Category: Rev. Joe Dirt’s Ramblings

The unsolicited, unreasoned, uninformed, unapologetic opinions of Rev. Joe Dirt

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #6,812

yeah I know you did not ask!

You should so be blessed – well cursed at times actually – with a mind such as mine, making all these weird connections between my rumored neurons. Just be thankful that I do not share all of my random thoughts.

I  made a run to a local grocery store, Schnucks, as I was out of my eponymous cerveza,  Dirty Bastard.  As I was walking in, an elderly Chinese couple was walking out.  Okay, the Chinese ethnicity is an assumption on my part, probably a good one, as there is a large Chinese population in the St. Louis area.  In fact our neighbors to our left are from Taiwan. But I meander.  The wife (another assumption on my part) was jabbering away at her husband in what I assumed was Mandarin.

Trouble was that she was eating something and had her mouth so full that the words were very garbled.  I just could not understand anything she was saying.

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My Current Mantras

Mantra is defined as: originally in Hinduism and Buddhism) a word or sound repeated to aid concentration in meditation.  It has also come to mean: a statement or slogan repeated frequently.  This is the sense with which I am using the word.

The phrase I have been saying to myself most frequently of late is “be gracious.”  Obviously, I am saying this when I am feeling anything but.  It is something I am finding harder and harder to do with this “Me First” culture that seems to be the norm these days. I kept telling myself I do not want to be that guy when I have an urge to be less than gracious. Although, frequently, my technique for being gracious is to remove myself from a situation when I find it difficult.  I keep trying to picture myself as a kindly, white-haired, eloquent, elderly gentleman allowing the trials and tribulations of life to wash over me as gentle waves.   Yes, yes, I know in that string of adjectives, only white-haired and elderly would be used by most of my acquaintances and relatives.

I would have thought that when I retired my level of stress would have diminished.  After all I am not the person responsible for making sure the payroll software does not hinder getting the payroll out every two weeks, or any other roles I had in other jobs that involved large sums of money and much scrutiny by other departments. It does not seem to have worked that way. Clearly, other, more personal things are stressing me at this stage of my life.

The second phrase, which I frequently pair with the first, is, “don’t judge.” As an INTJ being judgmental is hardwired into my personality, especially as I have an analytic turn of mind… “don’t judge, be gracious.” I still would like to think that everyone is doing the best they can, although I do not truly believe that anymore.  Oops, there I go being judgmental again.

Lastly, and as it affects me most often, the most necessary, is the phrase, “do it now while you are thinking about it.”  All too often of late, I think I need to do this or that, saying to myself I will do it next, or in five minutes, or whenever, only to completely forget about it for an extended period of time.

So, there you have it, my self-talk.

Go listen to some Rickie Lee Jones.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #4,033

yeah I know you did not ask!

You should so be blessed – well cursed at times actually – with a mind such as mine, making all these weird connections between my rumored neurons. Just be thankful that I do not share all of my random thoughts.

A New Pandemic

As you probably remember, most of us survived the recent COVID pandemic that occurred at the beginning of another pandemic, the invasive parasitic brain worm known as Trumpism, which in itself was the result of the unnatural mating of incorrigible, rampant, corporate capitalism and dogmatic, religious fundamentalism.

In the last few months a new pandemic has descended on us, this one given the cute name of AI, Artificial Intelligence.  It is everywhere I do not want it to be… like out of control canker sores. IMHO, the movie, Terminator, was prophetic.  I am spending way too much time trying to eliminate AI from my devices to just see it pop up in a different application.  It is reminding me more and more of a “social disease”. It is appearing more and more like the only solution is abstinence from all things computer related.

From the movie, Terminator:

“By the time Skynet became self-aware it had spread into millions of computer servers across the planet. Ordinary computers in office buildings, dorm rooms, everywhere. It was software in cyberspace. There was no system core. It could not be shut down. The attack began at 6:18 p.m., just as he said it would. Judgment Day. The day the human race was nearly destroyed by weapons they’d built to protect themselves.”

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Another Etiquette Question

I was in the grocery store, well Schnucks if you have to know.  I was headed towards the cash registers when I spied a late middle-aged women in front of me who I thought was also headed towards the checkout.  She was very heavy set and wearing yoga pants or whatever those tight, clinging pants are. Just as an aside, I think there should be some social construct that would necessitate that people wearing such articles of clothing should have themselves videoed walking away from the videographer.  If they are good with how they look, so be it.

What caught my attention Continue reading “Another Etiquette Question”

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Reading While Blind

There is an anecdote told about Abraham Lincoln rejecting a man suggested for a Cabinet position as Lincoln did not like his face. His advisor remarked that a man is not responsible for his face. To which Lincoln purportedly replied that anyone over 40 is responsible for his own face.

I did a cursory search on the Internet to verify the veracity of this statement.  It may or may not have been said by him.  Similar comments have been attributed to several folks over the years.  It seems to have been a meme current at that time, but I am going with Lincoln.

I have riffed on this anecdote and said something somewhat similar — anyone over the age of 40 is Continue reading “Reading While Blind”

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Paul Randolph Rush | 29 October 1953 – 21 June 2025

Began as a Request

Angie, the wife of Paul’s son, Jason, asked me for some fond memories of Paul for the memorial service. This is what I sent her with some additions.   So here goes… in 4000 words or so which does not seem hardly sufficient for nearly 72 years on this planet.

Paul, the Curmudgeon

I say fondly, I say with all kindness, my brother Paul was a curmudgeon. Perhaps the best explanation as to what a curmudgeon is, I encountered in Jon Winokur’s book, The Portable Curmudgeon. In that book he describes a curmudgeon thusly:

“A curmudgeon’s reputation for malevolence is undeserved. They’re neither warped nor evil at heart. They don’t hate mankind, just mankind’s absurdities. They’re just as sensitive and soft-hearted as the next guy, but they hide their vulnerability beneath a crust of misanthropy. …They ease the pain by turning hurt into humor. They attack maudlinism because it devalues genuine sentiment. . . . Nature, having failed to equip them with a serviceable denial mechanism, has endowed them with astute perception and sly wit.

Curmudgeons are mockers and debunkers whose bitterness is a symptom rather than a disease. They can’t compromise their standards and can’t manage the suspension of disbelief necessary for feigned cheerfulness. Their awareness is a curse.

Perhaps curmudgeons have gotten a bad rap in the same way that the messenger is blamed for the message: They have the temerity to comment on the human condition without apology. They not only refuse to applaud mediocrity, they howl it down with morose glee. Their versions of the truth unsettle us, and we hold it against them, even though they soften it with humor.”

I truly cannot think of a better description of Paul.  He had a heart of gold, but the absurdities of the world were often too much for him.

A Baseball Game

For another window in the essence of my brother Paul, I recently discovered Continue reading “Paul Randolph Rush | 29 October 1953 – 21 June 2025”

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #8,232

yeah I know you did not ask!

You should so be blessed – well cursed at times actually – with a mind such as mine, making all these weird connections between my rumored neurons. Just be thankful that I do not share all of my random thoughts.

There are many calendars in use in the world, such as the Hebrew calendar, the Chinese calendar, and the Islamic calendar.  The Julian calendar is still is used in parts of the world.  There may be more that I am not aware of.  Of course, the most common calendar worldwide is the Gregorian calendar, the one we here in the United States are most familiar with.

The Gregorian calendar (and Julian calendar) are divided by the time before the birth of Christ and the time after.  For most of my life this has been BC which stands for Before Christ, and AD  which stands for Anno Domini which is Latin for in the year of our Lord.

Quite some time ago this was decided to be cultural insensitive as there more religions than Christianity.  Currently, the BC has morphed into BCE which stands for Before the Common Era, and AD has changed into CE which stands for Common Era.

Fast forward… Frequently when folks are telling s story or referencing something they will use the phrase, “this was before cell phones.”  Perhaps we should now change our era nomenclature to BCP, Before Cell Phones, and ACP, After Cell Phones.

Or not.

Lagniappe:  There is no zero on the Julian and Gregorian calendars because the Romans did not have a zero in their number system.  This was a later import from the Arabic number system.

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Pay Attention to History

Pay attention to history.

I sincerely hope we are a better nation than what tRump and his sycophants are attempting to do to our country currently… I sincerely hope so.

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My Mossy Address Book – Revisited

“A rolling stone gathers no moss”

If you were to sum up my life in one phrase the above aphorism might just be it.  I spent the first 18 years of my life more or less as a military brat.  I literally had 13 changes of schools before I graduated high school.  This includes one school that I was in for a single day.  I have described the last 30 years of my working life as that of a computer gypsy, moving around to take different jobs in Information Technology.  I did have a stable period in between (at least as far as physical location) when I lived in Arkansas and we were getting kids through school.

In such a life people come and go.  It is just a fact of life that you get used to.  I do not know how many times I have said to someone, “have a good life”, knowing I would never be seeing them again. I have on occasions tried to maintain relationships over time and distance, but this must be two sided and has very seldom worked out.

I have now reached the age where many of my relatives, friends and acquaintances are passing away.  This is sincerely a sadness just in itself. If a person truly touches you, they take up residence in some part of your psyche.  I have sometimes described this as feeling like I have ghosts running around my soul.    At times it has felt a little crowded in there.

And now add an additional sadness  due  to this technical  age.  After the fact of someone’s death, sometimes much later, I will come across their information in one of my address books or contact lists.  I have such a hard time deleting the information, it feels like deleting the memory of that person.  Sometimes the address/contact card will remain in there for years.  I just cannot delete it.

On the positive side, it does make you stop for a minute and remember the person when you stumble across it.

Sigh.  We march on.

I originally published this 5 years .  The “empty slots” in my address book just keep growing.

Keep well.

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Face Off with A Robot

This is not the first time I have encountered a robot in the wild. Across the mighty Mississippi River, there is a sports bar I go to occasionally in Illinois as it is close to the golf course I go to most.  If Señora is not around for dinner I may stop in there for a bite.  For a while now, they have had a robot that brings the food from the kitchen in back to the waitress station in the middle.  It always seems a little rickety to me, but I have never seen it spill anything. On the other hand, I am in this establishment less than a handful of times a year.

I was in a local grocery store, Schnucks, this afternoon.  Señora had decided she wanted me to fix my infamous Continue reading “Face Off with A Robot”