Pressing on

There are days when nothing seemed to go your way.

Just have to press on.

Then there are days when things converge, in perfect storm with positive results.

Just have to press on.

Things, people and places.

They are what/who they are.

Can’t bend them to our liking, for our preferences.

Just have to learn to work around the inevitable.

Just have to press on.

Some of us grow mature as a result of wrestling with what the prayer of serenity called “that which cannot be changed”.

Just have to press on.

Others among us still want to find new challenges to wrestle with. Good for them.

Just take a look at Sandy. Then learn a thing or two about our environment, how it is to be treated.

With fear and trepidation.

I enjoy jogging in the park. The lush green, the shades just angling right around 5 o’clock.

I am sure the ducks and squirrels do too.

After all, it’s their homes as much as ours.

We all share in the abundance of clean air and fresh water.

Preserve it. Conserve it.

Just have to press on.

A nation is respected when its citizens respect the commons.

Visitors to any country will adopt and adapt to how the locals behave.

NYC after Sandy will need a lot of reparation.

Just have to press on.

Let this year’s count-down, be one of the best.

May the elected President see his best term ever.

Just have to press on. To face whatever is ahead. Opportunity likes to dance with those already on the dance floor (Jackson Brown).

Just have to keep on dancing. Until the music stops. Has it ever?

Imponderables

Dead Valley is known to be the hottest place on Earth.

Yet millions have traveled pass there on their way to Las Vegas.

Venture Capitalists are also well versed in what’s so called “valley of death” i.e. when a start-up moved pass its honey-moon stage, and simply cannot sustain the burnt rate.

Yet people keep trying.

Then, aside from “death” rate, we got divorce rate.

Yet people keep falling in love, and getting married.

Hint: more shopping and spending for a family of two and more.

In America, there is no shortage of imponderables.

I am starting to read Paterno bio. I could barely get through the first few pages.

Something quite imponderable there (despite the lucid prose).

After all, what happened in America, stayed in America.

Sex shops, butcher shops.

Churches and strip clubs, sometimes near each other.

Schools and parks (for homeless people) near fast-food and donuts joints.

Dental office next to candy shop.

And 24-hr gym (all you can lift)  near Hometown Buffet (all you can eat). Go figure.

America spends a large chunk of change on incarceration, pornography (hard and soft e.g. NYT best-seller list, top 3 are taken by the same author who caters to women taste for escapism), guns and amos (especially amos, modeled after HP cartridge business model), medical marijuana and spirits (that get you on a downward spiral).

My name is Thang. And I am not an alcoholic. So help me God.

Somewhere somehow, the line has been moved: the incarcerated are better cared for than the non-incarcerated.

The top 1% refuses to pick up golf balls, while the rest can’t afford meat balls.

Kids aren’t learning (slipped in ranking), while workers need to but can’t get it paid for by the employers or government.

Politicians are talking, but leaders aren’t leading.

We are bidding for time, for election, for miracles, and are freezed like deers in front of approaching head lights.

Actors are either making quiet retreat (Sundance Festival), or gone overboard (Eastwood and Samuel Jackson).

It’s the best time to be in  late-night comedy.

But SNL fans can’t stay up late (wrong demographic for that time slot).

Voting booths seem to always have problems in Florida. (Voters should be required to have an eye-exam). We are enjoying our time on the deck, but forgot to check the ship’s name. ( Titanic ?).

Even if it’s free, no ride lasts forever.

Every once in a while, we need to check the navigating instrument. No such thing as auto-piloting (Google unmanned car?).

Not in this age of post-innocence. Not at this time of austerity. Not now. Not ever. We need to be vigilant against those who quack like a leader, walk like a leader, but in fact, are not leaders at all. Leadership comes with a price. They come to take credits. This is the root of all imponderables: those who can’t lead, lead. Those who can, refuse to stay in the game.

Summer in mind

Coming of age. Summer 42. Sandy beach.

Surf. Dream. Instant memories.

Something humbling about the vast expanse.

Men  and women, hard and soft bodies, clothed and nude.

All have walked those beaches.

All have pondered and projected toward the unknown.

Will i turn out alright!

How much time do I have left to live?

What then should be on the must-do list?

Summer time.

It draws out the soft side of a person.

Past relationships. Faces that we once thought we could never live without.

Then those camping trips. Beach volleyball.

Rarely worn and loosely fit bathing suit.

Those extra pounds from those extra cheese.

Summer time.

Transition.

New role, new relationship.

Students upon graduation now return home.

Might as well sleep on the beach, surfing the wave during the day, and surfing the net at night.

Japan-style “no sun” generation. They came of age during the Recession there, and rose with the Digital era.

Something to learn from.

Nothing is new under the Sun.

Just new actors for the same script.

So it’s Summer time.

When we appreciate its breeze.

and record its memories.

Hope yours are as warm as mine.

Summer in itself can do no wrong.

1942 forever, even if the calendar says its 2012.