Pandora's Other Box

Some of the blog entries are being used as reading material in my ESL classes ( no, I’m not selling the stuff, the students do like them!! ... just an added bonus…) and, after reading the Puerto Rico series, some students were asking me if I ever went back to PR after the Army years… In going over the blog from the beginning, there is a definite non-sequitur pattern, which is present throughout the “body of work” ( like that? …  no, not my words, just something I remember hearing, but applicable…) . Perhaps this may explain the gap; the Army service became the focus for a few entries and then, other issues took up time and space, blurring away the memories of that unfinished business. What is there to say? While in the army, during my early training program, my thoughts of PR were centered around the negative issues that permeated my last 3-5 months there. In fact, as you probably know from other posts, I didn’t return for Thanksgiving or Christmas. There was no resentment...

Some days we simply get up and “the” mind is in a fog. Today is one such day. We’ll see what falls on this page. In those moments when there is nothing much to do or to think about, I tend to reminisce about the long passing of the years. Childhood, youthhood (huh??), adulthood, and eventually oldhood ( another -huh??- please?). Sometimes these thoughts are full of wonderment about how we, tiny humans as we are, manage to survive many obstacles and improbabilities. There is no certain answer to this, but I do believe in the human capacity to survive, when the choice is made to do so. In talking with a friend about this, he asked whether I had ever been to a “motivational seminar”. The answer is no, I have not participated but have listened to and watched some of those gung-ho servings of adrenalin which come under the title “Motivational”, subtitle “send me your money”. I have to bring up the unasked question: Can we really go to a seminar for a few days and, along with ano...