NO SUCH THING AS HEAVEN?

NO SUCH THING AS HEAVEN? SO SAYS FAMOUS PHYSICIST STEVEN HAWKING.  HE GOES ON TO SAY THAT NOTION IS A FAIRY TALE FOR PEOPLE AFRAID OF THE DARK.  WELL, DR. HAWKING, IN SPITE OF YOUR ENORMOUS BRAIN POWER, I SAY YOU GOT THIS ONE ALL WRONG, PAL.

NOW, I DON’T KNOW IF HEAVEN’S UP IN THE CLOUDS, OR A GLORIOUS STATE OF MIND, OR IF WE REALLY CAN HANG WITH THE ANGELS WHEN WE SHUFFLE OFF THIS MORTAL COIL.  BUT I’M PRETTY SURE THAT INEVITABLE DIRT NAP ISN’T THE END OF US FOR GOOD.

TO FOLLOW HAWKING’S WAY OF THINKING, WHY NOT EVERYBODY JUST DO WHAT THEY WANT, ROB BANKS, LIE TO THEIR MOM’S, STEAL LITTLE KIDS CANDY AND OTHERWISE VIOLATE ALL THEM OTHER COMMANDMENTS WHENEVER THEY FEEL LIKE IT?  IF THERE’S NO HEAVEN, THERE’S NO REASON TO BE GOOD, IS THERE?

I SAY THIS IS KIND OF REASONING IS WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.  HUMANS ARE THE ONLY BEINGS ON THIS EARTH THAT HAVE A CONSCIENCE.  WE ALSO MUST HAVE A GOAL TO STRIVE FOR.  WE FOLLOW THAT CONSCIENCE TO REACH THAT GOAL. AND THAT GOAL, DEAR SIR, IS HEAVEN. 

I’M NOT AFRAID OF THE DARK, DR. HAWKING, BUT I AM AFRAID OF THAT OTHER PLACE WHERE BAD FOLKS GO.  AND I HOPE THAT ONE DAY YOU WILL USE THAT INTELLECT GOD GAVE YOU TO COME TO YOUR SENSES.  

(FROM 'I'M JUST SAYIN' " COMMENTARY, NEWSCHANNEL 5, KSDK, ST. LOUIS, JUNE 1, 2011)

BACK IN THE (BLOG) SADDLE AGAIN

So wow, it's been a while since I hit this site. I have been busy, believe it or not, with retirement activities. Got into some subbing at a local school, did tutoring for kids out of school for various reasons. Got hooked up with a talent agency, with head shots and a resume and auditions. Kind of a shot in the dark, to see if anyone wants a bald guy with wrinkles and a crooked smile for any print stuff out there, or commercials. Had a few auditions, but nothing yet. All it takes is one, they say, and they also say that every "no" is that much closer to that "yes". It's been fun and a learning experience, so far, if not profitable.
Also have gotten on TV with a commentary segment on a local NBC affiliate. The segment is called "I'M JUST SAYIN'", and can be seen at http://www.ksdk.com/. Scroll all the way down and I have just put on the air about Steven Hawking saying there is no heaven. I will post it here as well. Now THAT has really been fun, and even pays a few bucks, enough for a couple rounds of golf, to which I continue to be addicted.
Jill and I have decided they will be carrying us out of this house, what with the market being so depressed, and where would we go anyway. So we have finished the basement, which turned out AWSM, as they say in tweet-land, and are getting the outside painted grey with white trim, what we wanted to do 19 years ago, except our kids cried that they would live in a "depressing house." So much for those brats who have all grown up and moved out and started their own gangs... Funny that our youngest, Joanie, 2o, said the exact same thing. Then again, she's been at Mizzou for two years and plans to be out of the house as soon as she can anyway, so I think we've learned our lesson.
ANYWAY, I am back at this, will post my columns from the Suburban Journals of St.Louis, and maybe even get into some videos. Once I find my way around youtube. And if I get a flipcam.
Back at ya'....
Tom

Well, it has been since November 2009 that I have posted to this site. It's about time that I got back to this. I will post an explanatory article to tell what I have been up to these past few months. Some great things have been happening, and I hope you are interested in what may be coming. More to follow soon.
Tom

WEDDING BILLS? HEY, IT'S ONLY MONEY!

We have a wonderful wedding coming up over the near horizon. It is the lovely Mary Pat who will be gliding down the aisle. It is hard to believe that in a month from today, little MP will be a Mrs. What a stunning bride she will be!
Our daily mail is full of response cards, most of them saying “yes”, with only a few regrets. And that is all well and good, since you write them out hoping people will attend. But anybody who has done this lately knows the drill. There is supposed to be something like a 20% expectancy of “no’s”, so maybe you “overbook” a little. You know, “Old Uncle Gerald and Aunt Zelda, they won’t come. They never show up, God love ‘em.”
So guess whose card showed up in the affirmative today? Boys and girls, we ain’t nowhere near that number with about a month to go.
No worries, though. I can stuff a ham sandwich in my tux coat, maybe throw a few more plates out. Jill likes celery sticks and dip, and Joanie, she can snatch a couple of chicken strips from the grandkids. I am reminded of the scene in the movie “Father of the Bride” where Steve Martin learns of the passing of an old business associate, and he yells “YES, two less!” to the horror of his family.
But really, in the grand scheme of things, it’s only money.
Speaking of which, the mail also yielded an envelope with a retirement projection I requested. I immediately began pounding the calculator, checking the numbers to see when this momentous occasion might occur. What with our investments… check that, the bequest from my parents, and Jill’s retirement account having taken a beating over the past year, this event of bidding adieu to the scholars of North County will, alas, need to be delayed. Looks like I’m showing up in khaki’s and button-down’s for a few years more.
But like I said, it’s only money.
And today, again courtesy of the friendly mailman (ours really is a nice guy), we got an annual report from an organization called Meds and Food for Kids. I think I may have mentioned them here before. It seems that this St. Louis-based foundation that produces a peanut butter-like nutritional product called Medika Mamba that saves over 4000 Haitian kids a year from starvation and malnutrition is launching a capital funds campaign. They have visions of replacing the current converted two-story house they now use to put together their life-saving concoction with a modern production facility.
And so amidst the wedding preparations, the fretting about post-work finances, and the very real fact that can you believe there are only 65 more shopping days left ‘til Christmas, it looks like a check will soon be in the mail to bring a smile to that young child with peanut butter on her chin.
Hey, you all know it as well as I… it’s only money.

ME NO TECHY... ME JUST SLOW

You could never accuse me of being on the cutting edge of technology. I was the last kid on the family block to have such now-commonplace gadgets as a garage door opener and a cordless phone. I play the old cassette tape recorder in the basement when I work out. And I still don’t know how to program the VCR. What’s that you say… there’s something called TIVO? Well, what will they think of next?
However, tech challenged as I am, I have recently become a member of the Facebook family. This social networking phenomenon started in 2006 boasts over 200 million users. I have run into people from long-past years, and even found out some things about the family before my wife, which is a real coup since she could have been a top agent for the CIA the way she gathers information. She might tell me something and I smugly say “Yeah, I knew that, saw it on Facebook,” to which she merely rolls her eyes and laughs softly at the idea of Grampa hob-knobbing in cyberspace with the young and restless of our clan. From my exhaustive research, which mainly consisted of talking with my daughters and my students, I have found out that there are many other avenues to spread the most inane facts of ones life to the universe. They carry names like MySpace and Bebo for the younger set, Linkedin for business purposes, and Skype for those into the visual method of e-talk. Then, there’s that old reliable, texting. Speaking of which, I don’t leave messages on anyone’s cell phone anymore, since they never checked them anyway. The return call consisted of this: “Hey, you called?” “Yeah, didn’t you get my message?”
To which the answer was always “no”, delivered in a somewhat exasperated tone. So I’ve joined the ranks of the Thumb Warriors, and the results are mixed. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think the fat little digit that faces in a different direction from its four mates was made for such a dexterous activity. Maybe I can invent a new device where good old Thumbkin functions as he was meant to and we can tap-tap those miniscule keys like the Good Lord intended when He invented index fingers and Blackberry’s in the first place!
As popular as these methods may be, there are some problems.
Texting while driving is like rolling down the street with your eyes closed. Once you put something into the air, or wherever it goes, it’s out there, baby, for all to see. And talk about addictive. With all due respect to those who partake in e-talk, is it really necessary to tell your network that “I just got home and boy am I tired.” So go to bed, already!
I have a theory. All these electrical impulses bouncing around in the stratosphere at all hours of day and night may be the real reason behind global warming.
Hey, maybe I should Tweet about it?
(SUBURBAN JOURNALS OF ST. LOUIS, MO SEPTEMBER, 2009)

EVERY NEW BEGINNING COMES FROM SOME OTHER BEGINNINGS END

Yellow seems to be the prevailing color these days, especially on the highways and byways of our fair community. Those large purveyors of our youth, the school buses, are signaling the start of yet another school year.
For some, kids and parents alike, it’s just the latest piece of the recurring puzzle. Shopping for shoes, a new backpack, maybe even a computer on tax-free weekend. A fond farewell to the lazier days of a summer well spent.
But for others, those entering into a new era, it can be a time of tears and trepidation.
Our little clan is feeling it at both ends of the school age spectrum. At the front side, the older grandkids are stepping out into the world of pencils and crayons with full force. The first two girls are big-shot first graders now, relative veterans in the game. The next, the first boy, is tackling full day kindergarten. It was a precious moment when Clara, one of the vets, called her younger cousin the day before school started.
“Don’t be nervous, Bubba. I was at first but then it’s okay. You get used to it.” A bit of love at the “littles” level.
Now at the other end of the school span, we have the story of the Joanster. Off to mid-Missouri we trekked last week, two carloads of clothes and bags and shoes and hampers in tow. As we packed up that morning, I stopped for a moment and looked around the neighborhood. Where did that little kid go who at two years old grabbed the string of ID cards and her big sisters swimsuit and toddled 2 blocks to the community pool? Who at four insisted she spoke Spanish, and jabbered incessantly to her Cabbage Patch doll with the broken piece in the noggin that she named Baby Shaky Head? The kid who rolled up and down the sidewalk for hours on her scooter with best friend Sammy, their pink oversized helmets jostling all the way?
How could it be that this beautiful birdie was about to fly?
Those nests we build seem to take a lifetime to finish. Then, in a day, in an hour, in an instant, they’re empty. For us, this marks the end of a 34-year era. For her, it’s the start of a grand adventure. Joanie’s mommy, who has used up her yearly allotment of Kleenex during these past few days, has a favorite quote for moments such as this. It comes from the song “Closing Time”, and it goes “Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end.”
For years, we had a poster that also helps sum up what this is all about. The script is simple, yet profound.
“There are two great things parents can give their children. One is roots. The other, wings.”
As we and countless others out there bid goodbye to our own, some for a day, some for longer, we pray that these roots have grown deep enough.
And that those wings may they have the strength to reach heights unimagined.

RECAREERING IS NEW BUZZ WORD FOR THE DAY

It seems that everywhere you turn lately, people are losing their jobs. Or their organization is downsizing, leaving them wondering if the next visit to the boss’s office will include a complimentary cardboard box for their personals. This economic downturn that we are experiencing is being felt in every facet of our lives, every profession, and every community, as well as every age group. I know of more than a few men and women who have been cut from the payrolls and are having considerable trouble securing a new job. Age discrimination is supposed to be illegal, but one friend of ours decided to color her hair from a lovely silver to up her chances in the job derby. And guess what… it worked.
My own profession of teaching is not immune to troubles. Generally considered a recession-proof field, education is seeing not only cuts in staff numbers but also an overall reduction in new hires. Some boards of education are being forced to face the problem of increased classroom numbers in order to meet their fixed budgets. They are simply not filling the open jobs that have come about through attrition.
There is a problem here. Some folks in the older ages who find themselves jobless have taken up “re-careering”. Originally termed for those who have retired and then still find a need to use their skills in other full-time pursuits, we are finding many who are looking to education as their ace in the hole. Our own state has a controversial program that is designed to speed up the certification process for those who currently have a degree. Those for this plan see it as an opportunity to bring experienced and mature professionals in the sciences and other areas into the classrooms. The opponents, some of whom are the teacher associations and some of whom are school districts themselves, cite the lack of methods training offered in the certification process.
I can see both sides as having valid points, but lean toward the former, especially if the new teacher can handle the rigors of 25+ not-always-so-eager learners for 7 hours a day, 186 days a year. Of course, what with the aforementioned cut backs in many districts, these folks may have difficulty finding that opening.
There is an emotional side to all of this, to be sure. Having to leave a place where you have enjoyed not only the work but also the people you see everyday is not easy. Then, the task of retooling the resume, seeking job leads, working the internet, networking and otherwise selling yourself all over again can take its toll on even the most optimistic job-seeker. Especially now, when much of what they are hearing is not good news. On the other hand, some have been able to use this time as a rebirth. They really didn’t like the job, or the people. This layoff might just be a blessing in disguise, giving them a good excuse to branch out into areas they have always wanted to try but feared to because of the security of their current position. But now that the rug has been pulled out from under them, they have the chance to take that road less traveled.
I guess the message here is one of hope. In spite of the times, there are opportunities.

(SUBURBAN JOURNALS, ST. LOUIS, MO JULY 29, 2009)