Random Thoughts - September 2025

Ted Reads Random Thoughts

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When grieving and I come to the point of asking, “But what can I do?”, am I using the thoughts that arise to avoid more grieving?  

Virginia Wolff once said to a friend who had lost a loved one, “Remember what you had.”  I love that.

When sons are named after their father, the first one may be called “Junior.”  I wonder why there is not an equivalent word for the third or fourth generation?  After “Junior” they are turned into a number. “The Third,” or “Fourth. Why’s that?  And where is the equivalent process for women named after one of their parents?

I passed by a street the other day, named “St. Cloud.”  I know about the St. Peter, St. John, St. Mary and St. Joseph - they are people.  But Clouds?  And if clouds are deserving enough to achieve sainthood, why would they be more deserving of the sainthood honor than wind or rain or grass or sun?  As in Saint Sun, or Saint Moon, or Saint Water? 

What if we recognized that what we call jealousy is actually a terror response and quit pathologizing it and the person experiencing it?

I was wondering why grapes and plums when they are dried change names (raisins and prunes) while apples and oranges don’t.

A gift of age seems to be having a greater ability to be able to see life in context.  What the big deals are and what’s not.

I just read a study that suggests that spending two hours alone with ourselves enhances the human experience, both for ourselves and the people around us.  It seems to bring out the best parts of our humanity, which has always been based on cooperation with, care of and concern for others.  Maybe the chaos of these days are the result of not spending enough time alone?     

I find myself just listening to friends of mine who tell me the same story over and over, instead of interrupting or correcting them.  I listen again, because it is actually not the same story.  I even ignore the invitation “If I have told you this before, stop me.”  They are a different person than the one who told me that story last week AND they will be less likely to talk about other things if chastened about repeating themselves.  I also know there is some research out there that says the stories we tell over and over vary at least slightly in content, context, emphasis, etc. so it is never actually, in truth, the same story. 

Where does the expression being caught red handed come from? I am afraid I know that answer. It never ceases to surprise me that someone out there is sitting with the answer, not needing to look it up.

A friend from Germany who knew that one of my favorite books was and still is The Hidden Life of Trees told me that the forest that was the focus of the book is no longer in existence.  Drought and disease due to climate change has destroyed it.  Maybe this news belongs in the political section? 

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Warning, Political commentary from here on.

I was reading a famous book that a major religion is based on, and it advised the reader that one way to be happy was to slam a baby’s head against a stone.  I’m guessing that if someone authored a book today that had a passage advocating such a thing, that book would be banned and the author seen as a pariah.  How the religion whose existence is based on such things as this book tap dances around this and other such passages is quite amazing.

I was wondering if Ukraine might just be the Czechoslovakia and Trump the Chamberlin of 1939 after watching the Alaska meeting.

I was once given a test when I was being recruited for a position in an organization connected to the U.S. Department of Defense now the Department of War.   For those of you who remember the TV show Mission Impossible, the test mimicked the opening of that TV series.

I was given a description of a country and its leader and then asked to answer what country they were talking about.

I must have done well enough because they hired me. But I digress. Here is how the test went:   

Name the country and its leader based on the following:    

“This is a country in the western hemisphere where government sanctioned, armed, nameless, masked groups of people, travelling in unmarked vehicles, carrying weapons of war, can and will at any time of the day, stop and interrogate targeted (primarily by skin color, occupation, and language) groups of people on the street, at work, or church, or school, or traveling down the highway, etc., snatch some of them, take them to a prison and forcefully deport them to another country, which has been paid unknown amounts of money to accept those people deported. 

-This country’s supreme leader decides ultimately how the country’s monies will be used.

-This leader fills important governmental positions with only those who tell him what he wants to hear, having purged the military and social systems leadership.

 -This leader openly says, “I can do whatever I decide to do,” and “My people want a dictator” (speaking of himself).

-This leader commands that certain loyal geographical provinces of the country aid and support the militarization of the policing function of the country’s government in return for favors, pitting citizen against fellow citizens.

-This leader decides what his country’s history is and what isn’t, what is art and what isn’t, and takes over institutions to fulfill his vision.

-He defies court orders and counteracts decisions of senators and representatives elected by the people.

-The capital of this country recently has armored personnel carriers and military tanks patrolling its capital.

-This leader has attacked and compromised the country’s educational systems from primary schools to world class universities forcing them to teach his version of the world.

-He has taken certain social services away from the neediest and most vulnerable citizens and has given that money to the most monied people in his country.

-He has eviscerated his country’s health care system.

-He rules by threat, whim, and caveat.

-He changes his edicts frequently.

-He has destroyed his country’s reputation and standing in the world by his actions, so that this country is no longer trusted by its former allies and is currently being used by its enemies.

-He has outlawed labor unions.

-He threatens taking over sovereign nations and has been caught running covert operations to do so.

-The legislature and courts ultimately rubberstamp his decisions.

-The leader has suggested that presidential elections will no longer be necessary.

- The leader has directed his supporters to change political geographical dynamics of his country to ensure any elections will favor his supporters.

Back then the answer could be any number of developing countries. 

Never could I have imagined the day would come when the correct answer would be “The United States of America.”