Morning Coffee!
 

'Mornin' folks! How the hell are ya this fine Marine Corps mornin'! Coffee's on! Ya best get a cup and find a squat somewhere! Paper'll be along directly!

I had a good experience today! The day before yesterday I ran across a Marine who knew some of the same people I did! He put me in touch with one of 'em! We've exchanged several emails so far. I was damn near in tears fer some reason I haven't really defined yet. I've hadda chance to visit with only two others that I directly knew when I was in. One to thank him fer lookin' out for me. He had his hands full! LOL. Stan Frelix retired from the Corps late last year. He was a re-tread. Out fer a couple years, then went back in. He was headed back to Minneapolis last I heard. I also traded emails with a guy who went Warrant Officer. Dean Beach is his name. I lost track of him when he went to the east coast. I hear he's retired now and livin' near Jacksonville.The guy I'm visitin' with now is workin fer a Marine outfit. Boats or some such I reckon. First time I got to visit with someone who was with HMM-165 when I was there in K-Bay. It's a good feelin'.

Thing is I got to thinkin about that email when I noticed somethin' for the umpteenth time about some of the members on another Marine website. Ya oughta take a look at their favorite quotes. One here or there doesn't mean much. Good quotes and all, but they mean more when ya start puttin' 'em together....I'm gonna share some of them with you and keep the members names anonymous. You'll see what I mean after a bit of readin' 'em when they're put all in one place....

" I say what I mean, and I mean what I say."

" The less you give,yer a taker."
There's several variations of that one.

"The Marine Corps provides the enemy the maximum opportunity to give their life for their country."

" We never promised you a rose garden."

"Get some."

"We sleep safely in our beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on those who would do us harm."


"Semper Fi" shows up a lot.

"Any Marine who was willing to shed his blood for this country is my brother for life."


"Our greatest glory consists not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall."

" The only good Gook is a dead Gook."


"Get in the pit right now!"
I think the DIs made an impression on that young Marine...

"Ops never stops."

"Pain is good!"

"Sleep and chow are overrated!"

"Take care."

"One a Marine, always a Marine."

"If your going to do it, do it right."

"The Marines are a department of the Navy. The men's department."

"Roll them tracs!"

"Variety is the spice of life!"

"The journey of a thousand miles justs begins with a single step."

"Only those touched by the VietNam War can truly understand the pain of those of us affected by the war."

"You ain't usless. We'll use you as a bad example."


Do you see the pattern?

They're fighting men. Warriors one and all.

Attitude. Pride. Honor. Courage. Committment. Doin' the job. Performin' the mission, no matter what....you even see some of the pain here and there. I see Marines and the Marine Corps in all of that.

It takes some searchin'. Most folks don't have any 'favorite quote' listed. The ones who do have given us some insight into the minds and attitudes of Marines. From fresh Pfc's to grizzled old Sergeants Major...They are Marines one and all. We are defined by the things we hold dear. They always come to the front in any number of given circumstances. They always manifest themselves when we least expect it or think they will. Even if it's just our favorite quote. We are who we are. The United States Marines. We've got something to be proud of!

Warm up yer coffee, folks! Daylight's a wastin'! It's a new day! A new opportunity! We're gonna get it right come hell or high water! I'll guaran-fucking-tee it!

Morning Coffee!
 

'Mornin' folks! How the hell are ya anyway! Coffee's up! Ya better grab a cup and get yer eyes open! Paper'll be along directly, I reckon.

I ain't got a thing to visit over today....'least not yet. LOL.I played inna yard a bit yesterday. Mowin' and waterin' everything. Got some more weed and feed down on the grass. I ain't gotta do that again fer a month now! That weed and feed works pretty good fer most situations. Just follow the directions is all. Yard is the best one in the neighborhood again this year it looks like. I ain't got much of a place bein' a poor boy and all, but that don't mean I have to live in a junkyard! Some folks'll do that one way or another. I've even seen it in some nicer neighborhoods. Part of it is not knowin' better, part of it is not carin'. Part of it is gettin in so far over yer head buyin' a place that ya ain't got money leftover fer maintenance and upkeep! Next thing ya know, in a few years yer livin' inna leaky, drafty, dump and still owe the bank a boatload of money! I fooled everyone! I just went out and bought a dump to begin with and saved myself dealin' with a bank! LOL. Now I got a dollar or two fer weed and feed and mower gas once in awhile....'least my yard looks nice.....

I still get aggravated at folks who don't, won't or can't keep up their property, but I grew up inna an area where it was something of a scandal if ya didn't keep things up, even if you were just a renter. Then spendin' a few years in the Corps and ya learn to keep things fixed up fer one reason or another, it got to be a pretty bad habit with me. I like to keep things fixed up and lookin' nice as I can...when I'm able.

One of the reasons I keep things cleaned up is because I'm lazy. If ya ever hadda field day the barracks before ya could go on liberty, ya learned to keep things cleaned up durin' the week so ya could hit the burg that much earlier. Field dayin' yer area didn't take so long and wasn't near so hard, if ya could do it that way. Sometimes I only hadda field day the barracks once or twice a month when I lived in 'em. I got everyone on the program and then we just picked things up and dusted and put a shine onna floor and we got to leave pretty quick. We were out inna burg hours before some of the other barracks were! Other times wasn't anyone in the barracks long enough to get it dirty much! LOL. Spendin' a few minutes a day cleanin' is a helluva lot better than spendin' half a day or more cleanin' when it builds up on ya.

Same thing can be said about a lot of things, I reckon. Friendships, marriages, careers, schoolin'... The thing is, that's what ya might call a principle in life. Ya gotta keep things up and keep 'em maintained and workin' good or they'll go to hell on ya. Keeps things from gettin' to be a shitload of work and trouble if ya don't!

Yep. Sometimes, someways, bein' lazy works real good fer me. I don't like to work any harder than I hafta!

Warm up yer coffee, folks! It's a good day! It's a new opportunity! A new chance to get things right! We'll get 'er sorted out one of these times!

Make sure ya got yer head wrapped around yer day before ya get headed out! Well, what're ya waitin' for! Daylight's a wastin'!

Morning Coffee!
 

'Mornin' folks! How ya doin' this mornin'! Coffee's on! Grab a cup and get settled somewhere! Paper'll be along directly! I get the funny pages first!

I was teasin' SixGuns yesterday about retirin' from the Corps, but I got to thinkin' just now, havin' a rockin' chair on the deck would be a pretty good idea! That's my dream one of these days. To have a small cabin in the mountains with a front porch, a rockin' chair and a jug marked "XXX"! LOL. We all have dreams, no matter how old ya get. The young have dreams as a matter of course. It's just in 'em to have dreams, however impossible they may seem. We all learn that not all of our dreams will come true, no matter how we work toward them. It's just a fact of life. We grow, we change, and our dreams change with us. Sometimes the dreams change for other reasons, too, some of them pleasant, some of the reasons, not so pleasant. But we continue to dream and continue to ggrow out of those dreams, once they are realized or else left behind.

My own dream, at one point was to have a wife, 2.3 kids, a dog and a house with a white picket fence. It didn't work out quite the way I had in mind. That dream was exchanged, for various reasons, for a life of adventure and experiences that few have the opportunity to enjoy. I've learned much that I would not have otherwise. I figger that that exchange, though painful in many ways, has done me, and my growth as ahuman being a lot of good. I learned more than many who have not had the opportunities that I have had. I can relate to many different people and their different lifestyles in ways that many others cannot hope to enjoy. I still think of things as they may have been from time to time, but upon reflection, I'm glad to have traveled the roads that I have. Perhaps that's one measure of maturity. Knowing dreams for what they are, and accepting the fact that not all dreams come true in just the way that we have planned or expected.

I'll accpet the lack of a dog, for now. I'll accept the kids growin' up and bein' on their own, with all of the losst opportunites and regrets. I'll accpet the small house without the picket fence, and although I regret things not workin' out quite the way I had in mind many years ago, I'm glad I'm the man I am today. That particular reality is better than any of the dreams of my youth.

I encourage you all to dream. Dream of things to come. Dream of the impossible things that you might yet bring to pass in your lives. Dream of the way things might become within the limits of reality. But dream, no matter the outcome. Without a dream, we cannot begin to do anything at all in our lives, nor can we come to a place where we know that where we're at... is where we should've been all along...and where we need to be to become more than we had ever hoped possible.

Warm up yer coffee, folks! It's a good day! It's a new day! A new opportunity! We got another chance to get it right!

Make sure ya go out there and take advantage of it!

Morning Coffee!
 

'Mornin' folks! How the hell are ya this fine Marine Corps mornin'! Coffee's on! Ya best grab a cup and get some! Paper'll be along directly, I imagine! I get the front page and the funny papers!

I was playin' checkers with the computer earlier and I got my butt whipped! Well, the one time it was totally my fault. I wasn't payin' as close attention as I shoulda been! Now I'm no champion player of any kinda board game, but I expected to do a little better than I did! I've got a brother who whips me everytime playin' scrabble. He won't play chess with me, though! It's not that I'm that good, it's just that he's that bad! LOL. Mom and Dad are into that game with the holes on the board and the pins to mark yer progress. It's played with a deck of cards. I never could get that one figgered out. Hell, I can't remember the name of the damned game! I used to be pretty good at board games of all sorts. From Monopoly to Risk and chess, but I got away from them for a number of years for one reason or another. If ya don't keep yer game up, ya get whooped pretty bad and pretty often, no matter what game ya play!! I never liked losin' much, so I got away from them and started payin' attention to the way people played games....games of all sorts...

I wasn't interested in the way they played board games or card games and such, but the way they interacted with each other and how and why they do what they do. I even studied some types of animals to get some kinda background on it, too. Mostly dogs and wolves, but I looked at social animals and tried to figger them out and why they interacted with each other and their environment the way they do. It all comes down to games, really. Most of those games have to do with survival and dominance, whether of their fellows of or their environment. With human beings, this hasn't changed much. The game is still about survival and dominance.

The games we play as children have much to do with learning about our own relationships to other folks and about survival and dominance among them. This is further re-enforced in school, in the playgrounds and classrooms and in the sports arenas. They prepare us for the world of adulthood we will enter as the dominant species on this planet. We must be competitive or we do not survive long in the world we see about us. Folks who don't play the games well often end up homless, or un-employed or ehgaged in the more menial of tasks among us. This is how many judge our success in life, by the power and wealth and therefore, the dominance we have among our fellows. This is further realized and revealed in what we have come to call politics...what a few refer to as "The Great Game"...and a game it is indeed.

Although we must of necessity learn these games from an early age for simple survival, and to learn how to get along with the other social creatures of our species, there is a time when we come to know that such games are for children, whether they be 5 years or or 105 years old. Whether they be the local gangsta or the leaders of the world in finance, politics or celebrity...and we learn not to play anymore. But we must remain ready to play such games of necessity....for we wish to survive...and we must therefore be everready to play, knowing the futility of such games for what they are.

I'm not sayin' to stop playin' games of most sorts, for we'd lose our edge and start gettin' our butts handed to us on a fairly regular basis, but we must know then for what they are. A type of competition for survival that is no longer really required of us as a species. Yet...yet...we must be ever ready to play all sorts of games with absolute ruthlessness and the willingness to win. For our fellows have not given up their propensity to play needless games, therefore we must be willing and able to whip the other guy, for now, in whichever game he chooses to play, knowing the ultimate futility of games and gamesmanship.

There is a simple beauty of life that we do not have the time to appreciate while we are playing games. A beauty that has often been addressed while we're having our morning coffee here. A beauty that we can each catologue if we choose to stop for a minute and reflect on what and who is around us. There is where you will find real life and it's living. In the meantime, cover yer ass and know how to play games of all sorts! That's our present reality after all. Just keep it in the back of yer mind that the games that people play aren't the real deal.

Well, I've rambled on quite a bit this morning and didn't say a damn thing the way I wanted to, but I hope you get the idea. One of these days, I'll say things the way I want to, but for now, it's a bit beyond my ability sometimes.

It's time to warm yer coffee up a bit and get yer head wrapped around yer day, I reckon.

It's a new day, folks! Another chance to get 'er figgered out! Another chance to get it right, mebbe! Make aure ya go out and take advantage of it!

'Mornin' folks! How the hell are ya this fine Marine Corps morning!
Coffee's on! Ya best get a cup and find a seat! Paper'll be here directly I hope!



I got to thinkin' again today. Ya ever feel like the most ignorant person inna room? I was browsing another forum and I got to thinkin' about how outta my depth I was there. Some of those folks are movers and shakers in this country. Many of the others are extremely intelligent and very well educated and experienced. Kinda like around here! Made me wonder why I post anything anywhere at all! Of course, I had fun with 'em today in my own little way. I didn't feel like lookin' somethin' up to post there, so I just run my mouth with what I remembered right off hand about the topic and of course someone was along to post the 'real deal'. I got tickled about that...mostly 'cause what they posted was very incomplete at best! PLUS they came off with the holier than thou attitude that a lot of educated folks do when ya goin' on about their specialty or hobby! LOL. I loved that part! LOL. The best part was not havin' to look it up myself! LOL. Of course, I'd a done a better job of presenting it, don't ya know!

There are times, though, when I do feel like I better keep my mouth shut or end up lookin' like a fool in case someone does finally get around to correctin' me! Now believe it or not, I ain't the most educated person or the most intelligent person around! No. really! :D I ain't even got a corner on wisdom! LOL. Hell, if I did, I might not be talkin' so much here inna mornin' when we're havin' coffee! Besides, if I had a corner on wisdom, I'd figger some way to get rich sellin' it! LOL. I figger there'd be a pretty good market for it right about now! LOL.

I got to figgerin' that of all of the stuff a person does know, there's a helluva lot he don't know. It's not the stuff ya know that'll get ya hurt, it's the stuff ya don't know that'll do it. When ya got somethin' to say about a subject, there's a time to be still and listen, and when ya know somethin' the other fella don't, it might be time to open yer trap and let him in on the way things really are. He gets educated and you might keep him from screwin' up somethin' awful and takin' you with him to sickbay! ;)
On the other hand, when the other fella's tryin' to get yer attention...maybe there's somethin' he knows that you don't...and mebbe...just mebbe...he's tryin' to keep YOU from takin' HIM to sick bay with ya!

Oh, and if ya weren't payin' attention or haven't got yer eyes open yet...that wasn't about goin' to sickbay.... ;)

Warm up yer coffee, folks! It's a new day! We got ANOTHER chance to get it right! It's a new opportunity! Make sure ya go out and take advantage of it!

...and make sure ya got yer eyes open before ya head out!

'Mornin' folks! How ya doin' this mornin'! Coffee's up! Grab a cup and get some! Paper'll be along directly!

Well, it's Memorial Day. I hope ya got the Bar-B-Que ready and are gonna spend some time with family and such today. Make sure ya have a few beers or mebbe a root beer or two! LOL.

I hope ya got some time to stop by one of the National Cemeteries near ya. It is an experience. I stopped by the Black Hills National Cemetery a few weeks ago and spent some time just wandering around. A Veteran was being buried that day. I stayed back for the families benefit. I didn't want to disturb them, but I did notice that there weren't too many folks to send him off.

I got to thinkin', as little as I accomplished durin' my time with the Corps, that I would want to buried with Marines when it's my turn to check out, many years from now I hope. There would be no greater honour for me, nor could there be. Those who are now in those cemeteries understand everything that you or I have experienced, and they understand the reasons. They know what it's like. The wind in the few shade trees whisper to you if you listen....they tell of the stories of those who now reside there. They tell of a peace that is not often found in other such places of final rest for men. They tell of death and destruction in far away places, from Civil War battlefields to the Spanish holdings of the last century to the trenches of WWI and the charge across sandy beaches in far flung islands of the Pacific in WWII. The wind tells of the men who fought in jungles in Southeast Asia and the deserts of two Gulf Wars. They tell of men standing guard in the dark of night in some godawful post at some place at the far end of nowhere with a name they'll never be able to pronounce. They offer a whisper of other meetings between men from other such conflicts as well...but they offer peace. A place of rest and comfort and liberty from all such interactions among the lives of men. They offer a place of sanctuary. I offer my respects to those who set the standard for all of us....for they are my brothers and I honor them, though they would not seek such honour themselves. The one with his Medal of Honour, another beside his wife, a long row of Soldiers and a then scattering of Marines and Sailors. Row upon row of stones that carry the names of certified heros, buddies, brothers, fathers and loved ones...Pfc's next to Colonels and Sergeants next to butterbars. One Marine, apparently on a recon, buried some distance from anyone else, as if he were securing the ground for those to come...he'll be joined in time, I'm sure. Names and faces that are remembered today of all days by those he or she left behind. Names we should all take a look at...and remember....for they are our brothers...and one day....in time...we will join them in their peace and their freedom from want and conflict and sacrifice...and in their final liberty. It would be my greatest honor to have a drink with those boys in some heavenly type of bar, after I'm old and grey and done with this life.

Whenever I get there, bein' the new guy, I'm probably gonna get stuck with the tab, though.

Warm up yer coffee, folks! It's a new day! A new opportunity! A new chance to get it right! Make sure ya got out and take advantage of it.

Bones..
 

your eloquent post this morning put a big 'ol lump in my throat..I have heard the wind whispering as you said....At Shiloh National Military Park, where my great-grandfather fought with the Confederates at the Hornet's Nest, there is a Confederate mass grave, which now has the Stars and Bars flying over it, as it should, and I clearly heard the whispers of the dead..it is awesome..

Have a Healthy Holiday !!

Larry

'Mornin' folks! How the hell are ya this mornin'! Coffee's on! Ya better grab a cup and get some! Paper'll be along in a bit, I reckon! I get the funny pages first!

Well, I ain't got too much, today. I been playin' on another site. Started a couple days ago on that one. I hit some of the newspaper websites here and there around the country when I get time and I end up at the forums if they got one. I've been doin' this for several months now. I do it when I see a left winger gettin' silly about his arguments. One aspect of my online activism, such as it is. Only I had a funny kinda blind spot. I never thought of checkin' the local paper's website to see if they had a forum! LOL. Well, hell, I get their paper, what do ya need with their website! LOL. Blind spots....I'll get back to that inna minute, maybe. First, I wanted to let ya know of a slightly different tactic some left wingers use. I'd seen it before, but not as blatantly used as I saw yesterday! Feller didn't like my argument in our discussion and came off with his 'resume'. 'course, he was braggin' on his edumacation as if no one had a right to disagree with him because he went to a university or some such! That was the basis for his reply to my post. Well, I figgered I had as much right to an informed opinion as anyone else, so I let him know that....I also questioned him about any elitism that might be lurkin' in the back of his head. I'll see what his response is later on today, I reckon.

So we have elitism, education and blind spots. Ya might substitute education for experience, too. One can blind ya as much as the other, I think, but I'll stick to blind spots for now. Personally, I end up being made aware of my own blind spots on a fairly regular basis. My little brother pokes holes in my thinkin' alla time! Jughead. Sometimes I wish he'd stayed in New Mexico! LOL. He likes word games and bad puns almost as much as I do! I'll say somethin' and he'll twist the words to somethin' I didn't really mean to say! I didn't start that competition with him! I swear!...well, maybe....I mighta said somethin' one time or another to twist his words to mean somethin' he didn't say...but I was just teasin'! Honest!! As childish a game as that is, what that does is lead me to a position where I say exactly what I mean when he's around. If it gets to be a habit, so much the better. I learn to be careful with the way I word things. Not that that's happened around here!

Blind spots will get ya, folks. Whether in fun or in real livin'. Sometimes what ya know about things isn't all there is to consider. Sometimes the other fella has a point worth thinkin' about even if he is wrong on all of the rest of what he has to say. ...and havin' blind spots will lead ya to miss things ya might need to know. Ya might miss something that will lead you to learn more than ya know...beause yer preconceptions blinded ya to anything other than what you know, believe or hold to be true about the other guy and what's goin' on around ya. I've seen this happen in business, in the Marine Corps, and in different social and job related situations I've been in. People with some rather severe blind spots, because of education, experience, or position or power in the community or business. Take a look around ya today. I can almost guarantee ya you'll meet up with someone who needs a reality check because of a blind spot they have. It's kind of a fun game to play with yerself anyway! "Just how screwed up is the other guy, anyway?" On the other hand, maybe the other guy is playin' the same game with you in mind and figgerin' you 're blind as bat and wouldn't know what's really goin' around ya if a tornado hit ya! LOL. Myself, my worst blind spot is wimmin.....but that's another story! LOL.

Warm up yer coffee, folks! It's a new day! A new chance to get it right! It's a new opportunity to get things sorted out! Make sure ya take advantage of it.

Morning Coffee!
 

'Mornin' folks! How ya doin' this mornin'! Coffee's on! Grab a cup and set a spell! Make yerselves to home! Paper''l be along directly!

So what the hell we visitin' over this mornin'! Danged if I know! I was thinkin' about somethin' earlier, but I didn't have anything to write on, so I fergot what it was. Toilet paper tears somethin' fierce when ya tryin' to write on it, and I didn't have a pencil handy anyway....

I can't seem to get politics outta my mind lately. Looks like that's my current dilletante pursuit to satisfy my curiosity. It's funny at times how much our current interests and hobbies can bore other folks ain't it? I mean, if I find it interesting and important, I have trouble understanding why you don't! You never been that way about somethin' have ya? Oh, come on! Ya ain't shittin' me! I know better! LOL. I get aggravated and kinda ticked at the same time when I see folks discussin' stuff like that. One person listens impatiently, however politely, while the other is expounded on somethin', just waitin' to get their chance to go off on what they got to talk about. They ain't bein' real with each other ya see. I remember an older woman I knew years ago who'd always say, "Isn't that something!" No matter what ya hadda talk about. She was a bit more honest than most of us. At least ya could tell you were borin' her stiff, if ya paid attention! LOL.

Some things the other guy is talkin' about just might be of use to ya later on down the line. It might surprise ya how true that is. There're times I wish I'd a paid more attention to folks when they were borin' me, instead of thinkin' of what I wanted to say or thinkin' about what I was plannin' fer the next day or two. Coulda saved me some trouble along the way and mebbe I mighta learned somethin' I didn't know. I try pretty hard to listen to folks now. They might be lookin' fer somethin' to answer their own questions, if ya know how to look and see what they're gettin' at. That aggravates me to no end sometimes. It's like tryin' to pull teeth outta 6 year old's head! It needs doin', but they ain't ready yet. That's the real reason to listen and to pay attention to what the other guy's goin' on about. He might be askin' ya fer help in an indirect fashion, or mebbe's he just so enthusiastic about what's goin' on in his life that's it's well worth the time to listen and to let him know how happy ya are that good things are goin' on for him...It's best if ya mean it when ya say that, though! LOL.


...and if yer real lucky, the other guy just might say somethin' by accident that'll help ya to get yer own situation sorted out and help ya to get another, perhaps better,point of view on yer own current dilletante pursuit!

That's a lot of ground to cover in on go ain't it! LOL. Well, some of it we've gone over before, and some of it we'll most likely get at again one of these days, so don't let it bother ya. Just a few things to consider fer awhile, mebbe.

Warm up yer coffee, folks! Make sure ya got yer eyes open before ya head out! It's a new day! A new opportunity! Make sure ya take advantage of it!

'Mornin' folks! How in hell are ya this mornin'! Coffee's on and it's good! Grab a cup and cop a squat somewhere! You spill that **** on yerself, it's yer own damn fault! I ain't got any money anyway! LOL. Paper'll be along inna bit! I got dibs on the front page and the funny papers!


Well, what is it we're visitin' over today, do ya reckon? ( I gotta start writin' things down....) Well, let's see. Who has the notes of the last meeting? LOL. Scared ya didn't I? I bet ya thought we were gonna start doin' things like Robert's Rules of order or somethin'! LOL. That's that book that tells ya how to have a meetin'...the polite way... ;) Damn near ceremonial the way that books tells ya how to do it. Damn near like havin' coffee inna mornin'! LOL. Oh, hell, we talked about ceremonies and such awhile back, didn't we. Well, I guess we'll kinda visit over 'em again a bit. Most things are like that in life. Ya get the principles down, the rest is just details is all. Lots and lots of details with most things!! LOL. Hell, I'm scarin' myself, now. I'm startin' to sound like Tennessee Ernie Ford! Ain't that the ****s! I can remember his TV show! Liked his singin' mostly.

Anyway...We all gotta have things that we sit down and do in a prescribed way..even when we have coffee inna mornin'. We set up the pot and we each get things ready and perkin' the same or similar way every mornin'. We'll get all the fixin's together and set them up in a certain way, we'll have our cup ready to go, and then when we get around to pourin' our coffee, we'll do all of that in a certain way, and then fer many of us, we get the mornin' paper and sit down and start readin' and we'll even have our cup sittin' inna certain postion every time. We end up kinda lost fer a minute here and there if it all ain't just the way we like it...well the day just ain't the same after that if everything doesn't go just the way we usually do it! If ya get the feelin' that somethin' ain't right somewhere in yer day, it's because ya blew yer little ceremonies all to hell that day! That's one reason why we get so upset over disasters that happen to us. It blows our little ceremonies outta the water fer a few days.


Some say that the Brit's use of tea was very similar in it's use of ceremony... but that it affected their entire civilization. One insightful gent once declared that the empire would fall when tea became something less than it was at the time. In many ways, he wasn't really wrong. Our 'empires', whether at home, in our social life, in our culture and politics and business are based upon certain types of ceremonies, from the way we go about asking people over to dinner, or to a party, to which tie we wear to the office, to how we get ready to out on the town or what we do when watching a movi...is all dependent upon our little ceremonies, as a group or as individuals. Any deviation from such little ceremonies ( read habits as well ) can ruin the whole experience for us and for those around us. As a civilized society, we need those little ceremonies to get along with each other. Any break down of those habits as a culture or a nation can spell disaster, either in the long term or in the short term the loss of our ceremonies may cause no small distress. We need those little ceremonies, for they offer us some small comfort that we are in charge of our own destinies in an unsure and sometimes dangerous world. If we don't have them and tha ablility to maintain them, we can become pretty upset and distraught.

If ya don't think that's true, wait til ya misplace yer coffee cup next time ya need it, let alone yer razor or toothbrush! ;)

Thing is, to be aware of those habits for what they are. Necessary for good livin', but not so damn important that ya gotta go on a rant or freak out if things don't go just quite the way ya figger they oughta. Don't worry, we'll get things sorted out if we don't panic over 'em! ;)

Warm up yer coffee folks! It's a new day! It's a new opportunity! It's another chance to get 'er right!

Make sure ya go out and take advantage of it!