A Variety of Thoughts About Everything

 As I am here this morning looking back on the year that, in the western tradition, is passing, I am, once again, struck by how much it is in my relationship to others that my life gains any meaning for me. And yes, I am fully aware that this is meaning that I choose to give it. This past year, like every year, and any moment that I choose to reflect on, had many challenges. And joys. And moments of meh. And everything in between. Another words, it was a pretty standard life. And I am reflecting on the quality, and quantity, of the relationships in my life as well. Some of those relationships are tolerable. We can be in each others presence and not get on each other. And there really is not much more to it than that. We do not have much in common and may not even like each other as human beings. That is a very small number. And some of those relationships, many of them, are casual. We get along and like each other. And we don't spend a lot of time in each others company. That is mo...

Those of us on the Center and Left side of the Political Spectrum are sitting here and keep wondering why, with a pretty good plan to make American lives better, and an opponent who can only offer a vision of a Dystopian Nightmare to anyone who is paying attention, never mind all of the Criminal and Seditious activities, Democrats keep losing elections. And there have been a lot of different idea put forward as to why. And some, probably most, of them actually do have some truth to them. And none of them are ideas that I think should not have attention paid to them. And I think that most of them miss the mark to some degree or another. So let us look at how we got here to start. In the 1964 Republican Primary a man named Barry Goldwater won the nomination to run for President. He was the one who finished the marriage of extremism with the Republican party. Among other things he was a fan of the John Birch Society . Lyndon Baines Johnson handed him his ass in the 1964 election winning 4...

 Growing up I do not remember a time where we actually spoke about truly meaningful things. We were, and are, a loud and boisterous bunch. We are talking all the time. And we often talked about some really intelligent things. Our conversations could be dizzying in their breadth and scope And yet, when I was young and for much of my "adult" life, we did not talk about the truly important things. Those things that were truly important. The things that would tear one up inside. I remember one time, when I was about six or seven years old, something happened in my house that occurred for me as overwhelming and too much. And I just lost it. Crying and yelling in total frustration. The adults in the house shut me down real quick. I was told that I "had no right to inflict my feelings on others" like that. Or, How dare you say that out loud. Isolation and despair became a part of my life. And that, of course, stayed hidden from everyone else. And especially from me. I stuf...