(OT) Maybe sort of a kinda

wrap-up. Time marches on. Days turn to weeks, months, years, and decades and suddenly you are seventy. Politics and social issues have always been rife with the potential for bad feeling and so it is wise to avoid as much of that as possible. But after years of hearing derogatory comments about Kalifornia, "socialism," nanny states, & etc. my very much esteemed colleague Mike Hicks cast some doubts awhile back about the ultimate value of "progressive." After mulling this over ever since then I have to state that any life lived without a mind for progress and a concerted effort to be progressive is not a life I have any interest in living.

Much of the current political unrest seems to revolve around the issue of abortion. SCOTUS, Roe v Wade, planned parenthood, "right to life," so-called "fundamentalist Christianity, etc. I am reminded of a slogan that not too long ago was being used to fit a multitude of issues, that being the famous Nature or Nurture.

So let's talk about Nature and leave Nurture out of it then. No matter what the Supreme Court does, no matter what anybody says or doesn't say about anything at all, a significant number of intelligent, self-respecting women faced with an unwanted pregnancy are going to get abortions. There is nothing anyone can now or will ever be able to do about that. Period. Underscored. Exclamation point. Game over.

If a certain number of women end up with a perforated uterus because of poor access to quality care, it's been like that in the past and it would be like that in the future. No "nurturing" sanctimonious counseling or legislative action or coercion or police action is ever going to prevent it. Never. Once again: Game Over. Those women most likely to give birth to future wards of the state will continue and even increase giving birth to future wards of the state.

Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood are not even topics worth debating.

So much for Pence. As for his current boss, in my opinion what we are witnessing is the most ignorant, fat, rich, dishonest, lascivious, and loathsome creature ever to occupy the White House. Not since the height of the Viet Nam war have I been this ashamed to be a part of this country. It hurts my heart beyond words. I have never, not even during Nixon's Watergate or Clinton's Lewinsky horse$hit, been so daily assaulted, so intellectually violated, or so deeply deeply ashamed.

I'm done talking.

As usual - Beautifully put egg.....

Tom is right, of course. In my youth as I was first gaining traction in this trade I used to summarize things for myself very simply. At that time in the depressed market I was in I could go out each and every day, strap on my tools, and put four nails in each shingle at four cents a nail, take my money, go to the store and buy milk and bread, and inch my way forward in the world. This base level of existence grounded me and kept my head from grappling with demons hatched by an over-active intellect.

Do no harm. Do no harm. Take delight in the early morning sun, the slanting light of the afternoon, the blessing of sleeping well that goes with physical exertion, giving a penny's value for every penny earned. Helping your neighbor. Taking responsibility for your own life and the well-being of your children.

That's where I started and I sincerely hope that where I end up is not too monstrously far from that.

It's only as complicated as we make it - and we're becoming more & more capable of ever-complicating it, (life)..... Who used to sign their posts with "Life's too short to play with your food"? ....bout sums it up....

Egg: Thumbs Up

Twill: Understood

Roofguy: Most of us do. Don't forget He is forgiving. We have to allow us the grace of making the best decision necessary at the time. We are all on trial everyday.

Ciak: Great question, you should start a whole new post on that. Roofguy would like that...something other than roofing.

My answer from personal experience is endurance. Of course through the decades my opinions have changed but not by much. My handling of lifes situations has changed somewhat. It has taken me now at 66, now a matriach and the sole caregiver for my daughter and grandchildren a tremendous experience of myself. I now see a pattern in my life, I'm a caregiver, never employed as one but have lived my life as one. The things you find out about yourself. So to answer you Ciak, for me, in my latter years is to be a good example and loving person to everyone that crosses my path, we all meet for a reason no matter how brief. PC

CIAK Said: With all the positioning here, the ultimate question. What is the purpose of life? What are our lives about?

B) :) :) B) Deep Down In Florida Where The Sun Shines Damn Near Every Day

For me, a big part of it is knowing that at the end of my days I'll have to answer to God, and He may not excuse that the low bar I set for myself is what the law allowed me to do. So I try to set it higher.

With all the positioning here, the ultimate question. What is the purpose of life? What are our lives about?

B) :) :) B) Deep Down In Florida Where The Sun Shines Damn Near Every Day

PC: It was simply a behavioral observation....

PC, I assure you that men need no such approval. Let's assume for a moment that in our society the ability to choose your own destiny is equal for men and women even though it has been a hell of a struggle for women to achieve anything close to that. Sexism is as deeply entrained as racism, maybe deeper because it's often blended and hidden. I was asked once how the members of my high school graduating class had fared and I was busy rattling off a list of names and achievements when my wife tapped me on the shoulder and said, "You haven't mentioned one single girl." We had more stellar girl graduates than boys and many of them did great things, including giving birth to great kids, including raising them, and often including full-blown careers at the same time. That generally puts considerable pressure on baby-sitters (universally girls) and grandparents (mostly grandmothers) but they did it. There are many roads to laziness and men are pretty good at finding and traveling them. "Don't bother me; I have to work." is a good one and I have used it a million times myself. Sometimes I was in the right. Probably most times. Other times I guarantee you: not so much. Men usually have big egos because they are fragile. Fragile egos have to be big to keep from breaking at the slightest insult. I have witnessed unfathomable strength from women (and men) who don't have big egos and I try to model myself after those people. Give me a small ego and unfathomable strength any day. Salt of the earth. Humble. Potent.

Twill, I'm a bit uncertain about your comment below in respose to my post...

...A common human characteristic is to project our own flaws (moral) and deficiencies (weakness, imperfections) onto others. In the power game, it is a must have skill

You got all of that out of that statement? I would not have taken it personally but you highlighted my statement which was quite general and not personal.

Roofguy, you had me going with your last statement until the ending of you not taking a chance. You are not taking the chance. On another above post you complained of "no thoughts of tomorrow"...it is exactly their "thoughts of tomorrow" which "lasts a lifetime" that comes into the decision. I can guarantee that there are women you know have followed this path and you will never know about it. As for getting fixed, sounds real easy and logical, totally agree until you need your husbands OK.

Do men need their wives OK to get a vasectomy? I honestly don't know. Maybe someone here does. PC

Everyone gets to decide for themselves about abortion. At some point at the end of your life you'll get the opportunity to explain your position. If you think you can make that sell, great. I'm not taking the chance.

"What I noticed as a kid is that the minute grownups take a long hard look at love and respect, the whole discussion broadens"

That is a valid point egg. Love and respect have a solid foundation in the idea of ...right or wrong. There are rules for right and wrong. Those rules bring us to the concept of a rational, moral , loving and caring society. The Abortion issue can be summed up in that question, is it Right? or Wrong?

B) :) :) B) Deep Down In Florida Where The Sun Shines Damn Near Every Day

Birth control on a global scale is imperative. If we don't want to become like rats, lemmings, locusts, or the bubonic plague, we need to practice some animal husbandry on ourselves.

Birth control and abortion are not always the same thing. Those societies who have bred like "rats" are paying the price for it. Typically they are uneducated and lazy people who can't be bothered with thoughts of tomorrow. Ethiopia, and inner-Chicago.

They are examples of people who should be "fixed" for the common good of man, not held out as a defense of abortion.

"... a good society cannot and will not survive if it says immoral things are moral. Fact. "

I like that Chuck and I couldn't agree with you more. The problem for me gets difficult when people presume to tell me what is and isn't moral. Definitions of morality have been shown to be quite variable and quite slippery. At one time slavery and lynching were deemed moral. In the first three hundred years AD there was quite a furor of disagreement over the Father, the Son, and The Holy Ghost. It was agreed that God was God, of course, and that Jesus was God, as immortal son, and the Holy Spirit was also God. For some there had to be a distinction between God the Father and God the Son because it would be immoral for God to hang himself on the cross. God doesn't die in any way shape or form and suicide is immoral. Are all forms of "suicide" immoral?

God does not die, therefore that part of us which does is not the part made in God's image. A set of blueprints is not a house. A zygote is a set of blueprints, not a person. Fact. What makes a person a person? A brain-dead body on total life support was once a person. A corpse was once a person. What makes a person a person, and not a monster, is love and respect. Without those two the whole discussion is moot, dog-eat-dog, and utterly worthless.

What I noticed as a kid is that the minute grownups take a long hard look at love and respect, the whole discussion broadens. Sometimes there are tough moral decisions that have to be made. We have our special place, but left unchecked, the human race will choke the life out of a planet which taken as a whole is made much much more like to God's image than are we alone. Birth control on a global scale is imperative. If we don't want to become like rats, lemmings, locusts, or the bubonic plague, we need to practice some animal husbandry on ourselves. Fire next time, remember? If we want human life to be deemed sacred, let's make sure we take care of the blessing that were bestowed on us.

Taxes & good roads.

We pay thru the nose for this with every gallon of gas we buy. Why then do I also get a bill in the mail for driving on a tollway in Dallas that paid for itself 15 years ago? Easy, because politicians spend that money on other pet projects and the sheeple are dumb enough to pay it because they don't grasp that the money they're paying isn't to fix potholes on the road, but build an elaborate $20 million high school football stadium named after a city councilman.

Patty Cakes Said: Dear Egg, Im sorry your issues raised were for the better/worst part ignored. I read your post twice and appreciated the concern as others did not. The moral issue is for the individual to bear and I would never expect any man to understand. I am not arguing a point with anyone, I just wanted to thank you Egg for your thought.

As for the political issues, Ill take the guess work out of it...I do not like Trump, amazed that Pence is along for the ride and so disappointed in Paul Ryan. There are so many titles attached to politics these days right, left, inbetween, liberal, upsidedown & backwards. Im in the category of thinking for myself.

So gentlemen, I say hello to you all, all the names quite familiar, glad to hear/read that much is the same as we all get older and hopefully wiser. PC

A common human characteristic is to project our own flaws (moral) and deficiencies (weakness, imperfections) onto others. In the power game, it is a must have skill