Listen Holmes,
now that you've cashed in your chips,
and gone on to the Happy Hunting Ground,
I can finally get a few words in edgewise!
-Ain't Life A Trip?!!
Harold was usually very forthright and forceful.
(Does forceful equate to motor-mouth?)
I'm not really sure if he fully comprehended that I was far less conservative or libertarian than he was
(in fact, sometimes I'm a flaming Lib-ur-AL,
perhaps even a rad-dick-cul,
depending on what the issue is, - although I'm also sometimes cun-serv-uh-tiv,
and am even re-act-shun-ary on a few issues [E.g.-I'd like to bring back a limited version of corporal punishment in the public schools!).
However, he was usually so entertaining, and sometimes educational, that I, more often than not, just let it slide, in order to see what he would come up with next.
[E.g.-I'm sometimes so Lib-ur-AL that I even supported Obamcare. (What's even worse is that I think that Canadian-type single-payer health care system would be even better!!)]
As I said, Harold was usually very forthright
(a lot of folks thought that he was much too forthright,
and some of his brothers and sisters were reported to have been worried that someone would shoot at him!).
But like the do-dah man said,
'You've got to play your hand,
Sometimes your cards ain't worth a damn,
If you don't lay 'em down...."
Listen Holmes,
We don't come into this life with an instruction manual. So the best that we can do is to keep our eyes open, observe what's going on,
use prudence and act accordingly,
and especially learn from experience!
It helps a lot to study the writings and/or sayings of the philosophers, both Christian and otherwise,
- those philosophers that people know and acknowledge,
and also those philosophers that have the good fortune to be unknown.
Listen Holmes,
Harold was a true original philosopher, whether he or others recognized it or not! He usually had some kind of witty thing to say, or something that was not witless to express, and I frequently learned from him.
Listen Holmes,
He once told me that when he was a contractor, that before he set his crew to working, he would ask each man how he was doing that morning, and
if the guy answered with something like, "I'm doing great; my wife laid me really good last night, and this morning she made me pancakes with maple syrup", then Harold would know that he would be getting good work from that guy that day, and not to hassle him very much. But if the guy would answer in the negative, or was being evasive, then Harold would spotcheck his work more, because the guy was just not in the groove.
Listen Holmes,
Harold also said, more or less, that we should not be proud or boastful about anything, because we're all just a bunch of little screwups trying to do the best we can, - "just a bunch of little screwups screwing up now & then, so it's no good trying to get a big head about it; let's just do the best we can..."
Listen Holmes,
Finally, I think that Harold would appreciate these few excerpts from "The Grateful Dead":
"Truckin', got my chips cashed in,
Keep truckin' like the do-dah man,
Together, more or less, in line
Just keep truckin' on...
...Arrows of neon and flashing marques out on Main Street,
Chicago, New York, Detroit, and it's all on the same street,
A typical city involved in a typical daydream,
Hang it up, and see what tomorrow brings...
...Truckin', like the do-dah man
Once told me,
'You've got to play your hand,
Sometimes your cards ain't worth a damn,
If you don't lay 'em down....
...Sometimes the light's all shining on me,
Other times I can barely see,
But lately it occurs to me
What a long strange trip it's been...
...You're sick of hanging around
and you'ld like to travel,
Get tired of travelin' and
you want to settle down.
I guess they can't revoke your soul for trying,
Get out of the door, get up
'n look all around...
Truckin', I'm a goin' home
Whoa, whoa baby, back where I belong.
Back home, sit down 'n patch my bones
'n get back truckin' on...
...get back truckin' home...
...Sometimes the light all shining on me,
Other times I can barely see,
But lately it occurs to me
WHAT A LONG STRANGE TRIP IT'S BEEN!!!!!!!!!!!"
...
-Harold Griffith, as remembered by brother-in-law Richard Rosewitz