My baby graduates from high school today.

My youngest daughter graduates from high school today. It seems like yesterday she was screaming bloody murder after unloading in her diaper. I don’t know where the time went or even how I got to this place. The clock ticks faster and faster with age. I’ve thought about my words of wisdom as she parts from her childhood, but I think my words already are part of her. I couldn’t ask for a better daughter and am proud of the young woman she has become. When she goes to college in the fall I will miss her. What I won't miss is the piles of laundry outside her door, as if she has a maid service. I won’t miss waking to the music of Snoop Dog thumping from her room. I won't miss the extra dents and scratches on the car. Empty potato chip bags and unsealed cereal boxes won’t be in the cupboard. Discarded shoes won’t sit at the bottom of the stairs for me to trip over at night. The washing machine will work normal again. I won’t have to watch another minute of Teenage Moms, The Bad Girls Club, and Jersey Shore. God it will be peaceful, maybe too peaceful.

Why do we idolize freaks?

I am struck lately by the absurdity of the freaks plastered all around us in the news, the Internet, and television. They parade around with crazy hair and bazaar body modifications. The world idolizes these circus sideshows flashing their skin, wearing outrageous costumes (sometimes no costumes) simply because they can sing or act, maybe even both, or just because they have a large behind. We throw money at these people like they are gods. Our children watch with mouths agape dreaming of becoming the next Lady Gaga. Ooh . . . isn't she wonderful. We've created a culture of extremes pushing the envelop further and higher. Is there a point where we say no more, when we shun the flunkey with blue hair and yellow teeth? I don't know. Maybe with age there is wisdom. I wish the world would calm down for a minute, where being normal was normal.

Cell phone robots. . .

Have you noticed people walking around with their heads down, staring at their palms, as if they were magically reading the future? They look like robots walking down the street, weaving and bobbing, just missing light posts, trashcans, and an occasional bum. They look startled when they realize they just entered an intersection when the red hand on the light was beaming at them. What are these people doing? They're looking at their cell phone. They sit down to eat with their phone on the table so they can't miss an important text or Scrabble opponent's move. Try to have a conversation with these people. They're constantly looking down at their phone. Are they even listening to you? I hear it's the new fad for third graders to have their own phone. The GPS tracks their every move. Mommy needs to know where Junior is at every second. When I grew up the last thing in the world I would have wanted was for my parents to call me. If I had a cell phone, I would have thrown it out of the window of my car while driving down the freeway, listening to Led Zeppelin, at eighty miles an hour. Only the Lord knows what I was doing at sixteen. It was easy to say, "Sorry, I'm late, Dad. I couldn't find a pay phone. I ran out of gas and had to walk to a gas station that was ten miles down the road in a blizzard." Then there's the whole cancer buzz. When my cell phone gets to close to my clock radio it starts to speak in tongues that only an exorcist could cure. I'm sure whatever causes that can't be good for you. What I wonder is what comes next? Phones can't get any smaller, unless you get corneal implants that cause you to see like you were looking through a microscope. I heard they are developing a chip that will hold one million songs on your phone. Has anyone done the math on how long it would take you to listen to every song? Not to mention, buy them. I think you get my point. When do we stop being robots and become human again?

Well . .  . got to go. Someone is ringing. I have a few texts to answer, need to post to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and just crushed someone at Scrabble

A Memorial Day thanks.

While we enjoy a day off from work, have fun at the picnics in the park, the backyard barbecues, and drive home safely from your camping trip. Remember the men and women who are sitting in foxholes on the other side of the world. Give a toast to those who gave their lives so we can be free. Forget the lopsided politicians throwing volleys of epithets at one another to get re-elected. Turn off the talk show hosts who spew venom through the airwaves. We can argue the merits of fighting in three wars (Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya). That's what makes us great. What we can't argue is the sacrifice that is made by the troops and their families who wait with worried breath. I think of my uncle who was taken from his freshman year in college to fight the Germans during World War II. He physically survived, but the mental scars were just as deadly. Think of the soldiers who lined up shoulder to shoulder and marched toward the enemy with bullets flying during the Civil War. Think of the troops at Valley Forge who didn't have proper shoes and died of frostbite, hyperthermia, and starvation.  

Enjoy your hot dog and beer, but say a little prayer for those that made it possible to be free. To the troops, both present and past, thank you for your sacrifice so I can be free.

My guest Author post - check it out!

I recently wrote and article for a fellow book blogger who is also reviewing my novel. You can check out Inga's blog and my article at her site at:  
http://www.ingasilbergbooks.com/2011/05/wednesday-wonderings-1-guest-post-by.html

He is serious this time.

I was just reading the doomsday man, the predictor of the end of the world, the biblical genius who deciphers the word of God, says he was wrong. The world will really end on October 21st. No really, really, really. This time it's for real. No joking. He's not kidding. Just send him some more donations, quit your job, buy some neat tee-shirts and parade around large cities with a sign around your neck stating that you will work for food. Oh sorry . . . wrong bum. Is this guy serious? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion until it hurts someone else. Tell that to the kid who just lost their college fund. The bible says if you touch a pig on the Sabbath the consequences are death by stoning. Nice! I guess we can't play football on Saturday. I know footballs aren't made of pigskin anymore, but you get my point. I guess every kook has his day . . .  or not.

Heaven is a fairy story or end of days?

Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist declared that heaven was a "fairy story". He knows this because he has spent his life thinking about the universe. He has concluded that God does not exist. The atheists are cheering him on. I think Hawking has been staring into space so long he's missed the little things, like a butterfly landing on a flower, the eyes of a newborn baby when they open and gaze upon you for the first time, a rainbow, and sunsets over the Pacific Ocean. Maybe in heaven he can get out of that chair and run. You would think he would hope for that. Here are some questions for you Mr. Hawking: Why is mankind the only creature on earth that loves, cries, feels compassion, builds incredible things, hates, and even kills for no reason? Without the concept of heaven or hell, what's the point? If we are just electrical circuits why do anything? For a genius, he's an idiot, and I wish he would keep his comments to physics.   

Then we have the doomsayers who believe the world is about to end this Saturday, May 21st. It is judgment day or the rapture to those more biblical. That's when the good, the meek, and the blessed go directly to heaven. They don't pass "go" or collect $200 (zing!). Everyone else is subject to fire, floods, and brimstone. The teachers of these beliefs arrived at this date (they've been wrong before) through careful analysis of biblical passages. For thousands of years these folks have predicted the end of times. Some even committed suicide to ride a comet (remember Hale-Bop). I guess that didn't work out so well since the real end of times is this weekend. Then we have the Mayan calendar predicting the end of times as December 12, 2012. Has anyone been to Yucatan and seen what is left of the Mayan civilization? Enough said about their genius. 

Just to be on the safe side, you might want to move up anything you want to do this weekend to Friday.