We’re all aware of how many use social media to inform us of every twist and turn in their lives – or to foment revolutions – but this week I became aware of its healing power, at least in a small way.
A Facebook friend posted a rather alarming report from the hospital. He had undergone a heart operation a while back, but chest pains had returned, and he was actually wondering if he were going to die. Almost instantly, his friends responded, saying they were praying for him, etc. – but one in particular had been through exactly the same thing and advised him to stay calm, because fear only makes things worse, especially for heart patients. My friend was released from the hospital the next day and was full of gratitude for all the good wishes and advice, which had calmed him down to the point where the doctors (among the best in the country for heart issues) could let him go home.
Another FB friend reported a death in his family. In this case as well, his friends responded quickly with comforting words.
Before social media, these individuals might have had to call their friends one-by-one and relive their woes over and over.
On a more mundane level, I’ve seen people report all kinds of problems trying to fix a broken appliance or navigate paperwork, and in just about every case, one of their FB friends has been there and done it, and shares the wisdom needed for the fix.
Many of us have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. I don’t know exactly what this Timeline business is for, and wish Mr. Zuckerberg would just leave things alone. A young lady I know was hopping mad that Timeline apparently re-published photos from past years of ex-boyfriends, and she had to go back in and delete what she had previously removed.
But for me, FB has had an important benefit. I do most of my work at home now, which means I have no co-workers, and I’d probably have gone batty months ago were it not for the ability to talk with friends and former colleagues. And being an old radio person, I discovered I still have a critical need for something I thought I could do without: an audience.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Real People
Just what does Mitt Romney have to do to convince the population that he’s human?
Many people think his problem is that he’s rich, and the average bear can’t identify with him. What we have heahhh, as the old “Cool Hand Luke” line goes, is a failure to communicate, but it’s not about money.
By the time most people get to the point where they can run for President, they have money – they just about have to have it. In the case of most, they were born into average circumstances and became financial successes. Romney’s a different case, some will say, because he was born into it and has no concept of what it’s like to struggle. But that’s not it, either. FDR’s family wasn’t poor, nor was JFK’s, but both men were effective communicators who were able to convince people to elect them.
Clothing has nothing to do with it. Steve Jobs didn’t wear ties to Apple conferences but was CEO of what now appears to be the world’s most successful company. And then there’s Michael Moore, who shows up for national interviews in T-shirts and baseball caps. He can buy and sell the average bear about 20 times over, but said bear doesn’t hold that against him. But no matter how “down” Romney tries to dress, no matter how far he rolls up his sleeves, he just isn’t going to be “one of us.” At least not that way.
A little story: Many years ago, my wife and I were at a party in another state. A woman we knew distantly was there. She was a very pretty brunette, with nice dress, figure, etc., but for me at least, the “attractor factor” wasn’t quite there -- why, I don’t know. Anyway, about halfway through, she slumped to the floor, and people rushed to her aid. The general conclusion was that she was tired, or had too much to drink. I never knew what the issue was -- she revived quickly, and as I recall, resumed conversations with people. I joked later that her batteries ran out and she just needed a charge.
Which brings us back to Romney. It isn’t wealth. It’s not dress. He’s an articulate speaker. He knows his stuff. He has the qualifications to be President. So if you were one of his handlers, what would you tell him he needed to do to connect with voters?
Don’t look at me, I don’t have a clue.
Many people think his problem is that he’s rich, and the average bear can’t identify with him. What we have heahhh, as the old “Cool Hand Luke” line goes, is a failure to communicate, but it’s not about money.
By the time most people get to the point where they can run for President, they have money – they just about have to have it. In the case of most, they were born into average circumstances and became financial successes. Romney’s a different case, some will say, because he was born into it and has no concept of what it’s like to struggle. But that’s not it, either. FDR’s family wasn’t poor, nor was JFK’s, but both men were effective communicators who were able to convince people to elect them.
Clothing has nothing to do with it. Steve Jobs didn’t wear ties to Apple conferences but was CEO of what now appears to be the world’s most successful company. And then there’s Michael Moore, who shows up for national interviews in T-shirts and baseball caps. He can buy and sell the average bear about 20 times over, but said bear doesn’t hold that against him. But no matter how “down” Romney tries to dress, no matter how far he rolls up his sleeves, he just isn’t going to be “one of us.” At least not that way.
A little story: Many years ago, my wife and I were at a party in another state. A woman we knew distantly was there. She was a very pretty brunette, with nice dress, figure, etc., but for me at least, the “attractor factor” wasn’t quite there -- why, I don’t know. Anyway, about halfway through, she slumped to the floor, and people rushed to her aid. The general conclusion was that she was tired, or had too much to drink. I never knew what the issue was -- she revived quickly, and as I recall, resumed conversations with people. I joked later that her batteries ran out and she just needed a charge.
Which brings us back to Romney. It isn’t wealth. It’s not dress. He’s an articulate speaker. He knows his stuff. He has the qualifications to be President. So if you were one of his handlers, what would you tell him he needed to do to connect with voters?
Don’t look at me, I don’t have a clue.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
The Character Thing
Looks like it’s time for the quadrennial discussion about the character of our next President, and whether a track record of marital cheating is cause to conclude a candidate isn’t qualified to run the country. All things being equal, it’s clear to me that a clean record in this area is important. Trouble is, all things aren’t.
Rick Perry says if a man will cheat on his wife, he will cheat on his business partner. The buzzer’s going off on that one – it’s wrong. Those are two entirely different things. There are plenty of examples of swindlers and scam artists who have impeccable family values.
My problem with extramarital behavior on the part of a candidate – or a sitting President, for that matter – is that it’s a security risk. If a President fools around, as Bill Clinton did, he is, by the very act, supplying someone else with damaging personal information about himself. What is the other individual going to do with it? Blackmail? Give it to foreign agents? These are extremes, which – fortunately – Monica Lewinsky apparently wasn’t interested in. But when the information came out, it did seriously limit President Clinton’s effectiveness, and the political fallout wasted a lot of time.
Is a President’s hanky-panky anyone’s business? Absolutely. What would the cable news operations have done with JFK’s activities? Or Eisenhower’s? or FDR’s? Plenty! And how effective would they have been after that?
One of my favorite sayings is, “Every saint has a past and every sinner a future.” Bill Clinton, for example, walks on water now – but are Republicans – or other voters – willing to give Newt Gingrich a pass?
It seems the only way to handle the character thing is to assign a value to it, making it like a credit score element – paying bills on time, 30 percent, proportion of balance to credit line, 20 percent, something like that.
I’ve always believed that we elect human beings to office, not simply positions on issues. The issues that are top-of-mind now may not be there several years from now – but we’re still stuck with our choice till the end of the next term. So we’d best try to get it right.
Rick Perry says if a man will cheat on his wife, he will cheat on his business partner. The buzzer’s going off on that one – it’s wrong. Those are two entirely different things. There are plenty of examples of swindlers and scam artists who have impeccable family values.
My problem with extramarital behavior on the part of a candidate – or a sitting President, for that matter – is that it’s a security risk. If a President fools around, as Bill Clinton did, he is, by the very act, supplying someone else with damaging personal information about himself. What is the other individual going to do with it? Blackmail? Give it to foreign agents? These are extremes, which – fortunately – Monica Lewinsky apparently wasn’t interested in. But when the information came out, it did seriously limit President Clinton’s effectiveness, and the political fallout wasted a lot of time.
Is a President’s hanky-panky anyone’s business? Absolutely. What would the cable news operations have done with JFK’s activities? Or Eisenhower’s? or FDR’s? Plenty! And how effective would they have been after that?
One of my favorite sayings is, “Every saint has a past and every sinner a future.” Bill Clinton, for example, walks on water now – but are Republicans – or other voters – willing to give Newt Gingrich a pass?
It seems the only way to handle the character thing is to assign a value to it, making it like a credit score element – paying bills on time, 30 percent, proportion of balance to credit line, 20 percent, something like that.
I’ve always believed that we elect human beings to office, not simply positions on issues. The issues that are top-of-mind now may not be there several years from now – but we’re still stuck with our choice till the end of the next term. So we’d best try to get it right.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Howdy, Neighbor
NASA revealed this week that there’s a planet out there that seems to have a really good chance of supporting life. For the moment, at least, it has the unromantic name Kepler 22B. It’s about twice as big as Earth, but lies within a reasonable distance of the star around which it revolves, and the surface temperature is said to average around 72 degrees. The next trick is to find out if there’s water on it, which could be a clue as to whether it supports life.
While this is quite a discovery, it’s not exactly breaking news, cosmically speaking. Kepler 22B is some 600 light-years away from here, which means whatever our space telescopes can see happened about 600 years ago – relatively close, though, in space terms.
If you think about it logically, considering the size of the universe, the odds are much better than even that there is life on other planets. Does it have to look like us? Does it matter?
I have no doubt there are other beings out there, and I don’t have a problem with that. When I was about eight years old and the original version of the movie “Invaders From Mars” was released, many of my friends were running screaming from the theater when the aliens appeared, but I sat there and watched the whole thing without flinching.
We continue to wait for proof of alien contact, but it’s very possible they’ve already been here. After creating a few crop circles, drawing giant figures in the Peruvian desert and helping with a Stonehenge or two, maybe most got bored and moved on. But I wish those still arriving would pick better places to land. A few years ago, when I worked in radio news in Southern California, a guy called me on the phone and said that a UFO had landed in front of him one night on a lonely stretch of Interstate 10 between Indio and Blythe. I had no reason to disbelieve him, except that he had no proof. With everyone armed with smart phones, the aliens couldn’t get away with that now. If we aspire to a little intergalactic tourism, why shouldn’t they enjoy it?
Not to go Biblical on you, but it’s documented in the New Testament that Jesus said, “Other sheep have I that are not of this fold.” Most of you will say, of course, that’s not what he was talking about.
Really?
While this is quite a discovery, it’s not exactly breaking news, cosmically speaking. Kepler 22B is some 600 light-years away from here, which means whatever our space telescopes can see happened about 600 years ago – relatively close, though, in space terms.
If you think about it logically, considering the size of the universe, the odds are much better than even that there is life on other planets. Does it have to look like us? Does it matter?
I have no doubt there are other beings out there, and I don’t have a problem with that. When I was about eight years old and the original version of the movie “Invaders From Mars” was released, many of my friends were running screaming from the theater when the aliens appeared, but I sat there and watched the whole thing without flinching.
We continue to wait for proof of alien contact, but it’s very possible they’ve already been here. After creating a few crop circles, drawing giant figures in the Peruvian desert and helping with a Stonehenge or two, maybe most got bored and moved on. But I wish those still arriving would pick better places to land. A few years ago, when I worked in radio news in Southern California, a guy called me on the phone and said that a UFO had landed in front of him one night on a lonely stretch of Interstate 10 between Indio and Blythe. I had no reason to disbelieve him, except that he had no proof. With everyone armed with smart phones, the aliens couldn’t get away with that now. If we aspire to a little intergalactic tourism, why shouldn’t they enjoy it?
Not to go Biblical on you, but it’s documented in the New Testament that Jesus said, “Other sheep have I that are not of this fold.” Most of you will say, of course, that’s not what he was talking about.
Really?
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