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Daily Devotion for Saturday June 23, 2007
The truth is that life is hard and dangerous; that he who seeks his own happiness does not find it; that he who is weak must suffer; that he who demands love, will be disappointed; that he who is greedy, will not be fed; that he who seeks peace, will find strife; that truth is only for the brave; that joy is only for him who does not fear to be alone; that life is only for the one who is not afraid to die.
-Joyce Carey
Everything that happens to you is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your own life and be taught by it. Everything that happens is either a blessing which is also a lesson, or a lesson which is also a blessing.
- Polly Berrien Berends
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Review of the movie, Paris, je t' aime. A good movie with 18 vignettes.
Memorable quotes from one vignette:
Francine: Thomas Listen. Listen. There are times when life calls out for a change. A transition. Like the seasons. Our spring was wonderful, but summer is over now and we missed out on autumn. And now all of a sudden, it's cold, so cold that everything is freezing over. Our love fell asleep, and the snow took it by surprise. But if you fall asleep in the snow, you don't feel death coming. Take care.
The Husband: In pretending to be a man in love, he became a man in love.
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THOUGHTLESS COMMENTS
(AFP/Thaier al-Sudani)
| Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, isn't serving himself well by badmouthing the military with his derogatory comments against General Petraeus and the ousted Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Pace.
I want to see Reid's "military record." Then and only then can Reid be even close to making a legit criticism of Pace. To blame Pace for the debacle in Iraq is the epitome of stupid. Maybe Pace was not as forceful as he could have been with Rumsfeld or now with Robert Gates(Secretary of Defense), but he's served his country well and has now been treated shabbily.
I really don't know what someone like Pace could do. Well, he could have resigned, I guess; and yet, in the big picture what would it have served?
Rumsfeld, although a patriot, still operated with a "I have my mind made up and so don't confuse me with facts." mentality. I'll bet now, Gates wishes he was still President of Texas A & M.
Replacing Pace is a long shot in making any difference in Iraq, as if anything could, short of rewinding and hanging on to Saddam.
In a recent survey of Americans on who is the most reliable source of information on Iraq, the people surveyed did not chose Cheney, Bush, or Harry Reid as the most reliable source. Cheney was 16, Bush was 14, Reid was 15. Guess who was number ONE MOST RELIABLE: Petraeus.
People trust General Petraeus on providing information on Iraq. Reid, whom they don't trust, put the bad mouth on Petraeus because he said some places in Iraq had improved and, they have.
Petraeus may be able to bring this "quagmire" under control, but it would take five to ten more years minimum, plus lots of pain.
Reid is not serving his party well or even those of us who care.
One of the only positive things about Iraq happens to be the soldiers. And, this is no small thing, believe me.
When Reid, representing the Majority party blames the military for the morass in Iraq, we have got to think that he is maybe suffering some kind of delusion or something.
More likely, Reid was speaking to a bunch of left wing bloggers and was warming to his audience. Politicians do it all the time. They get in trouble by listening to the enthusiasm of a bunch of zealots; and, the first thing you know, they've transferred into, like I said before, stupid. KT
Related Articles:
General Peter Pace
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Happy Father's Day
Annual Father's Day Message
by JHL
Are any of us the father we want to be or wish we'd been? I doubt it. Most of the Dads I know do the best they can, relatively speaking.
The flip side of the coin is that there are some pretty sorry fathers. Amazingly, so many kids-adopted, abandoned, etc,-are searching for their fathers, literally or figuratively, regardless if they were good or bad. There's something about wanting to know your real Dad.
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I first encountered it when I was part of a group that started the organization, Vietnam Veterans Southeast Asia Children's Project, mostly working with Amerasian (mothers are Asian and fathers mostly American GIs) kids. All of them wanted to find their American fathers who didn't want anything to do with them. Pretty sad, but understandable. I remember one vet I located. He was so outraged that I would contact him because he had his own life now-wife, kids,etc. Vietnam was over forever and he doubted if the kid was his anyway. (I actually wrote a play about my encounter with him; and, if I ever get any big money, I'm going to produce it.)
Let's face it. In a real sense, the greatest job; or, at least the second (Mother first maybe) that anyone would ever have, is being a father. My own Dad was terrific; and, even today, I hear many things inside my head from him.
Recently, I was in a situation, not so much with me, but with a friend and I said, "The only thing I know to tell you is an expression my Dad used all the time, 'You might as well laugh as cry.' " I was amazed at hearing myself saying, "You might as well laugh as cry." I had not thought of the expression in years; and yet, when I needed the cogent comment, there was my Dad. Also, someone said to me recently, what was your first memory? Hands down it was when my Dad "whipped the daylights out of me" for cursing. I was about six.
There is a concept that we invent the parent of our childhood. I don't know. I do know that my older brothers and I have a somewhat different view of our Dad. I was the youngest, hung out with him lots, and listened to his stories. He was a great storyteller and I listened over and over to the same one which always varied just a shade each time. From what I hear from my brothers, I got the best of him. When they were younger, putting bread on the table and making sure there was a future i.e., was Dad's focus. In other words, surviving consumed much of my Dad's time. When I came along, those things were more or less secured, I think, or maybe my Dad was just a little more easy-going with his sixth child-who knows.
But, I am a product of my own Dad and my children are of me. Please God, I hope I've done a good job; the most important one I'll ever have.
Happy Father's Day and a special Hoooo-aaaaah to all the fathers in the Armed Forces who are away from their children this year.
A Father Anguishes About His Son Serving In Iraq:
Originally Posted June 20 2004. In the San Francisco Magazine section last Sunday, there was this personal story about a parent whose son is a Lieutenant in Iraq. He started it off with the sentence, "Somewhere there must be a parenting book with a section titled: When your child goes to war." It was very moving.
The Father went on to tell how he and his wife hang on every news account of Iraq; and, when soldiers are killed, how they die a little themselves, searching out the areas where their son might be. They basically know much more than parents did in past wars because of the Internet and email, etc.- "good and bad," he says.
He says so many things remind him of his son like the youngsters having fun in San Francisco while his own son is out dusty, dirty, fighting, dodging bullets. The father wanted to scream out, "How dare you laugh when my son is doing what you should be doing." He also told about sitting with parents at a high school track meet. They were anguishing about their children's upcoming SAT tests. He wanted to tell them he'd be glad to trade his worries for theirs.
I liked his idea of fear being replaced with pride. His son, was an airborne ranger doing his duty, at least as he saw it. One of the best concepts of the article was when his friends asked him, what did his son think of the war. "How can I explain," he says, "Soldiers in combat don't ask such questions. They are there, doing what they've been trained to do, their jobs."... The article continues on to convey the fathers thoughts on soldiers dying in war: "This is a brutal truth" he said, "When U. S. soldiers are killed, I can only hope it's somebody else's kid. It gives me no pleasure to say that, but it's the brutal truth..."
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