List of Previous Titles

Sunday, June 27, 2010

The Thoughts of Paul Harvey


Old Time Wisdom

I have no idea who Paul Harvey is. However, he seems to have authored one of those viral e-mail things that are making its way around the cyberworld. He wants me to pass it on to ten of my friends. However, I´m not sure I have ten friends, so I thought I would share his thoughts with you in this media. Fundamentally, as you will see he expresses his philosophy on life. I am moved by his suggestions because I have been there on so many occasions.

Paul Harvey writes:

“We tried so hard to make life better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I’d like better. I’d really like for them to know about hand-me-down clothes and homemade ice cream, and leftover meatloaf sandwiches. I really would.
I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.
I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car.
I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.
It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.
I hope you get a black eye fighting for something that you believe in.
I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. It’s alright if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he/she wants to crawl under the covers with you because they’re scared, I hope you will let them.
When you want to see a movie and your little brother/sister wants to tag along, I hope you’ll let them.
I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do that safely.
On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don’t ask your driver to drop you off two blocks away so you won’t be seen riding with someone as un-cool as your Mom.
If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one.
I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and to read books.
When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.
I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy/girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.
May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole.
I don’t care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don’t like it…..and if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he is not your friend.
I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma/Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle.
May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.
I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbour’s window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster mould of your hand.
These things I wish for you--tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it’s the only way to appreciate life.
Written with a pen…..sealed with a kiss. I’m here for you. And if I die before you do, I’ll go to Heaven and wait for you.”

Then he asks that you pass this along to at least ten of your friends and he included a riddle that I haven’t worked out yet.

I loved this piece because it’s as though he has drawn a broad brush over my own life. I have a real zest for life today, probably because I have had to mix the good times with the hard times. My first eight years were lived without electricity or shoes. I only received one gift at Christmas, and even that was something modest that I really loved. I walked to school and took the black eye, and I was ever so proud of my parents in the company of my peers. I saw my first movie, “Johnny Belinda” in the company of my older sister. I have never forgotten the experience and am still grateful to her.

The point with which I could not agree more is: never give your sixteen year-old a brand new car. Let him or her buy their own new car. That new car smell will be sweeter, deeper, and it will lasts forever.

Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Advice to Newlyweds


What drives a marriage forward, and what drives it into the ground.

Being a Senior Citizen, or as they say here in Spain, un Anciano, you are expected to have learned something from life along the way. I have learned that the police are not always to be trusted; that we are responsible for the decisions that we make; and ultimately we are responsible for ourselves. It is true that life is not always fair, but it is still better to treat others as we would have them treat us. Truthfulness is usually the best policy, although sometimes you have to use your common sense to decide whether it might be better to leave the truth till later.

Entering into marriage in these modern times seems like a more massive undertaking than it ever was. To begin with, the cost of getting married usually means someone goes to the poorhouse. The mountain of debt and challenge that faces a young couple today is so extraordinary as to be daunting. However, as human beings we still feel the pull of love, and the need to partner with our special someone. What have we of the older generation learned that we could pass along to help young couples to survive in their marriage?

I think that as a general rule violence and unkind behaviour in the home is a sure prescription for disaster. This is a difficult one because in some marriages the role of the man as head of household is supported in their church, and if he has to use violence to enforce his position, the church supports that too. I strongly disagree with forms of violence between any of the members, just as I condemn provocation.

My philosophy is “Don’t hit, and Don’t Provoke!” That applies equally to all members of the family.

Some advice I wish I had given to President Clinton and Tiger Woods is that no man can expect to have an extra-marital affair without his wife knowing that something is going on. Even if it’s a one-night stand that took place in a far away land, the moment you walk in the door the message crosses your forehead like the tickertape of the New York Stock Exchange. The message reads: “I have been unfaithful.”

It’s true that most wives, or husbands (if the wife is the guilty one) ignore the message as being too much information to process.

Another clear message to your wife will be to arrive home smelling of another woman. If you have showered before coming home, then why?

You are only one person (until the science of cloning is perfected), so if you are not where you are supposed to be, then where are you, and with whom are you, and what were you doing?

Finally, your wife will get to know more information than she might want because the woman with whom you have been having this secret affair will tell her all about it, just as soon as you disappoint her.

Many wives say that they had no idea that anything was going on. Yes they did, they just didn’t want to face up to it.

Life is complicated and difficult without actually making problems that are best avoided. The use of common sense needs to be re-appreciated and used every day of our lives.

Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Old Fashion Romanticismo


Old Fashion Romanticismo - Young love so Grand!

In May of 2010 I was fortunate to spend some quality time with a young, very much in love couple who were travelling around Europe. They were from my country of Bermuda, and so it was that I got to show them a little of Valencia. As a person of 71 years of age, and an incurable romantic myself, I really appreciated this couple’s story that was shared with me.

He is a handsome lad, and she is almost too beautiful and composed to be believed. They had been courting for a period of time when he went to her father in secret and asked for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Both parents considered that he was a very desirable suitor for their daughter, so they consented while at the same time being especially impressed that their opinions were sought even before he had brought up the subject with his love.

Nothing was said to his princess by either parents or himself; instead he planned an European trip that included several stops, including Paris in Springtime. It was there in a crowded five-star restaurant over candlelight dinner that he completely surprised his lady love by laying a handkerchief on the floor, an act that brought a hush over the entire room, and on bended knee he proposed to the love of his life. Even the violin music stopped briefly, and as all the witnesses held their breath he promised that they would have a long and happy life together if only she would say yes.

Tears were not in short supply at that moment. There was hardly a dry eye in the room. Even without the cameras from the film studios that moment is forever etched in history. She said “Yes, I want to be your wife, your lover, your children’s mother, and your very best friend.” It was only then that the room exhaled, and champagne corks popped and the music played.

She said that she considers herself to be very lucky to have a man so romantic, and so special to be thought of so highly as to be given such royal treatment. I agreed, but also, someone who could have the imagination to plan such an impressive beginning is someone that she can trust.

I wish them a life so full of love and happiness together that they will have plenty to share with the world around them. As long as they remember to respect each other as individuals, and to consider each other’s feelings and needs I think they have a very strong chance of celebrating their 50th anniversary. I would really like to be around for that!

Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael

Sunday, June 6, 2010

The Blockade of The Gaza Strip




The Blockade of The Gaza Strip - A very Sad Story Indeed!

You will seldom find me poking my “two cents” into the dialogue between the Israelis and Hamas in The Gaza Strip. The way I see things there will never be an end to the conflict between the Palestinian people and the Israelis – ever! The news coming out of that region is usually depressing, but even for them the news this week was extraordinary.

Israel has in place a maritime blockade that disallows most cargo from being offloaded at any port in Gaza, with the exception of humanitarian supplies. The problem here is with the definition of what constitutes such supplies. Fundamentally, Israel fears that if they allow Gaza to have certain materials, such items may be reworked into armaments and thrown back into Israel, killing Israelis.

This week, beginning the first day of June, 2010 a convoy of six ships left Turkey to try and run the blockade, while the Israelis warned that they would hold fast. In the process the Israelis confronted the ships and boarded them, but in the case of one of the ships violence broke out that resulted in several people being injured and worse still, nine people were killed.

The outcome was that Israel has been roundly castigated, but no-one has called the action by the blockade runners foolhardy; but that, in my opinion is what it was. True, it was not all for nothing in that it has heightened world awareness to the fact that there exists a blockade, and to the effects of it upon Gaza. So, now that we know, what will change? Most likely nothing.

I took the opportunity to look at what life is like living without a great many of the basics that we in the free world take for granted, and it makes grim reading. Firstly, there is no definitive list of what is allowed and what is not. Sometimes certain everyday items may be allowed, and at other times they might be refused. Items such as candles, matches, books, musical instruments, certain foods, shoes, mattresses with sheets and blankets, writing materials and light bulbs have fallen under the entry denied grouping.

Cars, refrigerators, and building materials are almost always denied entry. I take no position as to the justification or not of the Israeli position regarding the items that they blockade, I simply have difficulty in getting my head around how it is possible for a modern day people to live without such fundamental materials.

Indeed, what can it be like for any ethnic group of people to live under such control of another power? We who are free to choose our own lifestyles and to buy whatever we can afford find this concept to be so strange in this modern world as to be outlandish.

This may explain the rash moves on the part of the blockade-runners. It seems futile from the start, not to mention dangerous to try and break the blockade set by such a determined country as Israel. At the least these are desperate actions in response to what appears to be a very desperate standard of living.

The part that particularly upsets me is that people sail their ships with their restricted cargoes into the Israeli hands, whereupon all is confiscated and the personnel are promptly deported leaving their cargoes to the Israelis. The Israelis say that they will deliver the goods, but if the items are embargoed they won’t be delivered to the Palestinians, but presumably they will be used as a gift by Israel.

Having seen what happened to the first ships, that has been followed up by another ship, with more ships promised. Stop the madness! This is a going-nowhere strategy at great cost and no gains to be had. I do feel great compassion for the Palestinian disadvantaged people, in isolation without considering past history and I can only hope for a better solution between the two groups.

First, there has to be a Will.

Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael