Stupid Musings on Father's Day

My friend Steve and I were talking yesterday. He is 67, I am 60. It seems that we both have become cynical in our old age. I don't know if that has to do with the physical and mental process of getting older (some call it maturing, but I doubt that I am any MORE mature than ever), or just with having lived long enough to realize that the changes we sought when young have occurred only in very tiny increments. So tiny they are easy to miss.

Adter all, when I read about historical eventys and wars and junk like that, and I look around at the historical events and wars and junk like that that my grandchild will read about when he grows older like me, aabout he only two things that have changed are one, the efficiency with which we kill each other and two, the speed with which we report it.

I wonder why people haven;t listened when Christ suggested that killing each other wasn't such a good plan -- and was willing to BE killed to prove it. Or, for that matter, why after over 3500 years we still ignore the Commandment Moses brought down from the mountain that says, "Thou Shalt Not Kill." There were no exsclusions, exceptions, special circumstyances in the fine print. There was no fine mprint.

Steve told me that he read a quote that explains it all brilliantly, sums it up the way he has wanted to for years. If I find out who said it, I will let you know. But the jist of it (I'm paraphrasing because I got it second hand) is: Men will never stop killing each other vecause we're so stupid.

That's S T O O P I D.

Now, I love my war films and murder mysteries and Westerns and costume dramas and Roman epics. But for me, it;s a way of letting the demon out for a while in a safe place. It's not a life choice.

One last point: The idea that one can have a glorious death is the stupidest thing I ever heard. What good are you after that?

So, Happy Father's Day to one and all fathers. Look at your children. Hold them close in your heart. Beg them with that heart that they reject war and killing and violence and hatred and all that junk, because it is junk, of absolutely no value.

Please.