Contents:
Forget The Hourglass
Winter Question Answers
Spring Question
The Ball Game, a story, part 1
Live your life and forget your age.
Jean Paul
*****************
I just turned 72. That means I lived 36 years twice. I like that idea. It also means I lived to be 24 three times. I like that even better.
"Old rockin' chair's got me, my cane by my side" wrote Hoagy Carmichael.
"You're too old for that" says someone else. "Act your age" says another.
Ask President George Bush if he was too old to go sky diving. Ask John Glenn if he was to old to go into orbit again. A few years ago I understudied Douglas Campbell in a large and difficult role. He was 83. I never played it. He played every performance. Who gave George Burns permission to live to 100? Who told Irving Berlin to sign out at 101?
"They try to tell us we're too young
Too young to really be in love"
(Nat King Cole)
I know a young man whose girl friend is 15 years older than he is. She has no problem with it, neither does he. A person has to be at least 35 years old to be President of the United States. But Lafayette entered the American Revolutionary War as a Major General at the age of 19. The first human cannonball was a 14 year old girl called Zazel. Mozart was playing his own music on the harpsichord in public at the age of 5,
Life is about living, not about counting ages.
I can't do some of the things old folks do any more. I'm not as old as I used to be.
DB - The Vagabond
*****************************
WINTER QUESTION ANSWERS
What was the most significant event of 2010?
------------------------------------
BP Oil Spill
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my answer: The Chilean miners were rescued.
A you tube video depicting the incident:
http://youtu.be/XGecqHnN2gQ
entitled:
Chile Miners Rescue Video: Joy as capsule raises trapped men to surface
--------------------------------------------
I remember the big oil spill
------------------------------------------
The most significant event of 2010 for me was penning my third book (which sadly I'm still in revision with). (Hugs)Indigo
------------------------------------------------
2010, most significant event... I would say the Haiti earthquake, followed closely by the BP Oil Spill and November elections.
----------------------------------------
The most significant event of 2010 for me, was the dawning of Jan. 1, 2011.
-------------------------------------------
Most significant event of 2010? My actually getting on a plane at John McNamara airport with a destination for Omaha...
-----------------------------------------------------
So many significant events happened last year, but my vote for the most significant is going to FIFA World Cup South Africa. The whole world focuses its eyes on soccer supremacy. Borders, barriers, language, culture, politics, religion wealth, age ------ all disappear in the name of sport. No game in the world has as much significance as soccer, or football if you prefer. Just for a few weeks every four years, people put aside their differences and focus on the game. It always amazes me that sport has a way of uniting the world far better than any politicians.
--------------------------------------
Most significant events of 2010: Globally, I think it was the Haitian earthquake and the world's response to it, and for the U.S., Wikileaks.
----------------------------------------------------
I think, after this country woke from a decade of international belligerence, and began to feel the future again, that was the year we realized how much we'd been hobbled and how far we had to go. 1st step on a long road.
----------------------------------------------
Thank you all.
DB
***************************************
SPRING QUESTION
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
The Ball Game,
a story in 7 parts
Part 1
The first time Jimmy Login saw his father was at a stick ball game on a Brooklyn street. His father died when Jimmy was only 3. Jimmy doesn't remember him and only knows him from a photograph his mother has of a handsome, smiling man with glasses His mother said Jimmy's father was a physicist who was working on a top secret project when he died.
Billy Ferguson threw the ball with great force and it hit the step with a loud wallop. Jimmy held the stick firmly ready to hit the ball if he could. At that moment he heard a man's voice call his name: "Jimmy." He looked up and just for a flash saw his father's smiling face, just like in the picture. Then he saw the ball coming toward him gradually and gracefully, like a bubble on the wind, as if the whole game was suddenly in slow motion.
When it drifted right in front of him he swung hard and hit the ball squarely on. It flew up fast, bounced off the side of the building, went tumbling down the street and rolled under a parked car.
"Wow" someone said.
That was the first time Jimmy saw his father. But not the last.
(Part 2 tomorrow.)
**********************
Showing posts with label George Burns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George Burns. Show all posts
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Win The Case
You can't help growing older, but you don't have to grow old.
George Burns.
******************
We are all on trial for our lives. The prosecuting attorney has gradually been stacking up all kinds of evidence against us and we have no defense attorney but ourselves.
The District Attorney presents his case. You can't remember people's names, that's a sign your slipping into oblivion. You occasionally do stupid things which proves that you're losing a grip on reality. You have aches and pains all over you so you must be in terrible physical shape. You're overweight therefore you have no control over yourself. There are certain foods you can't digest properly because your stomach has lost it's strength. You can't walk down the street without getting tired. There are so many things you used to be able to do that you can't do anymore. Certain items in your body don't function properly and need to be replaced. You don't sleep well. You need all kinds of medicine to keep going and stay alive. You're a problem for your family and a drain on society. The only conclusion one can draw is that you are old and headed for the mortuary. The DA rests his case.
Now it's your turn. You can't remember certain people's names and other facts because your mind is filled with information and you can remember the important things. (I knew an older woman who got the giggles when she couldn't remember names. She simply was not going to take it seriously.) Everyone occasionally does stupid things no matter what their age. Aches and pains all over you doesn't mean you are a physical wreck. It means you have more aches and pains than you used to have. You've been meaning to go on a diet so you can look more like your neighbor down the street but you haven't gotten around to it yet. There are certain foods you can't digest properly because your body doesn't want them. (My grandmother lost her taste for certain foods. She simply didn't like them any more.) You can't walk down the street without getting tired because you're not an athletic person as you used to be. (You don't have to be a marathon runner to prove you're in shape.) There are many things you used to be able to do that you can't do any more maybe because you don't want to do them. Certain parts of your body don't function properly and need to be replaced. So what? You don't sleep well. People who are older and less active require less sleep. You need all kinds of medicine to keep going and stay alive. Since when is medicine prescribed only for the older folks around. You're not a problem for your family if they love you and you love them. You're an asset because you're older and wiser. You're not a drain on society if you don't think you are. You are simply older and headed for another year of life (and maybe a vacation instead of a coffin.) You argue for energy, for curiosity, for adventure, for a changed and adapted life style, not doom. You rest your case.
All the advertisements about this disease or that disease, this cure or that cure, all the talk that goes on between people, the difficult experiences with doctors and hospitals, expecting and looking for problems and interpreting them in dire terms, the remembrance of past problems, the comparisons with other people's stories and the prophecies of doom are all part of the prosecutor's false evidence. It doesn't prove anything.
I used to know an actor my age who when he turned 40 began to show signs of physical wear and tear. He told me all the awful things I would soon start to experience and all the facilities and faculties I would soon lose. I went away and argued against every one of them. There was no reason, I thought, for any of those things to happen to me just because he believed they would and seemed to be happening to him. I soon realized that he had talked himself into illness which I could easily reason myself away from. That was 30 years ago and I didn't contract with any of his phantoms.
Recently a "friend" told me I had only 10 good years left and that if I didn't do this and that I would be bedridden in 6 months. That was over 4 months ago. Check back with me in December.
It is important for you to take care of yourself and to deal with problems as they occur. My point is not to interpret those problems as evidence of your extrinsic demise into mental and physical decrepitude. You are not fast approaching the moment when you'll be finished unless you accept the evidence. But you have the right to argue for enthusiasm, for a future, for life. George Burns lived to be 100 and worked as an entertainer right up till his final year. You're not old. You're just older.
DB - The Vagabond
********************
AUTUMN QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?
2 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
************************
George Burns.
******************
We are all on trial for our lives. The prosecuting attorney has gradually been stacking up all kinds of evidence against us and we have no defense attorney but ourselves.
The District Attorney presents his case. You can't remember people's names, that's a sign your slipping into oblivion. You occasionally do stupid things which proves that you're losing a grip on reality. You have aches and pains all over you so you must be in terrible physical shape. You're overweight therefore you have no control over yourself. There are certain foods you can't digest properly because your stomach has lost it's strength. You can't walk down the street without getting tired. There are so many things you used to be able to do that you can't do anymore. Certain items in your body don't function properly and need to be replaced. You don't sleep well. You need all kinds of medicine to keep going and stay alive. You're a problem for your family and a drain on society. The only conclusion one can draw is that you are old and headed for the mortuary. The DA rests his case.
Now it's your turn. You can't remember certain people's names and other facts because your mind is filled with information and you can remember the important things. (I knew an older woman who got the giggles when she couldn't remember names. She simply was not going to take it seriously.) Everyone occasionally does stupid things no matter what their age. Aches and pains all over you doesn't mean you are a physical wreck. It means you have more aches and pains than you used to have. You've been meaning to go on a diet so you can look more like your neighbor down the street but you haven't gotten around to it yet. There are certain foods you can't digest properly because your body doesn't want them. (My grandmother lost her taste for certain foods. She simply didn't like them any more.) You can't walk down the street without getting tired because you're not an athletic person as you used to be. (You don't have to be a marathon runner to prove you're in shape.) There are many things you used to be able to do that you can't do any more maybe because you don't want to do them. Certain parts of your body don't function properly and need to be replaced. So what? You don't sleep well. People who are older and less active require less sleep. You need all kinds of medicine to keep going and stay alive. Since when is medicine prescribed only for the older folks around. You're not a problem for your family if they love you and you love them. You're an asset because you're older and wiser. You're not a drain on society if you don't think you are. You are simply older and headed for another year of life (and maybe a vacation instead of a coffin.) You argue for energy, for curiosity, for adventure, for a changed and adapted life style, not doom. You rest your case.
All the advertisements about this disease or that disease, this cure or that cure, all the talk that goes on between people, the difficult experiences with doctors and hospitals, expecting and looking for problems and interpreting them in dire terms, the remembrance of past problems, the comparisons with other people's stories and the prophecies of doom are all part of the prosecutor's false evidence. It doesn't prove anything.
I used to know an actor my age who when he turned 40 began to show signs of physical wear and tear. He told me all the awful things I would soon start to experience and all the facilities and faculties I would soon lose. I went away and argued against every one of them. There was no reason, I thought, for any of those things to happen to me just because he believed they would and seemed to be happening to him. I soon realized that he had talked himself into illness which I could easily reason myself away from. That was 30 years ago and I didn't contract with any of his phantoms.
Recently a "friend" told me I had only 10 good years left and that if I didn't do this and that I would be bedridden in 6 months. That was over 4 months ago. Check back with me in December.
It is important for you to take care of yourself and to deal with problems as they occur. My point is not to interpret those problems as evidence of your extrinsic demise into mental and physical decrepitude. You are not fast approaching the moment when you'll be finished unless you accept the evidence. But you have the right to argue for enthusiasm, for a future, for life. George Burns lived to be 100 and worked as an entertainer right up till his final year. You're not old. You're just older.
DB - The Vagabond
********************
AUTUMN QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?
2 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
************************
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