Saturday, March 11, 2006
JOB MARKET There can be little doubt about it, the very nature of find a new job has changed rather sharply in recent years. Every time I see one of those screaming headlines about a major firm cutting off employees no-longer needed there will be a line or two mentioning that half of those to be "laid off", "fired" or "disassociated with" are to be from the "middle management area." Our educational system has for some decades been graduating executives rather that workers, and many firm have become what you might, logically, distorted by middleweight excess. Some are top-heavy with CEO laminations at roof level, and there are those which are undermanned or poorly staffed. They drop out, or are "snapped up" by others of a like nature in some manner. Middle management types have, perhaps, them lost difficulty in finding suitable employment. Very often they don't realize they are in such an area of pay-check getters. Anyone who's title even suggests "assistant", associated","in charge of..."regional", "sector," or "liaison " fits MM in "human resources." departmental thinking. One bright spot . In spite of all the accumulated "laid off" figure from major firms, which should close to any wild number you want to suggest. I do not know one, single person, male or female who is out of work. They have changed jobs recently, some several times, but they have developed a finely honed technique for doing so. First: stop feeling sorry for yourself. Examine possible areas. Think "up" more than "down." Focusing on the past won't help. No one really gives hoot who you may have worked for with. Rather, tell what you can do for them. Above all, cut out any pretense or plans for manipulation. The past is gone. Don't reminisce or drop names. Don't ridicule jobs of less stature...non-management spots. You just might enjoy working again. Relax. Don't take yourself too seriously and clue your family and friends in what you are doing. They can help you curb your fear, resentment, doubt and pride. A. L. M March 11, 2006 [c356wds]
Friday, March 10, 2006
STATEMENT I find I can still relate to a line I wrote in a notebook which, I find, contains materials written in the mid-l940 time period. I scratched out in pen and ink: "There is nothing so interesting as Today viewed in the examples of Yesterday and the possibilities of Tomorrow." It is so important for us to be kept aware of what is happening in this world of ours and I am constantly being reminded of how much we lost when we allowed what I call "the general type" of magazines to wither and die. They provided us with an overall awareness of news events rather than a narrow, specialized analysis of each turn of every event. The journalist of today's lumped "media" seems to be more directly concerned with providing a self-feeding series of informational hooks by which he can manipulate readers to accept his particular view. The publications to which I allude are all gone now, or available for an exalted price in mutated form using the established name. Among them, I would include The SATURDAY EVENING POST, The AMERICAN MAGAZINE, COLLIER'S, LIBERTY, HARPER'S MONTHLY, The ATLANTIC MONTHLY and other, some of a regional nature. Ever effort was made by the publishers to placed their products in the hands of medium-level readers. These publications had an educational purpose and one could move from level to level. A reader might start by reading shorter material - adventure, romance, mystery. Then you will start reading more complex works - - - including complete novels - in "S.E.P." or "American." One may go on to read "Atlantic and "Harper's". The last two are stll with us I'm hapy to add. The both have dot.com adjunct, too, so get with it do your share of the reading. I don't think we can look for these magazines to be revived and to alive again. We have changed our reading habits. We are now reading more than ever before in futile attempts to read the daily output of our computers. As a reader you are a member of one of the world's minorities. I often wonder if we have maintained enough awareness of our national history in our school systems to enable future citizens to judge if our past actions have been worthy. The possibilities are greater than they have ever been. Readers are Rulers A.L.M. March 10, 2006 [c402wds]
Thursday, March 09, 2006
PROSPECTING Look for that which is good in other people, and you will find it. If you make up your mind to conduct such a positive search day-after-day...every day, you will be amazed at the number of pleasant, happy, genuine, understanding individuals you will find, furthermore, how many truly outstanding individuals are there on the fringes of your world to be your friends. It takes no special training for you to strike it rich in this type of prospecting. All that is required of you is that you school yourself into being pretty much what you hope to find in a new friend. The old gold prospectors during the Gold Rush days of the late 1840's, had to know what the gold they sought looked like, or, like many others before them, they would work long and hard to gather in a handful of iron pyrite fragments which, looks like gold, is said to feel like gold, engender the same sort of wild dreams in anyone who finds it, but, while it seems to be it is not gold. Nor, can it ever be. It cannot be magically transformed into the real thing by even the most sophisticated voodoo procedures of any old or modern form of alchemy A strange thing often works out when you do this, too. Very often, it turns out they need you as much as, if not more, than you needed them. In some locales, in many situations, in various fields of work, being "good"- even moderately good - can be a lonely place. Start by seeking to find something good in every person. There is something good in every one. Even those who have been found to be criminal in breaking mutually-beneficial laws set up to protect from each other. The worst of them may have a trait of goodness in his makeup. People who are seeking friends will , very often, ignore his or her faults and give undue accent to stated intentions which are not backed by resolute action. That's not place to seek lasting friendships. The dregs of seek riches. One can develop positive associations in a such "prison ministry" work but the friendships formed are,and remain, largely one-sided in favor of the doer. Such friendships, start, I think, and continue to be rather one-sided in favor of the doer. Their work can be worthwhile but it is not a good place - among the miss-placed, downtrodden, derelict or do-less persons. Aim higher where qualities of competition may well serve as a goad to strengthen your own ambitions and accomplishments. Be intent on becoming a true friend. Try being who and what you are. That continues to be the best lure you can use. And, don't be in too much of a hurry. Good friendships - true treasures - are rare. A.L.M. March 9, 2006 [c484wds]
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
ON YOUR WAY How accurate is the picture we form in our own minds concerning that which is taking place at some point at some distant place in the world, or right here at home? We, most likely, see a view which, at best, is "badly bent." It is possible that we make adjustments along the way, hoping to make adjustments to compensate for any misjudgments, made along the way. I was reading. just yesterday, in the 150th Anniversary edition of HARPER'S MAGAZINE published 2000 in which we had samples of writings a century and a half ago. From my own early days of ten or twelve years of age, I suppose, I can remember being at odds with them at various times. When I was displeased with a Harper's item, I turned to THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY - which, I felt, was rather less struck-up about with it's own importance. Both were magazines which helped to form me to be whatever I am, or will be. They helped me to formulate that which I, now, say: "I believe!" It saddens me to think that no such publication - edited by humans not unlike ourselves - can provide that strange base of informational awareness from constantly changing stocks of raw materials and set before us a steady, nourishing supply of brain foods. The frightening part of all this is that, even now, we maybe looking out over a world and it affairs and circumstances and seeing them a re-touched aspect as when, in harsh reality, they are actually much like Salvatore Dali's painted watches, fruit or steel melting and glass flowing away...melting...becoming elemental even reverting to nothingness. Such a fear can be our moment of triumph. In one shining moment it can can happen! Seek assistance areas as long as you feel what you are learning. You can help yourself when you become you. Stay within the sphere of influences as long as you can, but be ready to to accept your just reward. We learn from that which we read or told or shown. We have with us, then, that which is of value from the past. The chaff has been winnowed away by our study and firm intent. You will never get away from your points of origination whatever they might have been in your case. Like my memories of "Harper's" and "Atlantic" are to me; in some way they will stand forever as a part of the future you face. A.L.M. March 7, 2006 [c424wds]
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
DEADLY DATA Some rather unusual requests are quite often made to those who operate or are employed by funeral homes. I have, perhaps, more than average awareness of that place in life's employment areas, because I worked at a funeral home during the early days of my so-called “retirement”. I was one of the older people hired to drive any of the numerous cars and trucks the firm had to keep active and worthy at all times. We served as hosts at night time when family member might choose to visit in a chapel area concerning a family member in our care. We were there to talk with the bereaved family members to help make the situation less burdensome for everyone. One afternoon “Personnel” or the “Front Office“ asked me if I happened to be squeamish about working with bodies in the morgue. They had found I had worked at a military hospital's morgue during World War II and from that time I was called upon to "assist" prep work at that level. I remember one week-end when we have eleven bodies in our care and needed additional helping hands. On the whole it was a serious type of work, but even there and much needed, a sense of humor its soothing self. One of the most sought after individuals on any funeral home staff is that person who will be the very last to touch the open casket, check it and perhaps re-arrange it deftly then closed and seal it forever. It is not uncommon for that person to fulfill the wish of a family member by adding the dead person's favorite childhood toy or some small trinket as a symbol of special joy that person had known. I remember one case in which the departed one provided the funeral home with several copies of neatly typed instruction for the digging of her grave. Details and exact measurements were attached in black,India ink drawings showing that we were to dig her grave to the usual depth, but that the floor had to be slanted by four inches toward the East. She explained her request by revealing that she slept on a bed with the head legs resting on two bricks and if she slept on a flat surface she would be "sick to her stomach" and unable to rest. She provided us with two copies. The one was plainly marked as being intended "For Office Use"; the other a "Gravedigger's Work Copy." I am pleased to report we filled her request. Under the end of her casket two bricks are well placed and they show some wear from the weigh of heavy headboard. They slant her toward the rising sun each morning - just right. A.L.M. March 7, 2006 [c468wds]
Monday, March 06, 2006
DISAPPOINTMENT In recent months, I have had to faced up to a real disappointment. The idea has been with me for many years, which made more difficult than ever to admit it simply was not going to happen the way I have thought it might. My disillusionment occurred rather recently with the death of the Clown Prince of the Arabic world - Yasser Arafat. I, like many, was concerned about his “replacement” and the direction his polyglot groups of followers – some of whom was erratic by nature, might choose to take on the international stage. I saw my “plan “progressing” and I became confident that it might be evolving as I thought it might. It has started in 1962 when an attractive Christian girl arrived in Charlottesville, Virginia where she enrolled as a student of Medieval and Comparative Literature at a Graduate and earning her PhD. from Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia. Born October 8, 1946 at Ramallah, in that time , the British Mandate of Palestine. Her father, known as the founder of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, named her Hanan –“Hanan Daoud Khalil Ashrawi.” Schooled at Ramalla, Hanan graduated from the American University of Beruit, before coming to Virginia. She returned to her homeland as Dr. Hanan Ashrawi and established and headed the English Department of Birzeit University on the West Bank in Palestine. While serving as Dean of Faculty of Arts at the same university Dr. Ashrawi undertook the study of legal procedure largely because the Israeli military closed the school far too often to suit her. She founded the Zeitgeist University Legal Aid Committee/Human Rights Action Project and during the Intifada uprising, she joined the Intafada Political Committee and served until 1993. When accords were signed by Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin she was elected a member of the Palestinian Legislative committee,Jerusalem District. I was encouraged in 1998, when Ashrawi, serving, since 1996, as Palestinian Authority of Higher Education and Research, abruptly resigned her post in protest against Arafat citing instances of political corruption and, especially, his mishandling of peace talks. I was sure, at that time ,my plan for her was working out, at last. It all seemed to be working well, when she was awarded the Aussie's “Sydney Peace Prize”. That honor took on negative overtones when conservative Australians openly decried the choice and called her “a terrorist apologist”. She has clearly stated her feeling in books, including on from 1995 titled “This Side of Peace: a Personal Account”. We here in America seem to know is Christian woman as a worker on problems concerning world peace and misunderstanding, We have seen her in her role of translator on our TV screen and, more recently as the official “spokesperson” for Palestinian groups on TV. Few of us recall we she was interview guest on “Night Line” ”Barbara Walters” and news programs. It is time, I feel,that we ought to listen, and perhaps even heed the words of this lady who has been so strategically placed to know what is happening in mid-east. A.L.M. March 6, 2006 [c-518wds]
Sunday, March 05, 2006
AWARD NIGHTThis evening, in Los Angeles, CA. The handing out of Oscar images takes place. Indications are, that, while the theater will be packed, the home audience with TV seating promises to be small. One survey, being conducted all morning on the Internet, reports about 22 per cent of those polled plan to be there; 65 per cent are planning to be elsewhere, and 12 per cent of them are still “Not Sure” of anything. That’s a little over one of fifth of potential reporting for “duty” and not good box-office any way you choose to look at it. Why is this sort of shunning taking place? The quickie polls don’t ask for “reasons why”, but in talking with non-goers and goers I find more people upset with subject matter of this years . Homosexuality is not a favorite subject for after-dinner chit-chats nor is it a prime entertainment theme – especially when tough, outdoorsy cowboy characters are really shown to be, seemingly more authentic, sheepherders. The steady decline of the movie business is too often attributed to writers. We hear “they just don't write the good stuff any more!” What might well be said is that producers do not present a market for good writing! All they want is more and more tinseled trash they can spin off for a stupefied public now totally unaware of how entertaining and rewarding a good movie can be. Pointing, pandering, pimping press people make up the membership of much of the so-often highly esteemed film critic corps. None of this can be changed for the better as long as we continue our present and well-entrenched system of determining the worth of a film by the amount of money paid by a few viewers to have it run off one time in their presence. With today's box office prices the final figure is pure fiction. A.L.M . March 5, 2006 [c331wds]
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