LEARNING TO RIDE A BIKE

Sure, I fell a lot, but I never cried.  I was smart, I
practiced on the grass in the outfield of the baseball diamond.

I have been having these throwback moments of nostalgia again these days.  Rather strange about how that happens.  You go a couple of years straight without ever going back into the past. It's like it never existed. Life goes on at the age that you have achieved and that's it.  You arise in the morning, live the day going from one event to the other and never step out of that narrow trace.  Then, one day, when you're looking for some piece of reference material, boom!  There is a picture of a cousin that you haven't seen for 60 years or so and you're off...to who knows where.  Now where the @%^<~* did that reference thingy go?  You spend 30 or 40 minutes looking for it, and finally find it right where you left it to begin with, on the floor by the side of the box where you had found it.  But the cousin is still there.  Never goes away.  Can't get anything done.  What a mess!  I quit.  I hope she's still alive.  She must be, otherwise someone would have told me.  Funny, she never did get into the email stuff.  Pretty old fashioned, I guess.  Oh well, gotta get back to the grind.

Yep, that's what starts you back on the road to the past.  You think of all kinds of things that are not connected, not logical and not consequential in the least...but you're having fun so you let it go on.  So, I got stuck on the learning to ride a two-wheeler experience.  The reason why I put this picture up is because this is evidently a rich spoiled brat kind of wimp.  Look at that $300 bicycle!  It's small too.  What's he screaming about?  What would he be doing if it were a standard 26" like more of us had when we were going through the phase. Falling from that added height would really make him howl!  I didn't have a bike because my father said that I would get one when I turned 14.  I didn't like the deal, but the only money I ever held in my hand was the nickel that I would occasionally get to by a Hershey bar or something precious like a balsa wood stick and wing glider.

Somewhere around 9 years old or somewhere in there, my aunt Norma heard me whining about the fact that some of my friends could actually ride two-wheel bikes and that made me ashamed to traipse around the neighborhood on my old trike.  She said that I could borrow her bicycle now and then so that I could learn.
Oh, wow!  The first tine I had it, I walked it down to the playground where there was plenty of grass so that I could fall and not die on the first day from so many road wounds.  All went well until the guys saw that there I was with a girl's bike.  Ooooppsss!  I had over looked that discrepant reality.  I really took a lot of heat for showing up in a man's world with a girl's bike.  So, I got as far away from them as I could and forced myself to learn how to balance myself on that infernal machine.  I admit, that first day was not a total washout, but I left the playground to give my aunt Norma her vehicle in good condition.  I thanked her and asked her to lend it to me again soon so that I could maybe get to learn how to sit on the seat to pedal.  I had almost mastered balancing myself while standing up.  That was the beauty of the girl's bike.  It did not have the horizontal bar from the seat support to the front fork.


See what I mean?  This looks about like what my aunt's bike looked like.  This one is a little bit on the deluxe side though because it has a kickstand.
Well, about one week later I did get to spend some time at the playground again and I did learn pretty much how to ride a bike.  I still had not mastered the proper moves to mount a boy's bike, bit could ride a bike.  It would be quite a while before I would learn how to mount and dismount from a boy's bike.  That took a lot of practice.  However, to do that I got some help from a fellow baseball player who helped me to learn.  That wasn't easy, but I got through it and by the time I got my bicycle, I was already quite proficient...and, by the way, I was in the 6th grade and I was only 12.  I never knew why EFR Dion changed his mind about that.  Yeah, he bought me a boy's bike.

IS FANATICISM A SIN

I was asked this question nearly one year ago and I have been thinking about it somewhat because I have it in the right margin of my computer calendar.  In case you might be wondering how come I know exactly where it is, I'll tell you that it is one of those things that I know I want to do, but...  Well, you know!

I have run up against the same difficulty now that I I have decided to actually do something about it.  I can't find the definition of fanaticism that I want.  I know what it means, I really do, but the more I think of it and the more I "Wiki" it, the more disappointed I get.  It keeps coming back to religious intolerance...to religious narrow-mindedness...ah, religion, religion, religion!  The reason I don't like this definition and these explanations is that most religious people I know who are worth their salt, are really zealous people who are deeply dedicated and narrowly focused.  They would never succeed at their calling if they weren't.  I happen to be one of them.  I can honestly tell you that I am quite capable at what I do.  I can also honestly say that I cannot qualify as a fanatic.  I know because my psychiatrist friend told me so. 

So, now, I can tell you that I know that fanaticism is a sin, but only after a certain degree of it has been surpassed.  But, you say, "where is that?"  To which I answer, "No one knows."  So, essentially, that's why I am frustrated at the lack of clarity in the definitions that I have found.  I say lack of clarity because I am convinced that all fanaticism is not religiously based.  So why can't at least one dictionary say that "warmongering fanaticism is a sin" and get it over with? No, not a one.  So, all I can do is to repeat the answer I gave to my #1 son after thinking about it for only about 30 seconds.  I tell you that so that you can see that procrastination never contributes to clarifying your intellectual acumen.

Fanatisicm is a sin because it is an extreme commitment to one idea and one only without leaving any space for another point of view concerning that one idea.  The reason why that constitutes sinful behavior is because it is the opposite of virtue, therefore vice.  It is vice because vice is extreme behavior, whether right or left, while virtue is to be found dead center between to extremes.

There, that is what I told my son.  He never complained about it and the person who had talked him into asking me didn't fight it either.  So, I have carried this around for so long, and here I am happily coming back to the top of the arc, despite a long series of disappointments about the results of my research.  Therefore, rejoice with me and be comforted that we have found that fanaticism can be defined without dragging religion into the picture.  

Given that conclusion, you have to be sure that I do not expect you to Cry at my Funeral.

28,222 DAYS LATER, A NEW THING HAPPENED

I did not look for this picture, I stumbled upon it just today and the thought touched me.
I will use in in another venue, that's why I added the English and the Spanish.
The original I found is in French.

It was yesterday that for the first time in my life I felt some real strange and interesting movements in my internal being.  Something really serious and heavy happened to a dear colleague whom I admire a lot for her zeal, dedication, generosity and placid approach to life.  She is a person who is single minded and focused on her mission in life.  She is a one career type of person who would no doubt be a fish out of water anywhere else than the environment in which I and she work, when we do, indeed find ourselves side by side on the same project.  I know that I am not too far off base in my assessment of her, because I am witness to the glowing reviews that she gets from every quarter of our common working area.

Yesterday, I learned that she had been terminated from her local work division and that the headquarters had taken the decision to exclude her from the entire corporation as well.  Yesterday I knew little about the details but even in the face of such devastating news, I was left with nothing but emptiness.  The strangest emotion, or lack thereof that I have ever experienced.  I am still overwhelmed by my reaction.  But that's not all.  

Today, I learned more details about the situation and the emptiness is still there.  Now it has changed to a low grade feeling of mercy and sympathy but nothing seismic, despite the devastation that has come into her life.  Am I this way because the effect on her life is so catastrophic that I know that I can do nothing but to promise spiritual support?  Is it because the unexpected details of the situation are so conflicting on the one hand but also so daring on the other that they are hard to process?  Some of the details are not surprising because I know her and have known her for a rather long while.  Some of the conflicting details amaze me because they point to a person who was leading a double life and seemingly got picked off first base in a moment of uncharacteristic distraction.  Is it the result of my knowledge of the environment in which we live and work that has taken the edge off my ability to polarize my emotions in moments of sudden change?  It is a really strange realization that I am living.

I know that this person is in a position where she is now forced to change career.  In her present situation, there is no other choice, despite the mountainous quantity and the high quality of the education and training that she has acquired, she is now forced to move on.  She has to move on and I am sure that it will be a large challenge.  Success in the second half of her life is now defied  by circumstances that she herself brought upon herself, but perhaps never thought that the gauntlet would someday be thrown at her feet.  

Along the road of life, I have observed that "old people" don't react too violently to sudden and unexpected change.  They have seen so much of it that it doesn't throw them off balance as much as it does younger people.  So, I suppose that is the "take-away" that I have...I'm old.
I say that and it doesn't bother me.  I'm old and glad of it.  I have done a lot of jobs in my life. Some I liked and some I didn't.  Some I had trained for and some I hadn't.  The one I have now I didn't train for but I like it and I am good at it.  Every now and then I wonder if I'll like pushing daisies.  I've not trained for that so I still don't know if I'll like it or not.  I hope I like it because it's one job that no one walks away from...not even me.  Now, that's a change!