Happy Valentine's Day (opinionated)

Hi, my Darling,

I just wanted to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day, so I am writing a little early to send you lots of love and extra xxxxxxs and oooooooos too. We did not make it to church this morning because I have a cold. It began yesterday and by last night I was feeling pretty lousy, so I knew I'd better sleep in and not try to go sing. There goes my streak! I had not missed a single week since joining the choir in November 2014, so that's about 63 weeks in a row. Now I'll have to begin a new streak. I hardly ever get sick, especially since I stopped using the public computers at the Oviatt and Northridge libe, and I think this is my first cold in over two years. But I also think my resistance was lowered by breathing all that gas for all those months. Thank goodness they finally turned it off.

Anyhow, last night and today I've just been reading my Van Halen book and enjoying all the stories and info about the early years of the band, long before they were famous. And, I'm feeling a little better already, but it'll probably be tomorrow before I start to feel like my usual self.

I saw your Valentine post, via Clint. That's a nice song he wrote; jazzy, with a little bit of an Eric Johnson feel on the chords. And the message was nice, too.  :):)

I am at home right now. Gonna relax for about 30 to 45 minutes, then get ready to head back to Pearl's. Probably no walk today, or maybe just a short one. I'll be around most of the afternoon and evening, and I'll write more later at the usual time.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

12:26am : Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby. I hope your day was good. I am feeling better tonight, though still taking it easy. No walk or anything. I am hoping to be back to normal or close to it by tomorrow. I saw your post via Joel Wanasek, and of course I agree wholeheartedly. I have people on my FB feed who post relentlessly about one political gripe or another, or they post a bunch of partisan stuff just one after the other. Usually though, it's negative stuff about what's wrong with the other side.

And I mean, it's relentless. Some of these folks must post this stuff all day long. I basically can't stand politics for this very reason, because it's become just a shrill shouting and finger-pointing match. It reminds me of myself when I was 19 or 20, but even there I feel that my friends and I went about our opinionating with at least some humor or creativity. We basically hated Reagan with a black passion, and I've described before how I thought the Soviet Union was cool and a whole bunch of dumb stuff like that.......

But it was never that black and white with me, even when I said that it was. I guess I was using polemics to try and show that I had a Stance On Things.

"Reagan Sucks! All you adults are wrong"!

And Reagan did suck, as President, in a lot of ways. I would never have voted for him, then or now. But as I grew up (or maybe just got older, haha), I slowly became aware that I did not enjoy arguing with people, or trying to prove myself right and somebody else wrong. I discovered that I did not enjoy putting other people down with name calling or labels. It was a long, slow process and it involved a great many shifts in my life. One of the most important was the dawning realisation that I did not Know Everything There Was To Know, as I was so certain I did in my 20s.

But mostly is was also a growing sense of compassion that arose out of tough times in my own life, that I didn't want to be derisive of people any more. It was never my nature in the first place, I was not that way as a child, and if I was opinionated or boastful as a young man, it was more out of a sense of having just discovered The Outrages Of The World. That, and coming into my own personality in my 20s, and wanting to add a touch of personality and humor to my opinions, which were many in those days.

Nowdays, I don't have as many opinions as I once did. I mean, I have certain opinions about politics and culture and pretty much any subject you care to name.

But I'm not so Absolutely Certain That I'm Right anymore. Because compassion has taken over. That does not, in any way, make me a saint or anything even close. But it's as if The Holy Spirit placed the compassion in me, because I want to see the decency in people even when I don't like what they do or don't agree with them about anything.

I don't like the idea of Donald Trump running for President, for instance. He seems a boorish man, even though he may just be playing that role to clear the Republican field for Hillary Clinton. But regardless, I don't like his persona, nor those of many of the men in the Republican field.

But you know who I don't like just as much? All the shrill, finger-pointing, foul-mouthed people on the left, who use all kinds of epithets and brute force accusations in their diatribes against the Right.

I am not a Right Winger, and I find the idea of a Ted Cruz for President just as frightening as these people do, but I was raised in an era when the idea of brotherhood was promoted in America, in the public school systems of the 1960s. And I don't mean forced brotherhood, either. Without getting racial, because I am not that way, even this baloney about racial diversity at the Oscars is a load of crap. If you want to get nominated for an Oscar, make a great movie or play a great role, period. Stop performing in race-oriented roles that dumb down and demean black people.

Sorry, but I grew up during the 1960s, when black culture was at it's peak in every art form, and even black radicals aspired to be intellectual and inspiring. Beyonce thinks she knows about Black Panthers? She doesn't know anything.

Remember my Dad's famous maxim : "Everyone is NOT entitled to their opinion".

Dad was blunt, and he would tell you, in words more direct than mine, that the reason Everyone Is NOT Entitled To Their Opinon is because......(ahem).....their opinons are not well thought out.

Dad would say it differently, and so would have I at 20 or 25 years old.

And I would still agree with Dad, though I wouldn't be so blunt anymore. And that's because I just don't wanna be a devicive person. Politics is petty stuff when all you have to do is look up in the sky at night to see how enormous the Universe is, and to feel God, and to know how important life is.

And the most important thing in life is love. Love and caring. It doesn't mean we are all Dr. Leo Buscaglia, but it means that if we can feel these things in our souls, then we should think twice before slamming our opinions and hurt feelings down the throats of others, with the easy wall of the Internet to hide behind.

That's why I stay out of it. I mean, I would anyway, because all this political stuff just doesn't interest me, other than whom I'm gonna vote for. But mostly, I just don't wanna deal in negative energy. Period.

Life is too enormous, too filled with wonder and magic, to waste one's time, I believe.

So what I do is ignore it and keep to my own thoughts, and to the thoughts and observations of those who are important to me.

And that's all I know for tonight.

Sleep well, Sweet Baby. I Love You and will see you in the morn.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)