For all those who have ever had to put a pet to sleep, I found this story today online:

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish wolfhound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn’t do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.
As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker’s death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.

Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, “I know why.”

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I’d never heard a more comforting explanation.

He said, “People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life – like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?”

The six-year-old continued, “Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”

Two from Sherman Alexie

Food Chain

This is my will:

Bury me
In an anthill.

After one week
Of this feast,

Set the ants on fire.
Make me a funeral pyre.

Let my smoke rise
Into the eyes

Of those crows
On the telephone wire.

Startle those birds
Into flight

With my last words:
I loved my life.


---


Ode to Mix Tapes

These days, it's too easy to make mix tapes.
CD burners, iPods, and Itunes
Have taken the place
Of vinyl and cassette. And, soon
Enough, clever introverts will create
Quicker point-and-click ways to declare
One's love, lust, friendship, and favor.
But I miss the labor
Of making old-school mix tapes -- the midair

Acrobatics of recording one song
At a time. It sometimes took days
To play, choose, pause,
Ponder, record, replay, erase,
And replace. But there was no magic wand.
It was blue-collar work. A great mix tape
Was sculpture designed to seduce
And let the hounds loose.
A great mix tape was three-chord parade

Led by the first song, something bold and brave,
A heat-seeker like Prince with "Cream,"
Or "Let's Get It On," by Marvin Gaye.
The next song was always Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams,"
or something by Hank. But O, the last track
Was the vessel that contained
The most devotion and pain
And made promises that you couldn't take back.

--Sherman Alexie, War Dance, 2009

This is about all the bad days in the world. I used to have some little bad days, and I kept them in a little box. And one day, I threw them out into the yard. “Oh, it’s just a couple little innocent bad days.” Well, we had a big rain. I don’t know what it was growing in but I think we used to put eggshells out there and coffee grounds, too. Don’t plant your bad days. They grow into weeks. The weeks grow into months. Before you know it you got yourself a bad year. Take it from me. Choke those little bad days. Choke ‘em down to nothin’. They’re your days. Choke ‘em!”

-- Tom Waits

The Laughing Heart

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

-- Charles Bukowski

The followed was written by Bill Cheney, CEO of the Credit Union National Association.

"Hear, hear," I say. The banks brought this all upon themselves.

Bank Transfer Day

The movement toward credit unions over the last several weeks has been nothing less than phenomenal. For us in the credit union movement, it is confirmation of our long-standing tenant that credit unions are "people helping people."

But it doesn't have to end this Saturday. As Kristen Christian -- the founder of Bank Transfer Day -- said: "November 5th is merely a deadline goal." (Facebook, Oct. 27)

As far as credit unions are concerned, any day is a good day for a consumer to become a credit union member. Nov. 5 is one good day to join, and we certainly encourage consumers to make the change.

Because when a consumer joins a credit union, he or she takes the first step for themselves, and their families, in moving toward financial freedom.

Consider this: Consumers who join a credit union can expect to save at least $70 in lower rates, higher return on savings and lower or no fees -- just as current credit union members did in the 12 months between June '10 and June '11.

And that's just on average; consumers who are loyal members of credit unions -- utilizing them extensively -- often receive financial benefits that are much greater than the average.

The best news for consumers, however, is that they truly seem to comprehend how they can benefit from credit union membership. The changes over the last several weeks -- since Sept. 29, when Bank of America announced its $5 debit card fee -- tell the story.

Our calculations at the Credit Union National Assn. (CUNA), based on a quick survey of our member credit unions from all across the nation, indicate that consumers have been moving by the tens of thousands -- and shifting their money by the hundreds of millions -- to credit unions over these past four weeks.

From what our member credit unions are telling us, the reason for the consumer swing is clear: Consumers are upset about bank fees; they've just had enough.

And, consumers have also been intrigued by "Bank Transfer Day," another reason our credit unions are telling us their new members are coming in the door.

These new credit union members have made the right choice, because they can now start saving.

In fact, if all of the people signed up to participate in "Bank Transfer Day" on Saturday do so, and remain credit union members over the year that follows, those consumers will save a combined $4.8 million. Combine that with the $5 per month that they WON'T be paying in debit card fees, and you're up to $5.1 million.

But that's just the start. Suppose all of those others who have been invited by their friends to join in "Bank Transfer Day" do, in fact, decide to join credit unions. As of this writing, that's more than 423,000 persons -- who, together, would stand to save $31.7 million in combined credit unions savings and no bank debit card fee.

That's money that goes right into the pockets of consumers -- not into the vaults of banks, or their shareholders' wallets.

However, to everyday working people -- struggling to do their level best in a lackluster economy -- that's real money that may be better spent on their families and their futures. Credit unions are proud to give them that opportunity.

This Saturday will no doubt be an historic day for consumers and credit unions alike. Consumers want to be free of high fees, and credit unions want to help free them.

It's one day for consumers to make a smarter choice. But it doesn't have to end there: Every day is a good day to join a credit union.

What's Playing in Hell?

According to Chuck Palaniuk, in an interview with the magazine, Mother Jones, regarding his new book, Damned:

MJ: Okay, new subject: Of all the movies that could be playing on an endless loop in hell, why did you choose The English Patient?

CP: I wanted a kind of lofty movie that a prepubescent girl would not really understand or appreciate. The Piano is also playing in hell. And also because, to tell the truth, sitting through both those movies was kind of a living hell for me. I just didn't get [their acclaim]. So that part of Madison is definitely me.

Read the rest of the interview here:

Misplaced Emphasis on Higher Education

I was going to write something along the lines of the following blog entry but realized that Becca had already done most of the work:

Higher Education

I had an interesting discussion with a new acquaintance from England the other day, and the conversation turned to children. She had two – a boy age 19, and a girl, age 17.

“Is your son away at school?” I asked, as most 19-year old’s are these days.

“No,” she replied in her lovely British accent. “He’s a musician and composer, and he’s trying to make a go of it. He had no interest in college – he just wanted to get out and do what he loved doing. But he’ll probably have to go back to England because he’s much more likely to have success there than he would do over here.”

I relayed my own son’s similar feelings about college, and how we had felt lucky to find a technical college dedicated to the field of study he was most interested in.

“It’s all so different over here,” she continued. “In England, it’s not expected that everyone will go off to University. It’s rather normal to get a proper job after you finish high school. Here, the kids seem pressured to go to college and all their friends are going so they want to go as well, even if they really don’t know what they want to study.”

I’ve had similar feelings about the push toward higher education ever since my son decided not to pursue the ubiquitous four-year degree. Those feelings have intensified in the past 10 years as I’ve seen several young people feel pressured to attend college, and then feel like a failure when they (a) find out they can’t make the grade or the payments; or (b) decide they’d rather pursue some other lifestyle path.

I was reminded of this tonight during rehearsal for the community theater group I’m working with. In the cast of the show we’re putting up, there are five young people between the ages of 22 and 30. Each of them has a four year degree from a top state university. Each of them was a better than average student in high school and in college.

None of them has a job.

Well, they have jobs, but they’re working in restaurants or retail clothing stores or driving trucks. A few of them are lucky enough to have part-time jobs in their fields (teaching, business, city planning) but nothing that will come close to paying the rent. They also have student loans which they can’t repay. So before they’re even established in life, they’re in big-time debt.

It made me feel even luckier that my son has been self-supporting since the age of 20, and was able to buy his first home at the age of 22. He’s been employed full time in his field since he finished his course of study, a program that was dedicated solely to his area of interest and focused entirely on that discipline. He was one of the lucky ones. He knew what he wanted to do, and he went after it. However, he had no assistance from anyone at his high school. The attitude of the counselors was “if you’re not interested in four year college, we’re not interested in helping you.”

I think we’re failing a lot of young people with that attitude. Not everyone needs to or is able pursue higher education in the form of a four year university. Students of all abilities should be encouraged to look for viable alternatives to the traditional university experience and there should be more focused educational avenues available for people who want to prepare for a specific career. Counselors should help young people discover their strengths and interests and guide them toward the proper educational experience, whether that’s a four year college, community college, technical school, or an apprenticeship.

Unfortunately many opportunities for trades and crafts persons have been “outsourced,” which has not only diminished the possibility for finding employment in those fields, but also devalued the work monetarily and in terms of status. The professional careers are supposedly “where the money’s at” these days, but there seem to be too many applicants for too few positions. It’s part and parcel of the polarization of our society – the rich and the poor, the educated and the ignorant, the haves and have-nots. The middle ground seems to be disappearing every day, and we all seem to be scrambling toward the high or low ends of society’s see-saw.

In the end, how valuable is a higher education if you can neither pay for it nor use it?

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