Sunday Rambling

The last debate that was of any interest was the one between JFK and Richard Nixon in 1960, and I was too young to see it live.

This recent one, with Obama and John McCain, was lackluster. Who won? Nobody. I don't think debates really demonstrate who can lead, although I wouldn't mind a stirring one, one election year, if only to engender a temporary confidence.

As to the Biden-Palin one coming up, I worry that they have been hiding Ms. Palin from spontaneous speaking. A National Review Commentator (a woman herself and conservative) is expressing some rising doubts about whether Palin can hold her own in any dialogue about foreign policy or the economy. I am hoping that my sense of her being a bright woman, well spoken, quick study, was not misplaced. But I will still vote Republican because the ideals simply match mine more than those of the present Democratic party (which is nothing like its predecessor back in the day when JFK was its candidate). But wouldn't it be nice if Sarah shows she is sensational?

With the failure of major financial entities, WaMu, Lehmann Brothers, AIG, some of them like a hundred years old, I find myself amazed that we humans, have actually made it this far, without complete self-destruction. If you look too closely, everything we lay a hand to is probably falling apart, like the new construction with cut corners, that as long as there isn't a earthquake, nobody will know about, like the engineers on trains who probably regularly don't pay attention at the controls, but usually, the unknowing passengers squeak by in continuing to live, or the airplane passengers who find out that a pilot (thank God, not the co-pilot) had a few before he took the big can up 30,000 feet.

There is a lot of luck, providence, something, that keeps us intact, more or less. But let's not get too wild and crazy folks. It's all very tenuous, the line between life and death, safety and destruction.

Was over to see my dad at the cemetery today. A particularly beautiful day to sit in that corridor with the breeze blowing, writing in my journal, doing a tiny bit of praying, and just taking in the sounds of life where so many rest. Birds. Flowers. Laughter of visiting families.

Bought a new camera yesterday. My present digital works just fine, but I could not resist a Nikon Cool Pix, 10 megapixels and a much bigger screen than the one I had. So, the purchase was made, along with a new album to put loose pictures in from different time periods.

There's always so much in my head, but just now, I feel like I'd rather vegetate by watching further television. So, off I go to a well used living room couch.