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yeah I know you did not ask!
Can you imagine how much better off we would all be if we gave up the myth that is the Horatio Alger story? We are all so concentrated on believing that we can go from rags to riches that we do not allow ourselves to invest in community wealth that would benefit us all.
As good as the play is it is but a hearty soup when compared to the book. Of course, at 1100 pages, some folks may consider the book a gluttonous meal. For this reader, in those 1100 pages, I found very few times that the book dragged.
The book is many things besides the story of Jean Valjean and company. At its heart it is a religious work. At the beginning of the 7th book of volume II, Hugo pens:
“This book is a drama, whose leading personage is the Infinite. Man is the second.”
With the story as the driver, Hugo interweaves history, philosophy, sociology, politics, religion and accounts of contemporary social norms and practices. Ultimately, it is a book about morality and self-sacrifice.
This is a story we all know well from the play and from the movies.
Jean Valjean is sentenced to the galleys, Continue reading “Les Misérables by Victor Hugo”
I have a hypothesis that is likely totally bogus, but I am running with it anyway. My supposition deals with older women and pets, particularly cats and especially small dogs. As a woman passes the age of fecundity, as she passes the period of child rearing she does not lose her mothering instinct, her need to nurture. Small dogs fulfill this role admirably. Small dogs are not so big as to overwhelm one, or so big that they take over the house. Small dogs are in most ways much easier to care for. They are frequently very loyal and loving to their primary care giver. Plus, many are as cute as the proverbial speckled pup under a red wagon. Another one of my hypotheses is that as the genders age, they become similar. I’m betting this one has a less of a chance of being bogus. One reason I think this is that you frequently see older men with small dogs. Perhaps they are walking them for their spouses. Continue reading “Pit Bull Christmas”
Time frame was the early 90s. My daughter Keely had been out of the home for 3 or 4 years. It was Christmas time. Now my ex-wife has lots of fine traits, but Christmas is 
not one of them. For her Christmas IS the time of year. I always said after she had completed her decorations (which seem to compound year by year) that the house looked like a bordello. She started buying Christmas presents sometime around August 1. For her Christmas is all about friends and family, giving, feasting and enjoying each others company.
I, on the other hand… Do you remember Ebenezer Scrooge’s famous line, “Bah Humbug”? In certain circles it is a well known secret that he actually stole the phrase from me in one of my previous reincarnations. Christmas IS not my favorite time of year. If I am in a really jolly mood in any one year, I just try to maintain and make it through.
At that time we live in Alma, AR. To help you locate Alma it is just outside of Fort Smith. Fort Smith is on the Oklahoma border Continue reading “Slip and Slide Christmas”
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
I really surprised myself as how quickly I went from wandering around REI Christmas shopping to madder than a Baptist finding his favorite liquor store closed.
The REI here is St. Louis is in one of the richest parts of town. The parking lot is full of Beamers, Mercedes and Teslas in addition to the expected Subabrus, Toyotas and Hondas. We were walking towards the front of the store to check out. Robin never noticed him, but there was a young man, perhaps in his late twenties, walking around with a 45 strapped to his waist. He was obviously not store security. He did not look like a plains clothes police office in his Australian outback hat. I had to turn around and walk towards the back of the store as my impulse was to walk up to him and say, “Unless you are carrying a badge, you are one stupid mother f***er.
I do not want to live in a society where people can walk around with lethal weapons strapped to their bodies. I consider concealed carry laws an atrocity beyond words. I have lived 63 years and I can think of only one situation where I might have wanted a gun. Instead I turned around and confronted the man verbally which was enough. It is insane to have to worry about accidentally triggering some mental case with a gun tucked away somewhere on their body. If I verbally abuse you, flip you off, or cut you off in traffic it is more insanity to have to worry about a weapon.
My personal opinion is that anyone that is willing to carry a weapon, openly or otherwise, in a situation where the need for it approaches an infinitesimal small percentage is not sane enough to carry a weapon.
yeah I know you did not ask!
What about next time Congress has some “must pass” legislation, instead of slipping a rider that benefits only the fats cats and decreases our democracy, we tact on riders to benefit all of us. Perhaps something to reform the student loan program, and make college affordable; perhaps something that will help bring good jobs back to America; perhaps legislation to bring our infrastructure into the 21st century; perhaps a realistic minimum wage; perhaps a tax code change to decrease the wealth gap; I could go on an on, but you get the idea.
Follow the link below. Some of the pictures may offend some…so if you choose to click be nice to me.
These Are The Most Controversial Illustrations You Will See This Year