The Tyranny of Success

I am having random thoughts today around the pressure our world puts on us to be successful. We need to try, to make our best effort, to accomplish things - no one wants to be lazy, or inefficient. But sometimes (maybe even often) things happen that make life appear unsuccessful, or even a failure.

What does that mean? If a life is a failure, unsuccessful, then should that life have never happened? The doctor who tells the expecting mother that her child will be severely handicapped and asks her to consider aborting - what does that tell us about the way we think life should be? The senior citizen in her wheelchair in a nursing home looks at you and says, "I am no good for anybody or anything now - why am I alive?"

Or perhaps you are in the middle of your life. Your spouse leaves you - with more than an empty house. Now you have house payments, alimony, the glances from neighbours and family, and you wonder how all the holidays and rituals of life are supposed to happen with this picture of the intact family destroyed - so your family - or even you - is/are a failure?

You loose your dream job and can't find another similar job, or you have a devastating accident and are handicapped for the rest of your life. You can think of many similar situations to paint the picture of failure and disaster. Economics tells us that in every society there are people who contribute nothing to the society economically - they produce no goods or services, but they use up resources of the society. While it is important to track this to help an economy function well, when we focus too much on such analysis, we lose focus of the totality of life.

Life is precious simply because it is life. Period. Every life is unique and contributes to lives in ways we cannot fathom. The woman who did not abort her supposedly handicapped child now has a 16 year old gifted young son who plays the violin beautifully - where's the handicap? The senior citizen in the wheelchair has family and friends who still think about her every day even though she has been dead almost 20 years. She was my grandmother.

Life is not the sum of the goods and/or services we generate for a group. Life is a gift that, in my deepest conviction, comes from the creator of all things, and everything the creator makes is good. But sometimes we are so selfish or short-sighted that we cannot or will not see the good in something (or someone) that/who seems to serve no purpose. The end of this kind of thinking has already been seen in the Third Reich's attempts to annihilate entire groups of people.

Perhaps we should re-evaluate how we evaluate a society: how does it deal with and treat those who give it nothing (in goods and services) in return? And while we are at it, we can hold the mirror before ourselves and conduct the same evaluation in our own lives every day. Do we protect and cherish life of every kind?

"Revocation of Our Independence"

Good day to all readers on this fair Friday. I have just gotten this notice from a thoughtful friend in Leipzig. Now, after all our problems with various administrations, it would appear that we are finally returning home.... Do enjoy this riveting read....


To the citizens of the United States of America from

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent
candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we
hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective
immediately.

(You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties
over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which
she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for
America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be
circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following
rules are introduced with immediate effect:

-----------------------

1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as
'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn
to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix
'-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be
expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up
'vocabulary').

------------------------

2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises
such as ''like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form
of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let
Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be
adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the
elimination of '-ize.'

-------------------

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

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4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns,
lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and
therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns
should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out
without suing someone or speaking to a therapist,then you're not ready
to shoot grouse.

----------------------

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything
more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be
required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

----------------------

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will
start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time,
you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of
conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you
understand the British sense of humour.

--------------------

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been
calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

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8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French
fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato
chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in
animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

-------------------

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually
beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to
as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be
referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they
are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can
only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth
- see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as
Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of
further confusion.

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10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as
good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to
play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English
dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having
one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

---------------------

11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of
proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in
time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American
football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds
or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

---------------------

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to
host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played
outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world
beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn
cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the
sting out of their deliveries.

--------------------

13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

-----------------

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's
Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all
monies due (backdated to 1776).

---------------

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with
saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes;
plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

------------------

God Save the Queen! Isn't she sweet

Out of sight out of mind

Nix von wegen "aus dem Auge"! Out of sight - out of my mind... no way...

It has been about 28 months since I started this blog. Al Gore praises blogs and internet forums as a way to finally recreate a type of public square, where people can truly exchange ideas and participate in the flow of information in all directions. I am sure this blog does indeed help Mr. Gore's concern.

I choose the name of this blog with a particular phenomenon in mind which one my friends in Lübeck has mentioned when weighing the pros and cons of life in the United States. How often does contact seem to dissolve or perhaps fall asleep? After so many shared experiences in the land of the free, one goes to another continent, and after a time you simply don't here from people any more - "out of sight out of mind" as we say in English, or "aus dem Auge aus dem Sinn" in German. I created this blog as an effort to battle against this "sight-mind" predicament, and since some I know in the states welcomed my new blog, I looked forward to more reliable contact. Now we can share photos, and they can get an idea of my life here in east Germany and compare it to life in the Lone Start State.

And now, when I look over the comments that have accumulated and the results of the live feed, I see my most loyal readers and commenters are all either in the European continent or "down under". Readers from the states are few and far between.

But how baffelling it is that the people who know me in so-called real life seem so uninterested in any kind of regular checking-in - even just visiting the page would show interest requiring almost no effort - you won't "bust a gut" clicking on the link for this blog. And I know when I visit the states the next time all will be normal - as if I had just been there yesterday. So there is no animosity or estrangement in the works - I think, at least.

I am thankful for any and all readers - what a unique opportunity to in some way get to know people you could never contact otherwise. But I now wonder if my friend in Lübeck is correct. Are we Americans simply that way, that we have such short memories that we forget anyone who is not physically around us regularly? Or are we "soooo busy" that we just can't click on one more link? "I am busy" seems to be the existiential justification for existence in the western world these days.
Do we need more effort to create forced remembrance in our lives? A little thinking, a little looking, and "someday you will find me in Saxony"....

Falling Asleep Elegantly

I wake up to this view every morning - from the south window of my bedroom.
Here I am today standing in my living with my east deck behind me.

Someone who didn't know when to stop playing - in a beautiful garden I walked to on Sunday.
Fallen leaves on steps in a garden.
a stream I run alongside several times a week.

Greek splendour by the lake in the park.
the river flows...
such brilliant colors
the path I run along three times a week.

Autumn can be a very sad time, since it reminds us that life around us dies. The trees turn barren, and certain plants that only live one season soon die for good. But for a short time this process of death and going into hibernation takes on unique beauty, revealing facets of plants we never see in the prime of their life. What is Fall doing at your location? I'll bring more photos along soon, as the colors get more dramatic.

Starbuck's is finally in Leipzig

This was at a Starbuck's in Cologne. Now I don't have to travel several hours to get to the next one...

Yesterday - Monday - was an eventful day, because Leipzig has finally joined the ranks of every major German city - it has at least one Starbuck's cafe. Of course, it looks, sounds, and smells like every Starbuck's, whether in the USA, in Munich, Berlin, or Cologne, or in an airport somewhere. I didn't have a lot of time today, so I only had one coffee and a sandwich of tomato, mozarella, and ciabatte. I did hear many different languages: British and American English, English with a German accent, normal Leipzig-German, accent-free standard German, and German with a thick Italian accent.
The Leipzig cafe is situated at the corner of the Nikolaistrasse and Brühl with a beautiful corner seating area providing a panoramic view of this part of the city centre.

I remember many conversations in Starbuck's in Berlin, Cologne, and in the Dallas area. But then I also remember that I often had my mother with me when visiting Starbuck's in Texas. So now the two worlds coalesce, erasing away some of the disparity between them.

The Terror of Truth's Beauty

A summer thunderstorm approaches and would attempt to disturb the peace of a cemetary.

If you click on any photo, you will see the orignal (larger) size, revealing many details. Here the clouds are stunning - mountains and valleys parading across the sky, but yet there is terror to this beauty - wind, hail, lightning, flash floods not only participate in, but are this beauty also.
Towards the end of the last movement in Mahler's second symphony one experiences a musical version of this. The text speaks of dying in order to live, of rising again, and as the gigantic orchestra, organ, and massive choir, supported by rumbling bass drums and tympani, prepare the listener for the revelation of this resurrection, one of those rare moments of sublime beauty occur that strikes terror in you - as if you must shout "stop this, I can't take any more of this beauty!" while you begin to writhe.
I think this is what the authors recording theophanies in the Old Testament experienced when they saw the God of Israel on the mountain; beauty and truth simply too intense and too much for a human in this life to process and deal with.
But we keep seeking and creating - or imitating - truth and beauty; our destiny or a diversion?

Unity Day in Germany

Standing at the door from the kitchen onto my deck, today you have this view...
On my west deck looking north you enjoy these colours...
On my deck looking south you have this treat.... if only it were warm so I could sit out...

Happy Unity Day to all.... this is a recent holiday in the rather recently re-united Federal Repubilc of Germany - 18 years old now. What do many Germans do on this holiday? Last night the youth were getting drunk; lots of beer, vodka, and Jägermeister drinking going on in the trams late last night. I was also at a party - with plenty of excellent cocktails, so I was in bed at 1:30 am. today.
What are we all doing today? Many are taking trips with the extended weekend. Some are simply resting and catching up on things around the house (there I am), and a few will go to some memorial worship services commemorating German Unity.
How sad it is that this new unity seems to go so unnoticed. Many have forgotten what cold-war Europe was like, what life in the GDR was really like. Please see the film "The Life of Others" ("Das Leben der Anderen") for an interesting study of the systematic surveillance of everyone in that society.
Or maybe unity has become more a romantic notion of something that is not achievable or perhaps not even desireable. Germany is, after all, so full of regional dialects, cultural variations, etc., that someone in Freiburg im Breisgau probably has more in common with someone from Zürich than with someone from Hamburg.

What am I doing today? I am drinking tea, eating my scones I just baked myself, listening to music, going to a music instrument museum this afternoon, doing some translating, and meeting a friend this evening at an Irish pub for dinner and beer from the island. I may make it to an intercultural festival in the city centre. And I may sit out on my deck here on the fourth floor and enjoy the view - now you can enjoy it with me!