Thoughts of a Common Man

Time Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course! Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow." You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today. To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade. To realize the...

The star wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills, Stevie Johnson, is a Thoughts of a Common Man idiot. Last year he dropped a pass and blamed God. He became a big star for writing something on his chest and showing the world after catching a touchdown pass. Everyone thought it was funny. So yesterday, he caught a pass and pretended he was shooting himself in the leg to make fun of another player. Then he played a crashed Jet and received a penalty that cost his team 7 points. All in good fun, right? It's the basic problem in the world right now, if you ask me. Everyone wants to be a star. Everyone is disrespectful to the next guy. No one is accountable to anyone else. When all else fails, blame God. Now I know it's just a football game and he isn't a Rhodes Scholar, but it aggravates me because my boys thought it was so cool. "He made fun of the guy who shot himself!" It's a vicious circle. The guy who shot himself took a gun into a nightclub because he wanted str...

The Buffalo News ran an article about a woman who gambled away the money raised for her sons fight against cancer. It's a really tragic story as they held a benefit, she took control of the cash, and then she played cards at casinos all across the area. Evidently she isn't a very good card player. The outrage is predictable. Letters to the editors explain that she should be put to death. Her son instantly forgave her. I must be getting old because I didn't really buy her story about being scared and lonely and that others in her position just might do the same thing. She should have stopped it somewhere along the way. Loneliness isn't a valid excuse. Her son was on the verge of death. He needed the money. It was money donated by hardworking people. Leave your ATM card at home if you can't stop yourself from withdrawing the money your kid needs to fight the disease that might kill him. Of course, that's the lazy way of attacking the subject. Of course she was wro...

So we all gathered last night at my brother John's. The kids were running around, all of them...Jeff's kids were also there and Rocco, John and Farrah were leading the charge. We had pizza, chicken and a great batch of chili that Dana prepared the hell out of. Springsteen's Working on a Dream was on low in the background, and the wounded adults were smiling, tossing a few insults out, and having a couple of beers. I was drinking tea. My leg was great all day but stiffening up as the night moved on. The music was just loud enough for me to hear a few lines. There's a pillar in the temple where I carved your name. Johnny looks so much like Jeff when he was young. Rocco is so big and strong. Farrah is just beautiful. All random thoughts running through my head. But here the nights are long and the days are lonely. I think of you and I'm working on a dream. Working on a dream. We also celebrated Mom's birthday some more. I had asked my son Jake to write something in...

A whole bunch of random thoughts, I suppose. It's been another traumatic week. I don't know what to think, so this is an exercise of what pops into my head. 1). 69% of people can find something dirty in every sentence. 2). Newt Gingrich is a tad crazy. 3). Football is a group of lousy teams and Green Bay. Which means, of course, that one of those lousy teams will win the Super Bowl. 4). I can't think of a single thing I want for Christmas. I've given up on world peace. 5). The weather in Buffalo has been tremendous. Isn't it a shame that I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop? 6). My family is so punch drunk from horrific news that when the phone rings we all cringe. 7). I've done the hokey-pokey a thousand times at weddings and I still don't know what it's all about. 8). I wish John Lennon was still making music. 9). Bruce has a new tour coming. I can't wait for the new music and the excellent writing. He puts a stamp on what I'm thinking at...

Today is my mother's birthday. I've had enough of the rest of the bullshit holidays that are set on the yearly calender. She deserves a national day of honor. If you are a follower of this blog and you have read the words of loss and despair over the last few years, you have to wonder, in awe, about the strength of a woman who has been smack dab in the middle of the heartbreak. I know I do. Mom has endured. She has not missed a single gathering. She has had her moments of sadness to be sure, but she hasn't dropped it any of our feet. No matter why we get together, she's right there in the center of it all, telling a joke, offering an opinion, cooking something that no one else will even bother to try cooking because she just blows everyone away. Her eyes fill with tears at the mere mention of some of those we've lost, but she fights them back. She's the strongest person I've ever had the pleasure to meet. And I tell anyone that will listen. I have never had ...

As has become a habit over the last three weeks, I flipped the television on before getting up the nerve to put my feet on the floor. "Happy Black Friday!!!!" the announcer screamed. My head almost hit the ceiling. He was actually screaming. What an idiot. When did it become a holiday? The announcer was absolutely giddy about the prospect of saving money through his exhaustive system of getting to the right store at precisely the right moment. They showed people camped out. They showed footage of long lines and they interviewed a couple of the "shoppers". Everyone was so freaking excited. I tried to figure out if there was anything I would lie in a parking lot to get. Springsteen tickets in New Jersey? Nope, not even those. I'd wait it out and then just call a scalper. Then they showed the doors open at one of the Target stores. Men, women and children were busting through with their arms raised in a victory salute. Are you freaking kidding me? When the empire ...