Reflections of Me

Somewhere back in the annals of time, pre-historic ( for me, that means before I was born ), a child was born.  Born with a silver spoon in it's mouth, all those involved worried over it's survival, as eating with a silver spoon in one's mouth can be quite difficult.  Fortunately, soon a McDonalds opened nearby, and the child was saved.  Why this should be  is a moot point.  As should all points be.  Faint heart ne'er won by moot point, a saying I recall.  Or, perhaps I don't.  I may have made it up. If it becomes popular, I will take no credit.  Debits only, please. Shortly--or, soon--thereafter, I was born.  Lacking a silver spoon, I quickly adapted my stainless steel spoon to food and where it was to be properly inserted, and grew fat and sassy.  Much to the chagrin of my parents, who had to carry me, both physically and financially.  Such were the fortunes of fate -- or, the fate of fortunes -- the earlier child proved ...

I am pretty much like that old (?) song ; I don't know much biology, about science books, about the French I took ( I never took it, so, who knows? I was fair-to-middlin in Spanish ).  Algebra and geometry defeated me.  Okay, perhaps that wasn't quite true ; I simply chose not to compete. One subject I was fairly good at, and it has remained a interest of my life since, was history.  American history especially.  I claim no particular expertise on any period of it, I simply have had certain events, and people, that have held my attention and caused me to continue to learn what I could about them.  I have no explanation for this.  Perhaps it was due to the period I began my life, when television was becoming a part of most Americans' lives and much of the programming catered to children. One such program made a early and profound impression on me ; the Disney series featuring the life of David Crockett ( it was far from accurate, of course, but as a 4 to...

Recently, one of the late night television show hosts ( they are legion now )--possibly Kimmel--did a little man-on-the-street video blurb.  These of course are done tongue-in-cheek and strictly for entertainment purposes.  However, occasionally they can be revealing about our society's condition, without intending to be, while still not intended to ever be taken seriously. This particular one purported to ask people on the street to name a book.  Any book.  Not even that they had read, just name a book.  The ones that were aired, of course, were unable to name even one.  Even the Bible didn't occur to them ( it is, after all, a book ).  This was the entertainment intent of the piece.  One man named a film, a video make of a book but which did not have the same title as the book it was taken from.  ( There are a lot of movies that are like that, BTW ; it has been so since the beginning of films. ) I found myself not surprised by this, and...

Who ya gonna call? I think we can all fill in the answer to that by now.  The little film that could, and did.  It took a fear, and made us laugh at it.  A fun fantasy; something strange, in the neighborhood?  Who ya gonna call? What, though, of the actual realities that make us afraid?  The fears that don't stop with the end credits?  The ones that follow us home, take up residence in our minds, threaten our way of life or our very existence?  We've renamed most of them, of course: instead of fears, we call them phobias.  The emotion they engender, however, feels like fear to those experiencing it.  I have mine  ( heights, and deep water ).  I've faced both, managed, but the fear remains, so I avoid both as much as I can.  Most of us do exactly that.  By naming them phobias, we were able to create a system whereby, if we were affluent enough, we could pay someone to listen to us and help us work through our fears....