If you like music, and perhaps you do. Then you might recognize some of these in my list of the Top Ten Lyric Phrases. Frequently, I think that songs are the only place that poetry is appreciated in our modern society. It’s not too often people go around quoting poems these days, in the absence of music.

This is intended to be a little break in the action from some of the more serious posts that have been going on around here lately…. I don’t claim these are the “end all, be all” of phrases, in fact, if you asked me on a different day you’d get a different answer. But these are todays…..Think I missed one? Leave a comment.

10. – It’s like someone took a knife baby edgy and dull and cut a six inch valley through the middle of my soul. – I’m on Fire/Bruce Springsteen

9. – I wear my crown of thorns, upon my liar’s chair. Full of broken thoughts, I cannot repair. Beneath the stain of time, the feeling disappears. You are someone else, I am still right here. – Hurt/Nine Inch Nails

8. – Oh, mirror in the sky, What is love? Can the child within my heart rise above? Can I sail thru the changing ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life? – Landslide/Fleetwood Mac

7. – The seed is spilled, the bed defiled, for you, a virgin bride. Hide yourself in someone else, don’t find yourself in me. – Love Comes Tumbling/U2

6. – Love is like a dying ember, only memories remain. – Blue Eyes Cryin’/Willie Nelson

5. – Some of us hover when we weep for the other who was dying since the day they were born. – Stay/Lisa Loeb

4. – It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got. – Soak Up the Fun/Sheryl Crow

3. – In your belly you hold the treasures, few have ever seen. Most of them dreams, most of them dreams. – A Pirate Looks at Forty/Jimmy Buffet

2. – Lookin’ at the world through the bottom of a glass, all I can see is a man who’s fadin’ fast. – Misery and Gin/Merle Haggard

1. – Is a dream alive that won’t come true? Or is it something worse? – The River/Bruce Springsteen

Recently this arrived in my inbox from someone known in my distant past. The author’s name is real, others have been changed to protect them from further inadvertent injury.

Hi Thier,

You probably don’t remember me, but I sure do remember you. Your the guy who ruined my life by seducing my future wife.

Remember the church youth group and the skating rink trips and church camp? That was supposed to be clean christian fellowship and you ruined it. Jane and I were going to be married – she told me she would love me forever. You took her away and then started messing around with her sister Jean while you were still seeing Jane and Melissa.

It’s so funny to see what your writing about religion. At least I know why, you were a rotten Christian and your going to hell anyway. Keep spouting this atheist crap and you’ll get your just rewards for that and for the way you ruined my life. Im still a Christian so I’ll pray that you see the error of your ways, repent,and get saved like I am.

Sincerely,
Jon Woods

Let’s start with my version of the story above. As an early teen living in a small agricultural town where social life starts and ends with church activities, there weren’t many choices about how and with whom to socialize. That meant that whomever was in your age group in your particular church became your social circle. Within that circle, there was much “experimentation” with regard to relationships, sexuality, and power-dynamics. I have to admit, I haven’t thought much about this time and never realized that my behavior would still stir such emotions so many years later. Nor did I ever believe the relationships there were necessarily intended for permanence, though Jon clearly feels otherwise.

To the specific charges. Jon and Jane were “going together” – whatever that means. On one of the youth outings, Jane and I were a little more than friendly while Jon and Jane were still involved. Shortly thereafter, Jane’s sister Jean and I were also getting pretty friendly and were discovered in these activities by other members of the social circle, which unfortunately included the girl I was “going with” at the time too (Melissa – with whom I had also been very “friendly”.) A series of scenes occurred with many angry accusations and tears. Fights were proposed among the male participants who behaved like this was the television show “Wilmington 45177”. Ultimately, this all ended when I left the community for another town and a new school.

Here’s an apology: Jon, to you and the rest of the players you enumerated in your note, I am truly and deeply sorry for my decisions and actions regarding our joint relationships. I did not realize the full impact of this on the others involved in the situation. For whatever it’s worth, I didn’t intend to cause you harm specifically and bear no malice against you.

I’ll even agree with your assessment that I was a rotten christian, though it pains me more to have been a person behaving badly. As I’ve become more experienced my viewpoints have changed so that I don’t behave in such ways (and haven’t for some time) not because the lord may smite me or because, as you so clearly point out, that I’m going to hell as an atheist heathen.

No, I don’t behave in such ways because it’s wrong to toy around with the feelings of other humans that way, particularly when commitments have been issued. Strangely, I don’t feel the need for a deity to inform me of this or threaten with eternal damnation to insure that I don’t stray from this perspective.

One piece of high irony in this is that now that I am most assuredly not christian, there’s no “thrill” that accompanied such hijinx in the past. I used to feel like I was somehow “getting away” with something and like some sort of criminal, it was a rush.

No, now whenever I feel the temptation to do something less than consistent with my own moral tapestry, I think about the people who could be hurt by the behavior and how I’ll feel having made a decision with no net, so to speak. It was so easy to make such mistakes as a christian because you beg the big guy for forgiveness and you’re off the hook. Now that I’m living here on planet Earth, it’s not so simple anymore. Real actions have real consequences that aren’t so easily repaired.

So Jon, you can damn me to hell, you can pray for me, it really makes no difference. I am sorry for pain you’ve carried for decades now – while I can’t say I didn’t know what I was doing – I can say I had no idea I’d hear about it so far after the fact with so much obvious emotion. I hope that you can somehow find peace and find a way to live in the real world.

This is a pretty cool site (I’ve seen it referenced a couple of times, don’t know who to attribute to so I won’t.) It’s a place you can create maps of all the places you’ve been. Let’s start with my home country, the good old US of A. As you can see from the map, I need to bag Alaska and I’ll be 50 of 50 on US states.

US Map

visited 49 states (98%)
Create your own visited map of The United States


A stark contrast to that is India, I’ve only been to Delhi and Bangalore (Karnataka) – meaning there is much more to see…


India Map

visited 2 states (5.71%)
Create your own visited map of India


If the view is broadened to be the world view, it’s a little better. Though obviously I have some work to do in Africa and South America. This is a fun exercise, where have you been? Create a map and post it! If you don’t have a site, feel free to post in a comment here.



visited 28 states (12.4%)
Create your own visited map of The World

One of the things we Coastsiders do to non-residents is talk up the fog/bad weather thing. Call it motivated self-defense from the 6 million people on the other side of the hill. That being said, the time between September and May has some of the best weather to be found in the area. Yesterday, it was as clear as you could ever imagine with temperatures in the high 60’s. The Farallone Islands were standing majestically on the horizon 27 miles offshore.

It was great, and I didn’t take a picture. Shame! In fact, due to my spouse being mildly ill, demands at work, and me succumbing to a cold, I didn’t do anything more than look out the window yesterday. But it was gorgeous and it made me want to feel better to be able to appreciate it today. We’ll see…..

Seriously though, if you’re going to visit the San Mateo coast, not-summer is the time to come. If rain isn’t forecast, then you’ll be in for a treat. Summer, not so much. That truly is fog city…

For your viewing pleasure, here are some representative images of winter on the coast, and summer on the coast. These photos are all taken from the same location around sunset.

Winter on the San Mateo County Coast

Summer on the San Mateo Coast

This is a letter that was transmitted to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from me:


January 7, 2009

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:

No doubt you’ve noticed that the State of California is about to go bankrupt; you’ve taken several very public stands attempting to coax the State Legislature to collaborate and compromise in finding a budget that will address the looming financial fiasco.

Yesterday brought news of your veto to just such legislation and that is disappointing. While you may not remember this clearly, it was just such a public fiasco which prompted the recall of your predecessor; paving the way for your ascension into the Governor’s office.

That being said, I write to you to offer a partial solution to the current financial crisis: Immediately and permanently revoke the tax exemption for non-profit organizations with income greater than $250,000 per year or declared assets in excess of $500,000. While such a proposal likely will be met with a visceral negative reaction; I urge you to read the rationale for this proposal before arbitrarily rejecting it.

Of the 107,620 registered “non-profit” organizations in California, 85% have income streams of less than $250,000 per year. Generally, “non-profit” organizations fitting into this segment meet the spirit and intent of having the tax exemption, there is some valid reason to raise funds from the community to do some action on behalf of the community. There are no lavish pay packages for executives, expensive trappings, or junkets.

For example, our local Parent’s and Teacher’s Organization, Friends of Farallone View is a member of the segment. Volunteer directors and officers raise over $150,000 each year to complement the staffing and curriculum in our local elementary school. In total, this 85% segment had reported income of $1.8B trailing 12 months through October, 2008.

The other 15% of “non-profit” organizations had reported income of over $120B in the same time period. The organizations in this segment are enterprises that are easily recognized, regardless of their mission statements, as businesses and large businesses at that. These enterprises spend the vast majority of this income on sustaining infrastructure to operate at scale instead of on their primary missions, unlike the true “non-profit” organizations in the lower echelon.

For instance, an organization like Benny Hinn Ministries pays for private jets, exorbitant salaries, and luxury hotels while hiding behind the tax exemption intended to shield real community organizations doing real community work. This organization harvests hundreds of millions of dollars with zero oversight or accountability. While Hinn Ministries has been singled out, there are countless other examples from across the large “non-profit” segment. Why should organizations like this and executives like Mr. Hinn get a free ride while legitimate businesses and individuals contribute for the greater public good?

Using the standard California business tax of 10%, revoking the tax exemption for “non-profit” organizations with income greater than $250,000 per year would generate another $12B per year in tax revenue for the State of California and such a move would have zero impact on existing tax payers and businesses in the state today.

In conclusion, we’re in a crisis. It’s clear you know this and it’s clear you care. The proposal to revoke the tax exempt status for “non-profits” presents a pragmatic and responsible way to help solve our present financial challenge and to help you avoid the fate your predecessor experienced. It is my hope that you seriously entertain this proposal and use it in the ongoing negotiations in Sacramento.

Sincerely,

Michael Harding, Concerned Citizen

Data supplied by The Urban Institute, National Center for Charitable Statistics