Cam's Spaced

 

Was there a time when the Steady State theory held true?  Was this a time before the Big Bang, when only immeasurable quantities of hydrogen atoms danced together across a stage of vast nothingness?  If there was such a time where did the hydrogen come from and what was the event that disrupted the status quo and initiated the Big Bang?  Did the Big Bang create carbon and other light elements which then allowed the formation of the first stars?  Were the heavier elements created as those stars burned themselves out?  Did millions of stars decaying and building these heavy elements create all of the stuff we see as so familiar in our surroundings today?  Are we all stardust?  Are the stars the result of the Big Bang and the Big Bang itself the result of intervention from an external force?  Was this "the beginning?"  If this was random, where did the laws and theories of physics come from?  Were the rules thrust into this universe by the some other force?  How could this be understood by humanity 500, 5000 or 10,000 years ago?  In what form would these explanations survive until the invention of writing?  How would the stories have evolved as humans learned and passed them down?  What would happen once those explanations were codified?  Would they be passed down through the generations with little or no change?  Would the story start now as it did when written down?  Would it start "In the beginning?"      

Perhaps I have mistaken loyalty with obligation.  I meant it is in terms of remaining dedicated to an idea

So I shall have to rethink and pass off the inconsistencies in my previous entry as being digital diarrhea.

Is loyalty becoming one of those principles that like so many others face extinction in our world?  Was the quality in greater abundance in past years?  Was this because as people we once were less pressed, more family oriented and valued personal contact at a much more?  Have we created a culture where everyone must look after only themselves?  Then, it just may be that it took me 50 years to understand the real value and importance of loyalty? 

 

It seems to me that people no longer talk about or value loyalty.  Loyalty requires personal commitment beyond our normal self centred existence and may exact a cost we must nurture a willingness to pay.  Many things once used to almost command loyalty.  For believers God always seemed to request loyalty.  Families used to automatically attract loyalty.  Friendship, people we earned our living from, competent managers, good supervisors, queen and country would all be given at least a certain modicum of our loyalty.  To me it would be a shame to live in a world where loyalty is replaced by legal obligation.  More later?? 

I was talking to a relative about the classic comedy movie "Blazing Saddles", from that comedic genius Mel Brooks.  Inevitably we got to a discussion of the language used in the movie.  The line "We'll give some land to the niggers and the chinks but NO Irish" was introduced and the comment was made that you couldn't get away with that line today.  Well I made the comment that Mel Brooks got away with it because he was a Jew.  That was what I considered a straight forward remark about the sharded heritage of persecution of Jews and other minorities.  There was not malice of thought of belittling the Jewish , or Black or Chinese experience, I just said it in a straight forward way.  "You better not say that to my daughter or you'll be in trouble then," I was told and it didn't strike me that I had not considered the background of the people I was talking to before I blurted out my comment.

I was raised in a small town in northern Manitoba and was never taught anything unsympathetic towards the plight of the Jews.  My father was a couple of years too young to get into the fighting in WWII and I think he harboured a secret regret that he had missed the great adventure of his generation.  He was an avid reader of WWII history and passed some of that passion on to me.  Therefore, I read too many articles detailing the horrific atroaucities committed against the Jews and saw too pictures of to not support their fight.  My Christian upbringing was Presbeterian  (prior to the attempt to join the United Church) and was alway taught that Jesus was a Jew and we obtained most of our western culture via the struggles of the Jews. 

My relatives are Roman Catholic, and had been raised dealing with all of the Christian-Jew conflicts.  It is my belief they felt sort of defensive about the old stand of the RC Church.  Perhaps they then automatically assumed that any comment saying that someone could do something because they were Jewish was a slur in the Jews.  Perhaps...perhaps.

Anyway next time I want to say somehing about that "NO Irish" line I'll have to say, "The director's personal heritage enrolls him into a minority situation that entitles him to take certain liberties with English slang terminology."  Also he was able to hire people like Richard Prior to help write, but I think the studio left the stuff in because....well  you know!

Mr. Brooks is without a doubt the funniest man alive and I would have a heart attack if I was ever priveledged enough to meet him.