Gerald Maclennon's Blog, page 3
June 5, 2019
D-Day the 6th of June - 75th Anniversary
Today, classrooms of school children are encouraged to thank active duty military and war veterans in letters, cards, art projects usually sent to VA Medical Centers and Clinics. It wasn't always that way especially for Vietnam Vets.
Up until 2005 there was virtually no gratitude... but then something changed for the better. Maybe the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center precipitated the change. I'd like to think it was the grandchildren, grandnieces, grandnephews (thanks in many ways to their teachers) who are at the vanguard of a new awareness of the Vietnam-era conflicts overseas and at home. Our country was in turmoil. I don't have to remind those who lived it.
For Veterans' Day 2008, out of the blue, I was treated to a 'card shower' from 35 junior high students. I tell you... there were a few of my tears shed. In response, I wrote the following letter.
VETERANS’ DAY 2008 RESPONSE
To the students of Mrs. Perez:
Thank you, my young friends, for the Veterans’ Day letters of appreciation. You have no idea how much these tokens of gratitude mean to any person who now serves or previously served as a member of the United States Armed Forces.
From the time I served in the Vietnam War in 1966-68 until now – 40 years later – only six people have taken the time to shake my hand and thank me for protecting and defending our United States of America. Sad but true.
If you take away nothing else from this message, here is one important point: real war is not a game... it is hell on earth.
Many of the warriors who were in the heat of combat, having to meet their so-called enemies face-to-face can never put that horror behind them. Keep in mind also that combat can be so confusing that soldiers often kill innocent people by mistake. I’m talking about victims such as the elderly, mothers, children and little babies. The military leadership calls those mistakes collateral damage. Call it what you will, those horrible mistakes create tremendous feelings of guilt in most of the soldiers... those that still have hearts and souls.
Many of those combat veterans who accidentally slaughtered innocents do everything possible to stop the bad memories: some turn to religious fervor but others lose themselves in illegal drugs, alcohol, self-destruction and abusive behavior. Many have ended up as patients in mental hospitals or in prison. Many have committed suicide.
In our own family, I remember we had 'the drunks'... Uncle Art, Uncle Wayne, Uncle Ed, Uncle Martin, Grandpa Joe, Grandpa Harry...veterans of World War II and Korea. As a kid, I didn't understand they were suffering what came to be known as PTSD. We just made fun of them. There were the butt of family jokes. Only many years later did I realize when they came home there was no psychiatric help for them... only 'self-medication' with alcohol and/or illicit drugs.
Remembering what I said about expressing gratitude to veterans, I would suggest that anytime you are in a public place and you see a man or woman wearing the uniform of our Armed Forces, take just 15 seconds and simply say to that person: “Thank you for serving our country.”
You will, most likely, receive a grateful smile and a “Thanks” in return – maybe even a small tear in his or her eye. They appreciate your kindness for acknowledging their service and sacrifice. The same goes for the old veterans of previous wars who also served when they were young – many of them fresh out of high school.
So, I reiterate, war is not a game – not virtual reality. It is not a computer, digital, X-box or Playstation game. Here in the real world, millions of Americans have answered the call to defend our nation from those who sought to destroy us. Hundreds of thousands have suffered permanent injury and early death since the birth of our great country in 1776. To honor them is only right and good.
Some dissidents criticize and ridicule those of us who have served in the military without realizing that they would not have the right to free speech if we had not preserved it for them – if we had not chosen to stand up and fight for the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Our Armed Forces have secured that which we call The American Way of Life and they did it with rivers of blood. Yes, I repeat. It is only right to honor them on November 11, their special day. Thank you, kids.
Gerald Edward Logan
Donna, Texas
11 November 2008
Up until 2005 there was virtually no gratitude... but then something changed for the better. Maybe the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center precipitated the change. I'd like to think it was the grandchildren, grandnieces, grandnephews (thanks in many ways to their teachers) who are at the vanguard of a new awareness of the Vietnam-era conflicts overseas and at home. Our country was in turmoil. I don't have to remind those who lived it.
For Veterans' Day 2008, out of the blue, I was treated to a 'card shower' from 35 junior high students. I tell you... there were a few of my tears shed. In response, I wrote the following letter.
VETERANS’ DAY 2008 RESPONSE
To the students of Mrs. Perez:
Thank you, my young friends, for the Veterans’ Day letters of appreciation. You have no idea how much these tokens of gratitude mean to any person who now serves or previously served as a member of the United States Armed Forces.
From the time I served in the Vietnam War in 1966-68 until now – 40 years later – only six people have taken the time to shake my hand and thank me for protecting and defending our United States of America. Sad but true.
If you take away nothing else from this message, here is one important point: real war is not a game... it is hell on earth.
Many of the warriors who were in the heat of combat, having to meet their so-called enemies face-to-face can never put that horror behind them. Keep in mind also that combat can be so confusing that soldiers often kill innocent people by mistake. I’m talking about victims such as the elderly, mothers, children and little babies. The military leadership calls those mistakes collateral damage. Call it what you will, those horrible mistakes create tremendous feelings of guilt in most of the soldiers... those that still have hearts and souls.
Many of those combat veterans who accidentally slaughtered innocents do everything possible to stop the bad memories: some turn to religious fervor but others lose themselves in illegal drugs, alcohol, self-destruction and abusive behavior. Many have ended up as patients in mental hospitals or in prison. Many have committed suicide.
In our own family, I remember we had 'the drunks'... Uncle Art, Uncle Wayne, Uncle Ed, Uncle Martin, Grandpa Joe, Grandpa Harry...veterans of World War II and Korea. As a kid, I didn't understand they were suffering what came to be known as PTSD. We just made fun of them. There were the butt of family jokes. Only many years later did I realize when they came home there was no psychiatric help for them... only 'self-medication' with alcohol and/or illicit drugs.
Remembering what I said about expressing gratitude to veterans, I would suggest that anytime you are in a public place and you see a man or woman wearing the uniform of our Armed Forces, take just 15 seconds and simply say to that person: “Thank you for serving our country.”
You will, most likely, receive a grateful smile and a “Thanks” in return – maybe even a small tear in his or her eye. They appreciate your kindness for acknowledging their service and sacrifice. The same goes for the old veterans of previous wars who also served when they were young – many of them fresh out of high school.
So, I reiterate, war is not a game – not virtual reality. It is not a computer, digital, X-box or Playstation game. Here in the real world, millions of Americans have answered the call to defend our nation from those who sought to destroy us. Hundreds of thousands have suffered permanent injury and early death since the birth of our great country in 1776. To honor them is only right and good.
Some dissidents criticize and ridicule those of us who have served in the military without realizing that they would not have the right to free speech if we had not preserved it for them – if we had not chosen to stand up and fight for the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Our Armed Forces have secured that which we call The American Way of Life and they did it with rivers of blood. Yes, I repeat. It is only right to honor them on November 11, their special day. Thank you, kids.
Gerald Edward Logan
Donna, Texas
11 November 2008
May 31, 2019
The Intellectual Storm Upon Us
"A great desolation grows about us but up there is the warmth of a fireside and the loveliness of a garden. There are shrines for the devout, but up there is a shrine for those who are going to war, for those who will see the shivering void beyond the rim of faith. Once heroes built fortresses against the Mongol and the Saracen; now they must build fortresses against the whole world. Once they fought with spear and pikestaff against hordes of riding men. Today they must fight against pride and indifference and knowledge, against the agnosticism that like a poison gas decomposes the minds of the earth.
"I tell you I know what I am talking about. Once they - the believers, the students, the scholars, the soldiers, the saints - could fight heresies and heretics. Today they have to fight a state of mind. One might as well fight a plague with a bow and arrow..."
So wrote Myles Connolly in Mr. Blue, 1928.
Naturally, he wasn't the only one back then who saw the road ahead for the men of the West. Many thoughtful people saw coming what we now live.
Beyond gazing into the future, Myles Connolly argued that the only way to fight a "state of mind" is another state of mind.
Many who are concerned by the direction of the country have asked us, "What can I do?" A very important start to doing something is to see that your children and grandchildren are raised with a different state of mind.
As a society we have been lulled largely into believing that an education can be "value-neutral". It cannot. John Henry Newman writes that the aim of education is the "exercise and growth in certain habits, moral or intellectual." All children will be taught moral and intellectual habits, but which ones?
Furthermore, while a child may make it through today's education system and continue to uphold the beliefs and traditions of his parents, what opportunities for the student to develop both the philosophical understanding and practical applications of the great virtues and principles of the West were lost? What opportunities to be rooted in history and the great literature of the world were missed?
Perhaps we should not be asking, "Did my child make it through?", but rather, "How can my child be taught differently?"
St. Basil the Great wrote about the importance of rooting children in habits of virtue,
"It is no small advantage that a certain intimacy and familiarity with virtue should be engendered in the souls of the young, seeing that the lessons learned by such are likely, in the nature of the case, to be indelible, having been deeply impressed in them by reason of the tenderness of their souls."
Writing in the Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis similarly sees the need to impart the good, the true, and the beautiful to students: "Aristotle says that the aim of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought. When the age for reflective thought comes, the pupil who has been thus trained in 'ordinate affections' or 'just sentiments' will easily find the first principles in Ethics; but to the corrupt man they will never be visible at all and he can make no progress in that science. Plato before him had said the same. The little human animal will not at first have the right responses. It must be trained to feel pleasure, liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which really are pleasant, likeable, disgusting, and hateful. In the Republic, the well-nurtured youth is one 'who would see most clearly whatever was amiss in ill-made works of man or ill-grown works of nature, and with a just distaste would blame and hate the ugly even from his earliest years and would give delighted praise to beauty, receiving it into his soul and being nourished by it, so that he becomes a man of gentler heart. All this before he is of an age to reason; so that when Reason at length comes to him, then, bred as he has been, he will hold out his hands in welcome and recognize her because of the affinity he bears to her."
Through parenting and education we can raise a new generation with the state of mind that will be necessary for the challenges ahead. It is how each of us can do our little part, to plant the seeds that will grow into mighty oaks.
Those oaks may very well be the ones who someday begin their own long-march through the institutions of our society, retaking the culture through their efforts. To quote Russell Kirk quoting Edmund Burke: "At the very moment when some states 'seemed plunged in unfathomable abysses of disgrace and disaster,' Burke wrote in his First Letter on a Regicide Peace, 'they have suddenly emerged. They have begun a new course, and opened a new reckoning; and even in the depths of their calamity, and on the very ruins of their country, have laid the foundations of a towering and durable greatness. All this has happened without any apparent previous change in the general circumstances which had brought on their distress. The death of a man at a critical juncture, his disgust, his retreat, his disgrace, have brought innumerable calamities on a whole nation. A common soldier, a child, a girl at the door of an inn, have changed the face of fortune, and almost of Nature.'"
The storm may be upon us, but if we work the soil and plant the seeds today there will be hope for tomorrow.
-- Devin Foley, CEO & Co-Founder of Intellectual Takeout. July 2015
"I tell you I know what I am talking about. Once they - the believers, the students, the scholars, the soldiers, the saints - could fight heresies and heretics. Today they have to fight a state of mind. One might as well fight a plague with a bow and arrow..."
So wrote Myles Connolly in Mr. Blue, 1928.
Naturally, he wasn't the only one back then who saw the road ahead for the men of the West. Many thoughtful people saw coming what we now live.
Beyond gazing into the future, Myles Connolly argued that the only way to fight a "state of mind" is another state of mind.
Many who are concerned by the direction of the country have asked us, "What can I do?" A very important start to doing something is to see that your children and grandchildren are raised with a different state of mind.
As a society we have been lulled largely into believing that an education can be "value-neutral". It cannot. John Henry Newman writes that the aim of education is the "exercise and growth in certain habits, moral or intellectual." All children will be taught moral and intellectual habits, but which ones?
Furthermore, while a child may make it through today's education system and continue to uphold the beliefs and traditions of his parents, what opportunities for the student to develop both the philosophical understanding and practical applications of the great virtues and principles of the West were lost? What opportunities to be rooted in history and the great literature of the world were missed?
Perhaps we should not be asking, "Did my child make it through?", but rather, "How can my child be taught differently?"
St. Basil the Great wrote about the importance of rooting children in habits of virtue,
"It is no small advantage that a certain intimacy and familiarity with virtue should be engendered in the souls of the young, seeing that the lessons learned by such are likely, in the nature of the case, to be indelible, having been deeply impressed in them by reason of the tenderness of their souls."
Writing in the Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis similarly sees the need to impart the good, the true, and the beautiful to students: "Aristotle says that the aim of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought. When the age for reflective thought comes, the pupil who has been thus trained in 'ordinate affections' or 'just sentiments' will easily find the first principles in Ethics; but to the corrupt man they will never be visible at all and he can make no progress in that science. Plato before him had said the same. The little human animal will not at first have the right responses. It must be trained to feel pleasure, liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which really are pleasant, likeable, disgusting, and hateful. In the Republic, the well-nurtured youth is one 'who would see most clearly whatever was amiss in ill-made works of man or ill-grown works of nature, and with a just distaste would blame and hate the ugly even from his earliest years and would give delighted praise to beauty, receiving it into his soul and being nourished by it, so that he becomes a man of gentler heart. All this before he is of an age to reason; so that when Reason at length comes to him, then, bred as he has been, he will hold out his hands in welcome and recognize her because of the affinity he bears to her."
Through parenting and education we can raise a new generation with the state of mind that will be necessary for the challenges ahead. It is how each of us can do our little part, to plant the seeds that will grow into mighty oaks.
Those oaks may very well be the ones who someday begin their own long-march through the institutions of our society, retaking the culture through their efforts. To quote Russell Kirk quoting Edmund Burke: "At the very moment when some states 'seemed plunged in unfathomable abysses of disgrace and disaster,' Burke wrote in his First Letter on a Regicide Peace, 'they have suddenly emerged. They have begun a new course, and opened a new reckoning; and even in the depths of their calamity, and on the very ruins of their country, have laid the foundations of a towering and durable greatness. All this has happened without any apparent previous change in the general circumstances which had brought on their distress. The death of a man at a critical juncture, his disgust, his retreat, his disgrace, have brought innumerable calamities on a whole nation. A common soldier, a child, a girl at the door of an inn, have changed the face of fortune, and almost of Nature.'"
The storm may be upon us, but if we work the soil and plant the seeds today there will be hope for tomorrow.
-- Devin Foley, CEO & Co-Founder of Intellectual Takeout. July 2015
May 29, 2019
Bloody Sixteen, a book by CDR Peter Fey, USN-retired
Bloody Sixteen: The USS Oriskany and Air Wing 16 during the Vietnam War
The "Bloody Sixteenth" was my air wing (CVW-16) onboard the carrier USS Oriskany. My squadron was VFP-63 or Photo Reconnaissance Squadron-63. Now, thanks to retired naval aviator, Commander Peter Fey, I have a totally new understanding of that of which I was a part... and a newfound respect for the officers and pilots I rubbed shoulders with on a daily basis. I had no idea Operation Rolling Thunder and CVW-16 on CVA-34 were so historically significant - maybe no one at the time actually did. Maybe 50 years had to expire before military historians, such as Fey, could look back and see the big picture without the 'fog of war' obstructing the view.
Fey recalls that many of the pilots, same as many of the enlisted ranks, didn't talk much to others about their Vietnam experience once they rejoined civilian life. Older Americans of the mid-twentieth-century -- those that had hailed victories in Europe and the Western Pacific during World War II -- did not want to admit our nation could be defeated anywhere on the world stage.. but it was. To his credit author Peter Fey is quick to point out that our losses in Vietnam were due to no weakness of the men and women fighting the war; their strength and resolve remained true to the bitter end.
I thank you, Mister Fey, sir, for allowing me a privileged seat today on the tower of history. Up here, I can better see the entire sprawling vista. Because of Bloody Sixteen this old guy, who was a 20-year-old Petty Officer 3rd Class in 1967, has been allowed an eagle's eye view to events that influenced my entire life after Vietnam; and greatly influenced our nation's future decisions based on what we learned in the Vietnam War.
I think I first heard this bromide in a Filipino bar while chugging San Miguel beers with a shipmate... it goes like this: "The old war veterans talk about the glory of it. The politicians talk about the necessity of it. But, the soldiers and sailors living it... they just want to go home."
At 72, I now qualify as an old veteran but I still see very little glory in that war. I kept a daily diary throughout my 1967-68 cruise to Yankee Station, Gulf of Tonkin because I wanted to remember not only the glory... but all the disappointments too. And there's even more of that than I thought. Peter Fey details the sloppy mismanagement of the war by high-level military leaders; even more so by US President Lyndon Johnson, Secretary McNamara and the other "whiz kids" left over from JFK's administration. They met every Tuesday noon for lunch at the White House where strategy and targets were determined for the upcoming week without any Pentagon officers present. LBJ wanted to run the war without generals and admirals getting in the way.
Primary focus of Bloody Sixteen is on Commissioned Flight Officers of the US Navy, an elite brotherhood of aviation professionals. The book is a tactical analysis of their missions in the Vietnam War, individually and overall. The non-commissioned and enlisted men are generally relegated to their subservient status. As for the North Vietnamese, during the three years of Operation Rolling Thunder, it is estimated non-combatants (men, women, children) were killed at a rate of 1,000 per month. These human beings, mostly farmers, were generally seen as statistical consequences of war - 'collateral damage' in military parlance. To me that seems coldhearted. But then again, war is not about hugs and warm fuzzies.
In this story, passion, empathy, sympathy and tugs of the heart are reserved for naval aviators, their missions, their downings by AAA or SAM's, their status as KIA, MIA or POW and their US Naval Aviation legacies. If that's what you want in a book, then this is the book you want. Better than any video game, kids, this is war in the raw.
Bloody Sixteen is destined to become one of the best military histories of the Vietnam War. I wholeheartedly agree with naval aviator and best-selling author Stephen Coonts when he called Peter Fey's work, "Magnificent, superbly researched."
The "Bloody Sixteenth" was my air wing (CVW-16) onboard the carrier USS Oriskany. My squadron was VFP-63 or Photo Reconnaissance Squadron-63. Now, thanks to retired naval aviator, Commander Peter Fey, I have a totally new understanding of that of which I was a part... and a newfound respect for the officers and pilots I rubbed shoulders with on a daily basis. I had no idea Operation Rolling Thunder and CVW-16 on CVA-34 were so historically significant - maybe no one at the time actually did. Maybe 50 years had to expire before military historians, such as Fey, could look back and see the big picture without the 'fog of war' obstructing the view.
Fey recalls that many of the pilots, same as many of the enlisted ranks, didn't talk much to others about their Vietnam experience once they rejoined civilian life. Older Americans of the mid-twentieth-century -- those that had hailed victories in Europe and the Western Pacific during World War II -- did not want to admit our nation could be defeated anywhere on the world stage.. but it was. To his credit author Peter Fey is quick to point out that our losses in Vietnam were due to no weakness of the men and women fighting the war; their strength and resolve remained true to the bitter end.
I thank you, Mister Fey, sir, for allowing me a privileged seat today on the tower of history. Up here, I can better see the entire sprawling vista. Because of Bloody Sixteen this old guy, who was a 20-year-old Petty Officer 3rd Class in 1967, has been allowed an eagle's eye view to events that influenced my entire life after Vietnam; and greatly influenced our nation's future decisions based on what we learned in the Vietnam War.
I think I first heard this bromide in a Filipino bar while chugging San Miguel beers with a shipmate... it goes like this: "The old war veterans talk about the glory of it. The politicians talk about the necessity of it. But, the soldiers and sailors living it... they just want to go home."
At 72, I now qualify as an old veteran but I still see very little glory in that war. I kept a daily diary throughout my 1967-68 cruise to Yankee Station, Gulf of Tonkin because I wanted to remember not only the glory... but all the disappointments too. And there's even more of that than I thought. Peter Fey details the sloppy mismanagement of the war by high-level military leaders; even more so by US President Lyndon Johnson, Secretary McNamara and the other "whiz kids" left over from JFK's administration. They met every Tuesday noon for lunch at the White House where strategy and targets were determined for the upcoming week without any Pentagon officers present. LBJ wanted to run the war without generals and admirals getting in the way.
Primary focus of Bloody Sixteen is on Commissioned Flight Officers of the US Navy, an elite brotherhood of aviation professionals. The book is a tactical analysis of their missions in the Vietnam War, individually and overall. The non-commissioned and enlisted men are generally relegated to their subservient status. As for the North Vietnamese, during the three years of Operation Rolling Thunder, it is estimated non-combatants (men, women, children) were killed at a rate of 1,000 per month. These human beings, mostly farmers, were generally seen as statistical consequences of war - 'collateral damage' in military parlance. To me that seems coldhearted. But then again, war is not about hugs and warm fuzzies.
In this story, passion, empathy, sympathy and tugs of the heart are reserved for naval aviators, their missions, their downings by AAA or SAM's, their status as KIA, MIA or POW and their US Naval Aviation legacies. If that's what you want in a book, then this is the book you want. Better than any video game, kids, this is war in the raw.
Bloody Sixteen is destined to become one of the best military histories of the Vietnam War. I wholeheartedly agree with naval aviator and best-selling author Stephen Coonts when he called Peter Fey's work, "Magnificent, superbly researched."
May 25, 2019
Johnny Cash Tribute Night
Often do I feel sorry for the musician and his labor of sweet heartfelt songs as certain tables of gathered peeps seek to drown him out... but that's the way the world works. My kids can tell you just as much. The singer did a fine anthology of Johnny's music sans a fill-in June. But his and Johnny's final song, "Hurt" didn't fully convey the sadness it deserved... due to the aforementioned. It's a song for loneliness anyway. And the insult of aging. "I hurt myself today to see if I still feel." https://youtu.be/vt1Pwfnh5pc
May 20, 2019
What Culture of Contempt?
Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt
Observing our recent flooding in eastern Nebraska / western Iowa, the people of my beloved midwestern culture behaved as they always do... they jumped right in and helped their fellow humans in every way they could. No big surprise, throughout the course of my seven decades that's the way it's always been.
I see and hear so much about a "culture of contempt" in America, look around and wonder to myself, "Where is it and who is fanning the flames?" Screen, script, news and editorial writers in New York and L.A. have always made fun of us out here in "flyover country"... I see that particular contempt on television all the time. It truly makes me wonder if those writers have ever visited our goodhearted region.
TED Talks have caught my respect here in the 21st century. I found this TED talk at IDEAS.TED.COM. It comes from Social Scientist Arthur Brooks, professor of public leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, as well as a senior fellow at Harvard Business School. Born and raised in and near Seattle, Brooks is author of 11 books, including his latest, “Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt,” the national bestseller of which this essay is an excerpt.
-- Gerald MacLennon
-------------------------------
Political scientists find that the US is more polarized than it has been at any time since the Civil War. And as much as we’d like to, we can’t joke the problem away. The only truly funny thing I’ve seen in our fractured political culture was a bumper sticker in the run-up to November 2016 that read “Giant Meteor 2016,” suggesting a humanity-ending catastrophe would be better than the election’s choices. As my daughter would say, “That’s dark, man.”
We need national healing. But what are we getting from many leaders in media, politics, entertainment and academia? Across the political spectrum, people in positions of influence are setting us against one another. They tell us that those who disagree with us politically are ruining our country, that ideological differences aren’t a matter of differing opinions but reflect moral turpitude, and that our side must utterly vanquish the other side even if it leaves our neighbors without a voice. We are living in a culture of contempt.
It is up to us to join together and work to subvert the culture of contempt.
What is the cure? I believe that it’s not civility or tolerance; instead, it’s love for one another and our country. It is up to us to join together and work to subvert the culture of contempt. I don’t know if this movement will be successful or popular, as it runs so counter to the prevailing currents. But if you’d like to try to renew our nation, here are five simple rules to remember:
Rule 1. Refuse to be used by the powerful.
Most people don’t believe they’re being used by others. Why not? Think for a second about a manipulative leader — someone you know who uses people’s hatred for their own goals of money, power or fame. Got an image in your head? You’re probably thinking of someone you dislike, someone who might use others — but someone who can’t use you because you already see through them.
However, that’s not quite right. The accurate image of a powerful manipulator is someone on your side of the debate: a media figure who always affirms your views, a politician who always says what you think, or a professor who never challenges your biases. They declare the other side is terrible, irredeemable, unintelligent or anything else that expresses contempt — and they say you should think these things as well.
As satisfying as it is to hear these things, remember: These people do not serve your interests. They want to get you fired up, because when they do, they make money, win elections, or get more famous and powerful.
Just as a fire requires oxygen, the culture of contempt is sustained by polarization and separation.
To begin with, make an inventory of these figures in your life. Then, set your strategy for rebellion, which comes in one of two forms. The first is passive: tuning out manipulators. This is most appropriate for those with whom you don’t have any direct contact — a columnist or TV host. Stop watching the show or reading the column. Ask: “Will I miss something I don’t already think or know? Or am I just scratching an itch?” Unless the person is teaching you something or expanding your worldview or moral outlook, you are being used.
The second form is active — and harder: Stand up to people on your own side who trash people on the other side. It’s never easy to stand up to our own friends, but contempt is destructive, no matter who expresses it. Will you get invited to fewer parties, have fewer followers on social media, and hear less gossip? Probably. But you know it’s the right thing to do, and you will feel great.
Rule 2. Escape your bubble.
Just as a fire requires oxygen, the culture of contempt is sustained by polarization and separation. It is easy to express contempt for those with whom we disagree when we view them as “them” or never see them at all. Contempt is much harder to express when we see one another as fellow human beings, as “us.”
A simple way to start practicing this rule is by going to unfamiliar ideological territory. If you’re a conservative, listen to NPR a couple of mornings a week instead of watching FOX & Friends, or include a few pieces from the Atlantic in your articles to read. If you’re liberal, from time to time put down the Washington Post and read the Wall Street Journal editorial page, or add a few conservative podcasts to your rotation.
A more serious approach involves your relationships. Ask yourself: “Do I go places where my ideas are in the minority? Do I hear diverse viewpoints? Do I have personal friendships with people who do not share my politics?” Make an ideologically wider social circle your project for this year.
Contempt is always harmful for the contemptor. While it may feel good in the moment, it is the fast road to unhappiness.
Escaping the bubble also means — to mix metaphors — breaking out of the shackles of identity. In America today, many people primarily identify themselves in strong demographic terms, including political categories. While this identification can create a sense of belonging and power in numbers, mostly it emphasizes our differences. That’s a self-defeating proposition if we want a unified country that can cope with our shared challenges.
One of my great moral heroes is the Dalai Lama, who understands the balance between common story and individual identity better than anyone I’ve ever met. Here are his words: “I’m Tibetan, I’m Buddhist, and I’m the Dalai Lama, but if I emphasize these differences, it sets me apart and raises barriers with other people. What we need to do is to pay more attention to the ways in which we are the same as other people.”
Rule 3. Treat others with love and respect, even when it’s difficult.
Never treat others with contempt, even if you believe they deserve it. First, your contempt makes persuasion impossible, because no one has ever been insulted into agreement. Second, you may be wrong to assume that certain people are beyond reason. There are many examples of people forming unlikely bonds precisely because they didn’t treat each other with contempt.
Finally, contempt is always harmful for the contemptor. While it may feel good in the moment, it is the fast road to unhappiness. “How can I avoid contempt for someone who is immoral?”
I hear that question every day. In virtually every case, those whom you consider immoral are not when it comes to principles you care about, like compassion and fairness. They may have different moral taste buds on, say, loyalty, purity or authority, but that’s all right. Focus on what is most important to both of you.
As in politics and economics, competition — bounded by rule of law and morality — brings excellence.
What about when you are the one treated with contempt? See it not as a threat but as an opportunity to change at least one heart — your own. Respond with warm-heartedness and good humor. You are guaranteed to be happier. Others might see it, and if it affects them at all, it will be to the good.
One last word on this topic. You might be feeling a little guilty right now. If you’ve been connected to political discussion over the last few years, you may have said contemptuous things about — or to — others. I have. What should we do about that? It’s time to apologize. Perhaps say, “I know we don’t agree, but you are more important to me than our disagreement. Sorry I let our disagreement mess up our relationship.”
Rule 4. Be part of a healthy competition of ideas.
If you did nothing more than glance at the title of my book — Love Your Enemies — you may be tempted to conclude that my main argument is to avoid disagreement by disagreeing less. But I believe disagreement is good because competition is good. As in politics and economics, competition — bounded by rule of law and morality — brings excellence.
In the world of ideas, competition is called “disagreement.” Disagreement helps us innovate, improve, correct and find the truth. Of course, disagreement — like free markets and free elections — requires proper behavior to function. No one thinks that hacking a voting machine is part of a healthy democracy, nor that cronyism and corruption are part of the way free enterprise is supposed to work. Similarly, anything that makes open, respectful disagreement difficult or impossible is incompatible with a true competition of ideas.
Do a politics cleanse. You’ll find politics is like a daytime soap opera, in that you can skip a couple of weeks without losing track of the plot.
The single biggest way a subversive can change America is not by disagreeing less, but by disagreeing better — engaging in earnest debate while still treating everyone with love and respect.
Rule 5. Disconnect from unproductive debates.
My guess is that you, like me, are superconnected to the world of ideas. That’s great, but it can also be problematic. For most of my life, I thought if I wanted to have a positive impact on the world, I had to be as informed as possible. In my 20s, when I was a French horn player in Barcelona with no interest in public policy, I decided to subscribe to the Economist. I simply felt that I needed more information to be a better citizen.
But these days, is more information better for your ability to be a constructive and happy citizen? Click on the app for your favorite newspaper and you will be enmeshed in a complicated algorithm feeding you stories curated for your tastes and designed to keep you reading as long as possible.
The solution is selectivity and rationing. Get rid of curated social media feeds. Unfollow public figures who foment contempt. Want to get really radical? Stop talking and thinking about politics for a little while. Do a politics cleanse. For two weeks — maybe during your next vacation — resolve not to read, watch or listen to anything about politics. Don’t discuss politics with anyone. This will be hard to do but not impossible.
Go find someone with whom you disagree; listen thoughtfully; and treat them with respect and love.
Does the prospect of a cleanse worry you? Here’s the truth: If you stop talking about politics for a couple of weeks, nothing will change — except you might get invited to more parties because you don’t always talk about politics. Afterward, with more perspective, you’ll return to current events. I predict you’ll find politics is like a daytime soap opera, in that you can skip a couple of weeks without losing track of the plot. And, like any reformed addict, you’ll see how much time you were wasting and how much you were neglecting the people and things you truly love.
Those are my five rules. Want it even simpler? Go find someone with whom you disagree; listen thoughtfully; and treat them with respect and love.
Think of it like missionary work. In general, missionaries are ordinary people with a vision for a better world that they want to share. They can face opposition. In places like China, they are in physical danger, and even here in the US, most people see them at the door and whisper, “Pretend we’re not home!” But some people open the door, and then some of those listen and say, “I want that.” That’s how proselytizing is supposed to work. Missionaries supply others with a new vision, delivered with love and kindness, and then give them the tools to make that vision a reality.
Near my home is a Catholic retreat house where my wife and I teach marriage-preparation classes for engaged couples. In the chapel, there is a sign posted over the door — not the door coming in but rather the one going out into the parking lot. It is written for people to look at as they’re leaving. It says, “You are now entering mission territory.”
The message is profound: You are here because you have found what is good and true, but you’re going to go out where people haven’t yet found what you’ve discovered. You have the privilege of sharing it — with joy, confidence and love. That should be a message to all of us who want to make the US and the world better.
Arthur Brooks. Published by Broadside Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Copyright © 2019 by the American Enterprise Institute.
Observing our recent flooding in eastern Nebraska / western Iowa, the people of my beloved midwestern culture behaved as they always do... they jumped right in and helped their fellow humans in every way they could. No big surprise, throughout the course of my seven decades that's the way it's always been.
I see and hear so much about a "culture of contempt" in America, look around and wonder to myself, "Where is it and who is fanning the flames?" Screen, script, news and editorial writers in New York and L.A. have always made fun of us out here in "flyover country"... I see that particular contempt on television all the time. It truly makes me wonder if those writers have ever visited our goodhearted region.
TED Talks have caught my respect here in the 21st century. I found this TED talk at IDEAS.TED.COM. It comes from Social Scientist Arthur Brooks, professor of public leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, as well as a senior fellow at Harvard Business School. Born and raised in and near Seattle, Brooks is author of 11 books, including his latest, “Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt,” the national bestseller of which this essay is an excerpt.
-- Gerald MacLennon
-------------------------------
Political scientists find that the US is more polarized than it has been at any time since the Civil War. And as much as we’d like to, we can’t joke the problem away. The only truly funny thing I’ve seen in our fractured political culture was a bumper sticker in the run-up to November 2016 that read “Giant Meteor 2016,” suggesting a humanity-ending catastrophe would be better than the election’s choices. As my daughter would say, “That’s dark, man.”
We need national healing. But what are we getting from many leaders in media, politics, entertainment and academia? Across the political spectrum, people in positions of influence are setting us against one another. They tell us that those who disagree with us politically are ruining our country, that ideological differences aren’t a matter of differing opinions but reflect moral turpitude, and that our side must utterly vanquish the other side even if it leaves our neighbors without a voice. We are living in a culture of contempt.
It is up to us to join together and work to subvert the culture of contempt.
What is the cure? I believe that it’s not civility or tolerance; instead, it’s love for one another and our country. It is up to us to join together and work to subvert the culture of contempt. I don’t know if this movement will be successful or popular, as it runs so counter to the prevailing currents. But if you’d like to try to renew our nation, here are five simple rules to remember:
Rule 1. Refuse to be used by the powerful.
Most people don’t believe they’re being used by others. Why not? Think for a second about a manipulative leader — someone you know who uses people’s hatred for their own goals of money, power or fame. Got an image in your head? You’re probably thinking of someone you dislike, someone who might use others — but someone who can’t use you because you already see through them.
However, that’s not quite right. The accurate image of a powerful manipulator is someone on your side of the debate: a media figure who always affirms your views, a politician who always says what you think, or a professor who never challenges your biases. They declare the other side is terrible, irredeemable, unintelligent or anything else that expresses contempt — and they say you should think these things as well.
As satisfying as it is to hear these things, remember: These people do not serve your interests. They want to get you fired up, because when they do, they make money, win elections, or get more famous and powerful.
Just as a fire requires oxygen, the culture of contempt is sustained by polarization and separation.
To begin with, make an inventory of these figures in your life. Then, set your strategy for rebellion, which comes in one of two forms. The first is passive: tuning out manipulators. This is most appropriate for those with whom you don’t have any direct contact — a columnist or TV host. Stop watching the show or reading the column. Ask: “Will I miss something I don’t already think or know? Or am I just scratching an itch?” Unless the person is teaching you something or expanding your worldview or moral outlook, you are being used.
The second form is active — and harder: Stand up to people on your own side who trash people on the other side. It’s never easy to stand up to our own friends, but contempt is destructive, no matter who expresses it. Will you get invited to fewer parties, have fewer followers on social media, and hear less gossip? Probably. But you know it’s the right thing to do, and you will feel great.
Rule 2. Escape your bubble.
Just as a fire requires oxygen, the culture of contempt is sustained by polarization and separation. It is easy to express contempt for those with whom we disagree when we view them as “them” or never see them at all. Contempt is much harder to express when we see one another as fellow human beings, as “us.”
A simple way to start practicing this rule is by going to unfamiliar ideological territory. If you’re a conservative, listen to NPR a couple of mornings a week instead of watching FOX & Friends, or include a few pieces from the Atlantic in your articles to read. If you’re liberal, from time to time put down the Washington Post and read the Wall Street Journal editorial page, or add a few conservative podcasts to your rotation.
A more serious approach involves your relationships. Ask yourself: “Do I go places where my ideas are in the minority? Do I hear diverse viewpoints? Do I have personal friendships with people who do not share my politics?” Make an ideologically wider social circle your project for this year.
Contempt is always harmful for the contemptor. While it may feel good in the moment, it is the fast road to unhappiness.
Escaping the bubble also means — to mix metaphors — breaking out of the shackles of identity. In America today, many people primarily identify themselves in strong demographic terms, including political categories. While this identification can create a sense of belonging and power in numbers, mostly it emphasizes our differences. That’s a self-defeating proposition if we want a unified country that can cope with our shared challenges.
One of my great moral heroes is the Dalai Lama, who understands the balance between common story and individual identity better than anyone I’ve ever met. Here are his words: “I’m Tibetan, I’m Buddhist, and I’m the Dalai Lama, but if I emphasize these differences, it sets me apart and raises barriers with other people. What we need to do is to pay more attention to the ways in which we are the same as other people.”
Rule 3. Treat others with love and respect, even when it’s difficult.
Never treat others with contempt, even if you believe they deserve it. First, your contempt makes persuasion impossible, because no one has ever been insulted into agreement. Second, you may be wrong to assume that certain people are beyond reason. There are many examples of people forming unlikely bonds precisely because they didn’t treat each other with contempt.
Finally, contempt is always harmful for the contemptor. While it may feel good in the moment, it is the fast road to unhappiness. “How can I avoid contempt for someone who is immoral?”
I hear that question every day. In virtually every case, those whom you consider immoral are not when it comes to principles you care about, like compassion and fairness. They may have different moral taste buds on, say, loyalty, purity or authority, but that’s all right. Focus on what is most important to both of you.
As in politics and economics, competition — bounded by rule of law and morality — brings excellence.
What about when you are the one treated with contempt? See it not as a threat but as an opportunity to change at least one heart — your own. Respond with warm-heartedness and good humor. You are guaranteed to be happier. Others might see it, and if it affects them at all, it will be to the good.
One last word on this topic. You might be feeling a little guilty right now. If you’ve been connected to political discussion over the last few years, you may have said contemptuous things about — or to — others. I have. What should we do about that? It’s time to apologize. Perhaps say, “I know we don’t agree, but you are more important to me than our disagreement. Sorry I let our disagreement mess up our relationship.”
Rule 4. Be part of a healthy competition of ideas.
If you did nothing more than glance at the title of my book — Love Your Enemies — you may be tempted to conclude that my main argument is to avoid disagreement by disagreeing less. But I believe disagreement is good because competition is good. As in politics and economics, competition — bounded by rule of law and morality — brings excellence.
In the world of ideas, competition is called “disagreement.” Disagreement helps us innovate, improve, correct and find the truth. Of course, disagreement — like free markets and free elections — requires proper behavior to function. No one thinks that hacking a voting machine is part of a healthy democracy, nor that cronyism and corruption are part of the way free enterprise is supposed to work. Similarly, anything that makes open, respectful disagreement difficult or impossible is incompatible with a true competition of ideas.
Do a politics cleanse. You’ll find politics is like a daytime soap opera, in that you can skip a couple of weeks without losing track of the plot.
The single biggest way a subversive can change America is not by disagreeing less, but by disagreeing better — engaging in earnest debate while still treating everyone with love and respect.
Rule 5. Disconnect from unproductive debates.
My guess is that you, like me, are superconnected to the world of ideas. That’s great, but it can also be problematic. For most of my life, I thought if I wanted to have a positive impact on the world, I had to be as informed as possible. In my 20s, when I was a French horn player in Barcelona with no interest in public policy, I decided to subscribe to the Economist. I simply felt that I needed more information to be a better citizen.
But these days, is more information better for your ability to be a constructive and happy citizen? Click on the app for your favorite newspaper and you will be enmeshed in a complicated algorithm feeding you stories curated for your tastes and designed to keep you reading as long as possible.
The solution is selectivity and rationing. Get rid of curated social media feeds. Unfollow public figures who foment contempt. Want to get really radical? Stop talking and thinking about politics for a little while. Do a politics cleanse. For two weeks — maybe during your next vacation — resolve not to read, watch or listen to anything about politics. Don’t discuss politics with anyone. This will be hard to do but not impossible.
Go find someone with whom you disagree; listen thoughtfully; and treat them with respect and love.
Does the prospect of a cleanse worry you? Here’s the truth: If you stop talking about politics for a couple of weeks, nothing will change — except you might get invited to more parties because you don’t always talk about politics. Afterward, with more perspective, you’ll return to current events. I predict you’ll find politics is like a daytime soap opera, in that you can skip a couple of weeks without losing track of the plot. And, like any reformed addict, you’ll see how much time you were wasting and how much you were neglecting the people and things you truly love.
Those are my five rules. Want it even simpler? Go find someone with whom you disagree; listen thoughtfully; and treat them with respect and love.
Think of it like missionary work. In general, missionaries are ordinary people with a vision for a better world that they want to share. They can face opposition. In places like China, they are in physical danger, and even here in the US, most people see them at the door and whisper, “Pretend we’re not home!” But some people open the door, and then some of those listen and say, “I want that.” That’s how proselytizing is supposed to work. Missionaries supply others with a new vision, delivered with love and kindness, and then give them the tools to make that vision a reality.
Near my home is a Catholic retreat house where my wife and I teach marriage-preparation classes for engaged couples. In the chapel, there is a sign posted over the door — not the door coming in but rather the one going out into the parking lot. It is written for people to look at as they’re leaving. It says, “You are now entering mission territory.”
The message is profound: You are here because you have found what is good and true, but you’re going to go out where people haven’t yet found what you’ve discovered. You have the privilege of sharing it — with joy, confidence and love. That should be a message to all of us who want to make the US and the world better.
Arthur Brooks. Published by Broadside Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Copyright © 2019 by the American Enterprise Institute.
May 12, 2019
We always knew about Mama's love
Mama wasn't perfect, but who is? She always had room in her heart for one more; and things would always be better with one more rice crispy bar. From homemade bread to cornbread and beans when times were tough our family was always clothed and well fed.
As for her children, us, she didn't always agree with our decisions and Lord knows we gave this lovely woman her share of grief. Even so, we always knew we were loved. This goes for the grandchildren, too. (and the greats, and great greats). From our hearts to our mother’s heart... you accomplished it all, Mama!
That was from Sister Jeris. This is from me.
About 5 years ago, when Mom and husband, Cady, were moving from a townhouse to an apartment, they were forced, one more time, to downsize their possessions. Mom took me into her small office and handed me a heavy satchel, saying, “These are some of my writings, Ger. The ones that I’m most pleased with. I don’t know if you can do anything with them, but I’ve done about all I can.”
With Mom’s death occurring last Wednesday at the Manor, I knew I was obliged to say something about this lovely woman at her funeral, her last performance… so I searched through my closet for that heavy satchel. I opened it and looked through her typed and handwritten stories, poems and messages. I was reading them for about 8 hours. And, it occurred to me, my Mother had the same obsession for writing that I do. And like me, much of it went into folders, files and notebooks that didn’t see the light of day ever again.
You may recall, that before old age took its toll on her body, Mom had beautiful, Palmer-method, longhand, cursive handwriting. She received a lot of compliments. She considered it an artform and taught it to me. But then, on her final stretch of life, physical deterioration just stole it away from her.
I probably don’t have to tell any of you here about how much it hurts to see someone you have loved for years, decades – someone who was once young, bouncy, vivacious and totally exuding life in all its forms… to see all that love of life she possessed gradually taken away, bit by bit, insult by insult, downsize by downsize until at 93 years of age, she had nothing in this world but a ten-by-twenty foot room, a few photos, a single twin bed, a chair and chest of drawers and that’s it… about the size of a prison cell. But she had a lot of medical needs that required constant attention… and we just couldn’t do it well.
Last week, I knew Mom couldn’t bear it any longer. It was horrible for her to know that the Manor, the nursing home was good as it gets… there would never be an improvement… not in this life… not in this world. Ultimately, she would have to take a permanent leave…but bless her heart, Mom had a lifetime of preparation for going to that next realm. Her faith, her belief in God, and his Holy Spirit was tremendously strong. That faith got her through circumstances that would kill a person who had no hope. That’s because (standby for the lyrics) her hope was built on nothing less than Jesus and His righteousness… those are words in one of the many hymns Norma and Daddy Neal Logan sang in Red Oak, Iowa at the Salvation Army Church when they were young. And, that they sang together in the '55 Oldsmobile as we toodled down the road to our destinations, Shenandoah, Omaha, Des Moines, or vacations in Colorado, South Dakota and Minnesota. Those two, that duo sang hymns and pop songs of the 1940s and 50s… and Jeris and I, and later Jeff, were privileged to be Mom and Dad’s audience. We thought all parents did that. We didn’t know any better.
Yup, Side by Side. “O’ we ain’t got a barrel of money. Maybe we’re ragged and funny. But we’re travelin’ along, singing a song, side by side.” That magical place long ago, in the past, was where Mom and I would travel in our minds when we wanted to escape the Manor for a couple hours. We built beautiful images in our heads. You younger ones may wonder why the old people reminisce so much… why they talk about the ‘Good Old Days’. Y’know I swore I would never do that… but now I catch myself doing that… and doing things I said I’d never do like eagerly looking forward every night to “Wheel of Fortune with Pat & Vanna.” What am I becoming? And Lord, we used to torment poor Grandma Florence for doing the same thing with “Lawrence Welk & His Orchestra.” And-a one, and-a two.
In those writings in the satchel that Sandy and I looked through yesterday… we found one message that sounded very Norma-esque… which is to say deep emotions and a propensity to tell her kids and grandkids how much she loved them. The world should be so afflicted. Here it is:
************************
I give thanks to God for my three children, for giving me the privilege of Motherhood. And to my four (now six) grandchildren for giving me the gift of ‘Grandmotherhood’. Without these privileges there would have been so many lessons that were never taught to me; so many joys I would have missed. And, yes, there were many tears and sorrows that came into my life… but I also thanked God for this beautiful privilege. I am amazed at how I’ve have grown so much in so many ways through the experiences I’ve shared with my children and my grandchildren.
Mom concludes by saying, “I want to tell my children, by putting it in writing, that I truly love each and every one of them.” She goes on, “But words on paper, of course, have no meaning if not backed up by the actions of my life.”
************************
She didn’t have to worry about that. Like my little sister said, “Lord knows we gave this lovely woman her share of grief. (That includes you Jeff.) But, even so, we always knew we were loved.”
Mom’s written words brought tears to my eyes when I first read them. They amplified that feeling of loss, but I realized Sunday that Mom still lives in her writings… she still talks to us, to me, my siblings, to Sandy, to her husband Cady… Mom’s unconditional love radiates out to ALL her family and friends.. I mean, she was not Wonder Women. Her only secret Action Figure power was the Power of God living inside of her… and that gave her the power to go on when life was throwing her nothing but grief and garbage… and that gave her the power to love. And… She gave us that love because He first loved her.
Gerald Edward Logan aka Gerald MacLennon
As for her children, us, she didn't always agree with our decisions and Lord knows we gave this lovely woman her share of grief. Even so, we always knew we were loved. This goes for the grandchildren, too. (and the greats, and great greats). From our hearts to our mother’s heart... you accomplished it all, Mama!
That was from Sister Jeris. This is from me.
About 5 years ago, when Mom and husband, Cady, were moving from a townhouse to an apartment, they were forced, one more time, to downsize their possessions. Mom took me into her small office and handed me a heavy satchel, saying, “These are some of my writings, Ger. The ones that I’m most pleased with. I don’t know if you can do anything with them, but I’ve done about all I can.”
With Mom’s death occurring last Wednesday at the Manor, I knew I was obliged to say something about this lovely woman at her funeral, her last performance… so I searched through my closet for that heavy satchel. I opened it and looked through her typed and handwritten stories, poems and messages. I was reading them for about 8 hours. And, it occurred to me, my Mother had the same obsession for writing that I do. And like me, much of it went into folders, files and notebooks that didn’t see the light of day ever again.
You may recall, that before old age took its toll on her body, Mom had beautiful, Palmer-method, longhand, cursive handwriting. She received a lot of compliments. She considered it an artform and taught it to me. But then, on her final stretch of life, physical deterioration just stole it away from her.
I probably don’t have to tell any of you here about how much it hurts to see someone you have loved for years, decades – someone who was once young, bouncy, vivacious and totally exuding life in all its forms… to see all that love of life she possessed gradually taken away, bit by bit, insult by insult, downsize by downsize until at 93 years of age, she had nothing in this world but a ten-by-twenty foot room, a few photos, a single twin bed, a chair and chest of drawers and that’s it… about the size of a prison cell. But she had a lot of medical needs that required constant attention… and we just couldn’t do it well.
Last week, I knew Mom couldn’t bear it any longer. It was horrible for her to know that the Manor, the nursing home was good as it gets… there would never be an improvement… not in this life… not in this world. Ultimately, she would have to take a permanent leave…but bless her heart, Mom had a lifetime of preparation for going to that next realm. Her faith, her belief in God, and his Holy Spirit was tremendously strong. That faith got her through circumstances that would kill a person who had no hope. That’s because (standby for the lyrics) her hope was built on nothing less than Jesus and His righteousness… those are words in one of the many hymns Norma and Daddy Neal Logan sang in Red Oak, Iowa at the Salvation Army Church when they were young. And, that they sang together in the '55 Oldsmobile as we toodled down the road to our destinations, Shenandoah, Omaha, Des Moines, or vacations in Colorado, South Dakota and Minnesota. Those two, that duo sang hymns and pop songs of the 1940s and 50s… and Jeris and I, and later Jeff, were privileged to be Mom and Dad’s audience. We thought all parents did that. We didn’t know any better.
Yup, Side by Side. “O’ we ain’t got a barrel of money. Maybe we’re ragged and funny. But we’re travelin’ along, singing a song, side by side.” That magical place long ago, in the past, was where Mom and I would travel in our minds when we wanted to escape the Manor for a couple hours. We built beautiful images in our heads. You younger ones may wonder why the old people reminisce so much… why they talk about the ‘Good Old Days’. Y’know I swore I would never do that… but now I catch myself doing that… and doing things I said I’d never do like eagerly looking forward every night to “Wheel of Fortune with Pat & Vanna.” What am I becoming? And Lord, we used to torment poor Grandma Florence for doing the same thing with “Lawrence Welk & His Orchestra.” And-a one, and-a two.
In those writings in the satchel that Sandy and I looked through yesterday… we found one message that sounded very Norma-esque… which is to say deep emotions and a propensity to tell her kids and grandkids how much she loved them. The world should be so afflicted. Here it is:
************************
I give thanks to God for my three children, for giving me the privilege of Motherhood. And to my four (now six) grandchildren for giving me the gift of ‘Grandmotherhood’. Without these privileges there would have been so many lessons that were never taught to me; so many joys I would have missed. And, yes, there were many tears and sorrows that came into my life… but I also thanked God for this beautiful privilege. I am amazed at how I’ve have grown so much in so many ways through the experiences I’ve shared with my children and my grandchildren.
Mom concludes by saying, “I want to tell my children, by putting it in writing, that I truly love each and every one of them.” She goes on, “But words on paper, of course, have no meaning if not backed up by the actions of my life.”
************************
She didn’t have to worry about that. Like my little sister said, “Lord knows we gave this lovely woman her share of grief. (That includes you Jeff.) But, even so, we always knew we were loved.”
Mom’s written words brought tears to my eyes when I first read them. They amplified that feeling of loss, but I realized Sunday that Mom still lives in her writings… she still talks to us, to me, my siblings, to Sandy, to her husband Cady… Mom’s unconditional love radiates out to ALL her family and friends.. I mean, she was not Wonder Women. Her only secret Action Figure power was the Power of God living inside of her… and that gave her the power to go on when life was throwing her nothing but grief and garbage… and that gave her the power to love. And… She gave us that love because He first loved her.
Gerald Edward Logan aka Gerald MacLennon
May 4, 2019
Sailors to the End: The Deadly Fire on the USS Forrestal and the Heroes Who Fought It
the book is written by Gregory A. Freeman
On that July morning in 1967, nobody but God knew that by sunset 134 sailors and navy aviators would be dead with just as many injured, some terribly burnt. Our carrier, USS Oriskany CVA-34, steamed over to aid and assist the Forrestal during the emergency. Supplies and sailors were transported between the two ships via Sikorsky choppers. I volunteered to assist during the terrible overload down in sickbay. I did everything from mopping up puke to extracting bomb shrapnel from the bleeding bodies of 18-year-old enlisted men... and of course, just comforting them in whatever manner I could while they awaited treatment. Naturally, the wounded were triaged, taking the worst first. I wrote about the Forrestal incident in my book, "God, Bombs & Viet Nam" but I must admit Gregory Freeman has done a much better job. He is an excellent and prolific writer. I wish I could be half as skilled.
On that July morning in 1967, nobody but God knew that by sunset 134 sailors and navy aviators would be dead with just as many injured, some terribly burnt. Our carrier, USS Oriskany CVA-34, steamed over to aid and assist the Forrestal during the emergency. Supplies and sailors were transported between the two ships via Sikorsky choppers. I volunteered to assist during the terrible overload down in sickbay. I did everything from mopping up puke to extracting bomb shrapnel from the bleeding bodies of 18-year-old enlisted men... and of course, just comforting them in whatever manner I could while they awaited treatment. Naturally, the wounded were triaged, taking the worst first. I wrote about the Forrestal incident in my book, "God, Bombs & Viet Nam" but I must admit Gregory Freeman has done a much better job. He is an excellent and prolific writer. I wish I could be half as skilled.
May 2, 2019
A Notable Difference in the Omega Point
a review of Beyond 2012, The Omega Point
Whitley Strieber seeks answers through writing. Through a brilliant progression of books over the past quarter century, he has continued to ask and offer answers to some of life's most mystifying questions. It is to his credit that he can accomplish that feat by utilizing the vehicle of spell-binding fiction, much of it empathically linked to his personal encounters of the fourth kind. [See ,Communion 1987]
As another male of the Baby Boomer generation, I can personally relate to his evolution of consciousness. Strieber's personal path to wisdom has run a crooked path through a paranormal labyrinth, often causing him and his readers to question their grasp on reality - and to ask the disturbing question first put forth by anomaly investigator, Charles Fort: "If there is a universal mind, must it be sane?"
In "2012: The Omega Point," the author weaves a good Hollywood tale. As with his earlier collaboration with Art Bell on "The Day After Tomorrow," this latest work begs a screenplay adaptation. For the sake of extended sales, Strieber is smart to speculate that Winter Solstice 2012 marks only the beginning of a decade-long deterioration in the physical dynamics of our solar system.
Readers experience through Strieber's colorful characters the manner in which individuals psychologically deal with eminent collapse of the world as they know it. To do so, provides more food for thought than your standard, annihilation-by-the-billions apocalypse.
A notable difference in "The Omega Point" is Whitley Strieber's personal attempt to make peace with his Creator. To that end, he has added twenty-two pages of Author's Notes to the end of the book seemingly as clarification and explanation not only to the prophetic and spiritual ramifications of this novel but of the total body of his works - post-"Communion" - and how it has shaped his current syncretic theology.
Yet, this too is indicative of the threshold where we Boomers now stand. With the vanguard of our generation entering their mid-sixties, we must face the naked truth of our own mortality. The Peter Pan Generation that never wanted to grow up is now growing old - and maybe, just maybe, we are not so damned special that the whole world is going to collapse when we croak.
This reviewer finds somewhat of a spiritual kinsman ship with Strieber, knowing that he has come full circle through the possibilities of the mystical universe and landed right back here on earth, on a wind-swept natural amphitheater in northern Israel where a penniless rabbi is teaching the meek that ultimately they will inherit the Earth - and with it, the Edenic paradise this planet was meant to be.
Truly, with this latest work, Whitley Strieber has now taken us, his readers, from the beginning to the end; the A to the Z; the Alpha Point to the Omega Point.
-- Gerald Logan MacLennon, July 30, 2010
Whitley Strieber seeks answers through writing. Through a brilliant progression of books over the past quarter century, he has continued to ask and offer answers to some of life's most mystifying questions. It is to his credit that he can accomplish that feat by utilizing the vehicle of spell-binding fiction, much of it empathically linked to his personal encounters of the fourth kind. [See ,Communion 1987]
As another male of the Baby Boomer generation, I can personally relate to his evolution of consciousness. Strieber's personal path to wisdom has run a crooked path through a paranormal labyrinth, often causing him and his readers to question their grasp on reality - and to ask the disturbing question first put forth by anomaly investigator, Charles Fort: "If there is a universal mind, must it be sane?"
In "2012: The Omega Point," the author weaves a good Hollywood tale. As with his earlier collaboration with Art Bell on "The Day After Tomorrow," this latest work begs a screenplay adaptation. For the sake of extended sales, Strieber is smart to speculate that Winter Solstice 2012 marks only the beginning of a decade-long deterioration in the physical dynamics of our solar system.
Readers experience through Strieber's colorful characters the manner in which individuals psychologically deal with eminent collapse of the world as they know it. To do so, provides more food for thought than your standard, annihilation-by-the-billions apocalypse.
A notable difference in "The Omega Point" is Whitley Strieber's personal attempt to make peace with his Creator. To that end, he has added twenty-two pages of Author's Notes to the end of the book seemingly as clarification and explanation not only to the prophetic and spiritual ramifications of this novel but of the total body of his works - post-"Communion" - and how it has shaped his current syncretic theology.
Yet, this too is indicative of the threshold where we Boomers now stand. With the vanguard of our generation entering their mid-sixties, we must face the naked truth of our own mortality. The Peter Pan Generation that never wanted to grow up is now growing old - and maybe, just maybe, we are not so damned special that the whole world is going to collapse when we croak.
This reviewer finds somewhat of a spiritual kinsman ship with Strieber, knowing that he has come full circle through the possibilities of the mystical universe and landed right back here on earth, on a wind-swept natural amphitheater in northern Israel where a penniless rabbi is teaching the meek that ultimately they will inherit the Earth - and with it, the Edenic paradise this planet was meant to be.
Truly, with this latest work, Whitley Strieber has now taken us, his readers, from the beginning to the end; the A to the Z; the Alpha Point to the Omega Point.
-- Gerald Logan MacLennon, July 30, 2010
May 1, 2019
The Purpose of Life, as far as I can tell
Every night, just about every person on this planet slips away for several hours into that mysterious realm we call sleep. Some do it in the light of day. We don’t think much about it because it’s a pattern of life that began at birth and will just continue on and on until our bodies once again turn to dust. While awake we are occupied with all the concerns of life. In our deepest period of sleep, nothing matters. In that nether world of bliss, we don’t concern ourselves with religion and politics, war and peace, appointments and obligations, relationships and associations, sustenance and economics.
Awake for only about 70-percent of our lives, the rest of that time is lost – wasted, some would say – in a regenerative state.
So, how do we humans define purpose while in our 70-percent… our fully conscious state? What is our raison d’etre – our reason for existence? From a mundane perspective, the purpose of life is to sustain and perpetuate life: to gather and hunt and feed our bodies, to reproduce and raise progeny, to provide a safe and secure nesting area, to acquire territory and possessions, to protect ourselves from enemies. That makes us humans no different than any other animal species. We just do it with greater intellect.
The most recurring theme in the world’s news and entertainment media is death – especially violent death. Why are we so fascinated with death? Because it is the one great mystery that all of us, the living, share. Yet, we’re not so unlike a herd of antelope that silently gather around the body of one of their own dead. They cautiously advance, one by one, and sniff the carcass – bewildered as to why their companion is no longer moving and breathing.
Having said all this, it is obvious to me that there is no purpose to life... unless there is more to life than life as we know it.
Christians find hope in the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ because, to them, it once and for all time, answers the question: “Is there life after death?”
Muslims and Jews maintain that adherence to the commandments of their respective holy books – the Quran and the Torah – will earn them respected positions in the Afterworld. Devotees of Eastern religions believe that our souls are repeatedly reincarnated until we reach a state of spiritual perfection that will allow us passage into Nirvana. And, of course, some say that there is no meaning to life and that physical death is the absolute end of who we are. Personally, if I carried that philosophy, I would stop marching in formation as if this world made sense and either live a life of crime and debauchery or merely end the cosmic joke by firing a bullet into my head.
Most of us older folks, as we mature, come to grips with the inevitability of death but still the question remains: What is the purpose of it all?
Seers, prophets and messiah kings throughout history have admonished us to minimize possessions – to cleanse ourselves of material non-necessities – so that we may open our eyes to the loftier humanitarian values that provide true meaning to this earthly journey.
Islam, Judaism and Christianity all teach that reverent submission to the One, Self-Existent God brings fulfillment and purpose to life. Christians add that the path to submission must pass through the Son of God, Jesus.
Siddhartha Gautama – the Buddha – gave us eight directives on how to conduct our lives while incarnated on this mortal plane. He taught that through personal application of the Noble Eightfold Path we find meaning and purpose. Confucius and Lao-Tzu also formulated belief systems for finding fulfillment.
No doubt there is truth in all these paths.
Allow me to ask at this juncture: what is the most euphoric event in a man or woman’s life. Most of us would agree it’s the experience of falling in love with that one special person whom we consider our soul mate. Falling in love is the theme of a million songs worldwide. Romantic love lifts up our spirits to the heavens; it permeates with elation every thread in the fabric of our being. It is a uniquely human experience. Animals don’t fall in love; they merely select, mate and breed. And… I might add, some humans do that too, but for them, it’s a deliberate choice.
Those who are most devoted to their particular faith have literally fallen in love (Agapao - Gr.) with God or an earthly manifestation that represents God, be it nature, a holy shrine, a book of sacred writings, and/or a person such as the Christ or the Buddha. Agape is the highest love and when one is enraptured by it, it produces in the individual a secondary level of affection and compassion: philato, the love of family, friends, neighbors and all humanity – even enemies.
Jesus of Nazareth imparted to his followers three directives that when personally applied are said to imbue every devotee of Christianity with a resolute purpose for living: first, know that there is but one God – the Self-Existent One; secondly, love that God with all of your heart, mind and spirit; and third, love your fellow human beings as much as – or even more than – yourself. This is not a uniquely Christian raison d’etre. It can be universally applied to virtually all religions as well as to individual credos.
No one knows when the end of his or her mortal existence will come – maybe a minute from now, tomorrow, months or years but one thing is certain: it will come to all. I believe that human spirit energy – the soul, if you will – continues to exist following departure of our highly-evolved primate bodies.
And, what can we take with us when we fly away to the next realm of consciousness? Not our prized possessions nor our accumulated wealth; not our power nor our prestige. All we’ll be able to pack is Love and the spiritual benefits we earned by conveying and implementing that Love while we occupied the flesh.
Some of us, in order to keep food on the table, a roof over our heads and heat in winter have no choice other than to accept a job we know upfront is going to be very boring – certainly not even close to personal fulfillment. Sad to say, not everything we do can be profound – I’ve been there too — but it can be done with love and graciousness. That’s the difference.
At the end of life, many take personal inventory; they look back to review their accomplishments and their failures; to know what other people really think of them. When death is imminent, does it matter that you worked your way up to the top level of management before retiring? Does it matter that you were able to afford a million dollar house and two luxury cars? Does it matter that you were a great scientist, a movie star, a talented artist, a powerful politician, a registered nurse, a four-star general, professional athlete or a damned good plumber?
Well of course it matters! Why would God not want us to have some fun while fulfilling our purpose? A long-faced, grumpy old Zeus is not the God of joy and happiness that I know. The way I see it, it ain’t so much what we do, as it is how we do it? We don’t have to be, nor should we be, Mother Teresa’s and Father Flanagan’s in order to say “I made a difference in this world!”
Is there a purpose for being? Well, yeah, I hope so! As the Apostle said long ago: “What we are seeing though dirty, greasy eyeglasses right now will be sharp and crystal clear once we have passed through that mysterious transition we call death.”
At the end of the road, if we have carried out our particular calling and shed the light of Godly love into the hearts of others through compassionate and selfless giving... if we even halfway lived in that manner, our mission, our purpose was achieved.
So to neatly wrap it all up, I say yes, as far as I can tell… Love is the purpose.
The purpose is Love. God is Love. Messiah came to us in Love, teaching us each to Love the L-RD our God with all our hearts, minds and souls. And, to love and respect our neighbors even as we do ourselves.
Love. It might just be that simple.
Gerald Logan-MacLennon, 67, January 2015 -- from my book, Wrestling with Angels: An anthology of prose & poetry 1962 thru 2016 Revised
Awake for only about 70-percent of our lives, the rest of that time is lost – wasted, some would say – in a regenerative state.
So, how do we humans define purpose while in our 70-percent… our fully conscious state? What is our raison d’etre – our reason for existence? From a mundane perspective, the purpose of life is to sustain and perpetuate life: to gather and hunt and feed our bodies, to reproduce and raise progeny, to provide a safe and secure nesting area, to acquire territory and possessions, to protect ourselves from enemies. That makes us humans no different than any other animal species. We just do it with greater intellect.
The most recurring theme in the world’s news and entertainment media is death – especially violent death. Why are we so fascinated with death? Because it is the one great mystery that all of us, the living, share. Yet, we’re not so unlike a herd of antelope that silently gather around the body of one of their own dead. They cautiously advance, one by one, and sniff the carcass – bewildered as to why their companion is no longer moving and breathing.
Having said all this, it is obvious to me that there is no purpose to life... unless there is more to life than life as we know it.
Christians find hope in the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ because, to them, it once and for all time, answers the question: “Is there life after death?”
Muslims and Jews maintain that adherence to the commandments of their respective holy books – the Quran and the Torah – will earn them respected positions in the Afterworld. Devotees of Eastern religions believe that our souls are repeatedly reincarnated until we reach a state of spiritual perfection that will allow us passage into Nirvana. And, of course, some say that there is no meaning to life and that physical death is the absolute end of who we are. Personally, if I carried that philosophy, I would stop marching in formation as if this world made sense and either live a life of crime and debauchery or merely end the cosmic joke by firing a bullet into my head.
Most of us older folks, as we mature, come to grips with the inevitability of death but still the question remains: What is the purpose of it all?
Seers, prophets and messiah kings throughout history have admonished us to minimize possessions – to cleanse ourselves of material non-necessities – so that we may open our eyes to the loftier humanitarian values that provide true meaning to this earthly journey.
Islam, Judaism and Christianity all teach that reverent submission to the One, Self-Existent God brings fulfillment and purpose to life. Christians add that the path to submission must pass through the Son of God, Jesus.
Siddhartha Gautama – the Buddha – gave us eight directives on how to conduct our lives while incarnated on this mortal plane. He taught that through personal application of the Noble Eightfold Path we find meaning and purpose. Confucius and Lao-Tzu also formulated belief systems for finding fulfillment.
No doubt there is truth in all these paths.
Allow me to ask at this juncture: what is the most euphoric event in a man or woman’s life. Most of us would agree it’s the experience of falling in love with that one special person whom we consider our soul mate. Falling in love is the theme of a million songs worldwide. Romantic love lifts up our spirits to the heavens; it permeates with elation every thread in the fabric of our being. It is a uniquely human experience. Animals don’t fall in love; they merely select, mate and breed. And… I might add, some humans do that too, but for them, it’s a deliberate choice.
Those who are most devoted to their particular faith have literally fallen in love (Agapao - Gr.) with God or an earthly manifestation that represents God, be it nature, a holy shrine, a book of sacred writings, and/or a person such as the Christ or the Buddha. Agape is the highest love and when one is enraptured by it, it produces in the individual a secondary level of affection and compassion: philato, the love of family, friends, neighbors and all humanity – even enemies.
Jesus of Nazareth imparted to his followers three directives that when personally applied are said to imbue every devotee of Christianity with a resolute purpose for living: first, know that there is but one God – the Self-Existent One; secondly, love that God with all of your heart, mind and spirit; and third, love your fellow human beings as much as – or even more than – yourself. This is not a uniquely Christian raison d’etre. It can be universally applied to virtually all religions as well as to individual credos.
No one knows when the end of his or her mortal existence will come – maybe a minute from now, tomorrow, months or years but one thing is certain: it will come to all. I believe that human spirit energy – the soul, if you will – continues to exist following departure of our highly-evolved primate bodies.
And, what can we take with us when we fly away to the next realm of consciousness? Not our prized possessions nor our accumulated wealth; not our power nor our prestige. All we’ll be able to pack is Love and the spiritual benefits we earned by conveying and implementing that Love while we occupied the flesh.
Some of us, in order to keep food on the table, a roof over our heads and heat in winter have no choice other than to accept a job we know upfront is going to be very boring – certainly not even close to personal fulfillment. Sad to say, not everything we do can be profound – I’ve been there too — but it can be done with love and graciousness. That’s the difference.
At the end of life, many take personal inventory; they look back to review their accomplishments and their failures; to know what other people really think of them. When death is imminent, does it matter that you worked your way up to the top level of management before retiring? Does it matter that you were able to afford a million dollar house and two luxury cars? Does it matter that you were a great scientist, a movie star, a talented artist, a powerful politician, a registered nurse, a four-star general, professional athlete or a damned good plumber?
Well of course it matters! Why would God not want us to have some fun while fulfilling our purpose? A long-faced, grumpy old Zeus is not the God of joy and happiness that I know. The way I see it, it ain’t so much what we do, as it is how we do it? We don’t have to be, nor should we be, Mother Teresa’s and Father Flanagan’s in order to say “I made a difference in this world!”
Is there a purpose for being? Well, yeah, I hope so! As the Apostle said long ago: “What we are seeing though dirty, greasy eyeglasses right now will be sharp and crystal clear once we have passed through that mysterious transition we call death.”
At the end of the road, if we have carried out our particular calling and shed the light of Godly love into the hearts of others through compassionate and selfless giving... if we even halfway lived in that manner, our mission, our purpose was achieved.
So to neatly wrap it all up, I say yes, as far as I can tell… Love is the purpose.
The purpose is Love. God is Love. Messiah came to us in Love, teaching us each to Love the L-RD our God with all our hearts, minds and souls. And, to love and respect our neighbors even as we do ourselves.
Love. It might just be that simple.
Gerald Logan-MacLennon, 67, January 2015 -- from my book, Wrestling with Angels: An anthology of prose & poetry 1962 thru 2016 Revised
Malignant / Benign Thoughts. May Day 2019
May Day. International Workers Day... ah, everywhere except Canada and the United States.
I did my quarterly blood draw, lab and Telemed visit yesterday with my oncologist, Dr. Apar Kishor Ganti. All systems are go. The creatinine is a bit high... that's associated with kidney function. They were damaged 5 years ago when malignant tumors blocked the flow creating the acute renal failure. Fortunately chemotherapy and dialysis got the boys up and running again but not without a little damage. I'm just happy they're functioning. Thanks again to my beloved Army of Prayer Warriors. You helped me piss off my hospice team.
Yesterday, after the Telemed at the VA Clinic, sitting and sipping at a new Starbucks on East O Street, I discussed a European trip with Sandy for the first time... told her how I'd like to make that trip that Mom never realized... the one to Sweden, home of great-great-grandparents (stormormor) and a few 2019 cousins.
I did my quarterly blood draw, lab and Telemed visit yesterday with my oncologist, Dr. Apar Kishor Ganti. All systems are go. The creatinine is a bit high... that's associated with kidney function. They were damaged 5 years ago when malignant tumors blocked the flow creating the acute renal failure. Fortunately chemotherapy and dialysis got the boys up and running again but not without a little damage. I'm just happy they're functioning. Thanks again to my beloved Army of Prayer Warriors. You helped me piss off my hospice team.
Yesterday, after the Telemed at the VA Clinic, sitting and sipping at a new Starbucks on East O Street, I discussed a European trip with Sandy for the first time... told her how I'd like to make that trip that Mom never realized... the one to Sweden, home of great-great-grandparents (stormormor) and a few 2019 cousins.
