Who Is Laughing.... Now ?

It is a beautiful day here on the Texas Gulf Coast.  That's the weather report.  Now let me tell you something:  we need to laugh.  It is a great stress reliever and a way to take an honest look at yourself/ourselves; you may find something repugnant or quite funny, and that response will be judged as prudish or just politically incorrect.  But, I think our personal sense of humor, bawdy or otherwise, is directly tied to our self-image.  I will use myself as an example.  People have told me that I am a real tight ass; perish the thought!  I just know that there is a right time and a wrong time for all things.  Knowing this only adds to my positive self-image.  Personally, I think that people who do not have a sense of humor, who cannot laugh at themselves or for that matter anything, are in sad shape.  Here are a few thoughts on humor found in our everyday life.  It all spells trouble.  

YOU KNOW YOU ARE IN TROUBLE WHEN ....  

Your IRS refund check was revoked.  

You go grocery shopping with your girlfriend and she spends a lot of time looking for the largest cucumber.  

You run into a public restroom to take a dump and find the stall is out of shit tickets.  

Social Security thinks that you are dead.  

Your adult children want to move back in.  

Your thirteen year old daughter is "going steady" with the leader of the local chapter of the Hell's Angels.  

You go to an ATM to pull out a fast twenty and the screen reads "TILT."  

Your daughter's boyfriend drinks all your beer.  

Your doctor hired a high school drop out to diagnose your test results.  

Somehow, someway, your vasectomy reversed itself.   

If one of these does not, at the very least, make you smile, maybe you really need to relax and enjoy your life.  Stress is a real killer - consider this as a public service announcement.  

                                             Copyright @2015 Terry Unger   

    

The Privileges of Aging

Another blog post from the author of The Reluctant Hero Trilogy, THREE TALL TALES, and The View - One Man's Living Asatru With Help From The Havamal.  

It is not unusual that as you age, younger folks will ask you questions about a variety of subjects (at least that's the case in Texas.  In other, more politically correct regions of our country, some of these young people would just as well kick you to the curb).  And it's amazing the conversations you get involved in while in a locker room (What?  Because I'm older than you I can't work out? ).  

On 10/27/2014, I had a full knee replacement - a negative outcome resulting from decades of running.  My running days are over, save for that chance, fateful need to run out of a burning building. That said, I just went back to the gym.  The rest of my body is still screaming at me like I was an unfaithful lover; that too shall pass.  But when I was sitting there rubbing some sore muscles, I overheard an all to common conversation.

Two men, both younger than I, were debating where they thought "we all go" after we die.  It was a depressing conversation; so many things not to do, based on their 'book."  It seemed to me that there was not any "life" in their lives, just the avoidance of things that could block them from heaven. When dressed, I stepped around the locker wall and could not help myself; I opened my mouth and the words just fell out.

It was my standard litany about living life to its fullest and not worrying about any kind of afterlife. Added to that was this little gem:  "Discovering and understanding the afterlife is like trying to find fly shit on a windshield," I said.  "You think its there but you just cannot find it.  When you die, you will discover this great mystery - for yourself.  Until then, live a full and productive life."  After I spoke those words, I removed my hat and ran my hand through my hair, just so those young men could tell by my silver gray I was older.

While I could see a spark of life in one man's eyes, the other almost jokingly but not threateningly asked me if I did not fear hell; the young fellow was not angry but sounded concerned.  My answer, "Absolutely not," was followed by "Have a great day" as I exited the locker room.

Fear is a terrible thing to live with and it's a damned shame that Monotheism still uses it to control its masses.  And remember, the religion of Abraham has three branches.  Their doctrines and dogmas all sound like they are different, but they are not.   In a nut shell, this is the absolute and only Truth.  Accept it and believe it or you shall perish, one way or another pretty much covers all three.  Happy is the man who is free of these things.

                                                  Copyright @Terry Unger 2015

War Is Hell and Other Observations

As the title reads, war truly is hell.  For countless ages, men march off to war for many reasons and when they come home, they are changed; they've experienced hell on Earth at its' best.  In our age like all others, some men and women are broken while others struggle to keep it together.  My father and his brothers came home from Europe and the South Pacific after WWII and did their best to deal with PTSD and its' nasty cousins.  But these men volunteered to serve their country and preserve our way of life.  They did so without regret.  And in this age, we have men like Chris Kyle and others who did and still do the same.  

Fellow Texan Chris Kyle was a Navy Seal and a trained sniper who served four tours in Iraq.  Chris is credited with being our best sniper - ever.  He sure as hell was not a coward.  Chris Kyle saved the lives of many Marines and Army Infantrymen, so that they could complete their missions, and go home.  However, there are some who have a problem with this.  

Clint Eastwood's movie, American Sniper, just may be his best.  Eastwood does a great job with Bradley Cooper's Chris Kyle, revealing the personal human toll of war (and hats off to Bradley Cooper).  But when Hollywood leftist cultural Marxist wackos like Micheal Moore and Seth Rogen condemn the film and refer to it as "fake Nazi propaganda," (Rogen), and men like Chris Kyle "cowards." (Moore), we have a problem, Houston.  

People like Moore and Rogen frequently take advantage of our First Amendment rights and probably give no thought that men like Chris Kyle put their lives on the line to give them the right to do so; maybe Moore and Rogen think that they can talk our enemies to death.  People like these two and their appalling statements should always be ignored, along with all of their pals who want a plain vanilla world.     

                                                     

                                                    Copyright @ Terry Unger 2015

Truth, Belief, and Faith

Another post from internationally known author, Terry Unger (The Reluctant Hero Trilogy, Three Tall Tales, A Yuletide Anthology, and The View - One Man's Living Asatru With Help From the Havamal).  

An excerpt from The View - One Man's Living Asatru With Help From The Havamal.  

** Maybe the key to this post is the Havamal verses below**

 Centuries ago man truly believed that the Earth was flat and the center of the Universe............And discoveries in genetics and DNA have opened a whole new world of truths previously unknown.  

There are those who hold that their Truth is absolute, and the only real Truth.  I my opinion, that is blindness of a special kind.  That kind of Truth usually has its adherents clinging to blind faith........When something has been proven to not be not just outdated but patently false, many times, and the purveyors of such continue to spin their tale to their mesmerized adherents, .....................

To the blindly faithful, it is not a lie but the Truth as *they choose to live it and experience it.*  It does not matter to them how many times and in how many ways science has proven that their Truth is incorrect, since they believe that science itself is a lie.  Page 107, Truth and Fidelity.   

In the world of Abrahamic/Semitic Fundamentalism, the literal "truth" that comes from their "book" trumps any higher education a person or persons may have.  Many of the people who operate the Christian Creationist parks hold Masters and PH.'ds in various disciplines.  The men who flew the planes into the Twin Towers,  the Pentagon, and those who were forced to crash into a field in Shanksville, PA. , were not sheep herders. They were educated men.  The driving force behind the above two examples is called "faith."  However, it should be referred to Blind Faith.  May any kind of heaven protect those who get in the way of  this Blind Faith.   

Havamal, verse 113 - Loddfafnir, listen to my words.  Avoid sleeping with a wicked woman (ladies - a wicked man).  Do not let her touch you (Page 171, The View). 

Havamal, verse 114 - Her touch will mess with your mind and you will lose desire to be with other people, to eat, and your sleep will be a lost blessing (Page 172, The View).

                                                  Copyright Terry Unger @2015 

Too Old, Or Just Broken In?

More from the successful author of The Reluctant Hero Trilogy and The View - One Man's Living Asatru With Help From The Havamal -  Terry Unger

Too old, not me !

When you are young, people tell you, "You're too young for that."  Then when you are old, people tell you, "You're too old for that."  If you are an infant or totally enfeebled, these admonitions hold some water.  But I am willing to bet that you do not fall into these two groups; most of us do not.  .......

If you want to do or be something special, you need to take risks.  The taste of success is sweeter with the greater level of risk; you need to take a risk.  

Havamal, verse 105 - With m tools I carved out a path for myself.  I risked my life to reach my goals, even though there were those who would stop me if they could.    

Page 116, Dare to be Great.  From the one, the only ...  The View - One Man's Living Asatru With Help From The Havamal.  

Too old?  Hell no!  Just well traveled, well versed, and broken in !   

                                                    Terry Unger @copyright 2015 

From the Author of The Reluctant Hero Trilogy and The View - One Man's Living Asatru With Help From The Havamal......

I am so happy that I live in the USA.  Our Constitution gives me the right to worship, speak, write, and live pretty much as freely as can be imagined.  I cannot imagine living in a world without these freedoms.  Sadly, there are many who would deny me these things, based on THEIR religion.    

As a man who has been told that he is "too old" to do a thing or two, my habit of reading a newspaper and the tepid news on the Internet, is something that I do on a daily basis.  Not a day goes by that terrorist acts, or something that supports these actions is not reported in the news.  Well, maybe not in the liberal media that wishes our heads were in the sand.  There are other media sources that will not be silenced - thank the Gods.  

How a person can ignore the world-wide terror that is happening, especially by people who think that it "cannot happen here," is something that escapes me. These antagonists, these terrorists want to strip us of the freedoms that we enjoy, and we sadly take for granted.  If you are reading this and wonder what the hell I am referring to, ya'all must be sitting in a circle, holding hands, and naively singing Kumbaya.   

                                                            Terry Unger @ 2015