Last weekend Robin and I made a pilgrimage to the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The reason for this pilgrimage was because Jimmy LaFave was going to be playing there. Jimmy is at the top of my list of favorite musicians. I have been listening to him for 20 years, and if I do not have all of his CDs, I have the vast majority. His music speaks to me on so many levels. The fact that he is not more famous than he is, says more about the music industry Continue reading “We Need Woody Guthrie and Jimmy LaFave”
Ernestine Johnson: ‘The Average Black Girl’
I Forgot My Phone
Wisdom is Where You Find It
Spent a few hours today with my mother, who is on the Alzheimer’s path. . .on a “good” day, she knows something is not right, and tries to figure out what that is. . .she is one smart lady. . .tough and practical. . .she did not know where she was going to sleep tonight. . .I tried to reassure her without triggering her. . .at one point, she looked at me and said, “When we were younger, the things we thought were hard were really pretty easy.” I am still making my back into the solar system after being blown away by that observation from a “demented” person. . .Mom, I am developing more and more admiration for your courage as a practicing human being dealing with what life has delivered to your front door step. . .I hope on some level you are aware of that fact. . .
A note from my brother James Michael
5 Things to Say at the End of Life
To The Best of Our Knowledge is interviewing Steven Spiro, a Buddhist Chaplain, on mindful dying. He has five things to say at the end of life.
- I love you
- I forgive you
- Please forgive me
- Thank you
- It will be okay
Not bad things to say at any point of life.
OMG – Did This Guy Nail It…
History of the World In 2 Minutes
If Black People Said The Stuff White People Say…
Mr. California Wonders About Ignorance
John the Philosopher aka Mr. California asked me to comment on the following:
“Ignorance rules the unreflecting herd.” 1
Ignorance is defined by the dictionary as: lack of knowledge, education, or awareness.
My first thought is that this falls under the rubric of “Nothing new under the sun”. A Google search on — quotes ignorance of the masses — revealed many similar thoughts. Here are a few that I cherry picked:
“Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.” ~~ Thomas Edison
“It’s much easier not to know things sometimes.” ~~ Stephen Chbosky
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” ~~ Isaac Asimov
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” ~~ Sir Winston Churchill
“Any formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession – their ignorance.” ~~Hendrik Willem van Loon
And I could go on.
My next thought Continue reading “Mr. California Wonders About Ignorance”
Almost Inspiring
We spent two days canoeing the Buffalo National River last weekend. We camped overnight in a semi-wilderness 
between the two days. This river is absolutely beautiful place, if you ever get a chance to float it, you should jump at the opportunity.
While we were canoeing the first day we were lapped by two men. The fellow in the back of the canoe had a prosthetic left arm that went almost to his shoulder. I said lapped, what I really meant was that they blew by us.
We stopped later in the day to visit Hemmed-in Hollow waterfall. It is advertised as the highest waterfalls between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains. It was not flowing dramatically the day we were there, but seasonally probably it is quite impressive.
As Robin and I were sitting there admiring the fall and watching folks, our gentleman with the prosthetic arm came up. He was with 3 companions, all in their thirties. Many folks float rivers as a beer drinking exercise. Such was the case with these four. It was the one-arm gentleman’s 40th birthday, and the float trip was in honor of that.
The fellow with the mechanical arm recognized us from the river and came up and introduced himself as Tim S. One of his companions was standing there also. Tim wanted to know what we thought about a one- armed man canoeing. I mentioned how I use to know a fellow with two prosthetic legs who was a pretty decent golfer. His friend mentioned that Tim golfed also.
At that point Tim launched into the story of how he had lost his arm. His friend wandered off, probably having heard the story multiple times. Most of the rest of our group came up at this point just in time to hear Tim’s story. Tim works for a pyrotechnic company that travels around the country putting on firework shows. There was an accident Continue reading “Almost Inspiring”