Words to Live By

I remember Monterey and Carmel... a very beautiful area indeed.

You had a cow in your yard. This afternoon, I have a suspected pipe bomb in front of my office.

I guess the only thing these two events have in common is that you never know what is coming -- cow, pipe bomb, hurricane.

I can't believe this short week went by so fast and could possibly end with a bang.

I'm sitting here watching the Highway Patrol officers risking their lives while they wait for the bomb squad to arrive -- they say it will be at least an hour.

This is all happening at the toll booth to 17 Mile Drive in Monterey. That's the scenic drive that goes through Pebble Beach. Traffic is backed up for miles.

Someone planted bombs at the Carmel office and Pebble Beach home of Charles Schwab a couple of years ago. I'm wondering if this is the same kind of thing.

What a way to end the week!

To paraphrase Rose's mother in the movie Titanic, "The purpose of college is to find a suitable husband...".

Well, that is why I went off to college. I know, it sounds terribly shallow of me. But, everything in life must be taken within context.

I didn't do well in high school. I started out ok, but when the harassment started from being gay, I did what every kid would do in that day and age I suppose; I withdrew from being social. When I turned 16 or so, I developed a new set of friends who didn't care so much that I was queer. The only problem is, they were equally rejected by society for being high and drunk all the time. And, for raising hell. But, they accepted me. So, they were my friends.

My senior year was terrible. I would actually go to school drunk on occasion because I felt that if I were going to be beaten up, it would hurt less. I suppose that sounds quite lame, but when you are 18 and trying to figure out how to be accepted with all the growing issues, you do what you have to do to get by.

The turning point for me is when one of my tormentors came up to me and slugged me in the stomach. I didn't feel it at all. I realized that I didn't feel anything at all. I didn't really feel one way or the other about life either. One of my old friends helped me up off the ground, and we talked. He said to me, "What are you doing to yourself?" I said, "I'm DOING what people want to do."

But I thought about that. I had to get away from those people because they were poison to me and if life was worth living, I did want to find out before I threw it away.

So, for me, going to college was a way to escape. It was a way to find out about myself; the courses were just a diversion preventing me from doing that. But over time, I developed a passion for learning and scholarship. I only drank on social occasions, I tried to apply myself, although I was a terribly undisciplined mind. One professor, who, at the time, I thought was a royal pain in the ass, told me, "You need to learn to THINK and come to a conclusion about SOMETHING, ANYTHING, and DEFEND IT." He was difficult. I worked like hell to get a "B" in his class.

I was disappointed in the grade, but later realized that the exercise of going through his course gave me a tool that was far more powerful than anything else.

I think what is lacking today is that so many young people take what they are told and basically say, "ok." And, that's the end of it. I want to tell them, "Don't let me feed you my crock of crap - make me defend it and show you why YOU should feel that way."

People today are sheep. If you don't think so, just look at who is in the White House. It took Hurricane Katrina to get a lot of people to think about that schmuck for the first time. That's the good news. The bad news is that in six months or so, they will forget about it. And, Bush knows that. This is just a bump in the road for him.

I hate how all my comments bring me back to politics in one way or another. I suppose it shows just how pervasive our government has gotten in our lives. So, I'll end with this....

I woke up a couple of days ago, and before leaving for work, opened the drapes in the bedroom. Right there in front of me, was a cow standing in my yard. The cats freaked out. I live in the country and there are farms close by. My cats had never seen a cow before. They were quite ready to defend their property and home from this beast. The cow just looked at them as they were hissing as if to say, "Deal!"

I chuckled at that because I realized, "You know, the government can only run your life if you let it run your life." Sometimes, you need look at the very simple pleasures that life has to offer. Laughing at a cow in your yard isn't a bad thing. :)

I am ashamed to say I never finished college. I guess if you knew me way back when Fritz did, that would come as no surprise.

The thing is, I sold myself short, and though I make a comfortable living, I know I could be doing better had I just gone to school. I had issues with self-confidence, and didn’t really believe I had the brains to go to school.

I did go back, however, and when I did I discovered that I loved the one subject that was the hardest for me all through school. Math. To this day I sit in my room with math textbooks and work problems like other folks work crossword puzzles. In fact, I just bought an intermediate algebra textbook yesterday at a used bookstore. Used textbooks provide new problems and challenges for me. I get all excited when I find a good math textbook! I do have some calculus under my belt, but I love algebra, and I have a real passion for trigonometry.

I try to let my wife’s children know that they are going to be severely limited in career choices if they don’t go any further than high school, but unfortunately for them they know much more about how life works today than I do.

I love what I do and the weekend just kind of sneaks up on me.

I took a very radical approach in getting a college education. I took classes in Art, Journalism, Philosophy, Science, Business, Film, and many other disciplines. It took me three years to choose a major and close to six years to get my BA.

People kept asking me what I was going to do with my life -- as if college is a technical school. I was more interested in becoming an educated human being.

I wish more young people were interested in getting a liberal arts education. They would be much happier in "real" life.

We should completely scrap the idea of a "four-year" degree. That isn't enough time in this day and age. Young people should be able to enter the work force and continue taking courses part-time for several years. In fact, two years of work experience should be a requirement for getting a degree.