“Divorce is the one human tragedy that reduces everything to cash." Rita Mae Brown 1944-, Amer. writer

It's that infamous word that rocks and destroys our culture—Divorce. The single mom with several kids trying to make a go of it; a single dad try to raise a daughter and has no clue as to how he will handle the teenage years. How did it start? Were the two people who said, "I do" one moment, entirely wrong several years later? Did the luster wear off? Did the music stop playing? Did we make a mistake and when did we notice it?

What about the children? What about them? I have my own happiness to be concerned about. He/she doesn't love me anymore. I don't love him/her. I can't stand him/her. He/she doesn't understand me. I just want to get out. What about the children? What about them? So many questions, too few answers.

They will learn to understand, or will they? They children will never understand—nor will their grandparents who saw all this unfolding but were powerless. Powerless, as in stopping an avalanche or stopping a ship about to run aground. What happened to all the happy moments of the marriage, were they swept under the rug? Who should get the award for "best actor" or "best actress"? What will the children get? Nightmares and more nightmares! They're too young to understand, they are too fragile, they will get swept under the rug as well.

K.

“People can cry much easier than they can change.” James Baldwin, 1924-1987, American author

I had the opportunity, in an attempt at avoiding a freeway traffic jam, to travel down an inner city avenue. On the corner here and there one can find the icons of another era, monuments to commercial practices and history; the failed banks and saving and loans. Their names are still clearly seen chiseled in the mantels overhanging the doorways—The Washington Bank or Union Federal Savings & Loan. Names long forgotten in Cleveland history, but perhaps remembered by second generation victims of the Great Depression—the children of the original depositors, now in their eighties or nineties.

The artisans of the 1920’s built these tall, imposing sandstone and granite structures. Their high vaulted, sometime domed, ceilings add to their aurora. They were built to last for generations, and so they have, well into the twenty-first century. Even now, they clearly dominate the landscape and are easy to distinguish from their surroundings. They also represent a failed understanding of commerce and capitalism, as well as the principals of overextension of credit and prudent accounting practices.

These massive buildings became too expensive to tear down and lay waste and were used for businesses other than banking. When the national economy returned to normal they became office building, retail stores or social service agency headquarters. They are joined by other structures in the inner city, the four or five bay service station. Architects, engineered to provide a complete facility for car repairs, designed these as well. They replaced the small building or shed with an outdoor hydraulic lift. These were the last word in the automotive service world, the epitome of convenience. Now they are corner grocery stores or beauty shops.

In this mix are the churches of yesteryear; easily recognizable by their tall gothic spires and sandstone adornments. Some have been passed down from mainstream congregations to congregation, now residing with bible thumping, evangelical, revivalists. Several mainstreams have held out: namely the Lutherans, Episcopal, Presbyterian and Roman Catholics. The Roman Catholics have chosen to be next on the list to consider changing the nature of their edifices, through the combination congregations and some abandonment of too costly houses of worship.

The residence of that era would not recognize their world today. They would be shocked and perhaps disappointed in its evolution. The question we could rightfully ask is; “what could we expect to happen to our neighborhood in the next seventy-five years?” Would the areas of entertainment, religion, commence or government fall victim to the whim of change? Would we as Rip Van Winkel awaken to a world foreign to us? Would the things we value in this world be useless in the next? Things change and we are not always happy with the change,
K.

"Knowledge and human power are synonymous," Francis Bacon 1561-1626

Are we really careful about our personal life? Have we exposed ourselves so freely that everybody and anybody can find out anything about us? Case in point: MySpace, YouTube, et.al. We give information freely, so freely that our best friend wouldn't know as much about us as these organization and we have been the chief contributor of that information.

Some may say this is on the fringe of paranoia, others may say we haven't gone far enough in reveling our inner self, of self expression and other Sigmund Freud buzzwords. "Be open, don't shirk away," they say. Meanwhile the cascade of information about us tends to accumulate in some far reaching databank in the vastness of this world (old or new). Would we be interested in the last website that our favorite famous person had last visited? Would we have the same admiration for them if we learned they were completely computer illiterate? The databank tattler could tell us.

There are spy wares nestled inside your computer that can tell every site you have every visited. I routinely hunt them down and destroy them. What I do is my own business and no one else's; but I may already have been too late. The information may have been already transmitted perhaps while I had written this blog.

The keepers of this demographic wisdom say this information is essential to effectively market the goods of America, to cut down on unnecessary waste and repetition. Get the right stuff to the right people at the right time (in the right quantity). "We have the information here that will tell us what you'll buy before you'll even open your wallet or purse." It is economic prognostication without a crystal ball. Scary stuff huh?

We can open this cornucopia and tell who will be the next President of the United States. Or can we? We thought we could predict that Harry Truman would lose to the Republican candidate; one Chicago newspaper even printed the headline "Dewy Wins!" Truman framed that one. He even displayed it to the very news media that had published his political obituary.

Should you be taken for granted? Strike back! Download a spy ware killer. Let them know they don't need to know, what you know when you knew it.

K