Update and some thoughts

Update on Jesus:He has finished radiation and started chemotherapy at this time. He has reached the point that food doesn't taste like anything edible. He will return to UCSF in the next few weeks for a followup and decisions on how to continue the fight.

Thoughts: "Take what they give you, don't try to do too much or force things." I can't remember when or where I first heard this, but it is the basis of my baseball philosophy. I tell the baseball teams this constantly. I suppose a slacker-dude could use that statement to argue for lack of effort, but that's the opposite of what I'm thinking.

In baseball you get three outs per inning on offense and three outs on defense. Some will argue against sacrifice bunts by saying you have only twenty-one outs a game, don't give them away. I'll not argue that today. What I'm after is the take what they give you part. If I'm in the field and the batter sacrifice bunts, make sure to get an out. We teach some outs are better than others, but they all count the same. How often do you see a team try to make the hardest play and end up with no outs? Instead of taking at least one of the outs they are being given, the team tries to force something and get nothing. YOU have now given the other team twenty-two outs instead of them giving you one of theirs.

The second part of the saying, "don't try too hard or force things," that seems to be the difficult part to understand. It seems to imply and many people seem to infer that one shouldn't put effort into our actions. Not so. The unspoken truth is that work, effort and practice will make something that was once hard, easier. What used to difficult and needed much effort and even forcing to accomplish, becomes easier with work and effort over time. And now what you used to have to force requires no forcing. It almost becomes receiving on your part. You can now take somethings that the other team wasn't giving. Think of the third baseman diving to the line, snagging a line drive and getting up to throw out the runner.

The same applies to life. Take the love you are given. Don't try to force yourself on others. Work and play hard and smart. Consider the impact of your actions on others. Are you receiving what you are being given? Are you forcing yourself in situations? Accept in others what they have to give. Don't force them to have your vision only. Maybe when they see something differently it's not them being wrong, but you forcing your view. And don't force your children to be what you cannot or will not.

What's a Person to Do?

If you look at the person that is third from the left, that is who I am about to write about. Jesus amazes me. He has just been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in the lung and brain. My heart cries for him and his family. Talk to him though and he will tell you it is not what he chose, but it is in God's hands. He is going to fight this like everything else he has fought. Like when his father was ambushed and killed while leaving town to avoid the sheriff that disliked him. Like the struggles to immigrate with his family to start over. Like overcoming the crap from professors to earn a college degree. Like using humor to deal with a recalcitrant teenager who doesn't want , or even think they need to learn because they already know everything-just ask them or let them speak. This man has seen more and lived more and endured more than most people in this country will in a lifetime. He is 42 and has Stage 4 cancer. And he humbles me. And he is closer to God. Jesus is my hero.

The New High Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLl5y9RZI7c

Not sure I would like the beer, but I agree with the sentiment.

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.

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/

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.

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.