Don't Talk Of Bulls

It is not the same to talk of bulls as to be in the bullring.

Spanish proverb
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Hello Centennial, Colorado
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I can talk about acting because I have been on the stage. But I won't. Instead I will surmise that almost any occupation in life whether a profession or a hobby, is too often looked upon and thought upon as being much simpler than it is.

I'm not much of a sports fan but I will occasionally watch a baseball game. I enjoy watching the pitcher before the pitch because I know something about the thinking going on. It's a battle of brains between the pitcher and the batter. When the pitcher winds up to throw the ball a decision has been made. There is an agreed upon tactic between the pitcher and the catcher based upon observation, study, intuition and the character of the game up to that point. Many factors come into play with each pitch. But most people are probably totally unaware of the thinking that is going on. Don't talk of bulls.

If you go to a tennis match you will see everyone watching the ball. The heads all go back and forth, back and forth, great exercise for the neck. My head goes back and forth in the opposite direction, or more likely I look at only one of the players. I like to watch the thinking of the one who is receiving the ball because it doesn't matter so much if he hits it, it's where he hits it that counts. Don't talk of bulls.

I had a nasty neighbor once who said that I looked tired. I told him I was double shifting. He wanted to know what I did. When I told him I was a radio announcer he said "Oh, well, that's not hard work." I wondered if he had ever been on the air in a radio studio with many thousands listening and a minute and a half to fill with entertaining talk. I think probably not.

No doubt there are jobs that are harder than broadcasting but it sounds easy because we make it sound easy. Don't talk of bulls.

Ballerinas float effortlessly through the air on their toes. Have you ever seen a ballerina's toes? Don't talk of bulls.

A well kept garden is a beautiful thing, lush, fecund greenery and many colored flowers, delighting the eyes and offering sweet aromas to the air all the way down to the ground. But what's under the ground, where all the work is being done, only the flower and the gardener know. Don't talk of bulls.

One day a building on my block in New York which was still under construction caught fire. Burning pieces of the building were blowing off and falling to the street below. It was a tall apartment building about 50 stories of it had been completed. The fire was on the top floors. The only way the fire fighters could get to it was by the construction elevator on the side of the building. But that elevator stopped two or three stories above the blazing inferno. I watched in awe as those people jumped into the fire, at the risk of life and injury, not knowing what was underneath them, to put the fire out. Don't talk of bulls.

There has been a lot of talk about the recent assassination of Osama bin Laden. Too many people have opinions about what the Navy SEALS did or did not do, what they should have done or should not have done and so forth. All of those opinions come from people who were not there. Don't talk of bulls.

DB - The Vagabond
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Never give up
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

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

Only 6 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.
,
DB
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Choosing Sides

'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Alfred Tennyson
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Which side are we on? Those who consider Osama bin Laden a hero, consider Barack Obama a villain. Which side are we on? Those who consider Al Queda friends, consider the current American government an enemy. Which side are we on?

And why must we take sides at all? I was born into a nation which I came to understand was the vanguard of cultural coexistence, liberty. opportunity and human rights. At least it was in theory. I saw the struggles, and got involved in some of them, to try and establish those ideals as true. But all the time I was growing up, and still today I hear about who is in and who is out, who is right and who is wrong, even who is an American and who isn't.

I have also seen the American ideal plummet into ignorance, divisiveness, sensationalism and street corner nastiness. What brought us so low? We are caught in an evil vise where Americans are bombing Muslims and Muslims are bombing Americans. As long as we keep bombing them they will keep bombing us and as long as they keep bombing us we will keep bombing them. What kind of so-called leadership ever brought us to this desperate madness? In all my reading and viewing I haven't found one serious example of anyone trying to figure out why. .I don't know what the average citizen in an Islamic country thinks, but I know that the average American doesn't.

Islam may be the fastest growing religion in the world, but the Muslim fanatics are not going to make the United States a Muslim country any more than the fanatical Christians are going to make it a Christian country in spite of their claims.

Where are the diplomats, the statesmen and women, those who can discuss without venomous name calling? Why can't responsible, progressive thinkers sit down with theologians of all faiths, find out what are the common denominators of Constitutional law, Parliamentary law, Talmudic law and Sheria law, and from there start to work out compromises that allow for a real coexistence among people, a newer world?

Or should we just continue to attack each other until someone drops THE BIG ONE?

Which side are we on? From my point of view, considering the power, technology and weaponry available, it has never been more important to grasp the need to make the world more livable for every nation and to demonstrate what the American ideal was about from the beginning. Are savagery, brutality and war our ideals, or mutual respect, honest competition and good sportsmanship? It is too late to regress into outgrown positions, but to seek and inch forward into a newer world "Tis not too late."

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?

Only 5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
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