..... um, yeah......

I have seen the human soul,
Its' intentions and motivations
Both warm and cold.

The fabric of the cosmos
Shaped in human form
Light and dark given mass.

I have seen holes torn
in your soul and mine
Whose edges are tattered and ragged
Or meticulously sharp and fine.

As if damaged by carelessness
and happenstance, while others have
Been assaulted by malice most  precise.

Burdens borne with dignity and strength casting light on those
crushed with embarrassment and shame.

The voices raised shouting
"You know you're just like me!"
over the raspy whispers of "NEVER AGAIN."

Approaching the reflective apex.

"The unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates

People reach an age where reflecting on their lives, their past, holds a benefit not only for themselves but for others. Too often introspection, examining your past, is the purview of the "important" people, the decision makers, the rulers, the celebrities, troublemakers or the moralists. These people find it necessary justify in writing, to the world, their actions. As if this will absolve them of any harm, oppression, injury or evil caused by them and their behavior.

But what about the common people? What about the people who rode the ripples caused by these so-called leaders? Do they ever need to voice their reflections, their reactions? Could they be the true leaders because of their instinctive adaptation to changes in their lives?

Perhaps everyone should have a blog. Not a blog for rambling about "your issues" rather an essay blog where an issue, question or event can be addressed en masse by individual participants and observers. It could be like a societal response portal. Everyone would log in to it to respond and give their opinions. Then it would close to any further responses to that specific issue, while other topics are opened up for discussion.

I realize it sounds like a mandatory web forum, but I am trying to figure our a way to get the broadest input from as many individual members of society as possible. Imagine what insights could be found if a larger number of people were able to speak their minds at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution or during the height of the Black Plague.

Apologied

One of our local radio stations was doing an 'anonymous' apology segment. Just text in your apology and they would read it on the air. So I sent them the following " I'd like to apologize to all the women who turned me down for dates in school. Maybe if I was a Deebag then, wouldn't be a passive-aggressive deebag today."

I wonder if I should have gone with "I'd like to apologize to my Baby Mama. If I had known my girlfriend was gonna poke holes in my condoms, I would have sent you to the store for a new box."
The world may never know....

Prose Sketch

"Here's hoping your next bout of explosive diarrhea is caused by someone showing a grenade up your ass." He said as he turned on his heel and marched out of the bunker.

Getting things out

I often ask myself "why do I have a blog, if I never do anything useful, insightful or even therapeutic?"  After all I have a catchy title for it, why can't I put content behind that title?

The answer is that I am afraid to put myself out there.  So for me to do this I have to stop letting my fear run my life. I have to be honest, direct and own the things that have shaped my life. 

I need to pay attention to the man behind the curtain and lead him out in to the light. Maybe I can do it before I hit the big five-o? 

A Cold Dose Of Reality

"The NFL doesn't care about your team." That was the support I received from a "friend" in January 1976 from a friend. My twelve year old brain was still trying to process the injustice that I found in the Hail Mary pass that happened in the December 29, 1975 NFC Divisional Game between my beloved Minnesota Vikings and the Dallas Cowboys. I reran the logistics of the play in my mind constantly. It didn't help that the play caused a near riot of the fans in Metropolitan Stadium and referee Armen Terzian was struck in the head by a whiskey bottle.

My "friend" went on to tell me that the National Football League was a business and all it was concerned about was getting better ratings on their television broadcasts. The Cowboys were from a larger TV market and the NFL would get them more money in advertising dollars for the NFC Championship game. He said that I really shouldn't be surprised that a "new" team like the Vikings (at this point they had been in the NFL for fourteen years) would get treated so poorly by the league officials since they did not have any credibility or history to have their complaints treated with respect.

This "friend" also pointed out that the behavior of the outraged fans did not help in having the NFL officials and management really want to address these complaints. If they did then they would be giving a validity to the riotous hooligans who sought to bully their way into getting the outcome they wanted, not the fair call made by the referees on the field. If the fans of a NFL team that had more history and credibility did this then  the NFL might want to listen.

My "friend" then suggested that I really should cheer for a team like his team, The Green Bay Packers. This would never have happened to them. They had been around since the beginning of the NFL. They would be taken seriously in their complaints about pass interference. Their fans would not have disrespected the game by causing a riot over the outcome of one play regardless of how much the game depended on it. The Green Bay Packers were a morally superior team, even though they played so poorly then, and as such they would never have had that happen to them.

After Monday Night's game in Seattle, between the Packers and the Seahawks, this discussion came back to me after 36 years and all I have to say is: The Minnesota Vikings will welcome any converted Packer fans with open arms.

Solving The Vikings Front Office Problems

To say this season for The Minnesota Vikings has not met expectations is like saying the venom from a cobra has a chance of being lethal.  NFL strike impact aside, the public was told by multiple persons on this team that "we have the talent to go to The Super Bowl this year (2011 season)"

By now it should be obvious that the Minnesota Vikings do not have the talent to get off the bottom of the NFC North division and thus do not have the talent to go to this season's Super Bowl. I have to apologize to Adrian Peterson, Jared Allen, Chad Greenway and Percy Harvin because their veteran leadership was driven on to the rocks of despair thanks to a sound bite spewing management type.  That is where the problem lies, the Vikings management and that is where the problem will be solved.

How do you solve this Front Office problem? It is simple. First you gather together every management person who spouted the phrase "we have the talent to win the Super Bowl this year" or a slight variation that maintains the key element of having the talent to win the Super Bowl this season. These people assemble in a conference room at Winter Park. Once everyone is there, security locks the room and allows no one in or out.

The first order of business is to determine who first said that the Vikings have the talent to win the Super Bowl this season (2011). Once this person is determined, said person is escorted out of the conference room to the owner's office, where he is told that his services are no longer required and has thirty minutes to gather their personal effects, leave their team identification, access, security and team issued credit cards on the owners desk and leave.

While this is happening, the remaining occupants in the conference room, are determining the identity of first person to repeat the phrase "we have the talent to win the Super Bowl this year."  Once this is determined, that person is then taken to the office of the Head of Security, where he is told that his services are no longer required, to turn over his team identification, access, security and team issued credit cards, wait while his personal effects are brought to him and then leave.

The remaining occupants are then charged with determining the identities of the next four persons who repeated the phrase. Once determined, these people are then taken to the press room where the team owner strips them of their credentials et al.

The team owner then returns to the conference room and escorts them out to a press conference in front of the building. The owner then holds a press conference about cleaning house and asks the remaining personnel from the conference room to hand over all team issued items and their personal effects will be delivered to their cars within the hour.

Then you establish an organizational structure of responsibility and accountability filling those positions with people who actually know something about football and evaluating talent.