CONFUSED RANDOM THINKING

When I allow my head to play around with words, it is fun and tasting the words is as good as being at a wine tasting. Some word combinations make it very clear as to what is meant. Vice, according to Wikipedia: Vice is a practice or habit considered immoral, depraved, and/or degrading in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a defect, an infirmity or merely a bad habit. Synonyms for vice include fault, depravity, sin, iniquity, wickedness and corruption. The modern English term that best captures its original meaning is the word vicious, which means "full of vice". In this sense, the word vice comes from the Latin word vitium, meaning "failing or defect". Vice is the opposite of virtue. Vice is also a generic legal term for criminal offenses involving prostitution, lewdness, lasciviousness and obscenity. Illegal forms of gambling are also often included as a vice in law enforcement departments that deal with gambling as a crime. Vice President seemed to be one of those word combinations that is particularly misleading from the original intent.

Thus, it was difficult for me to understand why the second 'runner-up' as it were, to our President should be called Vice President....until Dick Cheney took office, that is. Then the apt titling became clear.

Merriam-Webster gives even more fitting meaning to the word preceding President.
Function: noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin vitium fault, vice
Date: 14th century
1 a: moral depravity or corruption : wickedness b: a moral fault or failing c: a habitual and usually trivial defect or shortcoming : foible 2: blemish , defect3: a physical imperfection, deformity, or taint as often capitalized : a character representing one of the vices in an English morality play b: buffoon , jester5: an abnormal behavior pattern in a domestic animal detrimental to its health or usefulness6: sexual immorality ; especially : prostitution synonyms see fault, offense

Now Wikipedia says of Vice President: A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president. It would seem that Cheney took that Latin meaning, 'in place of' and ran for eight years with it. The actual President, who spent most of his time learning to read the speeches his writers gave him, never understood his responsibilities well enough to learn that Cheney wasn't assisting him but was actually running the country himself...though rather poorly. He apparently used the title literally.

Biden, on the other hand, sees his role differently. I think the Vice President would be better titled First Understudy President, Standby President, or Alternate.
English is rather a difficult language because it frequently doesn't seem to give the same meaning to everyone, which, after all, words should do.

When we speak of grass, some think of lawns, others of marijuana. Fair and Balanced, some think of the Goddess of Justice with her scale in hand; others think of Fox News. When a term ends, it terminates. Would it be proper to say that Cheney will also be terminated on 1/20? Probably not but it does illustrate how strange our language is, doesn't it?

ATTITUDE

A neighbor whom I see only when she wants to use my fax, printer copier or computer, phoned me last night after I had not heard from her or seen her in many months (since the last time she needed something). As I felt myself tense when she told me her printer wouldn't work and she needed to fax something out (deadline was tomorrow), and I recall how easily I had slipped into feeling intruded upon.

This person sends me humor on email most often and keeps me laughing. She has little to give but that is a gift that cannot be bought. She has been a neighbor since she was young with two small children and a husband. She was always smiling, never a gossip. It was only much later that I learned how difficult her life had been, always. The neighborhood, at that time, had lots of youngish couples and we used to get together frequently in one or another's house. As time went on, there was divorce for her and two other couples on the street. The group solidarity was shattered.

This particular woman has struggled to raise her family and has had the most amount of surgery, ill health, and medical emergencies of most anyone I have known. Tragedy has stalked her. As I thought of my initial response and 'attitude' I shocked myself. Why had I resented having to shift my schedule for the evening to devote a couple of hours for someone who needed it. While I hate having someone say I must have it NOW, I realized that it cannot be easy for her to ask for help. She has always been proud and tries to give as much, if not more, as she takes. I remember that I have never accepted an offer from her because, frankly, I don't need to be reimbursed for so little by someone for whom it would be alot.

What I further realized is that it would have been easy to feel angry and put upon if I could have convinced myself that was what had happened, or was harboring a need to feel angry. I could not. I felt hypocritical for my thoughts. This is a woman who had a need. A friend gives to a friend when the meed is there, not when it is necessarily convenient. We should all be able to commit an act of random kindness as well as responding to any distress from a neighbor. The resulting feelings are all in one's attitude.

PRIORITIZING

When you've had deadlines and responsibilities for all of your adult life, you wonder how to prioritize your time and wants when you find yourself in a different place and space in your life. Well, at least I did.

Having always been interested in what goes on around me...nosy some might say...I have studied people and systems for much of my life. This is an exciting time to be living. Obama has promised to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear and a lot of people believe that, if anyone can do it, he just might. He seems to be starting off quite wisely, surrounding himself with the people he believes will be making a change from the last administration, not that being simply honest wouldn't achieve that as an important first step!

One thing about 'beyond mid-life crisis' or even being what young people call 'over-the-hill', both are accurate, is that there is no longer a personal crisis. When you are over the hill, you usually have a long way to coast back down to the bottom. For most of us it is just doing what we like to do until we die, wishing we didn't have to fill out long forms, pay taxes, more taxes, and fill in more forms. The fantasy that you can ever relax in your life is possibly fulfilled in the rare instances when a man has a wife that takes care of all his time-consuming needs while he can play. Those women seem to be a dying breed though it is hard for me to tell since I was never among them.

It is now possible to watch an occasional sit-com, now that I've realized TV is not the place to get all your news, and pundits are guessing and too often wrong to really be admired. For a while I even tried to struggle with watching Fox News, but only because I was a guest, trying to be polite, in a house that liked it! MSNBC has taken over trying to be fair and balanced and has recently had a pundit representing each party view. Too often the time allotted them is too short and, since there are those who hog the floor, one doesn't get heard, or neither is heard as they both refuse to stop talking at the same time. Pat Buchanan and Chris Matthews still hold the Oscar on that. Chris still asks questions and then talks over the answers.

I tried listening to music instead but I found it too distracting because I liked it and tuned into it, whereas the pundits are easily tuned out...as easily as elevator music. Getting breaking news on the computer is nice. It gives brief facts and the reader can choose to hear more or not. This is not possible on air. About the only thing I can't tune out are the commercials (unless I mute them, which I do and forget to turn the sound back on) which catch your attention because the sound engineers apparently raise the gain on them to catch those who are trying to tune out or sleep.

The unfortunate part of all this is that there is so much to be learned and watched, laughed at and cried over, on the Internet today. I would never have learned to play the piano had that been the case in my youth. Putting things away and getting rid of things I no longer need has fallen to the bottom of the priority list. Now I can understand why one of my patients many years ago never got the pictures, diplomas, and all the stuff doctors put up on their walls where they were supposed to be. It is why he never got the photographs of his trips organized. As I threw thousands of slides away after my father-in-law died, so will those who succeed me. We don't take most of them for posterity, we take them to remind ourselves we were young and want to hang to all of our past which our descendants more than likely will file them away as I have a box full of of glass negatives from the turn of the Century.

Meanwhile, I hang onto the things that give me pleasurable memories even if I have to wade through the basement, with repairmen commenting that the fire department would condemn it. People are happily invited in though I am certain many might wonder how I can find anything and have horror over the clutter. Those who really know me understand why there is always something I have lost and for which I am hunting and cursing at the time wasted while the Poltergeists hang onto my stuff. Like the Bridezillas look at Bride Magazine and think they will be like the models in it, I fantasy that one day my house will be neat again. Knowing that only I could make it that way, I smile and know it will never be as it is at the bottom of my priority list, unlikely to happen in my lifetime.

DEFINE BUSINESS AS USUAL IN WASHINGTON

The Republicans are beginning (Pat Buchanan being one of the loudest), to say , "Where is the change? The people being appointed are just more of the same." Of course they are more apt to be Democrats. Does it really take rocket scientist's IQ to figure that one out? Is Obama supposed to fill it with the Republicans who made such a wreck out of the country? Or, should Obama be expected to pull people off the street, so to speak, as McCain did in choosing the ill-equipped-for-prime-time Palin.

Nevertheless, bringing Lieberman back into the fold gives them the potential of one more vote for the Democrats....do you suppose Lieberman would really do that? His more recent few years show how he voted against abortion and funding.He may be a Democrat but he certainly doesn't seem to embrace the same issues most other Democrats do. He seems to be far more a wolf in sheep's clothing, a fox in the hen house.

Senator Ted Stevens, soon to be ex-Sen Stevens, was finally beaten by his Democratic opponent. Apparently there are still some smart people in Alaska, though I believe all these last votes were mail-ins. The smart ones must have gotten out? Ted Stevens sounds like Boston's ex-Mayor Curley who gave to the poor and tool (for himself) from the rich.

For those who feared the news would get dull after the election...I doubt it ever will.

THE FAT LADY STILL HASN'T SUNG

Pretty soon, another vote recount will have us hanging onto unusual methods for retaining calm. In Alaska there is Stevens/Begich; In Minnesota there is Coleman vs Franken; Mississippi, Wicker/Musgrove: and in Georgia, Chambliss/Martin. It seems that some things just go on and on. Did the Democrats keep Lieberman because they need him? As far as I can see, an apology for saying all the negative things he said while campaigning with McCain should not prevent disqualifying him from head of any significant committee! How can anyone trust him or believe in his having any loyalty to his chosen party. His actions in the past four years have labeled him as totally inconsistent, speaking what he thinks the people he wants to hear him will believe, and his pretense of loyalty to McCain was equally suspect.

As for the auto company bailout....they are in a different category than the money companies who were needed to stay alive to keep credit alive. Auto makers should Chapter 11 and get help from the government agencies to think through their reorganization.

CAMPAIGN WITHDRAWAL

We have gotten caught up with the negativity of the sore losers...the Republicans who don't wish for what is best for the country but, rather, that which furthers the goals to turn the entire country into a Fundamentalist Christian land. Forget that the Founding Fathers did not intend any such thing, Forget that we didn't vote Obama in to do anything of the kind!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the space shuttle has docked with the space station, planning to enlarge the space station to handle a capacity of six, rather than the current three. Unlike our politics, it has joined several countries together in a single scientific pursuit.

Almost 200,000 auto workers are in danger of being laid off. The Republicans say they are vehemently opposed to saving those jobs. Naturally, the context in which they work means that there will be many others out of jobs as well, all the supportive industries. Rather than make a deal that the auto makers might be helped if they meet certain conditions, it seems some lawmakers continue in their limited way of 'either you are for us or against us'. Creative negotiating and solutions seem beyond their capacities. When your philosophy, for years, has been 'the solution is found in placing blame', it leaves the capacity for real governing rather bereft as in the last eight years.

Everything the Republicans have accused the Democrats of in this election seems really to have been something they discovered about themselves while looking in the mirror. The tax and spend arguments seem not to have been the order of the day. While the people in the middle and lower classes have seen their taxes steadily rise, the Republicans have spent us into the greatest national debt.

Meanwhile Obama vows to exit Iraq, and rebuild US 'moral stature'. While I question that the the wisdom in letting Osama bin Laden know that gunning for him will be a renewed priority, we will be holding our breath until long after the inauguration, hoping that the statement will not be read as a dare. Those of us who lived through WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, Cuba, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan will remember that life never seems to get easier, it just calls on us to strengthen our defense, give up denial and rationalization, and get to work!

MEETING AFTER MANY YEARS

The true face of friendship and love is when you meet after many years but time seems to have not passed. When you can pick up where you left off, even though the time may have passed in decades, you know the value will never diminish in friendship, love, trust, or mutual enjoyment in one another.

I've had the most fortunate experience of many such contacts in my lifetime and will be forever grateful for them. True meeting of hearts and minds allows one to feel accompanied even when no one else is around. It is a feeling carried within, knowing that, though contact may be seldom, life experiences shared will always maintain a warm bond that persists through however long a separation may exist.

This warmth is not a predictable response to all friendships or blood relationships. It is limited to very special people that touch one's life on a wavelength that emulates pheromonal contact. The criteria are indefinable. You just feel it when it is there and appreciate it happening to you. The bond exists through contact that may be direct, indirect, on phone, by email, snail mail, through other people, or just a spiritual sense. Whatever it is, it carries us emotionally through time.