Fuck it

Sometimes you just have to say fuck it

Suicide note 2

I am so sorry that your dinner plans didn't work out the way you planned, but like we've always said, the children are innocent. That's why I've done this in my own. I tucked them both in bed and told them goodnight. I even told them both that I loved them. The only difference was that I didn't say that I would see them in the morning. That was a little piece of nuanced expression that I would try. Neither one of the understood. However, I did hung them both very tight, and kissed them with all the heart and soul that a soulless bastard can have. I would have kissed you too, but you weren't here.

Dharma

And what if I finally realize that my dharma is pain

Suicide Note

Sorry that after I got the kids ready for school and dropped them off
After I fed the dog
And cleaned the litter box
And put in a load of laundry
And made you some breakfast and lunch
I wasn't able to get your oil changed
But I didn't get to go on a bike ride either
Because I was too busy writing this suicide note
I'm sorry, but you'll need to pick the kids up from school today
I hope it isn't an inconvenience.

Alcoholic

I'd make a great alcoholic if I didn't have so many fucking responsibilities

Rodriguez airport

Leonard Cohen's raspy voice sings Dance Me to the End of Love
Through the speakers in an Ford pick-up truck
My son points excitedly at a Christmas tree tied to the top of an aging mini-van
So I look with a sinking feeling
My mind somewhere between floating and drowning without treading through the saturation
And in the distance, a jet hangs in the air just past Rodriguez airport
It balances nicely passing from clear. Morning blue sky into the whiteness of the cloud

PTA Moms

I am constantly amazed by the
omnipresent PTA moms
Decked out in the designer fitness wear
That frames their mother hen personalities
To fit the multi-million dollar ad campaigns
Interspersed throughout parenting magazines
And estrogen talk shows
But when the afternoon comes
there are no jagged lines of salt left over from sweat
Drawing maps of champion effort on their shirts
No dirt on the shoes singing the praises of battles hard fought
No odor of accomplishment
There are only the women mulling around
With their sports drinks
Designer sunglasses
And voices singing their own praises.

Mental Health Day

Sometimes I feel like taking a mental health day for the rest of my life.

Ando

Ando siempre
Entre aquí
Y
Allá.

Highway 145

Listening to the Cowboy Junkies
inside of a converted garage bedroom
along the the side of Highway 145
I amaze myself to realize that somehow
I have remained sober until noon

On Election Day

I find it interesting that those who want less regulation on Wall Street also want greater accountability in schools.
Those who claim that their religion is under attack also use their religion to justify inequality for women, minorities, and the LGBT community.
Those who want smaller government and less help for the People constantly push for a larger military to wage war in the name of corporate interests disguised in word Freedom.
It seems that those who despise a healthy democratic government want to control it, but not for very democratic reasons.
We have seen this before, and even the most sanitized textbooks in our school cannot help but show the ugly results of such a skewed philosophy.

Single mom

The 19 year old single mom who sits in the back of the classroom keeps lifting a bra strap back onto her shoulder while looking down at the floor or out the window. And when she finally looks forward and opens her mouth, words crawl out soft like apologetic children. Her eye twitches when I walk in her direction, but I stop as her typed words echo in my head and remember that even the essay she turned in last week rightfully has a chip on its shoulder. I stop, raise my head as to say, "Orale.". A half hour later, she walks toward the door to leave and slows down just long enough to mad dog me for a couple long seconds. But she'll be back. And that's a victory.

Harvest Moon

II know that the harvest moon already passed, but right now it sure looks like a Neil Young song.

Parenthood

You will experience the most wondrous victories and the most crushing defeats as a parent. Sometimes you will have them in the same day, or even in the same hour. Still, nothing fills the heart with pure love as when a child climbs into your lap, snuggles into your body, and says, "I love you." nothing compares to that; it is in a special category that few things can compare to.

Tweaker in the Morning

At 8:45 on the corner of 2nd Ave and H St she snarls through liquor store sunglasses out the window of her tri-colored Corolla, the trunk dancing up and down, held together with what is probably string or rope left over from some late night project. The sun beams, exposing the craters on her oily face as she exhales smoke with an urgency to get absolutely nowhere, but to get there as soon as possible. Like always, she is on a mission.

Helicopters

We become so accustomed to the circling helicopters that we blend them into the nighttime rhythm like singing crickets on a hot summer evening, but swat at bees during the day who wish nothing more than to pollinate the flowers we forgot to see so long ago.

Cubes

It can be difficult, you know, when it appears that the world is made up of nothing more than different shades of earth tone cubes that accentuate themselves by nothing more than showing whose cube is larger. It becomes ridiculous to the point that any splash of green or blue is nothing more than the echo of a school yard joke told decades ago by friend long lost just as life was becoming difficult.

Superstitious Dreamers

I find it absolutely ridiculous when someone says they had a dream about something they wanted to dream about and something happens in that dream that confirms what they already wanted; and then they say it was a sign! Or it made my faith grow stronger. No it wasn't. You got experienced exactly what you wanted to experience. It was all in your head, so don't be surprised that your brain told you what you wanted to hear.

Dumb Asses

If we have to wait around for all of those who are willingly ignorant to finally learn some basic scientific principles, then our civilization may very well be doomed. Or, just because you refuse to learn some real information, that doesn't give you the right to misinform our citizenry.

Make these thoughts go away

I really don't want these thoughts of suicide. I really do want to live to be an old man. To see my children grow up and grow happy. I want to live life to the fullest, but when these thoughts creep in and won't leave regardless of what I do or how I think, it becomes a bit overwhelming sometimes. It becomes tiring.

Benevolent

People shouldn't be very surprised when they learn that the benevolent overseers aren't so benevolent.

Divine Messages

I always find it interesting (and by interesting I mean laughable) that people believe that their gods constantly speak to them about me, and even have messages for me from their gods. Why wouldn't their gods speak directly to me? Why the intermediaries? I mean let's get real,my office hours are posted, so if some 19 year old can walk through my door with something important, then so can god. Otherwise, just keep a journal of all the messages and give it to me when I've finished grading final exams.

Support

I fully support those people and ideas that support the ideas of social justice and human rights.

Pseudo

Pseudo intellectualism is as valid as pseudo science. Just because the pseudo intellectual sees a connection between two things, or finds an obscure reference to some word in a dead language, it doesn't make his ideas valid. What happens when these ideas spread is intellectual chaos, and like pseudo science, the diaspora of junk ideas can, and sometimes does, bring great harm to the world because the pseudo intellectual begins with the answer in search of validating questions, not the other way around.
Know what you are discussing or proudly say, "I don't know, but I can find out." That is the mark of a strong mind.

Ideas for making America better

Get rid of anything in government that references religion because first of all religion divides us, and most importantly religion is ridiculous.

Allow teachers and educators to runout education system. No business interests. No creationism. No politicians. Only people who actually teach students should make decisions about schools. No business should e allowed to make a profit from our schools. No one who does business with schools can make a salary larger than the highest paid teacher in that district.

Everything having to do with science, medicine, and mathematics should be based on the metric system.

Everything sold in the USA should be labeled at least in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Any politician who lies during a campaign, or has someone else lie on his behalf is automatically disqualified from winning an election.

Except in rare cases, being a member of one of the Abrahamic faiths is the same as admitting to being conquered.

I find it near impossible to reveal the horrors in my mind

Zealotry

Zealotry is nothing more than a mental addiction to close-minded ness.

New American Fascist

In the early 20th century, fascists marched down streets in their austerely colored shirts with grimaced faces, shiny leather boots, and weapons in hand. They waved their flags with a sense of unabashed superiority in their hearts while carefully manufactured songs of righteous nationalism trumpeted out loudspeakers for everyone to hear. They forced their propaganda into the news, and they plastered their symbols and images on any and every surface available. And while millions knew that what was happening was wrong at its foundation many still followed out of fear, but far too many others followed out of ignorance and agreement. Those who resisted were labeled traitors and summarily dealt with. 
In contemporary America it seems that a new fascism is showing itself, but this time it is creeping into our culture. The new fascists wear businees suits and are elected to office. They attend churches, wear smiles, and carry Bibles. But they still spread their propaganda, they still play their music, they plaster their images on everything possible from bumper stickers to billboards, and they still hold a sense of unabashed superiority in their hearts. And once again, too many follow out of fear, and far too many for follow out of ignorance or agreement. And I fear that those of us who do not conform to their madness will once again be summarily dealt with.
We can see that they have already begun scapegoating immigrants, the poor, and the LGBT community. They have scapegoated minorities and liberals as being anti-American. They have gone after the unions to weaken any sort of unified voice, and now they are going after the teachers.
If any of this sounds vaguely familiar from an historical standpoint, it should.    

Painting ideas

Bienvenidos a tijuandiego
Conservatives: putting a happy face on oppressive white guys

Aquí y Allá

Yo me encuentro entre aquí y allá

Libraries

I would rather be a heathen who builds up libraries than a despot who burns them down.

Note to self:

Stop having conversations with people when I've been drinking for more than four hours. I might think I sound intelligent, but I'm probably spewing gibberish.

Take credit

Dare to be strong enough to take credit for what you accomplish. Those who do not need to be accepted and loved by imaginary things are people who have real strength and power. People have the tendency to thank god when things go well, but blame themselves when they go bad. Maybe we should flip that and blame god for doing nothing when something needs to be dine and then thank ourselves for having the strength and fortitude to get through it. Or maybe we should just forget about the deity factor altogether and simply take responsibility for all of our actions, and hold other accountable for theirs as well.

Possessions

When it comes to possessions, one must find a balance between wants and needs. If a person has more than is necessary, then that person should, without reservation, share what he has with others. This is not to insinuate that one should freely give away everything; instead one should give in a manner that will enrich the lives of everyone involved, for if both the giver and receiver do not mutually benefit, then the gift is pointless.

Ignorance

One of the great things about the Internet is that is is helping to democratize the dissemination of information. As a result, everyone with access to this information can read and leave comments about almost anything in the news. Unfortunately, most people who have the time to leave comments are too stupid to have any clear understanding of what they have read. The more I see this, the more I want to eradicate this type of ignorance. But one cannot simply force out ignorance, and I am honestly in no position to try to fix it until I've had my coffee.

Education cuts

Any politician who advocates cutting school budgets is either too stupid to be running our government or is fearful of an educated population. Either way, those people should be quickly and summarily dismissed from their duties by the voters.

There is no 110%

I really get annoyed when people say they gave 110%. There is no such thing when it comes to effort, there is only 100%. When you give 100% you know it because you are completely spent when you are finished; there is nothing left to give, so you can only recover.
Most of us seldom get close to this point, so please stop using such idioti phrases.

The Sky Isn't Falling

Whenever I scan readers' comments on some article in the paper I am constantly astonished by the absolute lack of some people's ability to think. They ramble on and on about how some decision or act is going to be the ruin of us all, that some statement will damage civilization for generations to come unless we do exactly what that one particular respondent desires. But here's the truth o the matter: we, as a species and as a civilization, generally do okay in the end. We right our wrongs, we change course as new situations arise, and we find new uses for old things that have fallen out of favor. When we do things right, they last. When we get things wrong, they eventually change. This isn't to state that change comes quick enough or happens in a way that satisfies everyone, but it happens. Maybe you need to push for change, but it happens. Maybe the other side needs to listen a little more, but it happens. Maybe we all need to remember that the sky isn't falling despite your pessimism.

Subjegation

No one can throw off the burden of oppression without first recognizing what they ALLOW to burden them in the first place. Once you stop allowing yourself to be placed behind something or someone else, then more options will become more readily available. But if you allow yourself to be subjugated, then there is little that anyone can do for you.

Cringe

I cringe every time I hear someone say that their faith in god helped them through some situation. What they should be saying is, "I was strong enough and smart enough, and I was helped along the way by many other strong, intelligent, and patient people." That would make sense.

4th of July

Who is more patriotic, the person lighting fireworks from China or the person who understands the irony of it?

American Reality

Hundreds of years from now other nations will look at the United States of America and see a near utopian society. That society, however, only exists on paper. From the outside looking in, we have free public education, welfare programs for the poor, and we even give prisoners access to libraries, including law libraries. The reality is that our schools system is run by corporations who want money for testing and textbooks, over zealous conservatives hate that idea of helping the poor, and both corporations and conservatives heard out prisoners into cell blocks designed to make money. This is not the American ideal, but it is what we have become.

Stupid question

There is such a thing as a stupid question, so if you have one it is best to ask in private so you don't embarrass yourself and everyone who knows you.

Reading a Poem

When reading a poem aloud to an audience, the poet often wishes to communicate pain and anger. The kind that says, "This is my pain, so you cannot understand. But I'm going to subject you to five pages of my insecurities while you look at my purple hair and nose ring. And I'll blabber on and on about how my daddy doesn't love me. And you are going to praise me or else!" It's that pain that makes it all so special. It's the pain of showering in nopal. Thousands of picos covering every available piece of flesh. And I bathe in them, wishing to cleanse the pollution of the modern world with picos of grandma's cactus that I only met in old photographs and stories that craft my imagination, so that is where I bathe. That is all I have left. The non-existent memory of a cactus standing chueco on the side of a house I never visited in a dusty, hot pueblo I never knew. Yet I bathe in the idea brought forth by my imagination that I might have known, only if things had been different. I might be fulfilled only if the stars were correctly aligned an only if my futile cries and prayers had been addressed. Now I can do nothing but stand her showing in my imaginary cactus with picos sticking, I wash in the lather of my own blood, thick and sticky when I really want nothing more than to lay in a bed of roses with you gently running my fingers across your beautiful soft skin. Smelling the scent of a field of wildflowers each time you exhale. Getting lost in the moment of your glance. Wouldn't that be something? That would have to be a different poem altogether.

School Uniforms

Although I have never really liked school uniforms, I don't consider them to be evil; I do, however, see them as a serious indicator of an institution's overall educational philosophy. If a school's administration believes that they have the right (and they might even see it as their duty to save children from themselves) to to narrowly restrict how children dress, then just imagine what they are doing with the curriculum. When a school tells a community that its students must dress a certain way, we should ask what that dress code reflects. If it simply restricts what can be worn, then the school also likely restricts what student's learn. One thing students learn from this is that their place in the world demands conformity to to a narrow set of rules to stay out of trouble, or rebel against conformity and suffer the consequences. If it offers offers clear guidelines with limited choices, then student likely learn a slightly less restricted curriculum, but their real choices life are still limited. When their are guidelines that are open to some interpretation, it places schools, students, and parents to reflect upon the values they wish to represent to the outside world; it creates an environment where everyone can express their views on appropriateness, manners, decorum, and self-respect. When communities create environments that encourage dialogue in the area of dress codes, then imagine the types of dialogues that happen in regard to the curriculum. We seldom see large numbers of successful students come from the most restrictive, least critical schools and there are many reasons for that, but if the overarching philosophy of those schools are to limit students from the moment they arrive, then they are doing a huge disservice to our society as a whole and one by one, they are dooming those children to a life of fewer and fewer options.

Television

The job of most media these days is to completely anesthetize the viewers into a zombie-like slumber.

Otherness

I have always felt like the outsider, the unnecessary component, the tag along, the other. Since I was a small child I just never seemed to fit anywhere or any place regardless of how hard I tried.

With god...

With god anything is possible because fiction can do anything.

Insomnia

I have never really understood how I can be so completely exhausted, but so completely unable to sleep. I don't mind waking up at four a.m. or even3:30 if I can fall asleep at a decent hour, but laying in bed for hours tossing around (or trying to remain stil) is quite annoying. Days upon days of this is really becoming too much for me. This is when my mind begins wandering into dark places. This is when I begin to worry myself.

Grading

I just walked into the bathroom to take a break from grading, and I let out a sigh that hauntingly sounded like my Mother's final and be labored breaths. That sound made me realize that I would rather be here, grading endless papers than not be here at all. How simple it is to realize that this life, even the toils some parts, are preferable to no life at all.

Fathers and Sons

If Jesus is the son of god, but is simultaneously also god, then does that mean that all of our sons are also us, ourselves? If so, then when we talk to our sons, are we also talking to ourselves? And what happens when our sons don't listen to us, am I just not listening to myself? Why would I not listen to myself, especially I I said, "Hey son, can you please get me a beer?" and he replies, "No". I wouldn't ever say that to myself.
And one more thing, what are the implications of your son is adopted? Is he really me, or just kinda sorta?

Social Darwinism?

It's not survival of the fittest, it's the flourishing of the most deceptive.

This Amazing World

I am not so ridiculously egocentric as to believe that some grand deity created this immense universe simply to put me on a planet in the inner part of Cygnus Orion arm of the Milly Way galaxy so that I could be shepherded through life, prolesletize about the greatness of this absent creator, and finally go to a paradise afterlife based on my very human constructs and desires. No, to me that is nothing short of absurd. Instead, I prefer learning about the wonders of this amazing place. I prefer to make our home more hospitable. I prefer to teach our fellow humans about the good and bad of our civilization, about how to communicate well, and how and why it is important to experience this life in as many ways possible. I prefer to bring joy and happiness and understanding to the human race instead of placating the masses through mystical babble that even a kindergartner should realize is nothing more than wishful thinking. Instead, we should place the same amount of faith in ourselves and others as we place in those mysterious invisible beings we call gods. Imagine what we, as a species, could accomplish then. That would be something worth celebrating and paying homage to.

If I Was Blessed (but I'm not)

If I was religious, I would say that I am truly blessed. But I don't subscribe to the conquerer's religion, and they made sure that I would never know the religion of my ancestors, so I am left with little more than the beautiful knowledge that we are nothing more than the desires of the conquerors. I am nothing more than the desires of some band of men who swept across Europe after Constantine converted and sent his hoard forth to prolesthetize and murder for a newly made god. But that is too grim. I am more than that. I am the strange concoction of almost 14 billion years ( or maybe more) of an evolving universe. Still, at this moment, I am the father of two beautiful children and husband to a wonderfully beautiful wife. Hoy, solo soy el papi lleno de mi graciosa vida.

Sky

When I look up at the sky or across the canyon, I seldom give it a second thought. But when I do consider the beauty of the world, it is just that. When someone says something about god blessing us with this glorious day I can't help but think about the 14 billion years that our universe has been in existence, about the four billion years our solar system has been around, about the billions of years of creation and destruction that made everything come together so well that I can look up at a clear blue sky or across at a green caynon teeming with life. I am reminded that the atoms in my body come from the relentless process of stars being formed and eventually dying in violent ways, spewing their cosmic fertilizer across the cosmos. When I look out at the grandure of our world, I don't see the work of mystical beings; I see the amazing mysteries waiting to be unlocked. There, in that act of learning about our world for what it really is, we learn more about beauty than any form of mysticism can ever produce.

One Shot

One of the best thing about this life is that regardless of what we do at any given moment, we have the opportunity to change with the next breath. Without a doubt, all of our trespasses, all of our misgivings, all of those things we never should have said exist in the lives we affect; however, in the next instant we can begin to change and improve. Some people believe in an afterlife if we are good enough in this one. Some believe in paying penance before reaching paradise. Others believe that we will come back in a different form to try it all over again. I don't believe in any of that. I believe we have one shot with this one life, so we can choose to wait for for some mystical second chance or we can right our wrongs with what we have at our disposal. When we do something well, do it again. When we do something poorly, learn to improve. When we really screw up, learn from our mistake. That is but one small aspect of living that can make us all a little better.

Ignorance

Confidence based in ignorance is unfortunate. Confidence based in willful ignorance is exponential and should be condemned outright before it spreads like a disease.

Lost in Thought

Sometimes I wish I could get so far lost in my thoughts that it would take days to get back to reality.

Happiness

Happiness is best measured in small increments, for it is the little things in life that usually make us the most happy.

Imagination

It is wonderful that so many children have the innate ability to transform their lives with the simplest of objects. A girl is transformed into a princess by simply picking up a strip of brightly colored cloth that is, no doubt, nothing more than a scrap. A young boy becomes a brave knight the moment he picks up a stick, a fallen branch that his father has not yet found time to discard because of his busy schedule. But adults,we constantly need more and more. Neither the discarded sash, nor the broken branch offers us meaningful diversion anymore. And it is a shame that we dream the dreams given to us by television advertisers while sitting on our sofas watching the game in peace as long as the children stay outside and leave us alone.

Teaching

The best thing about teaching is not necessarily found in the curriculum. It is found in the interactions between students and teachers.

Education Question

What constitutes a good education, and how should it transform students?

21st Century Enlightenment

There is a real need to invigorate a 21st century Enlightenment because, I fear, that we are slipping closer and closer toward a new Dark Ages. The persistence of anti-intellectualism, the increasing prevalence of blind faith, and the overall lack of curiosity to understand the complexities of the modern world are astounding. When there are people dedicated to exploring the human condition through literature, we begin to replace the canon with non-fiction texts in our schools. We are given almost no exposure to philosophy beyond a few select pieces of Plato. Science is challenged at every corner by zealots clinging to their ignorance. History is restricted to a superficial monolithic account that intentionally ignores the stories of millions. And those who challenge these notions are not celebrated; instead they are ridiculed and called elitist as if being knowledgeable about the world is a curse. Sure, it is expected that there should be some fertilizer when cultivating the intellect, but those searching for deeper knowledge should not be expected to nearly drown in the effluence of intentional ignorance while on their journey.

Of Peace and War

We cannot expect government to produce lasting peace or wage a meaningful war when it is so intertwined with corporations, for the interests of corporations lies primarily with money which has no real interest in morality or ethics. Those endeavors belong to people, and until the people become engaged in social, political, and economic affairs there will be no real justification for either peace or war beyond the facade of capitalist greed.

Drinking champagne is like drinking a shot of bad Holloween candy. 3/18/00

Just when I started to get comfortable, they kick me out.  3/8/01

It is one thing to show the path.  It is entirely something else to show someone how to walk it.  3/17/01

It is one thing to wake up with the blues, it is something altogether different to wake up with the blues for weeks on end.

Selling a house that you love is like putting down a faithful dog because you now have a new puppy.

School might be where many of us are introduced to basic academic knowledge, but how we choose to live our lives determines how knowledgable we actually become.

Freedom

It is quite apparent in the realm of political and social discourse that when a person or group claims to support freedom and liberty, they are not referring to self-rule or allowing people to make their own decisions about their actions. They generally want to usurp one form of regulations and replace them with another. The idea that we maintain our freedom by relinquishing our civil rights is absurd; the idea that we replace secular law with religious law is absurd; and the idea that we relinquish civil discourse based on verifiable facts in favor of irrational groupthink is absurd. What is even worse is that those who preach these absurdities have followers who are so ignorant that they will pound their chests and pound the pavement in an attempt to force rational people to submit to these forms of despotism cleverly mislabeled as freedom.

Mystery

For something to be mysterious does not necessarily make it mystical. To claim that something is mystical means that you don't understand and that you don't want to understand. To say that something is mysterious is to say that you have the capacity and the desire to learn the verifiable truth. One cannot scrutinize the mysterious with the mystic, it can only be scrutinized with verifiable knowledge.

School might be where many of us are introduced to basic academic knowledge, but how we choose to live our lives determines how knowledgable we actually become.

I understand that people need to cling to something bigger than themselves. I get it. What I don't get is why billions of people choose to cling to fictions instead of looking at the amazing realities of truth. Fiction is not easy; I know because I hold two English degrees. Understanding the fictions that help us define our humanity is painfully difficult. But they admittedly are fictions based on the reality of human experience as filtered through the perceptions of fallibly mortals. Once you take those fictions and call them fact, or try to build a society based on fictions then there is a problem. I don't know whether to simply dismiss those people as ignorant, to pitty them for their gullibility, or curse them for their laziness. None of the above, I guess. I know some fine people who believe some silly things, but that's part of being human. I can't understand how kneeling to a fiction can make you love the world, and they probably can't understand how realizing that I an just a small part of billions of years of cosmic activity makes me more wonderful than any god because I am real. And I not only come from the stars, i am the human incarnation of them.

Replace the words , "God wants" with the words , "I want" and see if if the desire is still true. Chances are, it is. Be your own God. Or at least have the guts to admit your own true desires.

It is very important for people to realize that everyone else's beliefs and perspectives are born out of a combination of individual and collective experiences. This does not make these beliefs right or wrong, they are merely the effect of a lifetime of being influenced by parents, friends, school, religion, and individual occurrences. If you want to truly engage a person in meaningful conversation, or if you truly wish to teach a person something they are resistant to knowing, then you must first understand that person's perspective on the world; in essence, you must first understand that person's life. Then, after careful consideration and a lot of learning on your part, you will be much better equipped to deal with the meaningful issues at hand. Just keep in mind that everyone is the expert in regard to their own life, so if you want someone to see the world through your eyes, you must first be willing to see the world through the eyes of another. This crucial component is often lacking in contemporary discourse and we are living the dangerous results of its omission.

Imagine how much more we could accomplish as a species and civilization if, instead of focusing on religion, people would take all that time and energy and place it on something that actually works. This brings to mind two important things in my life. First, it makes me think of my mother who dies a horrible death as a result of cancer and complications of a stroke. If we had put more time and energy into medical exploration, into sending more people to medical school, or encouraging more children to pursue science as a profession, then there is a chance that my mother could still be alive. Or at least, she might have had a less traumatic end to her life. The memories of a helpless woman suffering for nearly two years is unbearable, and the possibility that it can be different for those in the future is astounding. But we must focus on the reality of needs, not the superstitions of people who believe that suffering is somehow good anyway. Second, I think of my son who has an array of developmental and neurological issues including, what can only be best described as autism. Since medical doctors and researchers have begun serious studies on ASD, they are finding an amazing complexity to the disorder that is opening up another dimension to the universe of the brain. I cannot help but reflect upon the awesome power of the brain and how it finds ways to compensate for certain aspects of  such a debilitating condition; but it cannot overcome everything. One thing that I have learned as a family man and as an academic, is that there are often very simple, and sometimes ridiculous roots to some of the most chaotic problems. If this is the case for cancer or autism, I can only hope that we can find the roots of those conditions so that we can prevent it from happening to others. If both of them are merely mutations in our genetic code that we are unable to change, then we should know that, too. What is most important, however, is that there are answers to these questions, and we should be dedicating extensive time and energy to solving these puzzles that effect the lives of billions people. That is an endeavor far more noble than naively putting something in the hands of a deity that likely doesn't exist.