Category: Life

October 23 – no sincerity

no sincerity
hypocrisy in buckets
Great Pumpkin, cropped

For me, a part of Fall and Halloween is watching It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

Where did you guys go??

I enjoyed it as a kid.

I reveled in as a college student, making a point to watch it with my room mate, Doug Bruder. (We would call each other later in life with reminders when it was on.)

I introduced it to my children.

And my grand children.

I knew it was on this week but was surprised when I turned on the TV last night to see it on.

I yelled for my Grand Daughter, Azaria, to join me.

My daughter, Lauren, says, ‘Oh its Dad’s show.”

And my dear wife came in and sat with me just to be nice.

Azaria had her phone in her hand and was less than eager to look away from the device to watch this 60 year old animation play out as her grand father mouthed the lines.

I was pleased to notice this year that when trick-or-treating, Charlie Brown got rocks several times.

In the past, to make room for commercials, the Bach Fugue of ‘ALL I GOT WAS A ROCK’ had been cut to a single repetition.

I gloried in Linus’ speech of, “Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He’s gotta pick this one. He’s got to. I don’t see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there’s not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see.”

Then on to the party and it happened.

Lucy bobs for apples and pulls Snoopy out of the tub and starts yelling blecch blecch.

Snoopy slithers away … and … CRAWLS INTO THE PUMPKIN PATCH?

What?

WHAT!

Wait a minute.

Snoopy climbs out of the tub and goes over to Schroeder at the piano.

Schroeder then plays out a melody of World War 1 ballads that stirs Snoopy’s heart or moves the dog to grief.

He doesn’t go out to the pumpkin patch until over come with tears, he leaves the piano and goes out the door.

Where was the toothy grin and Pack Up Your Troubles and SMILE SMILE SMILE.

Where was the embarrassment in the dogs face when it howls in emotion during Roses of Picardy?

All cut to create more time for commercials?

Might as well cut off Mona Lisa’s nose.

No sincerity here.

Oh the hypocrisy!

Oh.

Oh.

Oh, Good Grief!

October 21 – Change in plans, outlook

change in plans, outlook
gradually, suddenly
unexpectedly

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.

“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

“What brought it on?”

“Friends,” said Mike. “I had a lot of friends. False friends. Then I had creditors, too. Probably had more creditors than anybody in England.”

Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, New York: Scribner, 1954.

“No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy’s main strength” (or “no plan survives contact with the enemy”). Helmuth von Moltke the Elder.

Moltke’s main thesis was that military strategy had to be understood as a system of options since it was only possible to plan the beginning of a military operation. As a result, he considered the main task of military leaders to consist in the extensive preparation of all possible outcomes.

Such planning leads to a zugzwang where all options, all decisions, first gradually, then suddenly and always, unexpectedly, lead to a worse situation than it was at the beginning.

Gosh, why get out of bed?

October 20 – frauds and contenders

frauds and contenders
the predictable chaos
of college football

Hindsight is 20 – 20 .

Monday morning quarterbacks.

Second Guesser.

This morning, Paul Myerberg of USA TODAY, in his column, Winners and losers from Week 8 in college football led by Wisconsin, Oregon, used the phrase, PREDICTABLE CHAOS.

It reminds of the joke about the driver who kept their hazard flashers blinking when they drove.

“Maybe I am going left, maybe I am going right, but something is going to happen.”

I consider myself a fan.

I follow Michigan football.

I want Michigan to win.

But I am no longer at home with the would-a, could-a, should-a of sport.

I have always lost patience with the Tim McCarveresque, “if that ball is five feet deeper, it is a home run.”

Well, DUH.

Much preferred Harry’s Caray’s disgusted old call of ‘RON CEY HOME RUN’ for a pop out to the infield.

No ifs or buts, once the game is over, its over and move on to the next.

And the march to the throne of College Football?

Well, get rid of that too.

I don’t know.

Must be getting old.

I wish to be allowed to just enjoy the game.

Maybe it is me that has to change.

October 19 – no guarantee made

no guarantee made
terrible or works of art
translate your vision

The quip goes, “I know art. I just don’t know what I like. That’s my problem.”

This gray Saturday morning, with Tropical Storm Nestor side swiping Georgia and turning my weekend to rain, I got to pondering over the coffee.

The Verse of the Day in my email from The Bible Gateway read, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. ” ( Psalm 37:4 NIV )

Nearing 60 years of age, what are the desires of my heart?

On a grand scale, to survive this life and having accepted the gift of grace through Jesus Christ, look forward to eternity with God.

That out of the way, what else?

Happiness for me and my wife.

Security.

Freedom from want. (A note of this: Freedom from want was a part of FDR’s 4 freedoms:

Freedom of speech
Freedom of worship
Freedom from want
Freedom from fear

When these were presented to Josef Stalin, Stalin paused at number three and asked, does this mean ‘want’ or ‘desire’.

He was assured that it was ‘want’.)

Success and security for my children and grand children.

This pondering leads to how have I lived my life?

How will it translate.

My life wasn’t terrible.

Not sure it was a work of art.

It had beautiful moments.

Cringe worthy moments from childhood to yesterday abound.

I think about what I know of my Grand Father’s lives.

Not much really.

Makes the goal of emulating Ernie from yesterday’s post seem all too perfect.

To live a life and die with the note:

will be remembered
for his gentle, loving, and
generous nature.

That would be a work of art.