My Grandfather And Others

As I deal with people, some of whom are very close to me, I think
of my grandfather, whom I have mentioned before. He died of
"fever" in his kidneys at 87 years of age, and it was said that if
you listened carefully at his grave, you could still hear his heart
beating. My point is that the way he chose to live was very
easy on his heart. I never saw him excited, and his lifelong
habit was to be 20 minutes early for everything. I remember him
on Sunday, with the horse and wagon ready outside, sitting reading
while waiting for the rest of us to appear. A couple of months
before he died, he had mowed the front lawn carefully with a
scythe, in preparation for our arrival from Halifax for the summer
vacation, and then had run over a mile to help put out a fire at
the creamery in which he held shares. He was part of a bucket
brigade bringing water from the lake, and this is how he developed
the kidney trouble that took him away about two months later.




With the exception of emergency situations like this, my grandfather
was knowingly not under stress, and was always ready ahead
of any appointed time. Not everyone is like my grandpa -- some
like to see how close to the line they can come, and they frequently
miss, some being late by a predictable 20 minutes, which seems to
be the magic length of time to be late or early. For myself, I am
on time for things. In fact, as a deadline creeps up on me, I
resort to my training in radio and television before there was
tape delay. This means that I tend to be about five minutes early
for whatever is happening, and it is so calming that I do not know
why everyone does not deliberately follow the example of my grandfather.

American Express

Because my wife is in a nursing home -- one of several types
of institutions specializing in reasonably comfortable, but very
expensive, accommodations for senior adults -- my finances,
which were looking better than for a long time, need careful
re-examination.



Leave us begin with credit cards, most of which "save money" by
allowing us to "take advantage" of golden, silver and brass
opportunities, sometimes in very far away lands, where you can
get great bargains by spending a few thousand to get there and,
of course, back again (by this point in the sentence, I've
forgotten who's taking advantage of whom). If I seem to be
casting doubt on all these prospects and their premises, of course
it is intentional. Anyway, back to my title, and the fact that I
hold title to such a card, at least until AmEx gets tough with me,
which I sincerely hope never happens.



To feel prosperous, I took out American Express a few years ago,
and since I have an inherited Presbyterian conscience about money,
I keep it paid with a
warm feeling
about these nice folks allowing me into this exclusive club of
countless millions. I have an
AmEx Gold Card,
as well as a regular one, for all of which I pay an annual fee.
But since these days there seem to be so many other credit angels
offering me free money, I must stop and rein in the vanity, because
that is all it is -- I refer you to Ecclesiastes:
"All is vanity".



Unfortunately, since this is a blog post, which for me begins its life
on the written page, my time has run out. To my
credit,
I've kept within my self-imposed one-page limit.

Who Are You?

Here in Canada, we are hearing much about nationhood, or at least
about nations. We have the
First Nations,
the
Quebec nation,
the
nation of Alberta,
and more
(Newfoundland?).
We hear also of the Catholics, who used to be the Roman Catholics,
and of course there are Greek Orthodox Catholics, Coptic Catholics,
and more. The word "catholic" is still used to mean "universal", as
in "catholic tastes", and "nation" means that beyond our borders,
all are foreigners. I'm afraid Humpty Dumpty has been at it again,
with his "words mean what I mean them to mean", and his firm
conclusion that what matters is "who is to be master -- that's all".



It is easy to insist on definitions, even legal definitions, in
matters such as these, but in every case we can see a struggle
for dominance, or at least for survival, and we find ourselves back
for another reading of
Instincts of the Herd.
One thing is certain: the legal profession will always be with us.
It is apparent that each of us wants to belong, and to defend the
herd or group with which we identify ourselves. Of course, since
each of us belongs to several herds, we cannot always be sure to which
herd we are loyal at any one time. Is that herd geographic,
ethnic, religious, economic, or other? Wolves don't have this
problem, nor do ants. But we have this problem in abundance,
even with the sexes, which now are three, or is it four?



So who are you? Who I am depends on where I am, and with whom
I am. All right -- like the rest of us, I'm not sure.

Series Habits

U-pun my word, my title is serious.
Habits are very serious things indeed. Without them, we would
have to figure out certain actions anew each shining or foggy
day. I suppose memory would help, but morning routines would be
matters for attention, rather than things to be done on
autopilot
while planning the day. So clearly habits are not all bad;
in fact, they make orderly life possible. And habits do come in
series -- one leads to the next, and they supplement
each other. We have a series of actions to get us up and cleaned
and dressed and looking our best for whatever sort of day we see
ahead. Then another series gets the car out and down the
driveway and navigating the morning traffic. We can arrive at work
having forgotten a very important errand that we intended to do
on the way, but which was not a part of our usual routine.



Other habits cannot be regarded as good without some thought.
We can gradually stay up later and later, and acquire all the ills
of sleep deprivation. We can consistently stop in at the bar
on the way home for a few drinks and some fried food, without
consideration for calories or a history of family heart troubles
or the possibility of having to breathe into a police machine
for a routine alcohol check.



Clearly bad habits are hard to change, but good habits are
wonderful. At the very best, we can put a good habit into the
place of a bad one. The worst option is to pay habits no
attention, and they will indeed look after themselves.

Blogs: Servant, Master, Or Free Mouthpiece?

I am now a veteran of fifty or so blog posts, but like all the rest
of you, I have cogitated for years, which for me is generations.
I have thought and written about my various opinions, and about
all the wisdom which must have been repeatedly worked out and then
lost again throughout the millennia. In light of this,
I am impressed beyond words (well, almost) by the arrival of this
form of communication called the blog, which, at the very least,
equals the invention of the printing press. Read that, and remember
that it is coming from one (me) who is regarded (by me and others)
as glum and difficult where words are concerned, and generally
not inclined to be effusive.



Blogs are wonderful. Vanity is served at once. If you don't listen,
it is your fault. Also, by the very nature of the medium, your
audience sorts itself out. Readers don't pay anything, so they
really can't complain. Anyone can join in, rebut, whatever --
surely this is
democracy,
whatever that is, at its most lively and pushy.
In the realm of human communication, blogs seem to me
to be the atomic units that transistors are in the world of digital
devices that surround us.



Having said all this, I am careful, questioning, and a little
frightened about the future. I do not think that we, with our
unique facility of language, are to be trusted with much. But at
the same time, I don't want to stop the momentum of whatever
it is that will emerge from the tunnel. Stay tuned.