NOTES: Stupidity of "holy war" -- incredibly arrogant to force that onto God. Would think God would appreciate the intelligence and skill to succeed without depending on war.

I can't believe it's been more than a week since I posted.

Seems like I did some other posts in the last week -- perhaps they self-destructed for some reason.

It's late though so I'll have to post later.

d

At the risk of commenting on something about which I know little, I have to say that it strikes me as absurd and perhaps a bit sad the way that French, language and culture of, have degraded to the point that they need to be enforced by fiat.

This first struck me when I did some work in Canada some years ago because you can get into some serious trouble in parts of Canada if you don't provide French versions of everything.

Here's the question -- isn't the fact that they feel they have to have laws to strictly enforce the use of French a confession that it has so little appeal that it can't stand on its own?

Those things that have to be enforced by such laws are, it seems to me, on the way out -- and no one around is smart enough to come up with a better solution than saying "if you don't play my way, I'm gonna hit you!"

Later, I got the impression that similar laws exist in France. And I just read an article in the Post about riots in the streets in France over a suggestion that employers ought to be given a little more freedom to decide who they hire and to whom they provide lavish benefits.

I love Paris. I like the French language. I love the museums in Paris. I just wonder why someone seems to be so uncertain of the value of the French culture that they must enforce it by law.

Given human nature, I am quite certain that such enforcement will only serve to hasten the deterioration and loss of French culture the laws ostensibly intend to preserve.

d

I spent some time this morning talking with my parents about their retirement, their future and what to do when the time comes for them to pass on.

I'm happy that my parents and I are able to have the conversation, that we can plan for the future and discuss a time when we will no longer be together. But, of course, it is also a somewhat bittersweet topic to discuss.

There's much more I'd like to say on this subject, but time presses a bit are the moment.

But, the subject is certainly framed differently when you know that death, no matter the sense of immediate loss, is not the end. I've long known I've lived before, but it is a bit different when you caste your gaze not to lives past, but to lives future.

I'm also struck by the difference between belief in past lives and knowing that they exist. Knowing, I must say, is much more comforting than mere belief.

Okay, here's the start of a blog. I've thought about starting one for awhile, just never got it to the top of the task list or considered it important enough.

Not sure what this will become, but here's some possibilities:

* Maybe some technical notes, though I think most technical stuff related to work will end up in a work-related blog that will hopefully be set up soon.

* Personal notes, comments or whatever. If I get really bold I might even throw up poetry or fiction or something like that, though that might be pushing it a bit.

* Perhaps might develop into enough of a journal to keep track of what I did when. Useful, perhaps, when preparing a tax return and wanting to make sure expense X was in fact for business. Ultimately, to accomplish that I think I'd probably have to be able to password protect some pieces of data or areas of the blog -- not sure if that's in the current system I'm using.

* A way to communicate to my family, in particular my kids, one of whom is living in LA, the other is languishing in Vienna (going to school).

Okay, enough blah-blah for now.

Perhaps I'll check back in a few months and see if anything of the above has any relationship to anything appearing here.

d