Saturday, August 16, 2003
REVELANCY
So often what we want to do is judged to be "irrelevant" by others.
That takes some of the enjoyment out of living, I feel, and notice, if you will, please, that I said "living", because the day-to-day activities in which we engage go to make up the totality of "life".
If we don't enjoy it as we go along, much of it is a worthless accumulation of nothing but what we had to do rather than goals we anticipated and looked forward to doing.
"Take time," the old saying tells us. "to smell the roses." That's a good guideline to happiness I would say, but there are those among us who look at this simple act as being of silly and romantic - a waste of valuable time which could better be spent - well, planting more roses, for instance, without any conscious intent of enjoying what you are doing.
The idea that "someone's gotta do it!" is not valid reason for taking on a task, I'd say. We should make it a point to be happy with what we are doing - even the fulfillment of those daily requirements forced upon us by circumstances - such as household chores and office routines.
If there ever was a man who, during his lifetime, was given a good look at the pattern of his life, Alfred Noble, the Swedish scientist and inventor. He open up the newspaper one morning to read the obituary of his younger brother who had been killed in an explosion. To his amazement, he found himself reading his own obituary because the Editor had confused his biography with that of his younger brother. In his obituary notice Noble found he was acclaimed as "the merchant of death!" because he had invented dynamite.
Alfred Nobel set out to change that horrible memory because he had always been a person who took great joy and satisfaction in helping people. His experiments with explosives were done, primarily, to advance mankind's well-being. It was his "Dynamite" that made the digging of tunnels under the Alps possible, as well as score or more of other achievements. The fact that Man has misused the inventions he discovered to conduct war - which he had long hated and scorned - was not his fault.
Nobel, from that point on, made it one of the joys of his daily living to give his wealth to the advancement of mankind, not only in the Sciences and the Arts, but to world-wide Peace for all mankind. His real obituary, years later, spoke of him as the founder of the Noble Peace Prize. He was revered, too, as the man who found a way to make the use of highly volatile nitro-glycerin safer for man (which he named "Dynamite") to use in construction work as well as devising a score of more of other inventions which helped mankind in many ways. He went right on experimenting - often in danger - because he was doing what he enjoyed doing - however irrelevant it must have seemed to many of his critics in his own day.
A.L.M. August 14, 2003 [c554wds]
Friday, August 15, 2003
R.D.A.
I have long wondered about who sets the standards on diet charts and labels for the average daily requirements.
The Recommended Daily allowances seem to vary a great deal from product line to product line, and I have often speculated concerning how those figures have evolved. I have assumed they are used with the approval of some governmental agency, and that, come to think of it, may be one of my concerns.
Are they the result of serious studies by specialists in nutrition or are they, for the most part, the creation of someone as nebulous as "Betty Crocker" propounded at the bidding of a manufacturer whose wishes to sell more and more of his particular food product. He, as do many others, seems to think of such recommendations as a form of "Quality Control" for making sure his product will continue to sell. That terms scares some people who learned long ago in other areas that quality control doesn't mean what the word say - not exactly. Far to often “quality control” means adjusting the quality of the product to assure maximum profit with least expense.
I think we all agree that good health results from good nutrition. It would seem that good nutrition, then, would start with plans that seek a balanced diet - and a regular pay check should accompany such plans because good food does not come cheap these days. Imitations and substitutes, however, are plentiful and often "bargain" priced. Some are little more than "look alikes", however, so they prove to be more expensive in the long run than authentic products. Too many fad foods are being fed families these days and we fall for a lot of nutritional flapdoodle on TV and in print and here on the Internet, I'm sure.
Who and what is "average", for instance?
Food is probably the one aspect of living in which people express themselves individually than any other. If you "don't like it", you won't eat it. If you do like it, you, more than likely, overdo it, and at the expense of another, more-needed food.
Food fads are one of the most costly aspects of modern living, I would say. They tend to undermine the health of so many people who need far
better nutrition on a daily basis.
The RDA ratings you read on product packages are supposed to be divided into eighteen groups based on gender, age, and current condition of individuals - such as lactating females. In general. the "average" is set for ages 19-51, so anyone under 19 or over 51 is on his own. If good nutritional habits have not been established long before age nineteen, then fewer will live to worry about their nutritional standings many years after age fifty-one studies tell us.
Toxic levels do exist in many trace elements found in certain foods - copper, manganese, fluoride, chromium and molybdenum - among them - and few of us know one from the other in "planning" our diets for best nutrition. Everyone likes to talk about Vitamins, but few know that four are fat soluble – A, Z , E and K. Nine other vitamins are water soluble and there are fourteen minerals so this is not an area for guessing. It might be wise to take many of the printed "Recommended Daily Allowance" - with a grain of salt.
But, then, that's yet another food concern with many people, isn't it!
Skip that mention, but do try to give a bit more attention to the nutritional values of the foods you eat. Hark back to that “under 19 and over 51” group mentioned above. That's the “do--it-yourself” group.
You are chart free and on your own.
A..L.M., August 14, 2003 [c641wds]
Thursday, August 14, 2003
CALIFORNIA CHURNING
The present oleo of potential candidates for the Governor's hot seat is a situation we seldom see.
` I have not been able to keep up with the official tally of who or how many people have declared themselves to be in line to share in any spoils from the unusual “Recall Election” to be held next month. It seems to have started off suddenly with around one hundred and thirty-eight candidates entered the race at once. I heard one such tally this afternoon which sets the number as “approaching three hundred” today. Certainly, there can't be that many crazies loose out there! The more reasonable count seems to have steadied at about 135 which is far to many. Is such an accumulation of that many “parties” indicative of the nature of fragmented political views in the state? Over fifty of them are said to be Democrats, which does not bode well for the present Governor.
I wonder what leads a person to seek such an office. Some must see it as a civic duty in a sense. By this time, aspirants have certainly had an opportunity to find out what some of the major problems might. In addition to have a state debt which is in excess of the billions owed by entire nations!
The state has been losing around 700,000 residents per month , too - even while total population rises at a much higher rate from legal, illegal and other types of immigration – each with built-in problems.
I doubt if many potential leaders is entered because of story book ideas about the honor of holding the office. What about a desire for power?
Few would be able to detail how it seems to be that so many politicians can acquire impressive wealth in office; they do understand, however, lesser elements of power in regard to paybacks and obligations.
This melee in California has overshadowed some of the news concerning that contests for presidential nominations. Maybe this is a welcomed respite for the Oval Office seekers and for all us ...a short vacation from the ongoing recriminations, which started so early.
One name seems to be leading all others. Polls today set Arnold Schwartzenegger's rating at 76 per-per cent. That leaves precious little for several hundred others.
A.L.M. August 13, 2003 [c395wds]
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
FROM THE OTHER SIDE
Business firms, in recent years, have extended to customers a far greater assurance of service and repair on products they buy. That's good. I know, for a fact, however, that it can only mean more trouble for the other side.
I don't brag about having done so, but I did, for a brief time, sit at the Customer Relations desk in a major industrial plant. Customer Relations, was more varied and much more complex because it was new company founded on the remains of several much older lines. I was moved into the slot when the older man who had been doing the job of many years, suffered medical problems. I undertook the assignment on a temporary basis, I know now, why he drank too much every night when he got away from his office, made it to his club bar, then home. I learned a lot great deal about others and about myself in those weeks I attempted to fill his well-worn, over-sized shoes.
Here, chosen at random, are a few examples of what someone on the others side:
1. Letter: I have just bought this house There is a big box in the basement which has your name on it. How do I start it, so I can use it?” It turned out to be part of an old air-conditioning system.
2.Letter: “I bought one of your furnaces in 1955”- a page of praise - then: “but it doesn't seem to heat as well as it did when it was new. Thank you.”
3. Letter:: List of woes. Never mentions Model, mode or name of unit - gas?,coal?, oil? solar or nuclear? Would not tell me his name except for his signature - 'Randy ' with a series of loops becoming a line. No address, no phone number.
4.Letter: Profane, nasty, threatening, dramatic – from a person who believes going right to the top! The letter was dictated to a secretary and addressed to the President of the Company The letterhead, checked back through our rep in that area drew a reply: “Noisy nut. He's a chronic complainer He's the type of guy who yells insults at the pop corn man if the movie is lousy!”
If you ever feel the urge to express your feelings to a company about a product of theirs, try to get - and to give - the correct address. Be serious. Be factual, and don't bark unless you are prepared to bite. Be sure your records are correct. Check all warranty lingo. Customer Relations people handles a host of honest cases and, for the most part, they do it well. Both sides need to be pleasant but firm.
A.L.M. August 12, 2003 [c455wds]
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
PRIMARY CONCERNS
I have never been an enthusiastic supporter of the political primaries which are so routinely held prior to elections. Ostensibly, the system is designed to ferret out the one person deigned to be the very best, most qualified, most capable individual possible. Once designated as such, they are, then, anointed by party officials to be the party’s official entry in the election race just ahead.
I have repeatedly been told that the primary system prevents the presidential candidates from being “named” by a bunch of party cronies in a smoke-filled back room. The plan is said to be very democratic, as we say, allowing the general public to have a say in the choice to be made. It is supposed to remove the danger of our future leader being named by a narrow group of party hacks, but I think it falls apart on such nomenclature as that alone.
A like circumstance: If you want to know which horse of several in your stable to run in a race at the tracks, you seek the viewpoint of trainers, jockeys and handlers rather than that of touts, other owners or outright fortune telling freaks. You don’t ask the possible betters; you don’ t quiz the busy homemaker, or ask the person who does not know one end of a horse from the other.
The individuals who make any kind of showing at the earlier primaries such as those in New Hampshire and Iowa, the ones who most nearly toe the party line, cause caucus groups to get together which comes about as near as one might get to being “party hacks” converging in air-conditioned rather than smoke-filled rooms. We may call them “political activists” now-a-days and they now come in all shade, sizes, colors - and in all degrees from right to left, and with seemingly different tendencies and temperaments. All run on the same narrow-gauged track, however.
I fail to see the plan as being even a modest improvement on a system which allows a political party to simply designate the individual they choose to run on their behalf.
The rather weird manifestations taking place in a Recall Election in the State of California this year will serve as a valued guide to future elections. It will show “how to do it”,and “how not to do it” as well, I'm sure. Our primaries do somewhat the same. The media has reported anywhere from “138 to 328” as having registered to run for Governor of the Golden State but the only one named in the news seems to be someone named “Arnold”. See what happens when the public holds a popularity poll?
Our entire primary system is suspect to me.
A.L.M. August 11, 2003 [c480wds]
Monday, August 11, 2003
TANTRUM TIME
You probably never had to wonder very long to realize how the shelves in grocery stores are stacked in patterns as traps for parents with small children.
They also serve as a convenient, foolproof study areas for anyone observing parental control of such children. Nowhere else provides such natural, uncluttered lab conditions for a student to observe parental reactions to their children's ways of showing defiance and setting their rules of independent choice.
Be it by sheer chance, or by devious connivance by management and shelf stockers, the most colorful, slowest-moving, or most costly and hence, more profitable items such as certain dry cereals are always placed in abundance at a small child's eye or stoop level.
Bundles of woe await any parents who walk into such a commercial trap with a child meandering ahead of their shopping cart down the fascinating lanes of canned, boxed, bottled or packaged foodstuffs.
It usually starts rather naturally. The child sees a particular product he or she knows and gathers one or more close and runs to the parents for it to be put in the cart. This is the exact moment of crisis in their young lives but it is amazing how many parents do not see it as a tragic act at the time. If that initial item of childish choice is accepted by the parent and placed in the cart, they have, at that very moment, unleashed a torrent of trouble.
One of life's most most worts scenes occurs right in the public market place with scores of people appearing out of nowhere to watch and listen. Outright rebellion takes place with a screaming, twisting child seemingly being beaten into submission by vengeful monster of a mother or father. The child is, usually, seen to be playing to the growing audience, and among them will most certainly one or more who will report the encounter to the authorities. The young couple will become gossip circle victims as child beaters, potential molesters or worse.
Before parents take small children shopping with them is is wise to teach them that one does not touch, certainly not handle, anything which does not belong to them. Teach them the items in the store e belong to the store 's owner. stare owner. I have often felt sorry for distraught mother's who were in such a situation. When stores were entirely different years ago, the chances of such a thing happening were rare.
I some times have blamed part of it on a wonderful food stores which came to our small southwest Virginia town in 1926. when they expanding from their home area of Memphis, TN. Clarance Saunders, the founder of the chain of food stores called Piggley Wiggley had devised anew shopping system 1916 which allowed self-service shopping to become a reality. One entered the shopping area itself though a turnstile and picked up a bag or basket in which to put selections. You then zigged or zagged the length of the store several times between aisles of foods and you selected the items you wanted. With a final zag you arrived at the checkout counter where you paid for the items selected.
The stores called Piggley Wiggley still prosper, I understand in the Midwest, but I wonder if they still have the unique floor plan that made food shopping such a family pleasure for us many years ago.
I hope the distraught mothers and suffering children are a thing of the past as well.
A.L.M. August 9, 2003 [c578wds]
Sunday, August 10, 2003
BEST GIFT
What is the best gift your can give to a young man?
Sir William Osler said the finest gift you can present to any young man is the gift of friendship.
That sounds a bit corny now in our time. It's true, however. A young man on his way up, seeks your approval for what he wants to do. He, if he has a gumption, at all doesn't seek guidance in a mentor sense at all. In fact, he - perhaps unwittingly - may even resent your attempts to offer financial aid, favors, or power influence of a social nature. Your friendly understanding and approval of those steps he has taken, or plans to take concerning his future is what he wants most over all others. You can't give any better gift than that of the desired and much-needed gift of sincere friendship.
Sir William Osler was at the peak of his sensational medical career in May of 1905 when he may have been at the point at which the especially realized how he had made it to that point and came to know how important they had been to his success. In 1893 he had identified those blood cells we now call platelets which revolutionized the studies of blood and related conditions. He advanced steadily into a wider view and appreciation of what medical service to Mankind might be for eager, capable, studious young men and women. He related easily, it appears, to those in their teens and even more so to young people of college age - both boys and girls.
The actual gifts we, following Olser's example, can give to young people is varied.
Be communicative, for example. Talk with young people rather that at or to them. Listen to what they have to say and evaluate it your own mind without, necessarily, making it obvious that you see some flaws therein. They too will, in time, see those same flaws without you having pointed them out as misjudgments and potential hazards .They will, thus, discover for themselves how they can overcome such fears and false steps without your intervention. It a like situation arises again” They have “been there-done that”. At the same time, use your good judgment should dangers continue. Last-minute rescues can be a true test of sincere friendships.
Teach young people to have “a gift of gab”... the ability to talk with each other, and with older people in a loose, informal, congenial manner without staid, formal rules obscuring innovative thought and action.
Remember , too, that - like it or or not - you are a model for them. Good or bad. You are one or the other. Check your own standing from time to time to make sure you continue to a worthy template of which that young person may base his life.
The cardinal rule is said “to make a friend,you have to be one.” It can be given and received a one and the same time. The basis of a friendship is being interested, concerned, loving and caring all the way.
“In the life of a young man the most essential thing for happiness is the gift of friendship.” Sir William Osler, Canadian doctor. May 2, 1905.
Wise words.
A.L.M. August 8, 2003 [c549wds]
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