OT- In A Certain Light

Spectre

Spectre

Joined
Nov 3, 1998
Messages
4,331
We've heard some sad stories recently. I've been there, and I empathize. I respectfully submit, though, that anything that can make us care so much must have worth, even if we cannot hold onto it in the way we think we want to.

Best Wishes,

John
 
Most problems are but minor speed bumps in the road of life.

It is how we react to those problems that matters. We have the right to choose our own attitude in any given situation.

I suggest reading "Man's Search for Meaning" by Victor Frankl, a psychiatrist and holocaust survivor. I found it very thought provoking.



Semp
 
For many years Ben Stein has written a biweekly column for the eonline website called "Monday Night At Morton's". Now, Ben is terminating the column to move on to other things in his life. Reading his final column re our military is worth a few minutes of your time because it speaks of the most unselfish among us.

By Ben Stein:
How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?
As I begin to write this, I "slug" it, as we writers say, which means I
put a heading on top of the document to identify it. This heading is
"eonlineFINAL," and it gives me a shiver to write it. I have been doing
this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started. I loved
writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never
end. It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my changing as a
person and the world's change have overtaken it.

On a small scale, Morton's, while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it
used to. It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some
stars. I saw Samuel L Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice
visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren
Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that Splendor in the Grass was a
super movie. But Morton's is not the star galaxy it once was, though it
probably will be again. Beyond that, a bigger change has happened. I no
longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly
pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be
treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star
we should all look up to.

How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a "star" we mean someone
bright and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not
riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained
in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese
girls do their nails They can be interesting, nice people, but they
are not heroes to me any longer.

A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head
into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb
or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and
the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world. A real star is the
U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of
Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him. A real
star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in
Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance
on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and
threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in
California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.

The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish
weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for
the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.

We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our
magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay
but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines
and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as theylive and die.
am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor
values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that
who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.

There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament The policemen
and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they
will return alive. The orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who
have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery. The teachers
and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic
children. The kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.
Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World
Trade Center as the towers began to collapse.

Now you have my idea of a real hero.

We are not responsible for the operation of the universe, and what happens
to us is not terribly important. God is real, not a fiction, and when we
turn over our lives to Him, he takes far better care of us than we could
In a word, we make ourselves sane when we fire ourselves as the directors
of the movie of our lives and turn the power over to Him. I came to
realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters.
This is my highest and best use as a human.

I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great
an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin--or Martin Mull or
Fred Willard--or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good
a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them.

But I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above
all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me. This came to
be my main task in life.

I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well
indeed with my parents (with my sister's help). I cared for and paid
attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he
got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered
immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.

This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers
in Iraq or the firefighters in New York. I came to realize that life lived
to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in
return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has
placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human.
Click to expand...
 
DannyinJapan said:
I'm building my own flying saucer.
Gonna get the freak off this planet.
Click to expand...

Hey, Danny, my plans with that alien "artefact" on ebay kinda fell through, so if you've got any extra space on that flying saucer, let me know.

--Josh
 
This forum stimulates my sense of empathy. It makes me feel good that there are so many caring people in the world. I don't know if my positive thoughts actually accomplish anything, but it's better than the alternative--numb, not feeling, not caring.

--Josh
 
That Stein article was great and I agree 100%.
The saucer will take a five-man crew and I am 1, so there will be four seats available.
I need someone to work the grill. Interested?
(you must know how to make tony roma-style babyback ribs)
 
"tony roma-style babyback ribs"

I know you ninjas are naughty Danny but is this some sort of depraved cannabalism? :rolleyes: :barf: :eek:

Spiral :D
 
Consider the grill covered :D I've never been to Tony Roma, but I can make melt-in-your-mouth pork ribs. I usually end up cooking them for over two hours with a nice low, even heat. I'm also pretty handy with blasters if you need me to man the anti-spacecraft guns.

--Josh
 
Josh Feltman said:
This forum stimulates my sense of empathy. It makes me feel good that there are so many caring people in the world. I don't know if my positive thoughts actually accomplish anything, but it's better than the alternative--numb, not feeling, not caring.

--Josh
Click to expand...

Bill's expressed wish is that this place remain a "haven" in addition to a place to sell and talk about khuks. Josh pretty well nails it, as does Russ Kay's quote from Ben Stein's article. Spectre and others too.

The point to me is that being compassionate restores my faith in not just humanity, but in myself if I remain humble. Enlightened selfishness.

Micah 6:8 says to: "do justly, love mercy ( lovingkindness ) and walk humbly with your God." Humus is the latin for fertile soil, and as one prayer is entitled, "Be thou the gardener of my soul". I believe I'm entrusted with being fertile and for nourishing the seeds God plants in the garden of my soul.

Sorry for being pedantic.

As Bill says, " What has this to do with khukuries? Everything!"

Oh yeah. Please note the signature line.
 
A haven...

I am amzed at the volume and quality of activity on this forum, and grateful for it.

Rusty, That verse has impressed me many times, and is the reason my second son is named Micah.

It is a liberating and sobering verse

That is all he requires, but that ALL is a lot!

I am glad he sent someone to fulfill all righteousness.

Tom
 
Considering the diverse backgrounds of the people that inhabit this place called "The Cantina", the caring, compassion, kindness, and consideration shown here leaves me in awe. This many people with so many different beliefs, normally would not agree on so many different subjects. The rest of the world could learn a lesson from the members here.
 
Melt in your mouth pork ribs?
Ok Josh, you got yourself a seat.
What we've been doing is laying the ribs out over the field generator and the annular stabilizer passes over it about 30,000 rpm, generating just enough heat to really get the pork just perfect.
Plus, the grease drippings just shoot out the bottom of the saucer when we take off. No muss - no fuss!
Sweet huh?

oh P.S. Our saucer has no weapons. The field prevents anything from exiting or entering the ship, including radio waves. We have fun chucking stuff out and watching it bounce back off of thin air!
 
Life does go on. Thanks for the article Mr Kay.

My kids think I am a space alien....can I come?? :rolleyes:
 
DannyinJapan said:
oh P.S. Our saucer has no weapons. The field prevents anything from exiting or entering the ship, including radio waves. We have fun chucking stuff out and watching it bounce back off of thin air!
Click to expand...

Sweet! More time to focus on cooking :D I'm a bit worried about the radio wave thing though. Does this mean that I won't be able to listen to Art Bell as we leave the solar system?

Mamav--if you kids think you're a space alien, what do they think that makes them??? ;)

--Josh
 
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