On sheep, wolves and Sheepdogs

A friend sent me the following essay. It is a long but worth reading. 

On Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs by LTC (RET) Dave Grossman 

03/02/2010 Gen. Dula's letter to the University of Washington Student Senate Leader, Jill Edwards. Jill Edwards is one of the students at the University of Washington who did not want to honor Medal of Honor winner USMC Colonel Greg Boyington because she does not think those who serve in the U.S. Armed services are good role models. 

I think that this response is an excellent and thought provoking response. 

General Dula is a Retired Air Force Lt Gen (3 Star Gen). Gen. Dula's letter to the University of Washington student senate leader. 

"To: Edwards, Jill (student, UW) 

Subject: Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs 

Miss Edwards, I read of your 'student activity' regarding the proposed memorial to Col Greg Boyington, USMC and a Medal of Honor winner. I suspect you will receive a bellyful of angry e-mails from conservative folks like me. You may be too young to appreciate fully the sacrifices of generations of servicemen and servicewomen on whose shoulders you and your fellow students stand. I forgive you for the untutored ways of youth and your naïveté. It may be that you are, simply, a sheep. There's no dishonor in being a sheep - - as long as you know and accept what you are. Please take a couple of minutes to read the following. And be grateful for the thousands - - millions - - of American sheepdogs who permit you the freedom to express even bad ideas.

Brett DulaSheepdog, retired  

ON SHEEP, WOLVES, AND SHEEPDOGS

By LTC(RET) Dave Grossman, RANGER,Ph.D., author of "On Killing." 

Honor never grows old, and honor rejoices the heart of age. It does so because honor is, finally, about defending those noble and worthy things that deserve defending, even if it comes at a high cost. In our time, that may mean social disapproval, public scorn, hardship, persecution, or as always, even death itself. The question remains: What is worth defending?What is worth dying for?What is worth living for? - William J. Bennett - in a lecture to the United States Naval Academy November 24, 1997 

One Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said this to me: "Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident." This is true. Remember, the murder rate is six per 100,000 per year, and the aggravated assault rate is four per 1,000 per year. What this means is that the vast majority of Americans are not inclined to hurt one another. Some estimates say that two million Americans are victims of violent crimes every year, a tragic, staggering number, perhaps an all-time record rate of violent crime. But there are almost 300 million Americans, which means that the odds of being a victim of violent crime is considerably less than one in a hundred on any given year. 

Furthermore, since many violent crimes are committed by repeat offenders, the actual number of violent citizens is considerably less than two million. Thus there is a paradox, and we must grasp both ends of the situation: We may well be in the most violent times in history, but violence is still remarkably rare. This is because most citizens are kind, decent people who are not capable of hurting each other, except by accident or under extreme provocation. They are sheep. I mean nothing negative by calling them sheep. To me, it is like the pretty, blue robin's egg. Inside it is soft and gooey but someday it will grow into something wonderful. But the egg cannot survive without its hard blue shell. 

Police officers, soldiers, and other warriors are like that shell, and someday the civilization they protect will grow into something wonderful. For now, though, they need warriors to protect them from the predators. "Then there are the wolves," the old war veteran said, "and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy." Do you believe there are wolves out there who will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. There is no safety in denial. "Then there are sheepdogs," he went on, "and I'm a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf." 

If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen, a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath, a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? What do you have then? A sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero's path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.Let me expand on this old soldier's excellent model of the sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. We know that the sheep live in denial, that is what makes them sheep. They do not want to believe that there is evil in the world. They can accept the fact that fires can happen, which is why they want fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, fire alarms and fire exits throughout their kids' schools. 

But many of them are outraged at the idea of putting an armed police officer in their kid's school. Our children are thousands of times more likely to be killed or seriously injured by school violence than fire, but the sheep's only response to the possibility of violence is denial. The idea of someone coming to kill or harm their child is just too hard, and so they chose the path of denial. The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, can not and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheep dog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed. 

The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a representative democracy or a republic such as ours. Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land. They would prefer that he didn't tell them where to go, or give them traffic tickets, or stand at the ready in our airports, in camouflage fatigues, holding an M-16. The sheep would much rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and go, "Baa." Until the wolf shows up. Then the entire flock tries desperately to hide behind one lonely sheepdog. 

 The students, the victims, at Columbine High School were big, tough high school students, and under ordinary circumstances they would not have had the time of day for a police officer. They were not bad kids; they just had nothing to say to a cop. When the school was under attack, however, and SWAT teams were clearing the rooms and hallways, the officers had to physically peel those clinging, sobbing kids off of them. This is how the little lambs feel about their sheepdog when the wolf is at the door. Look at what happened after September 11, 2001 when the wolf pounded hard on the door. Remember how America, more than ever before, felt differently about their law enforcement officers and military personnel? 

Remember how many times you heard the word hero? Understand that there is nothing morally superior about being a sheepdog; it is just what you choose to be. Also understand that a sheepdog is a funny critter: He is always sniffing around out on the perimeter, checking the breeze, barking at things that go bump in the night, and yearning for a righteous battle. That is, the young sheepdogs yearn for a righteous battle. The old sheepdogs are a little older and wiser, but they move to the sound of the guns when needed, right along with the young ones. 

Here is how the sheep and the sheepdog think differently. The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, "Thank God I wasn't on one of those planes." The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, "Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference." When you are truly transformed into a warrior and have truly invested yourself into "warriorhood", you want to be there. You want to be able to make a difference. There is nothing morally superior about the sheepdog, the warrior, but he does have one real advantage. Only one. And that is that he is able to survive and thrive in an environment that destroys 98 percent of the population.

There was research conducted a few years ago with individuals convicted of violent crimes. These cons were in prison for serious, predatory crimes of violence: assaults, murders and killing law enforcement officers. The vast majority said that they specifically targeted victims by body language: Slumped walk, passive behavior and lack of awareness. They chose their victims like big cats do in Africa, when they select one out of the herd that is least able to protect itself. Some people may be destined to be sheep and others might be genetically primed to be wolves or sheepdogs. But I believe that most people can choose which one they want to be, and I'm proud to say that more and more Americans are choosing to become sheepdogs. 

Seven months after the attack on September 11, 2001, Todd Beamer was honored in his hometown of Cranbury, New Jersey. Todd, as you recall, was the man on Flight 93 over Pennsylvania who called on his cell phone to alert an operator from United Airlines about the hijacking. When he learned of the other three passenger planes that had been used as weapons, Todd dropped his phone and uttered the words, "Let's roll," which authorities believe was a signal to the other passengers to confront the terrorist hijackers. In one hour, a transformation occurred among the passengers - athletes, business people and parents. -- from sheep to sheepdogs and together they fought the wolves, ultimately saving an unknown number of lives on the ground. 

There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men. - Edmund Burke -- Here is the point I like to emphasize, especially to the thousands of police officers and soldiers I speak to each year. In nature the sheep, real sheep, are born as sheep. Sheepdogs are born that way, and so are wolves. They didn't have a choice. But you are not a critter. As a human being, you can be whatever you want to be. It is a conscious, moral decision. If you want to be a sheep, then you can be a sheep and that is okay, but you must understand the price you pay. When the wolf comes, you and your loved ones are going to die if there is not a sheepdog there to protect you. 

If you want to be a wolf, you can be one, but the sheepdogs are going to hunt you down and you will never have rest, safety, trust or love. But if you want to be a sheepdog and walk the warrior's path, then you must make a conscious and moral decision every day to dedicate, equip and prepare yourself to thrive in that toxic, corrosive moment when the wolf comes knocking at the door. For example, many police officers carry their weapons in church. They are well concealed in ankle holsters, shoulder holsters or inside-the-belt holsters tucked into the small of their backs. Anytime you go to some form of religious service, there is a very good chance that a police officer in your congregation is carrying a weapon. You will never know if there is such an individual in your place of worship, until the wolf appears to massacre you and your loved ones. 

I was training a group of police officers in Texas, and during the break, one officer asked his friend if he carried his weapon in church. The other cop replied, "I will never be caught without my gun in church." I asked why he felt so strongly about this, and he told me about a cop he knew who was at a church massacre in Ft. Worth, Texas in 1999. In that incident, a mentally deranged individual came into the church and opened fire, gunning down fourteen people. He said that officer believed he could have saved every life that day if he had been carrying his gun. His own son was shot, and all he could do was throw himself on the boy's body and wait to die. That cop looked me in the eye and said, "Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself after that?" Some individuals would be horrified if they knew this police officer was carrying a weapon in church. They might call him paranoid and would probably scorn him. 

Yet these same individuals would be enraged and would call for "heads to roll" if they found out that the airbags in their cars were defective, or that the fire extinguisher and fire sprinklers in their kids' school did not work. They can accept the fact that fires and traffic accidents can happen and that there must be safeguards against them. Their only response to the wolf, though, is denial, and all too often their response to the sheepdog is scorn and disdain. But the sheepdog quietly asks himself, "Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself if your loved ones were attacked and killed, and you had to stand there helplessly because you were unprepared for that day?" It is denial that turns people into sheep. 

Sheep are psychologically destroyed by combat because their only defense is denial, which is counterproductive and destructive, resulting in fear, helplessness and horror when the wolf shows up. Denial kills you twice. It kills you once, at your moment of truth when you are not physically prepared: you didn't bring your gun, you didn't train. Your only defense was wishful thinking. Hope is not a strategy. Denial kills you a second time because even if you do physically survive, you are psychologically shattered by your fear, helplessness and horror at your moment of truth. Gavin de Becker puts it like this in "Fear Less", his superb post-9/11 book, which should be required reading for anyone trying to come to terms with our current world situation: "...denial can be seductive, but it has an insidious side effect. 

For all the peace of mind deniers think they get by saying it isn't so, the fall they take when faced with new violence is all the more unsettling." Denial is a save-now-pay-later scheme, a contract written entirely in small print, for in the long run, the denying person knows the truth on some level. And so the warrior must strive to confront denial in all aspects of his life, and prepare himself for the day when evil comes. If you are warrior who is legally authorized to carry a weapon and you step outside without that weapon, then you become a sheep, pretending that the bad man will not come today. No one can be "on" 24/7, for a lifetime. Everyone needs down time. But if you are authorized to carry a weapon, and you walk outside without it, just take a deep breath, and say this to yourself..."Baa." 

 This business of being a sheep or a sheep dog is not a yes-no dichotomy. It is not an all-or-nothing, either-or choice. It is a matter of degrees, a continuum. On one end is an abject, head-in-the-sand-sheep and on the other end is the ultimate warrior. Few people exist completely on one end or the other. Most of us live somewhere in between. Since 9-11 almost everyone in America took a step up that continuum, away from denial. The sheep took a few steps toward accepting and appreciating their warriors, and the warriors started taking their job more seriously. The degree to which you move up that continuum, away from "sheephood" and denial, is the degree to which you and your loved ones will survive, physically and psychologically at your moment of truth."

Gout is gone

It took almost three weeks with several days of Colchicine and Advil to make the gout go away. I will try to adhere to a better diet to minimize flare ups.
...

I saw a Joan Baez special on PBS yesterday evening and was quite impressed.
She has been a courageous woman with a very strong sense of social
justice. She also was a very attractive lady with beautiful voice and a talented guitar player. Her romantic songs of a bygone past brought me joyful sadness. Old pictures of the Vietnam war, marches in the South with Martin Luther King, Sarajevo, ... and Joan Baez's songs brought me the melancholy nostalgia of a time, place I thought has long forgotten.

Gout

Gout has flared up the last several days. It started on the left toe joint and later around ankle. I've been taking Advil to reduce the pain and swelling. I have a low fever, headache and feel a sense of helplessness walking with severe pain around the house on crutches. It has not been fun.

Happiness

Yesterday evening we saw “Happiness”, an excellent PBS special.

Dr. Tal Ben Shabar is a Harvard professor teaching class about happiness. His thesis of ingredients for a happy life includes:

1. Simplification of life. The many choices that we have bring confusion and chaos. He proposes that we ought to simplify our life with simple pleasures; perform less multi-tasking activities; take time out to recover from stress.

2. Positive acceptance. This is not passivity. Positive acceptance means to make choice based upon available information; learning from mistakes and move on.

3. Exercise. Referenced many medical studies, Tal Ben Shabar posits that regular physical exercise reduces stress, disease risks, … which will lead to a happier, healthier life.

4. Happiness can be learned.

5. Mindful meditation. The simplest daily exercise is the deep breathing method. More advanced mindful meditation will further relaxation, stress-reduction and many other benefits.

6. Focus on the positives. An attitude of gratitude concentrating upon all the good things in our life is an important element for a happy life.

Tal Ben Shabar has written several best-sellers including “Happier” and “Pursuit of Perfect”.

Pan's Labyrinth - the Movie

We saw it yesterday eve. I was absolutely mesmerized and amazed
by the many layers of interpretation of reality and un-reality, fantasy and religiosity,
dream vs. life, good vs evil... Especially, when all these layers are seamlessly interwoven into great story-telling with many subplots.
The last scene when Ofelia was killed is the most astounding: it brings up the historical context of the Spanish Civil War, the alliance of General F. Franco's dictatorship and the Catholic Church against the International Brigades. Her death and the afterlife sequence is the memorial of the deaths of many innocents during the War and the implication of martyrdom which ironically is on the side of the Church opponents; at the same time the evil of the Captain is explainable: he had a job to do and he could not see the faun Ofelia conversing with and I am sure that he believes that she was possessed and worse.

It was an incredible movie.

It's always something...

The hired help has done their job and are gone. We spent quite a bit of time and labor to work along side with them. I had to be watchful so that the work got done correctly. It was physically hard. I discovered today that the underground electrical wiring to the low-voltage outdoors lighting system was cut accidentally. I wish that the worker had noticed it and made the cut location known. Now I have to dig up the finished yard to locate the damage section of the wiring to fix it. The workers were good but still not as careful as I would like. I am glad that I did some measurement to prevent the installation of flagstone slabs outside the basement windows; if it was done we may not be able to open the windows [especially when it snows] since the slabs would have blocked them. Some sprinkler heads were caked with cement which was used by the workers to fix the front steps. I will have to drill a couple of holes on the bottom of the drain since its shallow bottom does not empty all rain water which can be a mosquito breeding ground. Oh, well. We still have to spend quite a bit of time this and next several weeks to clean up the yard and add shrubs.

Quotable quotes

Donald Trump seems to be the kind of person who goes to the Super Bowl and thinks the people in the huddle are talking about him.

This "art" is so like the "Wal-mart" of arts. 

Everything happens for a reason, but sometimes the reason is that you're stupid and you make bad decisions.
Anonymous

What you look for in a woman shifts over the years.
When you're young, the pretty mouth is everything.
Then, when you're older, character is everything. Depth.
Can you see me when I'm hurting, and can you be there?

Art Garfunkel

Chance favors the prepared mind.
Louis Pasteur

"It's easier to do whatever it is you want to do if Warrent Buffett is your dad."
[The outside world sees China as a rising world power... But for all its gaudy economic statistics, on the inside the country is an economic pressure cooker. Children with aspirations for college put in 14 to 18 hours a day studying, desperate get accepted to a good university. Fortune, Oct 17, 2011]

"Never ignore a person that loves you, cares for you, and misses you. Because one day, you might wake up from your sleep and realize that you lost the moon while counting stars."

"For battles of wit, I refuse to fight unarmed opponents."

"Let us leave pretty women to men without much imagination."
Marcel Proust

"When you get to be our age, you all of a sudden realize that you are being ruled by people you went to highschool with... You all of a sudden catch on that life is nothing but high school."
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. at 47 years old to a high school graduate

"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers. That is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."
Stephen Hawking


"Without the aid of prejudice and custom I should not be able to find my way across the room."
- William Hazlitt

"The soul, being eternal, after death is like a caged bird that has been released. If it has been a long time in the body, and has become tame by many affairs and long habit, the soul will immediately take another body and once again become involved in the troubles of the world. The worst thing about old age is that the soul's memory of the other world grows dim, while at the same time its attachment to things of this world becomes so strong that the soul tends to retain the form that it had in the body. But that soul which remains only a short time within a body, until liberated by the higher powers, quickly recovers its fire and goes on to higher things." Plutarch c. 46 - 120 CE (The Consolation, Moralia)


"Telling people you cannot beat the market is like telling a six-year old that Santa Claus doesn't exist. The six-year old doesn't want to believe. Neither do people on Wall Street."
Burton Malkiel, Princeton Univ. Professor of economics.

"PhD student is someone who forgoes current income in order to forgo future income."

"Be very careful if you make a woman cry because God counts her tears. The woman came out of a man's rib, not from his feet to be walked on, not from his head to be superior, but from his side to be equal! Under the arm to be protected, and next to the heart to be loved."


"It's like playing chess with a monkey. You get them to checkmate, and then they swallow the king [piece]."
An unnamed diplomat, on the difficulty of nuclear talks with Iran.

"Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?"
James Thurber.

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong.
Charles Wadsworth

"What has always confused me is the fact that some folks are more than willing to legislate the most intimate and private part of a woman's life [re. abortion rights] but are indignant over any limits on the Second Amendment right to bear [deadly, killing] arms." A. Loberg.

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work." Stephen King

"Draw, Antonio, draw, Antonio, draw and do not waste time."
Note scribbled by the elderly Michelangelo to an apprentice.
Found in Michelango's studio after his death.

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
- Rene Descartes

What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.

Carl Sagan

Car accident

This afternoon I've visited a car accident victim, a young woman engineer working with me for several years. She was driving normally on highway in late afternoon and a car illegally turned and hit her on the driver's side. Her spine was crushed. The other driver, an illegal immigrant does not have insurance and State of Colorado refused to prosecute him and just deported him. It is shocking and heart-breaking to see such a vital, smart young lady in pain, in hospital bed, cannot move and possibly will be paralyzed for life. I was quite emotional visiting with her and some of her siblings. Her life has changed for ever.

Adverse possession of land in Boulder, Colorado

Bob Greenlee, a Boulder, Colorado City Council for 16 years and served the last two years as mayor wrote a column re. adverse possession of land in the local "Daily Camera" newspaper a couple of weeks ago. I excerpted part of Bob Greenlee's Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007 column to summarize the controversy. 

"[Bob Greenlee] wrote about a rather disturbing adverse possession case affecting a portion of Don and Susie Kirlin's property that Judge James Klein gave to former district court Judge Dick McLean and Edie Stevens. I had no idea what a firestorm my describing this situation would stir up. I'm gratified that so many people were as disturbed by this ruling as I was... The facts still seem pretty clear and undisputed: One neighbor [the McLean and Stevens, both lawyers] trespasses on a neighbor's [the Kirlins] property for over two decades and then claims they not only have a "right" to do so but sue the rightful owners of the trespassed property in order to actually claim it as theirs. Many attorneys apparently agree that the case will likely not be reversed if appealed. 

It was then revealed that McClean and Stevens asked the court to award them court costs and attorney fees. I think this can be described as adding insult to injury. The whole thing is still hard to believe, although I have no reason to think there's some other motivation driving this matter. One of the truly disturbing things about this situation is that it may bring further discredit to the courts and the legal profession. Sure, there's such a thing as adverse possession — and many people have pointed out it's a rather historic part of our common law heritage. 

One can justify its existence because over the years various property boundaries involving thousands of acres of ranch and farmland may not have been properly surveyed, staked or adequately documented. A fence here and there may have inadvertently gotten built where it shouldn't have been. An old barn or outbuilding might have inadvertently ended up a few feet off a boundary line. Things like this happen all the time. The essential difference is that many of those transgressions were largely inadvertent; not knowingly manipulated. It's rather apparent what happened in this case. 

Whenever the courts and judicial decisions appears to extend beyond the boundaries of reasonable or justifiable behavior, it's a travesty if for no other reason than how such a perversion impacts a person's acceptance and respect of our legal system and its ability to render justice. Respect for the law is critical in a free society. Whenever there are instances when common sense seems to be absent — particularly on the part of those of us who don't believe government always respects personal property rights — we become more suspicious if not somewhat paranoid. 

When we read about government taking away a person's property by decree or by eminent domain or by adverse possession, some of us tend to get rather exercised. In addition, when I wrote about this situation, I had no idea how often this seemingly benign application of the law has affected so many property owners in one way or another. Several people have shared their own stories that involved claims of adverse possession and purported government "taking" of their lands by questionable means, including the imposition of a variety of government mandates that don't allow certain things to happen because of claimed health, safety and welfare concerns. 

The final chapter in this unfortunate situation has yet to be written." There are lots of things in our society which are not illegal but surely are unethical and immoral. If I've had sex with former judge McLean's wife for the last 18 years without his knowledge it would not be entirely illegal but sure as hell is immoral and unethical. I hope that the old judge and his lawyer wife settle this adverse possession of their neighbors' land and return it to the rightful owners."

Homelessness and compassion fatigue

I ride my bicycle past many homeless folks every morning. It's early morning and they have been awake for some time, congregating at several spots along the bike path. Some smoke; others telling stories, jokes and laugh. Some would be yelling, spitting at no one or nothing in particular. There are abandoned trash, dirty clothes, styro foam cups, take out containers near where they stand, sit, lie or strewn alongside the bike path near the creek. 

Loners prefer sleeping on the grass away from the crowd. They would be preparing their panhandling signs for the day. All smell bad. Students on foot, bicyclists, and runners mostly ignore the homeless since their compassion is overloaded. I wonder why these people do not get the jobs that the illegal aliens who do not speak English as well and with no legal status are doing.

Fourth of July Morning Hike

Decided to start the 4th off with an early morning hike before the sun was too fiercely blazing. Ate a good breakfast of cereal with fresh blueberries, arranged our hiking paraphernalia and off we went with our constant sidekick Sheba. She was so excited and happy to be going on a surprise walk. Right off the bat, she did her business in the middle of the road, two little tootsie roll turds. Then she was off prancing down the street, barking her head off. 

She was able to walk all the way to the park since it was a little cooler this morning. Then she wanted into her doggie pouch. We took a little breather halfway up near a big rock with a gorgeous 360 view. I mentioned that this is where I would like my ashes spread once I have departed this good ole life. Then upward we trudged. Once we reached the top of the hill, Sheba was out and on her little hooves hiking away. To spur her on, I encouraged her to look for mousies. This always gets her excited. We tried a new trail for a short distance, then decided to go a bit longer than we did last week. Many people were out enjoying the pleasant weather and the holiday. Also lots of doggies. 

We passed a woman with two dogs. One dog was afraid to cross the wooden bridge. She told us to go on past her. The hardest part of the hike was the first part which was uphill all the way. Then it was pleasant and easy walking. We did a total of 2 hours and were back home before 10:00. A great way to start the 4th.

Terrorist attacks in England

I have much admiration for the English sensibility and stoicism. It is sad to watch yesterday and today's terrorist events unfolding in England.

May 29, 2006 - Return home

[Note: This post is for a past event.]

We returned home yesterday evening after spending 4 nights in London.
London is a very livable city with lots to see and taste. We walked around the city
quite a bit and I got big blisters on my toes. We took a one-day tour to visit
Oxford, Stratford (the birthplace of W. Shakespeare) and Warwick a
well-preserved English's Middle-Age Castle.

May 21, 2006 - Venice

[Note: This post is for a past event.]

We took the wrong train yesterday afternoon; instead of jumping into
the high speed EuroStar train from Firenze to Venice (a 3 hours ride)
we rode a different train the opposite direction to Rome. My only excuse was
that we were in a hurry: the very short - couple of hours - Italian-style railroad
strike was over and we had to hurry to catch our train. We managed
to get to our hotel in Venice at about 1 am dead tired. We just
climbed into bed and was attacked by a couple of mosquitoes: I was
glad that I took the insect spray with me! One should remember this if
ever planning to travel to Venice.

Venice is as crowded as Rome. It is sad to see such a glorious city
almost abandoned and decayed. Only parts of Venice do now have
residents. We walked the back streets this morning and had a wonderful
brunch of Italian panini, coffee and fresh grapes. The table next to
us sat a couple from Australia and we had a good time chatting with
them.

The San Marco piazza had thousands of pigeons which are so used to
people that they climb on their heads and arms begging for foods. The
city is going through a major renovation so hopefully it will continue
to live on for another 500 years.

We are off to London tomorrow to return home so Ciao for now.

May 21, 2006 in Cinque Terre

[Note: This post is for a past event]

We were in Cinque Terre. It is a beautiful, interesting Italian region.
We hiked really hard yesterday for about 3 hours up the mountain
to a height of about 1000 feet.

The Mediterranean sea breezes helped cooling the hot and muggy air
quite a bit. Our feet still feel the blistering sores from yesterday. The day before we
were in Sienna. It was very hot and humid even in the shade. The train
rides were exciting listening to the simultaneous chatting of the
Italians without understanding a word of the conversations. The
Italians seem able to understand continuous and simultaneous
conversations without any problem.

We will be traveling to Venice tomorrow. It will be a long (about 7 hours)
train ride since we have to backtrack through Firenze.

May 17, 2006 in Italy

[Note: This is for a past event]

We took the high speed EuroStar from Rome to Firenza yesterday.
The 90 minutes train ride was interesting; we watched several older
European couples arguing quite passionately about something. They went
on for the most of the train ride until a conductor came by with an
intepreter. We still did not know what it was all about except that
they showed their Romanian passports to the conductors.

We checked in to the Degli Orafi hotel. It is about a hundred feet
from the Vecchio bridge. I blamed it all to the Internet. Before the trip
I checked many Internet sources for hotel and many had reported
about unsavory characters loitering near the hotel. I then remembered
that one of the rooms in the  Degli Orafi - which I assumed to be in a
safer neighborhood - was used for the movie °Room with a view" so I
sent them emails and made the reservation. Well, all Firenze hotels
have loitering unsavory characters. Degli Orafi has them across the street!

Degli Orafi is a very nice hotel. We had two rooms and two baths! The decor
is quite amazing. After checking in we walked to the Duomo and were
very impressed with the famous church and its Dome. Everything costs
money in Italy nowadays. We paid to get in to climb the 414 steps
leading to the top of the church. The view was spectacular there to
most of Firenze, 92 meters down.

I had made the Uffizi museum reservations so we did not have to wait
to get into the museum this morning. As we strolled through the two
wings of  paintings and statues I was thinking that a PBS DVD of the
Uffizi may not be a bad idea unless one prefers to justle with the
zillions of tourists ooh-aahing about art. By the way,
we now know the difference between tempera and tempura.

Susan did look at the previous email today and claimed complete
innocence. I had provided her with deniability for all the grammatical
and spelling errors.

We will be going to Siena tomorrow and will travel to Cinque Terre a couple
of days later.

First day, May 15, 2006 in Rome

[Note: This is for a past event.]

Susan and I arrived in Rome yesterday evening. It was a very nice
flight: when told that we were on our first anniversary we were
upgraded to first class on British Airways. It sure was high flying:
the foods were good and on real china with real silverwares. And the
seats were converted into a twin-sized bed after dinner. Still we were
somewhat tired when we arrived in Rome. We checked into our hotel, the
Belle Suite Rome and after a short nap we walked several miles to the
Spanish Steps which are underwhelmed, the so-so Travis Fountain and
had some gelato which is the Italian version of our American ice
cream! There are absolutely so many people, tourists packed in Rome.
Millions of tourists.. the subways were so packed that we lost the
fear of pickpockets; there was no way anyone could move so picking
someone pocket is - I was sure - out of the question.

After a long night of sleep we felt a bit ambitiously adventurous: we
took the very early subway to the Vatican and to visit other places
later. I had made reservation ahead of time so we did not have to wait
for several hours in hot Italian summer to get into the Vatican
Museum. The Sistine Chapel frescoes had been cleansed so they looked
very bright and almost fake. Again, people are everywhere. Tour groups
from every country on Earth were here today. We then walked several
miles to the Pantheon and were awed by the incredibly fine example of
early first centuries Roman architecture and engineering inside. We
have with us a Rome map, one of the very best but still were lost
several times. Many Roman streets change name quite abruptly.

We took several buses later to travel to the Colosseum and to the
Roman ruins near by. The Colosseum looked much larger when we climbed
upstairs to level 1. It made ones paused thinking about all the bloody
sports that took place there and the thousands of people died there
for the entertainment of the Romans back then. We took the subway back
to Termini, the main train station and walked to our hotel dead tired.
Dinner at Del Giglio - recommended by our hotel manager was excellent.

The hotel's computer does not have an Xd card reader for me to
download our pictures. We will be travelling to Firenze (Florence,
Italy) tomorrow. Hopefully, we will be able to report to you our
travel as we progress.

So Ciao for now. 

Memory

I've been surprised many times by the selectivity of memory. Recalls of same events, feelings, emotions are so different, at times conflicting or contradictory to one another by different people or at different time dependent upon one's state of mind at the moment. My memory of my younger past as a single father was filled with moments of tenderness, days of quiet contentment and happiness. There were moments of  frustration. But they were transitory leaving faintly vague traces.

Life lessons from a dog

I noticed that our little Pomeranian is getting a bit slower, less energetic as she approaches her 8th birthday, middle age in human term. She is still a very lovely dog with twinkling beady eyes and gentle joyful wagging tail. But a bit slower and not as fast sprinting upstairs to greet "Mommy" every morning. Her growing older is much more observable and obvious than that in humans. She has been teaching me about love, unconditional love, joy, loyalty, sadness, joy. It took me a couple of years to earn her love and trust but after that love is constant with unquestionable faithfulness. Her slower walks, less energy, a bit darker demeanor, gently remind me that all things shall pass and life will end someday. Isn't it a bit ironic that when we love for someone we also are reminded that love will eventually end.

Movie: Merry Christmas

We saw "Merry Christmas", a French movie with English subtitle this afternoon. This is about a true event in the early days of WWI; a temporary truce was declared unofficially by the waring soldiers of Germany, Great Britain and France on the Christmas Eve of 1914. My wife and I were both moved by the humanity of the story.