Thicker Cloth

I just spent a quick week in the 'Low Countries' of Europe, namely the Netherlands and Belgium.

I stayed in private home in the South of Belgium 5 kilometers from the French border.

Belgium does not have it's own language, per se. Folks in the South speak French and in the North, Dutch is on the menu.

The thing that caught my attention is the craftsmanship evidenced in the home where I stayed. All the woodwork is solid oak. All the doors are raised panel, (and three panels per door!) again solid oak. The hardware is all heavy duty. Even the garage floor is finished with ceramic tile! In the basement, every surface was plastered or sheet rocked, and if pipes pierced the walls or ceilings, they were carefully sealed around. Most of the sidewalks and many of the streets were cobblestone construction, as were the driveways and front walkways. All the homes were constructed with brick; all had tile roofs. Very different attitude towards quality and permanence than I am used to here. By comparison, our homes, buildings and indeed most of our infrastructure seems to have been designed to just barely do the job. We are more willing to do it over than to do it right.

The tapestry of life seems to be woven of a much stouter cloth, richer and more substantial there.

For all you Francophiles out there, rest assured that there remains a deep appreciation for the actions of we Americans, the Canadians and the Brits. The area I was in was heavily damaged during both wars, and seriously occupied by the Germans. There exist many plaques, obelisks and memorials to us, the liberators of this land, and there are still people who remember.

As an aside, I visited the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. Stood in the very rooms where she and her family hid from the Germans. Then, last night I watched 'The Anne Frank Story' on Masterpiece Theater. As near as I could tell the sets were an exact duplicate of the rooms I saw.

Is It Just Me?

Or does anyone else think the idiots who point to this winter's unusually cold/wet/snowy weather and declare that this proves wrong the all the equally confused/uneducated Global Warming advocates?

Cumon kids! It's a process.....

Nothing in Nature is stagnant. We have never been able to control the climate outside our buildings, and I for one hope we never can. We just aren't smart enough to do it right, but we are clever enough to totally screw it up.

Still Alive and Kickin'........

but just barely.....
I had an Epiphany this week. The S.O. loves to watch CSI, SVU, Criminal Minds and such on the tube...wait can we say 'tube' anymore? Nothin' tubular about the ole LCD flat-screen, now is there? Anyway I digress. She really would rather watch a good 'Crazy Bitch Kills Family' show than anything else.

Me, I get the heebie-jeebies....don't wanna watch... no way... no how...no sir.

Finally figured out why. Got an Uncle who suicided, another was beaten to death for a few dollars, my Grandfather did his level best to eviscerate Uncle #2, yes his son, in a drunken brawl, a cousin was shot to death during an attempted rape, she was the intended victim, and yet another cousin is in prison for the bludgeoning death of his young wife a year after the birth of their daughter, and yet another cousin has managed to spend almost her entire adult life in prison for a variety of rather petty drug offenses.

If I want true crime, I can gaze up in to the branches of the family tree. For me, at least, this is not entertainment. It is sadness.

Oh, No! What have you done?

OK

I get it. When a blogger I am following does not publish in a while, I wonder....."What happened?" I see it has been a day or two since my nimble fingers have graced the keyboard to memorialize my wit and wisdom. Looks like life happens, or in some cases, death happens, I suppose. I my case, it was life. This time......

Sometimes I choose to review the things I have done in my life. Some of these things are accomplishments, personal or professional, and of many of these, I am justly proud. Others may be better described as 'deeds' heroic or foul, for there are both in my resume. But I do reflect on them as they come to mind.

Here is an interesting 'life experience.' I shared a meal with a murderess. This was shortly before she added that particular chapter to her book. I listened to her rant about her victim, and no, she did not threaten to commit the crime in my presence, but she did express, in no uncertain terms, her hatred for this person.

When her rage and insanity finally overcame whatever tattered shreds of civility, responsibility and common sense she possessed, she did commit a deed most foul. Death was not enough; she sought to inflict pain, and I think if she could have killed her victim several times, she would have.

She was not stupid or ignorant. In fact, I believe she believed she would not be caught because she knew she was so much smarter than the cops. She wasn't. Besides being the prime suspect from the start, she left a trail of evidence Helen Keller could have followed.

Caught, she was. Convicted, as well. Committed only one murder, but the land is littered with victims.

Brave Old World

Well. I am close to the end. Haven't hurried because I kinda have to work on her schedule, and I was reading something else simultaneously.

It would be easy to focus on all the ways Hux missed the boat, but the really frightening thing is how much he got right. Funny thing.....as far as critical thinking goes......our technology has improved, no doubt, but if anything, our thinking has barely improved, if at all.

If you have never read the book, or if it has been so long you've forgotten, visit the library and dip in to this story again. In fact, re-read all the stuff you read as a kid. Sure, the books are the same, but you aren't. What you take from them will be worlds apart from the first time.

Spring has sprung, and I feel the searing breath of Summer over my shoulder. For the first time in my life, I am wondering just how many more Springs or Summers I'll greet from the lighter side of the air/dirt interface. Guess I better enjoy them all.

I'm still struggling with my Sudoku addiction. I have a puzzle book in the can, and start puzzling as soon as I sit. Big Problem. I forget the business I set down to do, and get all involved in swirling numbers. Before I know it, an hour has gone by, I'm late to work, and well on my way to developing sudokuroids. Is there a chapter of Sudokuholics Anonymous anywhere?

The Huxter

I first read (then promptly mostly forgot) Brave New World, as did many of us, in high school. Now I am reading it again because someone I care about is doing an assignment which includes discussion after each chapter, and I am honored to be, once again, the discussor du jour.

It is amazing what a couple of miles in the log book will do to ones' perspective. It is also interesting to note how different the view is from behind her eyeballs. Even though I was about the same the same age when I initially read Mr. Huxley's most famous work, her cognitions are wrapped around social injustice, political correctness and child abuse; I was just looking for the next dirty part. Yep, I was typically shallow then....probably still am.

The fascinating bit is that today, more than ever before, we actually have the technology to make Hux's nightmare a reality, and to do so with much greater finesse than he imagined back in the early 30's(?!?) No need to partially poison foetuses to make Gammas or Epsilons, just a judicious nip here and a tuck there on the old DNA helix, and voila! And throw out the incubators; I'm sure OctoMom would love to help populate the Castes.

Turns out we didn't need the hypnopaedia, either. Television does the job quite nicely, and ever since it became the 'babysitter of choice,' we have simply handed over the indoctrination of our children to the kind folks on the far side of the screen. Surely they have no agenda. And what they miss, our schools cover. We seldom teach the kids to think. Just so they pass the friggin' test and make the numbers look good.

And talk about engineering for continuous consumption. Think of all the things we spend money on now that simply cannot be repaired. Cell phone broke? Can't really fix it, and a new one will toast bagels for the same price! (Speaking of cell phones, what ever happened to the concern over brain cancer? Was that resolved in our favor? Or did profit possibilities tip the scales?)

I could make a list of 'throw away' consumer products, but it would be obsolete before it was complete, right?

You know the old saying, "It's not bragging if you can do it"? Well, it's not far-out fantasy and science fiction if it's happening!

Let's Cut Some Slack

I have a friend who is struggling. She is dealing with an irrational mate. I have a child who is struggling. Also dealing with an irrational mate. I struggle. Dealing with a sometimes irrational spouse. And irrational children....and irrational parents. We won't even mention the in-laws, after all, we expect such from them.

C'mon, people! Everyone is a bit daft. Some are just better at hiding it than others, that's all. Rather than be in a snit, why not enjoy the bizarre behavior of in-laws. Particularly if they live across the country. Long range free entertainment. Aren't we glad we live here and they live there?

Same thing with the Internet. I'm sure you've seen the acid filled comments made from behind the security of a keyboard. Just know that some people are rabid. Move on.

I have someone who is quite close to me who seems on occasion to be more porcupine than human. Prickly, ya know? It's a damn shame too. Actually a very good person, but gonna be lonely for a long time.....

Like I said, we are all crazy, just different flavors. Most of them are interesting and fortunately only a few are really harmful. They get more press than they deserve.

When it's the one you love who is acting nuts, it can be hard, or scary, or funny, or sad, or some combination of all these and many others. Believe me. I know. The most common feeling is one of helplessness. Particularly if they are really crazy crazy. Sometimes all you can do is hang on. Remember, though, as funny as it might seem to you, it is reality for them.

Of course, maybe they are just trying survive your insanity.