Tag: life

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The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

death_ivanilyitch_1104I cannot quite identify what draws me to Russian literature of the late 1800s, but it speaks to me. I’ve read many of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s books and several Leo Tolstoy’s.   I came across this little gem while perusing a list recommended literature.

It is in many ways a classic Russian work. Our protagonist is a judge who worked his way up by first going to the provinces and by a bit of luck too. He is a talented judge and unusual for these type of tales, an honest judge. He married as it seemed the thing to do, and that it was expected of people in his profession and social situation.   His marriage is not a happy one, but does produce several children. As in many Russian novels, there are money difficulties. It does not seem to matter what he makes, the family’s wants expand to the income and a little more. As his marriage deteriorates and other difficulties crowd in, he buries himself in his work. All of this is not an uncommon tale.

What I admire about Tolstoy is his ability to zero on the absurdities of human life. Continue reading “The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy”

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The Sea Wolf by Jack London

Sea_Wolf_1005London is probably best known for his book The Call of the Wild and possibly White Fang. London had a short but very prolific career. He was first published at 21 and had drunk himself to death by the time he was 40. The actual cause of his death was a morphine overdose. It remains unknown whether it was accidental or a suicide. He detailed his alcoholism in John Barleycorn or Alcoholic Memoirs. In some ways he had great insight into his alcoholism and at the same time practice great denial. He also wrote a very good book on the slums of London, The People of the Abyss.

I had not heard of The Sea Wolf which only points out my literary ignorance. After reading the book I wondered if they had ever made a movie of it. They have a few times. There is the 1941 version starring Edward G. Robinson. There is a 1993 made for TV movie starring Charles Bronson and Christopher Reeves. There is also a TV mini-series from 2009.

As I was researching the movies I came across a review of the book that stated more than a few critics have called it possibly The Great American Novel. I am not sure I would go quite that far, but I would definitely put it high company. Continue reading “The Sea Wolf by Jack London”

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Against Football

against footballI heard the book, Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto by Steve Almond, being discussed on NPR:  It prompted the following comments.

I was never a huge football fan, but I did follow the Cowboys and OU football. The Cowboys I first became enamored with when we lived in New Jersey and they were a new NFL expansion team. Dallas was close to Oklahoma, and Oklahoma was one of the few touchstones I had in my young life as a rolling stone. It is difficult to live in Oklahoma and not root for the Sooners, or at least the OSU Cowboys.

Another reason that I feigned a large interest in football was because it was the manly thing to do. All my male peers seemed to love the game and to have something to discuss with them a basic knowledge of football current and past events was needed.

I had a brief decade in Arkansas where I was able to grow a little moss, and I became interested in Razorback sports. If you know nothing else about Arkansas know that they are Razorback crazy. You see the red hog everywhere you go in the state.

The winds of time changed, Continue reading “Against Football”

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 4,575

…yeah I know you did not ask!

I’m not much of a sports fan. I used to follow college football some, primarily the University of Oklahoma. Mainly because it is difficult to live in Oklahoma and not follow them, like it is difficult to not follow the Cardinals when you live in St. Louis. However, I have noticed a trend the last few years… guys who are not interested in sports and who are not afraid to say it. It used to be that you were less than manly if you could not cite the latest win/loss record of whomever. What a nice trend.   There is more to life that sports.

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That noise you hear…

eagleOne of the courses I play regularly has a 417 yard dog-leg left par 4, as played from the white tees.  It is a very open hole so the wind affects the ball quite a bit.  About 200 yards from the green are two bunkers left of the fairway and one bunker right of the fairway.  If the wind is into me or still I just try to thread the needle between the two sets of bunkers.   If the wind is behind I attempt to carry the left set of bunkers as it leaves a short shot to the green.  Most of the time though when I do this my ball ends up in the rough, but I have a clear shot to the green.

Friday I caught the hole downwind, and I caught my tee shot well.  I might have tugged it just a bit.  Nevertheless I was in the fairway.  My handheld GPS unit told me I had about 130 yards to the front of the green.  There was a red flag on the pole indicating a front pin position.  I drew my trusty 8-iron from its scabbard.  I went through my pre-shot routine taking dead aim at the pin as there was room left and right.  I hit one of the straightest shots I had ever hit in my life. Continue reading “That noise you hear…”

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The Adventures of Alexander Selkirk by John Howell

life_adventures_alexander_selkirk_1301You say you do not know who Alexander Selkirk is. Well, fair enough, I did not know either. But if Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe comes to mind then you have hit a home run. Defoe based his most famous character on the Selkirk. This fact caused Defoe some grief as many people felt he had plagiarized or inappropriately borrowed Selkirk’s story.

Selkirk was born of Scottish working class parents. Not being enthralled with the family business of shoe making, he joined buccaneer expeditions into the South Seas. The expeditions were not particularly successful. Selkirk argued extensively with one of his superiors, and finally asked to depart from the ship. They dropped him off on Juan Fernández Island off the coast of Chile. He immediately regretted his decision. He spent the next 4 plus years living alone on the island. He survived mainly on goats left there by pirates. Continue reading “The Adventures of Alexander Selkirk by John Howell”

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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”

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 169

…yeah I know you did not ask!

Call me old fashion… I am so tried of looking at people all tattooed up. I do not understand why anyone would get a tattoo in the first place.  All too often in life less is actually more, and it would certainly be the same with tattoos. One or two maybe, it would draw a little attention and interest, and not overwhelm .  I suppose I will continue to do what I do now, and look the other way.

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John Barleycorn or Alcoholic Memoirs by Jack London

John_Barleycorn_Alcoholic_Memoirs_1112Most people know Jack London from such books as Call of the Wild or White Fang.  London was also a Socialist and attempted to motivate public opinion to correct social ills, uplift the poor and champion the working class in such books as People of the Abyss. For the last book, London went undercover in the notorious East End of London, where the poorest of the poor lived.  If you can read this book and remained unmoved about the vileness of unfettered capitalism, you are a stronger person than I.

John Barleycorn or Alcoholic Memoirs is a very interesting book to read. For someone like myself who knows more than a few folks who have shipwrecked their lives on one or both of the conjoined reefs of depression and addiction, it is also a very hard book to read.   London’s goal in writing this book was as a warning to generations coming after him on the dangers of John Barleycorn aka alcohol.

There is some controversy over how Jack London died.  The immediate cause was an overdose of morphine.  Whether it was accidentally or purposeful is the controversy.  What is not at controversy was that he was in the late stages alcoholism.  He was also suffering from various diseases picked up in his travels.

Perhaps one of the most telling of passages in the book is the beginning of chapter one: Continue reading “John Barleycorn or Alcoholic Memoirs by Jack London”

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 4,234

…yeah I know you did not ask!

Life is purposeless.  Life just is.  Anyone beyond scrambling daily to just meet their existence needs knows this at some level.  Most folks do not acknowledge it.  Perhaps this is actually the healthier response, to remain somewhat delusional.  However it is this unacknowledged comprehension that drives so much of human behavior.  The mass psychoses that are the various religions stem from this.  The fanaticism of the sports aficionado is a symptom of this.  You can add anything that pretends to provide or reveal purpose to life. Being a creative species we have concocted many.

The question becomes what happens when this purposelessness is acknowledged.  An argument could be made that this is a possible cause of depression, addiction, and a varied list of maladaptive behaviors.

The more I dwell on it, the only sane response when you are aware enough to acknowledge that life is without purpose is to live in the moment, to just be.  Another possible response when you accept this is to provide your own purpose realizing that ultimately your purpose is an ephemeroptera.