Looking for Redemption

Why am I writing about returning empty soft drink bottles? What does anyone care? They’re all used up. Yet I see one by the side of the road when I’m out walking and I think “That bottle still has something to do. It can be recycled. Redeemed.”

Of course, bottles aren’t people – they can’t redeem themselves – they need it to be done TO them. You can’t do this to people (Soylent Green being the exception, but I believe there are better uses of people than that. Most people, anyway.)

We aren’t just containers to be recycled – we are what’s IN the container. When we redeem ourselves, it’s that inside that changes. Sometimes our lives seem out of our control, and (much worse) pointless. It can be a long, hard slog, and it’s easy to fall prey to doubts about our own purpose (whatever that may be), and whether we’re truly living our life to it’s fullest – being the best we can be.

We all need inspiration. My favorite movies all seem to have a thread of REDEMPTION running through them – Invincible, A Knight’s Tale, It’s a Wonderful Life, Lord of the Rings – even Galaxy Quest. I know I’m not alone in this, which means to me that there are lots of us feeble, faltering, fallible, fault-filled humans (why doesn’t human start with “f”?) looking for that same reassurance, that, yes, William, a man can change his stars.

Just saying….

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William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest ePublication “Broken Down: Detective Jimmy Delaney Collection #1”) can be found in many places, such as:

·         His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY

·         Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri

·         Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink

·         Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

Connect with him on Facebook at:   http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

Inhuman Sacrifice

The public school our son was in was failing in its job at our son’s expense; “stick with us”, they’d say, help us make our school better. Does it make sense for your child to lose EVEN ONE PRECIOUS YEAR of his limited dozen years of primary education? Why, when there were better ways and better schools instantly available? Why would you do that to your children, except for the greater good?

THE GREATER GOOD is code for THE INDIVIDUAL DOESN’T MATTER – ONLY THE COLLECTIVE.

We aren’t ants, yet EVEN ants will fight to protect their young (I watched enough colonies in my misspent youth to see this. Of course, I also watched invading colonies steal a children as well – obviously the young are a VERY VALUABLE COMMODITY.)

We (a broad group that I appear to hold a minority stake in) have chosen to make a sacrifice. I’m not talking about the kind of sacrifice people make of themselves through perseverance and determination for a cause – there’s nobility in that. I’m talking about the ignoble decision to sacrifice others to a cause not of their choosing. This is what caused the colonies (Americans, not ants) to break with Britain – the imposition of burdens without recourse.

We Humans distinguish ourselves from the other beasts (in part) by our awareness of our past, our future, and our mortality, and naturally leads us to place a high value on our legacy. We are wired to protect that legacy, and our legacy is our children. How has that wiring been unraveled in this country?

I will mention here a growing tendency in this country to have little or no empathy for others (no matter how you feel about the abortion issue, I don’t see how anyone can argue that forty-plus years of legalization of infanticide hasn’t contributed to a callousness toward the lives of others, a sense of self-centeredness, a willingness to SACRIFICE OTHERS for our own convenience, as well as a slew of other senseless killings, fatal hit-and-runs, car-jackings, etc.); this disregard has attached itself across the spectrum of OTHERS, including those we should be most invested in protecting (NOT YOU, YOUR DESCENDENTS.)

It is shameful to refuse to deal with the discomfort of periodic economic adjustments, and instead of making the hard choices necessary, keep our toys and saddle our children with OUR debts (and our grandchildren, too, which means we won’t even leave OUR CHILDREN that option – they’ll have to reach a couple more generations ahead to equal our cowardice.)

We’re mortgaging their future – depriving them of the God-given freedoms that our founders sought to protect. What gives US the right to take away what’s theirs?

It’s one thing to chain yourself to a wagon of YOUR OWN CHOOSING – it’s another to chain your children – or anyone else – to a wagon of they had NOTHING to do with (if you literally did chain your kids like that, how fast would you be put in prison?)

Grow up, folks, and stop this INHUMAN SACRIFICE. Clean up your own mess; don’t leave it for your children.

Just saying….

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William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest ePublication “Broken Down: Detective Jimmy Delaney Collection #1”) can be found in many places, such as:

·         His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY

·         Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri

·         Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink

Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

Whose Thoughts Are These, Anyway?

I was going to be an actor – I enjoyed taking on other characters and personalities. Taking on often happened literally – over each play’s rehearsal period I would begin manifesting personality traits that weren’t my own – I’d become more aggressive, or timid, or angry, or silly.

Thinking back, I believe it was an outlet for me – it’s much easier to express emotions that I don’t own than the ones I do. It can even be therapeutic Don’t doubt me - try this sometime: go into a sealed room where you feel safe, and scream your lungs out about something that you don’t even care about – when it’s over you’ll feel relieved (one way or another.)
I also have a problem with not wanting to appear stupid. I don’t like not knowing things (including what’s coming next.) I hated improv, but loved the comfort of a script. Life isn’t this neat – I sat on a jury once and was amazed at how sloppy the proceedings seemed versus the way a courtroom drama unfolds – of course, courtroom dramas have WRITERS, and they impose a logic and neatness on life that isn’t always there.
I think these things are part and parcel of why I write. There are voices in my head. Thoughts come unbidden, and often undesired, that have nothing to do with the way I feel about people or things. And yet those thoughts are there. Whole conversations, irrational arguments in favor of any number of actions I consider deplorable – and would really NEVER do – occur on a regular basis.
I wonder if this would make me a candidate for Turret’s syndrome – the version where people blurt out offensive, socially rejected verbage. Whatever checkbox in our programming that tells us DON’T SAY THAT isn’t checked, and so it comes out. Me, I have just enough self-control not to give voice to the voices when I’m around others, but the DON’T THINK THOSE THOUGHTS checkbox is disabled in my mind, and those voices won’t be silenced, and build to a horribly distracting crescendo.
So I write. Or, is it really me?
Just saying….

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William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest ePublication “Mutiny on the Star-Bound”) and the input of the other voices that share his grey matter can be found in many places, such as:

·         His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY

·         Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri

·         Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink

·         Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

Connect with him on Facebook at:   http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

Living the Distance

There’s a story where a boy doesn’t want to wait for life to take its course – he wants to skip over the boring parts to get to the good stuff. He acquires a ball of thread (“The Magic Thread” http://www.noogenesis.com/pineapple/magic_thread.html) that allows him to do just that. He keeps finding reasons to hurry up and get past the parts of life he doesn’t care about (skipping all the “little” details in the process) to get to his next milestone. In the end, he finds that it all goes by far too fast and those little things along the road really were important after all.
The journey or the destination - what are you in it for? We set endpoints as goals – how often do you set EXPERIENCING the journey as an objective?
Everything goes by faster now. Microwaves have replaced half-day dinner prep. We sit around that dinner table, busy sending out restrictive text messages, our eyes glued on gorilla glass instead of our fellow humans.
(This is another sign of aging – I have arrived at the point in life where I feel it’s necessary to tell everyone - especially “the young” - to enjoy what they have before it’s gone.)
We keep finding faster ways to jump from point A to point B. We get in a car or a train or a plane and sit there absorbed in our iPads and Gameboys while the scenery rolls by, vicariously experiencing where we aren’t instead of BEING WHERE WE ARE.
Star Trek isn’t too far off; I read in the last few months that the Chinese (among others) are working on teleportation – using string theory to communicate across a lake. Strings. Is this really better than a string and two cans? I have fond memories of that. (Or Toucans? Has anyone tried communicating with Toucans? That I don’t remember.)
Stop being in such a hurry – it will all be over soon enough. We should thank the people of the TSA for making air travel slower. Talk to them (someone ought to.) For that matter, talk to whoever you happen to be with while you’re waiting for the next big thing; you don’t know what you might be missing.
Life is what happens while we’re making plans; it’s not a sprint – it’s a distance event (the same thing goes for marriage.) You can fall down (several times) and still get up and finish respectably. We’re all born, and we all die; all those incidentals that happen between that start and finish are what make it unique. 
If you must have plans, then PLAN to pay attention to what’s happening around you. Don’t just GO somewhere – BE THERE AND EXPERIENCE LIFE.
Just saying….

<<<>>> 

William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest ePublication “Mutiny on the Star-Bound”) can be found in many places, such as:

·         His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY

·         Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri

·         Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink

·         Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

Connect with him on Facebook at:   http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

Planned Obsolescence

For as long as I’ve known my wife (and that’s a LONG time – we just celebrated our 32^nd anniversary – all credit goes to her – I just benefit from it), she has raved about some makeup that Borghese used to make – it was the best she’d ever used, and it lasted her for YEARS. But when she FINALLY needed to buy more, she discovered that the company had stopped making it. Apparently it lasted too long, and wasn’t generating the repeat sales they needed.
Conspiracy theorists have said for even longer than I can remember that manufacturers deliberately design their products to eventually either break down or become obsolete so that we have to buy another product sooner than we’d like. Cameras. Cars. Computers. (odd – why do all those things start with C?) Cell phones are the latest – I’m happy enough with my phone that I’d like it to last for 10 years, but it seems ordained to break down at 2 years (a reminder that it’s time to renew my 2-year contract as well.)
So, what is the Creator’s motivation in the planned obsolescence of PEOPLE?
(Speculative fiction is good for that – SPECULATING about the why’s, the why not’s, and the what if’s. Trying to find answers to things that we can’t really know. Guessing and making things up.)
Nothing can last forever. That which doesn’t grow eventually dies. You MUST keep moving – keep adapting and improving. Changing.
Viruses (are they living things? I don’t remember…) and bacteria have extremely short lifespans, so the next generations come at us, evolving faster than we can physically adapt to them – if it wasn’t for our minds, technology, self-awareness and science – all of which we were given BY THE GRACE OF GOD, the tiny things would have killed off the human race ages ago.
Our world changes faster and faster, and even the most malleable of us are having a hard time keeping up. Species don’t evolve instantly within a single member – it takes generations.
We evolve so slowly as a species in physical attributes, our advances happen technologically (I remember someone commenting on how - despite all our technological advances - man as an animal has changed very little – I think it was Khan in the original Star Trek.) The human race counts on deliberate innovation to stay ahead of the curve.
When you hang around long enough you tend toward stagnation (I’d say entropy, but that’s even worse.) Whether it’s a job, or a place, or a relationship, something has to change – or the situation is overtaken by the competition. If human beings lived forever (as individuals), our tendency to stagnate would doom the species to obsolescence.
What do we do about it? We certainly don’t want to kill off people at 30 a la Logan’s Run – I’ve known too many people in their 60’s who are still waiting to become adults – we would lose our capacity to learn from our (many) mistakes. Neither should we work too hard at making ourselves physically immortal – that puts too much emphasis on what kind of animal we are, and ignores our spirit. WE NEED TO BE MORTAL BECAUSE IT HELPS GIVE A SENSE OF URGENCY TO OUR LIVES. We all know this – why else would the expression “Live like you’re dying” recur so often in our hearts and culture?
Realize something – YOU are not the same person you were when you were younger – EVEN YOU have died and been reborn countless times. At least if you’re living your life and learning and growing as you were intended. Take advantage of your time on this earth – revel in your experiences – don’t live the same day over and over again.
Just saying….

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William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest ePublication “Mutiny on the Star-Bound”) can be found in many places, such as:

·         His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY

·         Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri

·         Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink

·         Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

Connect with him on Facebook at:   http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

Babies and Bathwater

There’s an expression that goes something like “Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater!” – if you aren’t familiar with it, follow this link to Wikipedia: das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten…

The notion that someone would throw out the baby with the bathwater betrays a lack of trust or respect of the judgment of others – the notion that someone, rather than being able to reason for themselves and pick out the good and useful from the bad and useless, would spot one negative thing about the box of thought that they’re handed, and throw away the box and all its contents without thinking.
You know – the kind of genius level thinking that happens with no-tolerance rules (designed to put school administration at the same level of difficulty as pushing the hamburger button on a fast food register.)  If there’s a rule that says you’ll be suspended for having a knife on campus, you might be wrestled to the ground if you pick up the pointy plastic-ware in the cafeteria.
This is the world we live in now, where thinking is reduced to terms so simple that it isn’t thinking at all. Reason has become a lost art form, common sense an underrated (and derided) sense. Our king (and those who would be) assume that whatever is commonly held can’t be right, especially because “those people aren’t the proper kind of people.”
There’s a style of argument that seems to rely on this type of thinking.
Argument:  “I don’t agree, since reason A, reason B, and reason C.”
Rebuttal:  “You are a _____ ist!” (You can fill in the blank.)
This rebuttal is used to make one point: the person who disagrees with me is a pariah and therefore has NO valid opinions or facts, because we all know how people like them are. The people listening are expected to disregard the argument by throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
I believe even a sinner can know what’s right – EVEN IF they don’t live their life as a shining example to others. If Charles Manson tells you that stealing is a sin, does the fact that he’s a murdering sociopath mean he’s wrong?
Even liars sometimes tell the truth, no matter how uncommon that occurrence is. So think about what you hear and reason it out for yourself. Facts are facts, no matter where and who they come from.
Just saying….

<<<>>> 

William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest ePublication “Mutiny on the Star-Bound”) can be found in many places, such as:

·         His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY

·         Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri

·         Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink

·         Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

Connect with him on Facebook at:   http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

Are You Conforming To Diversity?

In an old fable about a scorpion and a frog, the scorpion wants to cross the river, but the frog refuses at first to carry him.

“You are a scorpion,” the frog says. “You would sting me.”

“Why would I?” the scorpion answers. “If I did, we would both drown.”

So the frog agrees to carry the scorpion across. The scorpion hops on the frog’s back, and when they reach the middle of the river, the scorpion stings the frog.

The frog succumbs to the venom and both are sinking in the river.

“But why?” asks the frog.

“I couldn’t help myself,” the scorpion answers. “I am a scorpion, after all.”

(Remember “The Gingerbread Man”? I think when the fox agrees to carry the Gingerbread Man across the river and then eats him, this is merely revenge of the Carrier Union for what the Passenger Class did to the frog. And still, what did we expect? Foxes are foxes, after all.)

All JEWS. ALL MUSLIMS. ALL CATHOLICS, CHRISTIANS, GAYS, STRAIGHTS, MEN, WOMEN, REPUBLICANS, DEMOCRATS, CHILDREN, SENIORS, AMERICANS, MEXICANS, INDIANS, RUSSIANS, AUSTRALIANS, CONSERVATIVES, LIBERALS, DWARVES, ELVES, GIANTS, BLACKS, WHITES, YELLOWS, REDS, BROWNS, GREENS, GRAYS (let’s not leave aliens out of this) – EVERYONE IN EVERY GROUP KNOWS EXACTLY HOW THOSE OTHER GROUPS ARE.

Are we really that trapped by WHAT we are? Defined by what GROUP we belong to? Both the frog AND the scorpion have an expectation of the scorpion’s behavior, as if to say “EVERYONE knows that ALL scorpions are THAT WAY. The frog ASSUMES it, but worst of all, the scorpion CONFORMS to it, as if the group is all he can be.
 YOU can be more than the stereotypes YOU and OTHERS try to label you with.
A true sense of the diversity of humanity isn’t about understanding various cultures – it means knowing how to treat EACH PERSON as a diverse, unique INDIVIDUAL. It also means thinking of YOURSELF as an INDIVIDUAL, not a PART of some monolithic group who MUST adhere to that group’s labels and thinking.
Don’t be a cog in any machine, or a slave to any group. Don’t conform - BE YOURSELF.
Just saying….

<<<>>> 

William Mangieri’s writing can be found in many places, including:

·         His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY

·         Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri

·         Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink

·         Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

Connect with him on Facebook at:   http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink