Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Soccey? Or Hocker?

Awesome! and Beautiful! were a couple of words being gushed by a news reporter trying to describe his view of the big World Cup game that apparently "we" won in Brazil.

Last week, one of my local friends could hardly contain himself over the thrill of watching the Los Angeles Kings winning a game over a New York team in another "Cup" finals match. This week it was a different friend completely over-the-top with excitement about "our" team going into the big Brazilian games.

Maybe you have discerned by this point that I am neither a fan of these games nor even interested in knowing what the excitement is all about. To me, these two sports could be blended into one, called either soccey or hocker. Actually, I rather see them as the same game with some folks adding ice, skates and sticks. Both games are tedious, too long, too low scoring and too violent with the many invitations to injury of the bodies being twisted and smashed in all manner of "great plays."

Even if anyone took my suggestion and combined these to create a hybrid that may be more interesting (somehow increasing the scoring), I probably still couldn't work up any excitement over it. Certainly not enough to gush that a game was "Awesome!"

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Progress Will Prevail

People who are called "Progressives" are often thought of as "bleeding heart liberals" or other such colorful, disgusting-sounding rebels. The simple fact is, those who are NOT progressive, who cannot face progress with calm acceptance of the inevitable, will be overwhelmed and miserable excuses for citizens of this country.

The opposite of progressive is "regressive," and it appears that is exactly what the common Republican is today. I am totally fed up with all the forceful statements and sometimes actions relating to taking back our country. What that has to mean today is that for some people, the desire for the nostalgic image of America overwhelms the logic facing everyday life. It also means, in practically every case, that seeing Dwight Eisenhower in the white house would be so much more wonderful than seeing some black upstart there in his office. Truth is, the two have many similar qualities and we are very fortunate to have the strength and intelligence of President Obama in office today - but it will be half a century before history makes that very clear.

Though we all can enjoy re-watching the old film It's A Wonderful Life, there are millions of white citizens who cannot accept the changes that spell out the reality of our America of 2014. The immanently lovable Jimmy Stewart and his beautiful bride, Donna Reed, are easy to watch and adore. But the film reflects a long-gone era, not today's real world. (And by the way, things weren't perfect in Bedford Falls nor in any bygone era.) Yet that's the world Republicans want to recapture. Too bad. I have respect for history but also for change. And in our world, change always wins in the end.

And who are those who cannot invite or accept change? Old white people. That is, most of the old white people in this modern world. In age and race, I am one of them, but I'm no part of them in fundamental values. I detest regressive attitudes.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Simple Consideration

Being inconsiderate is often probably just a product of being lazy. Or maybe forgetful.

The sweet-voiced lady who called me at the end of May could have instead sent a large, ugly man to find me and hit me very hard in the solar plexus. Instead, she mentioned off-handedly that she was getting a few nibbles on her home and wanted to see whether I had any homes available in my little senior community where she could down-size after her large home sells.

She had stopped me last fall while I was passing by a home where she was visiting, here in my little community; she liked the feeling here and was hoping to move here one day soon. So we had the discussions leading to what she might do and one thing she was sure of was that "Come June of next year, I want to list my home." We arranged for an associate and me to check out her property and give her an idea of the market value, along with projections for the next eight-to-nine months leading to June. She was so very appreciative and said that when June came around, she would allow me to list her home and look for another one here in my neighborhood.

The fact that escrows have been cancelling like crazy in the last two weeks and that my income is virtually nothing other than my meager social security, surely played into my astonishment and my difficulty breathing after I had welcomed her call and said I was going to be calling her in two days to set up the listing. To find that she had listed with a happen-upon agent who came to a garage sale, having no connection whatever previously, simply knocked the breath out of me for a moment.

Simple consideration would have been to remember the guy she sought out and asked for assistance back when I was recovering from surgeries and struggling to keep going each day. But she merely "forgot."

Now she has called again in the hope I have found something for her here. If I do happen to find something, while listings in my neighborhood are almost non-existent, I might manage to make upwards of a thousand dollars. had she stayed with the promise of letting me list her home, I could easily have earned five times that amount, But, "Oh well."

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Let's Move Into the Present!

Baseball purists can go ahead and hate me and my opinions, but really! Isn't it time to allow technology to play its part?

Sure, they have grudgingly moved toward allowing instant replay to help with balls near the foul poles and now with a few other parts of the close call difficulties. But the real problem with baseball? We all know. We all have been part of the age-old shouts of "Get some glasses" or "Don't take the bat out of the hitter's hands," or other such criticisms of the umpires.

Now that we have the technology to place that electronic rectangle that outlines the strike zone and pin-points the position of the pitch, it makes no sense to me at all that we have to continue using the old method of depending on a human's eyes and quick decisions to make those close calls. Plate umpires are clearly shown to be inadequate. Baseball could take a major step in a good direction by finally making it easy to know without doubt whether a pitch is a ball or a strike. Let the chief umpire be responsible for governing the game as always, but relieve him of that awful requirement of seeing clearly while in harm's way behind the catcher, and having to instantly decide how to call a pitch.

It would be delightful to see batters then try to find some invisible electronic device to berate or be able to show it that hateful face of disagreement. Come on, Purists! You KNOW we will eventually have it done this way. But how long will you fight it?