Wednesday, November 17, 2010

For No One

Excessive celebration in the endzone! There seems to be a little too much partying over the sorrows and discomfort of others to suit me. Lately, it seems to surround me everywhere I go. I also want justice in the world, but justice doesn’t require a party over the result to be effective. It seems to undermine humanistic and religious values not to feel sorry for the person who is facing capital punishment. Among the many who are disliked  is a woman I know who does indeed have character faults. Others seem to despise her. They get all excited when something happens to just about anyone that they take a disliking to. I just see this woman as a person, flawed in different ways than I am flawed.

Sometimes the partying I see is for something as silly as a game. Take football as an example - I’ve actually seen people excited that the quarterback of the other team was limping off the field, going to the hospital with an uncertain fate before him.  My enjoyment of sports peaked somewhere between the 3rd and 10th steroid scandal however others see rivalries and traditions that are more important than their own humanity at times. And I know I’m guilty of the same kinds of things, if not in this way then in some other way.  Perhaps it is a matter of degree and perhaps not. But I’m tired of the partying over inane things.

I’m still reading George W. Bush’s book. I’m reading between the lines as much as possible so it makes the book twice as long. :) At one time George talks about the unconditional love of his parents. He tells of the incident where he killed his little sister’s goldfish by pouring vodka into the bowl, and how his parents still loved him. Reading between the lines takes me in all kinds of directions and I ponder things for a long while. I wonder what age he was exactly. Was he a minor with vodka or a young man with no insight whatsoever?  And why would he pick this incident, with others surely to choose from, to illustrate his parent’s unconditional love?

It all seems sort of funny that he would write about this until I remember the moment that I learned the depth of my own parents’ unconditional love.It was something similar in situation and I wouldn't even think about posting it here. It changed my life, I guess the goldfish changed his. Why I have been drawn to read this book is beyond me. Two years ago I would have thought it was the last thing I would have wanted to do. While I did have a fascination with Richard Nixon and Watergate when I was young, President George W. Bush was a hated enemy until I started reading this book. Now I see him as just not presidential material. The problems he caused happened not because of his ideas but the ideas he took from others and the inhumanity of Americans who cheered him on. He was merely a leader. The fact that justice is not done and he is not in jail for his crimes rankles me more than a little. But I don’t think I would be partying if he were suddenly tried and convicted either.

I don’t know. I’m just tired of the partying. And I'm happier to be near the people who love me, failure or success.

“Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: some things are within our control, and some things are not.” - Epictetus