Robert Frost Servant to Servants

 

“Servant to Servants” I just read this Robert Frost poem aloud. It’s amazing. It’s rambling. It’s loaded with imagery, similes, metaphors, and big and small life lessons. It’s worth every minute I invested in it. In fact, the second reading, out loud, yielded even more moments of surprise and enforced reflections.  Even though I never heard of it until today, it’s suddenly a staple for me. Robert Frost originally said something I discovered on my own much later than he, “The only way out is through.” It’s something I am known for saying to anyone in a place of grief, loss or trial. If I got a tattoo it would say Through.  In fact, I painted a picture which I call Through. Now, hearing that Frost mused on it a century ago both comforts and annoys me. I thought it’s as my property. I say when in valleys we can go back, stay there or go through. The only lasting gain is in the last one. Anyway, reading this today was incredibly meaningful to me.  As a family we are in a valley now, or in the spit of this poem, trapped in our “cancer kitchen” or even our “chemotherapy cage” as the poem suggests happens. For me, this poem is like a Selah moment, looking out the window at the lake, watching a storm creating whitecaps on the water, then enjoying the sun and dreaming of better things, once we get Through. Poetry like this is demanding but it’s also completely rewarding for any who choose to stop in the midst of our valleys to dream of better things.  Jack. C. Getz A Servant to Servants

I DIDN’T make you know how glad I was To have you come and camp here on our land. I promised myself to get down some day And see the way you lived, but I don’t know! With a houseful of hungry men to feed         5 I guess you’d find…. It seems to me I can’t express my feelings any more Than I can raise my voice or want to lift My hand (oh, I can lift it when I have to). Did ever you feel so? I hope you never.         10 It’s got so I don’t even know for sure Whether I am glad, sorry, or anything. There’s nothing but a voice-like left inside That seems to tell me how I ought to feel, And would feel if I wasn’t all gone wrong.         15 You take the lake. I look and look at it. I see it’s a fair, pretty sheet of water. I stand and make myself repeat out loud The advantages it has, so long and narrow, Like a deep piece of some old running river         20 Cut short off at both ends. It lies five miles Straight away through the mountain notch From the sink window where I wash the plates, And all our storms come up toward the house, Drawing the slow waves whiter and whiter and whiter.         25 It took my mind off doughnuts and soda biscuit To step outdoors and take the water dazzle A sunny morning, or take the rising wind About my face and body and through my wrapper, When a storm threatened from the Dragon’s Den,         30 And a cold chill shivered across the lake. I see it’s a fair, pretty sheet of water, Our Willoughby! How did you hear of it? I expect, though, everyone’s heard of it. In a book about ferns? Listen to that!         35 You let things more like feathers regulate Your going and coming. And you like it here? I can see how you might. But I don’t know! It would be different if more people came, For then there would be business. As it is,         40 The cottages Len built, sometimes we rent them, Sometimes we don’t. We’ve a good piece of shore That ought to be worth something, and may yet. But I don’t count on it as much as Len. He looks on the bright side of everything,         45 Including me. He thinks I’ll be all right With doctoring. But it’s not medicine— Lowe is the only doctor’s dared to say so— It’s rest I want—there, I have said it out— From cooking meals for hungry hired men         50 And washing dishes after them—from doing Things over and over that just won’t stay done. By good rights I ought not to have so much Put on me, but there seems no other way. Len says one steady pull more ought to do it.         55 He says the best way out is always through. And I agree to that, or in so far As that I can see no way out but through— Leastways for me—and then they’ll be convinced. It’s not that Len don’t want the best for me.         60 It was his plan our moving over in Beside the lake from where that day I showed you We used to live—ten miles from anywhere. We didn’t change without some sacrifice, But Len went at it to make up the loss.         65 His work’s a man’s, of course, from sun to sun, But he works when he works as hard as I do— Though there’s small profit in comparisons. (Women and men will make them all the same.) But work ain’t all. Len undertakes too much.         70 He’s into everything in town. This year It’s highways, and he’s got too many men Around him to look after that make waste. They take advantage of him shamefully, And proud, too, of themselves for doing so.         75 We have four here to board, great good-for-nothings, Sprawling about the kitchen with their talk While I fry their bacon. Much they care! No more put out in what they do or say Than if I wasn’t in the room at all.         80 Coming and going all the time, they are: I don’t learn what their names are, let alone Their characters, or whether they are safe To have inside the house with doors unlocked. I’m not afraid of them, though, if they’re not         85 Afraid of me. There’s two can play at that. I have my fancies: it runs in the family. My father’s brother wasn’t right. They kept him Locked up for years back there at the old farm. I’ve been away once—yes, I’ve been away.         90 The State Asylum. I was prejudiced; I wouldn’t have sent anyone of mine there; You know the old idea—the only asylum Was the poorhouse, and those who could afford, Rather than send their folks to such a place,         95 Kept them at home; and it does seem more human. But it’s not so: the place is the asylum. There they have every means proper to do with, And you aren’t darkening other people’s lives— Worse than no good to them, and they no good         100 To you in your condition; you can’t know Affection or the want of it in that state. I’ve heard too much of the old-fashioned way. My father’s brother, he went mad quite young. Some thought he had been bitten by a dog,         105 Because his violence took on the form Of carrying his pillow in his teeth; But it’s more likely he was crossed in love, Or so the story goes. It was some girl. Anyway all he talked about was love.         110 They soon saw he would do someone a mischief If he wa’n’t kept strict watch of, and it ended In father’s building him a sort of cage, Or room within a room, of hickory poles, Like stanchions in the barn, from floor to ceiling,—         115 A narrow passage all the way around. Anything they put in for furniture He’d tear to pieces, even a bed to lie on. So they made the place comfortable with straw, Like a beast’s stall, to ease their consciences.         120 Of course they had to feed him without dishes. They tried to keep him clothed, but he paraded With his clothes on his arm—all of his clothes. Cruel—it sounds. I ’spose they did the best They knew. And just when he was at the height,         125 Father and mother married, and mother came, A bride, to help take care of such a creature, And accommodate her young life to his. That was what marrying father meant to her. She had to lie and hear love things made dreadful         130 By his shouts in the night. He’d shout and shout Until the strength was shouted out of him, And his voice died down slowly from exhaustion. He’d pull his bars apart like bow and bow-string, And let them go and make them twang until         135 His hands had worn them smooth as any ox-bow. And then he’d crow as if he thought that child’s play— The only fun he had. I’ve heard them say, though, They found a way to put a stop to it. He was before my time—I never saw him;         140 But the pen stayed exactly as it was There in the upper chamber in the ell, A sort of catch-all full of attic clutter. I often think of the smooth hickory bars. It got so I would say—you know, half fooling—         145 “It’s time I took my turn upstairs in jail”— Just as you will till it becomes a habit. No wonder I was glad to get away. Mind you, I waited till Len said the word. I didn’t want the blame if things went wrong.         150 I was glad though, no end, when we moved out, And I looked to be happy, and I was, As I said, for a while—but I don’t know! Somehow the change wore out like a prescription. And there’s more to it than just window-views         155 And living by a lake. I’m past such help— Unless Len took the notion, which he won’t, And I won’t ask him—it’s not sure enough. I ’spose I’ve got to go the road I’m going: Other folks have to, and why shouldn’t I?         160 I almost think if I could do like you, Drop everything and live out on the ground— But it might be, come night, I shouldn’t like it, Or a long rain. I should soon get enough, And be glad of a good roof overhead.         165 I’ve lain awake thinking of you, I’ll warrant, More than you have yourself, some of these nights. The wonder was the tents weren’t snatched away From over you as you lay in your beds. I haven’t courage for a risk like that.         170 Bless you, of course, you’re keeping me from work, But the thing of it is, I need to be kept. There’s work enough to do—there’s always that; But behind’s behind. The worst that you can do Is set me back a little more behind.         175 I sha’n’t catch up in this world, anyway. I’d rather you’d not go unless you must.

Why do some people not fear being alone?

Fear is both rational and irrational, so finding the middle ground is the best way to live. There are times when it can save your life and times when it can destroy it. Being okay with being alone is more about temperament than anything. Introverts fear social interaction so being alone may be their comfort zone, but I know some shy or frightened folks who are more fearful of human interaction than they are of being alone and the lesser of the two evils often wins. 

Preparation is one key to losing fear. You don’t fear the exam at school if you are prepared. You lose sleep over things that are out of your control not things you have in hand. I once studied the Bible every day. I even published a book about what I learned called Praying When Prayer Doesn't Work. One lesson I learned about fear is that every time someone was afraid the divine antidote was Presence: Fear not, I am with you. The presence of a trusted leader figure allays fear and makes the monster under the bed flee. The unknown can always be counted on to create fear and the greater the stakes, the greater the fear. 

Whatever you choose to believe or not about faith answers, understand that preparation and presence slay most fears. So those who are okay being alone must have a grip on those issues and also enjoy their own company because they have an accurate self appraisal of who they are. 

Perspective  I believe the fear of being alone - as in not having friends - is something overcome with through Perspective. We are all different so if one is beautiful, smart and vivacious they might expect to always have plenty of friends and followers, but that’s often not the case. When I taught school, I had a student who was a real princess.  She was beautiful, an honor student, popular, a cheerleader and even the president of the class. One day she was moping around after school so I asked her what was wrong. Because she trusted me she was able to finally admit that she wondered why no boys liked her. I chuckled and assured her that she was not the problem, other than she was too magnificent for most 9th grade boys to approach. When she understood that perspective, that she was not flawed, more like intimidating, her sunshine returned. 

I believe that people who are not like her often get into the trap of negative self-talk to the point where they believe their own propaganda. Consequently, they assume everyone else looks down on them as well and they retreat to their cave. It takes a change perspective to understand that they have valuable contributions to make to others that are not based on exterior qualities, but interior values.

So if one is not blessed with external beauty or lots of money, they ought to look for people with common interests and allow the inner beauty to overcome external deficiencies. As Whitney Houston sang “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.”

Life need not always be a competition with the cool kids. In fact that’s the road to self-conflict and stress. I learned long ago that contentment is living in a state when you don’t have to prove anything to any one. Love yourself then others will follow. 

Well, that’s a big answer to a very good question. I hope it helps. 

Hooked By Page Two

The man who wrote the book below is a pure Contrarian and I knew it on page 2. He saw the light about something that fascinates me, physics, at a banquet where he was confronted by the uncomfortable truth that a Nobel Prize guest speaker WAS WRONG! “When he made that statement, something clicked, the penny dropped. I knew that Prigogine, and everyone else, was wrong.” Page 2!

I hope this does not turn out to be a clinker but anyone who stands up and says, then proves, that mainstream, safe thinking is incorrect gets my vote!  Remember that Contrarians are not necessarily contrary,  irascible people, but are those rare thinkers who aren’t settled until dogma is exposed and truth established.

You know the rules: Go along, get along and keep your opinions to yourself. I know we who always see the other side of things - and speak out - can be annoying, if not infuriating, but that’s not the intent. Speaking truth is. The spiritual gift of prophecy is not about telling the future, but about telling the truth, in as loving a way as possible. That last part isn’t always easy either. Neither is speaking honestly because it always exacts a toll. The greater the honesty, the greater the toll. “Do I look fat in this dress.” is one time when it’s best to weigh the high cost before answering.

Enjoy and embrace your restless minds my friends. Being honest with yourself is the most difficult path, but it’s also the most rewarding. But more than that, follow the uncomfortable rabbit holes that often lead to new and better worlds.  “As these thoughts began to flow, I started down a long, uncharted, and wondrously exciting path that would allow me to see the world in a new, and better, light.” Page 2

 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/r.html?C=O5ID2HJ90BI3&K=1N0DRTD79LI6A&M=urn:rtn:msg:20200218154727255d151441224983ae73678fb310p0na&R=1TPI112RZ7KMB&T=C&U=https%3A%2F%2Fsmile.amazon.com%2Fdp%2FB004YWKKC8%2Fref%3Dpe_385040_118058080_TE_M1DP&H=3QBAMS9RX6U6AXA2M0ZTDBNVMQEA&ref_=pe_385040_118058080_TE_M1DP

Dirt Devil

Dirt Devil

This cute little creator of demonic disorder buries his food in Barbara’s orderly flower planters, leaving his root destroying chaos behind. 

Today, while we were sitting on our porch, he cozied up as close as possible to his Saturday morning brunch site, hoping we were statues, incapable of deterring him.  He sat there for quite awhile, eyeing us and calculating his chances for a quick hit and run nosh. 

When he saw the potentially destructive power in her eyes, he chose the better part of valor and scampered to another food lair, pledging in his little heart to return when the power of her fearful presence was mitigated. 

I guess it’s time to respray those pots with her famous hot sauce and water concoction. It effectively helps him choose better places in our vast backyard to enjoy his Saturday morning coffee break. 

JG

Is Easier Better?

Is Easier Better?

Today we get instant answers to questions over which we used to need to ponder, research, or simply wonder about. We learn less today because we receive fast answers without hard work. We wonder less because we only need check the worldwide web to know what we want to know. We don’t need to look into the night sky because we have high definition live links from deep space satellites.

What used to be a sense of satisfaction and intuitive reward for hard-earned research, often in dusty archives and libraries stacked high with books, is lost with a few words typed into a search engine. 

We know more but we learn less. We gain information without wisdom. We attain answers without perspective. 

No, it’s not all bad, but it’s not all good either. 

Jack C. Getz

Free ebook histories!

http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=OzS_9&m=3gSlh7Fayz5NbfM&b=5T1yH4A2xioEeylkdu_qsw

2nd Amendment TRUTH

Most Americans who plan to march on Washington Saturday against gun violence don't believe that private citizens should own high-capacity semi-automatic rifles. They don't understand what many gun rights defenders see as the heart of the Second Amendment: The defense against a tyrannical government.

In recent debates, gun rights activists have offered a number of defenses of what gun control advocates call assault weapons, from the rifles not being more deadly than other firearms to illegalization leaving them only in the hands of criminals. The tyranny argument is often overlooked by people who assume this argument is limited to people on the extreme, militia-end of the gun rights spectrum. But it's become common among gun owners and mainstream conservative figures.

Shannon Alford, the National Rifle Association's Maryland liaison, was among the scores of people who came to the state House of Delegates on March 6 to offer feedback on a number of gun-related pieces of legislation being considered after the Parkland shooting.

"The Second Amendment is not about hunting," Alford told USA TODAY. "It is not about competitive shooting. The Second Amendment is about self-defense. It's about being able to stop people who would do you harm, whether that's a criminal or the government."

'A 30-round magazine might be too small'

That NRA position has been repeated almost word for word by several well-known conservative figures in recent years.

"The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution isn’t for just protecting hunting rights, and it’s not only to safeguard your right to target practice," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in a fundraising letter for his 2016 presidential campaign. "It is a Constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny — for the protection of liberty."

Conservative blogger Erick Erickson said the Second Amendment, "contrary to much of today’s conversation, has just as much to do with the people protecting themselves from tyranny as it does burglars." And Erickson believes that is the main reason gun control advocates don't understand the need for high-capacity semi-automatic firearms.

> That is why there is so little common ground about assault rifles — even charitably ignoring the fact that there really is no such thing. If the 2nd Amendment is to protect the citizenry from even their own government, then the citizenry should be able to be armed ...
>
> You may think a 30 round magazine is too big. Under the real purpose of the second amendment, a 30 round magazine might be too small.
'



USA Today
March 22

Keeping It Real

                       

                          KEEPING IT REAL

                              Jack C. Getz

David Hume, the 18th century philosopher, said something that strikes me as brilliant; and important in any discussion about God: "To cite the order of the universe is insufficient, since there is also evidence of disorder, and both require explanation by the cause one assigns (The Birth of the Modern Mind by Alan Charles Kors, 74).

Hume's philosophy addressed the popular 18th-century belief that God's existence is proved by the natural order of the universe. You know, every tree or plant speaks brilliantly of the divine through its very existence, function, purpose and interaction with other living or inert organisms: leaves catch the sun and the rain, create sugar through photosynthesis, feed the branches, produce oxygen, discard the carbon,  and ultimately provide the roots the ability to restart the cycle. So, because of order and beauty in nature, it's an easy leap to suggest that the Creator has the same qualities. 

But Hume poked a hole in that tissue-thick argument by asking a simple, yet difficult question, "What about the disorder?" In other words, did the chaos of nature serve the opposite purpose of popular natural philosophy by regular demonstration that not all the universe was perfect, predictable and orderly?

Hume's logical question is one I claimed before I ever read about him. It was an intuitive response to what Barbara Brown Taylor calls "Solar Christians", those who wax on (and on) about God's beneficence, suggesting every sunset is his "handiwork" and every sunny day is his gift to humankind.  I, like Hume, long to counter such sanguine observations by asking how they define and explain the devastation of tsunamis or earthquakes that kill thousands and destroy cities? Are they not also his handiwork, or does the God of creation only get credit for beauty, but never blame for ugliness?   

The stunted logic and emotionally spiritualized observations that credits God with order but not chaos bothers me.  I am not out to ruin anyone's love-fest with the Almighty, but  I would welcome a place where I can join them in their effusive proclamations without selling out my need for balance and logic. So far, I haven't found that place.  

The yin and yang of a divine identity search demands that if one believes beautiful sunsets are his doing,  then things like tsunamis are either his, or not. The awe-inspiring beauty of the star-filled night must somehow be balanced by chaos and ugliness in the universe. How often do we hear about the good god's "miraculous" healing, but never about the evil god's negligence that allowed a young wife and mother to die in a car accident? 

Too many suggest, or worse, really believe that the opposite of divine beauty and order must be either Satan, or sin. You know, Adam and Eve were cast out of paradise because of justifiable divine justice; but the same God had nothing to do with poor Abel’s death. And bless all those weather-watching believers who credit the benevolence of the friendly weather god with providing  badly needed rain to drought-stricken California, yet won't ever blame the brute who floods out poor rain-soaked Louisiana. 

So is God fairly praised for the rain and the rainbows, but never associated with the same rain that floods the cities somewhere else? If he sends the good rain and gets credit for it, isn't it okay to blame him when it's bad rain?  Can the rain god be good when someone's really dry garden gets a good soaking, without being bad when the annual Sunday School picnic gets rained out?

The Bible suggests the rain falls on the just and the unjust, meaning that rain is neither a tool of God's love, nor a symbol of his enmity. It's just rain. Similarly, cancer is not a divine trick to scare a wayward sheep back into the fold, it's cancer.  If something is good today and bad tomorrow, maybe it's neither the handiwork or curse of some divine being, but a natural consequence of life.  It can't be good when a loved one recovers, and bad when another loved one dies of the same disease. It is not about favor, grace or mercy when it works out, unless it's also rude, negligent and cruel when it doesn't. Remember, Hume says that if God is proved by order, he must be disproved by disorder. 

Balance is part of the beauty of nature, of life and of God. A baby is born. Someone dies. Leaves sprout in Spring, then die in the Fall. Big, ugly animals eat eat small, cute bunnies. Mosquitoes and bats exist to each other's benefit, and not every creature is as lovable lovable as a puppy or a kitten. And, human beings joyfully find someone to love, then sadly lose them. If any of life is about God, all of it has to be has to be.

God must be seen in the entire natural cycle of life, not just the happy half. So, if a baby seal is eaten by a polar bear, it doesn't mean God is pro-polar bear, or anti-baby seal. It's just life.  

It's an ordered universe, seen in the orbits of the tiniest neutrino and the largest star. It's in the delicate beauty of the spring flower as well as in the violence of a dissolving glacier. To suggest that only the good side of nature represents God is naive at best, and breathlessly foolish at worst. 

Recognizing the reasonable balance of both rain and drought, life and death, and beauty and ugliness is a far more accurate way to see God, and those difficult questions about why ugliness exists - and whose fault it is - are swallowed in another powerful question, "Why not?"

Jack C. Getz

Revised 3/15/18

See: Barbara Brown Taylor - Learning To Walk In The Dark

Foundation Chart for my next book.

Working Titles: Keep It Real or Before You Go

PRACTICE MAKES WHAT?

PRACTICE MAKES  WHAT?

If you said PERFECT you would be normal.  But when it comes to the arts, I say PRACTICE makes PROGRESS.  I suggest that PERFECT doesn’t exist in art, or other human endeavor.  I suspect not even Bach or Michelangelo would argue that their masterful work was perfect.

If there was a perfect to achieve, there would be no incentive for schleps like me to try. Is the Sistine Chapel perfect? Many suggest it is. If so, why have millions of artists bothered painting anything? If I can’t paint like Michelangelo, or produce a better Mona Lisa, why try at all? The same is true for great writers, thinkers, musicians or poets. Why bother if we can't be as good as Shakespeare or Hemingway?  Vince Lombardi, the great football coach, said Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. 

Why some think art must be PERFECT to be valuable escapes me. But I hear such thoughts all the time: “I can’t even draw a stick man”. I had an art student named Mary who PRACTICED with me for two years. Others came and left, but she stayed. At first, she was the least promising in the class, mostly because she was 82, completely ignorant of watercolor techniques and disadvantaged by arthritic hands. But Mary was never after perfection. She was after the joy of trying something new, something she always wanted to try, and she was pleased with PROGRESS, not disillusioned by PERFECTION.

My grandsons produce several dozen drawings a day, but none are perfect, judged by standards of perfection. But we still love them and marvel at their sometimes unrecognizable pictures of the family, proudly displaying them on the refrigerator or wall. They haven’t learned yet to worry about perfection. To them, it is perfect, as it is to us. You see those etchings represent something flowing from their blossoming minds and hearts, not something that reminds us of Norman Rockwell.

Forty years ago, when I was learning to paint, I gave a juvenile level painting of a cardinal, painted on typing paper, to a very wealthy friend who immediately tucked it into the frame of her original Norman Rockwell. Why? Was it comparable art? Yikes no! But it was a gift from a new friend. Recently I painted another cardinal, on better paper with better skills, and gave it to a grieving widow because she and her late husband both loved cardinals. It was a simple gift from my heart to hers, far from perfect and maybe not even very good, but it was sincerely sent and gratefully received. 

My brush with watercolors started, like Mary's, with a desire to try something that looked like fun. Over the last forty years of PRACTICE, I can point to some PROGRESS, and actually enjoy hearing others tell me how GIFTED I am. But truth be told, every time I hear that word GIFTED associate with my art I bristle. Why? It’s not some faux humility because I believe I am not a gifted artist at all. 

To me a gift (including spiritual gifts) implies something is given complete, ready to use. The gift I do acknowledge is even better than painting. My gift is that I have an incredible amount of artistic DESIRE to paint, to write and learn. It’s nothing more than that. My job has always been to PRACTICE and improve every muse that captured my heart. With each form of art, I have practiced them, at different times, for decades, every night, mostly with great failure but occasionally with relative success. For every painting I sell, however, I toss least five. I published a book that took three years, all  day, to finish. It wasn’t gifted to me, it was as the great Ben Hogan said about his incomparable golf swing, dug out of the dirt.

I have always envied people who played the guitar or piano well. I suppose a few here and there received a gift to be able to play without much work, but they are a statistical anomaly, not the norm. As a young girl, my wife was required to practice an hour each day, and if she missed a day, tomorrow was two hours. To achieve her paternally enforced quota of practice time, she chose to get up an hour early every day, sometimes while dad was still in bed. Today, she is a marvelous player, not because she is gifted, but because she paid the price of practice, not to become perfect, but to make progress with every scale or tune she played. 

We tend to label people as gifted, or say they are geniuses, mostly because we can not understand how they can write or perform at a level we don’t understand. They make beautiful music, create lovely art or think deep thoughts that escape most. So naturally, because of our low self image, they are labeled gifted. Certainly, there are a few prodigies born each century, and some geniuses, but mostly, the best in any field are just people who spend time PRACTICING. Yes, even Einstein went to school to learn about physics.

Steve Jobs said: "It is more important to seek good, high quality work over a long period of time than to seek perfection in any particular project. People are paralyzed by perfection". Fast Company "Progress Versus Perfection". 

In his book THE OUTLIERS, Malcolm Gladwell says, the truly great in any field practiced their craft or skills at least 10,000 hours, usually alone at a considerable cost to themselves. An outlier is not your grandson who knows how to use a computer better than you. They are the people everyone knows, even when they are on our personal radar. Some notable outliers include The Beatles, Bill Gates, Wayne Gretzky and those folks who breath the rarified air at the top of any field of human endeavor. 10,000 hours is not a guarantee for greatness, nor is it the only factor in achieving such heights, but is the threshold investment required to excel beyond the merely great, that moves the few toward superstardom.

Whenever I hear a potential art student say "I could never do that. I can't even draw a stick figure" I shudder with frustration. Yes, it’s true that I can never hope to be as great as my watercolor instructor Dylan Pierce, or my friend Vickie. I am not even close, but that doesn't stop me from trying. I won't make a living selling my art, but that doesn't keep me from painting. I mess up far more than I succeed, but it's still fun to try, and I usually learn far more from my failures than from my successes. 

(Ibid. See Steve Jobs article in Fast Company)

Remember, the longest trip begins with the first step, and every accomplishment starts with the decision to try. 

It's the same with life, isn't it? We hide the bad stuff about ourselves but strut the good stuff, even though we know the truth about both. We deserve less blame for our failures and less credit for our successes, but we learn as children to balance both, if we are to survive. Happily, as long as we seek truth, overcome fear and embrace every inch of PROGRESS, we are winners in life.

My limitations rest only in my lack of DESIRE AND COMMITMENT to make PROGRESS.  Do you know whatI see when I compare my first painting to my best Zebra? I see not only a huge difference in quality, but beneath the paper, beyond the brush and behind the colors on the paper, I see growing COURAGE, great COMMITMENT and gratifying DESIRE.

Your muse may not be painting or art, but something else calls you to TRY IT!  As Kurt Vonnegut says, sing in the shower, dance to the radio and write a poem to a friend. Remember, the master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried. 

For me, art and painting are not the same thing. One creates an image-the other produces a copy (painting) of something recognizable.  Both are good. While anyone can create something on a page, not everyone can produce a satisfying and recognizable image, unless they spend a lot of time learning how. Creating something allows the artist to be free from the expectations of perfection or reality. Copying may turn out messy and look foolish or out of sync with the object, but creating your art reflects you and your heart. 

It’s the same with music. I have friends who create music that sells, they make a living doing it and more often than not leads to cries of “genius” or “gifted”. Others, equally talented, created sounds that reflect their souls and tell a story they want to tell, usually without receiving any kind of public or private acknowledgement, and certainly not fortune or fame. Should they quit trying because others don’t  appreciate or understand their art? I imagine Igor Stravinsky shocked people with his  “noise” long before he was called a genius.  Bach was a largely unknown  church organist unit after his death someone found his stash of priceless music. Similarly, Emily Dickinson’s worth was not widely recognized until after her death. That story goes on and on. I hope someday that list includes me. 😎

My message is simple. Don't shortchange yourself by stopping before you start. As long as you try, you are participating in the PROCESS of discovery, and if you PERSIST, you may not reach someone else's idea of PERFECTION, but you will experience a glow inside that enhances your self-image and increases the tally of beauty in this world.

I was just introduced to this quote from Kurt Vonnegut. He and I are kindred spirits, but only because he an I both decided to try, and we never quit. It’s too much be part of the process. “Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living.They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing and art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.” Amen brother. 

Jack C. Getz

Revised 9/28/17

Personal Freedom

Pitchforks, Torches and Today’s Politics

My take on Al Franken, Roy Moore and associated events.

I hate Al Franken. I hate the way he took the seat from a good man named Norm Coleman, Someone I knew a little. I hate his politics and his attitude about most things.

BUT...my feelings aside, I don’t think Franken, or Moore can be judged fairly now, and eliminated from ELECTED public office for things that allegedly happened years ago, if at all.

Judge Moore is accused by a number of dubious last minute females of things that allegedly happened decades ago. He has run several times for public office and won without their opposition. But today, he is judged guilty by his own party leaders, few of whom could withstand the bright lights themselves. I know he deserves the opportunity to face his accusers and defend himself  because he is innocent until proved guilty. The number of accusers may be significant, but they may also be associated with people on the left who are willing to pay for their sudden heroic accusations. I don’t know, neither do you. If the people know the accusations and have heard both them and him, and still elect him, he’s a senator in my book. If he’s proven to have done even a few of the things credited to him by the ladies and the left, throw the bum out. I am quite taken by the fact that this CRITICAL vote in the senate is under attack in this climate of whistle blowing “victims” who carry more clout than they should, at least until both sides are allowed to defend their positions.

Now, Senator Franken is being pressured by many in his own party to step down. Why? He acted like a jerk back when his job was to act like a jerk. A clown, clowning around years ago, but not today.

The principle at play here is one that must be heard in these times of sexual witch hunts. We all have the ability to change, despite previous foolish and harmful behavior. Am I to be judged by who I used to be or by who I am now?

We are in a time of witch hunting over things of the past that don’t match modern values. Thomas Jefferson is a bum because he had slaves. Robert E. Lee and all his armies are to be shamed because their slavery ethics is not our ethic today. Donald Trump was a frivolous young man so he can not be believed today. Judging previous generations by current values is the act of fools and ignorant zealots.

Let me ask you a seasonal question. Was Ebenezer Scrooge a good or a bad man? Am I a bad or a good man? Are you a good or a bad person? Same answer for all of us. It depends on when you make a judgement.

People have the capacity to change and other than sociopaths and the mentally ill, we are far better judging by what we KNOW now, not by what we have heard ABOUT someone, or think we know.

If Franken still does those things, boot him. If Moore has not had any other accusers for thirty years, maybe he deserves his day in court before being shunned and labeled.

I have done things long ago that I cringe thinking about. I have also been falsely accused, but my friends are those who know me now and still love me. You too?

The sad thing is that people who are normally balanced and objective get caught in the web of Political Correctness, or worse, they grab their pitch forks and torches because they fear they will be the next objects of the mob if they don’t. It happened in Salem, Massachusetts long ago and it feels like it’s happening again to undeserving individuals.

If you don’t know for sure, it’s better to go with what you do know...for sure.

Jack C. Getz

Spotting the Philosophers Among Us

Philosophers are:

Consumed by truth, realising, like few others, its magnitude and unparalleled significance. 

Never satisfied with answers derived from others.

Unable to leave pregnant words/ideas alone: birth must be given; the new life cherished and shared. 

Restless. 

Often poets. Almost Always writers. (Except Socrates).

Avid readers of many subjects. 

Contrarians, but not always contrary.

Solution seekers, not just dreamers.

Connected to nature in unusual and meaningful ways.

Social commentators and pundits.

Boundary pushers.

Usually not understood or appreciated. 

Paranoid.

JG

The Dynamics of Silence

Wasn't it Mark Twain who said, it’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt? As usual, this man of many words struck gold with his pungent use of them.

Despite what many may think, I am a great believer in the power of silence, though like Twain, I am not the best practitioner of the art. I am, too often, the man who tells others, When I want your opinion, I’ll give it to you. I know my active mind, and how it  longs to couple up with a dark compulsion to add my two cents to any debate. It goes without saying that when the nitro glycerin of my overly active mind meets with potassium permanganate of my convictions, an explosion takes place, and my good motives and logical perceptions get me in trouble, often of late in the form of being Unfriended on Facebook. 

Silence is possibly the most underrated virtue in the human arsenal. It is both powerful and gentle, depending on it’s use. It’s power is seen in the fact that it alone unlocks the power of 

the mind that is commonly held captive by the dishonesty of the tongue. In other words, spending time in our secret place of silence is the only time when honesty is free to do it’s painful but necessary work of molding our character.

Silence and honesty form a tag team that never loses. One empowers the other, and between them, we will be molded into people who understand the tranquillity of order that comes from personal integrity, or we can resist their strength choosing instead to sit and sip Dr. Jekyll’s brew becoming crazed with the disorder of duplicity and the false self. 

I believe that everything ultimately improves for those who unwrap the gift of silence regularly.

Amazingly, silence both rewards and punishes those who seek it. One day, the box contains gifts of affirmation depending on how well we align our values with our routine practices of life. When we treat others as we would like to be treated and follow the inklings of love, we find silence completely golden. But, when we disregard our best values in order to achieve selfish goals, spending time in silence is like being chained in a medieval dungeon awaiting the next round of torture.

Our experience with silence is either the most peaceful time of the day, or the most painful, depending on how we demonstrate, or disregard, the daily rhythms of order that grow in the fertile soil of silence.  

Jack C. Getz

September 24, 2017

A Farewell to England...Europe...America?

An open letter to our grown children...

Not looking to be freaky, but the list below is what scares me about America now, and especially into the next generation. PC culture is lulling our grandkids into apathy and convincing them that liberal revisionist history is the way things happened. You know? The USA, and our culture, is ALWAYS the problem? 

Growing old is not a bad thing in the face of this kind of world, but my wonderful family will face a tough world that will be less like Happy Days and more like Hijrah Days unless someone stands strong. 

Hijrah means conquest from within. Because they can have several wives,  they create huge families who will eventually take over politically, in only a few decades. Europe is there now, all in the name of globalism, tolerance and "brotherhood".

It's now a social sin to honor our forefathers. Kaepernick is a hero to the new generation. We who have a problem with his actions are minimally, racists, bigots, haters of women, children, immigrants, clean air, clean water and the human race in general. Oh, we also love C02 imbalances and just adore barren forest lands as well. 

Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, Michigan are now mostly controlled by Islamic culture. Churches and schools are closing, people are moving and a vacuum is created for more Islamic power brokers to expand.

I read last week about  Rabbi in Spain who told his congregation to move to Israel because "Europe is lost". 

I may be a fool, but to me, and millions of others, President Trump - with all his many personality warts- represents a last hope for our culture. They call him a hater because he is trying to hold on to and protect our uniquely wonderful way of life, surrounded by a sea full of well-paid truth haters and race baiters who influence our young people to hate those who lAmerica. It's not a right wing theory, we see it happening in Europe, and 

Michigan as I write this.

I'm not calling for hate, but vigilance, hoping the next few generations of our kids will learn from the mistakes made in Europe, and you and their teachers will not be pressured into politically correct revisionist history. 

Despite what we see every day, not everyone in the world is our brother and sister. Islam has a long history of taking over countries both quietly and militarily, then putting down the Shariah hammer. They have never been innocent bystanders or victims. They are like evangelical Christians toting nuclear weapons. 

Just rambling today because I love you all so much. 

Dad

Sent from Jack's iPhone 

Begin forwarded message:

To: Getz Jack & Barbara <Jandbg15@comcast.net>,
Subject: Fwd: Farewell to England

FYI

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

"Farewell to England"


This is an interesting "Farewell to England" list of Islamic
accomplishments in that country that I thought might give you a better
understanding of the insidiousness of Hijrah; that's the takeover of a
nation without going to war. Don't think for a moment that America is
not a target or that there are no American cities where Islamic and
Sharia victories and takeovers have already occurred. It's time for
border control, or start planning for a very big goodbye America
party!

Here's what has already happened to England within a few years of
opening their borders without entry control:

How the British have passively succumbed to the Muslim invasion:

Mayor of London ... MUSLIM

Mayor of Birmingham ... MUSLIM

Mayor of Leeds ... MUSLIM

Mayor of Blackburn ... MUSLIM

Mayor of Sheffield ... MUSLIM

Mayor of Oxford ... MUSLIM

Mayor of Luton ... MUSLIM

Mayor of Oldham ... MUSLIM

Mayor of Rochdale ... MUSLIM

All the following achieved by just 4 million Muslims out of the 66
million population:

Over 3,000 Muslim Mosques

Over 130 Muslim Sharia Courts

Over 50 Muslim Sharia Councils

Muslims Only No-Go Areas Across The UK

Muslim Women... 78% don't work and are on FREE benefits/housing

Muslim Men... 63% don't work and are on FREE benefits/housing

Muslim Families... 6-8 children planning to go on FREE
benefits/housing and now all UK schools are ONLY serving HALAL MEAT!


..... and we (the USA) can't decide on an immigration policy?