i often get damn near ill when people start talking or writing about generalities when it comes to people.

It seems we keep classifying people by their race, the color of their skin, their religion, their politics, their sexual preferences and completely ignore they are individual human beings.

i guess it’s easier that way.

Then last night on PBS, which many of my conservative friends will determine this post is no longer worth continuing, ran a segment that blew me away.

The story is about a Syrian immigrant to the United States who is also a Muslim.

My thought was until all of the critics of their perceived enemies with their perceived generalizations about those enemies, foreign and domestic, right or left, black, white, brown, yellow, and green (okay, okay, i sort of went a little overboard on green), and on, and on, and on, can approach doing what this amazing gentleman is doing, they should reconsider their generalizations.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/foster-father-cares-terminally-ill-kids-no-one/

i was thinking this would be a quiet, lovely weekend.

i thought about sitting out in the yard in the morning sun and reading. i’m reading three books right now, and i need to knock out at least two of them because the third is the one i find most interesting. Over the last ten to fifteen years, my reading habits have gone into the toilet as every chance i have to read i discover some task, either a home minor emergency, a financial action, or simply writing something like this, to keep me away from books — i am old admittedly and it’s always a BOOK, not some monitor or screen. i gotta have my tactile fix when reading a “book.”

This is critical since one entire wall of my home office is a bookcase completely full of books. i once promised myself i would read all of the Harvard Classics and the Franklin Library collections that i haven’t read and then reread many others placed there because they are special to me. i figured when i retired (sic) each time (right now, the number of retirements stands at about a dozen), i would devote several hours a day to this task. Ain’t happening.

Today, it turns out, is no different from the other days when i laid aside time to read leisurely (such a nice comfortable term that “leisurely”). We are in the process of  needed maintenance on our courtyard, So there are some palm varieties that had to leave the scene. They have and the final  stump removal occurred today. That means, of course, that someone must find the drains in the planting areas, make sure they are extant, clean the surrounding area and put river rock atop them. You see, the rains again are coming to the Southwest corner in a day or so, and the planting areas will not be replanted by then. So, a rain will wash the dirt and debris down the drain; it will plug; and then we’ve got a bigger problem. So that has to be done NOW.

In an effort to do everything at once, in spite of our “a little bit at a time” plans, we also began making the front room worthy of Maureen’s art and craft show (as well as it being her office). So reflooring commenced in the middle of the week. To re-floor, we had to remove the shelves my father had installed in the closet some ten years ago. i got that removal job. Painting the closet became the priority. That painting began today and will conclude one day next week. Now, some smuck gets nailed to prep and paint the door frames and the quarter round for the baseboard.  Guess who?

In checking out the stump removal, Maureen pointed out the master bath’s exterior door needed to be prepped and repainted. i cried, but admitted that was my job long forgotten (purposely because i do not like to paint and dislike prepping for painting even more).

Oh, and did i mention income taxes? Organizing my office? Getting the stereo to work properly? Fixing the light fixture and the light switch?

So the reading in the sunny morning has already taken a hit. i had already given up going to watch the Tony Gwynn Classic at San Diego State and University of San Diego fields with this year’s teams consisting of UC Irvine’s Anteaters (man, i love that nickname), Notre Dame, Oregon, Seton Hall, the two host teams, and Tennessee. I have also conceded the afternoon to not watching Vanderbilt play Mississippi State in basketball on the tube. Of course, i taped that and will watch it later…if i get all my work done.

Then, i tore Friday’s Murphy’s Law off my desk calendar by the same name. The entry was: “Campbell’s Law — The less you do, the less can go wrong.”

i told Maureen this was my new motto, seriously thinking i might yet salvage some basketball watching and reading in the sun for the afternoon.

Maureen laughed.

i am now planning a marathon night of reading to catch up. i wonder if in my torpor of old age, i can still do that?

Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher, born in Poland, February 22, 1788 (from Wednesday’s “Writer’s Almanac,” the source for much of the information on him in this post).

Had he been born today in the United States, he would be excruciated into oblivion. You see he believed “women were foolish and meant to obey.” i cannot imagine any man of even questionable intelligence at any time in history admitting he believed either.

But his other ideas have some merit from my perspective. He had this idea of two realities: one we have from our “limited senses  and reasoning,” and “the other of universe as it truly is.” This idea, which i think is on target, would also get him pilloried and burned in effigy today, along with mass protests.

It seems we should all consider where our reality lies in relationship to the universe as it really is. But that ain’t gonna happen here and now. Too many folks are going for the jugular with no attempt to consider what the reality of the universe might truly be, let alone the reality of the other side.

So i’ve written enough to join Mr. Schopenhauer in the pillory. All sides will leap to my  perceived offense against them with no regard for intent. That’s okay. i’ve gotten used to it, and such reaction makes me consider their thoughts, even changing my take on reality, which is just as not accurate as anyone’s compared to universal reality. So even though it hurts, it is a good thing for me.

In the reality of Mr. Murphy — you know: the guy who came up with “Murphy’s Law” except it wasn’t really Mr. Murphy; it was another guy with the same name — Schopenhauer was credited with one of the laws in “Murphy’s Law Desk Calendar,” damn close to being a second bible for me.

To revisit, my Uncle Pipey and Aunt Evelyn Orr sent me my first desk calendar of Murphy’s while i was spending 1979 Christmas in Hong Kong as a staff member of the Commander, Amphibious Squadron Five staff. The calendar was my Christmas gift from them for about thirty years after that. I looked forward to opening that present every Christmas and now buy it for a Christmas present to me from Santa Claus.

But that Mr. Murphy had another Schopenhauer in mind with the same name of that other Schopenhauer of Murphy’s who supposedly created “Schopenhauer’s Law of Entropy.”

That Mr. Schopenhauer’s law states:

If you put a spoonful of wine in a barrel of sewage, you get sewage.
If you put a spoonful of sewage in a barrel of wine, you get sewage.

i must admit, even in the universe’s reality, there is a whole lot of sewage and not very much wine flowing around this world.

But something is bothering me in my reality. It has been several years since Mr. Murphy, yeh that one, included “The Law of Thermodynamics” in his desk calendar. Perhaps this was just an oversight on Mr. Murphy’s part or mine. i fear someone somewhere in the political spectrum expressed outrage at such a concept, and that particular law was barred due to it upsetting someone whose reality is whatever hits the fan is actually evenly distributed. Of course, that it is a bit of reach for anyone’s reality, but i’ve seen further stretches of reality.

Regardless, Mr. Murphy’s Law of Thermodynamics is very much a part of my reality and i miss it. So for all, including Mr. Murphy and Mr. Schopenhauer, as Mr. Durante once said, “Wherever you are,” here’s that Law of Thermodynamics:

“WHATEVER HITS THE FAN WILL NOT BE EVENLY DISTRIBUTED”

And whenever i consider the reality of that law, i know everything in my universe is sometimes grounded in reality, and i can deal with it, and smile.

For those who wish the Electoral College was eliminated and the popular vote was the deciding factor in elections, i was once of that opinion.

However if the popular vote was used to determine presidential election outcomes, the most populous states, California, New York, and Florida voters would hold sway over the rest of the country. i’m damn sure i would not like that.

There is another reason from history: Abraham Lincoln (whose birthday is today) only garnered 40% of the popular votes for president in 1862.

‘Nuff said.

Drop it.

For those of you who don’t know, i have almost given up on movies. i will go anytime, anywhere to anything with my grandson. But those opportunities are rare. i will go to any movie either of my daughters would like me to accompany them. Fortunately, Maureen has given up on me going to movies with her and she is satisfied, probably even happier going to to movies (she’s a movie buff) with friends or alone.

But stage productions, that’s a different story. i blame Sarah.

When Sarah was majoring in drama at San Diego State, i went to all sorts of productions. It was supposedly a support thing. But in truth, i enjoyed all of them, even those without Sarah in the production.

i have been to several since she graduated and moved to Austin. i have promoted Maureen and i going to those at SDSU and elsewhere.

Tonight, it was like some kind of fusion, some extraterrestrial voodoo. Maureen had caught the promos for this play in the newspaper a couple of months ago. She got us tickets.

The title of the play was  “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.” It was at the Old Globe. No, no, not that “Old Globe” in England, but the replica built in 1935 in Balboa Park. The big differences are the audience has seats where those folks watching back in that other one stood, and this one is fire proof, even air conditioned.

So we have a representation of the heart of the beginning of great drama, aka Shakespeare and the Old Globe to start. Then the play’s author is Steve Martin (the reason Maureen was enthralled enough to get the tickets). i was skeptical, even though i’m a theater fan. One of the actors, although not the star but nevertheless a headliner was Hal Linden.

Now, i haven’t had too many brushes with fame. But one was when Sarah was around three and we were at the PGA West clubhouse for lunch, hosted by our Sarah’s godparents, Frank and Jan Kerrigan. Hal Linden walks through after finishing his round. He spots Sarah, comes over to the table and after introductions, picks up Sarah, tosses her into the air, and hugs her for several minutes.

i must say here that Sarah’s sister Blythe may have the edge here. When Blythe was three, we were waiting at a gate in LAX for someone to arrive. Bing and Kathryn Crosby came off the flight in the first group. Kathryn saw a beautiful young child, came over, asked our permission and picked her up. They laughed and Kathryn showed Blythe to Bing commenting on how beautiful she was. Then several months later, we were at the baggage claim at LAX. Blythe dashed away from us and grabbed onto the leg of a gentleman waiting for his luggage. It was Rod Serling, the guy who brought us “The Twilight Zone.” He picked Blythe up, laughed, gave her a hug and then gave her back to us.

But Hal has been one of my favorites even if he hadn’t had his moment with Sarah.

Now mind you, Hal wasn’t the premier actor in this show. But he was great as “Gaston,” the old sardonic Frenchman…and boy, did he play that clarinet at the end. The play was interesting in that Steve Martin envisioned Picasso and Einstein meeting, which they never did, and analyzed their genius and proclivity for women with wit, irony, and a touch of deep thought.

So it was  a beautiful night, a play doing things a play should do for someone like me in a beautiful setting with a beautiful date. We walked back to our car, parked by the Natural History Museum under the colonnade of buildings along El Prado, built for the Panama Exposition in 1915. Discussing our options, we decided on a nightcap nearer home. So we stopped at Romesco’s, a “Mediterranean” bistro with a tapas bar in the back. There, we had a desert with a Tempranillo (Maureen) and a Manhattan on the rocks (me).

That stop is the reason this is being posted tonight rather than last night.

It was, as i imagined, a night for folks to enjoy while growing old…together.

i kept thinking, “i hope my friends can have nights like this.

“It makes it all worthwhile.”