March - April 2006 Edition Vol. 6 Issue 2
A free Internet Newsletter publication for all CIM Alumni and friends.
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March - April 2006 Edition Vol. 6 Issue 2 | A free Internet Newsletter publication for all CIM Alumni and friends. | |
Clem S. Estrera, Jr., M.D. | Ma. Belen Rosales, M.D. | Ray Castillejo, M.D. |
"In nature a repulsive caterpillar turns into a lovely butterfly. But with human beings it is the other way around: a lovely butterfly turns into a repulsive caterpillar." Anton Chekhov, Russian dramatist and short-story writer (1860-1904)
Intelligent design
Watching the images of "spring break" on TV, it's amazing how carefree the students or young folks are, having a wonderful time with beers, boobs and butts in thong bikinis, like bunnies flirting and seducing the bold ones among the bulls. They live for the moment with parties, alcohol, and casual sex as though sex is something they must have to have fun but without the burden of commitment. Indeed many of these students have all been too ready to spend all their tomorrow's pleasures today like they have this live-and-let die attitude caring very little beyond the immediate scope of their life and thus disregard the possibility or the risk that they could be saddled with the pain and frustration of regrets and disappointments when tomorrow comes. I guess when you're young and restless you could care less which way the world turns tomorrow, for there are so many tomorrows ahead of you. But if you fast-forward your life to rock, roll and rattle with the rhapsody of tomorrow's happiness without a bit of caution or without even batting an eye at tomorrow's possibilities for you, you could ruin your future and could no longer rewind your life to get back to its rhyme and rhythm you want.
Harvard University is now offering a course that teaches students about happiness based on positive psychology. Other colleges and universities would soon follow because students are enrolling in droves and the course is in demand. Many students nowadays are beginning to realize that the physiology of what makes people feel good could be a lot more interesting and beneficial than the pathology of what makes people feel bad. Many studies have shown that people with positive outlook in life, positive attitude and behavior, live 10 years longer. And if they are sick which of course they are but less frequently than others, they recover faster from their illness. I believe it is because our joyful feelings flow freely when we have a positive attitude and approach to life. These findings should remind us that the mind is the tool that must be utilized fully and responsibly to harmonize the body if we want to live longer and happier, for how we use our mind determines our attitude and behavior.
There is no question that we, Homo sapiens, are the most intelligent form of life on this planet. But whether or not we appreciate and are grateful for the intelligence we are blessed with, we all know only too well that it's our intelligence that separates us from any other form of life on earth - the ability to choose, to think, to reason, to acquire knowledge, and to transform knowledge into reality.
Man may have come a long way from the caves to the trees, to the mountains, to the valleys, and to the cities, but he continues to evolve and progress all because he is blessed with intelligence. Imagine centuries ago when man had to hunt all day and even weeks in order to eat. Now man can drive to MacDonald's and in less than five minutes he has food and drinks. But the most important product of man's intelligence that makes all the hassle of modern civilization life worth is toilet paper. It's hard to imagine modern life without toilet paper. I cringe every time I think of using those corn and coconut husks to wipe my butt when I was a kid in Camotes. Ouch! Then I progressed to using the torn pages of the Bisaya magazine, and that was a hell of an improvement. Still, they were harsh in harassing my sweet and tender arse. (Note again that the use of man in this article represents a human being and therefore represents both man and woman.)
Intelligence, however, is sharp on both ends; it can build and destroy, produce and eliminate, construct and destruct; all depend on one's choices. Notice that the history of mankind had been littered with death and destruction, for no other reason than men's choices to pursue what they were convinced to believe in. All too often in the name of God and religion, men assumed their calamitous and deadly ways, happy and willing to kill and destroy each other. Blaise Pascal (Pensees, 1670) once said: "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." The prospect of heaven or paradise and the fear of hell for the life of the hereafter have been a lot stronger motivation for men than achieving a fulfilling and flourishing life here on earth. Yet in order to go to heaven or paradise, one has to die first, and especially in the modern days nobody wants to do that except perhaps the suicide bombers. Intelligence is meant to be men's tool for God's veneration by demonstrating love and respect to each other, not a means for men to destroy each other.
Intelligent mutants
In a world where almost every one is motivated by the desire not just to compete but mainly to compare themselves with others, it's not surprising that even well-educated and intelligent people would choose to cheat, lie, manipulate and steal just to be on the top, to be the best, or to be better than the rest, and then justify their actions with the use of their intelligence. Not too long ago, very intelligent, rich, and prominent individuals like the writer of the phony book that Oprah had to apologize to her audience for promoting such book in one of her shows, a world famous South Korean scientist who was caught fabricating evidence to support his research, a well-connected Republican lobbyist who corrupted the U.S. Congress, chose to use their intelligence to shroud right and wrong with self-serving rationalizations and other manipulation tactics even with the knowledge that using their intelligence that way would only lead to destroying their reputation, dishonoring their families, forfeiting their freedom, damaging their institution and ruining the lives of other people. Just the past month or so the CEO of Radio Shack had to resign for lying in his resume.
Whether all these rich, professional and intelligent individuals have the character and moral courage to do what is right, or whether their concept of what is wrong is distorted by arrogance and by their belief in the principle that it's only wrong if you get caught and you are smart if don't get caught, is something I can only wonder why, for despite knowing that what they were doing is wrong, they were still willing to go for it. They probably have everything already in terms of family, high-paying job, etc. that you and I could only wish for. It's hard to imagine why they were willing to do the wrong thing. Perhaps they made their decision by weighing the risks against the rewards, and they badly underestimated the risks while overvalued the rewards. Or, perhaps they thought they'd never be caught. After all, lying and cheating are so common that they seem normal and even seem smart in some cases.
As a matter of fact, survey studies show that many people lie about their resume by fabricating their past achievements and educational background, etc., and many of them are getting away with it. But whether or not they are getting away with their lies and fabrications, they know that it's wrong to build their careers on an unstable foundation and that it's not a smart way of using their intelligence. When you know that what you're about to do is wrong but you go ahead and do it, your knowing it is what makes it absolutely against the intended purpose of your intelligence.
Of course, we all make bad mistakes and decisions, but we never knew let alone were convinced beforehand that they're going to be bad mistakes and decisions until we saw the results and someone is taunting us: "I told you so!.." It's the knowledge beforehand that makes a decision and action evil and sinful in a religious sense. A hunch, by the way, which is basically an intuition, is not the same as knowledge. There are those who decide to invest in the stock market, for example, based on their hunches, and sometimes they're right and sometimes they're wrong. But they play by the rules like everybody else. An inside trading however like what those executives of Enron and WorldCom did is based on knowledge of the fact that making money that way is against the rules, it's cheating and that it's wrong. What's more, these executives concocted their companies' financial statements so investors would bid up their companies' share prices, and thus they could sell their own shares at higher prices for big profits. Their greed bankrupted their companies and burned the retirement funds of honest workers, ruining their lives.
Rationalizations
Humans, like water, tend to gravitate downhill, toward the least resistance, toward the least challenging endeavor especially in this day and age when choices are many and things often come so easy. In other words, humans would opt for instant gratification and shortcut in achieving something so that things that take fortitude, courage and determination are readily rejected. Whether it's out of laziness or impatience, they would choose a way that doesn't require real thinking or the good use of their intelligence. They would make judgment or decision not by conscious analysis and go for the right thing, but by convenience, ease and freedom from struggle, pain and discomfort, and use their intelligence to justify it with self-serving rationalizations. So if cheating is a more convenient way of achieving and would raise them above others, many would choose to cheat; if lying provides less discomfort and more advantage, many would choose to lie; especially if they can hedge cheating and lying with blames and excuses.
But what makes us appreciate our life more is a meaningful challenge that would bring adventure, rather than adversity to our life; change rather than status quo. Cheating especially for personal gain and advancement would ultimately lead to adversity, not adventure; to the pain of guilt, not the pride of achievement. Life doesn't grow with it, it shrinks; it doesn't shine with it, it sucks; it doesn't make life bloom, it bleeds its spirit; it doesn't make life smell like roses, it makes life stink like garbage. There are few things more satisfying than the sense of well-being that comes from doing what is good and right. When we achieve something from honest struggle and hard work, we gain a sense of well-being. When we are kind and helpful to someone without expecting anything in return, we gain a sense of well-being.
Now notice that many people would rather choose to rationalize their evil or sinful acts than consciously resolve to rise above these acts, as they find it more convenient to make a frequent trip to the church's confessional booth to whisper the same sins and shames over and over again to their priests or pastors. After all, doing the penance of repeated prayers is a piece of cake that provides instant comfort and relief while conscious commitment and resolution needs time, effort and determination. Further, they find it easier to choose to minimize their moral shortcomings by comparing themselves to others who have even a lot lower standards. So even with their sins, they would feel like a saint compared to others. It's like in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, or among the midgets, you are the giant. I would not be surprised if comparing himself to Marcos, Estrada felt like a kinder, gentler and an honest President of the Philippines. But what a pathetic way of using the God-given gift of intelligence!
On the other hand, animals use their strength, ferocity and brutality to kill each other for food. But animals never justify their actions, let alone make blames and excuses. Animals are not aware of what is right and wrong. They don't have choices and even if they have, they are not aware of their choices. They follow only the law of the jungle - survival by murder - the necessity of killing and brutalizing in order to survive.
Resourcefulness
According to Ayn Rand, a Russian-American modern philosopher and novelist, "Intelligence is not an exclusive monopoly of the genius. It is an attribute to every one of us and the difference is only a matter of degree. But the use of intelligence is an acquired skill." I fully agree without reservation. Indeed it's the use of intelligence, not intelligence itself that makes all the difference; it defines and determines everything we are; the kind of person we are and the kind of person we are going to be.
It has been said that wisdom comes with age, but no matter how many years we have lived and how much experience we have, if we think the same thoughts, do the same things, use the same solutions to problems, have the same predictable reactions, ten, twenty or thirty years from now, we will be the same and our experience is the same, but we are a lot older in age. Yet we cannot call ourselves wise. Now can we? If anything, we would be having rigor mortis of our personality.
Resourcefulness is the best way of using our intelligence, the ability to think positively and deal effectively with problems. It's basically nothing more than to think in terms of what's the best you can do even in the worst situation, or what you can do, not what you cannot in the presence of problems. If you have attended meetings, you must have noticed that there are those who use their intelligence mainly to shoot down others' ideas, suggestions or solutions to problems by giving all the reasons and warnings that these ideas wouldn't work and would only produce undesirable outcomes, and yet, they could not think, let alone come up with a better idea. Using your intelligence that way is a waste of mental energy. And with all ideas being shot down and no idea to go on because of the fear from the warnings of the shooters, status quo is the result. But there is no wisdom in status quo no matter how many years you experience it, for you learn nothing more from it.
So next time you attend a meeting in your hospital or even in our alumni association's meeting, be one of the real thinkers and see problems as challenges so that you focus and seek for solutions, not one of those shooters who see problems in every solution or suggestion. Meetings are all too often a waste of time all because of them shooters. The comedian Fred Allen once described meetings as "a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done." It's all because of those who use their intelligence to meticulously question and even criticize others' ideas or suggestions in order to convince everyone that such ideas are flawed, instead of using their intelligence to come up with a better idea.
Thinking beyond yourself
When one uses his intelligence to the fullest guided by the principle of honesty and fairness, character and courage, kindness and compassion, charity and service, he would be motivated by the desires to think and move beyond what he wants for himself. He is likely to keep on learning by observing events and reflecting on things he experiences, and by exploring new ideas or territories. It is with learning that his life will be changing and evolving for the better. For, it's only through acquiring more knowledge and wisdom that he is more able to share with others, and more capable of understanding them that in turn makes him more able to enlighten them. He would strive to be the best he can be, and so he would think in terms of - there has to be a better way and I've got to find it - or in terms of what he can do to help. His imagination would take him to where no one has gone before.
When one uses only part of his intelligence because he is pre-occupied with himself, with his own limited world, he would limit his desires only for things for himself, things that give him credits, benefits and satisfaction, and he seeks mainly for things that give him the advantage over others. In other words, he would use his intelligence mainly for self-protection, self-preservation and self-advancement, rather than to reach out and help make a difference - teach, support and encourage others even if the outcome could provide others advancement and advantage over him. But his self-protecting and self-promoting ways would encourage suspiciousness, and could be detrimental to his self-esteem. Such a narrow use of intelligence would slow if not stop his progress, and any disappointment, setback or failure could easily lead to fear and insecurity, not courage and determination; self-pity, not self-respect; paralysis, not progress.
Changing the world
Someone said that if you want to change the world, start now but do not expect the changes until 50-100 years later. What is implied in this statement is that the children are the key to the future and therefore, we, adults, if we want to help change the world for the better, have got to teach, show, and demonstrate to the children honesty and integrity, love and respect, hope and optimism, courage and determination, keeping in mind that children all too often learn by examples or by what they see and witness. The attitude and behavior we show to them today will be shown by them to their children and grandchildren 50-100 years from now. If we keep showing to them corruption like what the government leaders and politicians in the Philippines have been doing, then the country will never get out of corruption, and corruption will continue to get worst 50-100 years down the road. The children as they grow up will learn to rationalize cheating, manipulation and corruption by comparing themselves to their predecessors - the cheaters and corrupt leaders and politicians today.
It has been said that it is not necessary to instruct children how to use their intelligence, for life will teach them. Indeed it will. I don't know about you, but most of what I had learned from my parents did not do me any good although most of what they taught me, I never followed but went instead to the opposite way like the hands of the clock rotating in the wrong direction. Not surprisingly, most of what I had taught to my children fell on deaf ears. The older the children get, the less they listen to me. And no matter how good I could be in marshalling a perfect wilderness of facts and figures and deploying them in perfect order like running rings around them, but always they argue against it like they have this strange point of resistance I couldn't quite overpower, like a rock in the middle of a riptide. Until now, I haven't been able to convince any of them that my way of thinking is better. But after realizing many years ago that my moods make the weather in the family, I've learned to discipline my own hot emotions in order to shield the children from the thunder and lightning of my anger and frustrations, and give them the light and warmth of love and hope rather than the dark clouds of fear and sadness to rain their eyes with tears and shake and shear their hearts to bleed.
So I decided to reverse roles to listen and observe rather than talk and dictate, to get rather than give instructions, to be a student rather than a teacher, but not to develop a soft head to go along with a soft heart. Instead of looking around, I decided to start looking inside. Beyond my expectations, I've learned a lot from them. They taught me more about life than anyone had ever done, not because they gave me lectures and lessons, but all because I listen, observe and reflect. In fact, it's because of them that I have been able to express my thoughts and put them in writing like this article. They made me realize that we, as parents, for example, cannot really resent the children for taking advantage of what we freely give. It's just that we grew up from different parents whom we often heard saying, "When I was your age... blah..blah.." and it's also what we often say to our children.
Many of us also remind the children how good they have it, how lucky they are, and how much better life it is for them than it was for us. Yet we keep giving them the things we never had. Can we blame them? It is this reminder that often becomes the source of trouble, not because the children resent it, but mainly because we are already making judgment and so our mind is made up, already closed to anything the children say other than what we want to hear. Thus it's more prudent to learn to listen, understand and accept children as human beings with different opinions or different ways of looking at things instead of becoming enemies of each other locked in a mortal combat of disagreements and tantrums that all too often lead to hatred and resentments. Paul Tillich said: "The first duty of love is to listen."
In the book If I Were to Raise My Family Again, John Dreschler tells of a little boy trying to get his father's attention to report that he scraped his knee earlier that day. After his Dad impatiently looked up from his paper and barked, "Well, what can I do about it?," the boy, hurt by the harshness of the response, shrugged and said, "You could say, 'Ouch.'"
Well, the little boy wasn't asking his Dad to solve a problem; he was simply trying to share an event. Dad's impatience made him fail to understand his son. It's a minor event but may have cut a bleeding wound in his son's heart. The incidence reminds us of the importance of caring and taking the time to show it. Empathy is often what is needed - listening and showing genuine interest, concern, affection and compassion. Empathy is not an intellectual ability but an emotional quality that works and heals for everyone, young and old, but only when it's expressed. Because it originates from love, it employs tenderness rather than toughness. And it takes only a moment to show love and empathy by acknowledging children's or someone's hurt with a kiss, a hug, or a kind word. Mother Theresa said, "Kindness can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."
If we seriously think about it and reflect, we all know in our hearts that the best gifts we can give to anyone especially the children are time, affection, interest and love. Beyond food, shelter, health care, clothing and education, money can't buy what kids really need - someone to listen to them, encourage and support them, share with them and understand and respect their ideas, opinions, hardships and struggles. Teenage kids in particular have to cope with the conflicts and clashes between their desire to be different and special against their need to belong and fit in while at the same time, their desire for independence colliding with the demand for self-responsibility. They have to struggle with their identities. They can readily confuse pleasure with happiness so that they often think that what feels good makes it good. If you can't understand them, you won't be able to support them, and you are likely to fail in your responsiblity as a parent. Remember, the kids did not choose to be in this world. We, the parents, did.
Perception and reality
Nowadays what is right is often difficult to delineate. It's being miffed, muffled and muddled by political correctness and by the politicians themselves like what Bill Clinton once argued: "That depends on what is is." These people tell us that reality is not what it is but what we perceive it to be, the same as truth. To them, perception determines the truth, not the truth itself. They tell you that perception that is subjective is more important than reality that is objective. So what is right or true would depend solely on how we see it, if we follow their standards. It's definitely confusing, isn't it? So I guess if we follow their standards, depending on our perception, whatever we do can be justifiable; wrong can be right, right can be wrong, and reality can disappear like magic to be replaced with whatever our whims and wishes can produce or hallucinate. If nothing else, these standards can at least make us a magician.
Reality, however, is an absolute, and thus, it is always what it is no matter how you perceive it to be. And it's the inability or the denial and refusal to see and accept reality as what it is that confuses a person, and that would ultimately hurt if not destroy him and others too. It's one of the main reasons for individuals to visit the psychiatrist's office or to end up in a mental institution because their perception of reality is different from what it really is. It's the world that is insane, not them, they would rationalize. Theirs is just a sane reaction to an insane world.
Now think of the incidence especially in your family life in which you saw reality as what it should have been, not as what it was. You told your child not to play in the living room because he might only break something in there. Then your little kid accidentally bumped into your table one day and your expensive porcelain fell and shattered. You knew very well that your kid didn't just bump into your table on purpose. But instead of seeing the reality of the broken or shattered porcelain, you saw it as what it should have been - beautiful, expensive and exquisite - so that instead of helping your child pick up the pieces, you got upset, and so you spank your kid like doing so would restore your porcelain. You refuse to see and accept the reality that the porcelain is broken because in your perception, the porcelain should not have been broken. Unfortunately, your magic that you seem to habitually use wouldn't work in this case. And because of such refusal, you ended up with two real broken items instead of one - your porcelain and your kid's heart. If you only saw reality as what it is, you would have realized immediately that your child's feelings are more important than broken things. (To be Continued)
"Integrity is not essentially about winning; it`s about staying whole and being worthy of self-respect and the esteem of loved ones. It`s about being honorable, not as a success strategy, but a life choice." ---Michael Josephson
CIM Classmates from Cebu coming to attend our LasVegas Reunion
So far, there are two members of the CIM Class 1972 from Cebu who are more likely to attend our Las Vegas Reunion this year: Dr. Terry Lambo-Quisumbing and Dr. Osita Nimis Godornes. It's been more than 33 years since many of us in the U.S. saw them the last time. But some of us could still picture these two particular classmates who have a peculiar way of walking like they glide rather than walk; they would sway their hips with grace and fluidity as if in rhythm with an imaginary music. Sometimes it would tickle us to remember their face and neck that would blush and blanch like they just swallowed straight in one gulf a double shot of 80-proof whiskey when they got upset and angry which happened very occasionally. And most of all, many of us can't forget their extraordinary patience and tolerance for putting up with our childish or immature behaviors. They had a way of admonishing us for our mischief with the gentleness and tenderness of an older sister admonishing her mischievous brothers whom she truly cares. Their admonition soothes and cools rather than shames and embarrasses. With the way they treated us for our flaws, faults and frailties, it was obvious that they grew in maturity ahead of us. Compassion has a price. Before you learn to truly care, you must first grow in maturity.
Many of us of the class 1972 had become close to each other especially during the later years in the medical school when the ladies in particular finally learned to put up with the men's childish behaviors and our gross sense of humor that often pushed the ladies' sensitivity beyond its limit. We all became like brothers and sisters who, despite the fights and disagreements that few of us seemed to have a way of inciting, still loved and accepted each other for what we were. I guess it's because most of us did not have the desire to run in the rat race of competition, comparison and jealousies, and thus we did not exhaust ourselves for nothing. So we always had the energy to share jokes, to laugh and have fun. And despite the sometimes impulsive mistakes that hurt and consequently made us ashamed of ourselves, none of us would sulk and alienate ourselves, let alone hold and nurture a grudge or resentment toward each other. We seemed to understand that if we fill ourselves with grudges, resentments and hurts, their major effect on our life would be to make everyone as miserable as the other.
Grudges and resentments are always about pain of being victimized, misunderstood, slighted, insulted, treated rudely or shabilly, cheated, outdone, outwitted, or outsmarted, but they are self-defeating and energy-draining. They make your life small and insignificant. Your ego becomes as fragile as a crystal that can easily be splintered into fragments by nothing more than a pebble. They nail you to the past as your mind keeps tallying up every wrong that was done to you, every word that hurt your feelings, every gesture or action that violated your sensitivity, every pleasure that you were denied, and every obstacle that blocked your way - a compilation of a catalog of misery, more than enough to reduce your erogenous zone to a size of a pea. No, the prospect of misery was never on our mind.
Occasionally, some of us would visit one of the ladies in their parents' house without calling first only for the really drunk among us to throw up in their toilet, and it was considered by everyone as nothing more than a part of the fun of friendship. We just all laughed. Of course, it's embarrassing once you get sober especially if you miss the target and it spatters on the floor instead of in the toilet bowl which one of us seemed to have a habit of doing it like he hadn't been able to acquire the skill of a good shooter despite the weekend periodic practice.
So we, of the Class 1972, are looking forward to see our two classmates from Cebu that we haven't seen for decades. One of the questions that keeps popping up in some of us is: Would we be able to recognize each other considering the ravages of almost 34 years? But few among us said: "I would be disappointed if they could not recognize me." Sounds like these few classmates are sure of themselves. It makes you think that they are about to have a face lift or at least have a Botox injection.
Retirement
One of our classmates of the Class 1972 and a good friend in New Jersey is retiring this spring, May 2006. He has been on disability leave from October 2005 till May 2006. He has this 10 month pain on his right shoulder that progressed to fatigue, weakness and finally severe pain. After a horrifying thought that his own mind cooked up that it could be cancer, he could not take it anymore and so, Benfer Aranton finally went to his orthopedist and had the MRI which showed a large ganglion cyst which location is rare deep in his right supraspinous fossa compressing on his right suprascapular nerve causing atrophy on his cuff muscle especially the infraspinatous. It has also caused secondary arthritic changes of the joints. He had the surgery on December 2, 2005 and still on physical therapy. Since he used to be a crack orthopedic surgeon in the Philippines, he is going back there to retire and return to his practice just to make enough money to eat kinilaw everyday according to him. After all, his youngest, a daughter, will finish her internship in respiratory therapy this summer.
Well, Benfer, my good friend, enjoy your retirement. Don't indulge so much on kinilaw. Fishes nowadays especially in the Philippines that don't inspect, let alone test fishes for toxic substances, could have high level of these substances, or even some parasite, virus or bacteria. It's safer to cook them first. But I think you are better off eating pansit with our friend there Arturo Allego. Anyway, think of attending our reunion in Vegas before you leave to see many of us. It maybe a while before we see each other again especially if you stay in the Philippines and not come back here in the U.S. to see us. Pedot is insinuating that he knows now which shoulder to twist to if you don't see us before you leave. Believe me. Pedot is serious. He would go home to the Philippines one of these days just to shake with your right hand.
"There's a new medical crisis. Doctors are reporting that many men are having allergic reactions to latex condoms. They say they cause severe swelling. So what's the problem?"---Dustin Hoffman
If you love to view photos of rainbow and clouds, visit the web sites below. They are amazing photos. The beautiful pictures would reinforce your belief that the world must have been created by God because it's too perfect and pretty to simply exist by itself. It had to be designed by the greatest Architect for us to behold. There is nothing wrong with admitting that something exists beyond our understanding, and so, to avoid confusion is to believe in God.
The clouds' pictures were taken by Jorn Olsen. Mr. Olsen works for the Dutton-Lainson Co. in Hastings, Nebraska, and lives by Heartwell Park next to Hastings College. Probably just after the big storm hit, he took these photos and sent them to UNL, which posted them to the URL below. The stadium lights are at the Hastings College stadium just east of his home. The clouds are called Mammatus clouds and there's a link on this URL that tells about them. They do not precede a tornado, or foretell a storm, but are formed when the air is already saturated with rain droplets and/or ice crystals and begins to sink. The worst of the storm is usually over when these kind of clouds are seen. They are quite rare, but really beautiful!
http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/nebraska/june2004hastings-mammatus.html
The rainbow photos were taken from the Missouri sky.
http://www.missouriskies.org/rainbow/february_rainbow_2006.html
"The amount you laugh in your relationships with others is the true measure of the health of your personality."-- Brian Tracy
A Catholic priest and a Methodist pastor from two local churches are standing by the side of the road, feverishly pounding a handmade sign into the ground with a large rock.
The sign reads: The End is Near! Turn Yourself Around Now Before It's Too Late!
As a car speeds past them, the driver yells, "Leave us alone, you religious nuts!"
From the curve they hear screeching tires and a big splash. The pastor turns to the priest and asks, "Do you think the sign should just say 'Bridge Out'?
An older gentleman had an appointment to see the urologist who shared an office with several other doctors. The waiting room was filled with patients.
As he approached the receptionist desk he noticed that the receptionist was a large unfriendly woman who looked like a Sumo wrestler. He gave her his name.
In a very loud voice, the receptionist said, "YES, I HAVE YOUR NAME HERE; YOU WANT TO SEE THE DOCTOR ABOUT IMPOTENCE, RIGHT?"
All the patients in the waiting room snapped their heads around to look at the very embarrassed man. He recovered quickly, and in an equally loud voice replied, "NO, I'VE COME TO INQUIRE ABOUT A SEX CHANGE OPERATION, BUT I DON'T WANT THE SAME DOCTOR THAT DID YOURS."
Two elderly gentlemen from a retirement center were sitting on a bench under a tree when one turned to the other, and said, "Slim, I'm 83 years old now, and I'm just full of aches and pains. I know you're about my age. How do you feel?"
Slim said, "I feel just like a newborn baby."
"Really? Like a new-born baby?"
"Yep. No hair, no teeth, and I think I just wet my pants."
"Clinton lied. A man might forget where he parks his car or where he lives, but he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is."- Barbara Bush (Former US First Lady, and you didn't think Barbara had a sense of humor)
Self-righteousness
There's a nice poem circulating on the Internet about a woman who bought some cookies and a book at an airport and sat down to read and nibble while waiting for her plane. Soon she noticed that a man sitting next to her casually took a cookie from the bag in between them. The lady was shocked but remained silent, seething, as this man, without the slightest sign of shame or gratitude, quietly helped himself, matching her consumption cookie for cookie.
When there was only one cookie left, she watched in amazement as he picked up, smiled at her as if he were being gracious, and broke the cookie in half. He ate one half and gave her the other. She congratulated herself for maintaining her cool and saying nothing to this rude cookie thief, simply astonished at the nerve of some people.
Later, when she was settling in her seat on the plane, she rummaged through her purse and discovered the bag of cookies she'd purchased, still unopened. The moral message is contained in the closing stanza:
"If mine are here," she moaned with despair, |
There are times when we are so sure of ourselves, about our beliefs or our deepest convictions about religion, right and wrong, and other moral or ethical issues that all too often we simply dismiss or ignore the possibility that others maybe right too. Being sure, however, doesn't necessarily mean being right. And being sure often leads to self-righteousness that has a way of distorting our view and understanding of others and the world around us. We tend to forget the virtue of humility and all too often take others for granted.
You must have noticed that there are those devout religious folks seem so sure of themselves who, because of what they saw your lack of religious faith and devotion, would look down on you or look at you with pity as though you're on your way to hell or purgatory. It's like you're being judged before the judgment day comes. But who really knows among us Homo sapiens where our place will be in the life of the hereafter if there is any? Do you? Really?
Actual hospital charts documentation
The patient refused autopsy.
Patient has left white blood cells at another hospital.
Note: patient recovering from forehead cut. Patient became very angry when given an enema by mistake.
Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.
On the second day the knee was better, and on the third day it disappeared.
The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.
The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.
Discharge status: Alive but without permission.
Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year old male, mentally alert but forgetful.
Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch.
She is numb from her toes down.
While in ER, she was examined, x-rated and sent home.
The skin was moist and dry.
Occasional, constant infrequent headaches.
Patient was alert and unresponsive.
Rectal examination revealed a normal size thyroid.
She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life, until she got a divorce.
Examination of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized.
The lab test indicated abnormal lover function.
Skin: somewhat pale but present.
Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities.
Quotes to ponder
As we all know, Iraq has become a frustrating war for the U.S. It has turned President Bush's approval rating from an eagle to an albatross. Anyway, here is an excerpt from the British Prime Minister Tony Blair's answers to questions about Iraq on March 21, 2006:
"Here, in its pure form, is a struggle between democracy and violence. We must reject the thought that somehow we are the authors of our own distress, that if only we altered this decision or that, the extremism would fade away. The only way to win is to recognize this phenomenon is a global ideology, to see all areas in which it operates as linked, and to defeat it by values and ideas set in opposition to those of the terrorists.
"The fundamental point: 'We' is not the West. 'We' are as much Muslim as Christian or Jew or Hindu. 'We' are those who believe in religious tolerance, openness to others, to democracy, liberty, and human rights administered by secular courts.
"This is not a clash between civilizations. It is a clash about civilization. It is the age-old battle between progress and reaction, between those who embrace and see opportunity in the modern world and those who reject its existence; between optimism and hope on the one hand, and pessimism and fear on the other.
"What happens in Iraq or Afghanistan today is not just crucial for the people in those countries or even in those regions, but for our security here and round the world. It is a cause that has none of the debatable nature of the decisions to go for regime change. It is an entirely noble one - to help people in need of our help in pursuit of liberty - and a self-interested one, since in their salvation lies our own security."
About the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."
"The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage ."
What stage are we here in the U.S.? I believe we are in the stage of apathy and dependence.
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