Charlie Reese's ignorance

The following syndicated article appeared in my paper today. I'm still fuming over this! At least they put it on the "Opinion" page but I find his views to be totally off and insulting. It's this very kind of thinking that is causing many of the problems at my school right now!

Art Not Creative (or Real Creativity for Mankind)
by Charley Reese
http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese-arch.html

In our time, the word "creative" is most often applied to the arts. That's a mistake. More creativity is to be found in engineering and science than in the arts.

This is evident if you define creativity as thinking of something new. Literature has been around for a long time as poetry, plays and histories. Telling a good story hasn't changed much. Painting and sculpture have also been around a long time, and those techniques are pretty much the same as they always have been. The motion picture is merely a mechanical way of telling a story. Do you know anyone who has improved on the kind of work Michelangelo, Homer, Victor Hugo or William Shakespeare did?

On the other hand, think about the problem of flight. People wanted to fly for a long time, but our bodies are not built for it. It took Wilbur and Orville Wright's applying their brains to the problem to come up with a creative solution that makes heavier-than-air flight possible.

Or take something simpler. The early automobiles had to be started with a hand crank. A tool was inserted at the front of the automobile, and someone had to turn the cylinders of the engine using muscle power to get the gasoline to ignite. A man named Charles Kettering, however, figured out a way to use electrical power to crank the engine. That's creativity.

We are immersed in technical, engineering and scientific creativity, but we tend to take it for granted because there are no television shows like "Engineering Tonight," nor do these creative people hire publicists and go to red-carpet events of mutual back-scratching. In most cases, we don't even know the names of the people who have created all of the products we use every day.

This, I believe, is a serious distortion of our society. Historically, nobody paid much attention to entertainers. It's not that they weren't appreciated, but in the past people recognized that entertainment was a minor amusement and contributed little, if anything, to human problem-solving and human progress. Shipbuilders and architects were viewed as much more important than actors.

Take James Watt, who was born in 1736 in Greenock, Strathclyde, Scotland. This man and his partner developed the improvements to the steam engine that made its use practical in industry. Watt was the man who figured out how to use fossil fuels to do work. It's hard to think of a man who caused a greater change in the human condition. And if you want creativity, how about Alexander Graham Bell and his telephone, or Thomas Edison, who invented the phonograph, the motion-picture camera and the electric light. That's creativity.

We would be far better off if the media and the schools taught children about these kinds of creative people rather than singers and actors, all of whom will be justly forgotten in a few decades. Unfortunately, today most media organizations are owned by large corporate conglomerates – which also mass-produce entertainment, so that there is a whole lot of cross-promotion going on. In the end, however, entertainers produce nothing but temporary distraction.

How many of you know Richard Drew? I'll bet nearly every one of us has some of his inventions in our home. He invented masking tape in 1925 and Scotch Cellulose Tape in 1930, and thus made a struggling company, 3M, into a giant.

A lot of kids can tell you about Vin Diesel, a bouncer turned actor, but how many have ever heard of Rudolph Diesel, who invented the engine in 1897 that today we call a diesel? John Browning was one of the greatest industrial designers of all time, and his weapons are still used by the military today.

Perhaps one day, if we ever restore independence to our news organizations, they will pay more attention to the Nobel Prizes than they do to the Academy Awards and Golden Globes, and more children will aspire to greater things than 15 minutes of fame for nothing.

Tell me quick, who was the most famous movie actor in 1924? Who was the most popular singer in 1923? I don't know either, and nobody cares. Entertainment is an ephemeral art and, like the taste of candy, soon disappears.

Tom's thoughts on life's process

You're born..you are assigned papers to prove who you are and have an
identity...get id's and jewelry...you live and work..you accumulate
"stuff" like a mad pack rat to keep up with or get ahead of the other
pack rats...then you die...all your "stuff" gets sorted, donated, given
away, or otherwise disposed of...there are id cards and jewelry...that's
all that's left...oh, and some paperwork somewhere with your name on it
for the state to have record of your existence...amazingly simple
really...and sad...
Tom e-mailed this to me this morning. I know he is trying to sort through all of his feelings about his mom. This week has been rough. I'm tired from the roller coaster the last approximately 2 years has been like with Sue. I really pray she is at peace, now. We just don't know if she was a Christian or not. There are things that seem to indicate she was and I am resting in that. I pray she is with God now and all of the pain from her whole life is gone.
It is interesting how much of what Tom wrote is mirrored in the morality play "Everyman". Everyman talks with Goods and asks him to go with him to 'make an account'. Goods replies that he cannot, that he belongs to no man. He goes on to talk about how when one person dies, goods simply go to another person. All of our 'things' are simply on loan. We try so hard to accumulate things that validate our worth; yet, God wants us to lay up our treasures in heaven. When our time has come, the only thing we do take with us are the things we have done in this life.
It is really food for thought. What am I doing for God in this life? Am I storing up treasures in heaven or stockpiling junk in this world?

at peace...

Mildred Sue Chance (aka 'Sue', 'Mom') my mother-in-law died this morning at about 5:40am.
May she finally be at peace...

This life

My mother-in-law is terminally ill with cancer. She has been in a nursing home for about 3 weeks now. Her decline in that time has been awful to witness. She doesn't even look alive right now. They say she isn't in any pain but isn't that just because they have her meds set so high? She sleeps almost all of the time. They say she eats almost nothing each day. She is having trouble with the most basic things, like swallowing. When I went to sit with her today I saw they had started giving her oxygen. She doesn't know I'm there. One of the aids said they were surprised she was still 'with us'...Honestly, I am too. I know she wouldn't like being like this. It was so painful to just sit and know there was nothing I could do but pray...So I did. Her brother, Ken, says she/we should be celebrating....Embracing this next 'phase' of life. How can one celebrate a woman who is wasting away from this illness????? She can barely move. He also said we could have a miracle and she could recover...I know and believe God could do this if he choose to, but I don't think this is going to happen in this case. He went on to talk about how she would have to deal with morphine addiction then. All I could think at this was...WHAT?!?!?! If she was to beat this there would be so much more than a morphine addiction to deal with. Ken 'fussed' at my husband for cleaning out "Mom's" home and getting ready to put it up for sale (again, with the what if she lives???). We are trying to be realistic. Doing this cleaning right now while she is 'alive' is a bit easier on Tom. Having something to do is helping him as well. When she goes it is going to be so hard for him. They had an odd relationship; however, as he has said, she is his mother. When she dies, I know he will feel alone. His step-dad died when he was about 16 and his grandfather died when he was 12 or so. His beloved grandmother died in May 2004 and he has no siblings. He did/does have a couple of step-brothers; however, they were never really close and really maintained no relationship after his step-dad passed away. He has an aunt, but she has never been close to either him or his mom (her sister). Actually, his mom and his aunt don't get along at all...never have from what I've been told. Otherwise there is Ken, the uncle. I've never met him. Tom likes him OK but he does get so frustrated by him. Maybe Ken thinks he is being supportive and helpful but it isn't. I feel like we are in such limbo. I don't know what I should do...
On another topic. I hate it when something innocent is made to be something wrong. I got 'accused' of something that isn't true. There isn't an good/easy way to fix the problem so I just get to sit and wait and pray...and kick myself for being stupid. I try to do the right thing and then it goes wrong.....grrrr. I just hope the thing is allowed to go away and nothing more is made of it, which would just make things worse! I did what I could to make the wrong right as best as I could. If I can just get through the next 4 weeks, I get a vacation and that may be the best thing of all.