Photo LinkLove

I couldn’t believe this when I saw it but it’s true.

It’s bad enough to be working in  Wal-Mart aka Walmut at four am on Purple Friday.  I really feel for this guy and his family.   I have been having some better thoughts about humanity lately but this could test all of that.  Watching all those lean and mean runners at the Richmond Marathon made my heart glad.

But this is the other side of the coin.  A young man died in the rush to save a few coins.

Of course this sort of thing has happened several times before in soccer stadiums around the world.  And it happens in night clubs when there is a fire.   Panic sets in and people in the back push to get out in some cases.  The push is amplified like a wave to the front of the crowd who are squashed by tons of pressure into whatever immovable object prevents the free flow of people.

The Story

But this horrible event probably was not started by panic.  People started pushing because they were in a festive mood perhaps.  Or they were mad.  Or drunk.  Maybe they stayed up until 4 am and were drinking to pass the time.   Friends sometimes wonder why I have such a difficult time dealing with crowds.  This is why.  I see everybody.  And often I don’t like what I see.

In the front you probably have the earliest arrivals.  These were probably people who planned out this adventure and were willing to wait awhile.   They may have been more patient and among them could have been mothers and grandmothers and other shoppers ready to save some money.

So it’s a mixed bag.  I wouldn’t blame them all.  Some of them were probably fearing for their lives too when things got going.
Continue Reading »

Yesterday my younger son Zachary showed me a video he made and I would share it with you except for a couple of things.  First of all it’s on Facebook and I have no idea how to link to it or embed it.  It’s as if they want to suck stuff in like a vaccuum hose but not share any of it with the world.

Maybe that’s unfair.  I don’t know.  But from my technologically unsophisticated point of view this is what it seems.   And I do believe that I have just achieved some sort of record when it comes to putting a large number of syllables into two adjoining words.

But who cares?  I don’t.  Because even if I could share this video I would be concerned about sharing it.  It has so many photos of such hopelessness I would risk pushing some poor, hapless person over the edge upon which they are trying to balance at the moment.

So we viewed his video yesterday.  I saw photos of  little black children in Africa who must be around six years old holding machine guns and smiling.  See?

And after it was over he told me that he plans to work for UNRWA when he graduates.  UNRWA is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency.  His specific area of interest is the Palestinian refugee situation.

And while I am proud of him for wanting to help impoverished people I am also scared to death about him going to an area where there is a lot of violence and he is a big target.

Here’s a link to UNRWA in case you would like to take a journey into another world.  I think he told me that half the world (or maybe it was more) lives on a dollar or less per day.   It’s just unbelievable in any case.

I spent many years working with homeless people and people with debilitating psychiatric and/or drug problems in THIS country.   So all I can say to him is put your idealism in your back pocket and prepare to stuggle with some very real demons.

They  are so young our children.

Why is it always a black day when the stock market tanks or people are buried underneath their fellow shoppers at Walmut?  I like the color black.  And if I was black I would probably like it even more.  It would irritate me to have  a really bad day associated with my beautiful skin.  Because I’m a sensitive person.

So from now on it’s going to be Purple Friday around here.  And if the stock market tanks AGAIN it’s going to be WHITE WITH FRIGHT Friday.   Or GREEN THIS IS SO OBSCENE Wednesday.

If something really good happens (and it could let’s not forget)  it’s going to be YELLOW I”M A HAPPY FELLOW Saturday.  Because I like to associate Saturday with good stuff.  Like sleeping late or going out and partying in the evening or having some eye to eye contact with the one I love.

I am reading this book called The Highly Sensitive Person/ How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You by Elaine Aron.  It is available from Amazon.com for just a few clam shells.

Here’s the test at the beginning of the book to determine if you are a highly sensitive person (HSP).  If you answer yes to 12 or more questions you. . . . .may be. . . . ..a highly sensitive person.

I seem to be aware of subtleties in my environment

Other people’s moods affect me.

I tend to be very sensitive to pain.

I find myself needing to withdraw during busy days into bed or into a darkened room or any place where I can have some privacy and relief from stimulation.
Continue Reading »

Who cares that you’re not writing a mass market newspaper? The point is not to show up on a list, the point is to start a conversation that spreads, to share ideas and to chronicle your thinking. That’s the work of an author, and I think rather than kissing author blogs goodbye, someone should just start a new list.

-Seth Godin

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/death-of-the-pe.html

I think that we are too wrapped up in lists sometimes.  I don’t use them very often.  And, as a consequence, I am not as organized as I could be. But I really like what Seth Godin says in this post about personal blogs. They are important even though they may not be the most popular blogs out there.

It may be more difficult to make a blog very successful if it is a personal blog. In the sense that it may take more hours of work to do it.  Maybe it takes  three years to make it very successful instead of two.   (When you buy a car do you worry very much about whether you get a two year loan or a three year loan?)

But I think it would be much more difficult to create and maintain a blog that is about news, sports or the latest electronic gadget.  That would be a job.

I like writing posts that have no defined beginning, middle and end before I write them. I like writing about what I feel and think but I also seek to merge with my reader’ s thoughts and feelings in some way.  It may not even be a conscious goal sometimes. But hopefully there is a conversation going on in some sense about something that interests us both in some way.  Even if there is no comment at the end of it.

Hopefully there is a conversation whispering its way through the wind.

I realize the results are uneven. Some posts are much less popular than others (this one?  Who knows. . .) But now we are starting down the path of lists again.  Wordpress Stats are (is?) a list.   Success may depend more  on who is on the other end.   Maybe there’s one person on the other end who really enjoys a particular thought.  It’s almost as if he or she looked up just in time to see a meteor streak across the sky.

Timing is everything.

What I think is really cool is that a post I wrote over a year ago could meet up with someone on the other side of the world tomorrow. And there could be a merging of the minds for about one minute and forty seconds.

Or maybe it will be a photo of a sunset. Hopefully this sort of thing brings us closer together. Hopefully it helps us understand that even in a world that holds billions of busy people we are still not numbers and we can be something more than a name on a very long list.   And we can watch a sunset together or, at least, a photo of one.

I have noticed that people I know or meet treat me differently if they have read my blog.  They seem more relaxed and open.  Apparently they have seen through the introverted shell I carry around.  It  is a  costume made out of numbers and it is sewn together with lists.

I’m so glad I found a way to go out in public without it.

Personal blogs will do well in the future because they are a conversation between casual friends.  But this conversation is open to strangers too.   They can listen in without feeling awkward.

I worried when I started blogging that I would make mistakes.  Now I see myself making mistakes every day and don’t care.  I don’t keep stats on them.  And my readers are kind enough not to point them out 99 percent of the time.

So on this Thanksgiving I give thanks for many things.  But in this space I would particularly like to remember and appreciate those who read blogs and encourage their authors.  You are helping your brothers and sisters to grow.

YOU are the meteors that streak across the sky.

*