Kathy and I are house/dog sitting for some wonderful old friends here in Eagle, Colorado. Fleury, their wonder dog, is a16 year old Jack Russell that more often than not is lot more lively than us. Their home is right on the Eagle River and the word idyllic doesn’t do justice to the setting.

We need our water fix from time to time and if you sit on the patio a distant seashore back east or south doesn’t really seem too far away. My buddy Hawley used to say camping out for him was the Ramada Inn in Frisco just down the road. This is the amped up version.

You start to get why so many people crave the simple life. There is a village pathway in town. You see folks of all manner of economics just walking or riding a bike at a leisurely speed. They wave and say hello and it is not perfunctory but heartfelt. Eagle has been jazzed up and gotten a new face over the years but it has retained a charm and panache that we all knew when we moved to this glorious valley many years ago.

Back then Vail was a dopey mountain town where there was plenty of money but nobody really cared to show it off. Eagle is 30 miles from there in oh so many ways. Attitude hasn’t gotten this far west and one can only hope. There is an ornate playground that was crafted by the locals and my 7-11 year old granddaughters played there for almost two hours on Saturday while Padge read a book nearby. There were no IPhones or IPads but just little ones fabricating their own games and mysterious places.

As you sit outside you can see the sun start to stir on a mountain top nearby. It hits up high first and then snakes down the slope as that magnificent orb rises higher in the sky. It has done that every day for millennia and yet the process is still a sight to see. There is a nearby peak that is brick red just off the top. My geologist son says that was part of a shoreline many millennia ago as the Ice Age began to give way to verdant valleys. The waters ate their way through the granite century after century to come down to the floor a thousand feet below and ergo our wonderful stream. Talk about feeling insignificant.

There is an incredible sense of balance. Winter snows lay a snowpack for six months that spawn the rivulets and tributaries. The Eagle feeds into the Colorado and graces the states along its path with life giving aqua. The Western Slope to Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, California and then if there is any left to Mexico. Each should take their allotment but the Imperial Valley screams and fights for more. Arizona has to grow cotton.Somewhere along the line someone is going to get screwed for the sake of the majority. Just doesn’t seem fair somehow.

The Eagle is renowned for its fishing. You see anglers plying their craft in waders with creel in hand hoping to bag the big one. But fame is fleeting as catch and release is the rule of the day. You then watch an eagle or red hawk circle looking for a late lunch or early dinner. Birds and bugs of all sorts abound and they are not pests but neighbors to respect. We all have our place in this chain.

The whole place is like a big leather easy chair. You squirm and fidget to find just the right spot or angle. When you get it just right you sit down with a good book or a glass of red and just veg. We had a beer at a place called the Dusty Boot on Saturday. We sat out on the deck where the rule on footwear was flip flops only. The chalk board said shots of Irish Whiskey were three dollars. Who knows what the brand was but it was a little too early to start. Some didn’t exhibit such patience.

They had a wine and mushroom festival last weekend. No, not the shrooms you are thinking of. A Baby Boomer with braided grey hair was the impresario. He laid out a blue tarp and every one displayed their best chanterelles. Over the years ball caps have replaced Stetsons but the Hispanics still wear straw. Everyone is welcome and part of the community. Any other place this would have seemed very strange and retro. Here it was modus operandi.

Now everyday we are here you seem to slow down just a bit more. Some of you might say this is LaLa and not real. On the other hand one is forced to wonder if this isn’t more real than any place on earth? The melodrama of the stock market is miles away and not just geographically. I peruse the Denver Post in a matter of moments. Mayhem on a bullet train in France. A trooper in Louisiana gunned down by a drunk he was trying to help. Pardon me while I switch over to the Vail Daily.

I have taken reams of notes on all sorts of topics. I hope I can impart some of those thoughts to you in future Ted’s Heads. They are in there. I just hope I can do them justice. It’s just good to come out of the fray and do some fun thinking. I hope this has caused you to do some too.

As Always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

Eagle County encompasses some 1900 square miles. The population is around 50,000. The US Government and I guess that means us owns about 80% of all the property. It is split into national forests and BLM(Bureau of Land Management) property.
The town of Eagle is the county seat and home to 6500 people.
Vail is home to around 5300 people.

It is also the third largest ski area in the United States. It opened in 1962 and the town was incorporated in 1966. Vail Mountain rises from 8,120 feet to 11,570 feet, giving a vertical height of 3,450 feet. It has a 5,289 acres skiable area, 33 ski lifts, 193 marked skiing trails on three faces: the front side, the back bowls, and Blue Sky Basin. If you are from the East don’t ever ski there because you will never go back to the blue ice of Vermont.

Hummingbirds….They are known as hummingbirds because of the humming sound created by their beating wings which flap at high frequencies audible to humans. They hover in mid-air at rapid wing-flapping rates, typically around 50 times per second, allowing them also to fly at speeds exceeding 35 mph backwards.

The golf ball flies farther at high altitudes: The air is less dense, so there is less friction to slow the orb’s forward motion. The figure 10% is used as a differential although either they are mistaken or I am getting older.

Ah, the Donald ! Creating hysteria for some and heartburn for others. His Hairness has the voting public just where he wants them. On the edge of their seats and just waiting on his next utterances. Now some are outraged. Some are indignant. Some are downright giddy. And all of those are good things. I love a little turmoil here and there. It gets people thinking which is of course what I try to do.

It reveals so many things about all of us. First and foremost is our love of the sensational. Trump has been on no less than five national programs in the last few days. Everybody wants him as a guest in the hope that he will say something outrageous that will cause everyone to tune in. This is the car wreck or bloody carnage that our intellectual curiosity thrives on…sort of.
It shows how shallow we all can be. Fox is mortified by the treatment of their anchor, Megan Kelly until it makes sense for Roger Ailes to kiss and make up with DT and then invite him back. That’s a story in itself. Andrew Cuomo on CNN’s morning show is fawning all over him to thank him for coming on. Now either we are vapid or just starved for something to watch during the summer reruns? It beats tuning in the Kardashians but in some ways it is so similar.

The debates showed everyone with some sort of following whether it was prime time or the kid’s table version. Rather than being depressed I think it is kind of cool. Anyone can run. Political philosophies aren’t black or white. Take a little from the Column A playbook and mix it with some thing from Column B or C or D. There are no really pure conservatives or liberals except for maybe Bernie Sanders or Ted Cruz. I dare any one of you to say you ascribe to every single tenet on either side of the spectrum. Gotta have a little wiggle room.Or should I say some original thought on our part.

To get attention lesser candidates bring up the unthinkable in debates. Immigration, entitlements, abortion,the NSA. On the trail everyone deftly avoids them. Hilary re the Pipeline or the Transpacific Trade Pact? “I’ll get back to you later” she says, “after I have had time to study it in more detail”. Social Security and Medicare changes get relegated to the back bench until Christie and Hukabee go at it. But these are the things we should be discussing and hearing where the speaker and not handlers stand under the pressure of live TV.

On a broader scale this just points up how incredibly diverse we are as a nation. I have often held if we weren’t the USA we could be up to 8 different countries. Yes, each with their own languages or dialects. Y’all and Fuggedaboutit are different parsings of this thing we call the English language. There is no way Los Angelinos can identify equally with the difficulties of the rural South. Cleveland is a long way from Santa Barbara except they are both on the water. And that is just who we are.

We want the candidate to play to the base and yet somehow be palatable to the middle, the independent and undecideds. I am not sure it can be done. You either stand up for what you believe in or whore it up and play to anyone who will listen. This is not arriving at a new conclusion. You still feel the same way you always did but you have to suck it up and be electable no matter how.

This in my mind is why Bernie and the Donald are selling. Sanders is a full bore Socialist. He is not hiding but rather bragging about it. Trump is crass and arrogant but he doesn’t mince words. As uncomfortable either one makes you the reality is that people want to hear what you think and not some speech writer or interest group. It would be incredible if this caught on. I watched Carly Fiorina on Morning Joe after the debate. She was engaging and straightforward. I hope she gets her day in the court of public opinion. Ditto so many others. I believe this could change the nature of politics but then again I am an incorrigible optimist.

I hate two things about the process. The evasive BS that gets put out by the office seekers and a commentator or pundit that wants to interpret for me what I just heard. In either case I am not as dumb as I look. I wish they would sit down and have a beer or take a long walk with us so we could find out what really makes them tick. We won’t need Bill O’Reilly or Wolf Blitzer to tell us how it really is.

As Churchill said, democracy is not perfect but given the alternatives it is the best system we can hope for. After all this only 50% of us will vote. That means whoever is elected will have around 25% of the populace in his or her camp. You can blame the Electoral College or gerrymandering or general disgust with the system. Or we can blame ourselves for not speaking up and asking the right questions and have us lay down the ground rules. Maybe the Donald is right. We should be abrasive and push back. We have a great country and maybe we should trumpet it.

As Always
Ted the Great

Factoids:
Narcissistic Personality Disorder is characterized by a long-standing pattern of grandiosity (either in fantasy or actual behavior), an overwhelming need for admiration, and usually a complete lack of empathy toward others. People with this disorder often believe they are of primary importance in everybody’s life or to anyone they meet.

Symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder
In order for a person to be diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) they must meet five or more of the following  symptoms:
▪ Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
▪ Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
▪ Believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
▪ Requires excessive admiration
▪ Has a very strong sense of entitlement, e.g., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
▪ Is exploitative of others, e.g., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
▪ Lacks empathy, e.g., is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
▪ Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
▪ Regularly shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
I will let you apply the above to any one in the candidate crowd where you think it is appropriate. Maybe many.

Obviously Napoleon or Henry VIII fit the mold. But what about FDR, Churchill, Gandhi and yes Bill Clinton?

For a Change….

I have been involved in several situations over the last month or so where I or someone I know has been confronted with change. I like to think of myself as open to new ideas or concepts but that is not always the case. Like you, I tend to look at the road not taken and for what ever reason think the one I am on is just fine. Then I get this crazy desire to explore new worlds and the wanderlust of my brain takes over. No, we are not moving again…at least not just yet.

Interestingly our brains are wired to fight change. We sense danger or its evil twin insecurity when confronted.This thing we call mindset or predisposition causes the grey matter to fight back. Our brain has to work harder.We have to grind through and fight it. For most it’s a lot easier to put life on automatic and sit back.
How often have you caught yourself on a long drive just going down the road without a great deal of thought? Not really firing many neurons. But what if as happened to us recently you are in a whacky place called England where they drive on the opposite side of the road. The steering wheel and the car’s processes don’t really change but you are on edge and have to relearn a task that you could do in your sleep. But are you really driving differently?

My good friend KC whose husband died a few weeks ago is facing change. Yes, she may have thought about it during Neal’s illness but right now there is a void she could not have imagined. A way of life they had together even when he was so sick is forever gone. That is beyond a natural reaction but how you handle it and move on determines your very survival.

Now she will grieve and maybe even bemoan her lot in life but I think I know her well enough to say she is taking small steps as we speak. She will look at things and say here are the cards (or tiles) that I have been dealt and now how do I play them? In a crazy moment she will look at this as an opportunity to not only move on but create a whole new way of looking at the world. Some will poo poo it as inappropriate to even think of these things so soon after a spouse’s death and good for them.I think she is great. Strikingly we are all so quick to cast a judgmental eye on anything different.

We establish a mindset… a way of looking at the world. We might be inquisitive and accepting or we may be stubborn and intolerant. The old half empty, half full is really our manner of facing the world. Now everyone is more than entitled to call their own shots. If your mantra is we have always done it that way and it’s good enough for me, then so be it. If you like jumping off cliffs or swimming with sharks, good for you. Yet I often wonder if either side of the spectrum really believes their way works.

We all have this voice inside of us. It sets the tone and filter of our lens. Some might say it is what side of sanity you fall on but I think that is a little too extreme. It is up to us to see if that whisper in your ear is valid and well formed or just an annoyance to prevent you from being better. Does it hold you back from using your talents or is it a bit of sound advice?

This is evident in all aspects of our lives today. Iran nuclear treaties, same sex marriage, climate, your marriage, your home. Do you do things the same or invite new arenas? I believe we become more staid as we get older because we are more insecure. We see a new and evolving world and it scares us to death to think we might become a part of all this lunacy. We don’t really know how we would fare financially, intellectually or just as people, so we stay in the background. We might sit quietly or worse throw brickbats to try to bring the adventurous down. How sad.

Going back to neuroscience you ask how can I break through be I young or old when my mind is wired to stay put? Therein lies the beauty of our intelligence. It seems when we perceive a breakthrough moment little chemicals get released. Whatever they are they whisper “go for it”. In my case I think they yell. But those Aha moments become easier to greet and the satisfaction of learning new things or meeting new people does wonders for the heart and soul. Young or old you feel empowered.

If you have ever played golf you have learned in some way how to hit the ball. Same holds true for tennis, baseball or whatever. You have repeated that swing over and over again. Of course you think it is a beautiful thing even though it may be atrocious to the camera’s critical eye. That repetition creates a thing called “muscle memory”. It is instinct. It is the way you have always done it. It is ingrained in you.

Now to break that pattern is extremely difficult. Whether you are taking it back or following through, you just do it. Your brain is the largest continuous muscle in your body. It contains the muscle memory in this thing we call life. To alter that will take a lot of practice and work. Now you can keep your crappy swing that just gets you by. Snuggle under your security blanket. Or you can CHANGE and really accomplish some wonderful things. I guess it comes down to how you want to live your life?
As always
Ted The Great.

Factoids:
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. – Leo Tolstoy

“Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit.” – M. Scott Peck, Author A Road Less Travelled.
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.
Maya Angelou

Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.
Margaret Mead

Wanna Change?
Breast Implant…$7,100
Breast Lift (Whatever that is)…$5,200
Breast Reduction…$7,200
Eyelids…$5,000
Lips…$2,500
Facelift…$10,000
Rhinoplasty….$7,000
Tummy Tuck….$7,000

People will change jobs 5-7 times over their career. Fully 1/3 of the workforce moves around every year. The major reasons are boredom,downsizing, money and their boss.

There are 876,000 divorces in the US per year. Ironically there are about the same number of widows/widowers created in any given year.

After a great morning on the golf course I returned home to discover a spectacular five car pileup in front of Monroe Pointe aka Casa Kenny. There was a long traffic backup as the rubber necks wanted to catch some sort of glimpse of the blood and gore. There was one idiot running a STOP sign and four innocent bystanders. Live pictures at Five.

You have to wonder about the obsession with bad news. Life is good or so it would seem. Maybe not as we are often compelled to go to the dark side. Is it maudlin curiosity or outright fear? Hard to tell. We have mass shootings both here and abroad. It seems the larger the populace the greater chance for mayhem. Bad things don’t usually happen in small towns. Not so in Knoxville and Chicago. Nor Baghdad and Nairobi. Drought, floods, wildfires and tornados. All grist for this thing we call our mind.

For a moment let’s just observe without making judgment calls. Your phone rings and it is someone who haven’t heard from in a while. Immediately one asks “What’s wrong?” Well I have prostate cancer. “Holy crap are you going to die?” Unfortunately no. You will have to put off shopping for black or dusting off your barely used suit and that out of date tie…at least for a while.

The TV blares “Breaking News”. “Presidential Address”. We all sit up and take notice. Just the words, Crisis, Blockades, Sanctions, Plane Down, Wildfires, Floods, Drought conjure up a whole set of attitudes before we know anything about what the actual facts are. It has to be bad. Real bad.

It seems we are wired as such. Our caveman roots cause us to be ever vigilant. Suspect the worst because it is how we maintain our edge. The old “Fight or Flight” reaction keeps us on our toes. There is more brain activity associated with fear and danger than with soothing music and Elysian fields. Unfortunately this gets translated into drama, pessimism, paranoia and ultimately depression if we let it go too far. The problem is these feeling are visceral to the core. In a perverse way we enjoy it.

We compare ourselves to one another every day. If you see some poor bastard in a worse state we say there but for the grace of God go I. Oh you or your loved one has a terminal illness. Phew, I just dodged another bullet. It is probably why we hate the Yankees or the Mother Teresas of the world. They do things we can’t ever hope to accomplish so we either ignore or revile them . It is just easier on the psyche that way.

If we were just left alone to our misery that would be wonderful but the marketers of the world won’t let you lie still. We are going to pick you up and fix your ills. We are going to prey on your weakness and show you the ideal you have been missing. Viagra, Tagamet, some Beta blocker or the latest golf gadget. We can cure it all. Or so we say.

Not to be left out, our politicians see all this as red meat. The public is pissed off at Washington so I will pronounce myself the savior. If you are Democrat, Hillary will lift you out of the depths and like Moses show you the Promised Land. It is called playing to the base. Just keep teeing up totally impractical ideas and they will believe you can do it. Promise the world until you get elected and then blame it on the other side for their intransigence. This is good stuff.

The Donald is really taking the country by storm. He is brash, outspoken, arrogant and defies the logic of any question with his answers. Who cares? He is against the reigning bums. He’s against immigrants so the workers like him. He wants to make life great for the successful. He gets in people’s faces and everyone from Joe Six Pack to the A list love him. Beware Republicans! Beware. No one ever said politics made sense.

In our age of social media there is a phenomena. People don’t pass bad stuff on to others. Facebook pages don’t display blood and gore. It seems to stop at the person. They do forward things that are uplifting by a count of seven to one. It seems when they are moved or in awe about something they want to shout to the world. Call it a poor man or woman’s evangelization. This is what they want to share and in that there is an interesting positive in our world.

ISIS has taken over the internet for the sick and disenfranchised. They have performed brilliantly and in quite an expert fashion when it comes to producing their vitriol in a compelling way. We are turned off and shocked. The unemployed and itinerant youth of some God forsaken place sees this as cool and inviting. This is where we have to counter attack. They are raising jihadists from small boys they have captured to malcontents who wander into their camps. There is a lesson to be learned.

Media of all sorts and to the extent we listen has an enormous impact on our lives and our minds.We are bombarded thousands of times a day by messages large and small. Whether it is the news we watch or the ad that flashes by for both us and our kids it formulates our opinions and our beliefs. Bad news sells. I get it. But then again it really doesn’t have to.
As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

Yankelvich Research says we receive 2,000-20,000 marketing messages every day. Those higher numbers include every time you pass by a label in a grocery store, all the ads in your mailbox whether you see them or not, the label on everything you wear, etc.

• An average child sees 30,000 TV commercials in a year.
• By the time they reach the age of 65, the average American will have seen two million TV commercials

• According to the A.C. Nielsen Co. the average American watches 3 hours and 46 minutes of TV each day (that’s more than 52 days of nonstop TV-watching per year).
• Parents spend 38.5 minutes per week in meaningful conversation with their children.

Our news magazines like Time et alia have shrunk down to nothing. Most advertising is not print but on TV and the Internet. In 2013 Internet advertising reached $49 billion.

A cerebral welcome from the physics lab here at TTG University. Actually the only science course I ever took in my life was an Easy A Biology course at Georgetown taught by Fr. “Ha Ha” Harley SJ. It was a sight to behold as I dissected worms and frogs with the basketball team in assembly line style. The first guy took off the head and the next the skin and so on down the line. The last gnius put it all together in the wax tray. Quite efficient. And you thought jocks were stupid. But I digress.

As I understand it, an ohm is a unit of resistance for current between two poles. Not sure it is exactly so but work with me as I hope it will make for a clever epistle. Let’s for a moment view all that current as the river of life itself. It courses and roars from the get go and often overflows its banks. I think that is what we call mania. I know a lot about that. So according to the TTG textbook on physics we have to throw ohms in there lest we go completely off the rails.

There is the Ohm of rules,ethics or religion. These are serious brakes. Now I know some of you want to throw out the whole concept of an Intelligent Being but think for a moment where we would be without One. A whole lot of chaotic. I learned in Catholic school that if I didn’t shape up I was gong to hell. Why else would I want to be good? You mean there is no punishment for my transgressions? Let the good times roll and maybe we can shelve this one.

Alright even if we don’t have you know Who, there has to be something holding the planet together. We will call this the Ohm of Society or Propriety. There are just some things you don’t do in public unless you are Bruce Jenner aka Caitlin or The Donald. I am not just talking about tacky behavior but serious slime. The problem becomes difficult when we go from one area to another. Things that are perfectly acceptable at the Breakers in Palm Beach would be totally out of bounds at the ISIL Country Club in whatever country they are taking over. In Saudi Arabia everything points toward Mecca. In New York our rugs are positioned towards the Hamptons.

Now there is also the Ohm of ritual. We have always done it this way. If it was good enough for your grandparents then it is more than fine for you. In Jewish, Italian and Irish circles this also falls under the heading of guilt. Why are you acting this way? Weren’t you brought up properly? Did we teach you to talk like that? Where do these kids get these crazy ideas? This becomes particularly tense when your son or daughter makes about 100 times more money at 30 than you made in your entire life. Oi Vey!

Now this is all fun and games until we get to the OHM of negativity.No matter what you do or dream up there is someone there telling you it can’t be done. “It’ll never work” becomes their mantra. I wonder how many great ideas have been quashed over the years by choruses of naysayers. Republican or Democrat, it makes no difference. Sure we are the seat of innovation in the world but imagine if we all were cheering the troops on? Yes, there are venture capitalists and entrepreneurs and God bless them . But imagine if we all were singing “Go for it”out of the same hymnal.

Creativity is a gift we all have. We can look at a situation and see what could be. If it is broken,fix it. If it is good how can we make it great? Every day I see people who are complacent or just peachy with their lot in life. Young and old alike. I can’t tell you the number of times people look at me with a quizzical expression and say what is that screwball up to now? It is not a matter of whether it works or not or whether it will come true. It is the absolute fun of letting it rip.

We all talk of excesses and believe me there are plenty. I am actually talking about a different altered state. Sit down and look at your world. Don’t say why but why not? Don’t shoot down the invention before it gets off the ground. Get off our butts and see something beyond the TV screen or our IPhones. Most of all give a sense of excitement about our world to your kids and those around you.

I met with a woman the other day who works for the Greenway Foundation here in Denver. She is going to help us on a project to better the Cherry Creek. 40 years ago the South Platte River was a dropping off point for everything in the Queen City that looked like refuse. Little by little a dad and his son transformed it and now their Foundation holds a summer camp to teach kids about the riparian environment and the denizens that inhabit it.It sells out for the summer in three weeks. How many times do you think people told them they were crazy?

I am totally out of my element as to explaining science but I think when the ohm is in place there is a buildup of energy and that creates an ampere of power. In other words all that resistance really gives energy to our lives . What a cool thought.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

The “body fat analyzers” you see at gyms these days use a mechanism to estimate “body fat” or “muscle mass” by calculating body impedance to a couple of frequencies. No wonder I feel fat.

“ Georg Ohm, was a German physicist, best known for his “Ohm’s Law”, which implies that the current flow through a conductor is directly proportional to the potential difference (voltage) and inversely proportional to the resistance”. If you have even a clue what this means I am never talking to you again.

“Guilt and its handmaiden, shame, can paralyze––or catalyze one into action. Appropriate guilt can function as social glue, spurring one to make reparations for wrongs. Excessive rumination about one’s failures, however, is a surefire recipe for resentment and depression”. I couldn’t have said it better.

My buddy Neal Seibert passed away last night at home in Alexandria, VA. His wife KC was with him. I just had a cigar and a 15 year old scotch in honor of him. Life is too short my friends. Live it. And that is a factoid.

Fourth Of July….

Too many years ago in a place called Plandome on Long Island’s North Shore, The Fourth was in a word, idyllic. This little burgh of a few hundred families sported the Plandome Field and Marine Club. Lest you think of double breasted blazers, yachting caps and white shoes you have it all wrong. Indeed they were commuters to the canyons of Wall Street or the madness of Madison Avenue but here there was a place of repose and tranquility without airs.

On the “day” we had red white and blue crepe rolls woven between the spokes on our bikes. On the Village Green we had races and games, a fire hose fight and you could blow your brains out with cold sodas and Good Humor ice cream. All free! Afternoon softball and more pop with the volunteer firemen gave way to fireworks down on the bay. Of course we had an ample supply of M80’s, Ash Cans, cherry bombs and one and two inchers. Life was good.

I hope they still have that tom foolery. There were no warning labels. No helmets. Just good clean fun. In those 60 or so years I have seen a lot of variations on the them as we celebrate our nation’s birthday. We have commercialized and sanitized. Hot dogs have become a culinary specialty to see who can more creative and cosmopolitan in preparation. Hey it’s a frankfurter for God’s sake! Time marches on.

But I do think about this concept of independence. We declared it and I guess we go along with the program even today. Back then people just wanted to be left alone to do their own thing. No kings or queens. A full house was made of logs and the frontier was your front yard. But that new found freedom was oh so precious. You thought everyday about how neat this was even if the vagaries of indians, outlaws and nature put a rein on your enthusiasm. Our forefathers for sure were for state’s rights and maybe that further filtered down to town’s rights too.

Freedom also comes to mind. No restraint, be it physical or psychological. It could be a jail cell or a thumb. Either way we just want to be us. But if we all did our own thing literally there would be chaos. So we have to have laws but keep them simple. Every man for himself but in a bind we will all band together. But there is responsibility in this liberation. I hold the only reason we have more laws is because people are constantly trying to beat the system. Shortcuts or malfeasance? It doesn’t matter. In this case we need to be vigilant and probably more dedicated to the concept than we care to be.

We have lost our agrarian spirit as we head to the cities. We have lost a bit of that fraternal friendship. That survival outlook. We now are willing to let things be. Don’t rock the boat. We even acquiesce either by failure to fight or just a simple acceptance of status quo. We hold our beliefs whether they are good or bad. We just take what is dished out because it is just easier.

Don’t get me wrong. We are not the first to do this but somehow slavery has taken on many different mantels. Sure there was the scourge of the image of a poor black being sold as a piece of property. I can’t even begin to imagine it. No hope. No future. Just massah. But maybe it goes on. Your job, your lot in life, your parents or maybe even your spouse. Drugs,booze, sex. Maybe massahs come in all shapes and sizes. What about our thoughts and prejudices? Are we all bound by some crazy thing called ideology or even a warped sense of loyalty? Dunno.

I watch a thing called ISIS or Al Quaeda and wonder how this all got started? Looks like these people just gave up. It is fascinating that their few hundred in number overcome thousands of well armed and theoretically well trained troops. Even this nitwit could figure it out after ten years of training. But for so many the desire just wasn’t there. Their freedom was just not that important or perhaps that had grown lazy and complacent. Bad recipe for a prosperous life.

I ask people about this or that topic that relates to our livelihood or future as a country. Many look at me blankly and say “Why should I give a shit?” Others will ramble on about Obama or the Supreme Court or Congress as a whole. Just insert the tape and hit rewind. Their act and ergo independent thought is just the same as it was ten years ago. But this world, our country and our individual states and towns are changing at warp speed. We can be lazy or a slave or even a lazy slave. Or we can get our ass in gear.

When we went to the Baltic last fall I particularly remember our trip to Estonia. We took a city and mountain bike tour. Both our guides were young and beyond enthusiastic. They were so hopeful and yet afraid. Their newfound independence from Russia was constantly being threatened by Putin. Yet their eyes sparkled when they spoke of their country. I wonder how many of ours do?

TTG, what a bummer you are. I just want play golf and come home and grill a couple of steaks. Watch the fire works and enjoy a long weekend. Why do you have to ruin it? Sorry, I have always been a rebel of sorts. Happy Independence Day. I hope you are.

As always
Ted The Great
Factoids:
Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the Fourth of July. Calvin Coolidge was born on it.

$695 million will be spent on fireworks this year. $3.6 million will be spent on flags. $3.5 million of those will be made in China.

68% of homes will feature a barbecue of some sort. We will eat 150 million hot dogs. Joey Chestnut owns the record by downing 54 of those babies in 10 minutes.

In a salute to independence Salem used to set off bonfires stoked with old barrels in competition with neighboring towns. The stacks were 40 tiers high. They cheated. They used to burn witches too.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pur(1743–1826)

I was watching “The Roosevelts,” which is a wonderful documentary in several parts by Ken Burns. He is masterful as he weaves pictures, commentary and of course the most influential parties of the era he is covering. Forget whether you agree with their politics, you get a behind the scenes look at them with their triumphs and their failures. Last night’s episode had to do with the buildup and actual declaration of our entry into World War II. It made me think.

Wars have been going on for millennia. Troy, Sparta, Rome, Carthage, London, Berlin, Washington, Baghdad…just to name a few. Somehow, someway there is conflict. Archduke Ferdinand got shot and caused the continent to react. I have a population overload and need more room. You have plenty of it so I will seize it. You may have oil or gold and it is mine for the taking. Sometimes it is like a government takeover GTO to increase GDP. Hey, it works on Wall Street.

Beginning who knows when many these revolved around religion or political ideology. You don’t think the way I do and ergo I will blow your head off. These become particularly dangerous because there can be no armistice or truce. These are ingrained hatreds and prejudices that won’t go away with the stroke of the pen. You think ISIS is nuts? What about Hitler, the Bolsheviks or even the Viet Cong. In all of the above there is a religion or cult that will fight to the end. War is not a means to an end. It is the end.
Sunnis and Shias have been at it since Mohammed left succession vague. Arabs and Israelis can’t stand the sight of each other. Turks and Kurds, African tribes of all sort and the multitudes of tribesmen from Afghanistan to Mongolia have some sort of grudge against one another. Those don’t die easily.

Wars bring out the absolute worst in people. Hitler was so obsessed with his venom towards Jews he built and operated ovens at Dachau et alia. That is not only heinous but scary that a leader of whatever sort can issue a proclamation to wipe out millions of people. Genocide is present throughout the world today and is not out of the ordinary. Darfur, Bosnia and Rwanda are not ancient history but part of all of our modernity. Pissing on bodies you have just killed or subjecting subhuman torture on the premise of gaining intelligence is unfortunately a reflection of the dealing party. Intelligence somehow seems to be a misnomer.

It is intriguing that if you took a vote of the masses probably there would be no war. It comes from the top, the military brass, politicos or some whacko Imam that says let’s go get them bastards. That in turn gets some sort of proclamation of worth and presto we have a policy that has to be carried out by the sailors and grunts. “Let’s Bomb them back to the Stone Age” doesn’t strike me as a particularly mature and reasoned approach to settle a problem. But hey, what do I know?

Now we all have gone to war in one way or another. When you were a kid there was a bully. He wanted your mitt or your lunch money. He remained in his highly protected position until someone bumped him off. Not literally. He had allies and so did you. But until someone became the intimidator instead of the intimidatee there was an uneasy peace. I guess that was the origin of balance of power.

It goes beyond brute force. We have wars of words. Look at out political dialogue if you want to call it that. Donald Trump, the master of insecurity tells us the Mexicans coming across the border are either criminal, drug mules or just plain stupid. That should go miles in getting him the vote of the fastest growing minority in the US. Listen to a couple who really get into it on some moronic TV show. Kids there is some serious hatred going on there but you don’t have to watch the tube. Go to an airport and see a loving family just back from vacation at the luggage carousel. That’s a show you want a front seat for.
I guess we are all competitive. We want our spot in life just as much as the next person. If you have it you don’t want to give it away. If you don’t, you will do everything you can to achieve it. Today that requires a certain sense of kill or be killed. As the room at the top becomes more and more crowded there just won’t be as many winners and therefore a lot of highly irritated people.

We have this overwhelming sense that life has to be fair. It ain’t. I am a great proponent of we are all in this together but if you are looking for Pax Romana you are going to have a long wait. There are haves and have nots. There are success stories and tales of failure. There are two sides to every story but the fairy tale doesn’t come true very often.

Now before you gloat or bury your head in your hands depending on which side of the 1% you are, I think there are two ways to add salve to these wounds. First is something called realistic expectations. I have spoken before of bigger houses and faster cars. They are not all they are cracked up to be. We have to engender some sense of it is okay to be ordinary. Today we make fabulous success a thing to be honored and sought after no matter what the cost.

Secondly is a realization on the part of the elites (whatever that means) of what the other side is going through. Walk a mile in their shoes. Really see someone bereft or in pain and just understand what the hell they are enduring. Work a bread line or deliver foodstuffs. Live on$180 a month for food for a family of four. I am not saying you have to give away all your possessions to the poor but just freaking get it. EMPATHY cost you nothing except maybe a a breakdown of your well preserved notions. Open your mind and your heart…just a little. And that my friends is my little war. Please forgive me.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:
In 2013 there were 31,00 deaths worldwide from war. In 1990 there were 72,000. World War II took the lives of anywhere from 60-85 million human beings. The Mongolian Conquest of the 1300’s took 40 million lives but it beats me how they came up with that number. I don’t think there was Fox or CNN back then. I guess they just Googled it.

Conflict is a way of life. Road rage, mass murders, domestic violence, team competitiveness, lawsuits, divorce are sewn into the fabric of our daily lives.

War takes a societal toll. Marauders destroy priceless art and artifacts. Both the vanquished and the victors must count their dead and provide for broken bodies and minds when they come home. All else stops as we all support the “war effort” at a tremendous cost to development of science and infrastructure.