Coming Soon--A New Kind of Travel Document

Travelogue

Coming soon--A new kind of travel document.  This may look like a book.  In fact it is, an e-book currently, but soon to be published as a real hold it in your hand kind of book that we intend to pass around to those interested in taking a bold new journey, one that requires packing a few things you never expected to need, and also to unpack things no one needs, and likely never did--like a set of assumptions, a parcel of beliefs, and perhaps a fresh look at one of the most fulfilling destinations available to anyone--Marriage, and its unique status in modern society.  This travelogue may require you to discard your old, well-worn baggage, and replace it with a new, sturdier, nearly tamper-proof matching set that will itself distinguish you as a seasoned, knowledgeable traveler.  

The book is titled 1138 Reasons Why Marriage=Everyone.  Why the number?  You'll have to ask your travel agent, or the author.  Here's a hint: If you're already married, you already have this number of ------, so don't worry.  If you're not yet married, the number represents a reason marriage is so important in modern life, and why it must be made available to everyone.  The book will be here soon, copies sold on Amazon, and through the author (that's me) for the asking.  Price should be in the $10.00 range, with proceeds going to the struggle for equal marriage rights across the land, the great country we all travel every day.

Departing Winter

Winter Begins to Fade

At last, Winter begins to dissipate, and Spring flowers take the place of frosty branch and bough.  And today we have a new beginning as well in our nation's approach to those left out in the cold without proper health care insurance.  Thanks to President Barack Obama, and courageous Democrats, who have put the needs of the American people first, we progress to a new era, an age when everyone has access to affordable, decent, useful, meaningful health insurance.  No more will any American be left out in the wintertime chill simply because they lack the financial wherewithal to see a doctor when they're ill, or have to bear chronic pain and suffering when a simple clinic visit may alleviate that pain.  It's a new Spring in America, a new age when those who choose to divide and conquer to achieve their goals have been defeated...for now.  

Next, the disposal of the ill-conceived, ridiculous, massively misguided law--Don't Ask Don't Tell.   DADT is a shameful reminder of a hopefully fast-fading anachronism, homophobia, and it must go, sooner than later.  By Spring, DADT must be sad, long-discarded part of our history.

From Chapter 1 OMOC

  

 Former Career...

 (From Chapter 1 of my memoir--Old Man On Campus.)
There’s a growing body of knowledge about the question of retirement, and how it applies to us boomer types, or does not as appears to be the case.  Unlike our parents, who followed the expected pattern of learn-work-reproduce-retire-die, all nicely accomplished with no fuss by age 65 or so, we boomers have added a wrinkle at the end, a second, or third career.  When social security became law, in 1935, the average recipient was on the roles for about three years before they checked out, leaving the fund happily solvent.  That generation was known for its selfless attitude, after all.  Ours?  Not so much.  Not only have we had far fewer workers per recipient paying into the system, only five, on average, compared to eleven when my dad was working, we have the audacity to stay alive a lot longer, too.  Those of us boomers who reach age fifty can expect another 30 years, at least fifteen of them reimbursed by the guv’mint just for our continued breathing.  We’re restless, curious, and fearless.  For us, the word retire has been changed to rewire.  My generation is going to be the so-called geri-actives, and as long as we stay healthy, we have no intention of giving up work.  Our ‘golden years’ will be marked by second, and third careers.  We’re seeing that retirement isn’t a phase, it’s a process, a winding down by perhaps winding back up in another field.  This second adulthood makes perfect sense when you think about it.  Just 100 years ago, life expectancy in this country was 47 for males.  It’s now almost double that.  When I quit flying, I did try to take it easy for a time, to sniff around, check out other things, even considering a semi-retired status as a volunteer.  I soon realized that the pace was killing me; I’m just not cut out for a life of ease and relaxation, at least not yet.  While my spouse left for work every morning, I stayed behind, in a kind of eternal weekend, sinking lower and lower into a truly painful ‘roleless role,’ as Marc Freedman, author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life¹, calls the status of those who are too young to retire, too old to start over.  Freedman writes of the need for “self management” as a requisite for this new second adulthood, and that’s about right.  When you think about it, the first half of life--school, marriage, work, career, kids etc.--is all about compulsion, the necessity of climbing the ladder to the beat of someone else’s drum, be it a boss, a career goal of some kind, or a hierarchy of administrative benchmarks.  There’s always someone else there to mark our progress, and to keep us in check.  The second half of life, on the other hand, is typically characterized not by compulsion, but by choice, the self-imposed demand to focus on what we want our encore career to be.  We’re pounding our own drum, often descending the ladder toward something simpler, yet more fulfilling.  And everyone knows it’s always harder climbing down, since the path is harder to see.  Thus, self-management is a needed skill, and because of its long lack of use, or its lack of development early in life, self-management--of time, money, resources, relationships--may be the toughest part of our journey. 
    But it’s a journey I began despite all the social cues to do otherwise.  I heard from family, friends, former career colleagues how wonderful it must be to relax, lay back, let my spouse take care of me, savor the successful career I’d recently completed.  It all sounded good; it wasn’t; I was miserable.  The thought of holding down the couch, nestled in my bathrobe at noon, fingering the remote as Regis and Kathy Lee entertained me, was downright terrifying.  I had to find something else.  Besides, I couldn’t figure out the goddam remote.
¹ ©PublicAffairs Books, June 2007  

Marriage Equality

 

L-O-V-E=L-O-V-E=L-O-V-E=

The picture above is of two people in love.  How can we determine the gender of these two gentle, caring people?  How do we figure out which one is male, which one female?  The one on the left appears to be male, though the lips are somewhat feminine.  On the right, the ear seems to belong to a female, or perhaps not.  Why is this so difficult?  Are we as adults, and reasonably smart, intuitive, alert people pretty good at picking out gender markers, characteristics and profiles?  Of course we are.  Then why the trouble with this picture?  I'm sure those eyebrows belong to a female, right?  And the hairline on the right is definitely male, true?  Why is this so hard?

And why does it matter?  Do lips and eyebrows and ears and hairlines fall in love and share that loving sensation with each other? No.  People fall in love, and people share all that love represents, whether it's a whispered affirmation, an eyebrow raised in greeting from across a crowded room, a brush of lips against each others' in the dim half-light of evening, or the bending of an ear to a lover, to capture every sense and nuance of what they tell us.

If we have trouble determining genders and characteristics of two people in love, perhaps it doesn't matter?  All that any of us want is to be one of those two people, and to share that kind of love with another person.

Spring 2010

SPRING!!!!!!!!

The picture was taken just outside my window, today, at five pm.  It is about 50 degrees F as I write this.  Winter isn't over, officially or otherwise, but it's quickly losing its grip on us once again, and soon Spring will take over.  Is there something you need to renew or replenish?  If so, this is a great time to look into it, to make 2010 the best year ever.  Twenty-gazillion daffodils can't be wrong!

 

DADT Lantern 3/3/10

Repeal DADT Now

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell: Undercutting The Military Honor Code: The Ohio State University Lantern 3/3/2010

The so-called Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy still in force in the U.S. military undercuts a long-standing honor code that has existed in the armed forces of this country for as long as there’s been a military in America.  DADT demands that soldiers lie, a direct conflict with a code that demands otherwise, and therefore, contrary to what the provision’s supporters claim, is itself damaging to unit cohesion.
     Modern soldiers are not stupid.  They know who they’re serving with, who is gay and straight.  And they know the atmosphere of unnecessary tension that DADT promotes by ordering soldiers to lie.  The only people being fooled by DADT are those in political circles outside the military still beholden to a few of their homophobic constituents.  The troops get it; some politicians do not.
    Don’t Ask Don’t Tell must be repealed.  Each year we lose over 400 able bodied, volunteer soldiers, some with critical skills such as Arabic language interpreters, doctors, nurses, computer techs and others who want nothing more than to serve their country, and who hate the constant lie they’re forced to endure.  Many have loved-ones, and partners who live in constant fear that their economic circumstance depends on the lie holding up, in a ridiculous world of make believe that by itself is directly opposed to the harsh, real-life world our troops inhabit.
    The argument has been made that if DADT is repealed, those troops who disagree with the open policy that will replace it, allowing homosexuals to serve openly, will be forced from the military for disagreeing.  This is patent nonsense.  Soldiers have disagreed with policies as long as soldiers have saluted and existed.  No soldier is to be removed for disagreeing with a policy.  If they were, the armed forces would empty out overnight.
    I was in the Army for many years, and I’m sure I served with gay and lesbian troops.  Those who argue unit cohesion either never served, or suffer from the old, tired social disorder called homophobia.  Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is a throwback to a darker age, an age of denial, fear and outmoded assumptions.  The same useless arguments for the perpetuation of DADT were made about blacks and women serving.  Several of our allies have homosexuals serving proudly and well in their armed forces.  And let’s not forget, every trooper wearing those funny suits, lugging around fifty pounds of battle rattle volunteered to do so, to serve this great nation when they may have found more lucrative employment elsewhere.  Until this nation accepts the fact that gay and lesbian citizens exist, they are members of society, pay their taxes, work hard, obey the laws, and yes, serve in our military, the DADT policy is an embarrassment and a dismal failure.  We are better than this.  We need to repeal DADT.

Perspective

Taken from a geostationary satellite, this is home.  If we could all launch ourselves to that altitude, climb inside the tiny orbiting station from which this shot was taken, and just contemplate what it is we're seeing, we'd come back with a new perspective on everything.  And here's the beauty of it: We can go there, because the human mind is capable of taking us there.  Think about it.  That satellite is above our heads, roughly 22,000 miles high, constantly falling toward earth, thus in a stationary orbit.  Humans generated the idea of such a mechanical device; humans worked out the math and physics to make it happen; humans built the device, the launch vehicle for it, and the peripheral support mechanisms to allow it to send us images just like the one above.  That was the difficult part.

Or was it?  Could it be that the tough part is realizing just how much power the ordinary human intellect has to look at the world in front of us, and to see the possibilities--good and bad--that present themselves to us?  The truth is, that we can launch ourselves to those heights, and higher, in our imaginations if we choose to.  The only things holding us back are the crushing gravity of prejudice, mistrust, doubt, and the heaviest burden of all, fear.  If fear had won the battle with those who dreamed this little satellite, and all the new perspective it could offer, this image wouldn't exist.  If fear had won, well...