The walking sticks

Years ago...when my grandmother died, I was given two Irish walking sticks, shalaleighs as an heirloom....and I thought nothing of it, for I presumed that an Irish gentleman would like to take a walk of sorts with a cane from the old country, and have something to fend off the cats and dogs...but in the recent years, I realized, that with the "lamplighters" coming each night to light the lights, if one ventured out to take a walk...the cats and dogs were the least of the problems..so...I keep the sticks as a symbol....of a little protection...make a note of it....

"Don't Jump": Memories of 1987

Back in 1987, I was a stockbroker with E.F. Hutton...yup...that was the firm that bragged that when E.F. Hutton spoke,...people listened...anyway...as the market opened on the day of the big crash...as the selling progressed, a senior broker came on the "squack box" and told us that we should not panic in this day of panic...that there was a lot to our lives besides money...and to consider what these assets were...ok...there was not a two way conversation...so the quants on wall street could not try to calculate what those intangible assets were...but still...in retrospect..it was a nice touch...

"Real Sugar"

Yesterday a major soft drink maker announced that they would be changing their product so that they have "real" sugar in the product...nice...and that is the beginning of a revolution of sorts...

Imagine

A whole world emphasizing "real" not fake in their food...and now that we have "real" cheerios and real Pop, we can move on to refashion all the other "fake" items of our lives...like the "fake" politics, the fake open government, the fake educational institutions, the fake religions...ok I leave the rest up to you ...as an addition to Jerry Lee Lewis, "We've got a whole lot of fake going on":----

It's time to get real

The Courage to Be...the book...and the reality

Back in 1965...as a sophomore at the University of Minnesota, I took a humanities course, and in one brief semester was reading all at the same time, "The Courage to Be" by Ivan Illich, "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse, and "The Art of Zen" by Alan Watts....all I can say in recap, is that it was quite a semester....

Later, I got a little life lesson on how to merge all three books in real time..in real life...as my college friends went on their special chosen paths, and our lives separated...and I made choices that I needed to make....to define my self...

I always have treasured that semester at the University of Minnesota...and went on a little expedition in Zen and in Herman Hesse to see what I could find.