Connections Part II

Greetings, Friends!

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, so I thought I'd start with a continuation of my stream of consciousness classic, Connections.

I had the misfortune of watching the re-make of "Red Dawn" recently.  With the crisis in Ukraine I thought I might gain perspective on what it would be like to have your homeland invaded, and the film looked like something I would like, and indeed throughout the movie I kept hoping it would get better.  It did not.  Best part of the movie is withing the first 10 minutes while the North Koreans are parachuting in, for suspense effect. 

Now that I mention it, my Great Uncle Emil Lemke, who recently passed away, was a paratrooper in WWII:

In 1943, Emil enlisted in the U.S. Army and served with the 17th Airborne Div., 193rd Glider Infantry. He became a certified paratrooper. He entered WWII at the Battle of the Bulge where he parachuted in to the front lines. At one point, he and some of the other soldiers made their way close enough to the enemy lines that they were able to hear the German soldiers talking and relayed the info. After the war ended he transferred to the 82nd Airborne Div. He achieved the rank of Sergeant and was an Honor Guard before receiving an honorable discharge in 1945.

Uncle Emil, you're an American hero, and will be missed.

Back to Red Dawn, this is a remake, and with the exception of Brewster's Millions (for which I have yet to see the original), the original is always better than the remake.







In the original Red Dawn, Lea Thompson is featured.

Lea Thompson is from Rochester, MN.

Rochester, MN is home of the Mayo Clinic.

I dislike Mayonnaise.

But I am coming around on Mustard after trying Uncle Pete's Mustard at Von Hanson's Meats.  Uncle Pete's Mustard is amazing.  It has got a kick and is amazing.  Also, the logo for Von Hanson's Meats looks a lot like the boxer Von Kaiser on Punchout!

The Covered Bridge of Khazad Dum

Here's one I pieced together for all those Lord of the Rings / Covered Bridge Enthusiasts out there!

Winter Driving and the Zombie Apocalypse

Greetings friends. It's that time again for my annual winter driving rant, where I sound like a crazed Andy Rooney. And yes, I realize if you're reading a blog, you're probably not old enough to know who that is.

This year, my observations are linked to the forthcoming zombie apocalypse. When snow comes to Minnesota, as it did by force recently in the Great December Blizzard of '09, anarchy ensued on the streets.

Stop signs and lights were obeyed - when possible. Speed limits ceased to have meaning, as one would go as fast as they could on top of 4" of snow, or as slow as their brakes permitted. Ice means cars zooming through intersections and into ditches, if not other motorists. Panic and lawlessness seem to prevail in such a storm as accidents detain the attention of law enforcement, leaving the populace at large to fend for themselves.

This is not unlike the zombie apocalypse, where the undead go around devouring the living. I'm projecting that this is what the Mayans had in mind for the end of the world in 2012. Sort of an unnatural disaster. No doubt this will cause pandemonium and defer law enforcement officials from keeping the peace to addressing the literal uprising. I imagine a similar amount of groaning and moaning would be present as in a snowstorm. Body parts, either from crashes or frostbite would be lying about as though zombies were dining with poor social graces.

So my winter driving suggestion is to treat blizzards like a zombie attack. Stay home and load your shotgun until the threat passes.

Matt

The Gunslinger in the Rye

Along came a spider! Such is the abrupt adage inserted the middle of The Prodigy's "Take Me to The Hospital." I've been enjoying their music rather consistently of late, and not having blogged in a bit, this entry may follow its pattern of non sequitors.

The Gunslinger is book I in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. Quite a bit shorter than the 6 books that succeed it, this western-fantasy-adventure story is rather curious in its stream-of-consciousness meandering. I haven't read much of SK, but upon some relatives from Vermont visiting recently, it was determined that SK might write a story about maple syrup covered bridges and the monsters within. Just a thought.

Next, I finished an old text covering the history of Russia from the spread of Greek language and culture into the Rus area up to the 1950s. I figure its a good text because not much has really changed in Russia since then, right? Particularly intriguing is a parallel between Tsar Ivan IV (that's Ivan the Terrible, for you Philistines out there) and his secret police "Oprichnina". The Tsar didn't trust the aristocracy (they were out to get him) and so he formed a special police comprised of the proletariat. They were loyal to him and carried out his deeds. Similarities arise when battles were lost, the aristocrats were blamed. Political opponents were charged with atrocities they had nothing to do with. This concept occurred later under Lenin and later Stalin during the formation of the Soviet Union. This is exemplified by the allegorical novel "Animal Farm." Perhaps this is a case of History repeating itself. Perhaps its a case of Stalin knowing history and saw, "well, it worked for Ivan IV, I'll try it too!"

The Catcher in the Rye eluded me until a recent moving sale whereupon I procured a copy on the cheap. Written in the 1950s, the colorful prose and insistence on acknowledging the reader's understanding (you know what i mean?) waxed reminiscent of my late grandfather. So I read the book as though he were narrating, if only he had been kicked out of prep schools out east. The title is explained near the end of the book (not as straightforward as say, War and Peace), but it is basically about a teenage boy caught between the innocence of childhood and the mired duplicitous world of phony adults. His reticence to accept growing up leads to a tail-spinning miasma of confusion. My current state of transition in all things urged me to ponder the ideas postured in this book, as I could definitely relate to some things going on. Perhaps this is a bit troubling.





In other news, I made birdie #2 on a recent golf outing. Exciting stuff, I know!

Old Iron, '09

Greetings all. I took in the annual Pioneer Power antique tractor show in Le Sueur, MN on Friday, and here's some of the highlights of this year's show.





















a) Abraham Lincoln




















b) Old guy in Batman baseball cap. Its hard to see, but trust me. He's the guy with the sweater over his shoulders.




















c) Lemonade.

Also of interest, saw a guy with big black rimmed glasses like my great-uncle Kermit used to wear. Also saw a guy with a big, curled moustache. (No photos available.) And yes, there were some old tractors there too.

Matt

Birdie!

#3 hole at Oak Marsh, Oakdale, MN.
Par 3. 40' Putt from the fringe of the green.

8-23-09.

Love is the Thing

Its been a tough week. After golfing Monday through Friday last week, it decided to rain this week, curtailing my diversions. Growing wearing of watching "Happy Gilmore" I lured my retired friend out to the course on Thursday under the advisement of the weather channel's "we should be okay for a few hours" forecast.

Not so. It sprinkled, then it rained. Then it stopped, and all seemed well. Then it the monsoon-like torrential downpours ensued. Throughout all the head scratching as to why we were there, 3 things occurred to me: 1) No rush. There were no groups following us, and not ahead meant we could play at the pace we liked. 2). Quiet as the grave. Well, quiet as a rainstorm, anyways. 3). We actually didn't play that much worse than usually. I made one par and my friend made 2. That's a good day for us. We also found this course has lousy coffee.*

But that isn't what this post is about. If you've been following the blog, and I'm told there's no less than 3 of you that read the last post(!), you've read that the message of Jesus is that of Love. It is the simplest of messages, yet often the hardest to practice. Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus understood everyone loves themselves, so he said that if we only loved others as much, the world would be so much better off.

Enter the next book on my shelf: "How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of Loving Relationships" as written by the 14th Dalai Lama.

Here's your warning: don't read any further if you're uncomfortable with this idea that religions other than Christianity might have some helpful insight. Or that Christianity "is a relationship, not a religion." This book isn't so much a Buddhist document as it is a practical life application text. There is some overlap to be read with a discerning eye. This is the difference between being "open minded" and "empty minded." Basically, don't believe everything your read. Less of what you hear. But you can still listen and process new information.

The intro of the book is an explanation that the Dalai Lama talks of love and compassion not as a Buddhist, but as a fellow human being. This is this tone he sets for the book.

Throughout the text, the Dalai Lama repeats a common theme, as I indicated Jesus also spoke of above: Love one another. He uses the example of looking at yourself from a third person's vantage point. There's "You", the selfish, greedy, hoarding person you are, and next to you is a group of 100 people, with afflictions and impoverished. From the third person's point of view, it is hard to see why "You" do not share what you have with all those suffering.

Suffering a an important subject in Buddhist teaching. The logic goes that suffering comes from desiring something you don't have but would like (sometimes such that one would say you "Need", but rarely do). Thus, being content with what we have negates suffering and promotes happiness.

"Contentment is the key. If you have contentment with material things, you are truly rich. Without it, even if you are a billionaire, you will not have happiness. You will always feel hungry and want more and more and more, making you not rich but poor." (p. 111)

The idea is to find contentment with what you have rather than looking for what next toy to buy to make you temporarily happy. Once you are content, material hoarding no longer looks appealing and this allows you to help our fellow humans.

In a series of meditation points, The Dalai Lama says that we ought to extend love not only to our closest relatives and friends, but also people we dont' know and even our enemies - those that actively oppose us. Now wait, Meditation Matt? Are you jumping off the deep end? Well, if you know me, you know I'm a little removed from reality to begin with. I might cite an earlier blog about Cataphatic Prayer, which is basically the same concept as meditation. The Apostle Paul calls us to meditate on the scriptures. If you don't like any of these answers, just consider it "thinking about" loving others. But thinking profoundly, and really focusing on it. If you see yourself being kind to specific others when you're not around them, you would become more apt to be kind when you actually are.

The next point is the Dalai Lama backs up the need to love one another based on Reincarnation; we've all be born innumerable times, so everyone at some point has been your nurturing mother or best friend at some point. Every enemy has been your best friend before. Every current friend was once an enemy. So it makes no difference who they are now, we ought to love one another.

I'm not so sure about the reincarnation bit. Mostly I just skimmed over that. Its an interesting theory to think about. In some sense the Dalai Lama here is saying we ought to Love one another to balance out our karma and achieve enlightenment, just as Jesus taught to Love one another so that we might reach heaven. In that sense, its the same Quid Pro Quo rationale, but I think both would argue that isn't the purpose. We ought to love one another because that should be important to us. The reward is not to be the focus.

Another point the Dalai Lama makes is that we should not take any measure of joy in others' suffering. This is often easy to do if they are a bad person, political opponent, or just someone you don't like for whatever reason. Western Philosophy calls this Schadenfreude. So the Dalai Lama is essentially saying that Schadenfreude is not a virtue (p. 138).

Later in the book, speaking of suffering is concept of recognizing our capabilities to overcome situations. Citing an anecdote of personal experience, the Dalai Lama advises that, "If you can do something about a problem, do it; if it is impossible, worry is useless." (p. 151). After considering this, he said he was put at ease in a stressful situation, for it was out of his hands. This reminds me of the saying about knowing the difference between something I can change and something I cannot.

A final note comes on the topic of using others for personal gain. The Dalai Lama asks the reader to consider, "Should everyone be used for my attainment of happiness, or should I help others gain happiness?" (p. 173). I heard a similar question posed in a church service: Should we use people and love things, or love people and use things?

Jesus had little use for things and loved people.

Love one another.


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* Note 1: Picture from above is from a different golf course on a different day. Just here for visual aid. It was far too rainy to be taking pictures.