Nostalgic

I miss Point-Counterpoint.  Journalists Shana Alexander and James Kilpatrick used to debate an issue for a few minutes at the close of 60 Minutes.  It was the 1970s and people were adjusting to civil rights and women's rights.  Every week millions of viewers looked forward to their lively back and forth on the major issues. Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtain would go on to parody the TV segment on Saturday Night Live.  Akroyd's best and most famous line, "Jane, you ignorant slut," still kills.


Of course I rooted for Alexander.  Kilpatrick's positions were easy to argue against because he was always wrong.  Context.  He had supported states allowing segregation before he opposed it.  He even debated his position with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  


Maybe it's the simplicity of the format that I miss.  It didn't go on and on and on.  It had a beginning and an end.  Nothing today exists like it.  Just the opposite. 


I am nostalgic today because tonight is the State of the Union speech. I will watch the speech and the rebuttal by Iowa Senator Joni Ernst. The never-ending commentary?  I will take a pass, at the same time desperately missing a shorter and sweeter point-counterpoint on the night's festivities. 






    

Welcome, 2015

I like our odds in 2015.

2015 is the year our son-in-law will graduate nursing school.  That will be nothing less than transformative for him, my daughter and their two children.


2015 is the year our son will find his personal and professional momentum.  He ended the previous year in a new job that is worthy of his skills and principles and ambition.


2015 is the year my youngest granddaughter will likely find out she is going to be a big sister.  I understand this is risky to predict, but I feel it's going to happen.


2015 is the year my husband will enjoy more out of life thanks to hip replacement surgery in late September.  The full benefits of it will be realized in the new year.


2015 is the year I, too, enjoy more out of life.  Just because. 

My life is not pointless

This morning one of my dear friends posted on FB "Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - no point."  Wanted to post a funny comment but resisted as that never goes over well. 
I keep quiet out of respect. 


Truth is, I do live a life without her perspective of God.  But my life is not pointless by any measure.  I am religious in an unconventional sense.  More spiritual than religious, which is a valid belief system.  I have come to respect and expect those moments that challenge my thinking and understanding of the way things are.  Those moments of understanding at how tiny a space one occupies in the cosmos and then, like a gift, humility appears.  Those moments when your heart almost bursts from love or from despair.  Quiet moments.  Loud moments.  Obvious and subtle moments.  Moments that prove my life is filled with an abundance of meaning.


I would post this comment on my friend's FB but then what?  I would have to defend something I don't really understand, nor care to set boundaries around.  It just is.  I like it better that way.  No real attachment to specifics.  More of a deal or bargain.  I accept that for my part I will be a good citizen while I am alive, and in return, I get to have a good life.


So far it's working out.


Next topic: Define "good life."
 

Aging: The good, the bad and the ugly

The good parts include:
- watching your children become respectable adults
- grandchildren to corrupt
- no longer caring what other people think of you
- feeling smart
- knowing what's really important


The bad parts include:
- thinning bones
- thinning hair
- thinning skin


The ugly parts include:
-  increasing physical and mental deterioration
-  dependence on your children, if you're lucky
-  abuse, neglect and exploitation


We really need to work on that last part. 

No going back... I hope

Oh man.  The cat is outta the bag.   Violence against women and children is not cool.


In a whirlwind of activity starting over the summer, NFL players one by one were arrested, charged and then benched and then not benched.  Just like in summer's past.  What was different this summer?  Social media.  It hit back with a vengeance. 


This is truly a watershed moment.  The moment in time when minds changed.  It's not ok to beat women and children.  For any reason. 


We still have a ways to go to figure this thing out, especially regarding the source of this violence.   


Here's the best thing I read all week:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/18/opinion/punishment-or-child-abuse.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

They hated my writing and I couldn't be more grateful

Last month I spent a week at a writer's workshop at the University of Iowa.  I have the bones of a detective type book and want to do whatever it takes to finish the damn thing.  Going into the workshop I felt pretty confident about the 15 pages offered up for criticism. 


Apparently my perspective of good was not shared by the group.  Unanimously not shared. 


It was a humbling experience.  My most common writing mistakes:


- Stop telling, show action.
- More dialogue
- Shorter is sharper
- Speed up the story


No punches were pulled.  One male classmate suggested I not refer to the Texas GOP so negatively.  It will put off readers.  To which a woman in the class wrote on her copy of my manuscript (which opens with a rape): "Weird that a potential slam to GOP is offensive but not brutal rape."  So true.


All in all, their generous criticism has changed my writing.  Hopefully for the better.  I won't, however, be deleting the gentle jabs at the GOP.


   

Play soccer not soldier!

I recently blogged about how soccer transcends politics.  I can now report that it also transcends war!  It's been reported by more than one news source that there was a pause in the bombing of Gaza that coincided with the final match of the World Cup.  And, it was NOT a coincidence.  BOTH sides were watching the match!


I mean, GET OUT!!!


I can see the slogans:


Play soccer not soldier!
Tackle world issues on the pitch!
Boots not bombs!
Balls not bombs!
Put Germany in charge (awkward... trying to come up with something funny to do with Germany)
One ball could save thousands!
World peace is the goooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllll!!


One can hope.