Commenting & Truth vs. Opinion

I have gotten comments on many things I have written on the internet over the years and it never fails to amaze me how often people will try to make you believe they are right and you are wrong. There are rarely clear cut answers to the things I write about, that is why I write about them. I like to make my opinion known but I do not force my opinion on others.

The saying goes, “The only sure things in life are death and taxes.” I disagree with that statement because there are universal truths. Truth based on law and truth based on science & math. Everything else is basically just an opinion.

I recently received a comment which, in part, said that people are only entitled to informed opinions. I believe that people are entitled to any opinion. That is freedom of speech, a basic human right given to us by our forefathers. It is law, therefore it is true.

I looked online, searching under “universal truth” & “proven truth”. I found a lot of biblical reference and opinions on what should be considered true. I suppose to find the facts I must do the research in technology, math, science, etc. (I am not into research so I don’t know how likely it is that I’ll actually do that.) One thing I can say from experience is that every living thing dies. I believe that to be true. All other things can be put up for debate. If you’d like to add a definite truth that cannot be debated, please leave it in a comment.

“News-stand”

ObjectWriting.com word-of-the-day: “News-stand”

“News-stand”

I awoke this morning to a beautiful face.
Then she vanished before me without a trace.
Then what I saw, in her face’s place,
was the gift she gave me with such loving grace.

It was my ring on the  table, shining brightly in the sun.
Just like the morning we met and I knew her to be the one.
She had come to my news-stand, just looking around,
not for magazines… for something  that cannot be found.

She looked up at me and I down at her.
“Can I help you find something Ma‘am?”, I lowered my voice.
“I really don’t know what brought me here, Sir.”
“Perhaps, it was our fate… not a choice.”

She blushed just like on our wedding day.
As the ring slid on her finger, a tear slid down her cheek.
And still now, I mourn her every day,
and no other love shall I ever seek.

2007 ©  L.J.B.

“Gretchen Anne Wilder” (Epitaph)

“Gretchen Anne Wilder” (Epitaph)
Born: April 7, 1923
Died: February 22, 1937

I was born on a rainy night. Father did not attend my birth. Mother had told me he was sleeping the whole time. Father was a drinker. Mother covered for him a lot. She doesn’t have to anymore. Father died from drinking too much when I was just eleven. I was happy that mother and I were on our own after Father’s passing. Mother taught me many useful things like cooking, sewing, gardening, and picking the ripest, juiciest berries to bake pies and make jams with. Mother was my mentor and my best friend. She was always there for me, up until she came down with pneumonia. For weeks in December and January of 1935, I took care of Mother, the house, and the land. I would read to Mother at night to help her sleep. Charles Dickens was her favorite. She just had me read “Child’s Dream Of A Star” over and over. I had it memorized after the first three times I read it. I was always good at remembering things.
When Mother died on January 30, 1935, I felt as if I could not go on. Mother was all I had. It was very difficult to keep up with the house and the land then. In desperation, I agreed to marry Mister Jonathan Abernathy. He was 32 years my senior. We married on March 26, 1935. By May that year I was pregnant with our first child. Mary-Elizabeth Abernathy was born on January 30, 1936…… the anniversary of Mother’s death. It was such a sad day. Being a mother at age thirteen was no picnic. Mister had hired help for me though. Still, I missed being a child so very much.
I knew from the day Mary-Elisabeth was born that she wasn’t right. She didn’t look or act like the other, normal children. She was very slow to develop. Her face was fat and her eyes slanted and always looking in varied directions. She couldn’t lift her head, or make any noise other than a grunt.  Mary-Elizabeth had colic all the time. Maybe she was in pain from whatever illness she had. Mister would never fetch a doctor though.
Mister was not a nice man at all. Yes he did provide the basic necessities, but he was emotionally distant, physically abusive, and demanded I perform my wifely duties several time a day. If I protested he would take off his belt, bend me over his knee and whip me. I rarely protested. Mister always seemed to be angry with me. Moments before he took my life, he told me why he’d been so angry. Not only had I had a baby girl instead of a boy to carry on his name, but the child was “broken”. Mister said I had evil things inside my womb that made the child this way.
With Mary-Elizabeth in my arms, Mister got closer and closer as he screamed at me. His face was red, his fists clenched and spit was flying from his mouth, hitting my face. Behind me I could feel the railing of the third floor balcony. I knew, and I think Mary-Elizabeth knew as well. This was the end, the end of our suffering. I felt Mister’s hands against my chest, pushing me and my baby girl over the balcony. In the seconds before we hit the ground, I thought to myself, “Thank you God, it’s finally over.”

2005 © L.J.B.

Response to Time article “Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind” (2007)

Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind

My opinion:

Seeing that this is a top 10 list, I cannot condemn the article itself for not being thorough enough.   I can , however,  discuss what I think are important things for scientists to learn about the brain.

It would be a great thing for society as a whole, if scientists could determine for sure where animal instinct and morality cross each other in the brain.  Why does the animal inside each of us subside to our individual morals?  What makes a person go from thought to action when they know the action is illegal and immoral?

What makes a pedophile, rapist, murderer, or abuser?  How can some people grow up in the same environment as another and the two end up as polar opposites?  I say it is not only the brain.  It is the trauma the brain may suffer during gestation and birth.  It is the way each person an individual meets effects them.  It is the emotional, physical, and/or sexual traumas the person may have suffered throughout life.  It is also the chemical makeup of the person, their heritage, their genes.

In the movie “Minority Report”, people where arrested on the basis that they were seen by precognitive’s committing a crime.  I think the idea is a good one, yet not realistic in our day.  Now if scientists can examine a persons DNA or do a brain map to see how the brain is functioning, then determine from that the likelihood of that person becoming/being a violent person, it would be possible to invent treatments that could prevent the crimes from ever happening.

There are many questions when it comes to how the brain and mind work.  I believe that some things are more important to figure out than what dreams are made of.

2007 © L.J.B.

“Ode To George”

12/03/07

“Ode To George”

In childhood memories you exist.
A golden halo hovers o’er top your head.
My age fourteen, our fate did twist,
halo intact….. yet you are dead.
I hear your heart beat, I feel your purring on my cheek.
I remember you like a pillow, warm and soft, always there.
Always my best friend, now you are my furry angel and my guide.
Please George, take me to a place where I am not weak.
Remind me of the possibilities I used to believe were there.
Show yourself to me in my dreams. I miss you, you mustn’t hide.

My dear, how I do need you so.
My first loyal love.
In my heart, I’ll never let you go….
nor in my head, just above.
You and I must have been meant to be.
Must have loved each other in another life.
I, an outcast…. you, my faithful cat.
T’was the Salem Witch Trials, I do believe.
How much this life resembles our former life.
Similar yet different versions of this and that.

Oh, my sweetest, most purrrfect friend…..
you shall remain in my heart ’til the end of the end of the end.

2007 © L.J.B.

“Pachabel’s Cannon in D”

12/06/07

“Pachabel’s Cannon in D”

soothing to the mind and soul
uplifting music creating lovely visualizations
an astonishingly magnificent composition
starting soft and gentle as a whispering breeze
instruments added in one by one
strings and winds combining to make the most perfect melody
quickening finger movements challenge each musician
harmonious glorious loudening bringing tingling to the skin
strong movement to the notes bring the feeling of swaying leisurely
ending with powerful instrumental unison
then the composition fades to nothingness
leaving the listener with inner peace and contentment
soothing to the mind and soul
uplifting music creating lovely visualizations
an astonishingly magnificent composition
2007 © L.J.B.

“Smallest Heart”

“Smallest Heart”

Oh Daddy, I should have known,

I could not count on you.

Your heart must have never grown

to have room for me too.

Daddy I am done feeling bad.

For too many years, I wanted to be your little girl.

Though your actions have made me sad,

I can see that other things are more important in this world.

Though we are bound by blood, I have to let it go.

No longer “Daddy”… you are just “the man I wished I knew”.

My feelings for, you bluntly show,

If only you had feelings too.

2007 © L. J. B.