Technology so great …
Can go to outer space, but
can’t get glasses clean

I think it really got bad for me with the plastic or polycarbonate lenses and for the life of me I cannot get them clean.

I cannot get that greasy film off.

I have tried everything from space age wipes to extra extra special cleaning clothes.

I have spent 10 minutes polishing my glasses only to put them on and and seemingly instantly, a fingerprint shows up.

So I live with it but geeeee whizzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

My grand daughter recently saw a photo of me when I was kid, before glasses.

She said, “It’s Poppa when he could see!”

mighty endeavor
conquer greed, race arrogance
road will be long, hard

Adapted from the text of Radio Address & Prayer on D-Day, June 6, 1944, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home — fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas — whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them–help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too — strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

strange business comes out
grappling barehanded with fate
so inexplicable

Today’s haiku was adapted from a passage from a lecture by Bruce Catton at a meeting of the Chicago Civil War Round Table on April 12, 1957.

Catton said: I do not think that all of us together, vast as our knowledge is, would pretend that we know everything there is to know about the American Civil War. We are much to modest for that: and as the lady in the movie said, we have much to be modest about. Nevertheless, I do think that all of us realize this: that as our knowledge of the Civil War broadens, the area within which we are willing to make hard-and-fast statements of face steadily diminishes. It winds up a mystery: a flaming, heaven-sent mystery, a strange business which comes out of men grappling bare-handed with fate, a complex and inexplicable affair in which ordinary human beings do, finally, confront destiny coming down the road with a shattering question to which no one quite has the answer. The Civil War begins in a mystery and ends in one; all we can be sure of is that along the way we ordinary human beings, rendered extraordinary by their confrontation with fate, coming to grips with something that goes beyond their own horizon.

A recurring theme in these daily haiku’s is that, everyday, people grapple bare-handed with fate, with the cards in their hand.

Everyday there are ordinary human beings, rendered extraordinary by their confrontation with fate.

About Bruce Catton, he may be the first person in my life that I recognized as one of those people who were called ‘authors’ because they wrote books. Catton was also from Michigan and grew up in Benzonia. His book about growing up in Michigan, Waiting for the Morning Train, is a great read and a delight to own.

The first books I was given as gifts were by Bruce Catton.

One summer when I was around 10, my Grand Father rescued a copy of Mr. Lincoln’s Army that was being discarded by the Garfield Park Reformed Church Library and gave to me with the words, “I told them my Grand Son will want this.”

(As an odd note, I have a copy of Waiting for the Morning Train that my Mom planned as a Christmas Gift for my Grand Father in 1972. Sad to say, my Grand Father died that year on December 16th. The book was in my Mom’s room for a long time until she asked if I would want to have it.)

That summer, from that volume of Mr. Lincoln’s Army, my brother Jack read chapters to me at bedtime.

Even today, if I reread the chapter, Crackers and Bullets, I hear it in my head in Jack’s voice, pace and phrasing.

Catton wrote about the Civil War in a way that allowed you to see those men grappling with fate.

Everyday, there are ordinary human beings, rendered extraordinary by their confrontation with fate.

National nightmare
goes on. Here, truth, laws, not men
Here, the people rule

Based on Gerald R. Ford’s Remarks Upon Taking the Oath of Office as President

Mr. Chief Justice, my dear friends, my fellow Americans:

The oath that I have taken is the same oath that was taken by George Washington and by every President under the Constitution. But I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances never before experienced by Americans. This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.

Therefore, I feel it is my first duty to make an unprecedented compact with my countrymen. Not an inaugural address, not a fireside chat, not a campaign speech–just a little straight talk among friends. And I intend it to be the first of many.

I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your President with your prayers. And I hope that such prayers will also be the first of many.

If you have not chosen me by secret ballot, neither have I gained office by any secret promises. I have not campaigned either for the Presidency or the Vice Presidency. I have not subscribed to any partisan platform. I am indebted to no man, and only to one woman–my dear wife–as I begin this very difficult job.

I have not sought this enormous responsibility, but I will not shirk it. Those who nominated and confirmed me as Vice President were my friends and are my friends. They were of both parties, elected by all the people and acting under the Constitution in their name. It is only fitting then that I should pledge to them and to you that I will be the President of all the people.

Thomas Jefferson said the people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. And down the years, Abraham Lincoln renewed this American article of faith asking, “Is there any better way or equal hope in the world?”

I intend, on Monday next, to request of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate the privilege of appearing before the Congress to share with my former colleagues and with you, the American people, my views on the priority business of the Nation and to solicit your views and their views. And may I say to the Speaker and the others, if I could meet with you right after these remarks, I would appreciate it.

Even though this is late in an election year, there is no way we can go forward except together and no way anybody can win except by serving the people’s urgent needs. We cannot stand still or slip backwards. We must go forward now together.

To the peoples and the governments of all friendly nations, and I hope that could encompass the whole world, I pledge an uninterrupted and sincere search for peace. America will remain strong and united, but its strength will remain dedicated to the safety and sanity of the entire family of man, as well as to our own precious freedom.

I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our Government but civilization itself. That bond, though strained, is unbroken at home and abroad.

In all my public and private acts as your President, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy in the end.

My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.

Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. But there is a higher Power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy.

As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate, more painful and more poisonous than those of foreign wars, let us restore the golden rule to our political process, and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate.

In the beginning, I asked you to pray for me. Before closing, I ask again your prayers, for Richard Nixon and for his family. May our former President, who brought peace to millions, find it for himself. May God bless and comfort his wonderful wife and daughters, whose love and loyalty will forever be a shining legacy to all who bear the lonely burdens of the White House.

I can only guess at those burdens, although I have witnessed at close hand the tragedies that befell three Presidents and the lesser trials of others.

With all the strength and all the good sense I have gained from life, with all the confidence my family, my friends, and my dedicated staff impart to me, and with the good will of countless Americans I have encountered in recent visits to 40 States, I now solemnly reaffirm my promise I made to you last December 6: to uphold the Constitution, to do what is right as God gives me to see the right, and to do the very best I can f or America.

God helping me, I will not let you down.

Thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at 12:05 p.m. in the East Room at the White House following administration of the oath of office by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. The oath of office and the President’s remarks were broadcast live on radio and television. The White House announced that Richard Nixon’s letter of resignation as 37th President of the United States was tendered to Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger in his White House office by Assistant to the President Alexander M. Haig, Jr., at 11:35 a.m.