With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
2002-09-18 - 3:11 a.m.
I’m getting a late start writing this tonight. That will probably mean I’ll keep it short. Of course it might mean I’m too tired to edit it and keep it on topic. We’ll just have to see.
Last night my friend Marc called me. As soon as I answered the phone I could hear something was wrong. His father died the day before. He called to ask me to send him the eulogy that I wrote for my father. He thought it might help him write his. People are amazingly resilient. He was feeling so bad yet before we got off the phone we discussed how our teams are doing in our fantasy baseball league. He’s in fourth place now, in the money. He used to be my partner in the league. I hope his team keeps surging and wins. My team is wallowing in mediocrity.
Gella IMed me this morning to tell me that she has been diagnosed with mono. She’s been sick for some time now I’m glad the figured out what it was. Her case is unusual. Most people have a low-grade fever with mono; hers has been high. That’s how it was with me. She’s now in the phase where the temperature is down but the glands are really swollen. It makes it very hard to swallow anything. The one thing that is easy going down is ice cream. Not only is it almost liquid and really smooth but the cold acts as an anesthetic. It also tastes really good. She didn’t have any there and can’t get it on campus. All they have is frozen yogurt. I couldn’t believe that. Didn’t the Supreme Court declare access to ice cream a fundamental right? I’ll never forget Blackman’s majority opinion: the phrase “pursuit of happiness is mean” losses all meaning if ice cream isn’t available (Ben and Jerry’s vs. the Board of Education, Walla Walla Washington).
On hearing of this travesty of justice I did the only honorable thing, I drove up to SUNY Purchase to bring Gella ice cream. I’ve been there a few times but this time it was daytime and I had a good map so I found it much easier. I made it in 20 minutes but it took more than twice as long as that to find a supermarket, get the ice cream and get back to school. I couldn’t even find someone to ask where a supermarket was. The only person I found in the street couldn’t speak English. I had to drive all the way to Port Chester. I was able to find Häagen-Dazs coffee so it was worth the trip.
The next adventure was finding her dorm. There are no signs to the dorms when you enter the school I ended up making almost a full circuit of the campus before I found what looked like dorms. I then asked four people where Gella’s was and none of them knew it. The last three were right outside the dorm. There wasn’t a sign that you can see from where we were. I finally found her room and gave her the ice cream. Being me, I of course then realized that I forgot the electric teapot that I brought for her in my car so I had to walk back to get it.
Gella didn’t look that bad so I gave her lessons on how to look worse so she can get more sympathy. Gella reminds me a lot of me (Sorry Gella). We both have an effervescence that shows threw even when we are sick. I was happy to see that she has a cluttered desk, I felt quite at home. Of course her cluttered desk has a computer that you can watch cable TV on. If anyone wants to get me one of those, feel free. I’m not too proud to accept it as a gift. All kidding aside, Gella is a very special person and I’m so happy to have her as a friend.
After knocking a pitcher or coffee pot or something like that off her desk about 5 times I decided it was time to go. I wanted to get some recruiting in. I drove back home and hopped on the railroad and went into the city. Not an exciting day at work though I did manage to pick up something for Carey’s birthday.
When I got home I returned a call from Farley. We talked about bridge and math and the Knicks; a fairly typical range of topics for us.
Then I called Carey. I almost always laugh at least once when I talk to her. Have I ever mentioned that I think she’s sort of special too? I think I might have once or twice. I get to see her this weekend. My mother once asked me why all these cute young women hang out with me? I don’t know but I’m not complaining. I really am lucky to have such good friends.
OK, remember what I said about this being short? I take that back.
The reason I started writing this so late is that I finally saw Hoosiers tonight. My friend Ira had a classic donut line about it. He saw it in the theater and told me; “I saw this movie called Hoosiers it was pretty good but for some reason it took place in Indiana.” If you haven’t seen the film that involves more than not knowing that Hoosier means a person from Indiana. As much as anything the film is about the unique mania that Indiana has for high school basketball. Jean Shepard used to say that high school basketball was the state religion of Indiana.
My review is that it is a pretty good movie that could only take place in Indiana. I have to add that it stars Gene Hackman and features Dennis Hopper. Two great character actors.
The other day I saw one of the truly classic films, The Grapes of Wrath. John Ford’s family epic of the Great Depression is a must see for everyone. In the final seen the family matriarch gives a speech how the family survived all the hardships that were thrown at it. They had lost everything. She said that is what makes them strong.
One of my manias is seeing the correspondence between seemingly unrelated topics. That is the essence of mathematics; it’s main appeal to me. Making these correspondences is the job of both scientists and artists. I was struck today by how what Ma said in The Grapes of Wrath about her family applies to so many human endeavors. In Cat Ballou Kid Shalleen tells Clay Boone that he’s going to give him a great gift. He then proceeds to beat Clay. The gift is that he can take a beating and still live. In Cat Ballou it’s said for humor in The Grapes of Wrath said in earnest but it is the same truth. It’s something we all have to learn for ourselves. In every field of endeavor you have to learn that sometimes the bad things happen and that you’ll survive anyway. You have to learn to take chances even if it means you might get hurt. Everyone knows that it applies to sports. It’s what separates the great boxers from those who are merely talented. It applies to our work. Sometimes we are going to make mistakes and get in trouble. We can’t let that stop us from trying. It works in our social lives. We can choose live as recluses and never deal with people. We’d never have to face rejection then. That’s not a choice I’d recommend.
OK, I think I better start the editing. I really need to get some sleep. This is when I should wrap everything up into a neat bundle. Write something so that you can tell you’ve come to the end. I don’t want it to just peter out. Something really memorable……………………………
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
On the Road to Westchester County - October 06, 2008
Inside the Madison Square Studio - October 05, 2008
I'm a Bosniac and I'm debating like I've never debated before - October 03, 2008
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile 2002-09-18
