A Tribute to Mediocrity

"Only the mediocre can always be at their best."

As heard on Car Talk on National Public Radio.

Remember Willy Loman?

"For a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine."

The character Willy Loman from Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman"

Top Ten Ways to Increase Church Attendance

Tonight's "Top Ten List" comes to us courtesy of my friend Louie da Garbage Man who found this in the Pope’s garbage and sent it to his cousin, who sent it to his uncle, who sent it to his bookie, who sent it to me . . . .

From the home office in Vatican City . . .

Number 10: New rule: No more Broccoli on Fridays during Lent

Number 9. Official language of the church now igPay atinLay

Number 8. Services piped on closed circuit TV to nearest Sports Bar

Number 7. Priests to be addressed as “dad”

Number 6. Bible replaced with “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”

Number 5. Sins can be redeemed with Betty Crocker coupons

Number 4. No more nuns – bunnies!

Number 3. For each parishioner: Christmas bonus checks!

Number 2. Communion to feature bratwurst and beer

And tonight's number one way to increase church attendance . . .

Next Pope will be Jewish!

Originally written for Pastor Chuck Merkner's 20th anniversary at Messiah Lutheran Church in Wauconda, IL in February, 2006.

On Chicago's Bid for the Olympics

Excerpts from the weekly podcast of NPR commentator Frank Deford:

Poor Chicago, odds-on favorite to host the Games in 2016, is thrown out on its keister by the International Olympic Committee, a cabal that loathes the United States only slightly less than do the Taliban and Roman Polanski.

As for that quadrennial global reality show, Chicago's abject rejection is no one's fault here - not the President's, not Oprah's; for once we can't even blame the Cubs. Rather, the greasy antics of the International Olympic Committee make Chicago's own fabled politics look by comparison like Periclean Athens. The IOC members still hold it against the United States that the Atlanta Olympics were so tacky, and that the Salt Lake City Olympics highlighted the IOC corruption that has so often attended the selection of host cities.

Forget it, America; any US metropolis that may be pondering a bid for the 2012 Olympics would be more wisely advised to petition St. Augustine to become the designated City of God. It would have a much better chance to earn that distinction.

"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."

"Lies are a lubricant in the social machine. They ease the friction when two moving parts mesh imperfectly."

From Babel's Fall'n Glory We Fled, Michael Swanwick

A Good Word: Poignant

1 : pungently pervasive
2 a (1) : painfully affecting the feelings : piercing (2) : deeply affecting : touching b : designed to make an impression : cutting
3 a : pleasurably stimulating b : being to the point : apt

synonyms see pungent, moving

---

I have recently gotten onto Facebook and have connected with a friend from grade school (who I had lunch with today) and another from high school. I graduated high school 35 years ago, and have now had various memories brought back into focus from 1974 and earlier. The word poignant - as in both painfully affecting the feelings and deeply affecting/touching - seems to fit the bill as the perfect word to use.

Here am I, from 1972, ready to take on the world! Notice the smile . . .

We Interrupt This Broadcast . . .Breaking News!

But only good news! My son Tim passed his Paramedic exams, and daughter Amy and son-in-law Matt have successfully bid on a house!

Lord, I feel old . . . great!

Words To Live By?

“Any idiot can face a crisis; it is this day-to-day living that wears you out.”

Writer Anton Chekov

“One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.”

Author May Sarton

“Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.”

“The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.”

Philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli

This Guy Got It Right

"There is no fun in doing nothing when you have nothing to do. … Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen."

English author and Dramatist Jerome K. Jerome

How Soon They Grow Up

That's what everyone tells you . . . and it's true. Tim and Amy in this photo, the day after Amy's wedding. The "shutter shades" went with the 80's band that rocked the reception. "XC" on Tim's shirt means "cross country"; the "W" stands for Wauconda. Get the message?

Note the talented beer bottle grip that holds not only the bottle, but also the cap.

Gotta luv em!

You Am What You Is

"Homo sapiens [are] a tiny twig on an improbable branch of a contingent limb on a fortunate tree."

Naturalist and Science Writer Stephen Jay Gould

A Study in Opposites

"No matter how much a woman loved a man, it would still give her a glow to see him commit suicide for her."

American Satirist H. L. Mencken

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being an ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with the passion to put use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints—I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..."

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

(Public domain. )

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay
I saw that name in print today
Some notes about the Sonnet form
Ten syllables; that is the norm
But not for me

A Poem: Foreseeing

Foreseeing

by Sharon Bryan

Middle age refers more
to landscape than to time:
it's as if you'd reached

the top of a hill
and could see all the way
to the end of your life,

so you know without a doubt
that it has an end—
not that it will have,

but that it does have,
if only in outline—
so for the first time

you can see your life whole,
beginning and end not far
from where you stand,

the horizon in the distance—
the view makes you weep,
but it also has the beauty

of symmetry, like the earth
seen from space: you can't help
but admire it from afar,

especially now, while it's simple
to re-enter whenever you choose,
lying down in your life,

waking up to it
just as you always have—
except that the details resonate

by virtue of being contained,
as your own words
coming back to you

define the landscape,
remind you that it won't go on
like this forever.

"Foreseeing" by Sharon Bryan,
from Flying Blind. © Sarabande Books, 1996.

And Now, the Happy News

Weighing in at Weight Watcher's today . . . total lost to date: 20 pounds!

Still workin' out, and still feelin' good!

Since I've been watching my weight (in earnest) I've gone from 292 on my home scale to 265, but I started WW after I had already started losing weight. That accounts for the difference.

So, 8 more pounds to go until I reach my 10% (and initial) target. The rest of the targets go like this: haven't been below 260 for four years or so; haven't been below 250 for probably 16 years (since I worked at Kemper Insurance); haven't been below 240 in even longer. My doctor set my target at 235 (back four years ago or so); he thought that would be about the best I could hope for, without training for marathons. But, while my two bad hips won't let me run, I am working out, so perhaps it's not out of the question to drop below that.

Looking back to April I see that I've taken a while to get to this point, so I won't try to rush the remainder, which I think is the correct thing to do. Guess we'll see, in about a year or so!

I Do Most Of My Work Sitting Down

"I do most of my work sitting down; that's where I shine."
- Humorist Robert Benchley


I do most of my work sitting down, as I
Am a computer programmer. Not
A desirable job, to say the least, rather
I consider myself to be just another

Tradesman, plying his trade like any
Other would do, driving nails, bending
Pipe (of one variety or another), tarring
Roofs of buildings, plowing furrows . . .

A computer is just another tool,
Is it not? Like a hammer, a saw, an anvil
(Though perhaps much more like an anvil
Or an anchor than I’d like it to be.)

Some days, like today, I rather wish I
Was Garrison Keillor, Teller of Tales
Of Lake Wobegon, or Harry Connick, Jr.,
A Singer of Popular Songs . . . but I’m not.

Not that I don’t shine, sometimes;
Sometimes I impress with the speed
At which I pound out code, fingers
Lighting the keyboard on fire, Logic

Firing on all synapses, it’s all there
Before me, like the world laid out at
The feet of Christ himself. For a time
I have it All Together; I am Happy.

Arbeit Macht Frei, nicht? A Self-
Sacrifice in the form of endless labor.
Or should a sign be posted:
Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here.

For this is not the sacrifice Christ
Made for us; the means of salvation.
This is the sacrifice of time away from
Those we love, to be able to support

Those we love. And realizing that, it
Seems evident and obvious that
I cannot really be Happy, even in
The minor successes of working.

But I am often Happy sitting down
Wife next to me on the sofa, watching
Dancing with the Stars, rubbing her
Feet, and, quietly, loving her.


© 2007 Mark Dopita

Today's Weight Watchers . . . Hooray!

Yes, the results are in. My Weight Watchers weigh-in this morning showed me down a full four pounds! At home, where I weigh myself each day, I dropped below 270 yesterday (269.4). So, excellent progress is being made! Is it possible that I could soon approach the 260 mark? I'll give it six to eight weeks . . .

It's Election Night!

Here in Island Lake and Wauconda. I don't have any results yet, but can comment on one thing: the advisory referendum to build the Illinois Route 53 extension through Lake County appears to be passing about three to one. Perhaps this means that "53" will be built, after all. I had thought it was dead-and-forgotten until I saw signs for the referendum during the past six weeks or so.

I'll comment on some of the results as they become available . . .

And I only have a couple of comments: I'm happy with our choice of mayor and trustees, generally. My advice to them would be to make sure we have good police and fire protection; make sure the garbage is picked up; make sure we have a clean water and sewer systems; continue to provide some pre-school and park board programs. If you do so, you'll be re-elected.

Route 53 was approved (as I noted above) but there are really no plans yet in place to build it. It doesn't mean too much to me, except that its future path crosses my route to work.

Participation was pitiful - 16% in Lake County; probably no better in McHenry county. I, personally, have voted in every election since I was old enough to vote. I wish everyone did.

I Fell Off the Plateau!

Okay, I guess I wrote yesterday's post a day early. This morning, when I stepped on WII Fit, I found I had lost 2 pounds! That's the breakthrough I've been waiting for. If I drop just over two more I'll be down below 270 for the first time in four years or so. And when I'm down below 270 it's on to 260!

To be perfectly honest, the lowest I've been for years was my low point four years ago - 258. Since I switched jobs - I've been at my current job for 16 years - I haven't been below 250. My long-term goal for this year (and on through the future) is to get down to 235. I haven't been there for 20 years, or so.

Weight Watchers sets intermediate goals of 5% and 10%. My 5% goal is 14 pounds; I may get there this week when I weight in. The 20% goal gets me down to 260, right near my "historic low".

I can only pray that I don't lose focus; keep workin' out and keep eatin' smart.

Plateau . . . 'd (A Weight Watchers Word)

For the last ten days or so I've stayed in a one-pound weight range. No real progress, though the Weight Watcher's scale did show me down .6 pounds from the previous week. This morning, though, no change at all from yesterday. Could this be a sign of good things to come?

I reviewed my Weight Watcher's log, and have found that while I've lost weight every week except one, I lose much more every other week. On the even weeks I'm down a total of 3 pounds, while on the odd weeks I've lost a total of 9 pounds. Seems to be a pattern - one I hope repeats itself this coming week!

Oh, and for you Weight Watcher purists, I realize that a plateau isn't considered to be in place unless your average weight loss is .5 pounds per week or less (since joining the program) and your weight hasn't changed for several weeks. So I guess this is a "mini-plateau".