Travis Smith: my resume, bio and photos back to the main blog page

Life’s short

posted at 11:01 am
on Jan. 14, 2002

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Promise Made Are Promises Broken

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A New Thing Today

Warning: Musings follow, and all I can promise that that they are in complete sentences, nothing more fancy….

From the New York Post: January 9, 2002—A 1-year-old Westchester girl, nestled in bed with her parents at 4 p.m. watching a Winnie the Pooh video, was killed by a stray bullet fired by a man in a nearby building who was using a street sign for target practice, police said yesterday.

Hearing about this story made me think hard.

About whether it’s a good idea to avoid eating tasty yet fatty foods.

About when the last time I called my sister was.

About why we celebrate someone’s 75th birthday.

About why the deaths in the World Trade Center galvanized a nation, but the many traffic deaths in the U.S. this year go completely unremarked.

About why the people who have the least to lose are the ones who are such desperate gamblers.

This point’s worth mulling.  I don’t think that it’s always because these people want to win big—they’re not just looking for the next big score.

I think it works on another, more realistic, level: People who gamble want to suffer directly the consequences their own actions instead of having ill befall them because of the random vagaries of uncontrollable fate.

Bad things, we know, happen to good and bad people all the time, some people more often than others.  Sometimes, it feels better to have your life go bad because of your own bad choices, than because of factors over which you have no control.

There’s no satisfaction in cursing God for causing bad, because we know we can’t change him.  If we do bad to ourselves, at least there’s hope that we can change ourselves.

Here’s pictures from Africa.  You may notice there are no captions—feel free to make up your own.

Last, I am doing a survey.  Please share with me, without telling me who does it, an odd personal habit that you or a friend or loved one does.  I will list them for the amusement of all, without crediting who does them.  Let me give you a few examples:

1) I have a friend who ... brushes his teeth while he drives around in his car.

2) I have a friend who ... took a 7 week course and built a complete, perfect mandolin, but has no idea how to play the instrument.

3) I have a friend who ... thinks Josh Hartnett is the next Lawrence Olivier.

4) I have a friend who ... applied and was accepted to Clown College, but then decided to join the U.S. Reserves instead.

5) I have a friend who ... INSERT YOUR FRIEND’S QUIRK HERE.



 
 

 

Previous entry:
Promise Made Are Promises Broken

Next entry:
A New Thing Today

Overheard

“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”

...who said it?

“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”

...who said it?

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

...who said it?

“I play with variables constantly.”

...who said it?

“Only the person who has learned Continual Love coming from a heart of Gratitude/Worship can effectively deal with the problem of loneliness.”

...who said it?

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