Know Your Space

On the way to work today it occurred to me, not for the first time, that one of the ways we can divide the world of humanity is between people who are aware of their surroundings and how their actions effect other people and how other peoples action effect them ---and those people who do not have a clue.

I am convinced that 80% of auto accidents are the result of people not being aware that there are really other people in the other cars that have independent thought and not in a video game. That is not the only place.

• There are the times in the grocery store where a person leaves their cart sit sideways in the aisle and or where the person ahead of you at the check out decides to balance their check book at the register.


• Then there are the times in the security line at the airport where people hear from the minute thye get in line they hear, or not, "have your ID's out and available" and when they get to head of the line they have repacked their ID in the bottom of the carry-on.


• There is the theater patron who takes cell phone calls and want to talk about fishing during the movie.

It is not that they only inconvenience others, there are safety issues. If you are not aware of where you are at all time you could, in the extreme, get killed. Expecting people to stop while jaywalking is not a good assumption. The person in the car could be balancing their checkbook (I am probably giving people more credit with the checkbook thing.)

One of the skills my father had and and mother has that was passed on to me and my sisters is the ability to be aware of the immediate world around us. From our father it was the ability to quickly appraise the a situtation and determine what is the appropriate response. When you survive 90 days in constant combat in World War II, you have to have that ability or you die in the first day. From our mother we got the ability to discover what is new and to have the curiosity to investigate.

One of the things I would like to pass on to Son is this ability to live fully aware of his environment. It has gotten me through a lot of life that would have been more difficult if I had been oblivious.

The only burden is that he will spend an a lot of time frustrated with most of the the other people in the world or at least the United States.

Taking the King's Shilling

This morning on the way to work I was, as usual, listening to NPR. One of the stories was about the need to increase the size of the Army and Marines. The question was asked if the Army was having a hard time making it's recruiting goals now- how will they do if they have to recruit another 50,000 a 100,000 soldiers. The answer was to offer better signing bonuses to new recruits of the military.

After hearing that I could not help thinking about the English Army of the 18th and part of the 19th century. The Army in this time period of English history, was a "volunteer" Army. Recruiting Sergeants would go from village to village, or from block to block in the cities, with a drummer (hence the phrase "drumming up business")looking to fill the regiments. Each regiment was responsible for its own recruiting. They often used taverns to recruit, getting the intoxicated patrons to take the "King's shilling." Often putting the shilling in the ale glass so that when they had finished the mug the shilling would fall into the mouth and by this action accepting the shilling. By accepting the shilling, no matter how it came into a persons possession, they were by law agreeing to join the regiment (notice the root of the word soldier is sold.)

The men, who of their own free will, volunteered for the English Army often did so out of a last resort. They were either running from the law or in such dire financial circumstances that it was either join the Army or die.

Today the United States' volunteer Military is not as draconian as the English Army but there is similar motivation of financial needs of some of the men and women joining the military. This economic draft is part of who we are today and it is a great benefit for people who need that leg up in life.

What bothers me is that if these people had other options would they take them over the military? A military career is honorable and fulfilling choice for a life's work. As a matter of fact I would have signed a military contract in college, I wanted to, but I was two pounds over the weight limit to qualify on the last day to sign and was disqualified. In the mid 70's the a military career was not a popular choice but that is what I felt was my life's calling. Looking back I wonder how my life would have been different.

I know that most of our service people today have chosen the military out of patriotism and calling.

My heart goes out to those soldiers, sailors, marines and air force personnel who are in harms way because they felt they had no choice but to except the "Kings shilling"

Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me ....

Deep dark depression, excessive misery.

The best show in the history of TV, in my opinion, is coming to the end of it's fourth season. I watched the season finally of The Wire last night on HBO "On demand".

For the first time in my TV watching history I had that hollow yearning for more I sometime get when finishing a good book. At the end of the other three seasons I had feeling of regret but this it was a deep felt NO!! So many of the characters have changed the basic way they understand life that I want to see more, now.

The other reason for my lament is that in my reading about the series in the print media, is that it appears that next year's season might be the last for the series (most likely will be.) As the season finished last night it showed the characters as they were going about living life in the context of their changed reality. This change of reality has occurred over the series and the pace has been accelerated this year; some in pain, some in hope and some numbness. It feels like I have been living with a health vibrant friend watching and sharing their lives becoming, more complex and full than ever before and then being told that by this time next year they will be dead.

I know this is just a just a TV show and I should be more involved in my own community instead of being caught up in a fictionalized community set in Baltimore but I truly feel after watching this series I come to better understand the humanity of people struggling to understand their lives in relation to persons they would normally see as being on the "other side."

I guess at the bottom of this all is that the creators of the show have brought to life my understanding of the world around me.

• There is no black and white, just gray. That in every person there is good and bad.


• That most people make decisions with good intentions, contaminated by self interest.


• And that there is hope of change for the better but that every change for the good has the possibility of unexpected consequences.

As Son would say "Oh my"