-=> Ardith Hinton wrote to James Bradley <=-

 JB>  there's an odd movement against Darwin's theories to this
 JB>  day, which is likely stronger than Freud's opposition,

 AH>           Both sex & religion can be highly controversial topics...

I just saw a post from Dallas, so I better sit on my hands.  

[...]
 AH> opposing theories....  ;-)

INDEED!!! 


 AH>           Sometimes it takes awhile for people to accept
 AH> new ideas.  I've heard that many composers of music which
 AH> is revered nowadays starved in a garret when they tried to
 AH> make a living from their craft during their own
 AH> lifetime....  :-)

"Great" orchestral works in the day, were intended to be as
disposable as last
weeks news. If the latest work wasn't "greater" than last weeks,
the composer
was considered a has-been.

[...]
 JB>  been to a gallows?  Well... The ones meant for criminals.


 AH>           Four or five hundred years ago, it was popular
 AH> entertainment.  Now we can watch real (or imaginary)
 AH> killings on TV if that's what we want to do.  :-)

Being a lover; not a fighter.... *8-]


 AH>           I laughed at myself when I forgot to bring the fever
 AH> thermometer on a camping trip & soon realized we didn't need it.  Maybe
 AH> that wouldn't sound very amusing to folks who haven't been
 AH> there.  But after having to monitor a child's vital signs
 AH> constantly for over two years, and after being told this
 AH> same child would no longer be with us if we hadn't aborted
 AH> another camping trip to get her to the nearest emergency
 AH> ward ASAP, then verifying upon arrival that the family next
 AH> to us had (as I suspected they would) brought a
 AH> thermometer....

I guess you could have "McGivered" something out of a plastic straw and
whiskey, but a hand on the forehead might have been an accurate-enough
indication to pack up the tent, or leave it in the care of someone you trusted.
Hind-sight would have you ask for a thermometer from others, but for us mere
mortals we just do the best with what information is "at hand".


 AH>           Others kept asking when Nora would be officially
 AH> cured.  There are at least three different ways of
 AH> calculating the date, however, so I was unable to
 AH> facilitate the closure they wanted.  Closure came for me
 AH> when I recognized what my subconscious mind was saying...
 AH> things are back to normal, whatever that is.

"I hope you have a speedy recovery." How do you breach that with,
"Nineteen-years and counting..."? No, it's not a sliver that will
work its way
out, and unless the person with the well wishes has something comparable in
their life, we have to accept their well wishes with the intent they were
delivered. Salt in a wound, or teaspoon of sugar to make the medicine go
down????

 AH>           I think it's healthy to be able to laugh at oneself.  But as
 AH> you said earlier, "If you have to explain a joke...."   One of
 AH> the most difficult things to deal with, for me at least,
 AH> was having friends say I was "too serious" while I had the
 AH> audience virtually rolling in the aisles at oncology parent
 AH> meetings. Same wisecracks, same person making them,
 AH> different life experiences... (sigh).

Who better, than a person who is mired in stink to explain the smell? If
someone thinks you could better deal with your situation(s), maybe they have
never experienced the bouquet. Humour is a tool that I hope/I'm sure everyone
here has utilized to deal with the muck that surrounds us, but unless the muck
is identical, the audience might not appreciate the speakers sense of humour
about it.

 JB>  Still, I watched a movie about Gacy.

 AH>           The serial killer?  JFTR, I had to google his name....  :-)

You didn't *have* to, JFTR. 

 JB>  Funny, in "Somethin' aint right about him"

 AH>           And you wonder how he got that way... I can relate.

"Ow... I didn't know *that* crack was in the pavement. How might we fill it, so
it never opens up again?"



 JB>  after I parlayed a few of the details of his life, she
 JB>  reluctantly drank to his death.


 AH>           In general a toast is offered to a person's health... so you
 AH> departed from protocol.  I'm reminded of an article I saw a
 AH> few years ago about somebody like Gacy who asked for the
 AH> death penalty because he felt there was no cure for his
 AH> condition.  You didn't run away screaming from the
 AH> unpleasantness, any more than Dallas & I did when our
 AH> daughter needed us.  But this stuff takes its toll on us
 AH> emotionally.  I see a similar mixture of anguish & release
 AH> there....  :-)


Coming around to the muck we are in, how can we relate to a guy like Gacy or
his victims? By [a higher power's] grace, we will never know that anguish.
Wouldn't it be a better world if no one did!

In the news, is a debate about Research In Motion's Blackberry operations in
The United Arab Emirates. First thoughts to my mind were democratic freedom to
information, and RIM's infrastructure - what might be simplified to "A single
point of failure". Then, the security issue was introduced. It hadn't occurred
to me that communication of this sort could be used for malicious purposes. I
too live in a glass house. 


... James
___ MultiMail/Linux v0.49

--- Maximus 3.01