J, P, G, & R

"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."

The rest of the story.
-bill kenny

From the Beginning

I first started writing this blog on 14 October 2007. I have no idea how many thousands of posts I've created or when/if I'll have nothing left to say, but I'm not there yet (sorry).

Strange how little and yet how much circumstances and times have changed, but somehow also remained the same. It's like the same movie with a different set of characters.

Here's what I wrote about. I called it: 

And to Think that I Saw It on Norwich's Streets

Driving past Washington Street this morning, it looks like a growth industry is the hardware business-selling neighbors large plywood sheets and paint so they can erect signs to yell at one another on the issue of spot zoning.

New signs insisting on the right to do with their property what they wish, possibly from those who've sold options to developers, angry at 'the select few' (as their sign says) who insist this commercial endeavor be turned away.

Another sign boasts about the increase in tax revenues and the additional (service) jobs a new mini-sprawl, I meant mini-mall, will bring to Norwich (even though the pharmacy hailed as 'new' will be the existing one from across town).

Jobs, much like Einstein's matter, can neither be created nor destroyed, at least in development models. If we take six inches from the front of the blanket and put it on the back, the blanket is NOT a foot longer. Let's hope we do NOT need a thirty-seven-minute PowerPoint slide show Monday night at Norwich City Hall for that to be understood.

Everyone's signs ignore, or seem to, our inability to look ahead and plan accordingly.

When you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.
Right now, most of us think any movement, even the circles in which we are turning, is the same thing as direction. 

Most don't know the difference between smart growth and economic development (all ducks ARE birds but not all birds are ducks) and until we learn that, we're fated to waste a lot of time thinking we're having a contest between 'property rights' and 'NIMBY'. It's not really what it's about.

Meanwhile, those whose agenda is not and will NEVER be that of advancement and enhancement of Norwich's economic basis will prosper while residents remain reactive instead of proactive.
-bill kenny

Crisp and Crunchy

We had glorious weather for much of this holiday weekend in my part of the world-not too hot, breezy, no humidity, glorious skies a deeper blue than the ocean, tempered by the realization that Autumn, as wonderful as it is, will not last until the Spring this year.

I had little use for winter even as a kid. I remember living in Belford, New Jersey, with snow in our backyard so deep, it was over my head. I was also a runt, which had something to do with that, I realized (years later). We had a dog, Sandy, a cocker spaniel who absolutely hated me. 

It was a present from Grandma and Grampy, my Mom's parents, and we always pretended how much we loved the dog when they came to see us (neither of my parents liked the dog; I stayed away from it to the point that it was months after we stopped having it that I noticed it was gone).

The house we live in now has a front lawn and a backyard. They were both great to have when our two children were young, as it gave them and their friends someplace else to play. Our kids are adults now, so we spend a lot of time alone, watching the grass grow and cursing the lawn. This time of year we watch the leaves pile up as the season changes, but there are no trees to speak of on our property.

Do you remember those propeller pods from when we were kids? Another great invention by nature to better assure the perpetuation of all the various species of trees-not that we ever saw it that way when we were smaller. There are so many this time of year, and so many of them land on the walk leading to the house that every footfall sounds like you're walking in Rice Krispies.

The squirrels in the neighborhood love the helicopter pods and can tear through them in a blink to get to the seed in the center. The pods are so numerous that the squirrels have actually been leaving the peanuts we throw to them for later while they gorge themselves on the pods. Unfortunately for them, the blue jays are quite happy to eat their share of the peanuts.

It was cold yesterday morning-crisp is a word my father would use, and so do I, in his honor, and that's the signal the next phase of the journey has started. The darkness comes earlier now, and the shadows lengthen sooner as the afternoons move on. 

Soon the winds will shift and more often come out of the north, pick up in speed and intensity, and the simple joy of crunchy sidewalks while out walking will be gone as the animals and birds spend more time gathering and storing food with one eye fixed on the fall skies as a hazy shade of winter creeps inexorably closer.

-bill kenny

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day

When we were kids, Columbus Day was a big deal. In New York City, the Department of Public Works used to paint the white line on Fifth Avenue purple for the annual parade that was always held on the real date of the holiday, October 12. 

In light of so much, I, as a man of seventy-four years plus now, know that as a boy of twelve I didn't know about the Rape of Paradise which ensued after Columbus' arrival; perhaps blood red might have been a better choice of colors. 

All I ever cared about was the day off, just like kids across the country. We all recited the rhyme because that's how we knew what (little) we did know about Columbus and since there wasn't a snappy couplet about genocide, we didn't hear anything about that aspect of discovering the New World (I also don't remember the Arawak natives part, but some of the little gray cells have had some rough days). 

Looking at the world as it is and how all settlement and civilization have developed, I'm not sure it's just Old Chris we should be putting in the defendant's docket and charging. I'm thinking a look in the mirror as well as a glance out a window might increase our catch significantly.

And to compound the cacophony of facts clashing with opinions is the realization that not only did Columbus not discover the New  World, but he wasn't the first. We've spent hundreds of years observing a historical event that is neither historic nor an actual event. Sort of like being the second skinniest Kardashian at a family reunion.

And now, as it's the dot on the "i" in today's holiday, we have another excuse (and sale opportunity) to buy bedding, or is that just me in the last couple of days? I'm not sure there's any more of a connection between one and the other than there was to India from Bermuda back in the day. .        
-bill kenny

There's No Good Revolution

We are a culture that celebrates ourselves as unique individuals; except, for the most part, we don't define ourselves by our humanity but, rather, by our utility. We are what we do. 

Our unique specialness is tied to our place in the world instead of the other way around. In essence, we already know what we are; all that remains is agreement on the price.

In these challenging times, which are still going on for many in our county and for many others around the world (when America gets a cold, other nations are in intensive care), a hidden cost harder to recover from than a bank overdraft is the injury to that part of ourselves we can't put a price tag on, our pride in who we are.

We have a lot of people who have done nothing wrong and who have lost their jobs, perhaps their families and homes, places in their local circle of friends and acquaintances, who end up losing themselves. 

I knew a German in one of the places I worked while living in the Federal Republic who often teased that "Americans are people who buy things they don't want with money they don't have to impress people they don't like." We're nearing the point on the calendar, as a nation, where the bills are coming due. Wer soll das bezahlen? Wer hat das bestellt? Wann man nur wusste.

In the frenzy of election season where there's more action than date night at Piranha High, the highs are higher, and the lows are deeper; blame is abundant but solutions are hard to come by. At least when the other side is telling the story. 

But the thing to NOT lose sight of when the edge is off of the rhetoric on Wednesday, November 4th, no later than noon (or when the ballot counting ceases), when we realize there is no revolution, just power changing hands, is that a few more of us have become the walking wounded. That old coaching admonition to just 'shake it off' only goes so far.

An adult without hope or dignity hurts and then, in turn, hurts others, usually those closest to them, so what began as a personal tragedy too often becomes a community calamity. 

-bill kenny

Between the Silence of the Mountains

It's a little more than three weeks until Election Day, and I can't wait for it to get here and then be gone. It's not because I don't believe in democracy or whatever version we have; I do. Growing up in Jersey, we were taught to vote early and often. One of which I still do. 

I'm exhausted from all the commercials that pop up not only on television but on all sorts of social media platforms. In my case, all of them are a waste, as I voted absentee last Saturday. 

I don't know what the people running for office near your house are spending to get elected in order to represent you (ayup) but I have feelings of inadequacy when I look at the totals here in The Land of Steady Habits that I might not be worth it. 

I mean, who spends millions of dollars running as 'anti-Washington' to be elected to go to Washington? Did I miss something? When did 'I know you are, but what am I?' become an approved debate format? 

Your mail person will be filing for a work-related disability by the time the election season is over, if our mailman's daily load is any indication. And if you're running for office in my area, 'load' is the correct term and I'll leave it at that. 

Open question: is anyone anywhere engaged in a campaign seeking to identify the root causes of our national economic dysfunction and moral and ethical malaise and then offering a plan to address them? 

Oops, as Mom would say, 'don't ask the question if you can't stand the answer.' 
-bill kenny

Microscopic Michelangelo

And despite what you've guessed, this isn't about one of the Ninja Turtles.

Colossal

This fellow is incredible; see for yourself.
-bill kenny