The Law of Death Denial

A Murder On Campus

 

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Click here for a podcast discussion of the still-unsolved murder, and here for an interesting write-up about it.

"Riles"

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My dad took me (and I believe my brother, Miles) to see the Lakers vs Hawks in Atlanta, on a school night.  This was in the '80s and towards the end of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career.  I remember we arrived early enough at the Omni to see the Lakers bus pull into the arena.  I can remember seeing the team getting off the bus.  And although they were at a pretty far-off distance, I spotted Magic Johnson.  During warm-ups, Coach Pat Riley was sitting in the stands - lower level, by himself.  My dad encouraged me to go get his autograph.  And he said to say "War Eagle" to him.  I did just that!  "Riles" just looked at me.  Anyway, I didn't know it, but he had played at the University of Kentucky.  The game was exciting.  The Lakers won, but not by much.  I do remember as we were leaving, seeing Magic sink some free throws to seal it.  

I was the biggest Lakers fan in the 80s!  I read almost any Sporting News and Sports Illustrated article on them that I could.  I read biographies of Kareem and Magic, and Showtime by Pat Riley.

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Against Happiness

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part of an e-mail I sent to the author, Eric Wilson, years ago

What's interesting is that I have visited the homes of some of the depressives you mentioned in your book: Edgar Allan Poe (dorm room in Charlottesville), Dostoevsky and Tolstoy (St. Petersburg and Moscow), Hemingway's apartment (Paris) and Beethoven's birth home in Cologne, Germany.

Click here for an article on Wilson.

Life Force

I've been reading a book, The Noonday Demon.  Read these lines last night:

There is a Russian expression: If you wake up feeling no pain, you know you're dead. While life is not only about pain, the experience of pain, which is particular in its intensity, is one of the surest signs of life force.

 

Pain (emotional, physical, psychological) is not pleasant, but you can't avoid it if you are alive.  I'm just happy I'm alive, and grateful for each day.

 

- e-mail, Jan 5, 2012

Bear Books

The Asheville Visitor Center has a good selection of children's books.  Perfect gifts!

George Bernard Shaw

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“Arms and the Man,” says Shaw, “but in the name of human sanity don’t let’s have any singing about it.  War is not a thing to make a song about; it’s a thing to make a stink about.  And don’t talk to me about heroes.  Heroes don’t win battles, they only win medals.  Common sense wins battle.”

Shaw dared to attack the glamor of war and hero worship when it was most unfashionable to do so.

There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.

Flogging, sickeningly common in English barracks all through the most “glorious” periods of our military history, was not abolished here by any revolt of the English soldier against it: our soldiers would be flogging one another today as abjectly as ever but for the interference of humanitarians who hated the whole conception of military glory.  We still hear of soldiers severely punished for posting up in the barrack stables a newspaper paragraph on the subject of an army grievance.  Such absurd tyranny would, in a dockyard or a factory full of match girls, produce a strike;  but it cows a whole regiment of soldiers.  The fact is, armies as we know them are made possible, not by valour in the rank and file, but by the lack of it; not by the physical courage (we test the eyes and lungs of our recruits, never their courage), but by civic impotence and moral cowardice.  I am afraid of a soldier, not because he is a brave man, but because he is so utterly unmanned by discipline that he will kill me if he is told, even when he knows that the order is given because I am trying to overthrow the oppression which he fears and hates.  I respect a regiment for a mutiny more than for a hundred victories; and I confess to the heartiest contempt for the warlike civilian who pays poor men a pittance to induce them to submit to be used as pawns on a battlefield in time of war, be himself, meanwhile, sitting at home talking impudent nonsense about patriotism, heroism, devotion to duty, the inspiring sound of the British cheer, and so on.

Quiet Desperation

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

― Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience and Other Essays

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Jonestown

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The Jonestown Massacre occurred on November 14, 1978.  I read this book several years ago.  I checked it out at the UNCA library.  I didn't see the TV movie when it came out in 1980.  I was too young to watch it.

Human Nature

The author Robert Greene talks about The Laws of Human Nature.  He suffered a stroke not long ago and shares how hardship, difficulties and the thought of dying can move us to do amazing things.  These are topics I enjoy discussing. 

Dirty Business

Spanish Empire at peak - 1790

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Me: The American Navy was sent to Manila Bay to engage the Spanish. The battle was over in 45 minutes. The American commander famously sent this communication, "Have defeated the Spanish. What do I do next?"  The biggest problem was the Moros in Mindanao. The Moros were Muslims. 

And the suppression of the Filipinos was ruthless.  I think they tried rising up then.  I may be wrong. 

Friend: The US Army developed the .45 caliber handgun to stop the Moros. We were using .38 caliber handguns, but they weren't working.  Colt came up with a .45 caliber handgun that did the job.

Me: War is a dirty business.  You can't acquire, conquer and control without violence or the threat of it.  Comical that when we're not warring, we tend to moralize those who are.  The human condition.

Are you familiar with the book Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond? Came out in the years we were in Thailand.  If you aren't, try to listen to one of his interviews on YouTube.  He talks about the Spanish conquistadors arriving in the New World.  Since you mentioned the introduction of a new weapon and how it changed the battlefield, you'll really like his take.

Friend:  Intriguing re the revolver. My great-grandfather surveyed the US/Canadian border. I wonder if he  packed. Likely.

Me: Here's my maternal great-grandfather.  Buried in Shorterville, Alabama.  Classic mustache.  He looks like he might have packed.  Lol

Thomas Lucine Grace (1869-1941)

Great moustache. Yes, he looks like he probably did.

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Snuffed Out

No Reason

Daniel Gilbert (Stumbling on Happiness) would say most people find happiness in whatever they are doing or how they are living.  Our psyches depend on it.  There's no reason, though, that we should go through life with unfulfilled dreams, especially when we have the means to fulfill them.

- thoughts to a friend

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RIP, Daniel Dennett

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This book, his talks and his appearances in documentaries did quite a lot to help me develop better critical thinking skills.  Unlike some of his contemporaries (Hitchens, Dawkins, etc.), he had a gentler, softer way of sharing his research and debating others.

Made Easy

In our first years in Asheville, Kade took a pie-making class from Barbara.

Henry County History

Watt Espy's great-aunt, Eva Clyde (Stovall) Scott

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The General

I remember my dad having this book around the house.  I'm sure he bought for himself, but I ended up reading it.  During that period, I admired Bobby Knight for his success and I enjoyed seeing the Hoosiers when they were on TV.  At the same time, Knight's childish temper tantrums and abuse of players troubled me.  He was very old school and certainly a winner, no doubt.  As I've aged, I'm a lot less judgmental about that darker side.  He was a no-nonsense leader.  To me, his death, being that he was the epitome of a man's man - tough, hard-nosed, driven - just reminds me of everybody's mortality.  None of us escape.  Live your best.

A New Home

These are some items I gave to a cousin several years ago.  I had lots of books and way too much home decor that was boxed up, in closets and under beds.  I am a firm believer, especially the older I get, in passing things along.  What good is holding on to a book I've already read?  Can't someone else enjoy it?  And if I have a family item that I'm not using, why not go ahead and give away to another family member who might appreciate it more?  I do feel that hoarding and storing a bunch of stuff is not anything wonderful.  Simplify.  Downsize.

The serial killer encyclopedia belonged to Watt Espy, the death penalty historian.  Not surprising.  Great book, by the way.

That's Watt Espy (Uncle Watty) right through there!

No, Thank You

Rabindranath Tagore

 from the book, Creativity

Keepsake

Uncle Sid in Headland, Alabama

The Wiregrass Farmer

November 21, 1946

Click here for more on Uncle Sid and Aunt Frances.