Thursday Thirteen Ed. #50

by Steve, July 19th, 2006

meTime again for the Thursday Thirteen. It’s been a tough week for those of us who don’t like war. I’m tempted to list thirteen reasons war sucks, like charred bodies of children scattered like dry leaves by the side of the road, killed while fleeing with their families. Like bombed out airports, roads, bridges, dairies, factories and power plants, part of a pattern of mass destruction of civilian infrastructure. Like missiles lobbed blindly towards civilian centers in hopes of killing innocents. But I’ve been writing about this shit all week.

So herewith are Thirteen Things That Give Me Hope:

  1. My two beautiful children, who tonight took a bath with their swim goggles on.
  2. My beautiful, strong, loving wife, who has been through so much shit in this world, but managed to hold on through it all and save enough of herself to take care of me and the kids—and she still manages to be a creative force in the universe.
  3. Long summer evenings, with cool breezes.
  4. The life cycle of our garden. Got it in a little late this year, but it’s coming on strong now. “Plants always try,” says Wacky Mommy.
  5. My children’s generation, who seem so much brighter than my own, and an order of magnitude brighter than those in power today.
  6. An abiding faith that the Earth will survive even the worst we humans can dish out. Visit the blast zone of Mt. St. Helens, and you’ll get some sense what I’m talking about. Life will go on here long after humans are gone.
  7. In the scope of the universe, humans are incredibly, infinitesimally insignificant. Quoth R. Buckminster Fuller:

    To get a little idea, …our Earth is 8,000 of miles in diameter and the diameter of the Sun is just a hundred times that, so our little Earth looks very tiny against that enormous big ball.

    But our star Sun is a small star. Most of you are familiar with Orions Belt. In Orions Belt, one of the two bright stars is reddish in color and this is Betelgeuse. Betelgeuses diameter is greater than the diameter of the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. So thats a good size star.

    So, we are a little planet of a rather inferior star which is one of a hundred billion stars in our galaxy and we know of billions of galaxies. So you get an idea of our little planet, and you and I are utterly invisible on it. We take pictures of our planet coming in from the moon, when you can see through the cloud cover, you can see the blue of the waters and brown of the land, but you cant make out a human being. You cant even make out a mountain, let alone a human being.

    Theres absolutely no visibility of a mountain because the aberration of the deepest waterfive miles below sea level, five miles above to the mountain topten miles aberration in 8,000 miles is so meager that a polished steel ball is probably rougher than that.

    So we are absolutely invisible on a really negligible little tiny planet of a rather negligible star, which is one member of a hundred billion of known million billion such stars. So you multiply the billion times a hundred billion and youll get an idea.

  8. Once you’ve hit rock bottom (e.g. George W. Bush), there’s nowhere to go but up.
  9. Mojitos taste really, really good.
  10. Hockey season is just a couple months away.
  11. My family doesn’t live in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza or Lebanon.
  12. Thursday Thirteen has prompted me to blog about something other than war and hockey for at least one day a week.
  13. I worked on my slap shot a little today, and I think I’m starting to get the idea…

Whew. That was really hard to come up with. I tell ya, it’s been a tough week to think positively, but it sure is a good exercise! See you in the funny pages….

11 Responses to “Thursday Thirteen Ed. #50”

  1. Comment from Kimmy:

    Great list. Love the goggles in the bath. Nothin’s better than that! ;)
    My 13 are up!

  2. Comment from Raggedy:

    Great list!
    My TT is up

  3. Comment from christen:

    #1 sounds so cute! unfortunately my husband does currently live in iraq, but i’m hopeful that he’ll come home soon.

    i’ve also posted 13 at
    http://blog.myspace.com/christengarland

  4. Comment from Lisa:

    Hey there, fellow Kossack! :) I know whatcha mean about feeling bummed out about the general state of things. It’s always good to remember the smaller gratitudes and that helps me feel a little less suicidal.

    Hockey Rules!

  5. Comment from carmen:

    it’s good to look at the positive things when the world seems to have gone crazy

  6. Comment from Mama Duck:

    LOL swim goggles! Happy TT, mine’s up ;).

  7. Comment from The Shrone:

    I think for #8 there is something lower than GWB. It’s called Dick Cheney. He’s second in command so if anything ever happened to GWB…perish the though!

    I love watching my garden do its thing. I am terrible about weeding.

    We’ve been to the Volcano already this year, and I hope we’ll go again, this time to the Ape Caves. I think the mountain is too awesome for words. She’s a powerful Lady and I highly respect her.

  8. Comment from Julie:

    Great Thursday 13 list! It’s nice that you took time out to remember all the blessings in your life.

    Amen to #10!

  9. Comment from Tess:

    I was awestruck by #6.

    But I love the thought of your kids taking a bath with their swim goggles. I think it’s cute :-) Yes, children do inspire us and make us hope for something better thought things really look dismal.

  10. Comment from Lazy Daisy:

    Great List. Always good to be able to focus on the good things in live. You are most richly blessed. My TT should lighten your load too!

  11. Comment from GreekGoddess:

    That’s one of the most awesome TT lists I read this week. Thanks for reminding us the important things in life!!!