Ben's leaving

My son Benjamin Terrell Morson took himself away from us last weekend by hanging himself from a tree. Why he did this I do not know, and probably never will, 'cause that is usually the big unknown in suicide; that and the realization that Ben may have been the Big Unknown himself. Ben had been estranged from me for most of the last five years, for reasons I do not know. It is my hope that his friends who knew him better than I more recently, can and will shed light on this estrangement. I intend to write more about him, but it must suffice now to say I loved him very much, and that I believe that I demonstrated that to him. But if I did not adequately demonstrate it to him, I tried, but so much of the time I had no audience in him. At this time I can say that he had a willing audience in me, but he chose, not to perform for this audience: not to hear the applause, (and yes, very seldom, the boo's) ; chose not to see the ovations. The hurt is that I have missed and will miss him, this, maybe the only time around.

Giving Credit Where No Credit is Due

In his news conference this day, President Obama reiterates what has been said by almost every economist for the past several months: that a stimulus package must be enacted that will provide banks with enough liquidity, i.e. enough of a cash cushion, that the banks will somehow no longer be afraid to loan companies money; and that the companies will, by borrowing the money from the banks, be able to buy raw materials for manufacturing, or to loan money to consumers to buy cars, etc., or to refrain from laying off further workers. The assumption is that, with this infusion of loaned money, American companies will, "again", become successful engines of commerce.
The assumption that most of us taxpayers have always made about businesses, at least about good successful businesses, is that a successful business did not have to borrow money daily or weekly in order to stay in business, any more than a financially successful person had to go daily or weekly to the loan shark and borrow money against his next paycheck. Many of us were not particularly financially savvy , but, learned to pay off credit card balances instead of using the cards as consumer loans. While we understood that a business might, for instance, need to borrow money to make a large capital purchase, as we might, to buy a house, we assumed that businesses were wiser than us taxpayers, and thus that surely a good business, SAVED, enough money to meet day-to-day operating expenses. Yet we are now presented with the spectacle of most businesses in our country operating hand- to-mouth, paycheck-to paycheck, and we are being told by the economic gurus, that we taxpayers should tacitly approve and support businesses operating in a way that we have been told goes against sound financial principles. President Obama and the gurus want the banks not to be afraid to loan businesses money. Yet it seems that the banks, and we, should properly be terrified.

Out of the Garden

My childhood was idyllic, joyful and fanciful. I grew up on a farm. My grandfather had a large farm that he farmed with tractors and mules. As a boy , I got to farm with both. He had a sawmill and a cotton gin and I got to work and play at both. My brother and I had horses to ride. We had cows and pigs to take care of, barns to climb in, roofs to climb on,wagons to ride in, big piles of cotton to dive into. My grandfather built us gym toys and other large outdoor toys to play on. The centerpiece of these toys was a slide built out of wood and tin. It didn't slide very well ,but it was really high, and at the top of the slide was a large platform, beside a tree. The platform was ideal for a young boy to lie on and read comic books: Superman, Batman, Green Arrow, Aquaman. If you got tired of lying on the platform you could just climb over in the tree. Oh, there were chinks in the garden wall, intimations that the garden wouldn't last forever, such as pretend girlfriends, sneaked cigarettes, fights at school, and such, but nothing truly portentious.
But one night when I was fourteen years old, I sat in the school band hall at band practice. From the left side of the room, I looked at Judy Bedford with her french horn in the center of the room, and she looked at me, smiled, and blushed. I had an awareness of her, and of myself, that I had never had before. We "made eyes" at each other for the rest of band practice that night. I had no way of knowing then that I was being cast out of the Garden forever that night, as surely and irrevocably as Adam. And I have since come to realize that every one of us is just as inevitably cast out of the garden, to live with joy and sorrow, ecstasy and pain, and the inevitability of change and the sure knowledge of death, but just as with that fourteen year old, we would, and could, have it no other way.

Tax Crook Tom Daschle

So now we find that former senator, and world-citizen Tom Daschle, like fellow-crook Tim Geithner, did not pay $140,000 in taxes until he knew he was to be vetted by congress. Then he "discovered" his mistake and paid up. The inescapable fact, glaringly visible to everyone, including us americans, is that this incredibly arrogant, and gratuitously mean, man would never have paid these taxes otherwise. Maybe he, like fellow Universe-Master Geithner, did not know about owing them. How come that is no excuse for us others, us americans? President Obama says that, like Geithner, this failure to pay is no obstacle to Daschle becoming Health and Human Services Secretary. Then what would be an obstacle?
It seems that Obama feels he can perform an immaculate conception, wipe the embryo clean, for people that were not properly vetted by him in the first place, simply by pronouncing his blessing on them.
Our biggest fear, that Obama would believe his incredibly fawning press, seems to be coming true.

Playing with Scott Houston

One of the happiest , most fulfilling things personally that I do, is play the piano. I had taken piano lessons some over the years, but couldn't play, until I studied Scott Houston's course, Play Piano in a Flash. In his course, Scott teaches that most all popular piano players have a "dirty little secret", they simply read and play a one note melody with the right hand, and accompany this by playing chords with the left hand. Furthermore, 90% of all melodies can be accompanied by playing three cords. Sound simple? It is! Of course once you get into playing, you"ll probably want to learn more chords and embellishments, but you don't have to, in order to sit and play those songs in your heart. Scott is on the web and has published a number of books, including several "fake books" showing the easy way to play popular songs. He also has a show on PBS, though I can't get this. The important thing is, if you're one of those people who took piano lessons but didn't learn to play anything, there really is another way, the way that most people that actually play, use, but didn't want you to know about. Now you know...the rest of the story is yours.

An American President

So many of us out here now are just Americans. Oh, our ancestors came from somewhere, maybe a lot of different places, a long time ago. So why is it necessary to identify Barack as an African-American president? Oh, I know that he leveraged his background into a huge outpouring of black loyalty, and far more spectacularly, white noblesse oblige, but now we can only hope that his election will allow a coming together to let us all be Americans... surely being Americans is enough.

Philosophy Trivialized

Two years ago I began to pursue a master's degree in philosophy. I have always loved philosophy and felt that I would like to teach it. I have always considered philosophy by its classical definition, the study of wisdom, but I am becoming increasingly disenchanted with what is apparently the need of academic philosophers, to analyze trivial ideas, and to formalize these ideas in a quasi-logico-mathematical jargon. I accept that scientific fields necessitate the use of specialized language forms, but firmly believe philosophy is not, and should not be a science. Further, I would suggest that the purpose of philosophy should not be to demonstrate the philosopher's fine and subtle mind. Rather philosophy should, as simply as possible, point the way to the truth.

Mandatory retirement

It is remarkable that in less than three years the U.S. Airways hero pilot will be too old to work in his job anymore. Maybe this brilliant job of piloting will serve as an impetus to change the law requiring mandatory age 60 retirement for airline pilots.

African American Readers

As a frequent visitor of bookstores for many years, one of the heartening occurences I've noticed in the past five years, and especially in the past two years, is the increasing frequenting of bookstores by African Americans. At first their focus seemed to be on black subjects, but in the past two years they seem to be open to all genres. This is heartening, and large credit must surely go to Oprah.

Richard John Neuhaus

I was sorrowed to hear of the death of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus three days ago. Fr. Neuhaus' writing was thoughtful and erudite. Althought I did not agree with a some of his fundamentalist religious stances I always admired is e expressions of his point of view. Especially poignant was the reception of the last copy of First Things, of which he was Editor -in-Chief, where he told of his latest cancer diagnosis, with the uncertainty and fear involved, yet his certainty that his Redeemer lived.

A start at least

This is my first blog entry. I've been reading what others wrote all my life and it's time I spent some time writing what I think on a number of subjects.