Poetry Break: Goodbye Naughties

We've made it through

To the Other Side

No need to tremble, no need to Hide

We did our best (well, most of us)

We stood the test (uh, ditto)

But no time for rest ... just yet

The naughties are gone, the teens are here

They'll be a challenge too, I'll bet

(Hmm ... think I'll have a beer)

La Fin Du Monde if you please ...

Loose Ends

The New Year is nearly here. Time to make our annual task list of resolutions, of promises to ourselves to do some things better, smarter, or sooner than last year.

For some of us this means we resolve to actually DO these things, as opposed to shoving our list in a drawer, or burying it eight levels deep in computer folders. This Year, we tell ourselves, we will actually fulfill these promises. Really we will.

And for 2010, we all have a lot of work to do.

I plan to finally learn a few words of Spanish. Enough to make myself understood in the vast - and getting vaster - LA economy in which English is not the first language. Or at least enough to know when I'm being kidded (or warned).

I also plan to simplify. Cut loose the extra baggage I've been carting around for decades. Either that, or fulfill another long term goal of appearing on TV - only in an episode of 'Hoarders' rather than CSI.

But my real focus will be on loose ends. You know, those tasks we've left undone, some for so long we barely remember them, but which still cause waves of anxiety and regret when we do.

I figure if I tie up one loose end a month, that would just about do it. Or, if that's too much, I could do one a quarter and I'd be done in three years or so. I could live with that.

Of course, not all loose ends can be tied up neatly in a month, a quarter, or even a year. Some took years in the loosening and will require years to resolve. Unless I resolve to completely forget about them, that is. Which is certainly the easier approach, just ask the Republicans.

Which reminds me of who else needs to focus on loose ends in 2010. That's right, the government. Including the Republicans. Health Care, Energy, Global Warming, the Economy, the Middle East, North Korea, Iran, Al-Qaeda, our military adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. Tax Reform. All very loose ends indeed.

So - at the conclusion of this last year of the first decade of the new millennium let's resolve - all of us, including our federal, state, and local representatives, to do the right thing and place a few loose ends on our lists of resolutions for 2010. Let's pledge to carry out some of the garbage we've accumulated from the past. Let's clear out the storage space. Let's fix those squeaking doors and beeping low-battery smoke alarms. Let's end those unending wars.

We will need a little intestinal fortitude and a little luck with this. But it's doable and I for one intend to give it a try. It would be embarrassing, after all, if my resolve (or our government's) to clear up loose ends became just another Loose End.

Good Luck and Happy New Year to Us All ...

La Fin Du Monde

J___ pulled back the curtains and gazed out the window of his 19th floor room onto the wintry streets of Montreal.

"Not the best weather for the job" he murmured. He was alone in the room.

Within an hour he was out and walking those streets, searching. Within two he had accomplished his goal, and was back at the hotel enjoying maple-drenched crepes, the chill ebbing, replaced by warmth and the satisfaction of his work.

He knew he would have to go out again. In this city he had been assigned six 'goals' and this morning's accomplishment marked completion of only the second. But it was enough for now. Enough to let him savor his crepes and an uncharacteristic beverage for so early in the day. A new favorite: La Fin Du Monde.

A fitting name, he thought, and smiled as he drank.

A New Christmas Mascot

Forget Reindeer. The most fitting animal totem for Christmas this year would be a sloth. A moss-covered, slow-moving, tree-hanging sloth.

At least that applies to me.

Perhaps the rest of you have celebrated fiercely, then after the briefest of recoveries you've planted that winter garden, renovated the kitchen, or solved the riddle of cold fusion. Big Deal, kudos to you and good luck with the Nobel. However, if any of you happen to have developed the means to remove 10 pounds of Christmas fat and reenergize nearly dead human tissue please contact me. I need your help.

Perhaps the source of my ennui can be found in the news.

After all, a moth-eaten version of Health Care Reform limped out of the Senate, with Republicans promising all-out war to prevent even its holed carcass from becoming law.

And somehow, even with all the TSA bureaucracy, rules, and regulations, some nut-case has managed to bring explosives onto a plane and tried to light them up. Pretty dire, but what does the government do? Figure out how the perp got the stuff on board and stop that gap? Nope - they make a rule preventing any passenger from getting up from their seat for ONE HOUR before landing. I am not sure what good that will do aside from forcing travelers with nervous bladders to line up at the lavatories 65 minutes prior to landing.

So maybe it's the news. Or maybe not. In any case, I can use some energy. So if you have the fat dissolving, tissue reanimating abilities noted above, or merely know how to turn a sloth into a winning greyhound without the use of whips or cattle prods, let me know.

Tis' The Season

Returning from wintry travels to warm(er) Los Angeles and basking in the presence of friends and family, I began to feel the first twinges of Holiday Cheer - a certain warmth peculiar to Christmas which lights us up like ornaments and fills us with goodwill to all.

It didn't last long.

It flickered out when I turned on the TV and looked for something seasonal to fit my mood. I checked out Showtime, since they often have something suitable - at least reruns of 'The Santa Clause', which is a guilty pleasure and cheesy fun. But no, all I found on the Showtime channel was a purported documentary narrated by Ben Stein called, 'Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed'.

The info-blurb for the flick stated it was all about how scientists who dared to write anything positive about intelligent design were kicked out of their jobs, denied tenure, or lost funding. Having once been almost-a-scientist myself, and believing in the free discourse of ideas no matter how crackpot, I thought 'hey, this could be interesting'.

But I was wrong. It wasn't long before the show devolved from a discussion of intellectual exclusion to an outright rant against 'Darwinism' complete with scenes of Stein staring down a marble statue of Darwin and footage of Nazi atrocities and Stalinist marches flitting across the screen.

Even after walking the snowy streets of Montreal - including the 'Rue Saint-Nicholas', I couldn't muster enough jolliness and joy to man a psychic defense against the brutality of that slash and burn 'journalism'. The images were blunt force trauma to my Christmas Spirit.

You see, to Stein (who co-wrote the film) presumably godless Darwinian 'survival of the fittest' doctrine led directly to the extermination of the Holocaust and the mass repression of millions in the following Cold War. Never mind that humans will find a way to do bad things no matter what they believe in - or don't. Stein ignored the Inquisition, the Crusades, and every Catholic Vs Protestant bloodbath for the past 500 years - not to mention the religious fundamentalist-terrorists who've been beheading and bombing about the Middle East (and New York).

In the film's end, Stein addresses an audience (kind of a bored-looking group, actually) about the evils of putting up intellectual walls - with the scene juxtaposed with shots of Ronald Reagan standing near the Berlin Wall and taking about that wall and what it meant. Heavy-handed and overwrought, yes, but the discussion of blocking inquiry and thought has its merits and was what the film should have been about all along. Too bad then, that Stein detoured into pure anti-evolution propaganda, and so nastily, with such flawed and selective logic it would make an excellent negative exhibit for any class on logic and rhetoric. Stein might have had something important to say, but lost his way as surely as that monotonic teacher he portrayed in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' ('Darwin? Darwin? ... Darwin?')

And back to my original peeve - it wasn't even seasonal! Unless you believe that knocking evolution is synonymous with promoting religion and therefore meets the criteria of celebrating the season. Well, it doesn't in my book, partner.

So excuse me, but I'm going back to the remote and searching for any version of 'A Christmas Carol' - God help me, I'll even take 'Santa Clause 3' ...

No Go Joe

I had planned this blog as a travel note about wintry, snowy Montreal, where I am currently ensconced. But, no. I heard about Joe Lieberman's about-face on early Medicare buy-in and I changed direction too.

I have begun to suspect that Joe is a double-agent of some sort. A not-so-deep mole for the Republicans. It's possible I am just being paranoid, but how else to explain his change of heart on a subject he lobbied FOR only a couple of short months ago. He actually proposed the early Medicare buy-in he just dashed against a brick wall. That's real statesmanship. Or early onset dementia. (Lucky he has a good health plan)

So now the die has been cast, the cat thrown amongst the pigeons, and (another) cat let out of the bag, can we uncast the die, rebag the cat, and save the pigeons? I don't believe so.

Any health 'reform' plan that mandates everyone have health care coverage, but denies millions the ability to actually afford that coverage, is not only next to useless, is not only useless, it's decidedly un-useful - damaging even.

Sorry to say it - because President Obama has worked hard to get us all some 'hope', through constructive 'change'. Too bad not all the kids want to play, some just threaten to take their toys and go home if they don't get their way.

So Senator Lieberman gets his way and health reform loses its way.

Let's hope the voters remember this next time he runs for anything.

And just tell him, 'No Go Joe!'

Onward The Soldiers

A few days ago, the friends and families of our men and women in the armed forces received the unwelcome news that some 30,000 of their loved ones will be sent into harm's way.

That's 30,000 more lives tossed into the deadly puzzle of Afghanistan. How many will make it home unscathed and how many will pay the ultimate price of war?

I am sure that question haunts the thoughts of President Obama and his advisors. And I am sure he considered the human costs when making his decision.

The situation he faces in the Middle East wasn't a problem of his making. He inherited it, and now has to manage it the best he can, using the soundest advice he can solicit.

But I am disappointed in the outcome. Like many other parents with children old enough to be sucked into this 'war', I am disheartened and frankly terrified by the news this mess will continue at least until 2011. More than enough time for unforeseen developments to swallow the 30,000 and beg for more, more , more.

Many of us remember the horror of Vietnam and what is was like to be young and vulnerable to being drawn into that mess. Some of us remember friends who served and never came back, physically or emotionally. Our soldiers now may be volunteers rather than draftees, but they are still young and vulnerable, and many of them will serve and not come back.

It is sad and sobering to consider we may have learned nothing, after all, from Vietnam, or from the eight long years already spent in the deserts and mountains of Afghanistan.