and it ends up being wrong and you've made a mess of things. Those unfortunate situations often require a painful and difficult reversal..

I remember hearing a concert pianist of some fame reviewing a performance of another pianist being played from a recording. This reviewer had nothing good to say about the performance. She tore it apart on the air and then found out that it was being played by one of her best friends. Aw Oh.

The worst case though is when you have wronged yourself. You can forgive yourself, but how do you get out of the mess you've made. I moved to this apartment to get away from a bad situation, to heal and find peace. Everything about it worked out so well there was no doubt it was the right move.

It was the wrong move. The bad situation has followed me and gotten much worse. With few advantages it has become almost impossible for me to reverse the wrong I've done myself.

Moral: Maybe you can't help offending people, but look for ways to make amends.

DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
--------------------------
Will I ever be happy again?

Good Choices

In choosing a friend, go up a step.

The Talmud
*******************
Hello Sandy
*******************
Did you ever wonder what it would be like to put all of your friends in one room together? Would they get along with each other? Or would you be the only thing they have in common?

I have fantasized that if I ever struck it rich, I mean multimillion dollar rich, I would rent an island somewhere with a nice hotel and a beach and invite all my friends to a big month long party, I love them so much.

I have a very diverse group of friends. A few are actors (naturally, since I've spent so many years in show business) but the rest are not. A few are artists. The rest are not. Some are scientists. The rest are not. A few are musicians. The rest are not. One is a writer, one a nurse, one a broadcaster. The rest are not. And so on. Furthermore, some of them now live way out west. The others don't.

So I wonder, if the great golden ring were to drop onto my plate and I held such a party, if they would all get along with each other? Would the writer and one of the actors have a disagreement about the theory of art? Would the scientists feel out of place? Would the broadcaster and the nurse get into a spat about politics? Would there be affairs, misunderstandings, jealousies, broken hearts? I would hope not but I can foresee it happening. My friends are sensitive, interesting, vital, thinking people and the one sure thing I can say about them is that in choosing them I went up a step. And the one sure thing I can say about my former friends is that I didn't and neither did they. So be careful where you step.

DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
***********************

Amazing Things

Life never becomes a habit to me. It's always a marvel.

Katherine Mansfield
***********************
Hello Val
***********************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
Last night they took away the fair.
**********************************
I think it was Yogi Berra who said "You can see a lot of things by looking." I have seen many amazing things by being alert and watching. I am particularly fascinated to see people do things I don't know how to do or wouldn't do. I watched a crew of fire fighters in New York City jump blindly down into a blazing fire because it was the only access to it.

I watched a Hudson River tug boat captain tuck nine barges in three rows of three neatly in between two piers at the first try against the currents.

One winter morning in New Hampshire I discovered a flat tire on my car, which was a big Ford Station Wagon. I called my friends at Bob and Bill's Chevron station. Bob came over with his jack. Bob was a big, silent bear of a man. There was snow all over and underneath the car, so much snow that he couldn't fit the jack under it. So he reached down with one hand to the side of the car and lifted it up to put the jack under it.

For the past week the Saint Ann's annual carnival has been going on just outside my apartment. The largest attraction was a giant slide 2 stories high and a city block long. It was very popular and the kids were sliding down it all evening.

It was a dark night last night. The carnival closed and all the rides and games were taken down, packed up and moved away. It took four men to dismantle that slide, put all the parts where they were stored and get it ready to move. A specially designed truck came up and attached itself to the end of the slide. The driver then pulled forward about 50 feet. Then he backed up, slowly, with the four men as guides, and maneuvered it between a fence and a fire hydrant, on to a street where cars were parked on both sides. He took it out backwards and then drove off. The whole thing, from beginning the dismantling to the driving away, took 3 hours. It was amazing. I was so impressed I was speechless. I was in awe of that truck driver.

I hope I never stop seeing marvels happen..

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.

Carnivaless

A person's maturity consists in having found again the seriousness one had as a child in play.

Friedrich Nietzsche
**********************
Hello Val
**********************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
The night may be quiet again someday.
**********************************
Well, the carnival has shut down and left. No one showed up to accompany me, to be my better eyes (and my better self, no doubt). So I didn't get to eat the pizza, the sausage, the funnel cake, snow cone or cotton candy. I didn't get to ride on the Ferris wheel, the swinging gondola or the merry go round. But I got to hear the Bingo numbers on a loud speaker, the loud scraping metal of the rides and the loud screaming children. I vow to myself that when I return to New York I will go to Coney Island and some of the other amusement parks around there for certainly a ride on a roller coaster, because I am just a loud screaming kid at heart.

Soon it will be September 9th and that will mark the anniversary of my moving to Bristol. I moved here 11 years ago, and I still have no friends here. I did have one friend for a few years who I trusted, but she turned out to be dishonest, devious, deceiving and linked to her own narcotic needs. So now there is no one in Bristol.

There are two good reasons to return to New York. I have old friends there I know can trust and I'm a performing artist who for the past 11 years hasn't been able to do any of it. I yearn to go back on stage. I can also return to the Art Students League and learn more about painting. I can be with the other artists I have known and admired and reach a higher level in my own art and my writing. And, best of all, in New York City the carnival never shuts down.

Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
****************************

A Certain Goal

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

Dale Carnegie
*******************
Hello Ernie
*******************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
The night is ablaze with secret places.
**********************
There are many writers like Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale who have been issuing advice to the world wrapped in the technique of Positive Thinking. There's nothing wrong with that. It is certainly preferable to the opposite. But Positive Thinking is really a finger pointing to a certain goal.

Many people use the elements of Positive Thinking to achieve success in life. That implies some degree of self awareness. As Christopher Morley wrote, "There is only one success, to be able to spend your life in your own way." And which way would that be? Implicit in that remark is knowing yourself well enough to at least avoid the ways that are not your way, but does it mean you know where you want to be going? To know something does not necessarily mean to understand it. Does knowing yourself automatically make you comprehensible, intelligible to yourself? How well you know yourself is also just a finger pointing to a certain goal.

As I stated in a previous journal entry, self discovery often brings out things, attitudes, traits, beliefs and behavior that are less than what you imagine or wish yourself to be. Then a struggle ensues and it's a hard one. Gandhi wrote "It is far easier to conquer others than to conquer oneself." It's a mighty and valorous fight and also a finger pointing to a certain goal.

But what of the person who doesn't want that struggle, who would prefer to stay the way they are and not grow? Those are the ones who spend their time and money to try to preserve what they think is youth and beauty, to regain some artificial sense of themselves, to identify themselves in some superficial way, usually with the help of chemistry, instead of letting themselves grow and evolve into true manhood and womanhood. To let go of fantasies about oneself and grow to achieve what one believes one is capable of is another finger pointing to a certain goal.

Mind is the master of life and the thoughts and images carried in the mental satchel determine the kind of life we live, which is why the positive thinker has the advantage at the task of living well and if allied with self awareness and self knowledge the thinker is enabled to observe the finger and point himself toward the certain goal.

Along that road to discovery to which the finger is pointing we come across a gate and at the gate is where we must leave behind the human mind, as improved and useful as it is, for the enlightened mind, where ideas become thrones and thoughts are candle flames. Who knows but one who has been there, who has achieved that consciousness, who has won the right to pierce the cloud and dwell in the secret place, what the blazing symbols mean and what power is available. Purity and inevitability are there, and the simple answer to the simple question "What is Truth?"

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
************************

A Decent Age

Though he watched a decent age pass by,
A man will sometimes still desire the world.

Sophocles
***************
Hello Val
***************
Now here's an interesting question. Are we now in a decent age or has our decent age passed by? Did we have a decent age and as we didn't notice it passed us by? Or is our decent age still to come?

What constitutes decency in an age? Is it the way people behave, the way they treat others and themselves? Is it an attitude toward the world and the human race, is it a rich cultural age, a flourishing economic age or an age of major military victories? Is it an age of great peace (whenever has there been any of those)?

In my childhood the country had emerged from the great depression and was beginning to show it's strength, although the cars were still black, the umbrellas were black, the rain coats were black or gray, when out of a nation of great literature. great philosophy and great, great music arose a monster named Adolf Hitler and the world turned it's head into an even more depressing, indecent age. We painted the top half of the headlights black on our black cars. When the siren screamed in pain we turned off all our lights. It was a black out, because we thought German planes were flying over New York. And they were.

We killed the monster's men and won the war. Then colors began to happen on the streets. Cars became blue and green and yellow, multi colored with fancy shapes and fancy headlights that couldn't be painted black. Now I was a teenager and I saw another age pass by when everything became red.

A mad man in Congress began investigating everyone suspected of being a Communist or a Communist sympathizer. Important American heads rolled. People turned each other in. Accusation, betrayal, black listing (there's that color again), careers and reputations ruined. We finally got rid of the
congressional monster but the damage, just like the damage in Europe, was done.

Then the wars started, against the Communists, to make the world safe for Democracy and to prove that we weren't Communists. Korea, Viet Nam. Now I was in my 20's. Have I yet seen a decent age pass?

Protests, Selma, Equal Rights. Assassinations, JFK, Bobby , Martin, Gandhi, Anwar. Kent State, Oklahoma City, the World Trade Center.

Now I'm in my 70's. Fundamentalism, regressive politics, anti Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, the proliferation of guns, drugs.

A decent age may still come and, I hope, not pass, and there may be a better world to desire. Come with me and let us try to find a place where a decent age can be.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
****************************

See Saw

Give to the poor and enjoy the praise.
Give to the rich and incur the guilt.

Dana Bate
******************
DB - Vagabond
******************

The Overhaul

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

Thomas Paine
**************************
Hello Diane
**************************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
The night is past. The past is the night.
************************************
Lately I've been thinking of doing a complete overhaul of myself. It's not something I particularly want to do but it seems to be a necessary activity every now and then at no special time. It's sort of like testing the structure of my house to see if it's still stress worthy and if not to replace the worn out brinks and beams, and to find out just how much of a peculiar person I have become.

For one thing I know that certain garments of good reputation have been cast off along the way. Reputation is almost a non entity in the life of a vagabond. It's as hard to define as grace. You can lose a reputation through a rumor or because you don't do what some people think you should do. Hence I don't worry about my reputation. If it means doors closed to me, so what, there's another door somewhere.

Character is another matter. It is only peripherally related to reputation. A person can have a lousy reputation and still have strength of character. Those who lack it, wimps and bullies, for example, have little idea of what a good character is made. But maybe they learn.

If one is fortunate enough to grow up with a good influence around them, the example of a good man or a good woman, building a character that is positive and harmonious is much easier. The rest of us have to work at it. It's a trial and error program of education.

Scraping through the ashes of one's past is a futile activity and I make repeated efforts to convince people not to do it. The only benefit to me is to uncover the echoes of things I did that let myself down, that tarnished my character. I call them echoes because they can only be real if they relate to the way I am and think and behave today. And that's where the overhauling comes in.

Self sacrifice should not mean turning over your whole life to take care of someone or something to the detriment of your own well being, not if love is involved. The best self sacrifice can mean giving up those ideas, beliefs, traits and habitual activities, some of which you may cherish but that are antagonistic to your own well being and those around you. That requires courage, discipline and a cold hard objective look at yourself.

Check the ground under your feet. Has any of it washed away? Check the bricks of your beliefs. Do any of them need to be replaced? Check the walls. Have you allowed any mental termites to get in? Check the staircase . Are your hopes and plans still sturdy? Check the roof. Are you safely protected from the storms of life?

So with the proper tools in hand, I hope, I've begun the overhaul to determine how much character I have left and to restore the rest. Wish me luck. (Good luck Vagabond.)

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up

What A World

Vie with each other in good works.

The Koran
*****************
Hello Bruce
*****************
There's an amusing saying about the competition among the super rich which goes, "He who has the most when he dies wins." It's funny, but it's also pathetic.

Imagine a world in which the acquiring and hoarding of wealth is not the primary acclivity of people, where the fear of financial insecurity doesn't drive them to obtain more than they need, where there is no military-industrial complex, no multi national corporations, no mega farms, but where instead goodness and morality are the basic commodities of life.

There have been times and places where that was true. When the early Puritan pilgrims arrived in America they had a meager start to their new lives, the church was the center of their small communities and goodness was what prompted them and kept them together. Unfortunately along with their simple fundamentalist religion came superstition. Thus when the witch trials started it wasn't theft, rape and murder they were tried for. It was evil. Non goodness.

Imagine a community where superstition does not rule, where real goodness has a chance to establish itself and flourish like the flocks and crops of the first settlers. Imagine a world where the competition is for kindness, mercy, good deeds, instead of more land and more money.

Is it an impossible utopia? Maybe. But give it a lick. If we all started genuinely trying to win gold medals at kindness, benevolence and good works, what a world, what a world, what a world.

DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.

Flip The Blanket

Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible.

M. C. Escher
*****************
Hello Ernie
*****************
This is the 1,841st edition of Vagabond Journeys. I've been writing and posting one almost every day since 2006. To the world at large it would be known as an exercise in futility. Yesterday I had only 15 known readers when I should have hundreds, thousands. So why do I do it?

Love is one answer. I love to feel my imagination wake up and start working. I love to feel that swirl of ideas around my head. I love it when the natural flow of inspiration brings up a concept better than the one I thought of on my own.

Those are selfish things. Need is another one. I need to share my thoughts, ideas, enthusiasm for living and my life experience with other people. Of what use is a senior citizen if he doesn't open up the trunk, go through everything, throw out the old shoes, wasted love notes and foolish dreams, then bundle together the true values of decades of a life lived.

Hope is another reason why I don't give up. As an actor I have played for an audience of one and an audience of five thousand. The performance was always the same as at other times, the same commitment, the same joy. Why does the violinist return to the same concertos he has played before? Why does the golfer take his clubs out to the course even in the cold weather? Because every swing is a finger poked into the magic world of perfection. The golf swing, the music, my writing aren't perfect, but there is always the possibility that one day it will be.

Despair is another reason why to keep writing. An artist is one who must create, who must let imagination loose from any attempt to cage it, who must feel the blessing of inspiration and recognize it when it comes. For me, who lives in a cultural vacuum, I must create the only atmosphere in which I can survive.

The urge and search for perfection may seem like an absurdity to the rational mind. Yet the greatest achievers of the human race were those who did the impossible. I may get the readers I deserve some day, I may not. I may get close to perfection some day, I may not. But I will grab one side of the blanket with the other artists who are willing to try the absurd and flip truth and beauty into the sky and see haw high we can make it fly.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
************************

The Older Ox

Either run with the big dogs or stay on the porch.

Big Mark
*******************
Hello Val
******************
There's a tradition among farmers that calls for yoking a young inexperienced ox with an older ox so that the young one will quickly learn the routine of plowing. They don't send the young ox to college. They just tether him to the older ox and that's that. The young one learns fast.

When I was studying drawing at the Art Student's League I always tried to sit next to someone who was better at it, to learn from them by observing.

There are real problems connected to learning a new task, a new job or a new career. Most people don't do it right.

Here's an example. I was hired at a radio station and my first day of work the boss put me on the air at the busiest time, the morning drive time, before I knew which switches did what or what problems I was going to face with news and weather reports and phone calls. The boss thought it would be good to put me there so I would get the full effect of the job. He was wrong. It was a nightmare. But by noon I was a big dog. I had to be. At a different station I broke in on the all night shift which was much simpler and enabled me to learn all I needed to know to handle any on air shift at that station.

Approaching this topic from a much different angle there are those who come into a job situation thinking they know how it's done when in fact they don't. I'm sure that happens in many enterprises but I have found it to be quite prevalent in the theatre business, the one I have spent my life in.

No doubt the glamorous nature of what actors do attracts many people to the trade but why should anyone decide to be an actor without knowing what it entails or, worse, assuming they know. I've seen too many youngsters and others jump in with the big dogs when they should have stayed on the porch.

I partly fault the kind of education some people get. Acting is an art, but it is also a trade, a craft, and like any craft it has it's rules and it's techniques. I have worked with too many recent graduates of important Drama Departments and Academies of Art who were not taught those techniques. I don't know what they were taught or who taught them and I don't want to know. Those new to the trade didn't know they needed to stay on the porch and watch the big dogs run.

There is a highly regarded drama department at a well known college in the
East. I have yet to work with a recent graduate of the school who really knows acting. After many years away from that school I had to give one graduate a lesson in voice placement. I wondered how he could be a drama major with a BFA in Acting and never have been taught that.

It's worse when they are arrogant. They know what their teachers told them or didn't tell them and they believe it's the way without discussion. I had to give one young fellow a lesson in how to be a stage manager. He laughed at the rules until the other members of the cast threatened him. He got back upon the porch.

I have experienced this type of faulty training first hand. I was asked to perform a scene for a directing class at a very important film school in the Northeast Not only did that teacher ignore talking about the directing, he tried to correct the acting. He didn't know what he was talking about because he didn't know what acting is. I felt sorry for the students. If you're a college professor of something you don't do yourself, don't take an actor with 25 years experience in stage, film and TV and give him acting lessons. Stay on the porch.

I write about theatre and acting because that's what I know. But I'm sure the same circumstances apply to any important endeavor. Don't assume you know what you do not know. Watch out for people who think they know but don't. And always find an older more experienced ox to hook up next to if you can. Otherwise stay on the porch.

Dana Bate - The 1.840th edition of Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
*************************

Summer Mornings

Be a summer morning to your friends.

Dana Bate
*****************
Hello Margie
******************
While the dew still bathes the grass.
While the leaves and petals open up to kiss the daylight.
While the coolness of the night still lingers on your land.
While the unknown stressful dreams slip into oblivion.
Be a summer morning to your friends.

Before the humidity of hard work fills the air.
Before the heat of purpose takes the wheel.
Before the noise of human life drowns out the song.
Before the blaze of struggle scatters peace.
Be a summer morning to your friends.

When the hot wind chides at work not finiashed.
When the crack of thunder signals fear.
When the smack of lightening tears at hopes.
When the drowning rains wash out the plans.
Be a summer morning to your friends.

After the firs starts to cook the meal.
After chores take their toll in sweat.
After obligations are bundled and removed.
After today's expectations fade.
Be a summer morning to your friends.

When night descends with darkness and doubt.
When there are still mountains to climb and seas to cross.
When regret looms for the stack of lost, forgotten years.
When sorrow turns down the covers for another stressful dream.
Be a summer morning to your friends.

Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
*******************************

Do What I Say

The daisies can't tell the roses to stop blooming.

Lindsay Nelson
******************
Hello Jon
******************
"Watchman. tell us of the night."
Am I the only one awake at night?
-------------------------------------
"De gustibus non diputandum est." So goes the old worn out Latin statement. Basically translated it means "In matters of taste there is no argument." Some people incorrectly think it means you either have taste or you don't and if you don't there is no talking to you. But what it really means is that you like nuts in your ice cream and I do not like nuts in my ice cream and we are both right.

One of the sillies and most ignorant prejudices I've come across in my life is that everyone should be in bed asleep after midnight, anything else is unnatural and probably immoral.

I worked for several years at a 24 hour classical music station in New York. My program went from Midnight to 6 A. M. My boss, a man of lesser intelligence, I'm quite sure never went to bed after Midnight and never woke up before 6. Hence he never heard my program, never heard me and didn't know how good I was. All he knew was that nobody should be working all night and no one would be up listening. As a result he turned the program into a dumping ground for a lot of unnecessary news thus destroying it for me and for my listeners. So I quit and got on with my life. That station went off the air a few years later.

People who tell other people what to think, how to behave and how to live are barnacles on socidety. They are the ones who never dare to live, who can't or won't see beyond their own prejudices. My boss was right about going to bed before midnight. But he was not right in expecting the rest of the world to do the same.

Sometimes that sophomoric attempt to control another person's life is based on envy. I knew a woman who actually envied the people who were coming down with Aids because she believed they were living a kind of libertine life she thought was wrong and hence denied herself and then regretted it.

And what if some people are living a more exciting life than you are? You can't shoot them down justified by some draconian moral precept. You can't tell the roses not to bloom.

The worst cases of "disputandum" are found on the battle fields of religion. And there's a very good but sinister reason why that is so. If people wish to worship a Creator, an invisible, unknown, all powerful deity, which they certainly do the world over, why do they burn each other's books, tear down each other's idols, destroy each other's temples and kill each other? The answer is fear.

No one except the very few true saints that have existed in the history of the human race, from whatever religion they came, can be completely sure of the existence of God or if they are worshipping their God correctly. Hence the only way to make sure your dogma is correct is to destroy all the others., either through arguments or bombs That has been going on for centuries and is still a popular means of forcing your way of life on another.

You like nuts in your ice cream, I don't. We are both right. You worship with bread and wine, I don't. We are both right. You bow five times to Allah, I don't. We are both right. You celebrate a Day of Atonement, I don't. We are both right. You worship with incense, I don't. We are both right. You worship with incantations, I don't. We are both right. You believe in full submergence baptism, I don't. We are both right. If there is a God then divine intelligence must be able to accept any form of worship that is sincere and not exclusive.

I'm a daisy, you're a rose. So go ahead and bloom. I won't stop you. You have the right.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
*************************

Strange Names

I have fallen in love with American names,
The sharp names that never get fat,
The snakeskin-titles of mining claims,
The plumed war-bonnet of Medicine Hat,
Tucson and Deadwood and Lost Mule Flat.

Stephen Vincent Benet
*************************
Hello Arlene
*************************
The poem above is the opening stanza of a longer poem called "American Names." In it the author, though satisfied and grateful for the years he spent in Europe, yearns to be back in America. He goes on to say that he will not forget his homeland.

"I will remember Carquinez Straits,
Little French Lick and Lundy's Lane,
The Yankee ships and the Yankee dates
And the bullet-towns of Calamity Jane.
I will remember Skunktown Plain."

I also love American names and the strange way some of them are pronouned. Pronunciations are often the result of local dialects, so that the same name in Texas will sound different from the one in California. Some of the names came from foreign countries but end up sounding completely different coming from the tongue of a local citizen. You're never sure until you hear a native say it. There's a place in this country where Brazil is pronounced BRAZZle.

I have lived half my life in New England where I got used to names like Coos (COH ahs), Berlin (BURR lin), Peabody (PEE biddy), Teaticket (Tee AT ikit), Natick (NAY dick). Truro and Swampscott are, blessedly, pronounced just the way they look.

Being also a New Yorker I'm familiar with names like Sag Harbor, Chappaqua and Tribeca (try BECK uh). People think New Yorkers have lazy speech because of things like The Bronx being pronounced DUH Bronx. Don't be fooled. It's a dialect and one New Yorker will recognize another one when he speaks, even if they're in the Gobi desert.

I did a few plays in a town called Blowing Rock, North Carolina. That's in Appalachia, where the Hill Billy's live. The nearest city is Boone (buhOON). One of the characters I played was an Appalachian, so I had to get the dialect right. I hired a dialect coach then went around town listening to the local people. There were two authentic Blue Grass musicians in the show and one of them said I sounded like I was a local person. I guess if I fooled the musicians ear I must have got it right.

Other than that experience I'm not familar with strange names and their pronunciations in the South or other places in the country. If anyone reading this has similar items to add you are welcome to put them here.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
************************

Up The Mountain

The best use of philosophy is to open the door and invite a walk in the garden of thought.

Dana Bate
****************
Hello Diane
****************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
When you stop thinking, night falls.
-------------------------------------
I enjoy reading philosophy (as I have said ad tedium). And I particularly like it when the philosophers don't agree with each other. There would be no point to philosophy or any form of original thought if they did.

Many philosophers through out the years of recorded history have started out on the journey as mathematicians, measuring the length, breadth and depth of human experience. And then a day comes when they reach the foot of the magic mountain of enlightenment or what they believe or hope is enlightenment and the climb begins. There may be only one summit but the choices of how to reach it are many. And that poses a problem for some people.

I know of a Museum of Philosophy that has a lot on interesting displays and biographical material about the world's philosophers But there is also a computer with a program that lets you answer a whole string of questions, and at the end will suggest a philosopher or two that best agree with your answers. It's a Find Your Own Philosopher game. The temptation is to then read that philosopher's works and none others. One thinks one has found his master and enlightenment is inevitable. But is it?

It's practically impossible to know at the beginning if that philosopher's trail up the magic mountain is a right one. Does it reach the summit or does it lead you into an intellectual gully? You won't know till you get there. The danger is to concentrate on your master's words and ideas to the exclusion of any conflicting thoughts. To follow in the footsteps of one only guru may lead to the green pastures of peace and knowledge. But by not challenging those footsteps as you go you may end up in the shadows.

Most of the inspired philosophers I have read, from Plato to recent times, all say, in one way or another, that the purpose of philosophy is not to tell you what to think or how to think but to get you to think for yourself. In other words there is a general acknowledgment that we are capable of exploring our own thinking, forming our own opinions and testing them out, making up our own minds. Original thought is the birthright of the human being,

That leads to another and even greater opportunity and obligation for the thinking person, the one who has accepted the responsibility of his own mentality. Somewhere along the pathway in that garden of thought are philosophers who know and warn that the issues of our lives are so much rooted in our thoughts that we ought to be careful about what we think. Hence the challenge to every aroma in the garden and every thought that passes through the air like a dandelion seed. And thus the discipline of looking ahead, deciding what you want and what you don't want and tracing them back to the thoughts which produce them.

The same watchman who guards the entrance to the garden is also the guide who can steer us to our right paths if we are awake, alert and thinking.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
***********************

The Blues

I've got no family nor no friends here. I'm living in a neighborhood which is very uncomfortable for me in a town where I don't know anyone. I have no car, and there is no public transportation near me.

If you hear me sing the blues it's because I have a damn right to.

DB - Vagabond
never give up
****************

A Question For The Human

Are you a representative or a representation?

DB

never give up
****************

Gone Fishing

I am getting very few readers, which either means people have finally discovered my true identity or else they are watching the Olympics So I'll step aside until the last marathon runner comes staggering in.

DB - never give up.

It's A Book

Reading as a whole is a way of recuperation: accordingly, it is one of the things that lets me detach from myself and walk among foreign disciplines and souls.

Friedrich Nietzsche
***********************
Hello Barbara
************************
"Watchman, tell us of the night."
The night is for reading.
--------------------------------------
I have right now in my hands a book. Yes, a book. It has covers front and back and in between them a stack of paper pages. It's a book. It happens to be "The Final Frontiersman" by James Campbell but that doesn't matter. It's a book. It's a book about Alaska. I'm fascinated by Alaska and all far northern places, that's why I own it. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that it's a book. It could be a TV show, or a web site, or a magazine or a DVD. But it isn't. It's a holy trinity. It's a book.

First there is the book itself, the physical fact of the book. The author wrote down ideas and concepts, did research, wrote some more, did more research and wrote some more. Then he rewrote, took things out, put them back, edited, proofread, made corrections, achieved a final copy he thought. Then an agent got involved and minor corrections or additions finally brought it to an editor. Discussions ensued about design and promotion until it finally reached the hands of a publisher. The mere fact of the physical creation of the book itself, which seems like a minor miracle, is the first leg on the holy trinity.

The book has had a lot of fathers and mothers peering over it but this is the child. I spread open the covers and begin the glorious, delicious act of reading. I quickly admire the writer for his skill, his narrative, his depictions of the frozen wasteland, of the tundra, of the primitive lives of the people who live there, his ideas. I am transported to a different world, a place which detaches me from myself and my surroundings which seem so dull by comparison. I am on a journey, an adventure.

Then comes the third leg of the holy trinity. Reading the book stirs in me that sense of adventure which has always been a part of my being. I start to make comparisons to myself, to identify myself with some of the characters. The scenes and events of the book affect me and open my thoughts and feelings to consider things that surround the story of my own life. The journey has become a spiritual one. When I finish the book and put it aside it will have entertained me, informed me, moved me and changed my life.

It's a book.

DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
**********************