Grateful for Peace and Strength

    Yes, on a federal holiday when we celebrate and thank those that served us in uniform, we are grateful.

    The enemies of the United States tried to overcome us, but they have not.

    We celebrate and give thanks for our strength and peace.

    Victory over the fascists, communists, even those former slavers and colonists.

    We have been bad, yes, but not as bad as our opponents.

 How Close are you With Jesus?

    A Frenchman was just called as an Apostle of Jesus Christ this week, in November of 2025. Most of the world did not pay attention or make note of it. The Christian world, which is composed in biggest numbers by the Catholics headquartered in Rome, the Eastern Orthodox spread across eastern Europe into the Middle East, and the panoply of Protestants spread across the entire world. Of course there are other Christians, like Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and still others. Most do not recognize Gerard Causse as a special emissary and holy oracle of the Jesus of the past, present, and future. We shall see, and know for certain, some day.

    Muslims have special beliefs in Jesus of Nazareth; there are close to a billion and half of them on the earth. So, all told, as those that revere Him as a holy prophet and leader, that is at least 3.5 billion people who posit love, faith, and hope in Jesus the Messiah, the Anointed One, born over two thousand years ago.

    Some believe He was a fanatic or delusional, or simply an influential teacher, but had no extraordinary knowledge or powers.  Much less that He was a God. Some think that He was the enemy, which could make sense to some Jewish and other believers of God, or Allah, or Yahweh. Millions, upon millions, of people, innocent women, children, babies, men, and boys, have died, many in terrible and violent ways, in the name of Jesus. 

    There were those that thought they loved and worshipped Him, yet would torture and abuse and annihilate others in allegedly "doing His will". Not cool.

    While many of us, or most Christian believers, for that matter, think of Him and follow Him as the Prince of Peace, way too much violence and hate has been committed in His name. Despite His injunctions and peaceful mandates and counsel.

    We, the Christians, who like devote Catholics, pious Orthodox, Bible believing Evangelicals, active and temple going Latter-Day Saints, dogged and faithful Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists, and all others, are convicted that our way of the cross, or the path of following the Lord and Savior is right and holy, proper and correct: we can err greatly in how we execute His orders. Do good, not bad. Of course. Obvious, yes?

    Us Christians can be very wrong in how we mete out His values. Millions of variations of implementing His will for bad and good. Yet, most of us, I submit, do really good things in His name more than the negative ones. 

    This can be said of people of all beliefs, like those who are Hindu, or Buddhist, or agnostic, or secular humanistic or communist or atheist. We all try to do what is right. Right?

    Some of us believe in Jesus to the point where He takes all our sins, where in moments of great pardon or release we can let Him take our cares and sorrows. We find solace and relief in Him, in His supernatural powers that can cleanse us and empower us believers to move and grow and live in a more beautiful way.

    Can we be that close that He always heals us? Even for the fervent believers and followers of Jesus, this can be difficult.

    My mother, an ardent and close believer of the Lord all her life, in three Christian traditions, still suffered from bouts of serious depression, apparently not completely righted by the Masters of the Tempests. However, perhaps Christ saved and preserved her from worse?

    She is with Him now, we believe. In Heaven.

    Earth or beyond, we wonder how close we come to Him. I was thinking of making a scale from 0 to 100, one being the closest, while the other extreme being far from, even devilish. Sad and funny that some thinking they are doing His will can arrive at the most opposite.

    Anyway, I will post this now.

    Food for thought.

    And I will try to worship and celebrate Jesus my Lord today.

    God bless.

 The Best Blog Post Ever Written

    Sorry, my readers, this is probably not the one. But, we cannot have perfection, often, AMIRITE?

    Heh, heh. Oh, my humor. Pithy, or silly, or obscure. Or none of the above.

    Unlike the Poet, Pablo Neruda, I could not write the saddest nor the most perfect verses this night.

    This week I did have some profound thoughts and ideas, some blog posts or blurbs that might have been of value, of some merit, of some type of meaning or significance.

    Maybe.

    Maybe not.

    I had a range of feelings at work and at home, and everywhere in between this last week. Love, loss, worry, regret, hope, charity, tiredness. Some loneliness, some forlorn sentiments, whatever those are.

    Things are happening worldwide, and things locally.

    What else did I wish to say and express. The best blog post is yet to come.

    Good night.

    

 Make Life Precious, Keep People at a Premium

        It's hard to make everyone equal and the same. Because we are not.  In a capitalist world, we all have values that make us different.

    Even in a world without money, some people are stronger, some are faster, healthier, live longer. We are all different but we should all have infinite worth. Unfortunately, it is not the case.

    We know that some people in some neighborhoods, because of income or status, or even ethnic persuasion, or health, do not receive as much care or concern, and do not "count" as much as others. Whole countries are like this.

    Elected officials and celebrities generally have more wealth than others. They tend to more valued than others, of less notoriety or import, for many different reasons.

    Some people are smarter than others, many make more money and have more prestige, therefore they get better treatment than others.

    Why?

    Such is the world. Many would say men in general get more respect and attention than women and girls.

    Israelis over Palestinians. Light skinned over dark skinned.  Rich over poor. Protestants over Catholics. Hindus over Muslims.

    Democrats over Republicans. Well, maybe not that.

    Fast over slow.

    All of us should be worth it, no matter our characters. Well, merit is a thing.

    Good character deserves merit and aplomb. But more worth?

    Discuss.

 I Wish to Be the Only One for My Beloved

    Is this selfish? Is this covetous? Am I super jealous?

    Well, I want to be enough for her, that is for sure. That is not a bad desire. That requires me to more, and better. But I think it is possible only through God and His power and grace.

    Eternal companionship.

    What. A. Thing.

    Discuss.

    

Stop the Presses! Cheney Dies, We Reflect on Published Knowledge

    While family visits Meinz, or Mainz, or wherever the Guttenberg press was invented, in the heart of Germany, perhaps formerly Prussia in the times of the princes and feudalists developing their gears and letter blocks, and their ways of speaking and writing and then publishing, their Deutschish tongues and vowels and consonants. 

    My wife thinks she could learn to sprecken it if she was there for six months. Fiel gluch, meine fraulein! Who knows? We can never tell where we will end up. It would be painful for me to learn it. Not enough speakers, not far enough from my Germanic English native tongue.

    I speak Spanish, and then learned Portuguese, with Arabic over the years... French pops in there, also closer to my native understandings...

    So, certain people think that I write some stuff on everyone that dies. Okay, not true. Many people die that I never even know about! Hundreds and thousands have died in Afghanistan lately, from earthquakes. Then there are the drug runners on the open seas in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

    Oh, Hegseth and Trump, you make quite a team. Maybe Vance gets some love for these deaths too. Not as bad as the medically deprived in Africa by the US AID cuts, but rather constitutionally challenged acts of death hits against the boats.

    Dick Cheney died, age 84. He did a lot in our country, and a lot abroad, like what we did in Iraq. I am not as concerned as much about the lack of found Weapons of Mass Destruction as I was chagrined by the firing, dismissal of half a million Iraqi police and troops. No money, no bueno, Dick. Ay yai yai.

    Your daughter now has quite the legacy. She likely would not have rose to her status without you, who knows?

    84. You were rich and powerful; some thought it was all about lucre and might.

    Maybe? You were a patriot, but maybe an elitist.

    What else?

    My daughter published! So awesome. She wrote about a totem, of sorts, if I may, which I have seen going back through the years, the Venus figurine, with over-emphasized body parts, which she wrote as conjecture that perhaps that is the perspective of the female looking at her own body. Maybe so. But, as a dude, I can see why male artists might hyperbolize those body parts, too.

    Publishing and research makes me search my memories, and leads me to think of the papers that I wrote growing up, many of which had their bibliographies and works cited, based on books, magazines, articles and essays that we would find in the good old days before the Internet. We could type our papers, or print them on the old noisy printers that we had in the days of the perforated sides. I kept a few of them, which may be among my boxes in the attic of my house, well into the 21st century.

    I have a hard time throwing those works away. Many have the comments of the teachers who graded them. Mr. Courtney gave me wonderful superlatives, like complimenting me on subjects of which I reported that he "had never heard of", or "knew little of". Wow!

    To teach a teacher! 

    What is better?

    To teach ourselves. To reach the masses. To strive for education, enlightenment, stretch the mind and the soul.

    To learn, to share, to celebrate, commemorate, the living and the dead.

    Rest in peace, former Vice President Richard Cheney, master puppet manipulator, uber patriot, or whatever people will think of you. Iraq is doing okay in 2025, no?

    The bio weapons that Saddam gassed Kurds with in Halabja perhaps moved to Syria (when our troops occupied the Land of the Two Rivers) where Bashar Al-Assad would later gas his victimized minorities.

   Good riddance, despotic and cruel beyond words Arab strong men, and torturers!

    Cheney was better than you, in the end; but look where he came from.

    The U.S. has more freedom and power, and perhaps it is easier to be a fairer power broker here than in the Middle East.

    Publish that.

    Cite that.

    

 Memories, Nostalgia, Canciones, Family

    My wife and son have been away about four days, but it feels like five or six! Yeah, get ready for empty nester time! Do we need grandchildren to stay together as a couple? Perhaps it requires a lot more than that... I know I got some work to do. I will keep at it.

    Tonight it is dark very early, and I am with the mostly empty house, looking for my daughter at her friend's. We got together, and we will go out to Chinese food. Maybe I have not been to that restaurant before? We shall see.

    It made me think of when I was 14 I would go out during the week, usually with my mom, and we could eat Chinese food at Peach Garden, or maybe Lung Cheung, or House of Hunan... Not far from downtown, close to where she was living.

    Some sort of lonely times, before she met her second husband. My dad was single longer, too. Man, divorce was hard. I so do not like it. A bit like death, in my opinion. But, my step-parents made things much better. It became great, really. No more complaints from me. I got lucky, and so did they.

    God is good.

    Tonight I saw Christmas lights through my kitchen window, so a song in Spanish came to my brain, and then lungs and heart. 

    Veo luces! Navidenhas! Por las ventanas, de mi casa!

    I see luces, de Navidad, through the windows, de mi casa.

    'Tis the season, to be nostalgic and celebrate, yes?

    Okay, if you insist.

    Veteran's Day, in eight more days.

    Enjoy.

Coming Up Short, Falling Back on Jesus

 I doubled this one, I guess a double tap.

    I need Jesus my Savior that much, I think.

    Yep, I need Him every hour.

 Could this be the Last Baseball Post of the Year? Not likely...

    I wrote down on paper what I thought the title would be:

    "Canada Got a Bit Darker: Extra Innings" did the trick.

    Admittedly, not all of Canada and its peoples root for or invest their hopes in the Toronto Blue Jays. But, it seems like the country was ready to welcome back their home team champions from the early 1990s. The Joe Carter days. It has been a while.

    The Blue Jays had this series wrapped up, a number of times.

    But the scrappy, artful Dodgers, came up big in the late innings, and then extra innings, and the Canadian hopes were dashed.

    Sorry, Canada. I like you. I mean, maybe I love you. Canada has given me few reasons not to like you. You have been good to me.

    I happen to be a niner, which means I have been to nine of the ten provinces of this great land. I have enjoyed them all. Since I was child in the 1970s, even very small, I have loved seeing Quebec and the Maritime provinces. I have taken my own family to parts as well. 

    The poutine and the A and W root beers, the croissants and baguettes, the lobster and the... other things. Fun times from Atlantic to Pacific. Even Prince Edward Island. Land of Anne of Green Gables, a bit magic to us. 

    More recently we saw the magic, somewhat, of the plains provinces, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. With a little bit of British Colombia. 

    Sorry, Canada and Maple Leaf fans! Perhaps this winter got a bit darker and colder with this so close win, snatched by the boys of L.A.

    There is hockey, though.

    Enjoy the cold months, see you next year.

    

 Coming Up Short, Falling Back on Jesus

    Many of us have reasons to doubt ourselves.

    We can seem like small ants in forgotten anthills, meandering our ways around holes where we can bumble and slip and fall. We fall, smudge ourselves on weird nectars or at times corrosive batter acids or other industrial wastes. 

    I exaggerate, I slew hyperbole. 

    Some say that Jesus of Nazareth was not who He says that He is. I believe in Him. I trust in His goodness and His redeeming power. 

    I need Him. Many think He is not a God, or not the Son of God, that He Himself was deceived. A friend told me so much recently via a private message.

    We shall see.

    Does the Church headquarters of Salt Lake City delude itself, as some accuse Jesus of doing two thousand years ago?

    But He is about me, and I am about Him. He is perfect, I am far from it. I fail and I stumble; I feel small sometimes like a little insect, of small importance or value. But He commands me that I must be more. I must love myself, and others, and forgive all.

    I must take His holy supper, I cleanse myself and recharge. With millions, perhaps billions, of others.

    I am deluded. I trust and pray that I am not.

    Why should I doubt? Nothing else seems as sure, while so many argue that there is no sufficient evidence.

    I believe Paul, of old. The Bible is true. The Book of Mormon, especially to my referred to source, says even more of the Messiahship of Jesus.

    He is my Savior. He is to millions. Billions.

    But He has me.

    Even when I perpetually fail in so many ways, by sins and errors, He saves and even exalts me.

    

    I love Him, as He loved me first. And last.

    The Alpha and Omega.

 Distance from Family, Distance from Self

    Most of us want intimacy, and to connect. When we are pushed away, when we feel isolated, alone, not connected or even not understood or accepted, we suffer.

    Yes? But many of us want to be isolated and alone, or eschew the very people or things that wish to commune with us!

    Ah, the paradoxes that we encounter and face.

    I wanted to talk to mom a few minutes ago. But, however, we all know that she has been gone for more than eleven years. My wife attended a memorial for the dead in a cemetery yesterday. All Saints Day. A Catholic tradition? A universal urge and instinct? Commune and connect to the past and the dead.

    These people reached out to their parents, their ancestors.

    We dream and we talk, we sing, and we dance.

    Like at the big football game yesterday. Lots of songs, quite a bit of dancing.

    Noises, sounds, cheers and jeers.

    Yells and chants, costumes and colors.

    She said she O.D.s on music. We all have our drugs.

    I met folks who attended Indiana University, or who are from the state. My native Hoosier place. Places.

    Of course, my parents went there because of Sierra Leone, and Kennedy, and Nixon sinking but before that saving himself with television.

    Ahh, the developments of Philo Farnsworth and all the creators and innovators, bringing us the technology and modern day advancements of where we are today and where we will go tomorrow.

    Shakespeare saw the future, but he saw the whole thing.

    Maybe.

    How much do we see?

    Distance from others, distance from ourselves. Closeness and proximity, how we come close to God or the sublime. Peace and tranquility, prosperity and hope.

    A good, even keel. Hemingway sought it all and many different ways.

    

    Like all other artists and livers.

    Count me, and you, among them.

    Amen.

 Ach, Life, and all those Angsts!

    Where are we now? Wo ist meine liebe? 

    Auf Deutcschland, ich weis. I think. I tink.

    We make fun of stereotypes, be they Germans, or French, or Ethiopians, or Filipinos, or 

    Americans.

    Nous sommes Americaines, say the Chilean rock group Los Prisioneros.

    How the South American rockers characterize how they see themselves,

    much in comparison to everyone else.

    Existential gripes--angst, as I said up above.

    I tried the m dash. Artificial Intelligence, is the M dash, says a co-worker.

    History has led us here, intrapersonal and interpersonal.

    Contextual, material, and factual, and sometimes the irrational enters as well.

    The fictional, the untrue even.

    Style and tastes, predilections and drives. Or styles, plural.

    Marx and Freud, and less known Germans and theorists and philosophers, and "thinkers" and "influencers" (at least academically), who create environments where we operate and behave and live.

    And eventually die.

    The whole circle of life, Walt Disney.

    It's the circle of life, Elton John.

    I have gone into my consciousness stream,

    where our dreams have been and go.

    The music and the lyrics and the drugs and the overdoses that we confront, daily or hourly or week by week, year by year.

    How are we doing?

    How are you?

    How many things and emotions do you sublimate. Repress? Hold down. Keep hidden.

    What do we hide? What do we wish to say and do?

    Where are we today? Emotionally. Psychologically. Mentally, spiritually. Physically!

    Where are you now? Where have you been?

    Can we, should we, do we have the capacity or band-width, to answer all these questions?

    No, we must prioritize. Create hierarchies of care.

    Mazlo and needs.

    Do what we can, do what we want.

    Sure. Easy for me to say. East to write. Easy to blog.

    There, I have said it. Okay, I said a few things.

    There is always more. And that is, hopefully, a beautiful thing that we call life.

    God, us, and all the rest.

    Happy Sabbath. Wish you were here. (To quote Floyd).

    But, really, I am glad and appreciative that I am here and you are there.

    Ich liebe dich. 

    Ich liebe Got. God? Auf Deutsch, it is the Father in Heaven like in most other places.

    We have and make room for Buddha the Enlightened One, too.

    Sure. All good.

    Bavaria and our bloodlines.

    We are all connected.

    Angsts and calms.

    All of them.

    Cheus.

 I Need the Lord

    Without the Lord,

    I am lost

    Without His grace

    I lose my way

    All me alone

    I cannot find

    My peace

    I need Him

    I crave others

    His creatures

    His children

    My loves

++++++

    Break: I had a tune to this melody. I shared it with family. But perhaps I will not retrieve it.

    I had more words and tunes in my head, too.

    But yet, I need the Lord.

 Poetic Stream, from October 30 afternoon, 2025

    I am not sure if this comes a frenzied mind, or a frenzied world, or a bit of both. Maybe it is no frenzy.

    Poetry from the end of October, 2025.

    Japanese manga

    See it over 500 hours

    Anime, live film version

    Mangaku, they create worlds

    Stories, characters

    A Nippon guy, a nihongo writer

    Creator of Robbie the Robot

    Later, Lost in Space

    --Artistic robot maker 

    When Asimov was young

    Clarke and Heinlen, too

    

    I brought up haiku

    My wife brought up haiku

    I love her

    That is life

    My life

    She visited Japan, now Germany

    The axis powers

    The allies of today

    We pivot to Russia

    China, even extremist 

    Iran or Muslim jihadis

    Osama fought the Soviets

    Highly, or densely

    Composed of Ukrainians

    A Georgian led 

    the U.S.S.R., killing

    his own peoples

    What does Soviet mean?

    Not perestroika,

    Clearly not glasnost

    More like spetznatz

    or however, I would wager

    Da. Ja. Oui. Hai. 

    Sher sher shur.

    This is our world

    in the present

    Money and drugs galore

    Do you take either?

    I avoid most.

    

 Enough about Baseball! How about the NBA?

    We are a couple weeks, or less, into this new season. Does anybody care? It is just a leather ball, and a wooden court, with 10 foot metal rims

    The Oklahoma Thunder, the best regular season team, got by my Indiana Pacers last June. The Pacer were a big surprise. Cleveland was the first victim, and then the local Indianapolis guys kept going.

    This year is very wide open. The Pacers lost Miles Turner, so maybe they are not going to be as good.

    Houston is looking mean, San Antonio is better, Cooper Flagg is in Dallas. Just Texas alone may do it.

    But Oklahoma is the defending champion, and you got Denver and the LA Lakers, both former champs, too.  Utah is better... Maybe Portland, too? The West is tough.

    In the East, the Celtics are always able, aforementioned Cleveland is real, the Knicks are favored, and the Bucks could be their old selves. Who else? Philadelphia. They may be legit. Maxey scores like a maniac, and they have new blood, added depth. Oh, and the Timberwolves. They are Western Conference, but they went far last year. And Memphis Grizzlies might be good.

    The Miami Heat? The Chicago Bulls?

    Hmmmm.... Hmmmmm....

    Should be a fascinating and fun year, I say.

    Only the best teams and athletes with a leather spheroid. Let's make it till June, a noble goal.

    Thus the season is upon us.

 My Family Dislikes Mellencamp because of Me

    I was always commenting that I attended school with his daughter, which I think caused an inoculation against a more objective of his merits and styles as an artist. Now granted, he is not Billy Joel (who is?), or Elton John, or Phil Collins, or James Taylor, and on and on.

    But, some of his music is iconically good, yes? I think so. Despite having some lean years in my liking, as well, I enjoy hearing a John Cougar Mellencamp song, which can be because of nostalgia due to my Hoosier roots, my Bloomington background, my presence closer to his family.

    He is no world killer, Perry Cuomo, Elvis Presley, James Brown, Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond.

    But, he is one of the best that Indiana has.

    Maybe when this Hoosier is gone, his music may sound a little better to them.

    Maybe not.

 Poets and Emotions

    The first poems were being made long before the languages that we know today existed. They were songs, or chants, or some kind of phrases that likely meant things.

    Hold on! Who is getting their masters in the history of psychology? Not me! I would say it my progeny.

    I read Anna Karenina in 2021. My daughter read War and Peace in 2012 and 2013. There were no happy characters, she tells me.

    Oh, the emotions of reality and fiction.

    Poetry sometimes does the trick.

    And we blog it, and blog on.

    HATE

    Do we hate? 

    Surely we do.

    But those flames will burn us up with them.

    We must learn to quell the heat and the fires...

    And become peaceful and resigned,

    Poised, and strong.

    Not really stoic, but above the rancor.

   

 Germany and Us: Deutschland

    We all live in our respective lands, but whether we live in Europe, the United States, China, or any other part of the earth, we all have a relationship with Germany. Some of us are more connected than others. Germany and its influences of money, ideas, and culture, percolate or saturate all of us across the globe. 

    What is your connection or influences leading to and from this place, people, culture, economy? How are you linked to this land, the language, the arts and ideas? Is it a philosopher, or a scientist. We all mutually benefit from each others' innovations and ideas. Language has a big place, too.

    In the Midwest, or other parts of the United States, many of us say gesundheit when people sneeze. There are those that teach German, those who studied it, those that possibly came from there, like Hein Tlustek who lived 30 minutes south in rural Bedford, Indiana, or Robert's mother Mrs. Calder from East Germany. In Chile I went to visit a German colony that sold very cheap wine and had floral gardens, and a woman of German origin who seemed rather standoffish to me. 

    Austria and Switzerland are German-speaking countries, and are not Germany, but the cultures cross over and overlap with Germany, the motherland, which in many ways is the engine and heart of the western world of Europe. They are industrial, economically dynamic, moving and shaking; their history with arts and ideas and theories are powerful and far reaching.

    Hegel, Heidegger, Jung, Freud, and on, including musicians and writers, theoreticians and planners, like Marx and Engels. We have had German political and military leaders, most of us have heard of the most notorious, which we do not have to mention here...

    But the reverberations of the those times and people still affect us today. Modern day Israel and the Arab issues, particularly but not only the Palestinians, as we talk of Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, over to Iran (not Arabs), and on to Iraq and Turkey, and us, the West, all of us dealing with modern political realities and economic trends and markets.

    My mother has her mother from southern Germany, from Swabia of Bavaria, or Schwabe of Bayern. I have potentially a quarter blood of German heritage. My wife, too.

    What do have to do with Germany? 

    You tell me.

    Some of us worked with German engineers, or other German professionals. Others have seen films, or heard music, or read novels or been impacted by other German thinkers over the ages. There was a German Pope, Joseph Ratzinger. Germany has a place in sports, like football (soccer), and other world events. There is the food, the historical and current music influences.

    How much of what we are is German? I would say it is disproportionately a part of who we are today in 2025. Millions of immigrants have channeled through Germany and speak it. They are partners in the international crime and military scenes of global intelligence and might. 

    Are they growing enough in native population? Do the foreign immigrants enculturate enough to carry on German traditions and knowledge, foremost being the language itself?

    I think that time will prove the German people, and its influence, will continue to be formidable. Austria and Swiss speakers may grown closer to its northern bigger, neighbor, perhaps. Or that might prove immaterial. Regardless. Germany is a part of who we are.

    Danke schoen, for what you are, Deutschland.

    Aufwiedersain.