Saturday, October 19, 2002
GO POWER
If a note of urgency is not evident, nothing gets done.
Think about that as you plan your day and your life. Every act ought to be the result of a reason, and nothing occurs without affecting future actions.
I am, indeed, “my brother's keeper” in that any shortcoming or misconduct of mine reflects undeservedly on his character, as well. After all, he, as my “brother”, and he is, therefore, to care for me in the same sense that I am compelled to think of his well-being at all times.
If we, as individuals, fail to do the very best we can and earnestly strive at all times to achieve perfection, we are robbing those around us. If we do not weed our section of life's garden, the unseemly infestation spreads and weeds we allow to grow, find their way into the sections tended to by others. If we fail to set up sturdy barriers to ward off predators in our area, they enter and will find their way to the realms of others.
If you feel you lack the quality of “go” in your life try starting a habit of setting a definite time by which a deed must be done. Be realistic about it, and be ready to modify that set time if you find you have misjudged your ability to arrive at that point as planned. The important thing is that a goal remains and that you are honestly attempting to reach it. Redefinition is needful at times.
A word of warning. Don't let urgency take over in your life. Use it. Do not abuse it. The office worker who uses a large, rubber stamp and pad to mark all of his outgoing memos as being “Urgent” deludes himself.
We are not to bind our creative selves with urgency in every move, only those which require prompt attention and completion.
At this moment in communities just a few miles north of us, a serial killer is haunting every hour of every day for thousands of wary people.
They, and we, as their kindred to the south, need prompt and complete action now, without delay. There are more less pressing needs in our lives right now, so urgency must be applied to finding that killer and bringing him, or them to justice and instilling in the mind of others the idea that such actions cannot and will not be permitted in the future.
If you think, as some do, that “not enough is being done to capture the guilty person or persons” - think this though for moment: How urgent has law enforcement been in our minds in the immediate past? Have we, in any sense, planned for such protection such as that we now require so dramatically?
If the process seems slower than you would like, remember that we have a great deal of catching up to get done before we can move forward.
Mystery writers can do that of their detectives with just a few pecks at a keyboard, but in real life, we must pay for past mistakes and omissions.
Notice, too, please, that is “we , rather than “'they”.
Point the finger if you must, but know that you stand, always, in front of a mirror of Truth and that you are pointing at yourself as well.
A.L.M. October 18, 2002 [c563wds]
Friday, October 18, 2002
DOODLE BUGS
As kids we used to search around the yard and garden for dry, sandy spots. If you could see tiny swirls of sand grains descending into the surface in neat little eddies you knew you had discovered the dwelling place of a host of doodle bugs
Exactly what a doodle bug looks like, I cannot say, because I have never actually seen one, nor do I know of anyone who has ever seen one, but the holes were drilled by some tiny critter, bug or beast and until I'm told differently, I will go on believing they are made by the curious little, mysterious and unseen bug called the doodle. To deny them would be like saying Santa Clause does not exist.
I wonder if we do might owe our universal tendency to draw little designs and non-sense objects on anything available as we talk on the telephone or wait for something to start or stop at the office or at home. So, bugs can doodle too, if it helps them pass the tedious times of the day.
But, when we kids mentioned doodle bugs we were usually making reference to the game of hunting their homes and to, by means of the spoken word in the form of various mystic charms to cause them to crawl out of their sandy hovels.
As I recall it, we had just one such incantation which we used to to try to get the bugs to come up to the surface, but I have since found that other children has various sets of words which might do the trick. That may be why I never got to see a doodle bug, and I also tend to distrust anyone who tells me he or she did! Our charm had an emergency quality about it which others seemed to lack.
To call up a doodle bug, you got your face down as close as possible to the sandy surface. Then focusing one of then tiny, eddied holes , you first whispered, then spoke softly or yelled, depending on who was watching, I think: “Doodle bug! Doodle bug! Your house is on fire! “ repeating as seemed necessary. Some times rhythm and rhyme were added ” “Doodle bug! Doodle bug! I ain't no lie-er! Come out quick! You're house is on fir-er!”
Very often, you saw immediate results, too!
Right before your eyes you saw a few grains of sand displaced and you could see them slide down the slope into the whirlpool where the bug lived! “He moved! He moved!” you might call out and the vibrations from your voice and heavy breathing, caused yet another grain or two to dislodge and cascade into the hole, taking others with them.. That was taken to be proof that you had awakened the doodle bugs (which were always sleeping, it seems) and he and his family were taking your warning seriously moving around, dressing, getting ready to ascend.
Once you realized you were making it all happen yourself, you no longer engaged actively in the charming of doodle bugs from their homes, but you continued to help smaller children to learn to do so.
It was sorta like summer-time Santa-thinking, wasn't it?
A.L.M. October 17, 2002 [c545wds]
Thursday, October 17, 2002
ten BOOM
I remember when the book was first published.
It was 1971 and at that time I must have considered a book called “The Hiding Place” to have been just another book about someone who had been imprisoned during wartime.
That would have been in relation to “World War II”, in case you are in need of a reference point considering all that has taken place in the past half century. There were other books on the market at that time which gave accounts of life and death on the Nazi extermination camps, often detailed revelations of life under Hitler and of prison conditions.
I did not read “The Hiding Place” by Corrie ten Boom and (very much) with John and Elizabeth Sherrill. This writing couple - both of whom were Editors on “Guideposts” Magazine ...had other books on the stands in those days: “God's Smuggler”and “The Cross and the Switchblade”. Cornelia ten Boom, shared her memories and thoughts with them, and they skillfully made it into a readable and well-structured book.
Corrie ten Boom was born in 1892 which would made her old enough to remember some of the conditions of life in her native Holland during the time of the Kaiser and World War I. She was a mature woman when Hitler came along and that makes “The Hiding Place” a book differ from others of the era. I have a personal reference which stayed with me as I read the book recently. My mother was also born in 1892. Corrie ten Boom would have been, then, a mature woman and the time of Nazi ascendancy which gives this book a special meaning for me. She
spoke of life and events with a special, adult awareness, a quality so often lacking in many other books of this type.
Corrie's father, Casper, was a watchmaker, as had been his father before him. His father had opened a Clockmaker's Shop in 1837. Corrie, herself, the first and only licensed watchmaker in all of Holland in 1922. She organized Girls Clubs and one called The Triangle Club” became widespread.
In 1940 Hitler invaded Holland and her girl's clubs were banned. She and her family, unable to turn anyone away, soon found themselves with house guests attempting to escape Nazi. The methods by which they concealed their Jewish and other escapees is the backbone of the book.
As a middle-aged spinster at the time she continued in this underground system and their house, called “the Beje”, no doubt a shortened version of the long- named street on which it was located. In Haarlam, Holland. Quickly became a major cell in the entire Holland system caring for refuges placing them in “safe” homes,or arranging for escape. The
major portion of the book deals with these events and only the last few chapter deal with the prison conditions under which the entire family had to live for a year and half. Then, you keep waiting for the day of deliverance by advancing American troops and it does not come or page after page. When it does take place it is Canadian troops which show up.
The story ends quickly without any profound studies on why it all happened. Corrie had sworn to her older sister who died in the notorious Ravensbruck prison, that she would spend here life “telling people about
what had happened. She did so until she died in 1983 at age ninety-one.
“The Hiding Place” is a terse little book about day-to-day living under stress and the operation of a secret-room system moving Jews to freedom though the home of the ten Boom family. You will profit by having read it.
A.L.M. October 16, 2002 [w617wds]
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
NOT KNOWING
The subtle fear of not knowing what lies ahead, has come into the lives of thousands of people living in the DC area, the edge of Maryland and here in Northern Virginia.
If a person can see their enemy they can focus on some way of getting rid of the danger they are under, but if the force opposing them is unseen, totally invisible then, the situation is altered greatly.
I recall a time when I was a victim of such fear. I was not alone but with thousands of citizens of Norfolk and Suffolk Counties, East Anglia in England during the rocketry phase of World War II. That was about fifty -nine years ago, but I remember the feeling quite well. It is happening to many of us again now during the era of repeated murders in this area.
When the Nazi's first started lobbing V-1 missile across the North Sea, it took them several weeks to find the proper range which would place their new secret weapons with their particular band of packaged Hell in the London area. In the meantime, it seemed they lobbed them, somewhat indiscriminately, into East Anglia as if to prove to themselves they could do it.
The first ones came in under the cover of darkness, at about 2000 hours and we soon learned that another would follow in an hour at 2100 hours. Then, there might be one on the next hour, or their might not be, but the “anticipation” of that moment - we dared not call “fear” then, was overbearing. At twenty minutes before the hour people began to figit, laugh nervously, some becoming irritable but trying not to talk or think about it and what might happen – from out of nowhere, without warning and with no assailant either seen or heard.
That's typical of one type of fear which as come to be common among those who live in the current afflicted area. Facing unknown danger is never a time of comfort, but the unreasoned pattern of these killing makes its seem possible that we may be the next victim. This sniper has mobility so anyone living within a hundred miles of the specific area can see himself or herself as a potential victim.
I point this memory of fear out because this is a subtle kind of being afraid we do even admit to members of the family around us. We feel it, but we hide it from others lest we appear to be foolish, needlessly cautious or overly concerned about something that is not all likely to happen anyway.
At the moment, a total of at least eleven people might well have thought themselves to be unlikely victims, as well.
A.L.M. October 14. 2002 [c464wds]
Tuesday, October 15, 2002
WILLOWS
One does not, normally, trim weeping willow trees. Their tendency to hang down to ground in leafy fronds is a characteristic feature which makes them the special tree they can be. Nor, are all weeping trees, necessarily, willows. Others have been bred.
We have such a tree in our back yard. Had it been planted along the marshy edge of a small stream or pond, it might have grown to greater glory. In the dry. level place where it happens to be is adequate but not any showy specimen.
Members of our family take turns mowing the lawn and I find that some dislike mowing around “that crazy tree that hangs down”. I rather liked removing my cap first, then hit it lightly as if running into the face of a generous water fall. A moment of darkness, then I would burst out of the opposite side into the bright sunlight – replace my hat – and go on mowing.
Like weeping willow trees, some people have special characteristics which set them apart. Not all grown alike, either, because much depends on their situation and early life. Some are never valued for their special feature such as there ability to reach down to ouch and to join with the lowest elements of the landscape. You have known people who have that quality of outreach. They have the ability to associate with and get a closer look at the lowest of life around and beneath. They do so even as their head it held high; shoulders firmly widespread. The wind courses swiftly or softly through their leafy bulk as winds will do - unpredictably. The body holds firm and true.
When you find someone who is content in their particular environment, don't be too eager to feel you must change them to conform to your idea of what a proper environment should be. Many people where meant to be: “willows” - to ... ”look that way” – sad and weeping. It could be they they are neither weeping or sad, but merely questing downward to brush closer to the Earth which give them being and to be enriched by that closeness. Or, if you are mowing and you frighten a rabbit from underneath the shelter you get to witness how willows – trees or people – protect other forms of life. Notice, too, where your pet dog or cat comes from when you call them on a hot summer afternoon. Willows offer a special haven.
It is true willows do not fit the averages. Read your gardening books and you will find that, one after another, they will warn you not to plant more than one willow tree in your yard. along the creek or beside the pond. Two, too close, is too much. They tend, at times, to overshadow each other.
Respect willows for what they are. Don't attempt to redo them to be what they are not.
A.L.M. October 14, 2002 [c487wds]
Monday, October 14, 2002
PUZZLE
I am in need of a high tech answer in low tech terms.
I would like to know by what devious method television executives in conference conclaves set apart, with necessary underlings in attendance, of course, arrive at their decisions concerning taking certain programs of the air while retaining others.
What specialized, possibly cybernetically formulated and controlled, form of mathematics is used in such situations? Certainly, it must be rather complex and other-worldly in its cognitive elements, since its conclusions are so often at extreme variance with established facts about such subject programs.
To be honest with you, I doubt if I would understand any detailed explanation of such a complex process - if there is one - so I'll narrow it down a bit to what I actually need to know.
What I wonder about is how in the world they cancel only shows I like and retain those I can't stand! How do they know what my favorites are so they can kill 'em?
By what devious means do they find out which shows my family and I, plus friends and their families, enjoy as favorites? How do they know we actually look forward to certain nights and specific times so we can sit down and enjoy a favorite show – be it a mystery, a comedy, and old movie we'd like to re-live, or some up-to-the moment news or commentary. We even welcome a new show now and then, always willing to give new talent and new ideas a fair chance.
Not only have they developed ways of knowing which shows we like best so they can put and end to them, but they replace them with tired copies of shows running at that particular time on competing networks.
It cannot be said that the major networks are the only offenders. Some other networks and independents do welcome re-runs of many of our favorites, but too often in a five-and- ten format: five minutes of the show and ten minutes of commercials. A favorite episode can last for hours!
I'm going into our living room in just a few moments, when I finish writing this page, where I plan to sit and watch some television until bed time. I wonder if I should have installed blackout curtains over the picture window to thwart any network from observing what I watch. Maybe I'd best check high and low for hidden cameras or microphones. I have feeling they'll find out what I watch in some unfathomable way.
How they do it, I don't know, but I'm told that everything we do evolves, sooner or later, into some form of math, so what better place to start?
A.L.M. October 13, 2002 [c456wds]
Sunday, October 13, 2002
BIG TIME
At the moment it appears that the Al Qaeda may have decided it is time to extend their terrorist attacks into new areas.
Either they have decided to go “big time” by hitting targets other than those specifically associated with the United States such as the attack on a French oiler last week off Yemen harbor, the series of bombings in Bali, in addition to the attack on U.S. Marines in Kuwait indicate two possibilities, either they have decided a show of power around the world is needed, or that they have lost control of individual and domesticated cell activities around the world which now act on their own.
This may well be a welcome crack forming in the basic structure of the Al Qaeda which will be well worth watching.
It is easy to see how zero in on one nation - such as the United States – might tend to isolate that nation and cause other state to hesitate to assist with any plans to change the course of events. This would seem to be a very poor time to alienate French, the Kuwaiti Emirs and the other nations; and, perhaps most of all, to launch terrorist attacks in the world's Muslim nation – Indonesia. To set off a series of blasts in a resort town at Bali would seem to be counter productive even though intended to kill or maim Australian and American tourists vacationing on the island.
Right now would seem to be the worst item to schedule such attacks .The UN is, even now, debating which side they will support and such acts against other than the United States are sure to drive other nations in to an alliance of some sort led by the United States.
Finland is labeling the recent deadly bombing in a crowded shopping center as a “terrorist” attack. A student is being held as a suspect but his identify and culural background has not been rev ales. The initial impulse, however, was to call it a “terrorist” attack.
The terms “terrorist” and “terrorism” now equate in the public mind-set with the benign work of Bin Laden and his cohorts, the Al Qaeda family or of random zealots expounding such ideas.
And, with the sniper killings continuing here in northern Virginia and the edge of Maryland touching on the District of Columbia, more and more people, in addition to those who already say so, are going to be thinking of them as Al Qaeda managed crimes against us ...a part of the larger picture.
Has the terrorist movement gone “big time”? Has it shifted to smaller, more specialized targeting in more places?
A.L.M. October 12, 2002 [c451wds ]
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