For You

Einstein says time is relative,
never ending,
relentless.

But with you, time is frozen,
immobile,
eternal

And yet never enough.

Time passes like water
down a river,
on a journey to someplace.

Someplace, anyplace
but really no place
because that place
is empty

without you.

A Throwback Saturday Morning

Right now, at this exact minute, if you walked into my kitchen, you’d be hard pressed to determine whether it’s 2018 or 1968 (aside from this foreign “laptop typing device” that I’m sitting behind). I’m having a cup of fresh brewed coffee, reading a real newspaper - the type with ink on paper - and listening to classic pop on an actual AM radio. My television, which is switched off at the moment (a rarity it seems in 2018) has no cable attaching it to a mysterious “TV provider”, only a cable attaching it to an antenna that receives its signal for free from the wide open air, of all things.

My view out the window is one of woods and birds and grass with a small patch of dirty snow near what was once a white picket fence (still a fence, not quite white). The others are asleep and for now it’s only me with my little slice of the past.

I don’t think there’s a better way to spend a Saturday morning. Now if only there were some great old classic Saturday cartoons on somewhere. And maybe a bowl of Froot Loops!

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

I was watching some documentary tonight on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which I realize makes me a Geek Royale. Anyway, the narrator was describing this researcher who was one of a handful of people who could read cuneiform who was primarily responsible for leading this research. At one point, she visits some museum in Britain where there are these giant Bas Relief sculptures that once lined the walls of this ancient king who lived hundreds of years before Christ. The reliefs depict daily life in the region, with men in chariots and other details.

Seeing these reliefs made me realize that these were rather permanent depictions of how life was over 2000 years ago. You could easily see the modes of transportation and the style of dress worn by everyday folks. Sculpted into rock, rock which has survived over 2000 years to stand where they do today, in a museum to be viewed by 21st century humans.

And then it occurred to me - what are we leaving behind that will have anywhere near the permanence of these Bas Relief sculptures? What tangible evidence are we going to leave behind for those who come 2000 years from now, looking to find out details of life in the high-tech 21st century. It would seem to me that almost all of what we have now exists on a bit of silicon on a chip in some device, powered by a battery that almost certainly won’t play 2000 years from now.

But those Bas Reliefs. They’ll still be in that museum in Britain, telling the tales of what is then a 4000 year old history - and leading one to wonder what happened to those who came after, those who lived the lives of luxury, those whose lives were so easy that they left nothing tangible behind. Including this blog.

Battle of the Network Stars?? I think not.

Some things get better with age. For instance, just one month ago we celebrated the 50th anniversary of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” by the Beatles. By many accounts, the best album of the rock era. The soundtrack to what became known as the “summer of love” in 1967. Newly remastered by Giles Martin, son of the legendary Beatles producer George Martin, the album sounds, by most accounts, like a brand new album. An amazing feat if ever there was one - an album 50 years old that still can stop many in their tracks.

But not all things get better with age. I just lost an entire hour of my life watching the “new” ABC show “Battle of the Network Stars”. This re-boot of what was must-see TV some 30 years ago could be, perhaps, the biggest waste of video tape to ever hit a major network. In the early 1980s, when the TV landscape was much simpler (3 networks, plus PBS and some local independents), ABC created this pseudo-athletic competition to fill the dead time during the summer and mid-winter, when the regular TV network series took a few weeks off.

At the time, ABC was able to truly recruit just what the title promised - TV stars! Henry Winkler, Ron Howard, Farrah Fawcett, Lee Majors, and many others from top-rated “current” TV series donned their short shorts and body-hugging swimsuits and participated in their own version of the TV Olympics. And the audiences loved it.

Tonight, what ABC put on was a complete unmitigated disaster. First, there were no “stars”. I mean, the most current person you might call a star was Dave Coulier, late of “Full House” and the Netflix reboot “Fuller House”. Lisa Welchel and Kim Fields of the “Facts of Life” made a return appearance, 34 years after their last appearance.

But it wasn’t just the lack of stars that made the show so bad. It was the actual production itself. In the original, you saw the events. I mean, the actual events. You saw the swimming. The kayaking. The relay races. And everything in between. Tonight, you saw a few of the events, with cuts to events that took place “earlier” and more commercials than any 60-minute show should ever have.

Overall, this is one of those “blasts from the past” that should have stayed just a fond memory. Skip the Battle and save 60 minutes a week. Which you can better spend listening to “Sgt. Pepper.”

The Red Balloon

I just watched “The Red Balloon” again. And, just as with every other time, I cried. It’s such a beautiful, simple little movie about a boy and his balloon. But to me, it’s so much more. Because the boy reminds me so much of my son Joe as a young boy. The haircut. The way he runs. And the simplistic way that he carries himself. That’s Joe. It always has been. To this day, he doesn’t ask for much from life. And he will always give more than he gets.

The other reason the movie resonates with me is because of Joey’s special relationship to balloons. Which even he probably doesn’t remember. But Joey, at some point as a young boy, developed a fear. Of losing, of all things, balloons. Every time he had one, he had an almost irrational fear of losing it, of letting it go, of having it blow away. To the point that his fears started to carry over into other things. So, like all concerned parents, we decided we needed some professional help. And Joey got over it. And he’s just fine now.

Only, every time I see this movie, I cry. I think of my little son, and how worried he was about losing something that was, in the big scheme of things, so small. And yet, to him, it was oh so big. I cry for him - and I cry for me. Because every time I see that movie, I’m reminded of my little son, my first son, who was oh so small, and so innocent. And now, he’s a grown man. Which must mean that I’m rapidly approaching being an old man.

I’d kill for a red balloon that never flew away. And for children that never grew up. And for time to just stand still. But I’m grateful for the memories. And I deal with the tears. Anyone have a tissue?

Dictionary, please

As a teacher in the 21st century, I find myself sometimes lamenting the loss of many of the things that I found comfortable both as a student and as a novice teacher. You know, back in the days before I really knew anything about teaching (or life for that matter).

One of the things that I miss the most is perhaps the most mundane of all - the dictionary. Not that I was ever a huge dictionary user. I mean, I’d use it from time to time, but mostly I was a pretty good natural speller, so referring to the dictionary was never really all that necessary - for that purpose, at least. But I remember, after leaving my Wall Street career and setting out on my own to find my fortune as a copywriter (before teaching came into the picture), one of the first things I bought for my new office was a Webster's paperback dictionary. Having it on my desk, along with a thesaurus (which was NEVER opened) and two books of “words that sell,” I somehow felt legitimate as a writer.

Today, of course, my students (and I, truth be told) rely on the computer to do our “dictionary” work. There are great websites that will allow us to check on the meaning of words if we need to and, of course, almost any word processing program worth a damn has spellcheck (I’ve used it three times already!).  But as a teacher, I’m not really all that worried about the proficiency of spelling, since most of that can be corrected automatically. But what I AM worried about is people losing sight of the meaning of words. I mean, really, isn’t that what a dictionary is. Dictionary.com, my go-to source for all things dictionary-like these days has this to day about what a dictionary is:

“a book, optical disc, mobile device, or online lexical resource (such as Dictionary.com) containing a selection of the words of a language,giving information about their meanings, pronunciations, etymologies,inflected forms, derived forms, etc., expressed in either the same or another language;”

Notice that there is no mention of spelling in this entry. But the word “meaning” is there. And that’s what I worry about - that people are forgetting that what’s important when using a word isn’t really whether you can spell it correctly or not (I mean, in the world of Twitter, does anyone really care about spelling anymore?) but do you know what it means?

Now, why would I be thinking about this topic today, when there is so much more to think about. Because this week is the Republican National Convention. And, amazingly, there seems to be some real problems with several of the keynote speakers and their “interpretation” of the meaning of certain words.

Let’s start with an easy one. The word “write.”  Again, according to Dictionary.com, the word “write”, when used as a verb, has, among others, this meaning:

“to compose or work as a writer or author.”

This definition seems simple enough. Combined with another reference, that having to do with forming words on the surface of some material, I think we get what the word “write” means. In fact, to be honest, I can’t think of anyone I know who would ever have to go look at a dictionary to see what the word “write” means.

So why is this such a foreign concept to several of the Trump clan? I mean, what can be misconstrued about the meaning of this word?  It would seem pretty straightforward.

So can anyone explain how Melania Trump can claim that she “wrote” her own speech and then, when we find out that many of the words came from someone else’s speech (i.e, the current First Lady), we find out that a speech-writer (there’s that word again) actually WROTE the speech after SPEAKING with Mrs. Trump. Now I really don’t care who cribbed from whom, but I do care about understanding the MEANING of words, and if Mrs. Trump thinks that SPEAKING to a speech-writer is actually “writing” the speech, we have a real problem with comprehension here.

Donald Jr. is also guilty of this misuse of the work.  On the one hand, he tells David Muir of ABC News that he “wrote” his own speech, and then he reveals that he used a speech-writer to write the speech. So, Mr. Trump Jr., did you or didn’t you WRITE the speech? Confused as to the question - see the definition of “write” above.

But, clearly this challenge of understanding the correct meaning of words is not limited to the Trumps. Oh no, not at this convention. So before we move ahead, let’s once again ask our friends at Dictionary.com for some help here. This time, the word is “pledge.”

Dictionary.com says:

“a solemn promise or agreement to do or refrain from doing something:”

Now before I proceed, a bit of full disclosure here. I’m not a Republican. Not NOW, at least. At one time I definitely identified more with the Republican ideals than the Democrats (and at one time I worked on Wall Street before moving to the public sector as a teacher). But, with the rise of Newt Gingrich (first) and the Tea Party (second), I rapidly found myself leaning, and then running, toward the Democratic party. Technically, I’m an “independent.” But I guess, not really.

But I digress. The reason I reference the meaning of the word “pledge” is because last night, I sat through what had to be one of the most bizarre (and, truthfully, sad) moments I’ve ever seen in a party convention, and at my age, I’ve seen plenty of conventions.

Last night, I sat through Senator Ted Cruz’ speech - you know the one where he NEVER endorsed the party’s nominee, Donald Trump. Even though a) Donald Trump got more votes than Ted Cruz did and b) Cruz and every other one of the 17 (or 16 or 18 or however many) candidates took a pledge to support the candidate that prevailed after the primary fight was over. Yes, Cruz took a “pledge”. Again, refer to the dictionary entry above if this concept is confusing.

Clearly, Mr. Cruz didn’t fully understand what the word meant, in the context that it was used. Perhaps he was using one of the ALTERNATE definitions of “pledge” such as:

“to drink a health or toast to.”

Perhaps Mr. Cruz thought, when he made that “pledge” on that debate stage all those months ago, that all he had to do was to raise a toast to Mr. Trump and then continue on his way, thinking he was still a candidate for President. Honestly, who the hell knows what was going through Mr. Cruz’ mind as he set about “writing” his speech (do I need to go through that again??).

In any event, clearly the Trumps and Ted Cruz would benefit from a new copy of Mr. Webster’s epic tome - the Dictionary. Perhaps someone will give them each a copy on their birthday. You know, birthday: “the day of a person's birth.”

Got a pothole? Call a teacher!!

The roads in New Jersey are crumbling. The bridges in New Jersey are rusting. The potholes in New Jersey are cavernous. So how do we fix this? According to State Senator Jennifer Beck, we have the state and school workers pay for it. How? By cutting their health benefits.

Yes, we fix the roads by cutting the health benefits of public servants. Because, after all, it's not huge trucks or the millions of cars that wear out roads. It’s sick public employees. Right?

It seems that we have a real block in this state about the possibility of ever raising the gas tax, even though it is so ridiculously low as to be nearly ineffective. I guess the legislators in this state take great pride in hearing “New Jersey” when news reports are discussing where to get the cheapest gas this Memorial Day weekend.

But if you think about it, what wears out the roads? Motor vehicles. And what do they run on? Well, unless you drive a Tesla or a Nissan Leaf, they run on, wait for it, gas! Yes, that’s right, that petroleum-based liquid that we in New Jersey seem to hold in the same esteem as Taylor ham (or pork roll, depending on where you’re from.)

So Ms. Beck thinks that the broken roads can be fixed by going around the concept of collective bargaining (do ANY Republicans work in union jobs??) and simply reducing the level of benefits “to bring it into line with what the federal government is saying should be a standard plan.” Because we all know that the federal government is the best possible example of how to run health care!! Obamacare, anyone?

How rich, that while Republicans all around the country are denouncing Obamacare, we have a state senator who is saying it should be the standard that we judge our state employees health benefits on. Who’s kidding who here?

Meanwhile, the state pension system remains on the brink of bankruptcy with no clear funding alternatives in sight because the state government (and the state governor) refuse to honor the terms of the law that the governor himself pushed for and the legislature supported.

I have an idea. How about we raise the gas tax to fund the pension?? If you want state workers to pay for the roads with their health benefits, I think asking the drivers of the state to pay for state pensions is only fair. Senator Beck, can I ask for your support??