Thursday, February 28, 2008

Random thoughts

GuyK of Charming, Just Charmingwas grousing this morning about several things (as he always does before his second POT of jumpstart). He complained about the weather down there in Florida:

It turned off chilly here last night..a genuine two dawg night and damned if I don't think the dawgs figured it wuz a two people night...they snuggled in and kept the bed warm.


Hey, Guy, it was 1 degree F when I rolled out of the sack at 7 AM here at the Aerie. And I slept alone since the wife is away to sunny, southern California where it’s in the 70s (but I'm not jealous!), and because I don’t trust the damn cats to behave themselves One likes to climb up on your chest or your pillow to sleep and another wants to burrow under the covers with you. That may not sound so bad, but the pillow sleeper likes to use your head as a pillow and the burrower likes to lick any bare skin he finds and since I sleep in the nude....

Anyway, another complaint Guy had was about the perseverance of the “cowboy mentality” regarding self reliance. And while that must have sent him off on a search for a Heinlein quote from old Lazarus Long, it sent me to search for Gene Autry’s The Cowboy Code.

Autry created the Cowboy Code or Cowboy Commandments in response to his young radio listeners aspiring to be just like Gene.

1. The Cowboy must never shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage.
2. He must never go back on his word, or a trust confided in him.
3. He must always tell the truth.
4. He must be gentle with children, the elderly, and animals.
5. He must not advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas.
6. He must help people in distress.
7. He must be a good worker.
8. He must keep himself clean in thought, speech, action, and personal habits.
9. He must respect women, parents, and his nation's laws.
10. The Cowboy is a patriot.

If you aren’t permited to post the Ten Commandments in a classroom, you could do far, far worse than putting these up on the bulletin board.

(BTW, here’s the quote GuyK put up from Lazarus Long:
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

-Lazarus Long, Time Enough For Love

The post was called How Many Can You Do?)

1 comment:

GUYK said...

Yep, the cowboy mentality twern't all that bad...but unlike Gene I had rather kiss the woman than my horse.

We seem to have become a nation of sheep, relying on the government as the dawg to keep the wolves at bay..but as every Sheppard knows oft times the dawg kills as many sheep as the wolves. When that happens the sheep herder kills the dawg..but how do we get rid of the dawgs of the 'guvmit' that are killing the ideas of self reliance and the acceptance of responsibility?