Pandora's Other Box

In life we deal with many issues. Some are run of the mill, some are not, and others fall into that “more difficult to manage” status; often, we don’t really know how to go about dealing with these.   Thinking about this yesterday, while thinking about a situation that was developing, the title line of this entry came to mind. - “You must wield a steel claw covered by a silk glove” It was late 1973 and I, living then in Connecticut, had started working with a young life insurance company out of Miami, as an independent agent. This was the first time I came across a fully prepared ( canned, literally ) sales process. The government had recently passed a law allowing individuals to purchase a retirement account which could be qualified, just like a pension plan, for deductions of the premiums from the income tax basis. The company had an average product with an outstanding presentation. We carried around a self-contained machine, which showed a full 18-minute story as...

I thought about writing this as a purely personal exercise, not to be published. Why? A couple of people I cared about have died recently; this exercise would be sort of a catharsis… Then, I asked myself… “Self, why not publish? What are you afraid of?” I think a probable answer lies in the fact that most people don’t want to talk about the subject of death. It is one of those taboos we as children, especially in the Hispanic culture, are carefully steered away from. Then, we just keep the ignorance-is-bliss attitude into latter life. I have yet to understand why. After all, death is the end where, when we finally meet, we are all the same. There is no difference between black, white, brown, red, rich or poor. The body in which we have been residing as we would occupy a leased car, ceases to be. From dust we come and to dust we go. Or so it is said. Is this a depressive, contemplation of death write-up? No, it isn’t. This is more like a generational complaint. Most people are t...

We all have those moments in life when we may wish to have a built-in “delete” button…   Let’s face it. Just a few of us are near perfect, right? Yeah, I know… I must humbly accept I am not one of those, even if just missed by a little tiny step… you do realize that I say this to make you feel better, don’t you? Hmmm … I thought I would try to sneak one by while you weren’t paying attention… Anyway, back to reality and the thread at hand. Where does this come from? you ask… You didn’t ask? Well, let’s believe you did. No, not that I don’t listen to you, just that I can’t hear you right now… This old computer makes too much noise. A few nights ago, during a class ( familiar grounds?) there was an exercise which consisted of three questions to be answered in paragraph form, to be discussed. They all dealt with the concept of “options” and their consequences. One of the questions asked for the student’s opinion about the meaning of the concept represented by the word “opt...