Great Truths about Growing Old

1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.

2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.

3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there.

4) You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.

5) It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.

6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

From A Fine Blog You Can Link To: http://www.ifxgroup.net/blog2007.htm

February, 2007 - Biography or Novel?

Imagine for a moment your whole life as a book where you are born in the first chapter, die in the last and everything you say and do is written on the pages in between.

Do you live your life as if it were biography or novel?

Are you simply collecting facts and counting milestones along life's path towards the final page? Or are you writing a great novel about a richly textured love woven deep into the fabric of your life to the point that the words desire to leap off the page with excitement and even the pages are sweetly fragrant like a garden basking in warm golden sunlight after a soft spring rain.

Sadly, it is all too easy to get caught up in the work-day world where pointless facts and trivial urgent things attempt to push the truly important parts of life to the side. If this is allowed to happen too often and continue too long, the pages of your life will become populated with emotionless and vain accomplishments that quickly become stale facts in yet another biography.

What if all these pointless, trivial and vain things actually serve a purpose with all their attempts to distract and woo us away from our love?

Love stories are not much fun to read without some trials and tribulations, but true love overcomes the obstacles and wins the ultimate prize. Some believe the love that endures grows sweeter because it has been proven. How do others know your love has endured if it can not be easily found in the pages of your life?

What kind of book are you writing with your life?

Amen, er Yeah!

Here we go again... All we ask is that you tune in for a minute. There you
will find the worth! One episode of "American Masters" or one episode of the
"American Experience" should be able to convince even the staunchest of
conservatives. Where else is the history of this country told? And, then the
stories of us, we as a people, are also captivatingly and so beautifully
told. and include us all. Listen to the coverage of the war in Iraq from the
reports from NPR or "Morning Edition" and also listen to the reports from
the Sudan. or the profiles of Americans from Portland, Maine to Portland
Oregon; all of those great voices from across our country being heard. and,
all those voices just waiting to be heard. Spend a Saturday afternoon with
the folks from, "This American Life", and I am sure that you will laugh out
loud -- at least once. And there is no other media source out there that
covers science, medicine, and nature and environmental issues as well as
they do.

Since the early eighties, when the first funding cuts began, I became
involved with the fundraising. I got involved with my local stations, and
have been involved ever since. There is absolutely nothing in the world that
is more irritating to me than the current state of funding, and the
desperate fundraising, as it is for public broadcasting. And then, I can't
imagine my world without public broadcasting. There I found Sir Kenneth
Clark's, amazing series, "Civilization". I became even more curious about
everything after seeing Dr. Jacob Brownowski's essay on, "The Assent of
Man". This was at an early age, while I was watching "ZOOM" and learned
about other kids my age, where they lived and what they thought about,
realized that even I could make a difference -- in the whole scheme of
things. if I wanted. and I did after experiencing those eye-opening
stories. And then I just recently watched an episode about John and Abigail
Adams on "American Experience" This made the whole thing clear to me and
offered me a view of how vital and how human the struggle for independence
was -- and also how important that this would be to all of those that
followed.

I will also tell you that after visiting each of our four public
broadcasting stations in my area, and getting to know some of the people a
little bit, they are very dedicated. I will venture to say, that no other
group, even with the very limited funding coming from the government, has
"stretched" a dollar more so than the folks that are involved with public
broadcasting. And, unlike so many other federally funded entities, they have
the proof. Just go to any public library and visit the media section and
you'll find that many of the materials were produced by public broadcasting.
I won't even mention all of the educational materials made available to
teachers and institutions.

I have used the word, "American" quite a few times during this minor essay.
I have not even reminded you of the exceptional coverage the local NPR and
PBS stations provide during elections. The commercial stations simply are
unwilling to provide this service. Understandable, they have to think about
the bottom line. The real "dialogue" begins when the local public
broadcasting channels get involved. And, then we can least be informed
before we go out to vote. Maybe some don't want us to hear anything but the
overly-well crafted spin from their commercials -- that only air on
"commercial" television stations.

Simply said, "We", all of us, were guaranteed a "voice" under the
constitution. This came with the "vote". Although our founding fathers had
no way of knowing what a part that media would play in our lives of the 21st
century, they did know how it was all important and that communication was
the key. The "key" that unlocked the doors to how we should get along,
understand, and begin to move forward with one, clear, unified, "voice". I
was vital to our existence at one point. How, despite all of our
differences, we sometimes need to stand together as a whole, especially in a
difficult time, listen to each other, and embrace each other a bit more,
compromise a bit more than we usually do, and figure out a way to move
together, hopefully forward, for once. towards the goal.

I consider public broadcasting in the United States to be a national
treasure and should always be looked upon as such. Always one of the
greatest success stories of "Freedom of the Press". To educate and inform
the populace should always be a priority. To offer a place for discussion
and dialogue should as well.

This is, and will always remain the "Public Forum" for many of us.. and a
vital source of knowledge. We will always support our ability to have a
"voice" and listen, and get to know others that will impress us with their
ability to offer an independent voice, unfettered with party affiliations,
or the mood of the day. With or without federal funding.. Public
broadcasting embodies what I think of when I think of the "American Dream".

For my United States government to even think about cutting funds from such
a worthwhile educational source to their constituents, is way beyond me.

And, I didn't even offer my opinion about how it is so vital to a people to
have a sense of the "arts". And public broadcasting is our source for that.

Every single dollar you give to public broadcasting is indeed an investment,
the returns are solid.. I will attest to that.

Just Listen, Watch, and above all else, Re-think.

Richard A. Lafon

Christmas letter: Sharon.

Blog time for you, my reader of one. This is the Christmas letter I never wrote, in small doses.

How about Sharon? Sharon made a glorious book, a flip book called The Garuda does the Shuffle and wow, there she is holding a chicken, in her farm back yard, walking towards me and blowing me a kiss. Now that is a fine way to start a day. She has been keeping the post office on Saturdays for awhile which makes her feel more a part of the community of Fountain Green, Utah. She continues to type at 120 words a minute or more as she transcribes for a neurosurgeon in California. I think that she prefers to do other things more. Sharon is wise for her age, always was an old soul, my bonus for having ten children. She tells us, "the reason for parents is for them to remind us of who we are and what we can do" I'm paraphrasing. She attended a Buddhist retreat in Colorado for a month last February or so learning how to meditate, and learning that wherever she goes she is loved.

What else: Her household looks like a picture book of paintings and quilts and special objects, sometimes a pen full of baby chicks in the front room. She has a huge birds pen on her porch that she keeps open with food for the birds who stop by. She makes butter by rolling around a large bottle of cream for awhile, passing it and throwing it more and more until suddenly it is butter. She worries that the amount of alcohol in pure vanilla might be too much. She practices love.

I'd love to have her visit and meet Don who wants to meet her as well, and bring along her husband Jon and son David and daughter Beth. She will like our place, our shack in the mountain woods.

You come by if you would like to see the Garuda do the shuffle.