"Maybe good; maybe bad"

I went searching for this old 80's story on the internet, and Howard somebody or other had a part of it and claimed credit for his hubris.  He certainly had that! I think I first read thus tale in a book by 70's Olympic gymnast Dan Millman, who went about inspiring people in that decade. Like any good cook with a recipe, I have absorbed it, revised it, and made it my own,
He4re's my version: Once, a poor Chinese rice farmer had a son and a fine horse. The neighbors came and cried "you are a fortunate man; you have a son and a horse."
"Maybe goodk maybe bad" replied the farmer.
One day, his fine horse ran away.  The neibors came and wept "you have lost your fine horse."
The farmer said "amybe good, maybe bad.
The nest day,   the horse returned leading five wild horses.  The neighbors cried "now you are a richman with siix horses."
The farmer said, "Maybe good, maybe bad."
The son was thrown by one of the horses when he tried to break it, and made lame.  The neighbors said, "Your son is good for nothing; he cannot help you in the rice fields."
The farmer said, 'Maybe good, maybe bad."
With no one to help in the rice fields, the spring rains came and flooded the plat.  The nighbors cried, "you are ruined."
The farmer said, "Mybe good, maybe bad.""
The rice fermented and made fine rice liquor, which the farmeer and his son were able to sell and become rich. The neighbors said "You are saved. Rice Vodka is your savior"
The farmer saidi, "Maybe good, maybe bad"
The army came through  the violage and conscripted every able bodied man for combat.  The farmer's son stayed home because he was lame.  The neighbors said, "fortunate you.  You have a son for your old age."
The farmer replied, "Maybe good, maybe bad."
The son became addicted to the rice vodka and eentually came to an AA meeting where he told this story. He got sober and returned home to his father to take care of him in his old age.
The story entered the AA lore and was told from Boston to San Diego. A friend told the farmer aoub it and ssaid, ""now you are famous."
The farmer replied, with feeling, "maybe good , maybe bad."

What Are We Doing Here?

The above title was the question at last week's soiree at our old folks Trailer  Park, and the answer came to  us with unbelievable certainty:  We are ushering one another off the planet.
And we do so with panache.  Heroes collect bottles and cans every monday and a group of oldsters use the proceeds to plan monthly parties which we all enjoy.
Other Seniors man a busy library/TV room to entertain  us on those long, lonely widow-evenings or when a spouse is watching a football game. We even have a computer room designed by our two techies out of spare parts (not the techies spare parts, the spare parts of discarded earlier computers). They, the techies, keep it going.
Since most of  us remember the "don't trust anyone over 30"slogans of the 60's, most of us are really surprised to be going (sort-of) strong in our 70's.  Most of us have downsized because the "big House" required lifting and scrubbing and climbing we could no longer do. We live here on Social Security and Food Stanps and most of us look up to see the Poverty Line.
That's ok. We have each other and our bingo and card games and potlucks and heated pool and jacuzzi and parties and we feel fortunate.(Grsndma Letty is the author of Murder at the Trailer Park, available from Linhart Publishing at http:linhartpublishing,com.)
We may be in a holding tank for the mortuary, but we make the best of it.

A Black President:: Unintended Consequences

Barack Hussein Obama lived in a state and a decade that was inordinately tolerant of him. Unlike him, I grew up in the Jim Crow era and locale.  Here's what I know the back room boys with their cigars and their "gentlemen's " clubs are saying to each other in private: "Obama is just one of them 'uppity' niggers." These guys hated Tiger Woods. He stole their game.  They hated Michael Jordan.  He replaced their heroes. They hated Jackie Robinson.  He didn't let well enough alone.If they'd been on the planet that far back, they'd have hated Jim Thorpe.
Their numbers are legion on wall street. In the back rooms of the Republican party. You see that everywhere.  They want Obama to fail, and they'll bring down the economy and even the country to accomplish that.
I doubt if anyone born after 1947 believes me.  But brothers and sisters, I know what I'm taking about.
Our president made a brilliant and spirited speech about Race in Philadelphia in the campaign. He needs to bring it up to date.
Much has happened since the election to underscore the latent hatred in America. It's only the minority that still honors Jim Crow.  The trouble is, it's a minority that sits in the seats of power in government, in business, in wall street.  These guys gotta be called out, and our president is just the guy to do it.

competence is a beautiful thing

Dear Ones:

After a few years on this planet, I have come to value vastly different things than I did when I was your age.  The most notable one is competence. Show me an expert on something, anything, whether task or substance, and I'll show you someone I think is really spiffy.
Case in point: We love to watch Book TV on C-Span 2 on weekends. The airwaves are rife with competence, for a change.  After toiling over the research necessary to construct a non-fiction book of some size, an author usually really knows what he's talking about.  Contrast these fellows and gals with the talking heads on Cable. Miles, yea miles, apart.My beloved husband, who yearns to be on Book TV, is such an absorber of facts and trivia and stuff about the five Russian authors he features. He stopped a recent critic dead by dropping Rimsky Korsakov's nickname.  That's serious scholarshiip.
Our petite webmaster is an example of task mastery.  We say "whozis" and lo and behold it appears where it should on our website. She's the embodiment of competence.
Our dear "estate manager" (well, ok, he's a handyman ) keeps our aging home and appliances and machines in running order with hardly a blink. I've never seen anyone grasp a problem and solve it faster than Don, the person in question.  Further, with a word he buckles down and is out of here in jig time.Socorro, our occasional household heavy task tackler, is really really good and fast and thorough.
Being able to attract and keep first class competent help is a talent which I bow to John for. He bonds with everyone, easily.  They love to help him.  It's a talent.  Carole, my oldest, has that talent too.Her babysitter was with her for 16 years and just showed up to applaud Carole's son, The Eagle Scout.For that matter, Grandma Letty flew cross country to do the same.  Being an Eagle is a big deal and demonstrates competence.  Isn't that where we started this essay?  Maybe it's a competent blog.I hope.

Words of Wisdom from Grandma Letty: launching a publishing firm

Words of Wisdom from Grandma Letty: launching a publishing firm

launching a publishing firm

Dear Ones

GrandmaLetty is lunching a website with her publications, The Incredible Russian Five, Prince Igor: Borodin's 20-year struggle to complete his opera; and Some Really Funny Things about Being Naked. How's that for a smorgasbord? We won the website in a church auction and you should let us know what it should contain. We are planning John's 80th Birthday party in November. Write early and often.

Words of Wisdom from Grandma Letty: We sold our Google stock

Words of Wisdom from Grandma Letty: We sold our Google stock

We sold our Google stock

Dear Ones:

IT people are unstoppable.  They seeminly must mess with platforms.  In fact, they're unhappy unless they're moving my dashboard. The latest deal: my blog disappeared again. The site said it had been discontinued. I went to blogger and after an hour and a half got it back.  I don't know how.  Lots of "restoring" messages and little circles going round and round.  I could only hope it would reappear.
Lo and behold, it did. Happiness.  I was prepared to bid goodbye and let it go into the ether, but I'm happy I didn't have to be so philosphical. Not that I write anything memorable or even significant, but someday my progeny will know me better and either admire or pooh-pooh my efforts.  Probably the latter.
When I did my stint with AOL in the 80s and 90s, everything on A&R changed all the time, even the name of the site. It was my first experience with personnel who didn't know enough to let well enough alone. We could never build up an online presence because the IT guys were determined to change everything. I used to get dizzy at the changes I had to make, let alone my followers, such as they were.
I had another example of IT meddling.  I have a Pacific Life fund which is, near as I can tell, investing in credit default swaps and deriivatives.  At least its going down while everything else in going up. The lesson is, they keep changing the Pacific Life web site so I can no longer use it. Once again, change for change's sake.  They're like bureaucrats, these iT guys, who have to keep their jobs.  I have a proposal:  Hire them not as employees but as one-time web designers as my brillian daughter, Carole, did.  She 's NCFurnitureAdvisor.com and her IT work is great.  And for good.