Social Consciousness

I've really been struggling with writing lately. I've a bunch of new pictures in Flickr which you can access via the side bar - showing a half dozen trips I've taken lately but I just can't find the words to describe or explain them.

I've started to write - and assembled pictures at least on five separate occasions and then ... threw what little I had away in exasperation or disgust with how uninteresting I found the topic at hand after I had started with them. I would never make a good deadline writer. I find doing things, just about anything, on a regular basis to be difficult.

Well - I'm going to publish this ... messy hodgepodge ... and call it Long-Before-Friday Fragments or maybe I'm just way late and its Long-After-Friday, anywhooooooo.

The first unblogged trip was to the Philadelphia Art Museum on a perfect sunny day to take pictures of the newly renovated facade. I also saw the tail end of the Philadelphia Marathon and admired the determination of those crossing the finish line literally hours after the winners. You can see the pictures (here) - there was some nudity involved.


Two pigeons on the 30th Street Train Station Platform

The second unblogged trip was some Thanksgiving Day shots of the family and the pets. You can see the pictures (here).

A third unblogged trip to Burlington, New Jersey (the home of the world famous coat factory and the little known Rickshaw Manufacturing Company that actually sold rickshaws to China. Pictures from this trip are mixed in with the Thanksgiving day ones above.

Last weekend, I went to Massey, Maryland on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay to attend an Open Hanger Party at a small grass airstrip and museum. It was cold but sunny and lots and lots of airplanes were seen taking off, landing and doing stunts. There was also a lot of wonderful food. You can see the pictures (here).

I apologize for not being able to completely describe all the pictures.

I saw the statute below at the West entrance to the Philadelphia Art Museum. It stuck me with its ... somewhat hideous but evocative presence.


Statue of Social Consciousness - sculpted by Jacob Epstein, 1954

A grand sane towering seated mother Chair'd in the adamant of Time. -Walt Whitman


Since the current exhibit at the museum is titled "Arshile Gorky in Context" and runs from October 16, 2009 to January 10, 2010, one has to assume these orange coneheads have rather eclectic taste in art. I went in to check Mr. Gorky out - based on the orange conehead's recommendations, of course.


Arshile Gorky was an expatriate Russian artist that lived in New York City. Born in Turkish Armenia, Gorky (c. 1902– 1948) emigrated to America in 1920.

At the risk of insulting school age children everywhere, I call this "tape to the front of the refrigerator" art.

Weekend Wordle

It's that time of week again!

It's time for Shan's Weekend Wordles.

Here's what you do:

1) Go to Wordle.net to create your Wordle.

2) Post it on your blog with a link to Shan's Week~End Wordles or Last Shreds Of Sanity.

3) Once that's done, go back to Last Shreds Of Sanity and sign the Mr Linky that she'll have up - this will help direct those who play along to your blog.

Using the lyrics from O Holy Night.



Thanks to LadyStyx for the idea.

Yes, There is a Santa Claus

Saint Nicholas of Myra might be the primary inspiration for Santa Claus. He was a 4th-century Greek Christian bishop of Myra in what is now Demre, Turkey. Nicholas was famous for his generous gifts to the poor, in particular presenting the three impoverished daughters of a pious Christian with dowries so that they would not have to become prostitutes. (I raised an eyebrow on learning that.)

Another possible inspiration for Santa Claus is Odin, a major god amongst the Germanic peoples prior to their Christianization. Odin was the god of warfare (My eyebrow was raised again!) and was portrayed as a bearded old man who rode on a horse named Sleipnir through the skies. Each year at the Yule festival (winter solstice time) children would put their boots with food in them outside the door for Odin's horse. In return, Odin would then reward those children for their kindness by replacing Sleipnir's food with gifts or candy.

When I was a little boy, my Dad's Mother would label all her Christmas presents with a "From: Santa Claus" If my brothers or I said, "Thank you Grandma!" when opening one of these gifts, she would exclaim, "Oh! You need to thank Santa!" She was such a wonderful person, my brothers and I humored her for years after we no longer believed in Santa the person by saying, "Thanks Santa!" and watched her eyes do a Santa-like twinkle.

But none of this is what I'm referring to when I say Santa Claus. For me, Santa Claus is that spirit that lives in each of us that inspires us to give a helping hand to those in need, give a thoughtful gift to a loved one, or simply share a time of laughter and good cheer with those around us.

My younger brother and two guys that he knows, get together weekly to hang out and practice playing their guitars together. They jokingly call themselves the "Fat Cats" or in the summer, when it gets warm in the garage and they play without their shirts on, they call themselves, "The Bare Bellies". Each morning after his weekly practice/jam session, my brother comes into work with a smile on his face, happy to have been involved with a bunch of guys that truly get along with each other in rare fashion.

And each winter, around Thanksgiving, the "Bare Bellies" practise their repertoire of Christmas music and hymns while someone gets busy organizing around a half-dozen gigs for them at local nursing homes.

And so it was, last night, I attended a holiday sing-a-long at a local nursing home. I do not play, nor do I stand up with the band and sing. I just smile like crazy, help the folks find seats, set up and put away chairs, move furniture, and help pass around handouts with the lyrics to the songs. I often end up helping some of the tired older folks find their place in the handout and turn the pages for some with hands more beat up than mine.


The 'gig' is very informal and usually last about an hour. Sometimes the band brings cookies and sometimes the nursing home staff provides the band with some. Somehow, there are always cookies to be found.

Each time I go see them play, I see Santa Claus in the room. The three guitar players and the two ladies that sing along with the guys, light up the faces of so many care- or time-worn faces.

I've seen 90+ year old ladies hoot and holler, clap their hands and giggle, and once a couple even got up, slowly made their way over to the microphone using their walkers and started singing. They sang all 6+ verses of "Oh Christmas Tree" in German. I don't think there was a dry eye in the room when they finished...not even on any of the nurses.


At the end of what seems to be an oh-so-brief time, seeing the sea of happy faces, the mouthed "thank you's!", talking to (the always) some that seem to have no one to talk to, and having enjoyed the warmth (both inside and out as the places are usually well-heated!) I go home and find myself looking forward to the next one.

For me - this is the holiday spirit - and I'm unabashedly proud of my 'little brother' for doing these gigs - for this is what Santa Claus is all about.

In closing, I want to thank you all for your kind comments and e-mails on my previous entry. It made today a lot easier -

P.s., I thank Alice Kay for sending me Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" so I can practise up for an upcoming Vlog. Somehow I think Cappy is gonna be singing on camera - but with me, you never know.

:)

Times Are A Changing

You may have noticed I've not been in the holiday mood nor quite so prolific with posting new entries of late - and this will probably continue for the foreseeable future. I will be trying to comment as much as I can but will probably not be writing as much.

Why?

Things have become rather difficult of late - finances have become squeezed and things at work continue to be slow - the effort required to help keep a small computer consulting firm that focuses on the Pharmaceutical industry, specifically new drug development work, afloat has taken its toll on me both in terms of creative energy and health.

As evidenced with the over 58,000 people being recently laid off by drug companies large (such as Merck and Co., Pfizer, Eli Lily, and Johnson and Johnson) and small, there is a lot cutting back and retrenching going on in the industry. The consultant is usually the first to go and the last one invited back.

And while we desire so many illnesses to be cured "someday", illnesses like Cancer in every form, Alzheimer's disease, and Diabetes, a great many drugs produced today do not cure anything at all. Too many drugs are "take them for life" and "work" by suppressing the symptoms and do nothing at all to address and terminate the underlying cause of the disease. I don't like this situation - I feel these sorts of drugs come from the unspoken market dictate, "we want to sell pills - not cure anyone". I am struggling with the inner confict this has caused me.

The largest growth market for "drug company" consultants like me, at the moment, seems to be assessing, analysing, and figuring out how to take on the ever increasing and ever changing regulatory burdens imposed by the U.S. Government.

This burden is imposed through the governments ever increasing minions at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institute of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, The Health Care Financing Administration (Medicare), National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine, the National Cancer Institute and (too) many others.

As with many other US businesses, the productive (i.e., someone that makes something other than paperwork) workforce labors under a multitude of productivity-stifling laws, regulations, and other forms of "official-ese" and as you can see with the examples of GM, Ford, and Chrysler, the cost of this burden may well lead to a company's demise.

Do not misunderstand me, I feel that both drug and job safety as well as job security are very important. Competing with countries with little to no regard for safety or security (e.g., China) however, has become nearly impossible. I guess there is a lot of safety but no security with staying home away from dangers at work because one is unemployed.

Moreover the self-injuring US public speaks when it votes with its wallet - and goes to places like Walmart and buys cheaply made, inexpensive products from China. This seemingly sensible behaviour has severely exacerbated this country's economic woes.

I do understand the feeling that "big business" in the USA needs to be watched - the hunt for the almighty dollar most certainly causes all sorts of bad behaviour. It seems to be wishful thinking that big business will be a "good citizen" just because of some ordinary "innate" desire to do the "right" thing. Unrestrained capitalism has led to over-exploitation at every level including environmental and the workforce.

I find it really ironic that "communist" China is the powerhouse of Capitalism in the world today.

At any rate, my focus over the foreseeable future will be "reinventing" the company for which I work in order to find some business niche(s) that will generate income and failing that, filling in the unemployment forms and filing them. My brother, as the owner of the business does not even have this "luxury" - for him the endgame is working through bankruptcy proceedings. So I am absorbed with helping him avoid this at all practical costs.

I welcome any reasoned and practical suggestion(s). As stressful and strained as the times are - I am blessed with knowing I've support, even if its just in the form of "ineffectual" words. Believe me - you probably will never know just how effective those words of yours may be.