Even at my age of 77, I feel a new enthusiasm for life today.
Why?
I just took a new career step, that's why. It's exhilarating!
I've reflected a lot about the life my father led lately. He lived to be 95. I don't think he rejoiced in that fact, and considering how he spent his latter years, I certainly don't.
Dad was a lifetime rancher until he had to retire in his early seventies and leave those North Dakota prairies behind. When you have worked hard all your life and suddenly find yourself with only hobbies and passtimes to base existence on, it's sort of like that old song says, "Life get's tedjious, don't it?"
For several years, he busied himself with wood crafts, making clocks, music boxes, jewel cases, etc. He was able to sell some, but nobody wanted to pay much for them. A lot he gave away to friends and family members. Overall, it was a net financial loss. I fell heir to his bandsaw that I use to cut up doggie treats to make them last longer.
As the years passed, he and my mother were forced to move in with my sister in California. My sister did her best, but there was really no way to make life interesting for either of her parents. They were condemned to a stark waiting game for the "grim reaper" to release them from day after day of just staring at walls while they steadily lost more and more physical prowess.
Years before that, My Dad commented to me while they still lived in a HUD apartment in Phoenix that they had "just lived too long." I think he was still younger than I am today at that time.
We have a cup which displays a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt. Her advice, as displayed on that cup, was to do something every day that scares you. That approach carries risks, but it certainly serves to keep life interesting.
I just did something that would scare the s++t out of a lot of people my age. I went down to Phoenix yesterday and took a two-and-a-half hour test to qualify for a license to sell life, health and disability insurance. Friday, I'll be attending a training day to prepare me for representing the Aflac insurance company.
Did it scare me? Sure did. I wondered a few times in the last month if I'd ever be able to pass that test, but I aced it ten points over the minimum requirement. Had to study so hard it upset my whole digestive system and sleep, not to mention my normal routine.
Did I wonder if I was being foolish to attempt to start a new career at my age? Yeah, briefly. But, why not?
I still have all my "marbles" -- in my esteemed opinion, at least. I can still drive, think, get around and comprehend facts and situations. So, why limit myself just because of those accumulated years?
At least, I can now have something to get up for in the morning. The admiration my little wife has for me and has expressed vociferously is especially gratifying.
I don't know if I'll make a little or a lot of money. That isn't the main point. The real point is that I can be a vital part of this world and it's economy. I have something to do that will be easier on me and much more feasible than the carpet work I've been doing for forty years now. Time to leave that kind of work to younger, stronger people.
There's a new "spring" in my step, even if it isn't as good as it was in my square dancing days. I can again have the satisfaction of saying I "did it" by accomplishing what I set out to do.
Insurance agents are called "producers." I produced yesterday and intend to keep on doing so.
LIFE IS GOOD!
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
GIVE ME A BREAK ALREADY!!!
Shades of McCarthyism and the cold war!
Will the stupidity never end?
Just be a progressive, ala Teddy Rossevelt or FDR, and the idiots on the right will label you a card carrying communist.
On what basis?
On the basis of their own idiotic and warped thinking!
If you don't goose step to their ultra conservative, right-wing tune, prepare to be denounced as the lowest of the low as far as their world-view is concerned. If anything favors the savaged 99% who are not among the privileged rich aristocracy, it's automatically relegated to socialism, and the worst of all socialism -- communism.
I guess that makes me a communist, although I've never been acquainted with a known communist and wouldn't even know or want to find out where to start to get in touch with the Communist Party, which is not exactly a monolithic entity here in the USA -- and most of the rest of the world.
My shock, indignation and, thus this blog, resulted from this article I just read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/11/allen-west-democrats-communist-party_n_1417279.html
Can anybody really be that stupid?
Will the stupidity never end?
Just be a progressive, ala Teddy Rossevelt or FDR, and the idiots on the right will label you a card carrying communist.
On what basis?
On the basis of their own idiotic and warped thinking!
If you don't goose step to their ultra conservative, right-wing tune, prepare to be denounced as the lowest of the low as far as their world-view is concerned. If anything favors the savaged 99% who are not among the privileged rich aristocracy, it's automatically relegated to socialism, and the worst of all socialism -- communism.
I guess that makes me a communist, although I've never been acquainted with a known communist and wouldn't even know or want to find out where to start to get in touch with the Communist Party, which is not exactly a monolithic entity here in the USA -- and most of the rest of the world.
My shock, indignation and, thus this blog, resulted from this article I just read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/11/allen-west-democrats-communist-party_n_1417279.html
Can anybody really be that stupid?
Thursday, March 29, 2012
PARALYZED BY FEAR
My daughter called my attention to an ecard that got me thinking. It showed two guys talking. One said: "That was a very well laid out rational point. But, I will still hold to my emotional opinion based on no facts or evidence."
All of us non-theists encounter that attitude constantly, either in person or via print. It's called faith, which Greta Christina has defined as "an irrational attachment to a pre-existing idea regardless of any evidence that contradicts it."
Why would otherwise intelligent and highly capable people cling to such irrationality? Indeed, why did many of us, in our deluded pasts, cling to the same approach?
Pure and simple, it's FEAR. Nearly all human beings are walking bags of fear! Fear is a tremendous motivator, and political and religious "leaders" take full advantage of that fact.
We fear what might happen to us and our health and economic security in this present life, and we especially fear what might happen to us when this life is over. We possess our wonderful awareness that our animal cousins of varying degrees have no inkling about. Our beloved little dogs are aging every day and, without us, they would be up that proverbial creek with no paddle or anything else. Are they aware of their precarious position?
Not in the least. They sometimes show fear and anxiety, but not in the same way or degree as us humans.
We humans are filled with concerns, worries and anxieties. They motivate us every day.
We had occasion to spend some time with a dear friend of my wife early this week. She's in her early sixties and has clawed and worked her way to the position of executive head of the Arizona chapter of a famous and important national organization. Her husband is also a successful man with an important and high paying position with a major company. They're wonderful people and our stay with them was a delightful mini-vacation.
As I look back on the visit, I see that, for all the success and the seeming security of their position, fear looms over their lives, just as it looms over the lives of every other human being.
When Phyllis first became fast, lifelong friends with her, she was a stuggling female "working stiff" and an ardent democrat. Now she's a fanatic Republican and denounces Obama as "that socialist." We basically just listened to her tirades and tried to figure out her reasoning.
Her husband is a non-believer similar to Phyllis and I, but she clings emotionally to the concept of a god and an after-life.
Why?
Fear. She is afraid that what she has striven and sacrificed for will be diminished or taken away by "socialism." She's knows she's going to die one day and desperately wants for that not to be the end of everything. In case there is a "hanging god" judge and a real hell, continuing to at least pay lip service to him protects against that eventuality, or so people hope.
Do I worry about what the future may hold? Of course I do. I wouldn't be human if I didn't. I have the awareness, so I have the concerns.
I've just progressed to the point where I don't have to resort to irrational belief systems for comfort. Instead, I realize that what a former friend said about fifty years ago when I was commenting on my insecurities is a truth. That friend pointed out that even if everything "went south" for me, I would survive because of the social programs then in place to provide for those who were victims to total deprivation, however marginal that survival might be.
Since I realize there is no big "sugar daddy" up there somewhere and there likely is no existence beyond this brief life, I simply do the best I can each and every day, try to take care of myself and my health and keep the big picture in mind as much as I humanly can.
It sure beats being a bundle of corrosive fears and letting those fears tie me up mentally and emotionally.
All of us non-theists encounter that attitude constantly, either in person or via print. It's called faith, which Greta Christina has defined as "an irrational attachment to a pre-existing idea regardless of any evidence that contradicts it."
Why would otherwise intelligent and highly capable people cling to such irrationality? Indeed, why did many of us, in our deluded pasts, cling to the same approach?
Pure and simple, it's FEAR. Nearly all human beings are walking bags of fear! Fear is a tremendous motivator, and political and religious "leaders" take full advantage of that fact.
We fear what might happen to us and our health and economic security in this present life, and we especially fear what might happen to us when this life is over. We possess our wonderful awareness that our animal cousins of varying degrees have no inkling about. Our beloved little dogs are aging every day and, without us, they would be up that proverbial creek with no paddle or anything else. Are they aware of their precarious position?
Not in the least. They sometimes show fear and anxiety, but not in the same way or degree as us humans.
We humans are filled with concerns, worries and anxieties. They motivate us every day.
We had occasion to spend some time with a dear friend of my wife early this week. She's in her early sixties and has clawed and worked her way to the position of executive head of the Arizona chapter of a famous and important national organization. Her husband is also a successful man with an important and high paying position with a major company. They're wonderful people and our stay with them was a delightful mini-vacation.
As I look back on the visit, I see that, for all the success and the seeming security of their position, fear looms over their lives, just as it looms over the lives of every other human being.
When Phyllis first became fast, lifelong friends with her, she was a stuggling female "working stiff" and an ardent democrat. Now she's a fanatic Republican and denounces Obama as "that socialist." We basically just listened to her tirades and tried to figure out her reasoning.
Her husband is a non-believer similar to Phyllis and I, but she clings emotionally to the concept of a god and an after-life.
Why?
Fear. She is afraid that what she has striven and sacrificed for will be diminished or taken away by "socialism." She's knows she's going to die one day and desperately wants for that not to be the end of everything. In case there is a "hanging god" judge and a real hell, continuing to at least pay lip service to him protects against that eventuality, or so people hope.
Do I worry about what the future may hold? Of course I do. I wouldn't be human if I didn't. I have the awareness, so I have the concerns.
I've just progressed to the point where I don't have to resort to irrational belief systems for comfort. Instead, I realize that what a former friend said about fifty years ago when I was commenting on my insecurities is a truth. That friend pointed out that even if everything "went south" for me, I would survive because of the social programs then in place to provide for those who were victims to total deprivation, however marginal that survival might be.
Since I realize there is no big "sugar daddy" up there somewhere and there likely is no existence beyond this brief life, I simply do the best I can each and every day, try to take care of myself and my health and keep the big picture in mind as much as I humanly can.
It sure beats being a bundle of corrosive fears and letting those fears tie me up mentally and emotionally.
Monday, March 19, 2012
WE LOOK NUTTY BECAUSE WE ARE
I just have to say more about the subject of my previous blog. There is a definite reason why the US looks so nutty to much of the rest of the world.
The reason we look like we're nuts is that far too many Americans are certifiably nuts!
They are nuts because they've been deluded and brainwashed into accepting religion! Religion is nuts! Those who blindly follow religion are nut cases!
I used to follow religion blindly. I now see that I was a bona fide NUT JOB!
I believed evolution was a lie. That's totally nuts!
I believed the entire Bible was inspired and absolute truth. That's totally nuts!
People who believe any religious malarky -- of any religion -- are NUTS!
There are more of those certifiable NUTS in the USA than anywhere else in the Western world!
We didn't start out that way. As I mentioned in a previous blog, only 10 to 15 percent of Americans were church goers in 1800. We were a secular nation, for the most part. Our ancestors could think. Too many of their descendants have lost their ability to think logically and to question.
From that sane beginning, we have let the god merchants hornswoggle us into becoming a nation of "faith based" idiots -- so much so that no politician would stand a chance in any election if he dared to say he or she was not a person of "faith."
It's a sad -- and frightening -- situation.
The reason we look like we're nuts is that far too many Americans are certifiably nuts!
They are nuts because they've been deluded and brainwashed into accepting religion! Religion is nuts! Those who blindly follow religion are nut cases!
I used to follow religion blindly. I now see that I was a bona fide NUT JOB!
I believed evolution was a lie. That's totally nuts!
I believed the entire Bible was inspired and absolute truth. That's totally nuts!
People who believe any religious malarky -- of any religion -- are NUTS!
There are more of those certifiable NUTS in the USA than anywhere else in the Western world!
We didn't start out that way. As I mentioned in a previous blog, only 10 to 15 percent of Americans were church goers in 1800. We were a secular nation, for the most part. Our ancestors could think. Too many of their descendants have lost their ability to think logically and to question.
From that sane beginning, we have let the god merchants hornswoggle us into becoming a nation of "faith based" idiots -- so much so that no politician would stand a chance in any election if he dared to say he or she was not a person of "faith."
It's a sad -- and frightening -- situation.
WELL SAID -- BY A KNOWLEDGEABLE WOMAN
I've had a lot to say about the christofascists and their assault on the liberties our founding fathers championed and fought for. It horrifies me that Americans can tolerate, let alone support, the hateful likes of Santorum, Romney, Robertson, etc., etc. The nauseum of the plethora of and public acceptance of such self-righteous, hateful, totally dumb and unprincipled people is manifold and unending.
I just happened on a piece written by a very wise and eloquent woman about the assault on women's rights. It says it all much better than I, a mere man, could even attempt to say it. I hope you will read it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/womens-reproductive-rights_b_1345214.html.
I just happened on a piece written by a very wise and eloquent woman about the assault on women's rights. It says it all much better than I, a mere man, could even attempt to say it. I hope you will read it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/womens-reproductive-rights_b_1345214.html.
HEAVEN IS EVIL CONCEPT ALSO
In the event you are not a fan of Greta Christina and would miss her latest blog on heaven being evil, just as the concept of hell is evil, I want to refer you all to it: http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/03/19/social-control-why-heaven-is-evil/.
I came to the conclusion long ago that the concept of heaven and hell was a ridiculous mythological delusion. It's taken much longer to realize that they are destructive delusions for a variety of reasons.
Rather than pontificate further, I urge you to read this fine post and the multitude of inciteful comments that accompany it.
I came to the conclusion long ago that the concept of heaven and hell was a ridiculous mythological delusion. It's taken much longer to realize that they are destructive delusions for a variety of reasons.
Rather than pontificate further, I urge you to read this fine post and the multitude of inciteful comments that accompany it.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
THE "SKY DADDY" MAGICIAN
I just read a very inciteful statement by a young lady named Megan Foley on Pharyngula. She was explaining why she's an atheist and this statement rang a bell with me: "Because the universe is all the more beautiful without any gods and their magic pointing fingers poofing things into existence."
That simple quote strikes me as wonderfully inciteful and profound. It cuts right to the heart of the matter, a place I now instinctively strive to attain.
Children are prone to believe in magic. Adults should have long ago ceased to believe in such nonsense. They might not understand the intricacies of the "trick," but they know a trick is involved.
If it weren't for the nonsense of religion, adults with a smattering of science education would reject magic totally, including the divine magic of their chosen deity. They wouldn't give a moments credence to any god speaking and magically bringing universes and life into existence. Creationists do it all the time and their superstition fills the minds of all too many politically powerful individuals.
Magical gods harbored in the deluded thinking of politically powerful people are a threat to civilization and human well-being and survival.
Reality has to replace superstitious magic or civilization itself is in peril.
That simple quote strikes me as wonderfully inciteful and profound. It cuts right to the heart of the matter, a place I now instinctively strive to attain.
Children are prone to believe in magic. Adults should have long ago ceased to believe in such nonsense. They might not understand the intricacies of the "trick," but they know a trick is involved.
If it weren't for the nonsense of religion, adults with a smattering of science education would reject magic totally, including the divine magic of their chosen deity. They wouldn't give a moments credence to any god speaking and magically bringing universes and life into existence. Creationists do it all the time and their superstition fills the minds of all too many politically powerful individuals.
Magical gods harbored in the deluded thinking of politically powerful people are a threat to civilization and human well-being and survival.
Reality has to replace superstitious magic or civilization itself is in peril.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
