Thursday, June 08, 2006

Still Here


Yeah, I'm still here. I'm not dead. I didn't leave town. I didn't give up.

I have been reading and working and gardening and thinking and hobbling around on my now gimpy knees.

I'm learning that pain has a way of humbling a person. Don't get me wrong. I'm not suffering unbearable pain. Me knees hurt. They are stiff, balky. It makes moving around difficult. I can't sit for long. But I can function. I do my job. I take some pills. They help.

Much of my reading has been disturbing. I will attempt to report on some of it soon. I'm only posting here now because I am having a problem with software I use for work.

I have just picked up something kind of pleasant: Life, Sex and Ideas: The Good Life Without God by A.C. Grayling. I've only read a few pages, but I like it. Regarding religion Grayling states that "there is no greater social evil."

A couple of good random quotes from what I've read:

Grayling quotes Antonio Porchia: "In a full heart there is room for everything, while in an empty heart there is room for nothing."

He quotes Epictetus: "Only the educated are free."

Grayling on a liberal education: Education in literature, history, and appreciation of the arts opens the possibility for us to live more reflectively and knowledgeably, especially about the nature and variety of human experience. That, in turn, increases our capacity for understanding others better, so that we can treat them with respect and sympathy, however different their outlook on life. When sympathy and respect are returned, the result is that the differences which cause friction, even conflict, come to be resolved or at least tolerated."

I like this guy.

Oh, and the photo? Yours truly. Probably the summer of 1967 on the beach at Galveston, Texas. Probably hung over. My wife says I have sandy hair. That's likely because I've got sand IN my hair. I may be using the rag in my hand to wipe some barf out of my back seat.

See anything askew about this photo?

TLS






5 comments:

jazzycat said...

Terry,
You look pretty tough back in those younger days. I thought you may like this link about global warming.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/
2006/harris061206.htm

Jazzycat

Terry S said...

Jazzy,

Good to hear from you. I wasn't so much tough as nauseous.

I will check out the global warming reference.

I have had a difficult week in that my computer crashed pretty much completely. Apparently a virus worked its way so deeply into my operating system that it denied me access to my programs, or those I could access didn't work properly. I had to have everything reloaded. In the process I lost about 3 years of my work files. It took me several days just to get the thing back up and working. I've been playing catch up, and it's been exhausting.

Took some time last evening to go to our local jazz festival to see Bonnie Raitt. (I know, she doesnt' play jazz but what the heck.) Unfortunately, a bad storm blew in about halfway into her set. They shut her down and the 5 or 6 thousand people there had to scramble out of the park to wherever their cars were parked. It wasn't a total loss. My wife had a 'gater sausage sandwich from a vendor. She really likes 'gater.

Hope you are well. I will get back to some posting in the next few days.

TLS

Terry S said...

Jazzy,

I checked out the Canada Free Press site. I found it interesting. There obviously are two sides to the argument. I direct you to http://www.interfaithpower.org/gwfactsfigure.htm for another perspective. Also note the announcement made today regarding the earth being at its hottest in at least the last 400 years.

Food for thought. No?

TLS

jazzycat said...

Terry,
Just now noticed your latest comment. I did briefly check the site out you mentioned. There is a lot of stuff on this internet that is for sure.

We'll see how this global warming stuff plays out. As you know my trust level is very low for the organizations that are pushing global warming. This does not mean they could not be correct, but I am very suspicious of their constant fanatical pushing of radical solutions.

Hope things are going well with you and your family.

Jazzy

Terry S said...

My wife and I went to see Al Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth" last week. I know the people quoted on the canadafreepress site counter a # of his claims, but seeing the evidence as Gore presents it, it is pretty convincing. My only complaint with the film is that there is too much Al Gore. Ultimately, the film might have been more effective with a less politicized narrator.

Things are generally going well. Business is reasonably good. My son living in Germany is coming home for a couple of weeks near the end of July. He finally landed a job at an opera house - a two year contract - in a small town north of Berlin. The pay isn't great, but at least it will be steady for the time he's there.

We will be moving my younger son down to Florida in the first week of August as he will be starting grad school there in the fall. My wife figured that we have helped move our kids from one place to another about a dozen times or so. It's not the most fun thing to do.

I have started a draft regarding the aforementioned books. With business being up and the demands of caring for an acre of ground, I just run out of gas by the time I could do any serious blogging. I don't know. Maybe I'm just getting lazy.

Also hope you and yours are well.

Later,

TLS