Cap and Gown

This week and next will be cap and gown time for a lot of High School seniors.
Another generation is knocking at the world's front door and thinking they are going to set the place on fire as soon as they can get away from Mom and Dad. I graduated from High School 38 years ago thinking how dumb my parents were. I thought they were clueless, archaic and so not tuned into how things really were. Mom must have told me a thousand times to tuck my shirt tail in and Dad told me at least one thousand times to polish my shoes. That was pretty good information 38 years ago but how were they to know that today no one polishes their shoes because everyone wears sneakers and no one has tails to tuck in because everyone wears T-Shirts. I still don't know what was so important about polished shoes and tucked in tails. Maybe Mom and Dad were preparing me for the Vietnam War which I was about to be drafted into. Maybe they thought the Viet Cong were going to shoot every shirt tail hanging and scruffy shoe GI they saw. I didn't understand my parents and they sure didn't understand me but I did what I was told, polishing my shoes and tucking in my shirt tails. All the while thinking I was never going to be like them only to realize years later that I was just like them.
In the next few days there will be another group of high school seniors who will move their tassel from one side to the other just as I did 38 years ago. This years seniors are about to escape eighteen years of captivity and be unleashed upon the world. I can only think of one scarier thought! Next Fall there will be a new group of know it alls who already think how good life would be if only Mom and Dad were not around to regulate it.

Price at the Pump

$135 a barrel for oil and $4 a gallon for gasoline. Is that high enough to make the public anger boil over? If it isn't it will be soon because things are only going to get worse.
There is lots of pressure on Congress to do something about high energy prices, even more so because it is an election year. Politician's proposals are sprouting up faster than weeds in a Congressional garden. Both John McCain and Hillary Clinton embrace suspending the 18.4 cent federal gas tax. The only thing that would do is prove that political pandering can be bipartisan. The suspension would at best give most drivers a free tank of gas for the summer and do nothing to address the supply and demand imbalance. It would also eliminate 10 billion dollars from the fund that pays for roads and highways. What good is a free tank of gas if there are no roads or highways to drive on?
So what can be done? Not very much in the short term and the short term is what most people think about. It's the old adage "I don't want the pain, only fast relief and pleasure" The reason for high gas prices are beyond our government's control. Everybody in China and India wants a car and who are we to denie them that pleasure! Hell, some of us own two or three cars!
Does $4 gas hurt me? No not really, I still drive when and where I want. Will $6 gas hurt me? I reserve the right to answer that question until I pull up to that pump. There is really only one defense against the high price of gasoline. I try to think of my tank as being half full instead of half empty and be grateful that I can still read the numbers on the gas pump without having put my reading glasses on.
So who is the blame for these record prices? The Public says Public Enemy #1 is the Oil companies. Everyone loves to point fingers but finger pointing is only a destructive distraction. If your home goes into foreclosure you don't blame the bankruptcy lawyers just as you should not blame the Oil companies for $4 gasoline!
As easy as it is to point fingers we only need to look in the mirror to see the real reason why oil is $135 a barrel. We should be looking into that mirror and demanding energy policies that discourage consumption through higher gas taxes and subsidized alternative energy sources. But that would require us all to accept short term pain for long term gain and that seems to be in shorter supply than the supply of oil.

The Beginning of the End

Desperation always appears just before the end so it did not surprise me when Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo. The thought of Microsoft even attempting such a feat shows how it's products have failed and it's strategic thinking is stale.
Does anyone remember Netscape? Well I sure do! Five years before my hands had touched a computer key board the browser war between Microsoft and Netscape was front page news in the Geek world. Microsoft won that war but that did not prove that the monster understood the Internet. Microsoft didn't get it then and it does not get it today. They still think the net is about operating systems and browsers. It's not! It's about search, e commerce, VOIP communication, email and social networking, none of which Microsoft has a clue about.
The Monster seems to have placed all it's golden eggs in the operating system's basket but there is a sneaky fox lurking around the hen house and it's name is Mac. Ask any true geek what they think about Microsoft's last egg and they will tell you they don't use Vista, they own a Mac.
Plain and simple Microsoft builds too many products, is too slow to understand what people want and is too detailed. It needs to stop worrying about the fox and starting concentrating on the storm that's brewing. That sneaky fox may steal a few eggs and even a hen from time to time but a shotgun blast every once in a while will keep it from achieving total devastation. When Hurricane Google makes landfall there won't be a hen house left or at best the hen house will land somewhere in South America if it lands at all.

A Final Resting Place

My mom died a long time ago but I still miss her. During the weeks leading up to the annual Mother's Day holiday I seem to think about her more and catch myself talking to her. I don't go to the cemetery to visit her grave as often as I should. I really do not have a reason for not going and if I did it would be an excuse rather that a reason. I just believe my Mom knew how much I loved her and I don't feel I need to visit for her or God to know that! But it does bother me sometimes because I know she would have done anything for me. I doubt there are any rules for cemetery visiting, at least I've never seen any rules on that subject. But sometimes I feel a little bit selfish for not going to visit her grave.
There's something primal and healing about being able to touch a grave stone that touches the earth that touches the worldly remains of a loved one. Graves are about touching, which is more powerful than merely thinking about the deceased. Visiting my mother's grave, if only for a few minutes takes me out of myself and joins me to the faith that sustained her and now waits to sustain me.
Mother's Day is a powerful holiday for me. It's a day I think about souls being bound up in bond of eternal life along with all the holy and righteous in heaven. Maybe I am a little selfish but at least I am honest about it and Mom always said "Honesty is always the best policy"

Think like a baby

Many folks set out to change the world without a thought of changing themselves. One thing we must deal with in life is change, it is inevitable. As humans we do not like change. We try hard to maintain the status quo even when it's horrible. There seems to be some kind of comfort in maintaining the status quo no matter how difficult it is. We refuse to give up a wrong plan even when we are in error because we always think we are right. To show we will not change we defend our faults and errors which only proves that a hard-headed person does not hold opinions, they hold him or her. Mental growth is dependent upon new ways of thinking, with success coming to those who are willing to modify, adapt or improve on ideals of the past. Babies have very little if any past insuring that they are always in a state of change. Maybe we should all think like babies because they seem to love and accept change right from the start, probably because the only words they hear for a long time are "its time to CHANGE your diaper". As adults we need to stop looking for sand to bury our head in and be willing to change and like it. For without change there is no help for today and no hope for tomorrow.