Afghanistan

    Afghanistan, we know it is about the oil

we know it is about preserving our way of life
yet, when you think about it on a one to one
one person at a time
one life at a time
one death at a time
the quest for oil becomes very dear

Our system runs on oil
with oil
everything stops
chaos rules
people starve
riots

companies shut down
workers have no income

we have no choice
science as yet has found no solution
to the quest for alternative fuel

and now china
has become a new consumer
with an appetite
to grow
and use

and we are using
and not growing
we are just getting by
by borrowing

sooner rather than later
we will be forced to make a choice
we must find a solution
to getting cheap oil
to getting alternative fuel
to eliminate our debt
to become more competitive in the world
to protect what we have

one alternative is war
with war
the population is reduced
the competition is reduced
the spoils of war would if we won
eliminate some of our debt

there seems to be no other choice
it is a matter of time
how long
can we hold out
with less people employed
with the same mouths to feed
with the same reduced demand for fuel
by less people employed
less people travelling
more people idle

the real answer is for the government at this time to fund educating all the unemployed
feeding them and and their families
the more educated the population is the better opportunity there is for someone to find the answers we need
the less educated the nation is the more fear
the ignorance and want will fester
the panic and anxiety will numb the populace into a mode of non thinking machines
swallowed up by fear

If the government gives families an opportunity to be safe in this environment  of uncertainty
Americans would be in a position to rally to the needs of the nation
Right now people are preoccupied with their own needs and have little left over for the country

This plan is better that the WPA because it is an investment in the only resource we have that we can expand upon
All other resources are fixed and limited
Investing in the people would guarantee
a finer greater resource than we now have

we would have a smarter more educated thinking population
thinking people save lives save money save resources save time
without an educated population
we lose

and our work is finished

     sadness is a lonely place
the home of the broken heart
the tree of loss
the place so apart from the world
there is nothing to overcome its domain

we find sadness around every corner
broken hearts and the dear departed
sadness overwhelms the senses 
it numbs, it paralyzes 

it is an indescribable event
it cannot be touched
although it is felt with the force
of the swinging rod of the hammer
of discontent

it offen is accompained with defeat
and is a companion of loss
it is always the way the mind celebrates
every unhappy place it visits

try, to replace the loss, try to replace the defeat
with anything
something
keep filling the space with things anythings somethings
everythings allthings
and when you take time to breathe

think about more things to fill the empty space
in the mind
it is all in the mind
keep digging, keep looking
for more to add to the space of sadness

busy busy busy
does little to erase the ness in sad
time dulls the ache
time passes
the sadness lingers
the loss the same

this too shall pass
and the empty space lingers
always empty
always longing
always wishing
always wanting
always the same
the loss
the sadness

only we change
and with time
we see
we carry those lost 
and have them within us
and their laughter and their tears
are the tears and laughter we share

and they are always with us
and they are not here
and we expect everything to stay the same
and we are sad with the change we do not want
and we are happy with the change we do want
and we want always what we cannot have
and we are sad
when we do not get what we want
and our sadness is selfish
and we know it is selfish
and it is like breaking threw of a new tooth
we must go through the pain
before we grow anew
and we must grow anew
till the growing is done
and our work is finished

and someone else carries the sadness
we leave behind             

World Wailing Tennis

              We can talk about the skill of a tennis star, the power position and ability to persuade the ball to go exactly where they want it to. At times it is poetry in motion, as the song goes. The equipment has change over the years, cat gut has been replaced by synthetics and their tension adjusted to the players specifications. Sneakers have gotten stronger too. Socks don't hang anymore they stay up to all the abuse. Costumes, well, the white shorts and skirts have morphed with sales tags as the star ingredient. Even the heads of the most famous players are billboard advertisements.

             Tennis courts are filmed for instant replays in case of contrary opinions and the winner usually signs the glass on the camera. Wonder who gets to keep the camera.

             Tennis is big business, for individuals, teams and countries. National spirit soars for every player. It is very exciting, with a full house of enthusiastic fans roaring with every stroke. The spirit of the games!


             Yet, there is a rub, and it is getting to be a rash that is spreading into an uncontrollable disease of unprofessionalism which is not being addressed and not being deterred.

             These player have become coddled spoiled brats that have no idea how unprofessional and objectionable their behavior has become.

              If any other worker grunted during their work they would probably be fired.Never mind the wailing these players sing out with every motion of their arm. It sounds as though it is their last breath that they are fighting to get out.

                      They don't realize the wasted energy they exert and how offensive it sounds. They do not deserve to be called professionals, the should be called cows.
        
                        Because the sound is so offensive it is turned off and the other player is rooted for. Who wants someone who is suffering so to be the winner to play again. Who wants to hear Maria Sharapova sing her roar.
                       They, she, may be sexy to some and therefore tolerated for the hook that they exert on the aroused community.
                       
                        Professional tennis is beginning to look and sound like the WWF.

                        What a shame a talented few have ruined the viewing.

                         What a shame a talented few are making so much money wailing while they work.

                          Goodbye to the professional tennis association
                          Hello WWT World Wailing Tennis

you AND me

              Empty your head
              Remove everything from your mind
              the art of yoga and meditation
              the goal, remove all from the mind

              empty the trash
              throw away the garbage
              let there be light

              remove
              erase
              delete
               empty the brain
             then there is peace

              one
              two twenty two
              pick up sticks
             snippets of a day
          snapshots of a life
             sweet memories
             bitter herbs

              a day in the life
              away it must go
           bend flex stretch move
         tai the chi into a knot
          push away, gather in
        expand and contract
         give it all back

           empty the mind
         let it all go
          enlighter you become
        if you let it all go

           a day in the life
           and you want to remember
         but alas
          you forget

          is the mind empty when you forget
          is the mind free when there is nothing for it to see
          is the heart at rest
          when you clean up the mess

          yoga  to chance
          yoga to see
          what the benefit will be

          empty the mind
          empty the mind
          less easy than it seems
          when we don't want to forget

          maybe today it is easy for me
          we shall see

          what would there be
          if it wasn't for you and me

the end

No
may I
No
can I
No
please
No
will you
No
have you
No
can you
No
shall you
No

there is nothing no one can do when someone says no
no one can overcome a no
some can change their mind
but the no is still the brick wall out there

perhaps
maybe
even possibly

can improve communication on a grand scale
but once  the brick wall of no appears
there isn't

defeated
downtrodden
despair
deep into the bottom
no way to climb out
not a chance of redemption
no

nothing to overcome
empty
void
a wasteland of darkness
the fog of finality

the end of a future
the no mans land of no chance
the end of the dance

the music with no echo
the song with no words
the lyrics that fall flat
the bubble that bursts
the dream that dies
the hope that is lost
no
off
shut
closed
fin
the end
the final frontier
no
the beginning of the end
the end of the beginning
no
the final word
no
the word that is final
no

the end

THEN

               Let go
               Let go
               Let go

               Let yourself understand
               there are no ways to bring back
               that which is gone
               there is no way to hold on to
               that which is no longer here

               the day that was the past
               is no more
               the memories are yesterday
               now only dreams
               the past is gone
               yesterday is over

               cry for the yesterday
               the day that was
               that is now gone
          
               the happy memories of yesterday
               are gone
               the pleasures that were yesterday
               are gone

               we make our own dreams
               people make our dreams
               the beautiful
               we celebrate
               the dreams of yesterday
               that we hold dear
               are gone and we are sad
               we can't get them back
               the happy times
               the treasures that keep us
               warm and safe and sane
               the little kindness we received
               the smile at the right time
               the hug we felt though we were
               never touched
               the heart that was warmed
               by one heart, so big and so strong
               we thought would last forever
              
               then we
               are faced
               with the reality
               the hero, the friend,
               the heart we treasured
               no longer beats

               suddenly we are alone
               the treasure, the dream,
               the yesterday is gone
               
               and though the heart still beats
               it has lost a rhythm
               a little tap tap tap
               gone

               a part of us is gone
               a big gaping hole
               that had that little tap, tap, tap
               that kept it in rhythm
               the music we were singing
               the song of the heart

                suddenly we discover
               where the words were coming from
                and now they are gone
                 and we are alone

                 to find our, or another song
                 to find the reason to want
                 to find the reason to smile
                 to find the reason to be happy
                 to find the way to live
                 to find the way to carry on
                 to give the others the way to carry on
           
                 to want to carry on
                 to make the way to carry on
                

                 to celebrate the heart that is gone
                  to sing the song of the heart
                 to smile

                 to remember the yesterday
                 to mourn the loss of the yesterday
                 
                 then to again mourn the loss of yesterday
                 to remember yesterday

                  to be sure we love and live the yesterdays
                  every day
                   and then we never lose the yesterdays
                  as we live the todays

Care

                               I don't care about you
                               I don't care about your life
                               I don't care about your family or
                                   all the effort you have invested over the years

                               Your time means nothing to me
                                You have no rights in my world
                                You have no value to me
                                 you are nothing

                                therefore it is okay with me for you to not exist
                                therefore it is okay with me for you to die
                                therefore I have just erased your existence

                                then you are gone
                                and I am left with the thought of removing you
                                there you have forever a place in my life
                                until I FORGET

     
                               
                                SITTING ON THE  SEAT IN THE SUBWAY CAR
                                 his head buried beneath his turtle neck sweater
                                 like the turtle protecting himself from danger
                                 he withdraws his brain and protects himself
                
                                 the car is crowded, people standing breathing
                                 in each others faces

                                 next to him there are five empty seats
                                  around him no one is standing
                                  they are all, the people in the car
                                  are watching the headless sweater
                                  they, all. are ready, poised to run
                                  ready for danger

                                  she, exhausted, sits besides him, she
                                  must sit, her legs and feet hurt beyond
                                  the fear of danger

                                  he smells the tobacco on her clothes
                                   he senses someone close
                                   slowly his head surfaces above the
                                    the folds of the sweater
                                  
                                   she looks down towards the floor
                                    she notices on his wrist the bracelet
                                    the one that is always awarded when
                                    you become a resident at a medical facility
                                   
                                     he asks her for a cigarette
                                     she offers him one if he would not light it on the train
                                     he agrees
                                      she gives him the cigarette
                                     he has his own matches and lights the cigarette

                                     the train car soon fills with the aroma of warm tobacco
                                     on the tag on his wrist she notices his name
                                     Carl

                                     I don't care about you
                                     I don't care about your life
                                     I don't care about your family
                                     or  all the effort you have invested over the years

                                    

                                    

                                

                                

the Present

              yesterday in the fabric store there was a woman in the sale section hurriedly glancing

at all the fabrics

             later as I was at the counter getting the fabrics I chose, cut to size

this woman, with her hands arms filled with bolts of fabric walked past me

and my partner said

she had just walked out the door with the bolts of fabric.

            The sales person didn't even know there was another customer in the store.

So this lady just walked out with hundreds of dollars worth of fabric

and I am feeling guilty, like I am her accomplice, it is difficult to shake off the event,

even though it happens hundreds of times a day across the country.

It is easy to think she needed to clothe her family.
It is easy to think she needed to clothe herself.
It is easy to think the store had hundreds of bolts of fabric, they wouldn't miss it.
It is easy to think, maybe if I were in here circumstances I would do the same.

Take what is not yours
Take what belongs to someone else
Take what you want
Take it because you want it
Take it because you need it
Take it because they have plenty

It is easy to think
all sides of the story
making up the scenario you  choose

Best case scenario, she has ten children and her husband has been laid off from his job. He's doing little odd jobs to put a little food on the table. They live in a tiny trailer and chop wood to heat the place. All the children sleep huddled together on the floor. They can't afford beds. They sleep in their clothing, there are not enough blankets to go around.

Scenario two, she works for an alarm company which wants to prove to the fabric store the need for security.

Scenario three, she feels cheated for the last batch of fabric she bought at the store.

Scenario four, she was bet that she could not go to the store and walk out with bolts of fabric.

Scenario five, she feels entitled to everything the world has to offer and feels whatever money she has is hers to keep forever.

Scenario six, she has been taught by her parents to steal and doesn't know the value of honesty.

A woman I knew had two children to raise after her husband had died. He left her the little house they lived in that had a small rental apartment above their living quarters and a three car detached garage that she also rented out for income. When ever possible she bought stole property either to resale or for her and her families use, especially clothing. Years later when the children were older, married and moved out, she had a generous gentle friend who bestowed upon her lavish gifts. One day her home was robbed and she was enraged at the thought that someone had broken into her  home and stolen some of her things.

There is no moral to this story.
It is simply a matter of what you can live with.
Are you satisfied with what you earn or must you take what is not yours.

Being fair is not what life is about, and can you afford to be fair.

When is satisfaction,
what creates the circumstances of satisfaction,
and when is satisfaction enough.

Want, want want
why do we want
and what good is it when we get what we want
we then always want something else

and if we accept the state of, not wanting
what does that make us

everybody wants
if we for one day want nothing can we change the way things are

if a starving person doesn't want to eat then perhaps the starving person won't have to steal to eat
absurd
we must eat to survive
and to survive is our nature
thus we do everything
we THINK we need to survive
"I'll die if I don't get that"

thinking and how we think is crucial
if we think we must have something
then we must do whatever is necessary to achieve that goal

what do the terrorist want?
whatever we have
why are the creating all this terror?
because they want to

and we are buying into the fear
we are allowing ourselves not to think
we are fearing shadows
we are fearing ourselves out of living
we are afraid to cross the street
we are afraid to look someone in the eye
we are so afraid
we are afraid to live our lives
we have cameras at every corner
we have cameras at the airports
we have satellites invading, watching
there is always someone watching
and yet we are afraid

savages exist
I have known some
animals who have never been treated as humans
who never treat anyone as human
abused individuals who know no kindness
and therefore cannot be kind

"we reap what we sow"
sometimes, always , never
sometimes luck fits in with the game
sometime bad luck

choose how you wish to live
and live how you choose
opportunity lost and a lifetime of regret is the
real hell

a lifetime of regrets is a lifetime living in the past
looking at the choices not made, and making up
stories about how their life would have change if only
they had made the other choice.

the only one who can steal your life is yourself
don't cheat yourself out of a life worth living
it's the only one you got
"life is a gift every day, that is why they call it the
present" 

The Lady Aunt Helen

   

                Aunt Helen is a gem. She is a role model for everywoman.
                 Serving her family
                  Serving his family
                  serving their family
                   without question
                   without doubt
 there was the job to be done and she did it
her job  was, caring for
she was always there caring for all of us
whether she liked us or not
whether she was tired or not
everyone the the best she had to offer
and everything she gave was the best

She noticed everyone, what they were doing
what they were feeling
she observed, she communicated
she said everything she wanted to say
blunt and outspoken
saying everything everyone was thinking
but were always embarrassed to say

she questioned everything
"why are you doing that?"
"why did you do that?"

there was never judgement in her demeanor
she never demeaned anyone
everyone was valuable
everyone was important

And she was funny!
looking and finding the humor in everything
always enjoying to laugh

She respected everyone
even the youngest littlest child
she treated everyone the same
as though they were treasures
that she nurtured

feeding cleaning cooking ironing
sewing singing laughing smiling
hugging loving caring feeding
feeding all the needs of the family
all the time every time accepting
responsibility for every member of
the family one hundred percent

her gift to the family was her
she gave of herself as though
our lives depended on it
and they did
she loved and hugged us till we knew
beyond the shadow of a doubt that we
were loved

and we all grew up and went away and
led our own lives
few of us remembering to remember her
few of us forgetting to remember her

she sits in her home paralyzed and mute
and yet she still speaks to all of us every
day, she reaches us
every day
and some of us think it is our own ideas
that move us
when it is her motivation that moved us
to where we are today

some of us still hug her and love her
and some of us forget that she is still
here

she taught us to stand on our own two feet
we have grown
we have reached
and we have achieved
and she was proud of us
and she did it
she let us be who we must be
and she did what she had to do
probably because she chose to do
what she had to do

and we wish you all got to know
The Lady Aunt Helen

Gutenberg's Printing Press

    Learning something new everyday keeps the mind sharp
    learning something everyday keeps the spirit alive

learning something

is something worth learning

something is anything

thing is some and any

nay thing is singular

any may be many

old age is difficult to accept
watching the body deteriorate is boring
keeping the mind young ignores the age of the body it occupies
separating the deterioration of the body from the rest of the reality of the day
is a far more interesting pastime

using everything available to expand the minds knowledge is a personal joy that can be repeated as often as every day and several times a day

living in the world before the computer and before the printing press the common man wallowed in ignorance.
thanks and kudos to Guttenberg.
Without Guttenberg and his printing press we would all be slaves to the few who owned and read the very select verses that were hand written by a few for even fewer.

Spend a day without reading and imagine a lifetime without the printed word.
Hail Hail Guttenberg.

Without him there would be no computer, without him the collective intelligence would be primitive. We would still be grovelling in the dirt trying to survive.
Now because of him, we have the ability and have achieved the ability to advance beyond the stages of survival and enjoy some of the pleasures of life. We some of us, have free time. We have the time to enhance our knowledge and expand our horizons.

We can grow instead of grovel.
Guttenberg gave the common man the gift of life, he made it easy for many to learn new things and to teach others who in turn taught others and others and others. And these others have celebrated his life by giving us the computer, which has given us the ability to learn what we want to learn when we want to learn it.

We now, in the privacy of our own home can search the archives of the world to discover all the treasures no longer hidden in the bowels of small minds who did not understand the value of ALL people advancing in awareness and knowledge.

The more people know about everything the more we advance as a culture. It is the collective awareness and contributions that expand and enhance everything we touch. It is the small little contributions from individuals that turn the key to making things better and stronger.

Some little individual commenting about how something could be done better or adding something to make something look better or wear better is the collective individuals that make up the team that makes the advances for man and wo-man kind.

Instead of sitting back and watching the body rot, there are millions of individuals that are still growing and giving for and of themselves. And much of this progress is the result of one man, Gutenberg - and I don't even know his first name, because I always sang the praise of Gutenberg's printing press.

Horses

Big animals
strong animals

with eyes that see one eye at a time
a horse must meet you twice
once with the right eye
and once with the left eye

if they only meet you with one eye
you may scare them with the other on e

the horse cannot see their mouth
therefore beware what you put in fron t
of the horses mouth

like all other animals includin g humans
kindness goes a long way
yet only strength is what the horse
understands as who is boss
boss not brute
and the beast will be your friend

a horses gentleness is expressed from the nose
nuzzling is a bonding experience

when a human connects with an animal
perhaps it is then possible for the human

to connect with yet another animal
and we either become like animals
or they become like human

bring out the beast in us is sometimes
not such a bad thing
perhaps

Not new

               apples
      the healthy fruit
     cleans the teeth
    cleans the plumbing
    needs no refrigeration
     needs no packaging

    In the old days we made sandwiches for school lunch and wrapped them in waxed paper and small brown paper bags, or a hot lunch was placed in a tin pot with a cover and handle.

   There were no stores to go to buy lunches to bring to school, planning the day before was the rule. Make the lunch the night before and remove it from the frig on the way out the door.

   There were neighborhoods then, small communities where people knew each other.

   Apartment houses changed some of that, more people crowded into smaller spaces.

   Jobs are what rule. Where ever the jobs are, the people are. Immigrants flock to find work.
  People need to eat. The Catholic church use to preach having kids was a duty that all had to perform, the more the merrier.  The church probably still wants that to happen but have no plan for what to do with all those people and how to feed them. Trust in the lord, they say.
Some people do, and what happens is, their families take pity on them and give them what they need to survive. Charity. Charity fosters paralysis. Giving a gift to someone is a good thing. Sharing what you have is good for the giver and the receiver.

When the receiver sits back and waits for it to be delivered without earning it, they lose self respect and therein lies the problem.

No one truly knows when to stop giving, when giving tool much breeds contempt, when entitlement breeds a shallow heart.

Motivation is self taught through observation. Role models play a crucial part in the development of the individual. The individual who observes others working hard and respecting themselves appreciates the honor of the struggle.

There were men working to install a new heating system at a home. The arrived for work and one young man was observed changing his clean pressed short sleeved very worn shirt neatly, then placing it in the truck bed with his keys and wallet. He then put on his work shirt. When the day was done he removed his work shirt and put on this thinly worn shirt that was barley fabric. Any thinner it would be the king putting on his imaginary clothes. Yet this man with pride donned the shirt which should have been thrown on the trash heap. Satisfied with himself and the days work which he had done, crawling on his back in a basement crawl space, working like Michelangelo building his masterpiece, fabricating the duct work for the heating system.

Eight hours on his back on the damp earth, with his arms stretched, watching out of the corner of his eye for snakes an vermin. It wasn't an expensive installation, so he probably wasn't paid very much. He was happy for the work, happy for the opportunity to feed his family. The days work done, he left, proudly wearing his well worn, shadow of a shirt that was wash and ironed many many times before by someone who cared for the shirt as if it was new.

Change

           THE SAME, THE MORE THINGS CHANGE THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME.
WAR IS  A BATTLE OF THE HAVES AND THE HAVE NOTS. THE FIGHT OF THE WANTS.
SOCIETY AS A WHOLE IS CONTENT WITH STRIVING STRUGGLING AND STARVING POPULATIONS UNTIL THEY BECOME UNRULY AND UNCONTROLLABLE.

         IT IS A SITUATION THAT IS PROBABLY UNSOLVABLE. WE FUNCTION UNDER THE FREE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM WHICH ENABLES US TO ADVANCE TECHNOLOGICALLY BUT DOES NOT ENSURE THE GROWTH OF THE ENTIRE WORLD POPULATION.

the unsupported

                     Some have been fortunate to have a support system that gives them the strength and courage to continue through adversity. Whatever they do they have their cheerleaders to bolster them and root them on. They are the beautiful people that everyone rallies behind and cannot do enough for, whether or not they need the help.
                    
                   Their support system is so strong they are never alone, there is always someone who encourages and clears the way. They are the lucky stiffs who get everything handed to them, perhaps on a silver platter. They are smart or adaptable enough to have no difficulties learning, they may not be stars just average people who can do things easily and quietly lead their lives expecting nothing yet grateful for what they have and have achieved. They are likable characters who have had  the good fortune to win the luck of the draw.


                    Then there are the worker bees who must forge the lonely trail alone. They get no help from the clan instead they throw road blocks to block the path. They seldom get awards they simply must continue on their own with help from no one. They must cheer for themselves and take pleasure in their own achievements regardless of any recognition.

                    They have no choice of cheering squads, they cheer alone and observe the parades for others.
Occasionally they wonder what they are doing wrong, are they appearing to be so strong that no one sees the need to rally to their side, or are they alienating by their achievements.

                    Years go by and both characters are closely tied together. Both have achieved success by their own standards, yet one is solitary and has found amusement in their own company, keeping themselves occupied with mind games, spending time learning about the world and the self.

                    There is no kudos aloud by the crowd
                    There is only an audience of one
                     Cheering
                       and rooting
                       and encouraging
                       and ignoring the ignoring others
                     living in a solitary world
                       working
                      filling the hours and the minutes
                      till the hours and minutes are filled

                        

Walmart Deli roasted red pepper asiago dip

Now I am beginning to get angry, first I see Maxwell House selling Hazelnut Cafe without hazelnuts then I discover Walmart Deli roasted red pepper asiago dip.

The main ingredient is cream cheese then salt then stabilizers then water next a cheese blend after which is asiago then further down a list of things one of which is a mold inhibitor then red peppers and some more things including food.

Where is the agency that monitors false advertising, here I am, I monitor false advertising and report it. The government is let us say preoccupied with other things or is unwilling to control or monitor big business.

Sloppy shopping is what these vendors are counting on. They hope we are in a hurry and only read the product name and not the list of ingredients.

We are filling/ we are allowing them to fill our bodies with things that we would not feed ourselves. Anyone who does not go out to dinner has to buy foodstuffs. One of the ways the vendor makes money is to offer something as a replacement for the real thing. Fake food.

Do you want to grow up to be big and strong, use to be a food advertising slogan, promising good things if you ate their product.

This stuff can't be good for anyone, it isn't even tasty, yet it is sold to the unsuspecting buyer as food.

Please be more careful, I say to my partner, you are wasting money and possibly buying something that could harm you. Have you investigated all the ingredients before you buy some of this junk that is labeled food.

Eating a few nuts, a piece of fruit, a slice of real cheese, a slice of wholewheat bread and you have a meal. Eat something real, so you know what it is and you know what is going into your body. How do you know how some of this stuff will react with coffee, wine or even tea.

If you insist upon eating crap drink lots of water to wash the stuff out of your system as soon as possible.

Better still throw your money out the window, it is safer and healthier for you and may prevent these companies from false advertising and selling stuff we can't pronounce.

This you say is a new age, space travel and overpopulation and scarce resources, poppycock I say.

Someone said, you are what you eat. Whatever you put into your body becomes your body unless your body throws it out - if you are lucky - your body throws it out.

Perhaps they are being paid by the AMA to guarantee business.
Every way you look at it - you must be careful - you may be paying a premium for cream cheese -at the least - at the most, you are ingesting something the body was not made to ingest, otherwise it would have been grown instead of manufactured in a laboratory.

1/11/11

               1/11/11

                Today is a fine day to be born. It is a great  birthdate to write on any form, and it is an easy date to remember. One eleven eleven or eleventhousand one hundred eleven.Cool. Most of the day has passed already with little to mark the date. It is cccold here in misssouri with one of the two or three snows it gets in a year. Supposed to be about five degrees tonite and the wind makes it feel even colder.

                  In rural missouri today school was closed. Snow stops everything here. There are north south east and west roads stretching through farmland and farmland and woods. It is not heavily populated so cleaning the main roads is the plan so the trucks moving goods can get through. The other roads are maybe cleared once, maybe not. I don't think the dirt roads get too much attention during inclement weather, hence the need for four wheel drive and vehicles that are not too close to the ground.

                  Most everybody here has a cell phone but they don't work on all roads and it might be hours before a rescue, so the wise stay home and watch the snow freeze.

                   It is very quiet listening to the wind howl between the trees, no traffic to change or dim the sounds of nature. The isolation is chilling. Nighttime on a cold winter snow wind driven night is the sound of scary movies or should I say chilly movies. If the lights don't go out and if the heat doesn't fail it is probably one of the safest nights of the year. No fool would venture out for ill gotten gails or other ugly ideas. Everybody is staying still, snuggling under the covers, lowering the temperature in case there isn't enough fuel in the tank to last the night and hopefully until the cold spell passes. Business shut down automatically because they know no one will venture out.

                  Those roads I spoke of earlier are more hazardous because there is plenty of open space for the wind to whip through. In populated areas the wind is tempered by buildings here it just blows through from west to east or south to north sometimes north to south but seldom east to west, wonder why.

                  Keeping warm is the agenda, keeping safe from the cold, planning alternate emergency heat or warmth is a mind game. It is a distraction while reading or watching tv, as we wait for the cold spell to pass.

                  The power of suggestion, think spring, short sleeved shirts butterflies and flowers in bloom, less than two months away. Think march 21, it is a more magical date than 1/11/11.

Progress

       The automobile has changed the map of America, not simply the roads and byways but the way we live.
Back in the days of horses and mules we didn't venture far from home. We knew all our neighbors that were in either riding distance or walking distance. The culture of life centered around first, the home, the town, the religion. The needs of the time we basic. food shelter and companionship. Life was harsh, battling the elements was the primary focus. We amused ourselves with song, we sang, we played spoons or instruments, we wrote poetry or read the bible. Traveling salesmen came on horse drawn wagons occasionally and we a novelty. Growing crops and making our own homes from wood felled from local trees, cooking on campfires, being warmed by the animals that gave us our food and clothing. Watching the weather and seasons change was an added amusement as well as concern. Sanitation was a  hole in the ground.

       The industrial age advanced. Tools were no longer fashioned at home from wood and stone. The iron age gave us tools that lasted longer and did a better job. They weathered better and were easily repaired. Their durability reduced the need to constantly fashion tools. The beginning of free time. A minute more to look at the sky or linger over breakfast. More tools were being fashioned using the new iron. Sewing needles made securing pelts better than tying. The wheel moved us out of the local walking areas letting us venture into the new world.

       Soon towns and cities grew and the collective imagination of a community fostered new and wonderful expanses on the same theme, adding a new spice to a pie, trying a new way to improve the wagon, neighbors helping neighbors, fellowship and commerce.

       At the turn of the twentieth century, here in America and across the pond, the engine was being attached to the wheel, further exploration beyond the backyard, further free time, faster progress.

       Then progress took a dramatic turn, the assembly line was introduced by Henry Ford.

More, faster. Here a few men, women had not earned the right to paid wages as yet, labored doing the same thing over and over again, monotony and routine was born, the same muscles exerted over and over, the same muscles not used.

The roads began to expand, the automobile began to belch and roar as it rolled the roads, the new sounds of  human nature. Man stamping his mark on the air and ears of every creature.

More and more the auto freed time for individuals. "Easy" money was being made as labors left the farm to work building machines. Populations began to meld, more people on the move meant more people meeting, discovering new cultures blending ideas further enhancing the basic meat and potato recipe and shirt and dress design. The collective improvement of the basic, embroider a dress, add a button, add a zipper, add a snap, add a flap. The interaction of generations improving the basics, the toilet no longer a hole in the ground. Slowly improving, yet more quickly advancing with the invention of the auto, more ideas melding more rapidly.

Road travel became the hobby of the rich, investigating and discovering the wonders and beauties of the countryside. More autos, for more free time, more assembly lines, more of the same. School books suddenly became simpler, teaching less, learning less. Doing more of the same. Playing more.

Roads and more roads dot the landscape. The dots being connected into lines and dashes, the countryside being erased, the mountains melted, the water evaporated, the roads stretching and groaning, the countryside shrinking. More cars, more travel, more exploration, more distance, and what to find, more walmart, more tacobell, more, macdonalds, more pizzahut. Every town, every road, every countryside looks the same assembly line stamp of America, losing it's uniqueness and local flavor. The towns are gone plowed through for a road, a highway, a byway an expressway leading to the same destination of the same.

Maxwell House International Cafe-Kraft Foods-Hazelnut Cafe

       
         So here we are visiting with friends, and they offer us the Hazelnut Cafe which smells good and tastes okay too. But there is not a single hazelnut in the can. The main ingredient, which based on the name of the product should be hazelnuts is in fact sugar then nonfat dairy creamer with cocunut oil accounting for ten percent of the daily requirement of saturated fat using one and one third tablespoons. There are two other real ingredients in the container, instant coffee and sodium, aka salt. The bottom of the container has a best if used by date with an eighthundred number.

         Under the product name it does in fact say artifically flavored.

Now there is a thing called good faith, and another thing called false advertising and it seems that the Maxwell House division of Kraft Foods doesn't care about either. If in fact the package was correctly labeled by the main ingredient it would be SUGAR.

       Here in Warsaw Missouri nine ounces of this item costs about four dollars plus tax of course.

       When if ever did you pay four dollars for nine ounces of sugar, and why in fact would you.

       When does a food company need to be called a chemical company, probably when they stop selling food.

       When is chemicals food, when a company says it is.

       Even with the ingredients written on the label in small print and government warnings about reading labels people buy what they believe the manufacturer(as opposed to the food producer) claims is enclosed.

       We, the consumer oftentimes choose what appears before us because it creates the illusion we are susceptible to at the time also known as good advertising practices.

Next we must consider the impact of silicon dioxide on the intestines or malodexterin whatever they are.

     Perhaps they are new substances which will coat the lining of the intestines like wax does for the outside of the car to increase the life of the paint job. If so, one would like to know this before ingesting. Should the package have a warning about hazards to the health for prolonged use.

     The next among the various questions created by the package of what ever it is, how should we feel about being offered chemicals masked as foodstuffs.

       And why should we allow such practices.

The company should be called maxwell house chemical works or mh magic shop, for their ability to transform nothing into something and sell it for a fortune.

One of the Lucky Ones

             Perhaps the lost moments are why some people cry about getting old, the waisted days spent with worthless trivialities instead of doing something meaningful and worthwhile with their time.
              Perhaps it's the sagging muscles and graying hair that hides the images of youth that we mourn.

              Perhaps it's the unfulfilled dreams that will never come to fruition.

             Perhaps it's the closer to death's dooor(sic)  that we have postponed pondering.

          There are plenty of things to think about, the years reviewed, the time evaluated. Could I have done better, could I have given more, could I have made more of myself. Has chance been more instrumental in who I became rather than my choosing.

         Looking in the mirror reveals the years that have elapsed and the eyes finally see today and what I have become. How many years are left, how much more can I do, what shall I think about doing.

        Pondering the unanswered, unanswerable, with no response, no feedback but the wrinkles, receding hairline and 'liver spots'.

        I never imagined I would look like this, you say to yourself, as the shock begins to wear off.
Ah, that it should come to this.

       No worries, the anxieties of the forties are gone or the teenage anxieties fully abated, all that is left is the slowing engine that takes longer to start and runs slower that we remember.
Fast and furious has flitted away, slowly I turned, step by step and I still am in the same room where I started.

        Slow motion strutting, doing everything I did before, I still wash my face in the morning and brush my teeth, it just takes longer, at least I still remember to wash my face and brush my teeth in the morning. I still remember when it is morning.

So I guess I am one of the lucky ones.