I know Nothing

I don't know. Other then your children uttering them, how many times have you asked a question of someone, who should know the answer to the question, and they say to you I don't know? It's probably not as often as you might think. I have discovered that when most folks are given that question, and they are the acknowledged brainiacs of said subject, that they tend to either try to blow you away with much talking and wind or they go the route of vague generalities and silence. We took our home school group, a few years ago, to see an exhibition of recovered items from "The World Of Pharaohs" at a museum that I won't name. The exhibition it's self was great but it turned out that the kids knew more about what was there then the tour guide that we were given. In all fairness to the woman, our kids had been studying this for months and I think could have named all the major and minor gods in alphabetical order, and I think she had been pressed into service at the last moment, but rather then admit this, she tried real hard to bull her way through it. It must have been hard on her to have 12 year old's know more about what was going on then she did. "I don't know" could have saved her a lot of embarrassment. Then there are the scientist. The really smart people who are supposed to have the answers to everything. Ask them a question sometimes and I swear you will get one of the most colorful and wordy " I don't knows" that you will ever hear. They will use words such as probably, perhaps, theorize and postulate, amongst others, and give you a lot of specialized words just to tell you that they really don't know. What , pray tell, is wrong with not knowing? Is it a sin or a crime to admit to not knowing everything ? I was watching a show on reincarnation and near death experiences the other night and the main person that they were interviewing, at the end of it, actually said that all he could do was base his evidence on what people had shared with him, and while he believed it was quite possibly real, he openly admitted that he didn't really know. If some of you are thinking ,well of course he didn't know because it's not real, then you are making my point. HOW DO YOU KNOW? Your not dead so therefore you can only guess based on your own personal beliefs and what you have been taught . Do you get my point? I saw a picture the other day, taken from Mars, that was of Earth. Our planet was little more then a pinprick in the far distance, I actually thought it was a speck of dust on the screen. If the earth is so insignificant just in our own solar system, and the ends of the known universe are billions of light years away, how is it that we tend to think that we know all the answers? Religious leaders will say we KNOW the truth. Scientists will disagree and say no your wrong,we KNOW the truth! Political leaders and dictators and just about anyone with any kind of opinion will all claim that they KNOW and yet the truth of it all is that none of us really know. Perhaps if collectively we could all come to understand just how little we know and just how vast the universe and all it's unknowns are, we could get passed all our petty differences and make this world a better place. Bottom line for me is that I don't claim to know anything. Nothing. Nada.Zilch. I'll leave all the great wisdom to those with the degrees and technical skills. I will, how ever try to embrace the fact that my knowledge of things is rather small and embrace those who feel the same as I do and who knows maybe it will turn out that we knew more then we thought.

Human versus iPod Touch

I love technology. I really do. I love how people, much smarter then I am, can come up with an idea for a new electronic product that can do things that we could only have dreamed of in science fiction when I was a kid. Just a few examples; there is a couple of tech guys and scientists who have come up with a body suit of sorts that allows a paraplegic to walk. The man that they were showing, wearing this suit, hadn't walked in years, but now thanks to this technology he is able to walk after a fashion. There has been at least one famous person who had a device implanted near his deaf ears that now allows him to hear. And then there are the guys in Europe who built a car that can be folded like a stroller. The list of things could go on forever. Then we have the more personal devices such as computers and smart phones. My family has just recently been introduced to the joys of iPods, makes us wonder how we ever got anything done with out them, and then there is all the social networking websites. We are, in short, one of the most technologically and electronically connected societies in the world but I think that in the age of "touch " every thing, that we have, perhaps, lost sight of something more important, the human touch. Not to be taken wrong, I like my cell phone and iPod, I love having the ability to chat with people thousands of miles away via the computer or post this blog to a social network but think of how many times something that you have said, via the web, has been taken wrong or out of context simply because someone couldn't see your face or actually hear your voice. They took it wrong because, we are wired, to listen to tone and inflection as well as observe body language, none of which you can really get online or while texting. We have of course, invented some pretty handy short words and smiles to help express our thoughts and ideas but there is nothing quite like up close and personal. Twice in my married life, I have been separated from my family for extended periods of time and it was great to have the technology available to contact them, but once I came back I couldn't get enough of personal contact and it was hard for me to let them out of my sight for any length of time. It wasn't that I lacked contact, it just wasn't human physical contact. We were recently visiting some friends and I found myself amused that all of us were sitting in the same room talking and joking but we were all wired at the same time. My son was on an iPod, my daughter on a laptop, my wife and I were on an iPod, as were our friends. We were actually interacting via these devices by playing games and talking, but we were also all surfing the web. I suppose it could be argued that this is the modern day version of sitting around the radio to listen to Buck Rogers or the tube to watch the Ed Sullivan show, but still somehow I find this less personal. Back in those days everyone was doing the same thing so that somehow connected you to others. Mobile technology seems to make it different somehow. I remember I was at a baseball game with a friend a few years ago and there was a man and his young son, sitting a few rows down from us, the son was trying to find out what was going on because he didn't understand the game but the father ignored him and then became angry with him for interrupting what ever it was that he was doing on his phone. Other then getting angry with him, he didn't interact with his son and missed a great bonding moment. Perhaps it boils down to a lack of human contact and bonding. I enjoy reading people's status updates and their links to various pages, and texting has become quite fun for me as well as a challenge and I think it's nice to make arrangements with our friends to get together via the internet, but, I have to admit, I am old fashioned. I actually prefer personal to electronic, I'll take human touch over iPod touch anytime....excuse me I have to answer this text.....

What Really Matters

You have heard the stories, have probably seen it on the web or TV, somebody famous has given a huge chunk of change to an orphanage in a third world country. Another has gone to Africa and has adopted several children and still someone else has donated their time and money to feed starving people somewhere in the world. All the above mentioned things are good, and I believe that if G-D has given you the means to help folks out you should, but it makes me feel kind of small in comparison. I know that I am not likely to ever be able to afford to go to Africa , never mind giving large chunks of change to anyone, so what are people such as myself ,and likely you, supposed to do? In an earlier post I wrote about George Bailey in the movie "Its A Wonderful Life" and how all the things that he had done in his life had effected others in ways that he had never realized. It wasn't that he had done super colossal things, instead it was all the effects of the small things that he had done that made him a great person and loved by all. As shown in the movie its the small everyday things that we do that can make a difference. Let me give you some examples based on a recent event. When it is 6 degrees outside, with a wind chill of 10 below, and you pass a car broken down beside the road, complete with a family in that cold car, rather then honking at them, because they have the nerve to be broken down in an inconvenient spot, how about stopping to see if they need any help. Or perhaps if you can't stop, driving up the road until you have a signal and then call for help. Or if you come out of your house and you see a car with the flashers on, the hood up and a man desperately trying to make a call perhaps rather then driving away (the car died literally in front of this house) perhaps you could take a moment and let the people use your phone long enough to call a friend and a tow truck, these things may seem like a small thing to you but to the ones who are freezing that little act of kindness could make a huge difference. In all fairness there were a few people who stopped and checked on us, one man pulled his car up and we tried jumping the battery but to no avail. Another person, a woman, slowed down enough to ask if we needed help, but the vast majority drove by us and looked but that was it. We are blessed, however with friends and family who came and froze with us until the truck came, towed our car from the garage to their house, and loaned us a car until this one is fixed. None of them were probably thinking that they were doing anything of any great importance, because they are a humble bunch after all, yet it was these, by the standards of the world anyhow, small things that made a huge difference for me and my family. You don't need to go to Africa to feed people,feeding folks in Africa is a good thing don't take me wrong, but there are likely people right in your town or neighborhood who could use some food. Pick up a couple of cans of soup and bring them to a food shelter or a food drive, you don't have to spend a fortune to make a difference. I have a friend who sold Christmas trees to benefit a homeless shelter, she didn't buy the trees herself, but she did give of her time to sell them. These are the little things that count and make a difference. In the movie "Evan Almighty" G-D, looking a lot like Morgan Freeman, tells Evan Baxter to build him an "Ark" because the flood waters were coming. In the end it was a dam breaking that caused the flood, but because Evan built the Ark many people were saved and a larger environmental disaster was averted but it was the end of the movie that really mattered. It was when G-D says to Evan that if really wants to change the world all he has to do is an "act of random kindness" hence the word Ark. I believe that it is as simple as that. Open the door for someone,give time to a charity, pick up a bag of groceries and quietly give them to someone in need . Give a hungry dog a bone, any thing that you do may not seem like much but in the eyes of G-D and the recipient it is huge. Isa.1:17 JPS "Learn to do good. Devote yourself to justice; Aid the wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; Defend the cause of the widow."

Parallel Worlds

Imagine waking up in a world that is different then the one you went to sleep in.  Not in huge ways, but in little ways.  The bed sheets are different, the curtains are blue when you remember them being green the night before.  You go to work, only to discover that your department is in another building then the one you had always gone to and that you are the manager, whereas yesterday you had just been a part of the staff.  You go home sick and confused because you know something isn't right, and waiting for you is a spouse that you don't remember having, yet she is the sweetheart that you had in high school.  Sounds kind of freaky doesn't it?  How about getting off of a plane in a country that you have visited many times only to be told that your passport is no good because the country it's from doesn't exist and as far as they know, never existed.  Yet, you know it's real, you can see it in your mind, you have money in your wallet from that nation and even your driver's license says that you are, yet no one has ever heard of the place.

What would you do if you found yourself in that situation?  The people I read about, and there were more then just the two, are understandably upset.  People are telling them that they are crazy and confused.  Yet, in all these cases the people who are experiencing this will insist that this is really happening to them, that they have some how shifted into an alternate or parallel universe.

I read these two stories from an alternative news sight that has everything from normal news, if there is such a thing anymore, to out right weird and all points in between.  I don't claim that these stories are true (I did change some of the details and left out names though I stayed true to the intent) but the idea "Intersecting Alternate Realities" really fascinates me.

The basic concept, very simply put, suggests that every decision that we make or don't make happens in an alternate universe, and because we have so many decisions that we make every day that the alternates realities just go on and on.  It is also suggested that from time to time some of these alternates intersect with each other causing these anomalies to happen and people get moved from one to  the other, not everyone mind you, but just people in the right place and time. Now, before you dismiss this as just being totally insane, understand that Quantum Physics says that all this is mathematically possible.

Now to the point.  I wonder to myself how many of us go through our lives wishing that we were living in an alternate reality.  We spend a lot of time looking backwards and regretting decisions that we made many years ago and then pondering what life might have been like if we had decided differently.  I can use my self as an example.  What would have happened if I had gone to college instead of going into the military?  Or a trade school?

First off, I wouldn't have been in the Iraq war dealing with consequences both physically and mentally but then I likely would not have married my wife either.  She was 5 years behind me in school and while we were all a part of the same religious persuasion,  and we would have likely have gone to the same college, because I was so far ahead of her I would have likely gotten together with someone else and our paths might have crossed but not in the same way.  By joining the military when I did, it set the stage for us to meet via mutual friends and here we are now with 22 years of being together, 21 of them married and the 5 years of difference doesn't matter.

Here is another thought;  you might be where you are because G-D knows that you can handle it.  I was complaining one day about my physical condition to a Rabbi friend and he suggested to me that I was in this position because G-D knows that I can handle it and make some good come from it.  That blew me away.  Take something that is painful and down right humbling at times and use it for good?  I had never even considered that thought before.  So it could be said for all of us, perhaps rather then wishing we  were elsewhere in time and place we could look and decide for our self to make this time and place a little better.

Then think about what would happen if you weren't here or had never been.  Most of us go through our lives never really knowing how much we affect others around us, that's partially because we don't generally let others know how much we appreciate them until we are at their funerals, but I also think it's because life comes at us so fast that we simply miss the influence we have.  In the movie "Its A Wonderful Life" George Bailey gets a chance to see just how much his life has impacted others after he declares that it would have been better if he hadn't been born.  Every thing from his brother drowning, thus causing a bunch of soldiers to die on a troop transport years later, to his wife becoming a old maid, and his home town becoming a bad place to be was shown to him, and it all happened because he hadn't been born. He returns to this life in no less trouble but he sees his life  from a much different perspective.

None of us are likely to be as lucky as he was and get the chance to see what it would be like without us, so it is up to us to live the life that G-D has given us to the fullest.  The formula is for it is actually quite easy.  Love G-D and Love people.  You do those two things and you probably won't want to be elsewhere in time or space.

The people that I mentioned in the beginning, according to the story, are not very happy campers.  If it is true that they have been removed from their time and space it is also just as understandable that they wish to go back, so be careful what you wish for or you may wake up one day wondering who changed the curtains.....

A Miracle

Yesterday I witnessed a miracle. There was no angels singing on high, no endlessly burning candles, but no less a miracle. My daughter celebrated Hanukkah / Christmas  with us and that is nothing short of a miracle.
For those of you who don't know, my oldest daughter developed a disease called Stevens Johnson disease, which comes about as a result of a bad reaction to anti biotic.The odds of this occurring is something  like in one in one billion but she happened to be the one. The results of this is basically the effect of your entire body being burned, including all mucus membranes. The mortality rate of this disease is somewhere around 70% and is extremely painful. If you survive it there is a good possibility that you will be scarred for life and you could go blind. They originally told us that we were looking at a minimum of 6 weeks in the hospital if not months and that if she developed any kind of infection that it could prove to be deadly. There was not a single thing in all of this to bring us any kind of hope.
When I saw her in the hospital I was shocked. The cold written facts of it pale in comparison to the realities. I have been to war and I have seen much in my life but nothing could prepare me for seeing my daughter in so much pain and misery. She couldn't walk. Her body was blistered everywhere. Her fine motor skills were about gone and her skin would just randomly tear and she would start bleeding. She could barely see. I honestly didn't believe that she was going to live through this.
I went home and did the only thing that I knew how to do and that was pray and then start contacting people to get her on prayer lists everywhere.
Between my wife and I, and then through our contacts ,we had people ,literally from around the world, praying for her. In Israel her name was put into the wall and she was prayed for over the airwaves. In churches ,in a variety of denominations, across the country she was prayed for and though I don't know what the actual number of people praying was it had to have  numbered in the thousands if not more.
I don't want anyone to misunderstand me. The doctors and nurses did an outstanding job with her, they were some very kind and courteous people and very professional in their work. They are to be thanked long and loud for their work, but make no mistake ,the prayers of the people of G-D also played it's part. G-D gave those doctors and nurses the intelligence to do the job that they do and the wisdom to know how to treat her. But G-D also heard the prayers of thousands to heal one of His children and He did. I have one friend who reminded me of his opinion of G-D but because she is my daughter that he would send a prayer.These prayers were brought before G-D from a wide variety of people from differing denominations and belief systems. Jews, Christians, Pagans, of all varieties, all prayed to G-D in their own fashion and a miracle occurred. Say what you will but I believe that G-D honors all prayer.
Three weeks ago I wasn't sure she was going to live. Last week the miracle began.
First she decided that she was going to get up and walk and despite the pain she did and she sat in a regular chair. The next day she got up and walked and went out side for the first time in weeks, it was painful on the new skin but she was determined to get things moving. She then ate real food, and the following day they removed the feeding tube. Friday she called and told me that she was going home.
Yesterday the miracle of my daughter walked through my door and celebrated both holidays with us. She is still in some pain and she will still be awhile recovering, but the fact of the matter is that she was able to go home and then come and spend the day with us. Miracles happen.
For the skeptics out there, to whom G-D is a fairy tale, I can only say this; I didn't witness the healing as it happened, I only know that it happened. I didn't see the hand of G-D reaching down to touch my child with healing yet I have seen the results. I can't even prove to you that G-D exists , at least not in a way that you would demand the proof, yet my daughter walked through my door yesterday a walking miracle. That's all the proof I need.
To the Doctors and Nurses at both St. Josephs, in Nashua NH and Mass General in Boston my deepest thanks. To those individuals in Israel that took the time to put her name into the Wall and pray for her over the air thank you, and for all of you, no matter who you are, or what you believe, who took time to pray Thank you. Most of all to G-D, may His name be praised, I give my greatest praise and thank you.

I'm A Hick

Have you ever heard the saying that if you don't know who the geek in your crowd is that chances are it's you?  I have a bit of a modification to that that goes something like this; if you don't know who the hick is in the crowd, it just might be you.  That's me.  Front row, center section, with the big neon sign.  I have always known this fact, but I was reminded just how much of a hick I actually am while traveling to Boston to see my daughter.
First of all you must understand, that to me, cities of any kind are scary places.  My idea of a city is say, Montpelier, Vermont  where you might find more moose then people on any given day and the only things that are dangerous are the congressmen or women in the capital building or trying to find a parking space on the 4th of July.  I would be more comfortable in the woods with a tent and flashlight with a black bear for a neighbor.  In all fairness, some of this is the medias fault.  Everything from Dirty Harry movies of the 70's to the local nightly news would give you the impression that cities of any size are full of crazy people who speak with funny accents and want to shoot you with large caliber weapons.  Even knowing this Is a false impression I'd still rather deal with an angry moose.
My first experience was the serious mistake of actually driving into Boston.  To the uninitiated, of which I am no longer one of, it seems easy enough, just follow the directions that your printed up map tells you and you will get there with a smile on your face without having even the slightest hint of stress, yea right.  I now understand why seasoned veterans of commuting from out of the city use the train.  First, the map lied, OK so a map can't lie, it only can exaggerate the truth a bit or more correctly, it left out certain details, such as one way streets and merging traffic.  Second, it doesn't tell you of the legendary manner of drivers that Boston is famous for.  I had heard these rumors before making the trip, but the experience of it defies any kind of rational thought.  I have never been sworn at so much in my life, since boot camp any how, and that was from the people walking out in front of me!  The drivers were worse.  You have to understand that my idea of traffic is being able to see tail lights at about a half a mile away or having to slow down because a deer just ran out in front of you.  The deer alone can cause me to brake out into a sweat if it's close enough, so imagine my horror at bumper to bumper traffic with multiple lanes merging all at once and not being able to see the road sign to know which way I had to go!  Obviously, I survived my encounters with the  Boston road warriors but I started to catch a  glimpse of how much of a hick I actually am.
My second trip in really clarified to me just how truly hicified I have become. This time I thought that I'd be smart and take the train in.  Sounded simple enough.  Looked online to see what train to take that would bring me the closest to the hospital, found it and because I know where that one is and it seemed like a straight shot, I decided to go that route.  I should just state here doing stuff like this without someone else along, who actually knows what they are doing, can be very stressful to me and make my imagination run wild.  But I  didn't start to panic until I was informed that the train that I was going to take wasn't running, so I would have to catch the bus there at the train station, get off in Harvard Square and then take the train to the hospital.  Panic time, hick style was about to start.
Getting to the station and onto the bus was fairly simple but I was not prepared for the amount of people that can fit onto a bus, remember we are talking a metro bus here, not a school bus, add that to the fact that I didn't know exactly where I was headed on this bus (it had several stops to make on the way) a driver who didn't speak very loud, I thought he said Harvard when he actually said Porter, and the full knowledge that at any minute the Crips and  Bloods where going to jump on the bus and start a gang war or I would get mugged by a local hotdog vendor and there you have my mind set.
As things happened, I was not caught up in a gang war and I did manage to get to Harvard and then onto the hospital via the train but not before I showed how ignorant I was by asking directions and info about the ticket machines.  I had always understood that any place that had a booth that said information on it would be a place to actually get information, apparently that was my hickness thinking.
My last realization of how much I was a hick came just from my observations of the people on both the bus and the train.  I am by nature, a jeans and flannel shirt kind of guy.  When winter rolls around I am interested in warmth and not fashion.  If my clothes and shoes are 10 years out of date but they keep me warm I am usually quite content but I felt massively out of place there.  I have been on commercial sized farms that didn't have as much leather as I saw on the train and bus.  I didn't know just how many styles and name brands existed, of course that might be due to the fact that I get my styles from wally world, but still I was shocked and suddenly aware at just how much I stood out.  I was wearing my typical Jeans and shirt but I was also wearing a bright red winter Jacket and my black felt fedora style hat (something that you would see men in the 40's and 50's wearing) along with my sneakers, there wasn't a name brand on me and in a sea of black and other dark colors I was in red!  I stuck out like a sore thumb though I didn't realize it until I was looking in the windows reflection and trying to figure out who the hick was looking back at me....
So, now I am a seasoned veteran.  I know how to get to point B from point A without too much trouble, I can quickly navigate my way through the bus and train stations and perhaps look like I know where I am heading, but alas, I will always be a hick but don't laugh at me when you see me in the city in my fedora and red jacket, just remember some day you might be in the boonies and you may want me to introduce you to that bear before he introduces himself.

The Meaning Of The Season

I think that this time of the year it becomes hard to write something that is truly unique and yet bears the spirit of holiday season. I have written this post three times and have wound up starting all over again because I really don't wish to sound sappy or sentimental about the holidays or the past year, or angry about our economic or political mess. I am not wanting to engage in a battle over whether it's better to say "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas/ Happy Hanukkah" because honestly I don't care, if it makes you happy say it, if you wish not to then don't.  Honestly does it really matter? Or could there be more important issues out there, even during this time of the year?
How about family? Seems to me that whether or not you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, the truly important stuff belongs with the gathering of your family and friends to share those traditions that are a part of your faith and seeing to it that this is passed on to those of the next generation. This is what is important.
How about peace? When I think of that word I hear Johnny Cash singing his version of "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" with my grandfathers slightly wobbly voice or I think of the New Testament text that says "Peace on Earth, Good Will to  Men." Yet what I see going on around me speaks of something else completely.
Yes the war in Iraq is now officially over, but we are still in other countries. Our economy is still shot and despite the protests, nothing is changing. All the wild commercialism of the holidays is still in full tilt. Politicians are still greedy and corrupt and it would seem that those that have gained the most have turned their backs on those that need the most. The ghost of Marley would cry out even more if he could see that the very thing that he paid for with an eternity in hell still happening today. Where is this "Peace"? Where is the compassion?
How about the most amazing concept of all, love. Both Christmas and Hanukkah share this in common. Christmas is supposed to be about G-D showing His love to mankind and Hanukkah is supposed to be about G-D showing His love to the Jewish people. Both involve miracles in hard times, but at least for me, the real issue is the love of G-D. Shouldn't we be spreading that around rather then worrying about what someone calls a tree? Is it going to do anything to show our love for others by protesting about a manger scene? I don't think so.
Spend time with your family. Enjoy the traditions that your faith brings to you, have peace come from within and above all else love for that is the real meaning of the season.
Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas to all.