Reflections of Life,
Past, Present and Future
by
James Strauss
Reflecting on the outrageous fortune that has smiled down upon me with all of its travel, pain, depression, elation, danger, adventure and total lack of believability. For a time I tried to have credibility until I discovered that my own credibility was without meaning. The meaning of life has nothing to do with credibility or believing in anything. It has to do with longing and thought leading to the satisfaction of a mission in pursuit and a need to understand rather than to be understood.
I came to outwardly express my feelings and thoughts so as to constantly remain actively in search at my core. From my core to the outside world. From my core to the Solar system and galaxy. From my core to the universe and finally, from my core to your core. This site is about your core and what you might be able to take from my own.
Enjoy my reflections and share yours here. Comment freely on the posts. May we grow together on this strange journey
Is the Enemy Everywhere…?
Dateline March 31, 2017 Lake Geneva, Wisconsin For some reason I cannot write well this night. I am working on another segment of the Vietnam odyssey, Thirty Days Has September, but came to the river in the bottom of that valley and then lost my way. Not then, but...
IN GOD’S WAY
Walking along on a street called Ke Nui in Hawaii, I found myself lost on this back road in a developed area on a small island where it’s almost impossible to get lost. But there I was. My cell would not work, and I was getting tired of walking around in shower shoes, things not meant for hiking long distances.
Coming in From the Cold
How does one who comes in from the cold (that's what spies used to call coming home from a mission) explain to fellow Americans that they live in a perpetual state of blissful euphoria punctuated by bouts of fake fear? How does one, who's ridden the trails, bitten the...
AVIATION WEEK and SPACE TECHNOLOGY
Aviation Week and Space Technology is a weekly magazine that every thinking and feeling American should subscribe to.
Why? Oh, because it is a magazine about air travel and space?
HOME IN THE MEADOW, Debbie Reynolds
And so Debbie Reynolds dies too. Her daughter dies and then the mom. For someone old like me, that mom sang Home in the Meadow. for the movie How the West Was Won. That transformation of the old English Greensleeves entranced me as a youngster and it's lyrics and...
PRINCESS LEIA, Carrie Fisher, RIP
Why am I bothered by the loss of Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia? She was the daughter of a giant actress and great crooner plus given just about everything except bliss and happiness. Her book on her life made it to the top of the best seller list. She had it all and...
FAKE NEWS
Why the mass media broadcasts tons of 'fake news' and is not held accountable simply because there is no one to hold them accountable. Donald Trump has come closest to being a force to hold them accountable because of the fact that he has tweeted outside the...
THE KING
Here's a direct quote from the two leaders of the current republican party in a communique meant to go out to the entire nation: “Over two millennia ago, a new hope was born into the world, a Savior who would offer the promise of salvation to all mankind. Just as the...
CHRISTMAS
Appreciation and reflection. That's Christmas for those who have a body of life experience and some measure of intellect. Thinking about it all. Life itself, the meaning of existence and, in particular, our place in the social order we've fashioned for ourself or that...
BURNING BRIDGES
There are a lot of people mad at me, and some filled with disdain, because I write on here from the heart about what I believe, and it is not what they believe, and others who are simply afraid that I will complicate my life with needless enemies and those seeking my...
THE BROWNING 410
What happened in this last election was a bit of manipulation and a whole lot of anger. And it's all about the Browning 410 shotgun that my friend in Washington keeps in his back closet. My friend is a great artist who doesn't know he's a great artist, which is great...
THE PORSCHE
I helped a guy in Hawaii once. I was helping him run his little bitty but very upscale auto repair shop. He worked on cars I loved, like Ferrari and Porsche. I worked for free and I didn't even have a car. This guy was a seemingly great expressive and entertaining guy...
A WHITER SHADE OF PALE
"We skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels across the floor....I was feeling kind of seasick, and the crowd called out for more...." I have taken the election results harder than anyone in my extended family, anyone I know at work and even in my favorite coffee...
CARRY ON
I can't sleep so well and amazingly my appetite is down like I'm on some special diet. I'm sort of a mix inside of a bit of fear, anxiety and broken hope.......but the main element of strangeness is a feeling inside my very center of instability. I lost something in...
PETER WILSON
Peter Wilson, a local attorney and a friend of mine, died in his sleep last night. He had a magnificently bold but weak heart. He was also one of those very rare humans in that he thought I was a better person and much greater than I really am…..
SHAVED LEMURS
The Supreme Court. Why the House of Representatives, resisting efforts to appoint anyone to fill the vacant U.S. Supreme Court role, has little to do with partisan politics. Say what? Everything is the opposite of what they are saying…..
THE ELECTION and the Cubs
Election and the Chicago Cubs It is Sunday night, which means that we only have a week and a day of this election cycle to go. Can we hack it? What will be the next scandal or investigation, tape or audio recording? Whom will come forth to be famous or to be the...
On the Road Again, FREEDOM TOWER
What I wanted it to be. The monument and museum of the World Trade Center. I wanted it to be quintessential American. I wanted it to be the best of what a Walt Disney might come up with or the Hollywood people who put on the Olympics that year……..