Telephoning
Why do we feel the need to answer the telephone? After all, it is an intrusion on whatever it is we are doing when it rings. We feel obligated to answer it and wonder who it was if we miss the call. We quickly consult the called ID and even call back if we do not recognize the number. It is a kind of paranoia, in a way.
I do not feel that way. The telephone is intended to be a convenience, not a necessity. I want to use it when I want to use it, not when somebody else wants me to. I can easily let it go. But having said that, I always look if I am near the phone -- and when is it I am not near one of the three phones or two cell phones in the house! -- to learn who it is who is trying to reach me. I always look when my wife is away; she always calls me and I am glad to have her calls, but for the rest, they can usually wait I figure.
Cell phones have changed the way we behave, too. I hear people talking as they walk down the street, sit in restaurants, shop in stores, or are in waiting rooms. My students have them in class and I always ask for them to be shut off. Once in a while they are not. There are no phone booths any more; telephone conversations are out in the open, and are annoying when overheard. It is hard not to listen in.
My wife and I have a policy of not answering if we do not recognize the number, unless we are expecting a call from some store or supplier. That used to bother her, but now it does not. It makes for a much more peaceful evening or afternoon at home, to be sure. Napoleon, I believe it was, used to tell his secretary not to open a letter for six weeks. If it is important, they will write back. I think the same principle applies to phone calls. If it is really important the caller will find a way to reach us.
So we like Caller ID, but we dislike call waiting. How rude it is to have to put somebody on hold so you can take another call! I always disregard the beep unless I am absolutely sure it is necessary to answer it.
So I use the phone sparingly; my wife calls the family regularly and talks usually a long time. I get all the news from her. If that is using her, then so be it. She needs that communication; I am happy to read about it on E-Mail or perhaps, if I am lucky, a regular letter delivered by the postpeople.
Communication is essential, of course, and I would not be without a telephone, or a mailbox, or even a cell phone, but sparingly used is my motto, and I urge it on others. And what gets me really angry is the use of a cell phone while driving, but that is another message for another time!
Wayne's Words for August 24, 2006
Weather and Its Effects
It is one of those days that James Russell described as one in June: "Then if ever come perfect days." This is as near to perfect weather-wise as one can ask for. At least in this part of the world.
Weather affects the way we think and act, and dress and feel. I like it hotter rather than colder and I do not mind if it goes over ninety degrees. But today is in the high seventies, low eighties and low humidity. Perfect for any kind of outdoor activity and easy on the air conditioning, too!
It makes for safer driving, except I just heard a report that two policemen on bicycles were hit by a truck on Indiana 83 while in a charity bicycle ride. I wonder what kind of carelessness caused this. Insurance companies look at weather reports for the accidents they investigate. It is a huge factor, to be sure.
As I look out the window I see the leaves perfectly still, here at nearly four o'clock in the afternoon. A few birds flit around and there are some lazy clouds, but not much is happening. That is a far cry from the tornado, hail, rain, wind, etc., that we experienced many times in the spring this year. The roofers are still at work repairing damage from those storms.
We watched Spike Lee's documentary on Katrina last night and just cannot believe the devastation that storm inflicted, coupled, of course, by the ineptness of the relief efforts, if they existed at all. So many people suffered needlessly, or over much. How can this be tolerated in a country that can get food parcels to war-torn countries, but none to folks on rooftops in New Orleans? Politics plays strange games.
So it is a perfect day, except for the television news that I am avoiding at this time of day. We will turn it on later and sigh at the imperfections of people as they continue their power grabs, greed and indulgences. Let me enjoy my innocence and simplicity as I revel in the warmth and comfort of a day like this!
Wayne's Words for August 22, 2006
E-Mail and Newer Technology in My Life
My brother turned 76 yesterday and we exchanged communications via E-Mail. I believe E-Mail is here to stay, of course, and use it frequently. Some of my friends insist that it is not acceptable to send birthday greetings, etc., as the primary means of acknowledging such anniversaries, but I find that it works wonders. No one to whom I have sent such has objected and all have responded appreciatively.
It takes a long time for new technology to get accepted in the popular culture, but E-Mail seems to making it more rapidly than others. I think it is replacing faxes and telepone calls as the fastest, most reliable means of getting a message through. But there is the security issue, the interception possibilities, and all the other horror stories we hear of how it is unsafe. I have not found it so, but found it surprisingly usable.
I haven't mastered the art of it yet, but I have learned to attach things, pictures, letters, web-pages, etc., and wonder if there is anything else I need to learn. My students are quite skilled at all this technology stuff and do not object at all to having syllabi, assignments, etc., online. I even administer examinations and quizzes online. It is great, and I was skeptical at first.
I wish we had such technology when I was writing my dissertaton at Columbia University some thirty years ago. It was just coming in and I tried to learn it in my final semester there, but I was too skeptical, I suppose. It was fun, but I recognized that it would take me longer to catch on than I had time in that semester, so I graduated by typing the whole thing out on an electric IBM. What fun!
So here I am blogging now! Who would have thought it then? I haven't shared this blogging idea with any of my family yet, but I shall now that I trust the system. I can't imagine their being very interested in it, but my brother will read it a little, I would suspect. Some of them share my views and some see things differently. Perhaps that is my reluctance, not wanting to upset them more than they already are about my nonconventional views on things. We shall see.
Wayne's Words for August 21, 2006.
Music Education
Music is important in my life, as I suppose, and should hope, is in many, if not most, people's lives. The problem, of course, is what kind of music. I am stuck in the classical/baroque period and choose that almost always. My wife is a fine pianist and had been into my kind of music for many years, but lately has begun playing show tunes regularity and with increasing skill. So our tastes may change through the years it seems.
Why is music so important? I once attended a seminar of some kind at which we were asked to name what we would do if we had just three weeks left to live. I found myself saying I would listen to music. I think I would give the same answer today. My wife, however, cannot listen to music casually. She actually has to listen to it, to analyze it, study it, dissect it, or whatever musicians do when they listen to music. I just let it play. She calls mine background music and does not relish it. She want to concentrate on the music and does nothing else while she does that.
I see my college students driving their cars with their music playing. I do not think they are consciously listening to it, but they are responding to it, by beating the time with their heads, hands or feet. When you watch a children's program on television, they are always jumping around to the music (witness Barney). I see this as a threat to music education, and do not like it. Music causes us to react to it in some way. My way, I guess, is to let it drift into my nerves and soothe them. My wife's way is to let it drift into our mind and stimulate it. The students' way is to let it drift into their muscles and activate them.
I fear that the popular culture has worked its way into church music as well, and lowering standards there. The craze for praise songs eliminates the rich heritage we have from hymns, anthems, cantatas, oratorios, masses, et al. Church people do not read music and do not sing as well as they once did, I believe. Fewer of them play instruments, particularly piano, and not many accompany singing well. It will have a lasting effect on theology, to be sure!
Music does things to us. I do not understand school boards that cut the music budget when they have a money crunch. Music students do better in all academic fields than others. It teaches math, grammar, reading, thinking, discipline, philosophy, and almost every other subject. I do wish the schools and music teachers would spend less time on the popular culture and more on the classics, but that is clearly a losing battle what with all the show choirs being developed. Performance seems to be the emphasis rather than the appreciation. I think we should teach music in order to make us better, more noble, people, not to make us television stars.
Wayne's Words for August 20, 2006.
Economics and Education
Well, I've been away from blogging for a few days and now I am back, ready to create some more transthoughts. School has now begun for most of the grandchildren and we are in the transportation business. I never realized what a big business education is -- busses that don't take the children from home to school with the convenience families require; politics gerrymandering school zones; lawmakers enacting uninformed policies; overppaid administrators who foul things up and underpaid teachers; etc. etc.
I cannot justify underpaying teachers, no matter what the taxes might be. If the public can afford to produce an industry like professional sports and money can be found to pay those outrageous salaries, why can it not be found to pay teachers a higher salary? There is more value, I think, to learning than spectating sportmen. Politicians, too, are overpaid for their worth, i believe, espcially when you hear of lobbyists and payoffs and the like. Economics is a funny world. The rich do indeed get richer and always at the expense of the poor.
I drive our granddaughter to and from school every day, about fifteen miles round trip twice. $3.00 a gallon for gas, plus the real estate taxes our children pay. Who gets all that money? The oil companies are reporting record profits and we are reporting hard times! It is just not fair! Somehow, someday, someone will come up with an answer that will rid this world of this inequity.
So they think they captured and arrested the slayer of little Jon Benet Ramsey! He is in Thailand teaching school. Where did he get the money to travel like that, or to enjoy the child pornography he is alleged to view.? People seem to get money for things they want, even if they don't have it for things they need!
Education is supposed to make us better citizens, and here is a teacher who is under arrest. Here are schools that have to raise taxes to support their administration, buildings, staff, supplies and athletic teams. Was it Plato who wrote, "All you need to have a school is a teacher on one end of a log and a pupil on the other." We have a long way to go to get back to that simple idea. Who will lead the way?
Wayne's words for August 17, 2006.
Negotiate to Find Peace
One should talk to one's enemies. President Bush should talk to Syria, Iran, North Korea, and whoever else proffers themselves as an enemy to the state. Negtiation is always preferable to warfare, I would think.
Military might hardly ever settles anything. It creates more hatred, enmity and bad feelings and makes matters worse. Negotiation is preferable; it allows for compromise, concession, reduction of pride, and agreement to live together. Those goals seem more desirable than the destruction of property and people.
The interesting question among others is why do we have enemies to begin with? Why does anyone feel that we are a threat or that we are bad guys? Wht is it in human nature that causes some people to hate others? Why can't we live together in peace? Huge questions these, with answers difficult to find. Indianapolis has had thirteen murders in the past week. What provokes one to murder? I have had many confrontations that have angered me, upset me, or otherwise made me feel abused, but none has ever suggested to me that I should murder, kill, the perpetrator of those actions. Murder and warfare are in the same camp. They both arise out of irrational attitudes that need to be restrained somehow. Talking through a disagreement is always better than fisticuffs or killing.
So here we are with our President refusing to talk to Syria, let alone Iran. And the killing goes on. Maybe the talking will lead to nothing, but at least the effort was there, the sensitivity that this killing business is out of line. It would be a step in the right direction to have negotiations with the party you think is your enemy. You might even find some common ground, some procedures you can both subscribe to. Wouldn't that be better than what is happening now? Or is oil so important that we need to blast away to prove how strong we are? War is mainly over economic power in any case. Who controls what resources? That is the issue. We want land, we want oil, we want power, we want control. If one is in control, then one has to be on guard, and that need -- to control -- is dangerous. The more one has, the more protection is required. It is a vicious cycle.
So negotiate, don't bomb. I'm not sure the Sixties slogan is appropriate here -- make love, not war -- but make anything practically other than war, and you will find that we can all be together on this planet and make it a peaceful world to inhabit.
Wayne's Words for August 8, 2006
Birthday Celebrations
Henry Thoreau did not write much about birthdays, even his own. One year he mentioned comings and goings on the 12th of July, his birthday, but no mention at all of the day's significance. Birthdays abound in my family in August. And we celebrate them all. I recall my father whose birthday was in August remarking that there are no holidays in August, so it was good to have a birthday to give the month some reason to celebrate something.
Celebrations are interesting, and different families, different institutions, different people, celebrate in different ways. I personally do not like the way athletes celebrate their achievements by pointing to the skies, or bumping chests, or slapping one another. I do not like it when stores celebrate holidays by having sales. I am not crazy about the way Christmas dominates the world for more than a month; in fact, I saw Christmas items on sale in a store just the other day! What do sales have to do with Washington's birthday?
I am not, however, a prude or a Puritan. I like a good time like everyone else, but I like it my own way. I do not like to have to celebrate out of obligaton, but out of spontaneous joy. I do not like forced parties, retirements, promotions, and the like. Nor do I like seeing bumper stickers praising a child for being on the honor roll. I prefer to celebrate in private with my intimates, and not be involved in group experiences. It is easy to find oneself acting silly at a celebration, saying things one wouldn't in a more rational moment say. I prefer the prepared speech to those off-the-cuff remarks one makes because asked to on the spur of the moment.
We have a son, a daughter-in-law (plus an ex-daughter-in-law), a brother, two grandchildren, a wedding anniversary, and, it used to be a father, all coming up in August for some kind of recognition. Is longetivity itself something to be celebrated? I suppose so, but how? Every family has its own traditions on how to deal with all this, and every time there is a marriage, or a birth, or a graduation, or something else, the issue arises: what to do? It is not how much to spend or where to go, but whether the celebration is worthy of what kind of observation. That is not always an easy decision, nor even is it easy to determine who makes the decision.
So celebrate your life however you will and must. Celebrate the life of those around you, and make life itself the winner!
Wayne's words for August 7, 2006
Health and Healthcare
Health seems to be occupying my thoughts this morning. I sit here with a call to jury duty ,and a doctor's note explaining why I should not honor the call. I have prostate cancer, diabetes, and something called neuropathy. It sounds like I should be dead or dying at least, but I get around and accomplish my daily tasks fairly well. I tire easily and want to sleep a great deal.
Health is a blessing, of course, and it can be maintained for the most part by sensible living habits. Many people seem to live a healthy life while others who practice the same or similar lifestyles do not, so sensible living habits is no guarantee. I have lived without major health problems most of my life. It is only in the last two years that I have been seeing a doctor and the medications have kept me going.
My wife has had heart problems for a long time. She, and her two sisters, have similar problems, and her father died of a heart attack some twenty years ago. She and I have pretty much the same lifestyle. What causes illness? Is it carelessness, not attending to bodily needs, or is it pure random acts of violence perpetrated by germs, viruses, and the like? Is it genetic? Is it an accident of birth? I suppose it would be good to have the answers to these questions, and in some cases, of course, it is obvious why a person is ailing. We keep hearing about the importance of research, while at the same time being bombarded on television with pharmeutical ads on every possible disease.
The major monetary concern is money for health care (after warfare perhaps!). Pills, capsules, potions, treatments of all sorts, continue to cost more and more dollars. It is clearly a major part of our budget even with Medicare D. As a child I heard the discussions on socialized medicine and thought it something quite unAmerican. Now I believe every person is entitled to feel well if it is medically possible. Why should the rich be entitled to pills the poor can't afford? It is a nagging question politically and medically, not to mention economically. Food and medicine, housing and transportation should all be available to everyone and government should concentrate on making that possible, and quit this warmongering and building of bombs and missiles. When a person is given life, that person should be entitled to maintain that life with as much ease as is humanly and scientificlly possible. And that is the way I feel about healthcare.
Wayne's Words for August 4, 2006
Weather Incidentally
Everyone talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it. So goes the common saying. The weather has been very much in the news lately what with record breaking heat waves from coast to coast. The heat wave broke last night with a vengeance, disrupting flight schedules in a vicious way. Chicago was particularly hard hit.
But the heat has taken its toll in St. Louis, California, New York and almost everywhere else in the country. A heat wave is an inconvenient truth, to borrow a phrase from Al Gore. I find myself in air conditioned places almost 95% of the time, so far, as I ride in an automobile, shop in a store, rest in my living room, or go to the classroom. I don't wear shorts and I almost always wear long sleeves.
The same holds true in winter. I hardly ever find myself wearing overcoats, hats, scarves, boots, etc., because I have heat wherever I happen to be. It is amazing to me, then, that people are so concerned about the weather. We have done something about it with our modern heating and cooling systems. The weather is almost incidental to what I have to do.
I watch the construction workers perspiring in this dreadful heat, and I rejoice that I do not have to be out there. I hear people mowing the lawn, and I rejoice that I do not have to do that any longer. I see pictures on television and in the newspapers of those who do have to cope with the heat, and I rejoice that I am not so affected. And then I think that today my power could go out, my car air conditioner may fail, and things could change drastically in a moment.
So I am not immune even in this comfortable existence that is mine. The paper tells this morning of a singer who discovered she had breast cancer despite her disciplined life. Bad things to happen to good people and there is little protection or insurance against them. This kind of thinking is what helps some cope with death; they observe that death is part of life and that's that. I suppose that is so.
In the meantime, the hot weather is abating today and that should change the headlines to something else. Did anybody do anything about it, or do something to cause the change? I doubt it, and so the week continues.
Wayne's Words for August 3, 2006.
