Werewolves are real

 The mythical werewolf is activated by phases of the moon.  This is not an unreasonable proposition,  unless you deny that tides are controlled by the moon, or that woman's menstrual cycle has a connection to lunar time. 
The story of the werewolf is familiar.  A  friend, a neighbor, a family member  becomes transformed into a wolf-like creature that attacks people unlucky enough to cross its path. 
Adults don't believe in these creatures.  But children do, and with good reason. 
Many children have seen a loving and loved adult become a stranger who ravages them in differing ways, either physically, emotionally, or sexually.   The beasts these children meet do not grow hair on the face and body, or have paws.  But children see them as monsters.  They frighten and they make the myth become real.
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Quotation

"In every work of genius, we recognize our own rejected thoughts."

                                                                                                   Ralph Waldo Emerson

Now who could disagree with that?
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Space and Motion Theory

Many years ago I attended a lecture by the philosopher, H. Youngman.  His ideas seemed slightly complex until he recited real-life examples of his theories.  As well as I can remember them, I relate two of them here:

Firstly, Mr. Youngman described a visit to a rural college town and his experience with the room he rented at the one local hotel.  He discovered the room was so small that when he put the key in the door, it broke the window.
Now, of course, we know this is not possible in any real sense yet we accept the concept of this space as described by Youngman for the power it has to make us laugh.  The impossible size of the room becomes possible indeed, and he proves that space is relative in size to the need that it fills, and that the need that it fills is inversely proportional to the space it occupies.

Then Mr. Youngman addressed his ideas on the laws of motion by describing an experience in a restaurant.  When the Maitre'd asked Youngman where he would like to sit, Youngman replied that he wants to be seated near a waiter.
The Maitre'd replied that this was not possible.  If such a request could be met, it would mean that the waiter was stationary and therefore not moving and serving and waiting on his appointed tables as he should.  Such a man would not be employed by any restaurant worthy of its name.
If, on the other hand, the waiter is a superior performer, then he is constantly on the move attending to the needs of the diners in his purview.  This desirable motion, however, would make it very unlikely that Mr. Youngman's request could be fulfilled as the waiter he wants is not near the empty table that will be his place to be served.
Mr. Youngman went on to say that he had a wonderful dinner, and was well-served; that it lacked only a companion for discussion of paradoxes.  Zeno, he said, yes, Zeno.  He and I, Youngman said, could have retired to the lounge for some wine and delightful conversation.  I would have liked that, Youngman said.
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Debt and the Economy

"For decades we have piled deficit on deficit, mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue the long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political and economic upheavals."


That was from Ronald Reagan on his first day as President of the USA.


We know that when President Reagan left office, the US had the largest deficit ever achieved in its history, had been changed from the biggest creditor nation in the world to the biggest debtor nation in the world, and the middle class had shrunk to the point where it was smaller than the poor and rich classes combined, first time ever..


All successive Presidents have done as badly or, in the case of Obama, worse, apparently in emulation of Reagan.


Yet all Presidents campaign against debt and deficit, and malign those who cause it. Are they lying? Are they hypocritical? Perhaps. But I think it is something else. What that may be I don't know. But  if we don't start asking questions we'll never find out.
There are some things I have learned from this latest financial meltdown that I didn't know before. The most surprising of these was to learn how important credit is to the daily operation of our nation's businesses.
Apparently most corporations, large and small, depend on ready lines of credit for the payment of salaries, overhead, and purchases on a weekly or monthly basis. To express this same fact differently, these businesses do not have a 90-day or even a 60-day cushion of capital as an element of their business model. Who knew?
Most individuals cannot survive without the credit offered by the credit card. Trillions of dollars of consumer household debt attests to that.
This is probably due to the not-talked-about-enough fact that real earnings have not kept up with inflation.
SO, let's sum up:
The Government needs debt in order to keep the economy strong.
Corporations need debt in order to survive and grow.
Individuals need debt in order to survive.
SO - why is debt a dirty word?
Why don't we admit we can't live without it and stop all this phony denunciation of it?
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Observation

A fox crossed the yard,
paused twice to turn its head
and sniff,  
then disappeared
into the wood,
alone, at risk,  
yet free.
From my cage
I saw him flee.
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The Second Coming (for the last time)

One of the most famous poems in the Western world is The Second Coming by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats.  Everyone has read it, or at least has heard some parts of it read to them, or seen those parts in print.  Most anthologies include it.
The well-known phrases are:  "Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world" or "The ceremony of innocence is drowned;  the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity".  And finally,  "...what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
These lines are favored by the impressionable young for their magical music as much as their apocalyptic promise.  The pundits of the world, on a slow day, will summon a vision of the Beast slouching toward Washington, approaching either from the Left or the Right, according to their ideological bent.  The poem has become a cliche.
I confess to having liked the poem while confessing also that I never understood it.
The problem, for me, lies in the title and theme.  The original Second Coming refers to a biblical prophecy that foretells the return of Jesus Christ, or the Messiah.
However Jesus did not slouch toward Bethlehem.  Neither did Mary, but it must be clear to all that whoever slouches toward the metaphorical Bethlehem to bear the Beast must be the Pregnant one, not the Beast itself.  Otherwise we are dealing with an event as unusual as the Virgin Birth.
Or it is just a bad metaphor formed from the conflation of Beast and Bethlehem infused with an evil slouch.
Flannery O'Connor overplayed the metaphor when she wrote the following:
"...nothing harder than Christian realism.  I believe there are many rough beasts now slouching toward Bethlehem to be born, and that I have reported on the progress of a few of them, and when I see these stories  (her short stories, ed. note)  described as horror stories I am always amused because the reviewer always has hold of the wrong horror."
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Richard Feynman Quotation

I found this quotation of Richard Feynman's on the Internet.  I like his honesty.

"I can live with doubt, and uncertainty, and not knowing.  I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.  I have approximate answers, and possible beliefs, and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure of anything, and in many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here, and what the question might mean.   I might think about it a little, but if I can't figure it out, then I go to something else.  But I don't have to know an answer.  I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly.  It doesn't frighten me."

from The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of  Richard Feynman
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