Thanksgiving: When Gobblers Thank the Gobbled (20)

Last week, my family and I spent a quiet Thanksgiving at home. A spectacular vegan meal gave me plenty to be thankful for. While scanning the news headlines online after dinner I came across an article featuring the annual presidential pardon of a turkey. For the past 60 years, the U.S. President has granted official pardon to a turkey on Thanksgiving Day, expressing national gratitude for the thousands of turkeys consumed on this holiday.

Navigating to the article I saw a picture of President Bush, with outstretched arm, bestowing the honor upon one of the two large birds that were pardoned. Following the ceremony, the turkeys were flown first-class to Disneyland where they took the place of honored guests in a Thanksgiving Day parade. To borrow the title from a Reader’s Digest column, you’d find something like this “Only in America.”

Nah - I Already Saw It On TV (19)

According to a man by the name of E.B. White: "Television hangs on the questionable theory that whatever happens anywhere should be sensed everywhere. If everyone is going to be able to see everything, in the long run all sights may lose whatever rarity value they once possessed, and it may well turn out that people, being able to see and hear practically everything, will be specially interested in almost nothing."

I especially like the last sentence. As I grow older I seem to find fewer and fewer people that are willing to go out and do fun stuff like backpacking, canoeing, and mountain climbing. Perhaps it’s since they’ve seen it all already on TV. For them it’s more interesting to sit on the couch and “experience” the thrills portrayed by a $15,000 plank on their wall. After all, they don’t have to put forth any pains to see something spectacular.

Come on! Where’s the sense of adventure that drove man to Everest, Antarctica, the moon, and beyond?! As CGI succeeds in transforming fantasy into reality before an audience’s eyes, the desire to explore the uttermost reaches of the globe and the mind is being lost. Spectacular reality is willingly being traded for fantastic nonsense.

Solitude vs. Loneliness

Loneliness comes about when you are isolated from people. That’s a simple definition but it gets a bit more complicated. The first time you headed off to summer camp you probably didn’t know anybody and the first thing you experienced was a form of loneliness called homesickness. When you’re deprived of having social interaction with familiar figures and you’re forced to be around those aren’t comfortable with you start to become lonely.
Mark Twain’s statement: “The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with one’s self,” puts a twist on loneliness that not many people like to admit. When you don’t like the person you’re with 24/7 (yourself), you begin to grow lonely. People will try to drown this sense out by constantly surrounding themselves with others or distracting their minds when they are alone. It can be downright frightening for them to be alone with no music, TV, or email and instant messaging. It’s important to be able to live with oneself. It’s important that a person be able to be alone for reasonable periods of time without being lonely. Personally, I enjoy moments of solitude when I can think and ponder, and I think that creativity is reduced when people cannot be by themselves.

Back 2 School - Again? (17)

It’s back to school for baby boomers. A recent trend has put middle age adults back in the classroom as they try to pick up where they left off, or expand their horizons. According to the Newsweek November 5, 2007 edition, nearly 2 million college students are age 40-64. Talk about continuing education! Up until recently, factors such as daytime class hours and no financial aid for part-time students made going back to college difficult for grown-ups with a job and a family. Now boomers are learning new trades, trying out new jobs, and educating themselves as they move toward retirement age.

I think it’s a good idea to keep learning throughout one’s life; it keeps your mind from growing dull as you age. The effect on society that these returning students will have should be positive. They will be able to further stress the importance of education.

The Newsweek article Heading Back to College mentioned 59-year-old Mike Flynt who went back to college to get back on the football team he was kicked off of during the 70s. That’s just one of the thousands of cases in which a person has decided to give a second try where they failed during their younger years. If I had been in the same position I would probably have done the same thing; it would be really annoying to reach retirement and always remember that one big blunder from college.

These adults are pretty brave to be attending classes at college when the majority of students are young enough to be their kids. Other problems may come in the form of the modern, technologically oriented classroom. But in the end the thirst for knowledge overcomes every obstacle, producing smarter grown-ups.

Let's Keep Things Straight

Multitasking is a skill that pilots must learn in order to operate safely. Multitasking comes harder for guys, and coincidentally most pilots are men. I learned about this new skill first hand on an intro flight I took a couple years ago. My flight instructor had just landed the plane at the Lincoln-Harder Airport and I was given control of the plane once more.

“Taxi to the end of the runway, then we’ll head back to the ramp.”

It was a sweltering summer day and now that we were back on the ground I began to feel the uncomfortable heat building up in the cabin.

“Is it okay if I open the window?” I asked.

“Sure, go ahead.” Taxiing a plane is no big deal at all – steering is done with the feet and the throttle is a sort of cruise control. I turned to my left and started unlatching the window. Immediately my willing plane followed me, veering left toward the grass at a good 15 mph. Woops. I stomped on the right rudder pedal. There we go. Come on window, open. Keep going straight! Finally I got the window open without turning the plane into a lawnmower. My driving was certainly unique, however.

A few minutes later I was in the car heading back to Weimar, having finished my second (most people take only one) introductory flying lesson. Intro flights, while not being full-fledged lessons, still teach students valuable principles: look to make sure it’s clear before you turn, pull back a bit more when banking, and always use checklists. I came back from the airport that day with one more thing to remember: I still have a lot more to learn about flying – especially flying on the ground!

My Newest Undertaking

In order to make Ms. Chi happy, I must inform you that neither Obama, Clinton, nor Edwards will be America’s next president; I am. Through an interesting series of events, some of which are related to English blogging assignments, I have just arrived in the Oval Office. (Probably the first time a green card-holder has received this privilege.) There are three important items that must be taken care of right away, and I intend to carry them out immediately:

(1) Doctors in residency must not work more than 80 hours a week.

(2) National debt must be reduced to a pronounceable number.

(3) “Modern” methods of producing dairy and meat must be replaced

Lofty goals yes, but for an aviator like me the sky is the limit. It is vital that these issues are dealt with. Doctors in residency are subjected to extreme fatigue that is no doubt reflected in their treatment of patients. Who wants to die in the hospital just because Dr. John Doe didn’t get enough sleep last night? I will be sending the FAA over to the FDA to give them a few pointers on the need of proper rest. (The FAA can’t afford to be killing hundreds of people through fatigue-related accidents, unlike our nation’s hospitals.)

Now on to national debt. The plan is to provide every American with a low-cost CO2 collection device. Through breathing into this device for an hour a day, Americans will reduce millions of tons of CO2 emissions. Revenue will be generated through selling this valuable greenhouse gas to Iran to aid in their new alternative fuel program.

Now, after giving everybody more years to live and more money to spend, I must make sure that health is imparted to everyone. Many Americans subsist on meat and dairy; what they don’t know is the methods by which these manufactured products make it to their table. Through rigid legislation I will bring back meat and dairy that is not saturated with hormones and diseases. My goal is to make everyone wiser about what they put in their mouths.

With these three bold steps, I plunge into the thick of the battle. With these three actions I will make every man and woman in the U.S. healthier, wealthier, and wiser. And with these three decisive deeds I commit myself to the service of the American Nation.