MANDATE

 

If you’ve ever been to the beach you might remember seeing this sign. It is the proprietor’s request that you do not bring in your sand and sweaty body into their establishment offending other patrons.

There are plenty of patios where you can settle down on plastic chairs and be served in the open air, but not inside.

There are no posts that require that you wear pants or underwear but that is mostly accepted by common etiquette. There are no requests for getting a better haircut anymore. In polite circles the ladies cover their yah-yah’s.

In most cases, there are no bouncers standing at the door for you to apply to the request for we are still a somewhat civilized society. We observe the request and comply.

There are lots of mandates we follow without thinking about it. Drive in the right lane unless passing. Stop at a red light. Pull over to the side to let fire truck pass. Don’t pee on someone else’s lawn. Turn down your loud music at midnight.

If you want to find these acceptable social requests an attack on your personal independent freedom, please check the laws. When the majority of the population finds actions unacceptable, they request their elected legislators to pass laws with consequences to offenses.

Store closes at 12AM. Road detoured until further notice. No dogs allowed. When the whistle blows, come out of the water. No turn on yellow. Take off your shoes to board an airplane.

There are plenty of restrictions on your personal freedom, for a reason. If you do not agree, you have the freedom not to board an airplane. You have the freedom not to pass through a metal detector in a school or government building. You have the freedom to keep your kids out of school. You have the freedom not to get a vaccination. You have the freedom to worship in the church of your choice. You have the freedom of your opinions and bias unless they offend someone else.

In school, when the bell rings, we move to the next class. That is our mandate and we have no choice. The military thrives on giving orders to follow without any push back. Employment sets the requirements for attendance, quotas and salaries while complying with government mandates on diversity, safety and now environmental regulations.

Our society is funny that way. Do the best for the community. There may be some restrictions, but for the overall health and welfare to the family, city, state, country or planet, it will be worth it.

Don’t know when the regulations intrude on your personal freedom. Is defying a request to get a shot worth your employment, finances and possible health? 

 

What’s On Your Mind?

 

Today is gray and rainy so I’m sitting here eating an oatmeal/raisin cookie and drinking instant coffee with instant creamer powder and imitation sugar and decided to write down what has been on my mind recently.

As any of you who have read my previous post, pondering the Golden Years has been foremost on my mind. Without distractions and nothing pressing to do except rocking and watching the world go by, one has time to test your memory and contemplate your legacy. You may remember the good times and even exaggerate in your mind how good they really were. You may suppress the bad times, but they are still there because histories don’t change.

So, good reader, here are a few remembrances to entertain and amuse on a fall day.

 

Thrill Rides

Here is a conundrum. I don’t like ‘thrill’ rides. They don’t thrill me. My mom loved them. She would ride a rollercoaster forever. I always saw the potential for death, so why buy a ticket.

The first ‘thrill’ ride I remember was the merry-go-round. The painted ponies go up-and-down to calliope music, but all they do is go round and round in a circle then stop. It doesn’t go fast or tilt or offer any danger. I guess you could get dizzy?

The second ‘thrill’ ride was bumper cars. The circular track held a dozen cars the size of go-carts with a pole running up the back touching the metal ceiling. When they fired up the electricity the cars could go around in a circle, rumbling like electronic football players vibrating across the field, but the theme of this ride was to bump into each other. Maybe this was a psychological aggression release or a method of bullying others (like so many games are). This must be the same thrill of watching demolition derby, or for that matter, NASCAR? It is not the rubber necking to watch the destruction of General Motor’s products, but to participate.

Since rides were not on every corner (except that little horsey in front of the 5 & Dime you had to be fed a coin for it to rock) the yearly State Fair was the only time to ride the rides.

The carnies would arrive and set up tents and build the Ferris wheel, roller coaster and other machines that would spin you around, pull you up and down so each rider could scream their lungs out. When your time on the ride was over, it would stop and you would leave allowing some other poor sucker get their cheap thrills. The rides were run by diesel engines with rumbling sound and smelly smoke. Each was built, then deconstructed, and then rebuilt between every city. Did we miss that bolt? Yes, I’m that guy who worries at the top of the Ferris wheel swinging in a metal chair with only a thin bar between you and the grown and there is no Superman to swoop down and save you if you spun too far.

The State Fair was also where crowds could walk around on sawdust because there were also live animals to smell with whiffs of popcorn, cotton candy and anything that can be fried. If the rides or the animals or the junk food wasn’t enough, there were tents with barkers advertising wonders of the world to view for a charge. There were emancipated women and big fat hairy guys in dresses. All the freaks of nature were paraded for your amusement and mockery.

I was never fond of the circus either.

My conundrum is the automobile. I learned how to drive like everyone else my age. There were classes held in a cargo container parked on our schoolyard. There were two rows of fake bumper cars facing a movie screen. Government PSA films were shown with all the gore to persuade the young minds the danger of driving. A policeman would come in and read us the law. We were taught how to use turn signals, when to turn the wheel and what the ‘right a way’ meant. On Saturday, there was a real car complete with an instructor and driving around on a parking lot. To graduate they’d let us take the car out into traffic and drive around the block. In addition to the proper training, my mother would let me take one of the cars into a quiet neighborhood to practice parallel parking. On the day of the final test, went down to the DMV, took the written test, had my eyes tested, then a guy with a clipboard climbed in the car and we drove down Broad Street, turned onto the Boulevard, up to the I-64, east to Lombardy and back again. I don’t remember if I had to parallel park or not. I was told to take a seat while my driving skills were evaluated. My name was called and I was handed a little paper card with my name typed on it. No photo or lamination, but I had past.

My mother drove the car home.

Even with two cars, I rarely was handed the keys. I could drive to the grocery store and back or occasionally drive to the country club, but never took friends out for a road trip. When my mother was in the car, I was very careful. When she wasn’t?

I found out I had a ‘lead foot’. On a few of these grocery trips I would take a detour to the local hangout spot. As kids do when they have cars, we bet who was the fastest, so we would pair off, drive to the edge of the city, then ‘drag’ back to the T-Room. Luckily there was that much of traffic at night and we never wrecked, but we floored it side-by-side down city streets, running lights and testing speed limits. After enough complaints, a police car was parked just beyond the railroad tracks. Being a law abiding good boy, I’d always slow down, pull over and was very polite while he wrote me a ticket. I’d leave it on the dining room table with the keys. After a number of these, my dad and I were summoned to traffic court and my brief adventure of driving an automobile was taken away.

Being a two-wheeler now I rarely speed because I remember the gore from those driver’s ed. movies. Two-wheelers ALWAYS lose, yet I get out there every day with the speeding monster metal mobile machines checking their text or having a sandwich dodging the pot holes and swinging doors. I guess that is my ‘thrill’ ride.

I’m not a fan of fast car movies because they always crash or blow up or are silly. I do like police chases. Not the ones with the helicopter overhead, but the cop cam following the speeder through the town. That is my adrenaline rush.

You want me to drive?  

Food

We talk about food. We watch other people cook food. We read books on food. We go out to let strangers prepare food for us to pay for. We compare our food taste. We judge each other by our food experiences. We have to eat food to keep the engine running.

The kitchen is the most popular room in the house (except for the bathroom). We entertain in the kitchen. We stock shelves with food in boxes and cans. We have special cold boxes to store food that will perish in the open. We have drawers full of stabbing, slicing and scooping food. We have an array of pots and pans in various sizes and shapes to cook food. We cover our counters with appliances that heat, grind or mix food in preparation to fry, boil, bake or burn on the necessary stove. Then we slop our results onto plates for a presentation to the consumer, and then fill a sink with the crusty remains.

 I was raised in a ‘beef and potato’ culture. Beef could be fried steak; roast beef or grilled hamburger and potato could be baked, fried or mashed as the main source of nourishment. Bird meat was reserved to turkey on Thanksgiving or Southern fried chicken. Ham was available on Christmas, but no one like the salty dried pig. Vegetables were a rarity.

My father ran a club so I was exposed to the fine dining prepared by professional chefs and presented to people who could afford the best. My mother was not a good cook so our daily grog was not very appetizing.

Then fast food came along and hamburger and French fries were affordable and available in wrapped paper and cardboard boxes everywhere. Pizza became popular because it could be shared with your friends. None of it was very tasty.

I’ve had the opportunity to dine in some of the best restaurants with meals prepared by 5-star chefs and also enjoyed the mom and pop diners with down-home cooking. I’ve tried every junk food place in town and even had meals delivered.

My wife became enhanced by cooking (thanks Rachael Ray) and studied every method for preparing a meal. From Chinese dim sum to handmade pasta to marble chill rolling pin to baking were purchased along with every renowned chef’s recipes to refer to. At the same time she became a vegetarian, so if I wanted meat, it had to be cooked on the grill. I was introduced to taste that would have to travel around the world to sample.

Now I go to the grocery daily to find something to devour to survive. I walk through the aisles and look at the base products of noodles, rice, potatoes, and bread and wonder what would be good to place on top of that. I bypass the meat and fish counter. I bypass the sweets (never had a sweet tooth). I bypass the cereals. I bypass the dairy. I stop and stare at the shelf and ponder. There are the mixings for tacos. I know what tacos taste like. I can taste every ingredient to decide whether to fill the cart or move on if not in the mood.

Maybe it is age or pallet, but I avoid much due to the bother of fixing a meal-for-one or the leftover clean up. A prepared salad or a bowl of soup and I’m done for the day.

My refrigerator is empty, except for a frozen pizza. Maybe I’ll heat that up tomorrow? Maybe, not.

Earth

The ‘climate change’ conversation is all the rage these days. All the ‘Save The World’ fads come and go between the sport games and the economy woes. Politics have their season as do the holidays and then we return to the fact that our home is dying and we will become extinct like the dinosaurs. We buy the tee-shirts and make the protest signs and walk around then listen to speakers while throwing a few bucks in the bucket passing around then feeling we had done our part by driving our hybrid back home. We are too busy with our daily life to teach the next generation how to live without an automobile or turn the thermostat to zero or how to grow your own food.

When the pandemic first appear and everyone went into lockdown the street became a parking lot. I was very pleased because there was very little traffic to avoid. People in mask still walked their dogs or pushed their babies or even jogs, but most stayed inside with all the lights on burning up the coal-fueled electricity. With the possibility of breathing to death becoming safer, the roads are again are packed with hundreds of cars and trucks with one occupant each. We show that the problem of this ‘climate change’ thing is someone else’s problem (as long as the air conditioning works).

Yes, we are still killing whales and seals.

I’m not the savior, but do notice the rise in summer heat. I can’t avoid the news of the flooding, wild fires, pollution, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc., but know I won’t be around that much longer to play a part in the next horror movie. I can only guess that teaching your kids to watch our extinction is entertainment for the disaster scenario (see above).

Heaven

I was listening to John Prine singing “When I Get To Heaven” and wondered. Did he shake God’s hand? Did he have a cocktail, vodka and ginger ale? Did he smoke a cigarette that was nine miles long?

We all have been told about a place called Heaven and all have our own opinions of what happens in the afterlife. Is Heaven ‘Oz’ or ‘Neverland’? When someone ‘passes over’ or ‘goes to the Lord’ or even ‘joins Heaven’s Rock & Roll Band’ it is good to fantasize going to a better place.

I only thought of this because of John Prine dying and reflected on his song. What will you do when you get to Heaven?

Will you see all your long lost relatives? Will you see your old dog (or do you have to fly over to ‘Doggie Heaven’ subdivision)? Will you see your first wife? Will she be with her last husband? Will you see your last wife? Will she be with her first boyfriend?

Will you be able to get a drink in Heaven? Where do you eat? Do you eat? Do you sleep? Do you have sex (after all this is Heaven)? Where do you plug in your electric guitar? Are there birds? Where do the feathers come from for the angle’s wings?

As you can see I have many questions about a place we made up to relieve the pain of dropping the carcass in the ground. If your vision of Heaven brings hope for the future or an excuse for the present, I hope you are not disappointed.

I hope you get that cocktail and a cigarette nine miles long.

 

Well I wasted enough of your time with my daily ramblings. Tomorrow is suppose to get back to sunny again so I can get outside and breath the fresh air.

I’ll still be wondering the thoughts.

 

More on that to come. Happy Halloween.

Opposing Views

 

What was your favorite movie? What was your favorite book? What was your favorite song? What was your favorite television show? What was your favorite meal? What was your favorite vacation? Who was your favorite teacher? Who was your favorite pet? Who was your favorite parent? Who was your favorite partner?

The list goes on and on…

Yet we might not agree on all these personal favorites? You might love ‘The Sound of Music’ but I don’t. You might love ‘Harry Potter’ while I love ‘Peter Pan’. You might love the ‘Beatles’ while I love the ‘Stones’. You might say your first wife was the best and I’ll just smile.

We all have personal taste and different references occur at different times with all of us.

If you see a television show or read a book that I have not seen, would you explain it to me or just dismiss as not being up-to-date in the culture. Is it a badge to wear to prove you are hip and with-it until the next cool trend comes along and we scrabble to catch up? When do you learn we can’t dance like that anymore?

Some writers or artist or dancers or singers might express a thought or idea that can be expanded on with an open mind. Some might be an enlightening discussion or could become a bigoted argument. The best selling Bible has been read and taught but everyone has different interpretations that can cause angry debate or conflict.

A good debate can be thought provoking but there are those who just want to argue for no purpose than to argue. Social media has more than flamed the disputed values (the social media is ‘us’).

Everyone has an opinion on every issue. Some are based on research and logic and some is based on bias. We can present our points and agree to disagree and walk away.

Does that satisfy us? Does it hurt our pride to think we might be wrong, but with no reason to change our thoughts? Opposing views doubts our decision-making. If this opinion is wrong, what about others? Without a context, one is left with wonder or possible anger.

Perhaps we just like to disagree?

We shout about ‘our’ team being better than ‘your’ team, while neither of us play on the team but wear all the merchandise. We compare Paris Hilton to Kim Kardashian as who is the best. We sink into debt to impress each other with what your kids will put in a Yard Sale.

Unless you write books (or a blog) and appear on shows that will tape your response and upload it to the YouTube library for others to search, you will be remembered for your name, birth and death date. You might leave behind a monument or a street named after you, but in 100 years the monument will be melted down and the name changed because the next generation is offended.

You can agree with me or disagree with me.

I think…

 

The world is going to hell-in-a-hand-basket.

Being retired and alone gives one time to contemplate, absorb, evaluate and digest what is read, heard or displayed on all the media variations to form values, ethics and opinions tainted by life experiences.

Being a junkie, I listen to what is described “news” and avoid the opinion pages and the talking heads, but am still sprayed with social media. Who has the time to ‘fact check’ every post/story/column/headline that passes before you?

People stabbing elected officials, shootings in school, in houses of worship, in groceries, on trains and fights on airplanes. People who would walk in to a pack of people with a suicide vest and blow everyone up.

People who shout down school boards or shoot others in road rage. People who won’t go back to work or send their kids to school. People, who hide their money so not to pay taxes, then accept government assistance.

I can watch and wonder, but not participate. I didn’t protest the Vietnam War but saw my friends leave on a train and come back in a box. I watched the Women’s Movement when my wife got hairy but it didn’t change the office. I saw the ‘negro’ cross over redline but there was too much heritage. I tried to join the ‘Save The World’ movement and went to Washington and lobbied for what I thought was a good idea (now called Climate Change) but was not willing to get in a skiff in front of whaling ship and it cost too much money for little results.

Now there are Red states and Blue states and protest and podcast and websites spouting anger and hatred with little rational.

Nurses are on strike. Hospitals ICUs are full. Hollywood may be shutting down. Half a police force comes to work. Not enough truck drivers. Too many containers backed up on ships waiting and rusting. Not enough shots for 3^rd world nations. Childcare. Broken bridges. Rusting pipes. No computer chips. Hunger. Immigrants. Seniors. Evictions. Empty shelves. Over doses. Homeless. Mask. Viral videos. Crazy presidents. Empty war zones. Empty churches. Full bars. Empty wallets. Rising prices.

Is there too much streaming? Is there too much drinking? Is there too much complaining? Blah-Blah-Blah?

Take the news feed today for example. Another shooting, politicians spouting ‘Us or Them’ rhetoric, what movies or streaming should be watched (reviews or advertising), some celebrity, who wins a court case because her dad thought she was off the rails shaving her head and sex tapes, by showing off her yah-yah while ‘Hooter’ girls fuss about their short shorts, exposed sexual inappropriate behavior reveled in churches, schools, scouts, sports, etc. The Capitol riot, Congressional bills, Healthcare, Senior citizens, Childcare, Employment equality, Compensation, Reparations and Immigration all drag on.

All along there are names of celebrities I’ve never recognized are having birthdays or telling stories or reliving fame but it doesn’t matter anymore. There is no reference to any of the latest movies or books or cultural chatter in my present memories. Don’t sit next to me at the cocktail party for I’ll be very boring. “Game of Thrones”? “Squid Game”? “Breaking Bad”? “Lord of the Rings”? Nope, nadda, not interested. I’m not completely unaware for YouTube shows the trailers and gives the best parts without all the filler. I heard enough book reviews but have not sat down to flip 500 pages without pictures.

Even old films are turning me off. Since every male movie star had to ride a horse (and all the women had to be dance hall girls or prairie moms with 15 kids) and there were always chase scenes and the stunt men would fall into the same pit of hay but when the horses were pulled down it was not computer generated and the new movies are too violent (even the comics). Cowboys, war films, religious films, sci-fi movies and even cartoons are about bullies getting their comeuppance getting beat to a pulp or filled with lead. Violence sells. Rodeos, bullfights, wrestling, boxing, racing….

I try to at least listen to current music, yet I get bored easily. After the first four bars, if the sound doesn’t catch my ear as something different, I’ll move on. The music business is about finding a formula and repeats until the audience gets bored. I’m bored. If something does become an earworm, I post it hoping others may enjoy my eclectic taste.

I certainly don’t follow politics. After the last divisive president, the antics have grown to the point of attack and harm. There is a governor’s election coming up and I already know whom I’ll vote for. Did he (yes, there is just one gender and race) present the best platform promises of better education, lower crimes and filling in more potholes? The vote is more of a statement for the lesser of two evils and in four more years, it will all be the same. When I hear people talking about politics, I only hear anger and when I ask, “What are you going to do about it?” there is no answer.

If I get poor customer service or less than expected quality, I don’t return. I’ve stopped shopping at many stores and dropped fast food altogether. Why should I leave disappointed? The same should be true for politics?

Instead spent the morning reading about religious denominations and Pentecostal presentations. My latest fascination has been “why” people have religion and so many variations? Why is one book always on the top of the best sellers? Why is that the only book provided to hotel rooms? I can only figure the Homo sapiens need an explanation to the question of ‘Why Are We Here?’

Tomorrow will be pictures of babies and puppies and some stimulating memes. The sun is predicted to rising and the temperature is guessed. There is probably enough clothing to wear but the refrigerator is empty so I imagine there is a trip to the store in the sunshine. I imagine the streets will look the same and the course won’t change, but will be aware of detours. I hope the items I want to take back are on the shelves but will adjust to what is available. If I make it back home unharmed, the possibilities are endless.

What will inspire me if the spirit doesn’t move me?

What if Peter Pan was a ghost?

I’m sure there are many definitions of the “Peter Pan” principal. I’ve always liked the ideal of ‘Never Growing Up’, but today I had another thought.

What if Peter Pan was a ghost?

I’ve read the book and seen the movies and enjoyed the interpretations (even with Robin Williams). I was engaged with the thought of eternal youth. Second star on the right. Straight until morning.

Then the thought that Peter was a ghost came around. He is a child who will never grow up because he is dead. It makes sense.

The thought changes the presentation from a kid’s book of fantasy to a story of grief.  A boy who lives in a place called ‘Never Never Land’ and flies like an angle. His friends are ‘Lost Boys’ (other dead children) and a fairy (angel?). His nemesis is an old one-handed pirate who is scared from a reptile with a clock. Tick-Tock-Tick-Tock. Time is running out.

What about the Darlings? Was Peter the older brother of Wendy, Michael and John? Was Peter just a boy who ran away from home and never came back?

Whether it is Mary Martin swinging around on a harness or the CGI of digital technology, the Peter Pan story is charming though it might be a bit creepy if you think Wendy (his love interest) is his sister.

Lewd and Lascivious

 

Lewd: crude and offensive in a sexual way.

Lascivious: (of a person, manner, or gesture) feeling or revealing an overt and often offensive sexual desire.

“Lewd and lascivious” conduct is defined as a sexual act that is offensive to community standards of decency. “Lewd and lascivious” conduct is a type of sex crime often charged as a felony sex offense. One example of this kind of conduct is intentionally groping a minor. The penalties for a conviction can be severe.

 

“Lewd and lascivious” is legal description for conduct regarding immoral sexual intent or behavior. It’s frequently used in the legal description of offenses where some type of sexual activity is prohibited.

The legal term “lewd and lascivious” typically refers to a crime that occurs when an adult has sexual contact with an underage child. A violation of PC 288(a) when the victim is under 14 years old is always a felony and a “strike” under California's Three Strikes Law.

However, under California law, anyone involved in sexual activity with a person under the age of 18 may be prosecuted, including another minor. In California, minors can never legally consent to sexual activity.

“Lewd and lascivious” conduct is sexual conduct that appeals to the lust, passions, or sexual desires of either the defendant or the victim, or both. “Lewd and lascivious” conduct generally, though not always, requires physical contact between the parties, but does not require penetration.

 

If you have read any of my post you should understand my thoughts of religion and sex. If not I’d advice looking back through a few years. You can search terms like ‘faith’ or ‘trust’, but yet I digress.

We, homo erecticus, have been placed on this blue marble to procreate. If the Supreme Being that first breathed life from the stardust had just made us Adams, we could have had a great sports bar but couldn’t reproduce. If you believe we came out of a mud puddle we had to have a method of splitting cells into another and over evolution formed our own stamens and pistil to pollinate the next brew.

So Adam and Eve each had a purpose. She provided the vessel to accept the seed and carry until birth then supply food and he was just a stud. This was so much fun, religion had to be constructed to restrain the behavior.

 

Today our community (the earth) does follow most of the rules. In public places we cover our bodies (for the most part) as not to incite lascivious behavior. Still on all our media we are tempted.

Even our vows of emotional permanent bonding cannot avoid the occasional taste of the desires. The courts are full of our indiscretions.

 

If you read the daily news you understand that ‘we’ are an abusive species. We raise animals to slaughter them and eat them. We find excuses to fight and kill each other.

All along we abuse, harass, derogate, demine and rape our mothers. The ones who are held in relevance to be pure and chase and moral are just as naughty as the rest of us. What is the age limit?

 

In the animal kingdom (yes, we are also in there) when she is in ‘heat’ (prime ovulation time) anyone will poke her no matter the relationship. Check your local tavern at closing time.

 

Not saying we should be proud of this behavior, but we should recognize our limitation to desire. No matter which end of the stick you are, judge what we do and have done and will do in the future.

Simple Life

 

What did you do today? This is Sunday (the Lord’s Day) and the day set aside for rest, but that won’t stop you.

Did you get up early and perk the coffee? Did you make the breakfast for the family? Did you get dressed for church and pack the van to haul everyone off to the house of worship your favorite faith?

Do you turn on the boob tube and get involved in ‘entertainment & information’ while checking your phone for FOMO? Do you realize how your life is being scattered in distraction?

Do you pack the kids up to see the grand’s or plan for a get-together with the family at a cookout in the backyard? Do you have to take a trip to the grocery to get that ‘special’ ingredient then call home to see if there is anything else that needs to be in the wire cart? Do you have to stop and get gas on the way?

While all this seems exciting and urgent and necessary to provide interest to your life, I’ve learned to avoid it.

Stress? Anxiety? Life is full of that. I’ve had plenty that directed my attention and controlled my days. My dreams remind me.

Now?

Wear whatever is comfortable. Sleep when you feel tired and wake when the dreams stop. Go wherever you want whenever you want or not. Eat only what you need at the moment. Have a conversation when no one else is around. Release your thoughts whether anyone else understands them. Listen but do not judge. Take time to enjoy the world and all of the neighbors. Learn new things. Breathe in the air and enjoy the exercise. Contemplate. Look but don’t touch. Know where you came from. Ponder where you are going. Cherish your memories. Dance to the music. Wrap yourself in the sunshine for it might not be there tomorrow. Be kind but don’t expect return. Only walk in your shoes.

Rocking on the porch at night in the darkness of the rain or the snow or the sunset brings the end of the day. The sounds quiet, the light dims and it is only the chair rocking back and forth and back and forth to the rhythm of your being at that moment.

It may be dull or boring to others but it is a simple life.

There is no need to purchase what will be later discarded. There is nowhere to travel I’ve not experienced. Solitude awaits an interesting conversation or possibility. Exploration is limited to desire.

It is a simple life.