Saturday, June 11, 2005
WHERE PEOPLE ARE?
It may well be true that it might never have happened to you. Just because you have been excluded at some time in the past, doesn't mean, of course, that it should happen only that it has not happened in your life up to this point. It could be that the visit has all ready taken place. It may be that you have stubbornly refused to accept even a small assistance factor from anyone else. To you, accepting help is a sign of weakness; darkness is a condition wherein we are deprived of light. A of sounds might, to some, mean silence and be viewed most of the time as a great loss. None of these views hold strictly to the truth, however. In some, strange way we all seem to be, at times, member of a creative group. Just about every person I've ever mentioned it to, has, it appears, thoughts about his or her purpose for being here. That seems to be a normal question we ask ourselves. We are constantly trying to decide why we are, where we are; what we are at work at where we are and most difficult of all - what we are intended to be doing. If a person concerns himself too intently for too long a time he feels isolated, kidnapped or just plan old nautical-sounding ""shanghaied". The few who make it all the way through this maze end up writing books very much like "The Pilgrim's Progress" and spend the rest of their lives explaining what they have written including pages of logging give and take on the Internet. I do have feeling at times that certain people come into our lives for the specific reason of influencing dynamic change. At times they chose to go away from we area to live, but are continuing examples of how we can live if we want to do so. The people who influence us the most are probably among those who actually have the least possible association with our natural lives - the examples , the models, the "me,too" dreamers. It all sounds exciting and challenging, but we need always remember that ,just as earlier, we have a choice. Choose the path which is the natural one for us depends to a large extent on what standards we have for making judgments. The greatest reasponsbility of all is that this not a one-way street. As you search for what you are really supposed to be or become, someone else might well be looking at you as a model. That's the scary part. A.L.M. June 11 2005 [c442wds]
Friday, June 10, 2005
MARK TWAIN TIME Mark Twain is one of those writers we should read again when we get older. We have a memory of having read his “funny stuff” but when we recap our reading we actually find we have read very little of his writings, Tom Sawyer, perhaps, Huck Finn , those tales about the rafts and river steamboats, a some have a memory of the Yankee character he created who suffered a bump on his head and found himself waking up under a tree in the time of King Arthur and the Court at Camelot. Far too often, our memory is a bit warped.. I received a 3-thousand book CD library for Christmas and among the first books I decided to “re-read” was that of the Yankee living in a restored King Arthur's armor-suited domain. To my be surprise, I found that I had never read the book at all. What I was remembering was Will Rogers playing the role said Yankee many years ago -so long ago, I now realize, that it was a film without sound. That film and dealt with the impressive opening episode of the book, and, unless I am again mistaken, I think that is as far as it went. You know that part of the story in which the Yankee is due to lose his head to the royal executioner's blade, unless he comes up with the sort of thing MacIver did so well on TV just a year or two ago - and continues to do on re-runs - to show his impressive power which would make his on lookers think he was a magician of special abilities. You will know that story because it has been done to multi-death by every facet of the media. Doomed, he remembers that the year in which he finds himself was one which witnessed a complete eclipse of the sun... so he lets it be know that, if he is harmed in any way, he will blot out the sun. Right on schedule, after a last-minute cliff hanger, he starts the process. Twain, almanac in hand, no doubt, lets him do just that and the populace is very much impressed as was the king and the knights who were at the Round Table. Listening to their pleas, he awaits the king's offer making him assistant king, then slowly brings the heavenly light back and restores it's warm light! That's just the first incident of thirty-plus chapters of other magical acts undertaken by the Yankee. He makes the king's official Merlin look, like an upstart. The Yankee worked hard to keep his new place as Assistant or Vice-King of the realm of Camelot. He ran the place on behalf of his buddy King Arthur and his changes and modifications in government make up the rest of the book. Twain got to work off a great many of his somewhat strange social and political ideas possibly to try to influence the future. While much of it may seem old-fashioned and seen historically now they were new in King's domain. He “invents” all sorts of things such as the telegraph and modernizes the land in many fantastic ways. I get the feeling reading some of the ideas that Mark Twain was being as serious as he could possibly be in setting down some of the the social ideas he favored, but it still comes off on the silly side since we have such a pre-conceived notions of who and what he was as a writer. I found I had not read the story “A Yankee in King Arthur's Court” at all and I dare say it applies to much of Mark Twin's writings with many of you ,as well. He is read at certain times in our lives. I have now read the Yankee thing and realize, for the first time, that I have probably been guilty of doing the same sort of injustice to other authors and their books. We do not realize how much we have been dominated by the media versions, early films, newer ones with color and computerized embellishments, radio,TV the comic book genre and now revised versions for the old ones, often discounting earlier accounts. The youthful generations today are in even more dire straits. Their entire memory of classic literature is based on their detailed knowledge and firm acceptance of the Disney versions of history. And, you and I both know how far from fact those tellings can go. A.L.M. June 10, 2005 [c-763wds]
Thursday, June 09, 2005
SCOTTY SOURS' SILVER MINE Now, the way I hear'd it was that there was this feller name Sours. He were a Scotsman, they say 'n when he come to Luray, he lived up along the hill where the town now gets its water. Well, Scotty dug a tunnel into the spur of one of them low-lying mountain edges and discovered a pure vein of silver. Folk suspected something was happening, when Scotty started selling off some silverware. He claimed he had found it in a wooden chest in a cave but he couldn't remember exacty where. They were not too well made, the knives, spoons, forks and plate, but people were convinced old Scotty had made them himself of silver he had mined. Well, sir, the Civil War come along, and Sours, a'feerd the armies would come across his mine entrance, blasted out a pillar and avalanced his mine opening to look like a rock slide. It was a natural-enough rock slide, a small slee not as big as those you see today further South along the Blue Ridge. Then, the story goes, he up and died or got hisself kilt in the war and no one has ever found that Sours Silver Mine site. Some keep a'lookin' for it and more than one rock slide has been worked over in the Luray area with hopes that Scotty had stashed away a few un-used bars of silver There had been other mining done in the area. About two miles north of Luray at the old Yager place they mined for iron ore many years before and wagoned it to Massanutten for to be fired. Then , at the Harshberger Farm above Luray, they opened saltpeter mines during war time when it was needed as base to make gunpowder. It may well have been that in a small mine of this nature that Solurzs could have found his silver. The tunnels were dug under the mountain sides and, even today, you can still see the mark of spades having cut intxothe stubborn soil.There were numerous small saltpeter mines in the area. Exacty where our's silver came from no one ever knew, but lots of people still think it is somewhere down there waiting to be re-dug. There's been a lot of talk. I remember adding to the tale myself. I've always wondered what kind of a person this Scotty might have been. He must have been a sentimentl person, from what I have heard, and I think he would have been sensible enough to have marked that slee of rock he blasted over the mine entrance in some way so that he could find it after the War had ended. This is a "factual" story one I have come across several times - and I have a strong feeling the srory teller's "twist" has yet to be played out. I know of only two places where you patches of wild shamrock-like plants. One is around limestone foundation slabs of an old cabin that used be there on the hill above town. The other is above and below a small rock slee less than a mile up the moutainside. Sours was said to be a Scot but I have found, from personal experience in both Scotland and Ireland, that both the Scots and the Irish play bagpies. A Scotch-Irishman would like Shamrocks. What better way would here have been to mark a site for rediscovery after the war? A.L.M. June 9 2005 [c633wds]
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
SLOW CHASE Due to recent modifications in police regulations in Southern California,TV viewers can no longer look for a death-defying high speed auto chases. Fox News has been quick to realize that the new, slower, more dramatic and more easily handled news events has been doing well. The new "actuality" - the new "realistic" feature - will do very well and can easily view with the artificial realism studio-produced to this point. Some time this morning, in Ventura, California, a man seems to have tried to push a woman into his van. There a mild scuffle with others and the man left in a hurry. Witnesses were unsure if he had taken a hostage or not. Yes, someone insisted he had a gun. He had threatened to kill a bystander. Most thought he went "that-a-way" - toward the nearby freeway. The old-fashioned high speed chase was almost automatic at this point, but not in this case. Police , alerted, centered on the white van in the freeway traffic, and helicopters, called in to the area found their target and from that point on the TV viewers and the police had front seats at the drama. Police originate the story line. The network has to be alert to be alert and ready to follow the action from the front rows of the drama even as it starts. with the help of the police squad cars an d helicopters every effort is made to provide the viewers with front row seats. The new pursuit allows the initial runner to set the pace. The objective it to maintain a steady association and not infringe in any way on the precise area with sought after participant occupies. The driver of a escaping vehicle is un-impaired in his flight. He will, in such a situation, be forced to make decisions and those in pursuit know that and are ready to take every advantage of such a revelation of his intent. In a normal chase other police cars might be dispatched to "head him off at the pass" some point of special stress ahead on the highway in use. In being forced to make such decisions chances are that a run away will make some poor choices. The new "slow chase" system will save live. Heretofore, a high speed chase in traffic infested city streets was a sure invitation to disaster for people who were not in any way concerned with the actual events in progress. Criminal and police personnel will be safer, as well. In time, Fox and others will learn to make these occurrences profitable. This freeway chase hit a week after a tower jump threat in Atlanta, Ga. and in each case there ha the TV people held back on informational material during periods and maintained some dramatic impetus by revealing facts and figures along the way. On a handful of viewers seem to have noticed another dramatic change which took place during the chase. Few noticed that the police cars following the runaway changed to trucks - fully armored - each containing a trained, experienced SWAT team. It was four such trucks that put an end it all. A.L.M> June 7, 2005 [c536wds]
Monday, June 06, 2005
UPCOMING TRIAL Why should the average one of us care when and where the trial of Saddam is to be held? We had sudden flurries and news speculations recently about that potential story which seemingly caused a rather weak statement to the effect that Iran hopes to do just that “next year.”If, and this is critical, they feel they are mature enough to do so. This is no small task to be taken lightly nor is it something we might be tempted to undertake before we are prepared in a get-even mood. The idea is to do justice, not to get even with the despicable individual on the stand, however vile. It is a gigantic undertaking of any nation to hold such a trial for a former Head of State and it is only right that Iraq takes time tori decide what they wish to do. It also seems proper that it remains an Iranian affair and not that of world-wide nations. The people of Iran who have suffered under his mis-rule should decide his fate.The theory,at the present, is the trial is to be Iraq's “show”. E , as a nation, have already been cast in a dubious light since an American lawyer – Ramsey Clarke -is one of Saddam Dissension's lawyers. In all honesty it will be doubtful if it will a remain as Iraqui as it is hoped it might have been. Just this afternoon I sat among others at a nearby Veteran's Hospital who were in Europe during Adolph Hitler's Time. I remember how, as a fun-thing,really, we as G.I.'s used to conjour up all manner of unseemly, punishments for Adolph and his cohorts if we ever caught them. He, of course, cheated us out of such revenge. There is no possible way in which Saddam H. can be made to "pay” for his crimes against his own and other people. His debts are not so easily paid. We hope it will all come about in time but we have the memory of Kaiser Bill chopping wood in his post war home in the low countries; kings and queens, emperors, dictators, chairmen, - ex-leaders of various types ...many living it up in exile. Let's try to keep this an Iraqi thing all the way. His own people might see to it that he gets his just due far more accurately than other people would. A.L M. June 6, 2005 [c576wds]
Sunday, June 05, 2005
IT SPILLS OVER. Honor and integrity are part of our daily course of living. They, along with other basic qualities of good living, are not mere switches to be turned “off” or “on” as might seem to suit some shadowy whim. We have two cases before us at the moment in which we are being asked to decide if it is “right” for us to do so-and-so. The latest such puzzle was laid on us this past week when a prelate at the Vatican in Rome let it become known that he had no intent to fulfill the direct order of the deceased pontiff demanding that all personal notes and writings of his tenure as head of the Church in Rome and around the world, be utterly destroyed -“burned”,I think, was the actual method called for, concerning the ultimate place of all his personal papers and other items which mark the memory of a dearly-loved, and, I assume, a just and decision-making man who certainly did not please everyone. It is in the personal papers that such unpleasant scene might be recorded. Pope John wanted all such materials o be destroyed. He trusted his secretary-confidante secretary to do so, and now,just a few weeks after his death, we find that the priest refuses to burn the offending writings. He feels “they might contain valuable material.” You can say that again, Holy Brother! Such papers are of great value in many ways and too far too many people to simply let it be known they might be for sale along the line. There must a score of “legal” ways whereby the use -an mis-use - of such papers might be restricted for a time by an edict of some sort rather than a now jobless secretary-priest saying: I'm not gonna do it!” For the second time within a few weeks we, the American people, are being asked to give our opinion of the right or wrong aspects of such quandaries. Or, have you already forgotten that we are being asked in another such matter concerning the strange case of a former second-in-command of the nation's F.B.I. who found it easy to break his sworn oaths to serve us and sell political secrets and favor an opposing camp enough bring down a Presidency of our nation in doing so. “Sell”, is not too strong a word, either. He received as payment a quarter of a century of notoriety as a mystery figure in our national history and he will not be forgotten. Scorned,I hope, but not forgotten. A.L.M. June 5, 2005 [c606wds]
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