Vote "against"? -- Not "for"?

I received a piece of unsolicited mail today that is so very typical of the political ads today: "SHE'S NOT ON OUR SIDE!" It took me a while to figure out who this person was that wasn't on my side and who was responsible for the mailing. Tiny 5 point type along the fold said it was paid for by one of the two major parties and the candidate (whoever that is; I haven't a clue) did not approve of nor was responsible for the ad.

So many of our ads these days are just telling me not to vote for someone and how many terrible things that person has done. There's very little mention of why I should vote for anyone. And the negative ads are pretty non-partisan. And the national party committees are paying for more of the negative ads than the candidates are.

This sort of campaign makes me want to vote against them all. Maybe I'll just vote out all the incumbents. That's not really a good idea, but right now it doesn't seem like such a bad one, either.

Live like you were dying...

There's a tune on the radio (Delilah's show actually) about a guy who gets bad news from his doctor. His friend asks him what he did when he found out and he listed the many things he did because he "lived like he was dying."

I went to a memorial gathering for the husband of a good friend. He was only 60 but because he'd smoked for years and chewed tobacco, he got esophageal cancer. It took a lot of months of chemo and radiation, and they thought they'd beat it. His esophagus was clear; he could eat again. But then the cancer turned up in his brain. The chemo is poison and supposed to kill the cancer. It's also hard on the body. He lost ground so thoroughly that, once he actually "gave up" it only took a few days for him to die.

So, let it be a lesson to us all, live like you were dying. Be the friend/sibling/child/parent/spouse you always thought you should be. Resentments are really meaningless to the person you resent and serve mostly to waste your time and energy. Forgive and live. Love everyone you know. Go where you've always wanted to go. Do things you've only thought of doing. Try something new and don't worry about whether you can or not. Just try it.

The a news article on comcast.net with photos of a major snow storm around the Great Lakes region is a perfect example of why the Minnesota Twins should have stayed at the Metrodome, with it's indoor atmosphere, protected from the elements. The Detroit-located game of the World Series, played October 13, was moved from evening to afternoon because of the snow falling on the open-air field.

The Twins are based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. What makes them think it won't be cold in the spring and fall when their games begin and end? What makes them think their fans won't complain about the weather? I watched two games this summer in the Dome and thoroughly enjoyed sitting inside where it was cool (very hot outside) for one and dry (rained during game but dry when we left) for the other.

This is posted by someone who could potentially be required to pay for a second Twins stadium only about 20 years after the first one was built.

Columbus Day in America

Isn't it odd that we Americans have a day to celebrate the man in charge of the landing of a trio of boats which were lost. They thought they had landed in India.