A Living Eulogy of Sorts OR How to say Thank You

 

 To my Mother: a heartfelt thanks to you, because you never stopped loving or caring for my father and your sons amongst with a handful of others; though it took awhile for me to realize just how big your hands could be.  Since I can remember it was with those same hands that you hugged me, it was with those hands that you fed me, and it was with those hands that a garden was grown year after year after year.

  As skilled as your hands are, they paled by comparison to your heart; this declaration is made simply because your heart was the driving power behind your hands; and what a power source it has been.  The love that flowed from your heart was undeniable.  Like many a wonder, the sum of what makes up my mother is more then just the sum of her parts.

  Your hands were mentioned first as that is what I probably first noticed, then as I was able to notice more, her heart came into play, and then after that while it took me a few years for it to come to light just how brilliant my Mother is.  Lucky for me my Mother is a rose and while my father got the full blooming flower; I got a whiff and waif of the scent, and the government got the thorns – and here I quote my Mother: ‘tax evasion is illegal, though tax avoidance is a hobby’, and my Mother really likes her hobbies.  Mother to you I say kiitos. (Thank You in the language of Suomi)

  To my Father: a heartfelt thanks to you, because you never stopped loving or caring for my Mother and two your sons along with a handful of others; though early on it took some time for me to realize just how big your heart could be.  Out of honesty, this author must admit that he was not the most co-operative child in the family when he was at a much lower height; yet Father never stopped loving and what happened was simply his idea of course correction where Father did do was his best to provide the skills for navigating the rapids and rocks of the river of life and seeing as this author from the start was unruly, Father suffered some disappointments.  Though, it is with hope in his heart that frustration was like a cloud of squid ink in the ocean of parental care and love.

   As for his hands, Father has the hands of an artist; his ability to shape and weld metal surely could have landed him a job at Ferrari, though he was handed a path not of his making as he was a child born into war after all.  Additionally, Father and his hands were quite able to work with fine wood as he built a cabinet, restored a piano and used lumber when he expanded the house for his family.  Also, it has to be recognized that not only did Father build he designed, and at that too he excelled; often by using simply graph paper.  The only two things that didn’t come with historical precedence are my brother and I; Father was a craftsman; and yes occasionally the few times it happened, he used his skilled hands on us.  Towards those readers who might claim that a spanking is child abuse: what will you call the school shootings that have been on the rise every since a halt was called to spankings. 

  Though not entirely of his choosing at least in the beginning, he began picking the means to navigated the river of life for himself along with his wife at his side, and eventually his two sons who showed up after their marriage and their ‘luna di miele’.  

  Father, always seemed to hold to the principle of Keep It Simple Son (KISS).  Though due to the rules of nature v. nurture, the world always seemed different for me and yet my Father has always been willing to talk; as his loving and caring has always remained.  It must be mentioned that upon occasion, even to this day the spankings continue, though now it is in the form of verbal chastisement or simply the hanging up of the phone; yet within 24 to 72 hours Father would will with an open mind put that same phone back to his ear to give me another chance as the same love and caring is always present.  Father, to you I say ‘Grazie’ (Thank You in the language of Italia)

 A Note:  In the writings above I used the first person for my Mother and a more remote third person position for my Father.  As a young child, I spent most of my time with Mother, while Father was often off doing stuff though I did not know what that stuff was until I could shift from only my needs towards my thinking for myself, at which point I became more disgruntled, and then I began to understand better and things got healed with the relationship with Father; this was around when I turned 24 years of age

  Well paired:  From my perspective a better couple, marriage, or parents have never existed; certainly there is some bias on my part.  Of course there have been other good parents though those are unknown to me, though some must have come close.  The basic experience as I recall is that Mother was the carrot and Father was this stick, and both played their roles judiciously, that being said I was never allowed to be the donkey; as the saying goes.  I was held to a higher standard than that and rather than being given what I wanted I was given what I needed.

  Due to the limits of the human body and scheduling considerations these words are a targeted approach towards saying ‘Thank You’ to the two people who took on the task of making me the man I am.  I’m not perfect, though I feel I’m good enough; while I didn’t get what I wanted I do have I need.

 

So, hello Mother, hello Father – I thank you both for not spoiling me and teaching me that expectation is the easiest way to disappointment and misery.

Commedia Divisa

  For this stint of writing the original idea was to write a comedy and yet the formula for that never came to be and so this writing is the next best option available; so please enjoy this writing as best as can be hoped for.  The narrative poem, The Divine Comedy was finished in 1321 by Dante Alighieri; and the first part ‘Inferno’ tells the story of his tour of Hell.  A number of things are going on in the world right now, which seem a bit odd, and those things are going to be the focus of what is going to be provided to you the reader.  The section on Hell is also known as Dante’s Inferno post translation to English where the punishment at each of the nine levels is described.  To best understand this piece of writing you might want to Google ‘Dante’s Inferno’.

  C1 - On a PM:  The Canadian government is currently closed due to the actions of Justin Trudeau and now during a leadership shuffle, and now it seems that Canada has a new Prime Minister who was never voted for except by the Liberal Party of Canada; this is the Canadian democracy that is being defended by the Liberals, or so we are told.  Now for a little clarity, in the ancient Greek the word ‘demos’ means the common people, and the word Liberty means being free from oppression or restriction by the authority in one’s life within a society.  There is a caveat here that should be obvious to anyone who wants to avoid prison, which is that the right of one person to swing their arm stops before the nose of another.  By the way, the word caveat comes from Latin, literally means ‘let a person beware’.

  Not everyone thinks at the same speed, which is why democratic governments used to move slowly; as some people just need time to catch up; yet those slow thinking people do still count when it comes to participating in a democratic society.  The speed at which this new and unelected Prime Minister of Canada was installed was entirely managed by the Liberal party of Canada as it sought to leap over those slower thinkers, and those too busy to pay attention.  It must also be noted that the business of making people busy was also orchestrated by the Liberal Party of Canada over the last nine years. 

  C2 – On She v. Her:  It has been known for decades that every animal, big and small, gets just a little nastier and more obvious when there is resource scarcity.  It also used to be well known that when the children where in danger, the female of the species is more dangerous than the male, it may be due to the investment that a woman makes in birthing the child.  Consideration must be given to what is the value of a women is when there are no kids around. 

  The second circle of Hell according to Dante was for those who succumbed to lust and they would be tossed about by a raging wind.  Via the path of artistic license, this instance of the Second circle is for those who use Lust to create personal value; this line of thinking may be repeated somewhere further down this list; we will see.

  When one looks at the porn industry, be it prerecorded or live online such as Only Fans, one can see that the raging winds Dante described now it lacks the patience to wait for the death and judgment of said people as there are repeatedly stories in the old press and new media of people’s remorse for doing pornographic things both recorded or live; thus putting forth the question: which is worse off the fed or the feeder?

 C3 – On Her v. Him:  Understanding that there are only two genders, one can being aware of that when looking close enough, there are also two basic mind sets.  Typically, women like to draw in those they want close, while men typically repel those who need not be anywhere near those they love are; or at least that is how it used to be.  This idea is not a zero sum gender game is silly as nothing in life is a zero sum game.  That is unless one is interested in being the hunter or when one finds oneself being the hunted.

  Of course it must be said that some men were historically unkind to some women, though it must also be pointed out that much of the time these men and women were foreign to each other and that war was the landscape under which this happened.  Of course it also happened that the oppressor and the oppressed are familiar, though there are prisons for those statically rare cases; there are still some who feel that it is only men who do the oppressing, an idea which is just is not so, look towards the big ask many women demand in divorce court.

 C4 – Walk in Skinny, Walk out Fat:  In recent years, okay a few more then that, Nancy Pelosi (Rep-D) has out performed the best of the best of the best of Wall Street; people have made money by simply following the tactical trades made by Mrs. Pelosi.  It is well known that due to human nature, where there is money there will be crime.  Back in the day, around the year of someone’s Lord 1700, Sir Isaac Newton was tasked in reducing inflation by put-ting a stop to coin clipping.  For those not in the know, coin clipping was the act of shaving off a bit of silver or gold from a coin, thus reducing the true value of the coin.  By the way, if you like the little ridges on the side of your coins, give a small thanks to Sir Newton.

  Much like a tasty feast with a good bottle of wine, no good thing lasts for ever. In 1971 then President Tricky-Dick (Richard Nixon) moved away from the gold standard and created money that had no actual value outside of the trust to repay a debt; sort of like a country level credit card.  It might be odd to some that in the 1960s the then Defense Security Robert McNamara was the son of the man, Frank McNamara, who invented the first credit card (Dinners Card) – go figure.

 C5 – On the Never Happy:  This circle is a bit of challenge as it deals with ‘Wrath’ where the punishment is being submerged in the river Styx.  The response to this circle is simple; the river Styx is full of modern day feminists and those LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) as communists\antifascists (ANTIFA).  Returning to the challenge, the question must be asked: why do these people have wrath and what is making this wrath?

  Interestingly, summer is coming and in the north hemisphere, especially within the USA; soon it will be the summer of someone’s discontent.  In the year 2020, there were ‘mostly peaceful protests’ in many cities in the USA, the UK, and Canada.  The protesters destroyed property and people died by intentional act; in short they made chaos in the name of wrath. A possible outcome by the end of this summer is more damaged property along with deaths for which legal prosecutions should be held.  

 

C6 – On the Wrong Ones:  Recently there has been a social narrative present by some and ignored by others, which states that all cultures and societies are equal, which is anathema to reality; else why would anyone move from one country to another.  It is well known that people vote with their feet first and then with their wallets, as explained by the economist Milton Freedmen; the issue arises when the target country starts handing out wallets, which has been a habit of late on both the personal and business fronts.

  Getting back to the basic premise of this circle, the problem with a multicultural country is: can you the reader or anyone else hold a firm personal belief that will not be a form of heresy to someone else’s strong belief?  There is a logical problem in such a situation in that there can be no heterodoxy if there is no single orthodoxy, which means that at some point there will be competing strong beliefs at the local level; these were at one time called The Crusades.  It must be now re-enforced that the typical human being is tribal and the lines of demarcation are both varied and diverse; so long as said person is on the winning team they will join those they perceive will be the winning team.  

 

 C7 – On Hurting Others:  It should be known to the many that the meaning of some words change over time and it is sometimes forced; this is shown to be true, as some people are no longer able or willing to publically define what a ‘woman’ is.  Then again, some other people also previously stated that ‘silence is violence’, while at the same time the government types live in a world where the threat of violence is the base to collect taxes and control speed limits; try not paying a speeding ticket.

  This author is having a problem with this particular circle, probably due to the premise upon which it is based, in the time of Dante, he would have been tethered to the bible as found in Matthew 26:52 where one can find the phrase "Put your sword back in its place.  For all who draw the sword will die by the sword".  Many people will say that the sword quote above is all about ‘you reap what you sow’, which does in some cases holds true.  Though, this author also believes that a good man, a gentleman as it were, will also sow that which he knows he will not reap; the classic example of this practice is the planting of a tree under which shade he will never sit, and yet some men will still put that sapling in the ground regardless.

  So, perhaps this level of Hell should also include those who work towards inciting and promoting violence; interestingly enough Dante figured out that this was a greater level of sin over 700 years ago.

 

C8 – On Misdirection:  Some people, who mislead some other people, can destroy a community seeing as a community or even a whole society can not function without trust; otherwise the only available remaining tool is force.  When the government no longer trusts the people they arm up against the people; and when the people no longer have any trust in the government then those people will in turn arm up; violence is the result of no debate.

  The News Media of yesteryear was not the News Media of today or maybe it was and just no-one noticed; though it must be admitted that some lines of thinking take time to find form and take root; though as a counter point, some people still feel the world is flat even if they can only see just less than ten kilometers uninterrupted bits of at any given time.

   Quite some time ago the narrative was driven by competing priests on the behalf of the plethora of various gods at the time, then as the number of recognized gods dropped, the leaders of the descending number of different religions gained more power to the point where Popes and Kings had pitch battles with each other using the poor people as recipients for the swords, arrows, and eventually bullets.  

 

 C9 – In the River Cocytus:  Dante’s lowest level has now been reached and now the crux of the situation must now be discussed.  While lying is not the best of the actions, some times a complement, in the form of a white lie, is the best course of action towards maintaining some semblance of serenity.  Many people claim that they want the want the truth, yet that lasts until they hear it.  The River Cocytus is that place for those who went above and beyond lying and performed actual betrayal. 

  Betrayal is a post high-trust condition, this counts people who made a promise such as signing a contract, making an oath, a promise, or even a handshake deal; and then they renege.  For this author the word ‘trust’ is interesting as it seems to mean different things to different people, for some people the word ‘trust’ implies a sort of light level of friendship or something even deeper, yet for this author the word ‘trust’ implies an understanding of what is predictable; one can always ‘trust’ what a hungry lion will do to you if you were to come face to face with one.

  Betrayal requires a promise made and then a promise not kept.  This author is not sure how there can be betrayal in a low trust society outside of what the legal system is able to provide under contract; and yet, here is where we are at.  Having been born in Canada, this author has never sworn an oath to obey the law of the land, though back in those days that oath was assumed due to the high-trust society back in the day; basically there was no choice, it was just the way it was.  The current situation though is one where the same oath this author’s parents’ parents took at upon arriving to Canada, and yet it seems that those recently arrived don’t take seriously which would be an act of betrayal.  It must be noted that this author believes that the same oath for immigrants be taken by those graduating high school even when born in Canada.

 

Conclusion:   Dante being an Italian would have been a Catholic in his time, hence his description of Hell; also, he did slot in some personal resentment for those who banished him from Firenze (Florence) Italy.  This article is simply intended as an updated version of the original Inferno script with new targets; though the original purpose remains, as banishment was the way to cancel people back in the twelve and 1,300s.  It has become apparent to this author that the circus never really left town and the only thing that changed is the makeup on the clowns; all the while the animals in the show have remained the same.

  It has been said that ‘The road to Hell is paved with good intentions’, that saying implies lazy at its core as it implies that those with good intentions didn’t consider the outcome: be it within the transcendental, the physical, or just the typical human lacking forward thinking?