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
Black Mirror
Black Mirror is out. The third season. The cutting edge ski-fi show so highly acclaimed from England……
HIERONYMUS
Hieronymus Six a.m. comes early in Duluth, Minnesota, when February, the coldest month of a cold winter, begins. It was the first and it was a Saturday morning. I lived in a four story home built by some important person many years earlier. There’d been enough time...
ALPHA
Back when I had to get up in the morning. Now I get up in the morning because I can’t even remember what it was that I got out of sleeping in.
Back then my brilliant wife was in control of the stereo, a stereo capable of blowing anyone and anything out of our small one story home
WITHOUT BARS
There will be no getting together. Of all social fears that exist on the planet, for cultural leaders, people getting together is their greatest fear. Today, with the advent of such magnificent electronic media inventions…..
Chemical Theory
The hall outside the St. Norbert Chemistry Department classroom door saw a lot of traffic. The dark, near ebony, wood and solid stone floor that ran the length of the narrow passage exuded age and class. Student’s passing all did so in silence, carrying piles of...
Monsignor
Fifth grade at Sacred Heart Academy in Duluth, Minnesota wasn’t much different than other Catholic Elementary Schools of its time, except for its location high atop a hill above one of the coldest developed areas in the United States. Other places in Minnesota might...
“Thank the Living Christ”
They hadn’t told me that I was going to make it yet, when my brother came by to visit on his way home. We’d been hit only two weeks apart. The telegram came to me about his injuries, dropped in by a supply chopper late in the day on a place called Ganoi Island in Vietnam…..
Ajinomoto
Ajinomoto To be stuck in Hawaii without any money was a horrible thing for any kid, particularly three white Haole kids, coming from a military family and living in a downtown local area on the fringe of downtown Waikiki. Kapuhulu was what the district was called. I...
Observations of a Global Nature
Dateline: Lake Geneva, WI August 20, 2016 The Olympics are tailing down...... I will miss them. I absolutely love the shots, few as they've been of the aerial scenes of that city. Rio is stunning in location. I did't know, before these games, that the Brazilians were...
Starfish Prime, 1962
The July of 1962, on Oahu, was oppressive in more ways than I, and my friends atop Diamond Head, could count. The Sundays came and went, Sunday being the only day of the week that our parents would let us run off and climb the crater wall above Fort Ruger…….
It’s Only Captain Crunch…….
“The cat’s name is Pushkin,” the eight-year-old said. “He’s named after a great Russian who did something a long time ago.” The boy stroked the Russian Blue between his ears, as the cat leaned his head down to pick away at his Fancy Feast…..
Back Dive… the 2016 Olympics Effect?
BACK DIVE...1960 With all of the focus on Olympics 2016 in Rio de Janeiro the past weeks my memory banks are rejuvenated. I reached the pinnacle of one meter diving in 1960, as a graduating sophomore at Thornton Fractional North Township High School in South Chicago....
Paris, late 1990’s
I hate Paris. Oh, not the restaurants, the food vendors on the streets or the Louvre. Even the Eiffel Tower and the river are pretty terrific, when it’s not raining or foggy or any of that other French stuff. No, I hate Paris because of how shitty the airport is, how...
Coming Home, 1965
The 1965 pledge class of the ADG Fraternity at St. Norbert College rejected a young man because of a disagreement the fraternity had regarding a pyramid scheme it was conducting all over the campus. In order to prove his point, that the fraternity was doing something federally illegal….
More on The Olympics in Rio…..
The Russians are there, but it’s like they aren’t at all. They finally got in after a huge doping scandal but then couldn’t qualify for anything because, well, they were no longer on dope….
Flowers in Your Hair………..
"Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair......." Publishing a local weekly newspaper offers me the opportunity to write and Opinion/Editorial each week. Most focus on very current events and we all know 2015 and 2016 have provided tons of editorial and opinion...
2016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Fun in the sun at Rio de Janeiro? Dateline: Rio de Janeiro, Friday August 8, 2106 The Olympics in Rio is underway, in spite of how miserably the mass media has tried to kill it. From the slums of the downtown Rio area, the foul water and bad food. Russian team...
Reflections of 1993……….
1993 Yearly Inflation Rate USA 2.96% Year End, Close Dow Jones Industrial Average 3654 Interest Rates Year End Federal Reserve 6.00% Average Cost of new house$113,200.00 Average Income per year $31,230.00 Events: include Brady bill signed into law, World Trade Center...