A Tale of Two Debacles

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on July 8, 2014 in Social, Travel

Transportation has always been a sideshow, in the life of a traveler. It is, of course, a basic element of travel, but is often used as a fulcrum, to get the traveler to notice the discomfort of those who live, day to day, where he/she happens to be headed, or from where the departure is taking place.

I am going to continue, in my next installment of “An Eastward Homage”, with the story of Versailles, the town. For a few moments, though, I want to focus on two modes of transport, two countries, and two large entities coming to grips with the difficulties that come with an excess of size.

On June 12, my sole intent was to take the SNCF train from Brest to Rennes, then to Rouen. The French train strike was, however, still full on. The journey could only be accomplished, thus, by going from Brest to Rennes to Le Mans to Paris- Gare St. Lazare to Rouen. My France Pass being a carte blanche for ANY First or Second Class train, over a nine-day period within one month, I thought I was set for a comfortable, seated trip. Enter a horde of Gauls, coming from a trip to St. Malo, in northeast Brittany. First, I was rousted from a seat, by a young lady, whose ticket had that seat’s number. I moved to a second seat,and an imposing young man came along, with that seat’s number on HIS ticket. (Bear in mind that, on a France Pass, there are no tickets with numbered seats.) I moved again. Two Orthodox rebbes, who appeared to be father and son, appeared at the seat, raised their eyebrows, Gallic-style, and I moved again- to Standage. There, in the no man’s land between cars, were a family of four, a university co-ed, (who was visibly miffed at the presence of two little boys, and even more miffed at an Americain joining the group,) a French biker and his missus (headed to his shop at Montparnasse) and a hapless Italian tourist who had a France Pass as well, and had been booted from HIS seat by a nurse whose ticket had that seat’s number. The train had, in the aggregate, about 30% more people on board than was practicable. Still, we all made it, shared the four small, folding seats that are available between cars, and just looked after one another. The initial shock on the faces of the French people in standage at the thought of an American NOT sitting comfortably in a First Class coach gave way to the realization that I had no such expectation of undue privilege, in the midst of such chaos and mass discomfort among my hosts. It was a good outing- for me.

It was an experience that served well to show the visitor just how absurd the bureaucrats and the unionists can be, and the extent to which their absurdity discomfits the average French person. Those fighting the Train Battle likely were not out riding the train, during the impasse. They did, effectively, send France back to the regional and the parochial trains of thought that are described so well by Graham Robb, in his “The Discovery of France”. It was, for two weeks or so, impossible to go from Rennes to Rouen, or from Rouen to Amiens, par train.

Fast forward to Sunday, July 6, at Logan International Airport, in Boston. There was an airplane sitting at the departure gate, ready to go to Charlotte, or so everyone thought. My journey would soon be over, or so I thought. Airline policy is that a fresh cockpit team takes over after so many hours. Our fresh cockpit crew was coming from Washington, DC. There was a “difficulty” with the plane bringing the captain and first mate from Reagan. We were told they would be in Boston at 9:30, and we would be underway thirty minutes behind schedule. No one would miss their connections.

That was at 9 PM. Seventy-five minutes later, we greeted the cockpit crew with silent cheers. Fifteen minutes after that, we were airborne. One hour and forty-five minutes after take-off, we landed in Charlotte. Nearly an hour later, upon learning our “safe” connections had gone on without us, we were assigned various hotel rooms. My seat-mate on the plane and I were sent to Holiday Inn Express. The hotel informed us that a shuttle at 2 AM would be impossible and we were to take a taxi, for which the airline would reimburse the person who picked up the tab. That ended up being my seatmate, as he had cash and I didn’t. We each got our own room, got from 2-4.5 hours of sleep, and the next day caught a shuttle from hotel to airport.

After bidding my previous night’s seatmate farewell, I met another man who had stayed at Express. He nonchalantly told of having taken a shuttle to Express- at 2:30 AM. All he did was call the same person who had told me at 2 AM, “impossible”, and a shuttle was dispatched.

This goes to show that, the more things, and locations, change- the more they stay the same. Man plans, bureaucrats bumble, common folk work together to get around the snafus- and God laughs.

It Wasn’t the Women’s Fault

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 27, 2014 in Social

“There’s a killer on the road. His brain is squirming like a toad.”- Ray Manzarek, “Riders On The Storm”

I love women; always have. Even when they were girls, I thought they were beautiful. My Mother was my first best friend, and I tried to be hers. My relationships with girls and women ever since have been friendships first, and, in about five or six cases, they were more than that. The friendship, then and now, is the, most important element. It is what held my marriage together, even when I was making a mess of my life, in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, and it was what gave Penny some semblance of quality of life, in her declining years, later in that merciless decade and in the first fourteen months of this one.

I’ve had friends of both genders, and of all ages, before and since. Beautiful women are among my best friends now. There is no romance, to cloud the vision, and when a few of my women friends have started seriously dating, I am among the first to cheer them on. It’s a happiness thing, a means of some fulfillment. More important to me are their dreams, their goals. Don’t get me wrong. If someone special comes into my life again, it’ll be just fine. This is not a priority right now; that’s all.

It was therefore with profound shock that I read and viewed news reports of the carnage in the Isla Vista area of Santa Barbara, on Saturday. The deranged assailant/killer blamed rejection by women- in a pseudonarcissistic rant, which fooled no one. Santa Barbara was, and is, one of my favourite places in California. I was last there in 1997, but keep abreast of more seemly events there, through an online friend who has ties to the area. It is, like many places in our modern society, a fast-paced and sometimes anonymous community. When making connections, one must be patient with those around you.

I am somewhat of an outlier, myself. I do not blame anyone else for that. I live comfortably, I make friends more easily than I used to. In my youth, I did not have women throwing themselves at me. I was considered “an individual” by those of the elite who were thoughtful. I was seen as a bit weird, by the rest. That was never something for which I cast blame on others. We all rail at our plights, now and then, and I did, just before meeting Penny. Figuring that it was the way I was going about meeting people that was the problem, helped me right my social sailboat.

So, buying expensive clothing and driving a BMW didn’t work for Elliot Rodger. Is anyone surprised by this? If anything, it confirms what one of my beautiful friends from the early 1970’s had to say- “No personality, no date.”- Lisa was gorgeous, but never shallow. Apparently, neither were the three young victims in Isla Vista. My condolences to the families of the dead. My entreaties to the Elliots who are still out there: It is not the woman’s fault if she doesn’t find you attractive. Each of us has a personality, and the tools for determining whether chemistry exists between us and others. No personality match, no relationship.

Time, Times and Half A Time

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 22, 2014 in Personal goals, Social

Rev 12:14″ And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.”

It has been just shy of a year, since one of the most horrific events to befall my adopted town took place on a remote ridge: The Yarnell Hill Fire, which claimed the lives of 19 Wildland Firefighters. Every family left behind has suffered unimaginable grief. A widow, just shy of 30 years of age, has the task of raising four children, albeit with a strong, emotionally-supportive extended family and an upstanding Faith Community. For the past seven months, she, and they, have dealt with a bureaucracy and its supporters, whose mantra has been “Life happens. Make do with what you have.”

Fine words for those who may have suffered through the Depression, by taking in laundry, picking weeds or digging ditches, but the world has changed a tad. Much water has gone under many bridges. The issue in this case, though, is that while all the crew members worked equally as hard as the next, only some, by the interpreted letter of the law, were well-tended by the system. The rest were to find other means of support.

After 1 1/2 days of hearings, the regulatory authority in this case determined, by majority vote, that the young widow and her children were indeed entitled to full benefits, under the appropriate system. Our system may be slow, may often need careful, patient action to correct its mistakes, but today is proof that it works. Today is proof that, even in our times of instant gratification-or-nothing, not giving up is essential.

On a far different note, I came home and read a lengthy rejoinder to a comment I had made, relative to the Islamic Faith. The author cites chapter and verse to show that Islam is inherently evil, and that anything said to the contrary is naive and “PC”. I will obviously have to do a lot of research before responding to the innuendo, just as the legal team which prevailed in this week’s hearing had to do an enormous amount of work, in righting a serious wrong.

Saint John the Divine, in the passage above, alludes to a desperate soul getting assistance from unlikely sources, and in a most unexpected way. Those with a stake in an established system will naturally do all they can to guard that system- be it a governmental structure, or a code of beliefs. We must also bear in mind that many a misguided set of beliefs or codes of regulations themselves are rooted in correcting both real and perceived injustice. The needs of the weak, the suffering, and the pure in heart, however, have a far more powerful set of allies to meet them. It just takes longer to address them fully.

I also note that another young family, on the other side of the country, received word that THEIR anxiety and difficulties will now also be relieved- on a long-term basis. Time, and time again, we seek relief. Never give up!

Moving Seamlessly

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 22, 2014 in Personal goals, Social

The young firefighter described his, and his unit’s, work, over the course of a year, as moving seamlessly from one set of tasks to another. This is what I admire most about so many of those who have taken on difficult, dangerous and often thankless, unappreciated tasks as their life’s work. The unit in question works under an administration which seems to neither understand nor care much for those under its charge. That administration is getting a rather long overdue education today and tomorrow.

I have said in the past that, even as I have good friends in every living generation, I am finding I relate best to Millennials. The sense of commitment to a better world is just below the surface among all ages, yet nowhere is the energy and drive to truly create a functioning and equitable global society stronger than it is among teens and twenty-somethings. Gen Z (those fourteen and under) seems just as promising, so this could be a confirmation that the world, towards which so many have striven, is on its way, even as so much that is rotten needs to be cleared out.

We may not move forward with absolute seamlessness, and there are plenty of non-angelic types among the younger generation, but as I move about the city of Prescott, around Arizona or across the country and to other parts of the world, I sense there is a purposeful mien among the youth. It goes beyond idealism, which, if left to stand alone, becomes cynicism and gives way to creature comforts, drug abuse and paranoia. Maybe, with the current younger generations, the lack of time-honoured opportunities which many of us enjoyed as youth, has forced self-reliance, group action and innovation to the fore early on in their lives. Certainly, technology has helped greatly, in that regard.

I have come under a lot of fire from many of my fellow Boomers and from several Gen-X’ers recently, for my past few posts. I can’t share their cynicism, though, and while contemplating the rest of my life, I can only see good things for the human race, in the aggregate. Those of my contemporaries who agree with my assessment have been equally vocal, so maybe I, too, am moving seamlessly from one day, and one set of tasks, to the next.

Choices

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 20, 2014 in Personal goals, Social

I listened to Tape 10 of the series, “The Eleven Forgotten Laws”, last night. It was entitled “The Law of Sacrifice”. The premise is simple: To get one thing, one must give up another. I find the basis for this applies in just about all aspects of life. Let’s look at three examples.

There is a restaurant menu- Seven items appeal, but of course today, for this meal, only one may be chosen. Of course, the only thing that is directly “sacrificed” is the ability to eat the other six items at this sitting, unless the restaurant is buffet-style. Some may moan that their money is being sacrificed, but compensation is not the same thing as giving up something. The restaurant, generally speaking, deserves to be paid for its fare and service.

When one gets married, it is only fair to the spouse that romances with others are no longer a part of your life. Of course, there are those in Swinging or Open Marriage relationships, but they’re like the buffets- not the usual situation. One’s spouse, and you, are deserving of respect and fidelity.

The last reflects my life, at present. When one is drawn to travel, it could be for any number of reasons. The same is true of those who elect to stay at home. There are many events going on, in the place(s) you choose to visit. There may well be many events going on, simultaneously, in the place you call home.

My point is, be comfortable with the choices that get made. They are yours- and as such, will draw both praise and criticism. No one knows what’s best for you better than you do. While life goes one, fully, as it should, in your absence, it works best when the response to “We’ll miss you!” is “Thank you, and I look forward to your stories and photos of all that will have happened here, while I was gone.”

Bob Proctor and Mary Morrissey encourage us to be glad that we have free choices, which are indicative of an abundant Universe.

Dystopia

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 17, 2014 in Personal goals, Social

I have a propensity for watching TV shows and films which have a dystopian theme: Revolution, The Black List, Person of Interest, Game of Thrones, Hunger Games, Divergent, Ender’s Game. I mainly like to see how the protagonists solve their dilemmas, though in too many cases, the choice is “Blam, Blam”. Revolution got old, and formulaic, so it’ll be consigned to Hulu after one last episode.

Dystopia, the collapse of all we know and either love or hate, the primal turn to either a Lord of the Flies mentality, a Glengarry, Glenross or 1984 mindset, or both, seems to be much on everyone’s mind. Despite my fascination with these shows, however, I don’t see an actual, full-blown dystopia as the long-term wave of the future. Yes, we may very well endure a stretch of trials and tribulations, which won’t lend themselves to a quick return to “Business as Usual”, but I believe there will emerge something far better.

People are bound to notice that there are those who are building a better, more organized and less officious civilization from whatever ashes to which the old systems lead. Some won’t want anything to do with it, but most will, over a period of decades. I have had several iterations of my own life, in which, as Baha’u’llah, Founder of the Baha’i Faith wrote “Poverty is followed by riches, and riches are followed by poverty…” His meaning is that material possessions come and go, but He is emphatic in saying that we will always have what we need.

With Paul Simon, in “Peace Like a River”, I see a glorious Day.

Connectedness

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 13, 2014 in Personal goals, Social

In the various stretches of downtime which I was given these past several days, I read the book, “Proof of Heaven”, by Eben Alexander, a psychiatrist who experienced a particularly acute Near Death Experience, a few years ago. It is notable that he saw the intense interconnectedness of subatomic particles during his time in coma. This very phenomenon has been documented, in the past few years, by Quantum Physicists. It underscores the absolute relatedness of all things, both moving and inert.

I had lots of time to think about this aspect of our life. Indeed, it is the most basic feature of all life in the Universe, at all levels. This brings me to a confirmation: All life seeks connection to all other life. Let’s stick to how this might apply to human beings, for the present.

I drew a few conclusions about our relations with one another. First, when people seek connection with others, we are persistent in various ways. It is the longing for connection that spurs criticism, clinginess, flirting, awkward approach, the furtive glance, officiousness and lack of boundaries. These behaviours represent our sense that we are connected, while remaining uncertain as to just how this is so. Thus, we engage in trial and error.

Second, although each of us may indulge in one or another of these behaviours, we are put off by those who exhibit them towards us. This is perhaps because, as one child once said, “We GET it!” Each of us has the basic spiritual sense that we are one with all else. We don’t need, or want, someone to overwhelm us with more than the natural flow of contact. We don’t like to have insecurity, either our own, or another’s, interrupt the flow.

Third, perhaps the overriding purpose of this life, which is to know and love God (or the Creative Force, Om, or whatever you wish to call the One Who generated all things), is indeed a series of trials and errors- from which each of us needs to draw lessons which will serve us well, throughout the course of our own eternities.

Finally, as to why some people seek separation- perhaps this is a natural, if counterproductive, reaction to being repeatedly hurt by those with whom we have interacted, and who, for reasons of their own, have failed to understand what we need.

I came away from this read and meditation far more at peace with those around me, and far less inclined to feel put off by, or exhibit, behaviours such as those I mentioned in the first paragraph. Life remains a glorious set of challenges and growth spurts.

Boys and Men

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 10, 2014 in Personal goals, Social

“Grama died”, the little girl said to her older brother. Even though the bacon and scrambled eggs their father had whipped up was scrumptiously inviting, the ten-year-old boy knew what he had to do. He went back upstairs, into his parents’ bedroom and wrapped his arms around his sobbing mother. The human spirit is ever-prescient.

Some twenty years earlier, in another town, far to the south, a 16-year-old boy had just received his driver’s license. His father’s brand-new car had the detached bumper that was in fashion back then. He proudly headed “around the block”, to run an errand for his Dad, while showing his friends his good fortune. One of his buddies talked him into going for a short spin, so he took the kid along to the store. When the friend was dropped off, the new driver got too close to the curb, and managed to snag the bumper, ripping it from the frame. Six months and dozens of chores later, his father gave him back the license. The human spirit can be very easily clouded.

I’ve always been glad to be male. My boyhood was somewhat coloured by having been alternately blessed and cursed with an independent worldview, a forgiving soul and an autistic brain- which was tempered by my thirst for learning and by being part of a large, loving family. My affliction is mild enough that I have never needed a special program or altered scheduling. It has brought perceptual problems, every so often, but life, overall has been just fine.

My mother once said no male is a real man until he hits 40. Boys tend to lay their difficulties on someone else’s doorstep. Men, like my late father and father-in-law, are not thrilled by life’s difficulties, but take the burden of their resolution onto their considerably broad shoulders. By that standard, I have flipped back and forth between manhood and boyhood at least twenty-dozen times, since I turned 18. To my great relief, though, boyhood has been a thing of the past, for at least five years. In my case, my Mom was about 18 years off. Life has a way of burning the rough edges off anyone, or anything.

The great men in my life, though, have always shown a puckish spirit. Norm Fellman, my father-in-law, who left us on Wednesday, had a sense of fun that was second to none. It probably kept his father from clobbering him when the car got mangled, and certainly kept him alive when the Nazis captured him, in the fog of the Battle of the Bulge, in 1944. By all accounts, he ended up largely getting the better of them, in the end- despite the harrowing, horrific circumstances of his 100 days of Hell, in Berga, Germany.

I learned a lot from Norm, from my Dad, and from so many in the GI Generation. The boy who comforted his mother, on the death of his beloved Grama, is now in the grandparent range himself. So, no matter what pleasures present themselves, and what difficulties appear, to be resolved, it’s on this man to take the bull by the horns.

God bless you, Norm, and we’ll keep the faith for ya.

The Others

Posted by Sagittarian Seeker on May 5, 2014 in Personal goals, Social

Later this evening, I will post about the Prescott Historic House Tour, part of our city’s Sesquicentennial Celebration, and Chalk It Up, an annual chalk-art festival. Both took place this past weekend, as did a Cinco de Mayo Block Party, in Courthouse Square.

First, though, a bit of seriousness. Let me go further with what I wrote yesterday about the journeys on which each of us is embarked.

Human beings, alone among species, sort those they see as strangers into categories of “race”, skin tone, ethnicity, Faith, gender and sexual orientation( of course, we are the only species which experiences the latter as a life condition). To be sure, other animals, from ants to prairie dogs to wolves and dolphins, sort by family group and/or territory. This is all part of territoriality and population control.

Our extra selection processes, really, don’t make much sense. There is no qualitative difference between me and any of my friends who happen to be Black, but in the 1960’s, there was no way any of them would have been able to live in a family home in the town where I came of age, outside of a small designated area on the south side of town. That’s changed now, of course, and it was with great personal satisfaction that I learned, in 1996, that my maternal grandmother’s house was purchased by an accomplished attorney of African-American descent.

I thought of all this, while taking in the various events of Cinco de Mayo weekend, in downtown Prescott. People of all backgrounds are welcome here. Although Prescott has a tendency towards political conservatism, there seems little bigotry. Those of us who indulge in politics at all, tend to be of Libertarian bent.

I’ve always had a hard time understanding prejudice, and while working to rid myself of my own pre-conceived notions, which I found confusing, the whole concept of “Other” had to be allowed to surface, and float away. Young Black men, when I was in my twenties, did me the honour of challenging me to show that I was recognizing, and casting aside, the subtleties which I had picked up in childhood. I was hurt and angered by my white peers’ callous reaction to the killing of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968. He hurt no one, and helped as many of us as would listen to what he had to say.

Still and all, I have had to recognize my own sense of “Other”. This separation is a worldwide thing, though. Many East Asians have trouble with Whites and Blacks being in their midst. Africans separate by tribe; West Asians, by Faith; Russians, by language. Some of this “otherness” is rooted in hurt; some of it stems from fear.

The fact remains, however, that we are all connected. I see this sense of connectedness increasing, incrementally, among Millennials and the current generation of children. It’s definitely a process, not an event. Racist teens and twenty-somethings, though, are regarded by the majority of their peers as having mental problems. This cuts across all racial and ethnic groups, and political affiliations.

The kids are onto something. “Otherness” is a learned paradigm. Then again, so is helplessness.

	Sagittarian Seeker on Worlds Within A World, Part…
	Anonymous on Worlds Within A World, Part…
	Sagittarian Seeker on By Example
	slmret on By Example
	Sagittarian Seeker on False Equivalence

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