NOT a True Believer & why you can't water ski on Lake Winnegago in Winter

Ok.  I am not having a good time with things.  I'm sitting here waiting for my sister to call with my Mother's  funeral arrangements.  It will be a small affair. But waiting is a bitch and it leaves the mind free to wander.  
The shit that went down in Arizona still bothers me.  It should.  Just like my mother, I will leave this world soon enough, in a appropriate time, but it makes me think of how it will be for my children in a world...... of hurt.  And this world is hurting.  You can smell the fear, the uncertainty, the dread and you see faces looking for a semblance of sanity in blank mirrors.  People are signing up to any movement that will offer them any kind of respite from all the unknown that greets  them with every breathe they take. And they are really not thinking of what they are signing up for.  It made me think back to a book I first read as a freshman in college, Eric Hoffer, "The True Believer".  It still makes sense after almost sixty years.


“All mass movements generate in their adherents a readiness to die and a proclivity for united action; all of them, irrespective of the doctrine they preach and the program they project, breed fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hope, hatred and intolerance; all of them are capable of releasing a powerful flow of activity in certain departments of life; all of them demand blind faith and singlehearted allegiance.”

Eric Hoffer
  of course, now we can watch as well as read the message


Go ahead... watch this if you want to think...otherwise...go away 


 It reminds me of why, after all these years, that I am still not much of a 'joiner'.  Oh, I participate.... but I never wanted to be grouped.  I still have a deep sense of appreciation for Randal Graves at  L'ennui Melo-some-fucking-thing 
for coining the name to this blog..... I mean.... what's in an Eggroll anyways?  It could be nothing.... or the best of something.  Who knows?  Who cares?  Randal practices the ART of WHATEVER better than anyone I have read on the blogs.  I think he knows it and is proud of it.... and is also rather adamant in not giving a shit about anything as well.


Anyways....I started re-reading Hoffer this morning, mostly cause I was in no mood for Emily Dickinson, though she may come later today, and something else jumped out at me.


“When we lose our individual independence in the incorporateness of a mass movement, we find a new freedom—freedom to hate, bully, lie, torture, murder and betray without shame and remorse.”



Now that makes sense to me.  I don't want a label.... I don't want to join anything....if everyone else is doing it.....I am going the other way. I think what I think, I will vote the way I want to, I will drink plenty of the Tap Beer of Truth, Justice, Kindness........ and maybe have a doughnut or two.

These are troubling times, sisters& Bros.... just remember, there is no half-time in the game of madness

1922-2011 Rest Your Heart, Dear Woman

**** I don't have a new thing to write.  My sister called about an hur ago.... my mother passed away peacefully about an hour ago.  I think I am going to be gone from the pages for awhile.  I've posted this before.... and I will do it one more time.  Love you, Mom.



I have a copy of an old newspaper photograph from 1956 that shows a car wreck that occurred on Easter Sunday 1956 on a remote stretch of highway about two miles west to the intersection of highway 21 and 49.

The caption under the photo said that the wife of the driver of one of the three cars involved is still visible in the wreckage. It said that she was the mother of four children, ages seven, five, three and a baby ten months old who were also in the pictured Chevy station wagon.

A longer article explains that there was also a car with six sailors from the Great Lakes Naval Station and a third vehicle containing a young couple from nearby Berlin, WI and their four young children.

It was raining and the road was muddy and someone lost control, something happened and one car hit another and spun out and hit the station wagon head on. A local farm wife is quoted in the article as as saying that she and her husband heard the crash and went out, "picking up babies in the rain."

The nearest town, Berlin, is 15 miles away. The phones in 1956 were rotary dial and most rural phones shared 'party-line' connections. It took some time for the one ambulance in Berlin to arrive at the scene. The article said that most of the 17 injured that needed hospitalization were transported by private vehicles. It must have taken even longer, on an Easter Sunday afternoon, for the photographer of the local weekly newspaper to be located and for him to get to the site and take a photo of the woman in the Chevy station wagon who was presumed dead. There were breathing people to take care of first. There were babies in the rain.

I often wonder, when I look at that photo, how long she was in that car before someone realized that my mother was indeed alive and breathing.

I'm not sure how long my father was hospitalized but Mom did not leave the hospital until the following Thanksgiving. We were sent to live with various relatives and were not re-united as a family until about a year or so later. I know my father went back to his job in Marshfield on crutches with his wife in a hospital 85 miles away and his children scattered.

The thing of it is, it was never considered a big deal in my family. Really. I mean we knew the story and had heard the lore, but life just went on. My sister and brothers and I never thought of our parents as 'handicapped'........ they just walked 'funny'. They never complained. I know that there was no big buckeroo insurance settlement ....that all Mom's subsequent operations wiped out whatever money they had. But it wasn't a BIG DEAL. It just was what it was and we went on. They didn't TEACH us what family was...... they lived it. They got all four of us through college.... we never took vacations....we didn't do a lot of things. But they were always proud of us. That Dad had seven years where one of his sons was a starter on the football team.....that his daughter was the first in the family to graduate from college and become a TEACHER! Damn! He thought that that was the stuff!

They showed us that life was continuity, love, connection, determination, perseverance,lottsa love........ and even more...... humor.

Dad died nine years ago from complications during surgery to fix his leg. The operation precipitated a heart attack. The last time I saw him he was connected to tubes and machines &shit. Couldn't talk. He scribbled me a note that I should tell him a joke. I did. About a Rabbi and a Priest and a Minister. He liked those.

We are getting together tomorrow to celebrate the 85 birthday of the woman in the photo. Fifty some years of walking 'funny' has left her in a wheel chair. She still lives in her own home ( with a lot of assistance) and still does not complain. We get as many of the grandchildren and great grandchildren together as we can. We barbecue chicken and brats and burgers and corn...... and give her what she wants every year for her birthday................................

all of the 'Rain Babies' in one place.



We also chip in and buy her a six-pack. She thinks it's funny. Breaks her up.

With all the Grandchildren summer 2010

 

We don't need gun control...... maybe Nut Control

Everybody loves a nut.

....see... Nuts don't kill people... Nuts with guns do.

 And infringing on my right to carry a gun where ever I please is my right.  Right.







and saying stupid things is a right too.  Right.

and being offensive and in bad taste is a right, too.  Right.

And free speech means I have the right to incite violence..... as long as I don't say the "Fire" word. Right.

I am so sorry about what happened in Arizona.  I wish I could get mad...... but all I feel is sad.  I really want sensible gun law reform.  Now.  My children go to grocery stores and habitually hang out at institutions of education.

Don't smoke the flowers..... BUT.....

You can legally own a Machine Gun

It is a common mihttp://www.usautoweapons.com/sconception that machine guns cannot be owned by law-abiding citizens. This comes from the creation of a variety of confusing laws that have made purchasing a fully automatic gun more difficult than purchasing a "normal" gun. But, you can comply with the law and own a machine gun. In May of 1986, new laws went into effect that made it illegal for civilians to own fully automatic firearms that were manufactured AFTER THAT DATE. Most fully automatic weapons manufactured and registered BEFORE MAY, 1986, may be owned by and sold to individuals. The full-auto guns that may be owned by individuals are called "transferable". A few states do not allow machine gun ownership at all, no matter when the gun was made, but most states do allow it when complying with federal requirements.   

mahttp://www.usautoweapons.com/chine gun

of course it is easier to buy guns in some places Like AZ 

Arizona

Subject/Law	Long guns	Handguns	Relevant Statutes	Notes
State Permit to Purchase?	No	No	None	no
Firearm registration?	Partial	Partial	ARS 13-3101	State law duplicates the registration requirements of the National Firearms Act.
"Assault weapon" law?	No	No	None	No
Owner license required?	No	No	None	No