Life.Currenttoday.com - 2 Cents

My son in law is finishing his last semester of college. He’s a gifted man with many talents. His drive to exhibit these talents in his school work is sometimes set down his list of priorities just a little further than we ‘older, wiser folks’ would prefer. Imagine that.

It’s no secret that he likes really cool video games. Several weeks ago, my wife mentioned in passing that it would be nice if someone got something like an XBox 360 if their grades were really good. Of course, she mentioned this in a whimsical sort of way. She had no idea just how much these things cost. Nor did she know just how seriously a poor college student would latch on to a statement like that.

NO. Buying someone an XBox 360 for having better grades is nothing any impoverished college student would take lightly.

Several weeks ago, but after my wife’s life changing promise, my daughter mentioned to me, in passing of course, the greatness of this wonderful XBox 360 offer.

Oh, no problem I thought.

First of all, I can’t find one in a store anywhere. So, I got online and searched for a little.

Did you know an Xbox 360 with a couple of game pads, some storage, and a couple of games will cost you around $489 bucks?

When I saw that, I started calling Walmart and Bestbuy around the city. Apparently an XBox 360 is a matter of luck. I mean, they don’t even know when they will get one. And it’s first come, first served when they do come in.

Also, the Xbox 360 in the stores doesn’t come in the same packaged bundle.

You’ll notice in the left bar of this page that I have a link to some ads. Lots of people monetize their blogs this way. Among them is a link to Walmart. Since I get a percentage of everything that is sold through that link, I went to Walmart through my own link to see about the Xbox 360 cost and shipping if I did it that way. That would be like getting a built in rebate. At the very least it would cover my shipping.

Guess what. It is there. It is available is several packaged bundles, and shipping was much cheaper than I expected.

Well graduation is right around the corner now. I guess I’ll have to suck it up.

Now, I’ll just need to find out which games he wants with his bundle. It must be nice having such a wonderful wife and amazing father-in-law.

Maybe I’ll get the thing and play it a while before I give it to him. I like video games too. Hmm, maybe I should just get the games I want to play. Could he complain?

Regards.

I realize each culture has developed a certain set of things that we don’t consider appropriate to do in public. Many of these are based on common moral values consistent within most societies. Others are considered appropriate among a smaller group, perhaps a nation, a global region, a religion, or an even smaller set of people bound by a common affiliation or tradition.

The point is appropriate behavior varies greatly from one group to another.

Ok, most of us have a belief system that we use to dictate our choices in life and how we feel about others and their actions. Our belief system is largely comprised within the boundaries set by appropriateness with the group where we function.

The separation between our groups is easily defined by these variations. They become the markers of our cultures, religions, and of all such groups. Indeed, these divisions are the lines that form the groups.

So, the groups are perpetuated by the very things they teach. Without the tradition, the group ceases to exist. Without the group, the tradition ceases to exist. A culture is the epitome of a self sustaining cycle.

Yes, we are as exact a copy as our group could make us.

What then of the individual? I mean, the deepest color blue, that you were born to be, seems altogether dark gray as expressed through the filter of your group. How do we strike a balance that propels our unique qualities to the greatness of their potential without pressing the boundaries of our group toward annihilation?

Well, we can’t. The developing structure of a group, indeed the reason we have more than one group, is the stretching and extremes that are inherent when blue shines forth as the bluest blue it can be. We call these people among us, leaders.

Let me pose this to you. Are you being gray or blue? To be plain, are you fake? To what degree do you color yourself for social acceptance?

I’m fully aware that the eccentric aren’t often followed as leaders. You can’t be extremely blue in a gray society without developing some blue-gray along the way. That is to say: you have to build a bridge from gray to blue for anyone to see it in a gray world. There are no leaders when no one follows.

The challenge is to shine. Broadcast your own kind of weird to the world so they can understand it and grow. Maybe I should have said, “your own kind of unique” instead of weird. But, it sure makes it blue. Doesn’t it?

Regards.

I was reading through one of the love and relationship articles on my website, when I noticed one of the ads on the side.

I glanced at it with a little inner chuckle. It was advertising love and love potions–and they were guaranteed. I scrolled on down, double checking my article for spelling and appearance. As I scrolled back up, I confronted the same ad for love potions again with a fresh thought.

I was struck with the picture of an advertisement on the internet for love through a love potion. The ridiculousness of the thought turned into a hilarious thing to me in a moment.

Here we are with the technology to interact at a world wide level with people from all walks of life in an instant. Was it not a strange irony to find this extreme technology being used to advertise a love potion?

With just a very little thought, I can force this question into realms of human spiritualism, belief systems, and Harry Potter style uses of technology that seem the very heart of irony.

We have come so far, not to have come so far.

Or, perhaps, we want technology to enhance what makes us human rather than remove it.

Well, I don’t know about love potions, but I do know a few folks that find the love and relationship in their life with this technology. And, like anything, just as many use it for false love and relationships.

It seems we can’t create anything good that isn’t all at once as bad as it is good. But, it isn’t the creation. It is the user.

So, do love and be loved. Find a relationship and give to it. Use whatever you have as a good tool in good hands. Love through technology is as magical as all the love potions ever were. To many of us older folks, these levels of technology are rather magical in themselves.

Regards.

Today marks one week since I watched my dad die.

I called mom again yesterday. We talked about how she was feeling and how the family back home was doing. She said she was going to clear out dad’s stuff. She just couldn’t bear it being around anymore. I told her she might want to give it a little time first. It would seem a shame to get rid of everything and then wish you had it back.

Then we chatted about her hobbies and things she could do now. I told her she should take the time to do things she had always wanted to do. I told her not to even give the slightest thought to expense. It didn’t matter to my brother or me if there was even one penny left. My brother and I both live just fine. She should take some time with a friend and travel the world–enjoy the things she always wanted to see and do.

I started naming places to visit and friends she could ask along for the trip. She had a reason not to consider each friend. She had a reason not to see each place. After a bit, when I had just about narrowed in on the perfect place, and the perfect friend, she started crying. She couldn’t speak for a moment. Then she sobbed over the phone.

She sobbed, “I don’t want to go anywhere anymore. I don’t want to do anything. We always went everywhere together. I can’t imagine going anywhere without him.”

Well, now I had done it. What I wanted to be a consoling call from her son had turned into a painful reminder of lost love.

All the wonderful stories of puppy love, of first love, of happy ever after had lived out between my mom and dad. They would have completed fifty wonderful years together within just a year and a half. Now, suddenly, it was all over. We were at the fairy tale’s end. We had discovered the ‘after’ that follows ‘happily ever after.’

This wasn’t a romance gone sour. This wasn’t a wanton dream of forbidden fruit that had faded from hope. This wasn’t an ideal dreamed and forever out of reach. This was the romance. This was the dream. This was the fruit fully enjoyed. And now that it was lost, this was the greatest kind of lost love. This was a thing to savor, now gone, now stolen. What was left was the deepest emptiness one could fathom. A hole in the soul.

Mom’s soul mate was gone.

This last week has brought some things home to me. I have looked at my daughter with a new look. I have considered priorities with a new born arrangement. I have genuinely examined my wife from this new vantage and found that I love her all the more.

Let me challenge you to make every effort to bask in the relationships you have, while you have them. You are living each moment for the last time. Taste it. Smell it. Relish it with all the desperation of the deepest breath drawn at the surface of the water from a dive to the furthest reaches your consciousness would allow.

Know the time. Know the riches of this moment’s passing. Heap up the pleasure of being and of being known. Love one another.

Regards.