Now That I Think About It (Reflections of "Billy the Elder")

By Bill Ramsey

Building on the success of his first book, Billy the Kid, author Bill Ramsey has written, Now That I Think About It (Reflections of “Billy the Elder”). Billy the Kid focused on Bill’s life as a child in a small town during the 1950s. In it, the author recalled them in a warm way that took older readers back to their own memories, while enlightening younger readers about what life was like for their grandparents.
Now, at the age of seventy, Ramsey looks back on life in a collection of original essays in Now That I Think About It (Reflections of “Billy the Elder”). Each essay is about 200 words, and covers a wide range of real-life themes from reading and writing, all the way to religion, family dynamics, and the end of life. The mix is intense, humorous, introspective, motivating, and ironic, and each essay is designed to stimulate reader thinking.

Note from Bill: Thinking can be habit forming. Not thinking can become a habit, too! There is a danger in not thinking, for just as muscles become soft when the body is not exercised, the brain of a non-thinker can soften, too. How often do you think about important topics? What topics do you think about most? What action does your thinking cause you take? This book will address all of those questions and more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bill Ramsey
• Release date: Aug 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781497705050

Bill Ramsey

Writing is easier when you have done it all your life.  In his youth, Bill Ramsey wrote sports columns for the local newspaper.  During his forty-year professional career, he wrote technical manuals, magazine articles, and business newsletters. Now, at seventy-years of age, Bill’s small town upbringing continues to influence his thinking.  Like many older citizens, he enjoys reflecting on life experiences and being free to share his thinking with complete candor. A strong supporter of literacy and literature, Bill is involved with readers and writers in the mountains of western North Carolina, where he lives with his wife of forty-eight years.

Book preview

Bill Ramsey

Now That I Think of It

(Reflections of Billy the Elder)

Copyright © August 19, 2013 William W. Ramsey

First Edition

All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Meet Billy the Elder

Introduction

WRITING

Why 200 Words Each?

Writing to Ourselves

Writing to Share with Others

Knowing the Questions but Not the Answers

The Reality—We Don't Know Jack

READING

Books Free Us

Books Take Us Places

Those Who Do Not Read

Those Who Cannot Read and Refuse to Learn

Follow These Ten Easy Steps

Just Google It

Bumper Stickers and Tee Shirts

Non-Verbal Communication

I Feel Versus I Think

My Least Favorite Lines

NEWSMAKERS

When News Is Not Really News

Opinion Polls and Margin of Error

Taken Out of Context

Speaking on Condition of Anonymity

Protestors in the News

MEANWHILE, IN WASHINGTON, DC

The Blood Sport Called Politics

Our Political Players

Power—Who Has It and How They Got It

Big Government

Peek-a-boo, We're Watching You

Government Money

Why They Write Complex Laws

Diehard Party Members

Register and Vote

CLOSER TO HOME

Public Hearings Allow Your Voice to be Heard

Beware of Developers Bearing Gifts

Oversized Egos and Outsized Projects

The Grant Money Shell Game

Which Pocket Will They Take It From?

Devastating Cuts

How Much Is Enough?

Annexation

Non-profit? Maybe and Maybe Not

Volunteering

The Culture Controversy

Community College

Neighborhood

WE CALL IT RELIGION

Separation of Church and State

Religion? Yours or Mine?

Mega Churches

When Congregations Split

Making Your Faith Known

Is There a God?

FAMILY DYNAMICS

Stay In or Drop Out

Our Children and Grandchildren

Parenting- Life's Biggest Challenge

When I Was Young

Time Goes Quickly

FRIENDS AND FAMOUS PEOPLE

Friends? Who Are They?

Where You From?

Staying in Touch

I Feel Your Pain

Women Friends

Famous or Infamous

Neil Armstrong, After the Moon

HATING SELF AND HATING OTHERS

Hyper-sensitivity

How to Make Yourself a Victim

Hate the Rich

Hating Corporations

Wars and Why They Are Fought

War is Not Fun Like It Used to Be

We Punish Some, but Not Others

Taking Credit and Placing Blame

Irrational Fear

Those Who Divide Us

Is Slavery Really Dead?

Adult Bullies

Pride Goes Before a Fall

The Diversity Trap

We Are Known By the Company We Keep

Don't Ask and Don't Tell

THINGS I DO NOT UNDERSTAND

Good Enough, but Not Good

Consumer Confidence

Sales Gimmicks

Killing Time

Reality Television—That’s Entertainment?

Who Stole the Music?

Who Won the Game? Who Cares?

The Pittsburgh Steelers

All-time Best QB?

Fear of Success

Getting Back to Normal

Learning Humility from Home-Improvement Projects

Over-achieving? Not Likely

Bumps We Place in Our Own Path

Retirement and Decline

Knock It Down

The More Things Change

WHAT WE DO TO OURSELVES

We Pay to Play

Odds of Winning the Lottery

So You Think You Can

The Daily Routine

An Evening to Remember (or Not)

I Need Versus I Want

Dance Lessons

Self-mutilation(Tattoos and Piercings)

Augmentation

Isolation and Loneliness

Me Worry?

LOVE AND RESPECT

Where Is the Love?

Giving a Proper Hug

Intimacy—Do You Have It?

I Love You More!

What Can I Do To Make You Happy?

Dinner for Two

Valentine’s Day Cards

Self-Acceptance Not Self-Approval

We All Need Some Vanity

Nicknames

No Respect Without Self-respect

High School Reunions

People I Most Respect

People I Cannot Respect

Hunting

Do People Ever Really Change?

Lies and Those Who Tell Them

Free to Be You and Me

TRUE BEAUTY AROUND US

Losing Our Senses

Seeing Form and Color

Capturing Beauty

With Each New Day

Summer Snow (May Attempt at Poetry)

Crows—More Intelligent Than People?

Did You Really See That Waterfall?

SAVING OURSELVES

Do Me a Favor and Don't Do Me a Favor

What Do I Have to Do?

Maintaining the Heading On Your Moral Compass

Decisions—Decisions

Happy Means Healthy

Same Memory—Both Happy and Sad

This May Hurt a Little

Biggest Loser(s)

Glass Half Empty—Glass Half Full

Youthful Ambition

Hobbies

Retired, but Still Fully Engaged

Acting Your Age

Planning Ahead

My Next Car

Are They All Gone?

Am I Old Yet?

Stay Well or Else

DO NOT Take That Pill

Get to the Gym

Enjoy Your Single-Malt, Scotch Whiskey (or Other Sin)

Any Regrets?

AND WHEN IT DOES ALL END

Last One Out Please Close the Door

Self-assessment of My Life ( In 200 Words)

Acknowledgements

Meet Billy the Elder

Writing is easier when you have done it all your life.  In his youth, Bill Ramsey wrote sports columns for the local newspaper.  During his forty-year professional career, he wrote technical manuals, magazine articles, and business newsletters.

Now, at seventy-years of age, Bill’s small town upbringing continues to influence his thinking.  Like many older citizens, he enjoys reflecting on life experiences and being free to share his thinking with complete candor.

A strong supporter of literacy and literature, Bill is involved with readers and writers in the mountains of western North Carolina, where he lives with his wife of forty-eight years.

Please visit the author's website at  www.LifesWrite.com  to learn more.

Introduction

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

—Ralph Ralph Waldo Emerson

The thoughts and opinions expressed in this collection of essays are mine—the product of seventy years of living. Thinking about life's issues and sharing my thoughts keeps my brain lubricated and moving. When readers answer back with thoughts of their own, I grow.  My search for answers to the mysteries of life continues.

I hope that at least some of these essays will stimulate your thinking. You may agree with a few of them. But I fervently hope that you don't agree with them all. Complete agreement is certainly not what I seek.  

A few of the essays use candid examples that are personal in nature. I use personal examples only to clarify how I have come to think as I do. However, this collection is not autobiographic. Writing my autobiography would have been hopelessly boring to me. When done, who would want to read it? Certainly not me.

CAUTION: This collection should not be read straight through or even in sequence. The essays are intended to stimulate your thinking. A few of them may lighten your mood and make you laugh. So I invite you, my fellow travelers, to read these short essays one or two at a time while in a quiet place. The bathroom might be ideal. Read them and think your own thoughts.  

WRITING

I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter.

—Blaise Pascal, Lettres provinciales, letter 16, 1657

French mathematician, physicist (1623 - 1662)

Why 200 Words Each?

Each of these essays is approximately 200 words in length. Years ago I began writing letters to the editor of our local newspaper. The paper has an absolute limit of 200 words on all letters. When first confronted with this word limit, I was sure that important issues could not be addressed in such a tiny package. I have since discovered that the challenge, while significant, is not without rewards. Writing in this way is stimulating and demands self-discipline.

Readers benefit by not having to wade through 1,000  words to get the same message. Short essays promote contemplation and reflection. Long essays promote eye-strain and brain cramps.  

In our busy lives we think too little and discuss our thoughts with others even less. We need to think to grow—I know I do.  

Writing to Ourselves

Years ago, I began to write to myself. My writing was not a daily journal but a personal and confidential record of my thoughts.

Many times, upon re-reading a day later, I wonder: why did I write that yesterday and delete it today? That is not really how I feel or what I meant. I keep only those pieces that are still as true to me as the day I wrote them.

Writing your deeply personal thoughts and reflecting on them later can be a challenge.  Once written, reading your thoughts a day or two after you have written them can help you test their veracity. I admit that several were written on a day when my mood was not the best. Yet more than simply reflecting a bad day, most were written when I was undergoing a significant change in life, when the way forward was anything but clear to me.

There is value in writing to yourself and only to yourself. It could be considered an inexpensive form of therapy. It is both self-confronting and confirming. When writing to oneself, exaggerations and dishonesty jump off the page. So does the agony of the moment. Try writing to yourself. You may be helped by the exercise as I have been.

Writing to Share with Others

Even though I enjoy writing immensely, I admit that sharing my thoughts with you carries with it a significant responsibility. Writing forces a studied and carefully considered personal commitment to what one believes.

Unless I am honest in what I write, you could easily question my thinking or even my truthfulness. Being factually correct is an imperative. Rest assured, I considered my words carefully and re-read each essay many times before including it. I own that to myself and to you.

Writing in this manner is a challenge. Speaking is easier and quicker. When speaking one can always deny later having said what the listener claims to have heard. Speaking allows vagueness. That is likely why politicians talk a lot and write a little.

When we write and our words are published in a public place, we cannot deny what we have said. The words are there for all to see and interpret.

Knowing the Questions but Not the Answers

By this point in my life I had expected