2012 What's New? Not Much

Now that the “silly season” is behind us (thank God) I am ready to take on 2012 even if the world does end this year.  Christmas used to be a time that I loved now it is just a nuisance and not having to take down a tree or turn lights on and off each night suits me just fine.  

And like I have alluded earlier Christmas music is for the birds in a cage.  Silver Bells isn’t that the worst song ever written? No matter who sings it it still sux. 

What about 2012 though? It’s an election year and that should be fun-NOT. I can do without the endless tax preparation commercials as that’s like sitting on a pincushion each time I plop my ass in the chair. I was in a Publix on December 26th   and Valentine’s Day cards were on display already. It seems that Madison Avenue just won’t give our pocketbooks a break every time you turn around there is another festive occasion we are compelled to participate in. Valentines Day is another sham. Ceremony over substance never makes sense to me and just because it’s February 14th I can do without having to buy jewelry from Jared or plunk down 6.99 for a card (I can write better than any Hallmark) or 19.99 for roses that will wilt February 15th. We are like sheep because the ad men and women keep rolling out the same crap year after year and we keep marching to their off key notes.    

Easter? I will get to that once we pass old man winter. 

Love on My Two Feet

Is it love that brings me to my feet?  The cliché of love bringing us to our knees smacks of an unhealthy codependency and the loss of self. Don’t get me wrong I long for a love filled with codependence in pull me up energy because we all need a lift at times and if the ardor of love rings with true reciprocity she pulls me up when my flag lilts.

 The delight of love is tenuous especially when the communiqués become sideways glances and dilated pupils.  And the lexicon of: “You should know,” make the ties that bind loose shoe strings that leave us frustrated and resentment bound.  Time well spent is intentions clear and the result that some of those wishes granted instead of a growing silent scorn as our needs not having been met.  

Meeting love on my two feet gives me the balance to craft my amorous breath in a sustainable bliss even though swept off my feet is the romantic notion dreams are made of like the white knight for her and twinkle of violet in a brown eyed girl.  I can still enjoy the thrill of love while standing up and wide awake because love in dreamscape inevitably has the white cloud turn black under the weight of life on life’s terms. 

Acceptance

Acceptance is not agreement. When we accept we are letting go of resistance. Resistance merely exists in its own energy we do not fuel what might be discerned as negative with more energy than it possesses.  In this way it lives, dies and then dissolves. We are the casual observers. We keep our distance, which lengthens our emotional response, from whatever it is we are about to accept. 

The Greenhouse Effect

Today I was marveled. I spent several hours inside a 30 acre green house or should I say a series of greenhouses all connected in a mosaic that had to be witnessed to be believed. And the technology was dumbfounding because a greenhouse to me was a hut that felt humid inside I never had a clue that greenhouses have evolved so greatly with not only artificial means of temperature but also its own watering system, artificial lighting for accelerating plant growth and a complex network of trays that made movement of the literally tons of plant material two football lengths with remarkable ease and efficiency.  Not to mention the saved visits to the chiropractor and man-hours saved lifting and transporting from one end of the greenhouse to the other.   

   This firm located on the North Fork of Long Island is one of the largest in the country and what so impressed me was the main architect of the this amazing structure. Here was a young man by any standard who was not only tall in stature but also long on humility and an expertise that he just took for granted. He was so matter of fact about it all and what so impressed me about this man was his sense of values that seemed like he belonged back in a time forgotten.   

Dressing Up

Do I sound like a stuffed shirt? Maybe but I always thought that there comes a time when we need to wear our best regalia sometimes even if the formality of the occasion doesn’t necessarily call for it. Why you ask? Why should I wear a dress or a suit when jeans would be more comfortable? I think it’s because what we look like on the outside manifests much about how we feel on the inside.  Poppycock you say?  I don’t think so. There are of course times when relaxed or casual attire is appropriate but this is not the case all the time. 

The New Generation

We are living in a miraculous age of information that never ceases to amaze me. When I watched a 1984 movie called Starman one of the lines in the movie referred to us technologically as “The Ancients” and considering where we are now some 27 years later this phrase was prophetic. Now I am not writing about how far we’ve come but rather how dependent and lazy we’ve become in the 21st Century. The Internet largely responsible for educating us like never before in history does come with some serious drawbacks.  Because we have this treasure trove of information at our immediate disposal there is a false sense of sophistication we feel because the answer to virtually anything is right there. What we have failed to do however   is to take note of things that have gone before simply because it has no relevance right here right now.  And the English language has been reduced to catchphrases built on informality and formulaic answers that fit elementarily into a 1-2-3 format.   

When it comes to knowing what happened prior to 1984 most of the X.Y and Z generations are so historically illiterate and language challenged that it is pitiful.  If they didn’t see it, it didn’t happen. And the Breakfast Club is an old movie. Maybe it’s not their fault after all beside technology their parents have done an abhorrent stewardship in educating their offspring. Of course they are educating their children scholastically but in terms of the basic acumen like addition and subtraction, saying your welcome instead of “no problem”, or “hey” instead of hello, or at the end of every explanation the lame: “it is what it is”, and the condescending: “obviously” and my favorite: “whatever” have reduced us to such an informal verbal lifestyle that virtually no one can function without a bastardization of the English language and common courtesy.  

Besides communicating imbecilic with words that leave me wondering quizzically there is the rampant lack of what went before they were old enough to click their mouse. I recently asked an acquaintance that worked for AT&T what the initials stood for. He didn’t know and he was running the franchise. Personally when I tell someone telephonically or in person that my name is McQueen as in Steve but John, they invariably look at me deadpan or say John McClain? (From the movie series Die Hard) What does it matter? I guess maybe I am making a mountain out of a molehill but when someone thinks that The Dark Knight is the best picture of all time I know that they must have been born yesterday.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Lunch

How about that as a new title to your segment that you call “Power Lunch”.  Let's face facts there is no power in your lunchtime reporting.  Or how about atrophy lunch? You couldn't lift a 10 lb. dumbbell.   Point is that when are you going to stop reporting nonsense.  There is no interest in most of your stories on any of your segments.  You are worse than ESPN filling us with stats that mean NOTHING.  Here is one you reported this past Friday.  The Dow on it's way to the 5th out of 6th week gain.  Is that really news?  Especially during the day?  When are you going to get new writers?  How about giving us reporters that have the gift to give us real news not useless information and drivel.  The stock market collapsed and you are still doing business as usual.  No change in your programming and you continue to have people like Suze Orman do a show about personal finance.  She couldn't advise a groundhog whether to ignore his shadow or not! Kramer there is another nut job. The world according to Kramer??  I would listen to what Garp has to say first than what that idiot reports.

You are not guilty on all counts there are times when you do report news that is heartfelt and newsworthy but come on people wake up, the world has changed and you keep reporting things like "the market is acting spooky today" AYKM! Spooky????  I see that that goof ball with the glasses is gone from your show, you know the guy that told those life insurance agents before we hit bottom that the only reason they were talking about life insurance was because the market was down.  How about if you did a story about market value versus book value?  Don't you think that might be a useful story?  People need to have both in their lives. Money they can count on when their market values are in the dumper.  I see your program at the gym and the biggest laugh I get is when you have up to 8 talking heads and no one is saying anything!