The Fourth Putt
Stubborn ball, doesn’t like dark places
Then there’s greens with fast paces
An elephant buried here
A mark from idiot before us there
A mountain slopes that way
Grain grows to the Sun’s end of day
What a dumb game
But we play it all the same
Get a ball into a hole so small
Using my talent to make it fall
Or rather how-a-about a gimme? I’d ask
For my fourth putt appears a difficult task
Surely, you’d see a grown man cry
If I had to make a fifth putt try
Room to Grow
Impressionable minds, eager to learn
Or maybe just millions to earn
Or both as it may be
A collective opportunity
Push the wheels of progress
Change unnatural congress
It is youthful energy needed
For the future to be seeded
And yet there is the past
Wisdom’s at half-mast
For the ones that gave
For those they save
To those we’ll remember
Even in their December
Gifted us at least this day
Hope, in sense of a ray
All is connected as one
A stream never undone
A flow, turbulent at times
Of endless sounding rhymes
March on to legacy
Do it all in harmony
For with no spring
Colors of fall never sing
It all is one in the same
Part of the life game
And what came first
The wisdom or the thirst
It matters not to me
Or if you even believe
But that you should know
That you ever have room to grow
2019
Three predictions:
I imagine 2019 as a pivotal year. The relative quiet of the past few years will not sustain. Yeah, I’m sure your thinking, what was quiet about the last few years. Well, actually although there is a lot of tweet caused turmoil, and a revolving door for staffers at the White House, the truth is ISIS is in retreat, North Korea stopped testing nukes and launching ballistic missiles, and domestic protests have lessened. The stock market is erratic but that is not the major measure of the economy. The economy is really good, with growth in corporate profits, unemployment at an all-time low, and wages on an upswing. There are things that should be fixed, such as containing Russia and Iran, and we could use some real progress on gun control. The immigration issue is a red-herring, and not worth all the attention it gets, except the great immorality of treating people terribly for political purposes.
1. Climate Change:
I think that 2019 will be the year the world finally understands that more must be done to address climate change. If not an existential threat, it is an accelerating, science proven trillion-dollar problem that is at our doorstep. There is a glacier in Antarctica (Thwaites Glacier) that has a wedge-like shape. It’s thinning side is becoming more fragile because warming waters are undercutting its support. This massive almost 4000-foot-thick, at the thick side of the wedge piece of ice, has the area of the size of Florida. Maybe it will be alright for the next 10, 50 or more years, but at some point, it will likely cause a significant sea-rise. Some models indicate a three-foot rise in sea levels, some higher. Three-feet seems almost impossible to consider, as something like 80% of the world’s population lives within 60 miles of a coast. From Wired Magazine: https://www.wired.com/story/antarctica-thwaites-glacier-breaking-point/
This is just one of many major challenges the world will face. Weather patterns are changing, and we are poorly prepared. My prediction and hope is that the press will start paying more attention to such issues, driving legislators and executive leadership to be responsive to this enormous problem. NBC’s Meet-the-Press had an hour-long segment on this topic on the last Sunday of 2018. I’m sorry I missed it, but I feel it important that we pivot our focus from relatively non-consequential issues, to enormous issues that will demand our attention and consume enormous resources throughout the next century. Truly the issues of immigration and border protection are simple compared to the growing consequences of global warming. I predict 2019 is the year the US and the world starts waking to the consequences of global warming and optimistically our business technological leaders, press, insurance industry will start driving toward long-term solutions. As well as, driving our education and consequently our political process. It will be a negative pivot for the year if this prediction is not correct.
2. Middle-East
What a mess. Saudi’s in proxy war with Iran in Yemen. Russia helping prop up a despotic Syrian dictatorship. Iran strengthens Hezbollah further, threatening any semblance of balance in Lebanon. The Israeli’s are moving their capital to Jerusalem, and threatening Iran’s influence in Lebanon, because they cannot have the balance of power shift toward Tehran. Then Turkey’s Erdogan convinces Trump it’s OK to leave Syria. They’ll take over the fight against ISIS. What they really mean is they will take the fight to the Kurds, a longstanding ally of the USA. Russia says that it’s a good idea for the US to pull back our troops. Well why wouldn’t they? It enhances their influence in the area, and moves attention away from what they are doing in the Ukraine. So, this hot mess, gets a whole lot hotter and messier.
The Saudi’s want to be a major player in the region, and with a new and aggressive leader that outlives the minor slap on the wrist for murdering a Wall Street Journal reporter, they are changing the balance of power. Iran cannot allow that, so they step up their game. The Israeli’s have to respond, and then enter Turkey and Russia as major players.
We may get out, but our interests are too great and there are too many implications to a hot war in the Middle-East. Radical Islam is not defeated, it is constantly nurtured by the wars and turmoil of sectarian violence. As long as democratic principles and moderate views are suppressed while sectarian divides are inflamed to further political and power aims, there will be no real peace, just a smoldering fire. I predict this will become a much hotter region and a new fire will need to be put out in the future. Centuries of problems pivot on what happens in this coming year. I hope for a better outcome, but I fear and predict that it will get much worse this year, and this year will set the stage for the next century of turmoil. Unfortunately the US will be self-involved with internal political battles, and others will determine the future of the region, and millions more people will suffer.
3. Trump
For most people this is the good news part of my predictions, regardless of what side of the Trump divide you sit on. For those that are Trump fans, well, he’ll claim completion of his campaign promises this year. For those that are not Trump fans, well, he’ll tell us he’s ready to return to his businesses. Everyone will be happy. Well not quite happy, I suppose, but each will get something of what they want. I predict that he is in a rush to complete his campaign promises. The Syria pullout, the “wall” for the border are recent pushes toward that objective, as is the new NAFTA agreement and the 90 days toward an agreement on trade with China. Against his promises, he’ll be able to claim “mission accomplished” in 2019. He will claim success on:
He will announce then that he will not run for president in 2020, that he is going to go back to run his business. Then as the pressure continues from Mueller, he will consider resigning in exchange for a release from Mueller, or pardon from Pence. Especially as the probe and pressure gets close to his kids and knowing that he cannot escape. Except by saying Mission Accomplished, and working a deal for resignation. He’ll claim to have MAGA in two in a half-years instead of four, the best ever! Then be gone.
For those of you disappointed he doesn’t go to jail… don’t forget that a federal pardon doesn’t relieve him from charges by the state of NY or other jurisdictions. Then maybe the USA will be able to recover from this aberration of a president and continue to be a great and free democracy by the people and for the people… this too will be pivotal in our history, affecting everything from presidential politics, to the role of congress, and to the conservative leaning of the supreme court for the next couple of decades.
2019 will be a pivotal year, I predict.
Birthday Boy
Little boy just turned one
Learning, growing having fun
Imprints of behavior, and thought
With help that mom’s ‘No’ brought
No memories of what’s good or bad
Yet further imprints to be learned from dad
Toys colorful, bright, just right for play
But pots, pans, remotes keep him busy all day
What thoughts, and what dreams borne
They lay hidden behind words without form
Birthday cake to celebrate and great and funny mess to be made
Not remembered, but loving the great joy in the moment of today!
I read an article in the Wall Street Journal, about “How The Movies Invented Christmas” https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-movies-invented-christmas-11545321446?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=2
… It makes a case for how the movies, along with Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” really defined a secular Christmas, and then planted an image in our minds of what Christmas is and what it means. The ironic beauty of it, is that even if you are not Christian, you can still enjoy that break from the darkness of the world and enjoy the spirit of giving, joy of Christmas, as if there is an intrinsic Christ gift through the employ of believers, and non-believers alike to bring His message of hope and love to the world.
Christmas Imagined
It is the spirit, it is love and care
That joy of Christmas we can share
For a moment a world perfect
Free from discord and defect
Placed in winter clarity of white
Snow as a blanket of beauty right
Colored lights, gifts, decorations red and green
Borrowed from ancients, this spirit of evergreen
A perfect setting for redeeming ourselves
For believing in each other and Santa’s elves
For knowing Angel’s get their wings
When hearts sing and the bell rings
And a child’s birth allows the world to cope
As the child in us smiles with wonder and hope
Everyone regardless of their belief can openly share
Our Christmas miracle, by opening hearts of loving care
A Violent New Day Dawning
Like a wolf in the night
Wind is howling
Driving rain, sounds like a handful of pebbles thrown at the windows
It’s morning dark, very dark but a noisy dark
Then it stops for just a light sprinkle
A tingling spray dancing on the windows
Only for the next wolf to howl
As the gales of winter blow
Perform as an orchestra in a crescendo
And rhythm of a heart plays
It howls at darkness of worry and concern
It throws stones at that which interrupts
The bliss and beauty of morning star
Then to settle back to a rhythm
A calmness of confident peace
That all that is good will be right
There are no more wolves in the night
That joy and peace of mind will prevail
The darkness never lasts, and love is right
The sun rises, and calms the air
The beauty and glow of new day extraordinaire
Bread Crumbs
The bread crumbles as I try to butter it
Too lazy for a dish to be under it
The shortcut taken is often longer
Political expediency is how to win
Others pay the price when we’re gone
No need for comprehensive plan
Like jazz, we’ll improvise
Facts, figures, what do we need
We’ll make them up and sell them
Sell them whatever they don’t need
Never mind that version of the news
Change stations rather than minds
We’ll pick of the pieces later
Bread crumbles, it happens
And a little more of who we are falls away
As our soul darkens a bit each day
The sky is orange this morning, clouds masking sunrise, indicating rain.
My joints are sore, indicating rain.
Of course I took a fall at breakfast in the morning yesterday. They mop the floor at the entrance, or exit. Why isn’t there one word for in and out? Anyway, I was leaving when I slipped and fell… They obviously used the same mop they clean the kitchen with to clean the exit area. I go there no more than once a week, cause the grease at McDonald’s will kill you one way or the other.
I’ve got a song in my head. Dumb song by Mott the Hoople…
All the young dudes
Carry the news
Boogaloo dudes
Carry the news…
Where you paying attention in the 70’s?
Well it’s raining… told you!
Christmas party last night, what a range of conversations. Everything from football, golf, glory days, philosophy, calculus, and travel. Oh and a lively conversation about guys leaving the lid up on the toilet… geez men, just put the seat down, it’s the right thing to do!
I was asked by Sam, can I prove God exists mathematically, right after I was describing how we have the ability to represent our world mathematically… No sorry I cannot prove God exists mathematically. Maybe I needed more math education. However, I can realize that the world can be represented and modeled and simulated using mathematics, and of course physics. We are certainly the first creatures in this world’s history that can do that and harvest this knowledge for our own comfort and enjoyment. Also likely, the first that can contemplate both our own mortality and the brevity of our existence with respect to the enormity of time and the cosmos.
Which brings me to an article I was reading, that suggest that man also is the only creature to evolve religion to help explain our existence, and more importantly deal with this realization of brevity and mortality. Makes sense. There must be something more, because without something more we would conclude life is futile and such a decision is not productive nor logical. So God, to use our english judeo christian name, is the best and most logical alternative. This is the best I can do to use math and physics to understand the existence, but never explain God.
So I was also reading about quantum physics and relativistic physics and the search for tying the equations of each into a single cohesive theory and the beautiful math to go with it. If you watch Big Bang over the last decade, then you know that the search has been focused on one idea, called string theory. Maybe it’s out of our reach, but the fact that we can imagine that there is an explanation yet to be described and represented, can only mean that there is higher order, and higher spirit that has ordered our minds in a way to seek that truth.
There is a proven miracle called quantum entanglement, that shows (in short) that two sub-atomic particles that if created together as twins can share experiences even at massive distances simultaneously. Thus some force exists between them that operates much faster than the speed of light to communicate. Fascinating. We may not fully understand this phenomenon, but we may have the ability to harness this capability… and appreciate its existence!
And why does a song get stuck in our minds?
A Fire Named Chico
It begins so very small
hidden, no problem no name
Spark from a mower,
careless campfire
Seldom lightning but matters not,
till the Santa Anna’s blow like a hurricane
Winds, dry from the desert
fueling, fanning the fire
Moving with speed
agility that cannot be imagined
Suddenly upon you
heart stopping, situation dire
Of course, now it will be named,
the news brings viewers
Plundering the countryside
taking property, killing hundreds, maybe more
The Chico fire, has been named
so now valiantly it can be tamed
Fighters fight, and sometimes die
saving families flee
Paradise lost, dream destroyer,
exhaustion and loss of property
a suffering that lives on
As viewers we’re stunned by all that we see
And yet nonsense of all nonsense
it will be fixed, we are told
Greatest climate we’ll have,
if only they’d rake the leaves
A chance to united and support
lost to a deal that must be sold
Those in Chico’s way
care not about politics and news
As the fire is tamed and they are forgotten
until mud-slides inevitably came
And paradise is reminded again
about democratic blues
God bless those that will suffer
for they will suffer long
They will be put to test of recovery
of insurance, of health, by Chico
Long after the news and politicians care
about what went wrong
A Star on His Forehead
Little boy what is your future, what will you be?
You should know there’s a big, big world for you to see
You should know all the potential of your heart and mind
Of learning, ingenuity, passion and love you will find
Someday you’ll wonder at this picture, and yet you’ll know
As you gaze upon your own children and the potential that they show
It’s only right that you should wish they go so very far
As surely as we have wished for you, our self-anointed star