THE WAY IT IS

When, like me, you’ve lived to be older than the average life span of a rock, you’ve probably learned to roll with most of what life throws at you — so you can hope, when it’s time to throw in the towel, that you’re able to say: I Did It….

But you and I both know there are millions born into, and/or living, lives not of their own choosing and wars not of their own making — human beings whose soulless leaders and self-serving politicians don’t give a damn about them, and who do it “My Way” because that’s the only way they know to stay in power.So, on this Thanksgiving day, we can be thankful that you and I aren’t chopped liver for the likes of leaders like Putin and Trump.

Happy Thanksgiving.

THE MORALS OF THE STORY

“Moral injury comes from having a set of values and being put in a situation where you might have to compromise those values.” –Kaitlynne Yancy, associate director of government affairs, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

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Until I read the above quote in a newspaper article a few days ago, I hadn’t heard the term “moral injury.” According to the article, combat veterans’ moral injury experiences have been reported for hundreds of years, but the naming of it is newer, and has been widely used only since 2009. Similar to PTSD, it’s defined as psychological distress resulting from traumatic or stressful situations in which people witness, fail to prevent, or even carry out events that contradict their values and beliefs. Of course, psychological distress is not limited to the military. All of us face moral choices in our lives. Some of us seem to have a deliberate and/or selective obtuseness re moral choices. A perfect(?) example is TRUMPISM. Clearly, few are more blind to the moral dimensions of their words and actions than Donald Trump and his acolytes. When he pretends to have a moral position on, for example, abortion (an issue he has been on both sides of in his ‘career’), it is obviously born of personal opportunism, not moral conviction.

Without MORAL INTEGRITY, can we even begin to maturely discuss the issues (and their causes) which divide us, much less solve them? In the end, either a person has moral integrity or doesn’t. Yes, the person who has it may struggle with it, but the problem is that the person lacking it doesn’t see that this lack IS the problem (or, at least, part of it),. No moral qualms, no problem, How conveniently simple.

So much for a taste of my thoughts on the subject. Here are some ‘others’ thoughts to chew on:

“Force always attracts men of low morality.” –Albert Einstein

“All of us would gladly accept the advice of our moral superiors– the difficulty is to find any.” –Evan Esar

“Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.” –Henry David Thoreau

“Human morality is unthinkable without empathy.” –Fran de Waal

“In politics, shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.” –Alexis de Tocqueville

“Respect for the truth comes close to being the basis for all morality.” –Frank Herbert

“All religions have based morality on obedience, that is to say, on voluntary slavery. That is why they have always been more pernicious than any political organization. For the latter makes use of violence, the former of corruption of the will.” –Alexander Herzen

“The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.” –Martin Luther King Jr

“We are finally driven to monogamy not by morality, but by exhaustion.” Erica Jong.

“It has always been a peculiarity of the human race that it keep two sets of morals in stock: the private and the real, and the public and the artificial.” –Mark Twain

Hold on—-what’s in a name? The name of the last quote’s author calls to mind that East is east and west is west, and ne’er the TWAIN shall meet, The same principle, it seems, applies to those who have and don’t have moral integrity….in which case,

GROWING PAINS

“Some problems can never be solved, only outgrown.” –Carl Jung (1875-1961), Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst

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As a fellow octogenarian (albeit a still living one) who is Jung enough to appreciate the above quote, I would only add that some problems can never be outgrown (by people who never grow up, and remain a pain in the butt their whole lives). I, on the other hand, have growing pains the older I get….so you’d think I’d be groan up enough by now to solve all of the world’s problems. Alas, it seems only politicians can claim that mastery — which is….

Speaking of which, there’s an election upcoming on November 8 in which a heap of Biden election-denying Republicans are seeking office to carry on the dirty work of denying their (and future) opponents victory, even if those opponents get the most votes. If it’s not asking too much, how about exercising your right to vote (if you haven’t already) for democracy-loving candidates in an election where your vote still matters. Next time, it may not.

BIZARRE, BIZARRE

“The greatest contribution that science can make to the humanities is to demonstrate how bizarre we are as a species, and why.” –Edward O. Wilson (1929-2021), Pulitzer Prize winning biologist and naturalist

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Far be it from me to discourage science, but isn’t “how bizarre we are as a species” self-evident? As for “why,” well, why bother seeking to learn why if it’s a fool’s errand. Even knowing why, does anyone seriously think a bizarre species such as ours could….

Personally, I think that the least or most bizarre thing (take your pick) we can do about being a bizarre species is to own it and display it in a specious way — a sort of bizarre bazaar, if you will, in which (as Cole Porter wrote) Anything Goes.

Pardon the French double-talk, but the French knew how to do bizarre decades before Donald Trump became the Baron of Bizarre.

The above scene is from the 1937 French film DRÔLE DE DRAME (English title BIZARRE, BIZARRE), which film critic Leonard Maltin calls a “Rapier-witted satire about a botanist who pens successful, controversial crime novels under a pseudonym and is thought to have murdered his wife (who is very much alive). [It] lampoons upper-class elitism, hypocritical religious leaders, inept journalists, overzealous cops, and the ever-fickle masses.“ Some things never change.

If you found this post too
Bizarre by two,
Merci beaucoup.
I thank you.

THE LIVING, (BARELY) BREATHING PAST

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” –William Faulkner (from his novel REQUIEM FOR A NUN)

The Faulkner quote is a particular favorite of mine because it bridges, in a span of few words, the path(o)s of life and history. Simply but sagely, it links where we’ve been to who we are — both as a society and as individuals. Even people not given to giving the past the “time of day” didn’t just clock in today, as it were. Though the past may not be dead, it constantly haunts us because many of us never learn from it.

Some consider it a good thing to never change — to be the same person today as years or decades ago. That’s all well and good….if, as young men and women, we were as clear sighted and head-on-straight then as now. I have known such people. I wasn’t one of them. Among other things, when I was young, I didn’t know my ass from my behind the ‘seens,’ so to speak. In other words, I was as worldly wise as a sheltered nun (and I know my sheltered nuns, because I’ve been married to an ex-one for 54 years).

I am thus well qualified, for better or for worse, to attest that time has a habit of marching on — so that now, a much more skeptical and cynical, if sadder but wiser, man am I. Hey, nobody’s perfect (except maybe you 😀 ).

Enough said (by me about my past)….let’s move on to what others have said (and sung) about the past, starting most famously with….

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana

“No man is rich enough to buy back his past.” –Oscar Wilde

“History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” –James Joyce

“Your past is always your past. Even if you forget it, it remembers you.” –Sarah Dessen

“The future is the past come home to roost.” –Evan Esar

Turning to the musical portion of our presentation, I offer you a ‘present’ of the past and future….

And with that and this, perhaps it’s time to call it a day:

P.S. But wait — will the passing of time ever bring intractably — even viciously — polarized people together for the greater good?

P.P.S. You’ve got to be kidding. As famed journalist and broadcaster Edward R. Murrow said in the 1950s….

NOTE: With this post, I’ve ended my break from blogging a few days ahead of schedule. That’s what happens when a brainstorm begins to form and won’t mark time because….time waits for no one.

BREAK TIME

For personal reasons, I will be taking a complete break from blogging for the rest of the month (starting tomorrow). See you in November.

Take care.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THREE

My birthday is three days from today….but I won’t be hosting a toasting of HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. Instead, today I’m posting HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THREE: a trio of once well known actors and music makers who share my birth date. I do this, knowing that unless you’re an old film or jazz buff, you may not recognize their names….but in their day, their faces and voices were as familiar as your favorites are today:

MIRIAM HOPKINS, Academy Award-nominated actress, born October 18, 1902
BOBBY TROUP, songwriter, actor, and jazz musician, born October 18, 1918
ANITA O’DAY, jazz vocalist, born October 18, 1919

MIRIAM HOPKINS first gained acclaim for her roles in such pre-code films as DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931) in which she played a prostitute, and TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932), directed by famed filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch. My favorite Hopkins film is the lamentably forgotten love story THE STRANGER’S RETURN (1933). She also sang well, as in the last 2 1/2 minutes of this clip from DANCERS IN THE DARK (1932):

BOBBY TROUP is no doubt best known for his hit song ROUTE 66 (1946), among his many compositions. He later was an actor in films and TV, including roles with his wife, singer Julie London, in the 1970s series EMERGENCY! Here, Rosemary Clooney, Dorothy Malone and he form a trio to perform ROUTE 66 in 1956:

Of ANITA O’DAY, what can I say? She was a free spirit and did her own thing, but how she could sing! She first achieved prominence in the early 1940s as the ‘girl singer’ with the big band of Gene Krupa, whose trumpeter was jazz great Roy Eldridge (see video below). She left Krupa in 1943 and went on to become the ‘hip’ song stylist of her legacy.

Do you share a birth date with someone you believe would be of interest to the rest of us? If so, you are cordially invited to join in the celebration (comment-wise) and help make it The more, the merrier. If not, like the man says at the end of the last film clip: “That’s all there is. There isn’t any more.“

LIFE OF THE PARTY POOPER

To begin with, this post isn’t the story of my life, which has never been that of a party goer, let alone a party pooper. At my age, I no longer even want to celebrate my birthdays. What’s to celebrate, having lived so long that being party to a party is a pain in the butt (as is pooping a pain in the butt, for that matter).

And I’m even more tired of political parties than of birthday parties — particularly the Republican Party, which Donald Trump has turned into his own personal possession. Talk about a party pooper! Until enough American voters have had it with him, party politics is a GOP joke….but he and it ain’t funny.

So, what’s upcoming? Oct. 11 is IT’S MY PARTY DAY and Oct. 18 is my birthday, and I’m heading up the creek without a party, in a manner of speaking….but I’m still up for some good old party music:

….including a party just for the record:

To end with (and make a song story short), I have an announcement:

A FOOL AND HIS PARADISE ARE SOONER — OR LATER — PARTED

Today isn’t FOOL’S PARADISE DAY, though there is such a day (July 13). However, I just became aware of it today, so (being the impatient soul that I am), rather than wait until July 13 (by which time I and the world may be de-parted), I’ve decided to do a post along those lines now.

The title is a combined play on words of two axioms: A fool and his money are soon parted, and Living in a fool’s paradise — but let’s save de part about fool’s play money for another day; this leaves us Living in a fool’s paradise….which, of course, is where Trump lovers have been living since the day he duped his first fool. How on earth does he do so? Could it be because (as in the lyrics to this love song) “He takes me to paradise”?

Not romantic enough to convince you? How about the same song in French?

But enough words about HIM. Suppose we go from ‘orthodox’ paradise to where paradise is a paradox:

“A fool’s paradise is a wise man’s hell.” –Thomas Fuller

“I would prefer an intelligent hell to a stupid paradise.” –Blaise Pascal

“There is a paradise of rising to the occasion that points out how the rest of the time most of us fall down from the heights of possibility, down into diminished selves and dismal societies. Many now do not even hope for a better society.” –Rebecca Solnit

“We’ll tell him his mother waits for him in heaven, I suppose. It’s what we tell fools and children. Postulating a heaven gives man an out for having been unable to retain the paradise he was given here on earth.” –Sheri S. Tepper (from A PLAGUE OF ANGELS)

…and then there’s the happy campers who wouldn’t want to go to heaven if they couldn’t send back picture postcards. To that, I’d add “Wish you were here” — but you already are, right? 😀

STUFF AND NONSENSE AND THE LIKE….

“Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense.” –Robert Frost

Easy for Frost to say, as he never had to listen to Trump talk. But I forgive him anyway, because his quote makes for a useful starting point for this post, which is all about stuff….

….and nonsense

….and the like, such as horse feathers

….and balderdash and bosh and bunk and claptrap and codswallop and drivel and malarkey and tommyrot and twaddle and poppycockamamie (OK, I made that one up by combining poppycock (which is Dutch for soft dung) and cockamamie (which is American slang for every word that comes out of Trump’s mouth).

My work here is dumb….make that, DONE.