Month: September 2013

“Zamboni, why should I keep calm and carry on?”

Tonight this question came to me  via a migrating goose flying over the bay. And I take it the asker, signing  name only as “Joey Silverado”, is really saying, not just why should they stay calm amid turbulent troubles, but perhaps also how. How do we carry on when it is hard, even painful to do so.

I had a Buddhist friend once who told me to be kind to everyone, because everyone is on their own complicated and stormy journey- and we have to allow for that. We have to know that it isn’t just us that “all this is happening to” but in fact, it is likely that everyone has moments in a day where they say, like Beckett,  “I can’t go on.. i’ll go on…”

I will say this. Despite the horrible corruption of this saying (which comes from posters that the British gov.  put up around London during the bombings of WWII)- yes you see all this nonsense like “keep calm and krav-maga on” or “keep calm and knit on” etc..despite all this, the aphorism is a great one, and sums up all of Seneca and Epictetus in those 2 words.

But should you, should you is the question. Sometimes yes. Sometimes you must simply breathe and brave on to another day. But other times, no- there are times when to carry on the same way is crazy- there are just a few times in life when you must put up both hands and say NO- “in my gut I know this is wrong, so No.”

So if the bombs are dropping on you, at first, keep calm and carry on- but later, in calmness and reason, fire up the jets and get back at those bastards.

Keep calm and Zamboni On

“Zamboni what can you do about Syria?”

Wow- this is a big question. I Have been thinking about this. My friend Alex Jones, extreme talk radio personality says, “how can you embrace one liberty and not embrace them all?” How can we say we objected to Hitler gassing people and we don’t want to live in that world, but maybe a thousand or so people in Syria we can live with? We didn’t know them.

We believe in the freedom to marry  who you choose, live where you choose, be who you choose, but we don’t think everyone deserves that. Just us. Others may breathe poison gas, but that’s just rough luck. I don’t even know where Syria is, etc.

I know many will say, “Zamboni, get off your cereal box,  after all, what do you know since you were named after ice-grooming contraption?” But remember, when your head is as empty as mine in between the ears, I can feel very clearly which way the breeze is blowing.

What can Zamboni do? This is the answer: We need to make military action to defend people and restore order. I say this. Line up all Navy Seals and Army Rangers and say “who volunteers for this dangerous mission to get these bad guys who gas people? Raise your hand”. Trust me, many hands will be raised.

People ask, “but why does America always have to be the one?” etc..

Because leaders aren’t always choosing to be leaders. Like my friend Bill says, “some have greatness thrust upon them.”  China and Russia are not about leading spear of freedom. Ask my Uncle Smirnoff who lives in USSR before Glasnost. Peoples heads are looking at ground. I live here in America because here,  you look out into horizon, you look up into the sky.

Look, into Iraq we went to big war for shadows of weapons that were not there. Can we not take action when evidence is so clear?