Shelf Life

Shelf Life: the length of time for which an item remains usable, fit for consumption, or saleable.  

On Books: Prior to the internet, books were my go-to source for wisdom, knowledge, inspiration, validation, instruction, entertainment  and life story.  With no television to watch during childhood, due to my father's firm belief in the value of reading, and limited cultural exposure due to the faith based private education I received, books along with the outdated magazines my father brought home from his waiting room were my door to more; and I read whatever I could lay my hands on.  Hundreds of thousands of books later, with a world of information now readily available at my fingertips, I continue to value and enjoy the non-electronic paper presence of books.  I order them, read them, refer to them, open them for points to ponder and rest them on the shelves or stacks in every room of my home.  

On Prompts: The first answer I'd provide, if asked the question posed by Yahweh to the Moses in front of the Burning Bush about what he held in his hand, would be "Books"; they're what I hold in my hand.  Since their relevance or shelf life, however, can be difficult to determine, I've decided to center my postings here around the excerpts, prompts and insights I've received through books as a matter of levity and gravity, and let them join the chips and grit that fall where they may, to zing and bounce around with the best and worst of the internet.  

On Links:  In mid July, I followed a link at Instapundit to the book: Visions, Trips, and Crowded Rooms: Who and What You See Before You Die by David Kessler, ordered a copy and read it. What initially caught my eye was Glenn's introductory  pronouncement of "HMM" and his one line addition after the link of  "This happened with my dad at the end"; as that is also what unexpectedly happened with my otherwise skeptical mom at the end, with a roomful of living family members as witnesses.  The lengthier "hmmmmm"  that came up for me has lessened some since reading of similar accounts from others, collected by an author who focuses on the hope these experiences provide for the dying, without tending to any particular religious beliefs about death or the afterlife. 

On Impact and Unseen Companions: As a result of Glenn's link, I've since talked about the book and shared stories from it with several others without Glenn or the author having any awareness of the impact their words have had on me and those whose lives touch mine.  Such is the power of story and the means to convey it through voice, printed page and the internet.  

"'The saying goes, "We come into this world alone, and we leave alone.'  We've been brought up to believe that dying is a lonely, solitary event...
What if the long road that you thought you'll eventually have to walk alone has unseen companions?  What if who and what you see before you die changes everything? "  pg155

Hope is the thing with feathers

"Casey Serin, a 24-year-old web programmer with no prior experience in real estate, owes banks 2.2 million dollars after lying on mortgage applications in order to simultaneously buy 8 different houses in different states.  He took cash out of the mortgage (applied for larger amounts than the price of the house) and spent the money on living expenses and real-estate seminars.  He was expecting the market to go up, it seems.

That's not even the sad part.  The sad part is that he still hasn't given up.  Casey Serin does not accept defeat.  He refuses to declare bankruptcy, or get a job; he still thinks he can make it big in real estate.  He went on spending money on seminars.  He tried to take out a mortgage on a 9th house.  He hasn't failed, you see, he's just had a learning experience.

That's what happens when you refuse to lose hope.

While this behavior may seem to be merely stupid, it also puts me in mind of two Nobel-Prize-winning economists...

...namely Merton and Scholes of Long-Term Capital Management.

While LTCM raked in giant profits over its first three years, in 1998 the inefficiences that LTCM were exploiting had started to vanish—other people knew about the trick, so it stopped working."

http://lesswrong.com/lw/gx/just_lose_hope_already/

peace doves

The scene could be written by ZAZ where natural law is played for irony. Where are the doves expected to go, back to their own cote? Looking for a current vid of this I notice releases where the birds hangs on the window sill unwilling to fly off into danger. The kids grow up to be cynics. 

A Spectrum Of Racism Is Haunting America

So Oprah Winfrey is stirring the pot again. She basically accused everyday Americans of turning on Obama because he's black.

Here is my take on racism is America:

There are two types of racists: those who actively clamor for their race, vote for their race, and cheer lead for their race, and those who clamor against another race, vote against a race, and badmouth another race. They are the two extremes. The vast majority of Americans try to stay somewhere between the two extremes, i.e., somewhere on the line above. True neutrality is believing that race is irrelevant.

Oprah was guilty of promoting Obama merely because he was black. She thought that was an important factor. Millions of Americans were convinced of that too but are changing their minds. They are no longer racists, contrary to what Oprah says.