\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Does everyone dream of fame, or at least notoriety?
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0One way to get my name in flashing lights all over big cities would be to change my name to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don’t Walk.” When acknowledged by someone whose name I know, I usually get greeted with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hi, there.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 That’s when I tell the other person I’m planning to change my name to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There,” in order to get acknowledged more often. So the greeting will be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hi, There (with a capital T.)”<\/p>\n
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 One occasion for elation was about nine years ago, when a question I asked Marilyn vos Savant got printed in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Parade” magazine. Marilyn, listed in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Guinness Book of World Records” as having the highest IQ, responded to a question I asked about intelligence.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Part of my question reads: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Why do people assume certain scientists are smarter than other people? We hear expressions like, ‘It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that . . . ‘How come I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘It doesn’t take a journalism teacher (my profession) to realize that . . .’?”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Part of her reply: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I believe the reason . . . is that the terminology used in those sciences is majestic (like galaxies), unfamiliar (like superstring theory) and downright weird (like gauge bosons and fermions and gravitons).” It was flattering to receive phone calls from others who’d read the item in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Parade.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Another letter I wrote, more recently, which didn’t get published, went to Dear Abby. No, I wasn’t asking for advice to the lovelorn; rather, I wrote regarding her yearly Thanksgiving letter, which she sometimes called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a treat to my readers,” about what we ought to be thankful for.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The Thanksgiving column, which appeared Thursday, has been modified somewhat in that it gets away from the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153there are people worse off” tack. The column, now written by her daughter has run for a number of years, since Abigail Van Buren retired.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The former Thanksgiving column got my hackles up because it continually implied that we should be thankful as long as there are people more miserable.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 She used to write:
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How’s your health? Not so good? Well, thank God you’ve lived this long. A lot of people haven’t. You’re hurting? Thousands — maybe millions’ are hurting more.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Is that all it comes down to? What is the latent spirit-lifter involved in simply realizing that we’re better off than someone else?
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 On financial status, Dear Abby wrote:
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How’s your pocketbook? Thin? Well, most of the world is a lot poorer. No pensions. No welfare. No food stamps. No Social Security. In fact, one-third of the people in the world will go to bed hungry tonight.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 On a personal level, Abby makes a point. As a class, we don’t wish illness or poverty to beset us. But I question the lack of altruism implicit in that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stop-complaining” attitude. Bad luck, ill health, impoverishment of people DOES affect me, as it should everyone. Is it wrong not to be satisfied until armies stop killing one another? Is it delusional to believe that John Donne had it all together when he penned the lines, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No man is an island”? Don’t some of us still believe that the bell tolls not only for the unfortunate person who died last night, but for US too?
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Realizing that, by consolidating balances, cashing in an annuity and simply doing without some creature comforts, my family has reduced its number of active credit cards from 17 to ONE. Picking away at the balance for years, we’ve cut our total indebtedness to about one-fourth.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 These are reasons for thanksgiving. We feel good about it, but I still admire my mother, the late Marie Trujillo, who retired ALL of her debts by age 65.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Freedom from debt is a wonderful feeling, but again I beg to differ with Dear Abby, who repeatedly used to admonish her readers to be thankful that legions of people are more impoverished.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Should it come down to that? Should I rejoice in the knowledge that several of my classmates have contracted heart disease or diabetes, whereas I have not? Does gratefulness simply end when we can identify an advantage we have over others?
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I’m appreciative that the current Dear Abby column encourages those of us who \u00e2\u20ac\u0153have” to visit the sick in hospitals, to call someone who’s lonely, to feed someone who’s hungry, as the staff did Thursday at El Sombrero Restaurant.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 For one, I refuse to adopt the attitude that I should be grateful that the pain in my thigh is nothing compared to that of my neighbor who’s wheel-chair bound.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 So, when possible, I hope you and I can actively assist those who would appreciate our help; and whatever we do, let’s not distill the entire notion of thanksgiving to a comparison between ourselves and someone who’s worse off than we.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Does everyone dream of fame, or at least notoriety? \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0One way to get my name in flashing lights all over big cities would be to change my name to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Don’t Walk.” When acknowledged by someone whose name I know, I usually get greeted with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hi, there.” \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 That’s when I tell the other person I’m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}