The War Horse

Last night as I was watching the news on television, the usual reports came blaring out of the tube including a murder in another part of the county, a fire that killed a family of three, and ongoing attempts to catch the vandals in our town who are breaking car windows. My daughter just came right out and said," I don't think I'll even bother with watching the news anymore. It's always the same thing just a different day." Based on what I'm reading of Thoreau, ole Henry would have felt the same way, and for a similar reason.Here is a direct quote from Walden---

" And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat blown up, or one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter,- we need never read of another. One is enough. If you get acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications?"

If poor Henry thought that about newspapers just think of what he would say about the countless hours that Americans and their kids spend watching television! I think that Henry would say that reality learned from watching TV and reading newspapers is not reality at all, and we should go out and experience life for ourselves. No more American Idol, dear, pass the Iliad please!

A fellow that I see most days when I walk was coming towards me the other day, and when he got close enough said" I knew it was you from a hundred yards away. I can recognize people by their gait now." He said that almost in passing, so there was no way to question him further about the characteristics of my gait, but it made me start observing others, and there are a few notable ones that I'll mention. Have you ever seen someone who can walk faster than they can run? One fellow at the course should bring a CPR Team with him! I pray that he falls down on the opposite end of the course from me when the time comes. The best I can do is let him use my cell phone to call the ambulance. Then there are the young women who run with their baby carriages out front and pass me like I'm standing still. The most embarassing is a woman who long ago passed 80 and waves good morning as she WALKS by me!( I'm going to trip her one of these days, and run to my car!On second thought, she would just jump up, catch me, and then use a flying leg kick to my head for the final death blow.) I guess the walking and running styles of all these folks is only surpassed in interest by what they choose to wear, but that's a topic for another day. Slow down, Myrtle, or you'll run over the boy!

I was in the parking lot at the bank today, and parked next to a slick looking scooter with the name "Vespa" on the side. Its owner just happened to be walking over to it , so I had a chance to ask him a few questions. He said that it had an automatic transmission with only one continuous gear, and it could go up to 60 miles per hour! He must be a smart guy, because he said that he only runs errands on it and stays off the big highways. If you ask me, scooters and motorcycles are like pedestrians walking at warp speed with little protection at all. Little old ladies can't see Mack trucks, much less motorcycles! My own motorcycle days ended when I was riding a Honda 90, and a girl about 4'10" pulled up next to me on a Harley Davidson at a major intersection on a busy highway. That was the longest stoplight I've ever experienced! People went into cardiac arrest from pointing and laughing so hard. To this day I'm worried that someone took a picture that will make it to the Internet.

" Our life is frittered away by detail."

--- Henry David Thoreau

See you later.

Tim