http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLl5y9RZI7c
Not sure I would like the beer, but I agree with the sentiment.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Ask Not What Your Country...
I've been wondering where Marge went? You know her. She was the hair dresser/manicurist that was really selling you Palmolive soap. Where is she? And the Maytag man? Though he didn't work much. And the gas station attendant asking, "Check under your hood?" The local butcher that had the bovine femur for your dog. These are images from ads, but they painted a picture of people earning a living, and being happy, serving others. Providing a service to others. Have you tried to find someone like that recently? When was the last time you went to a TV repairman? They are gone and with the new government TV standards for cable/satellite connections analog TV's will be dead by 2009.
Think about the images of people today in advertising and we have few pictures of people serving people. When we do, the servers are background screens to the main people having fun consuming or playing or cavorting or sitting WiFiing. People closed off to others.
Yesterday I read this article http://www.slate.com/id/2181786/nav/tap3/ and I started thinking about service and people and happiness. I don't know this man, but I know others like him. Not expensive French restaurant owners, but people that are good at serving their fellow man. People that enjoy making others people happy and by doing so, make themselves happy. Somewhere after the I/Me/Finding Myself 60's-70's, the Greedy80's, and the Slick 90's the images of people changed. We are no longer happy where we came from. We need more and we need it now.
We have become people like this. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/HomeMortgageSavings/MiddleClassRealityEssentials.aspx
Should it surprise us that we have housing and mortgage problems? Every article I've read about the new $2500 car from India, the Tata Nano, touted its price and the chance for almost everyone to own a car and be mobile and what a boon it will be for the Indian standard of living. But each article also mentioned that this will mean less gas for us to drive our cars with and that greenhouse gases will get worse. "I have my 15 mpg car and lifestyle and I don't want it affected by a half a billion Indians getting a 50 mpg car and burning my gas, and they'd be fouling the environment to boot!" Maybe Bill Cosby was on to something.
In the last two years Cosby has criticized the Black community for spending too much money on shoes and cars and bling and not enough on education. He has taken some heat for this. It seems to me that it isn't just Black Americans, but most Americans, regardless of race, that spend an inordinate amount of time and money trying to keep up with the Jones. Think of the images we see today. TV is ripe with people sitting in coffee shops talking about nothing in labeled clothing watching others pimp their ride while bridezillas try to outdo each other and complain when their house isn't priced to sell soon enough so they can move into their dream house before they are 30 and hope Hank Hill doesn't move next door.
This is a long roundabout way of asking, What gives you worth and value? Is it things, or is it what you do with your time? Might it be how much you serve your fellow humans, helping them? Didn't someone say, It is better to give than to receive.
Think about the images of people today in advertising and we have few pictures of people serving people. When we do, the servers are background screens to the main people having fun consuming or playing or cavorting or sitting WiFiing. People closed off to others.
Yesterday I read this article http://www.slate.com/id/2181786/nav/tap3/ and I started thinking about service and people and happiness. I don't know this man, but I know others like him. Not expensive French restaurant owners, but people that are good at serving their fellow man. People that enjoy making others people happy and by doing so, make themselves happy. Somewhere after the I/Me/Finding Myself 60's-70's, the Greedy80's, and the Slick 90's the images of people changed. We are no longer happy where we came from. We need more and we need it now.
We have become people like this. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/HomeMortgageSavings/MiddleClassRealityEssentials.aspx
Should it surprise us that we have housing and mortgage problems? Every article I've read about the new $2500 car from India, the Tata Nano, touted its price and the chance for almost everyone to own a car and be mobile and what a boon it will be for the Indian standard of living. But each article also mentioned that this will mean less gas for us to drive our cars with and that greenhouse gases will get worse. "I have my 15 mpg car and lifestyle and I don't want it affected by a half a billion Indians getting a 50 mpg car and burning my gas, and they'd be fouling the environment to boot!" Maybe Bill Cosby was on to something.
In the last two years Cosby has criticized the Black community for spending too much money on shoes and cars and bling and not enough on education. He has taken some heat for this. It seems to me that it isn't just Black Americans, but most Americans, regardless of race, that spend an inordinate amount of time and money trying to keep up with the Jones. Think of the images we see today. TV is ripe with people sitting in coffee shops talking about nothing in labeled clothing watching others pimp their ride while bridezillas try to outdo each other and complain when their house isn't priced to sell soon enough so they can move into their dream house before they are 30 and hope Hank Hill doesn't move next door.
This is a long roundabout way of asking, What gives you worth and value? Is it things, or is it what you do with your time? Might it be how much you serve your fellow humans, helping them? Didn't someone say, It is better to give than to receive.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Jokes, if you like that kind of thing
If you go to the following website you will find a few jokes. They are featuring the Red Sox, so you can guess that the Yankees are the butt of the jokes. You can fill in any teams you want and generally that is the case with most jokes. Why do we feel the need to disparage others? Unless they are the Yankees.
http://www.fotosbymeg.blogspot.com/
http://www.fotosbymeg.blogspot.com/
Sunday, January 6, 2008
What is Good!
Today I got to help a friend with a beam raising. It wasn't unlike an Amish barn raising, at least what I've seen in movies. Many friends helping another friend raise something. Thank you, Mr. C. To my sons it was another work thing Dad took us to, except they drink beer after the job is done and everything is up straight.
This made me think of things and I got to thinking of things that I appreciate. I wrote earlier about things I am thankful for, but this is about things I like, have liked for a longer time period and can appreciate.
James Taylor--I recently bought his latest cd, One Man Band. I first heard JT in junior high and I become more fascinated each time. His story telling is superb. His variety is incredible. Pop, jazz, classics. For a recovered heroin addict, his voice is remarkable. Stories of our time. And we share the same birthday.
Helping friends--Wish I had more time. Maybe when I retire from public service I can serve others.
Bicycles--A frosty morning quietly moving along, pedaling one speed, one pedal at a time. If that doesn't make you feel alive, you need paddles.
The Bible--What stories! War, famine, human endeavors and desires. WISDOM. Read it to learn how things have been done, good and bad. Name another single book that can do that.
John McPhee--New England writer. He can turn geology into the stuff you yearn to read. And birchbark canoes and Druids and oranges and shad and headmasters. I hope to live long enough to read all of his books.
Pat Metheny--He does things with a guitar that makes me want to listen more.
Wood baseball bats, hand planes, hammer, fixed gear bike.--Skill not technology. Old guys do rule. Or rather; Old, skilled guys rule.
More to come.
This made me think of things and I got to thinking of things that I appreciate. I wrote earlier about things I am thankful for, but this is about things I like, have liked for a longer time period and can appreciate.
James Taylor--I recently bought his latest cd, One Man Band. I first heard JT in junior high and I become more fascinated each time. His story telling is superb. His variety is incredible. Pop, jazz, classics. For a recovered heroin addict, his voice is remarkable. Stories of our time. And we share the same birthday.
Helping friends--Wish I had more time. Maybe when I retire from public service I can serve others.
Bicycles--A frosty morning quietly moving along, pedaling one speed, one pedal at a time. If that doesn't make you feel alive, you need paddles.
The Bible--What stories! War, famine, human endeavors and desires. WISDOM. Read it to learn how things have been done, good and bad. Name another single book that can do that.
John McPhee--New England writer. He can turn geology into the stuff you yearn to read. And birchbark canoes and Druids and oranges and shad and headmasters. I hope to live long enough to read all of his books.
Pat Metheny--He does things with a guitar that makes me want to listen more.
Wood baseball bats, hand planes, hammer, fixed gear bike.--Skill not technology. Old guys do rule. Or rather; Old, skilled guys rule.
More to come.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Finished a book
I have finished Gandhi's autobiography, The Story of My Experiments in Truth. The beginning or start of most things brings an enthusiasm with it and this book did that. Gandhi goes into more detail about the why's in the first parts. After his return to India, he spoke less of the why's and even less of what was happening. I guess I am disappointed about that. This is the birth of a nation and it seemed at times like a travelogue about parts of India he had never seen.
It was interesting to read about the beginnings of non-co-operation. Gandhi had to coin a new phrase as no term existed in his languages.
I am glad I read the book. I now have to find the movie to fill in some things in my mind.
It was interesting to read about the beginnings of non-co-operation. Gandhi had to coin a new phrase as no term existed in his languages.
I am glad I read the book. I now have to find the movie to fill in some things in my mind.
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