Ramblings of an Old Man

By Gerald L. Kovacich

This is a book not for the conventional reader.

It is a book that will challenge your knowledge
and beliefs about society today, society past,
and the possibilities for the future.

It is a personal observation of a man
who has lived through and seen much-of society, love, hurt, religions, and wars.

It is a book that will hopefully make you think.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504909433

Gerald L. Kovacich

Dr. Gerald L. Kovacich has more than 40 years of experience in industrial, business and government security, investigations, information systems security, and information warfare, both in the U.S. Government as a special agent, in international corporations, and subsequently as an international consultant and lecturer. He retired as the Information Warfare Technologist, Northrop Grumman Corporation to pursue a career as an international consultant, lecturer and writer.

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AuthorHouse™

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Phone: [phone]

© 2015 Gerald L. Kovacich. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/27/2015

ISBN: 978-1-5049-0909-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-0943-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015906575

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The book’s cover provided by Mike of Bandana’s Skin Art, 2603 Commercial Ave., Anacortes, WA, 98221; Email: [e-mail]; Telephone [phone].

Contents

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Others’ Thoughts of Us

Preface

Introduction

Section 1 Humanity

1. Our Humanity - Our Commonality

2. The Big Bang Theory and the Flat Earth Views

3. What is Life?

4. You Didn’t Ask to Be Born - or Did You?

5. Why Are Some People Born?

6. Fate, Luck, Karma in Our Lives

7. Basic Human Freedoms

8. Cavemen Then and Humans Now

9. The Good Ol’ Days

10. Slaves to Time

11. The Yin-Yang Balance

12. Peace, Meditation and the Big Picture

13. Significant, Emotional Events - SEE

14. Friends

15. Music

16. Gambling, Prostitution, and Drugs

17. Midlife Crisis

18. The Death of Sleep

19. Aliens and Their Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs)

20. The End of the World

Section 2 Our Materialistic World and Lives

21. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Everything

22. Save for the Future?

23. It’s Me and I Want It Now!

24. Our World of Stuff

25. Lying, Greed, Cheating, Frauds, and Other Related Bad Human Traits

26. Foreign Products versus National Products

Section 3 Marriage, Family, and Divorce

27. Love and Sex

28. The Marriage Ritual

29. Gay Marriage

30. Marriage Means Compromise

31. Family

Section 4 Politics, Wars, and Technology

32. Socialism, Communism, Fascism, Capitalisms and Other isms

33. Wars and Rumors of Wars

34. What is Technology and Its Impact on All of Us?

Section 5 Prejudices

35. Categories and Racism

36. Tattoos

37. The Treadmill

38. Politically Correct

39. The American Indian - Native Americans

Section 6 Education and Work

40. Why Asian Kids Are Smarter in Math and Science, and Maybe in General

41. United States Innovation, Ideas and Their Asian Thieves

42. Bureaucrats in Local, State and Federal Governments

43. Professional Sports and Sportsmanship

44. Doctors, Nurses, Other Medical Professionals, and a Few Specialties

45. If Work Sucks, Why Don’t We Retire Early?

Section 7 Retirement

46. Life’s Regrets

47. Please Stop! My Brain is Full

48. Memory Loss Maybe Because My Brain is Full

49. Dementia, Alzheimer’s and Slow Death

Section 8 Nature, Plants, and Animals

50. Nature’s Circles

51. Nature versus Us

52. Stars, Clouds, Winds and Other of Nature’s Elements

53. Animals and Us

54. Wolves to Dogs

55. Throw-Away Pets

Section 9 Gods and Religions

56. Darwin versus God

57. Where is God?

58. More on Religion and the God Factor

59. Answers You Do Not Want to Hear From God

60. Spiritual Development - Spiritual Death

61. The Bible versus Reincarnation

Section 10 Future Lives or Not

62. When It’s Over, Is It Really Over?

63. Karma, Fate, and Luck

64. The Hummingbird

Final Thoughts of Others

Final Comments

About the Author

Acknowledgements

A special thanks to Mike of Bandana’s Skin Art, 2603 Commercial Ave., Anacortes, WA, 98221; Email: [e-mail]; Telephone: [phone], for providing his great art work that is used for this AuthorHouse book’s cover. A special thanks also for giving me the best tattoos a person could ever ask for!

I also must mention a very dear friend, co-author, and discoverer of Mike's painting used on the cover of this book, Kelly. Thanks Kelly for discovering this painting and recommending it for the cover of this book.

Thanks also to my editor and friend, Sandy, to whom I owe a special thanks.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Life;

That unknown, unpredictable, often ironic,

Eternal sum of all things.

Others’ Thoughts of Us

Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it alright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.

- Henry David Thoreau

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.

- George Washington Carver

Father Time is not always a hard parent, and, though he tarries for none of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young and in full vigour. With such people the grey head is but the impression of the old fellow's hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle but a notch in the quiet calendar of a well-spent life.

- Charles Dickens

Preface

As I entered my seventh decade of life and decades of observing Nature, animals, my fellow human beings, our struggles for survival, often trying to improve our lives, our humanity - or lack thereof - I thought about various aspects of our lives, of us, and decided to write down my thoughts of some that I have seen, heard, read and in one way or another experienced.

I found some things to be quite humorous and other times when observing how we treat each other, and other life forms, it has brought me to tears.

The things discussed in this book have been rambling around in in my head for some time and I felt the need to just get some of it down in written form. Then I decided to share these thoughts with anyone else who may be interested, and thus this book, and since you are reading these words now, thanks for that. Also, writing to me is sort of a Zen meditation experience as it is relaxing and allows me to vent my frustrations through the computer about how great we, our collective humanity, can be and how great our lives on this earth could be if only we would put humanity before ourselves.

Through these decades of living, I do not think I have come to any profound conclusions, except maybe a few profound observations and conclusions to me about various aspects of life, but then again, maybe I have been too naive, too altruistic in my life and expected more of humanity than humanity is willing to give.

It all started years ago when for some reason, I was always fascinated by the vibrancy of all life, the amazement of it all. That fascination I guess it what caused me to be a people-watcher; an observer of all that surrounded, and still surrounds me.

Also, after years contemplating the Yin-Yang principle and applying it in my life, I found that it is a much unappreciated principle that can have great value in our lives.

So, one of the concepts that you will find I apply throughout this book is the ancient, Asian concept of Yin and Yang, the need to address extremes in our lives, by keeping things in balance; in moderation.

The Yin is generally thought of as the female principle of life of the universe, associated with dark, cold, earth. Yang on the other hand is thought of as the male and the opposite of Yin. Yang equates to heat, light, heaven. One cannot talk about Yin-Yang without also mentioning the Tao. Dictionaries basically defines it as:

The absolute principle underlying the universe combining within itself the principles of yin and yang and signifying the Way or code of behavior; that is in harmony with the natural order.

This principle of life in balance can be applied to about everything in our lives. Nothing extreme is really good for us. Too much of anything, even things thought to be healthy can cause us harm if taken to the extreme.

As for me, especially over the last several years as I matured (code word for getting really old), I wondered more and more about life, keeping things in perspective, in balance. I also wondered what the heck is Life all about anyway? Why can’t we be what most of us truly would like to be? Why do we cause so much harm to each, to all sentient beings?

I also have many questions that I discuss in this book but don’t always have answers, although of course always opinions about them, sometimes some theories.

At this age, time and life has sufficiently slowed down for me so as to allow for more reflection. When you get old, retire, you have time for reflecting on life in general and especially your own life.

This book is the culmination of my latest series of thoughts about our lives and the lives of other lifeforms. Alright, enough rambling on, time to move on.

I hope you enjoy it.

Introduction

This is a book of essays. To avoid any confusion, I think it is best that we look at the definition of the word essay, at least as I have used it.

An essay as defined in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/essays) is:

… a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including:…observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition of an essay is vague, overlapping with those of an article and a short story.

This book of my essays is structured in such a manner as to discuss various aspects of humanity, our lives, and organized in a logical manner, albeit logical to me and hopefully to you also.

Although the entire book of essays is about us, we human beings, there are some issues for the sake of discussion are more basic to humanity than others. Well, at least, that is how I judge them although you can probably make a case for other combinations of essays in various same or other categories.

There are 10 separate sections, each discussing a separate overall topic. In each section is an introduction to that particular topic; as well as definitions where deemed appropriate. (The definitions were taken from the New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2001 as stored on the Sony PW-E550 Electronic Dictionary.)

Since our lives, plants, animals, our environment, and all the universe for that matter are all interrelated, it is difficult to discuss a topic without also talking at least in part on another topic that is also covered somewhere in this book. However, in some cases that is unavoidable and it was only done to complete the point or points of the particular essay.

I believe it is important to clarify certain topics with definitions so we don’t end up with a failure to communicate because as someone once said, what you thought I said is not what I meant…

I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts, ideas, views, and ramblings.

Section 1

Humanity

In this section, the essays will present views on everything from theories on our formation, what is life, some thoughts on why our lives turn out the way they do, our modern slavery to time, finding peace in our lives, modern-day families, that partial phenomenon death that we call sleep, and the end of the world.

When we talk of humanity, what do we mean? Humanity as used here is basically that stuff related to the human race; human beings collectively. That will be discussed in more detail in the first essay, Our Humanity - Our Commonality.

Here is how some view life:

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

- John Lennon

Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.

- Sholom Aleichem

Life is a song - sing it.

Life is a game - play it.

Life is a challenge - meet it.

Life is a dream - realize it.

Life is a sacrifice - offer it.

Life is love - enjoy it.

- Sal Baba

Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?

- Bob Marley

In all living, have much fun and laughter. Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured.

- Gordon B. Hinckley

The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.

- John Milton

I laugh. I love. I hope. I try. I hurt. I need. I fear. I cry. And I know you do the same things too. So, we’re not that different, me and you.

- Colin Rave

Our Humanity - Our Commonality

When we talk of humanity, what do we mean? Humanity as used here is basically that stuff related to the human race; human beings collectively.

When you think about it, we are all stuck on planet Earth together. We have so much in common as human beings. Like other beings, there are only two sexes: male and female. We each are, in general, built the same way, one head, two arms, two legs, etc.

Our physical differences are those same parts shaped a little different, making it possible for each of us to differentiate ourselves from others and yes our skin tones and hair color are both a little less different from each other.

So, what would you say, we are about 90-95% physically the same? What about mentally? Well, we all have the drive to fulfill