By the time you reach old age, you are entitled to a little bit of insanity.
Author: Henry Barnard
I am a voracious reader and also enjoy writing. I often have a very different point of view than the popular one. I do see value in debate, and thought it might add to the public debate on controversial issues if I were to express my contrarian opinions. I also started keeping my poems recently (I've written little pieces my whole adult life but never kept any); and I've been a photographer now for over 25 years. So I will be adding an occasional poem and hopefully interesting photograph to the blog along the way, just to spice things up.
Biggest Challenge
Biggest challenge in old age is staying strong.
Gettysburg
Gettysburg is full of ironies. The Union side was routed through the town on the first day of the battle July 1st, and driven to the hilltops into an extremely strong defensive position by pure chance — this position was an accident of their first day rout, not a conscious decision, and ultimately decided the course of the battle. The bayonet charge of the Mainers on Little Round Top was a desperate reaction to about to be routed by the Reb charge up the hill. Had the Union force been routed, most military historians think this defeat of the left flank of the Union army would have put it into a very difficult position, perhaps even collapse. But what must have happened was the Mainers, out of desperation, decided on the only strategy that might have worked — a fixed bayonet charge. It worked because the Rebs didn’t have repeater rifles but had to reload in a clumsy way so this meant that a bayonet charge was very viable. Image you are a Reb and the person next to you is skewed with a bayonet and your rifle has already been shot and needs to be reloaded in all that chaos, with the threat that you yourself with be stabbed as well — a terrible way to die, so you turn and run. As for the ultimate irony at Gettysburg, Lee was known for winning battles with flanking actions, but instead did a frontal attack on a very strongly defended Union center. This when both the Union right and left flanks were extremely weak and would have collapsed had Lee pursued his usual strategy by sending reinforcements to both flanks. The only explanation is that Lee felt he could take the center and thus pretty much end the war then and there — the Union forced to sue for peace. So he rolled the dice — and lost because of the accidental Union defensive position. The final irony is that if Lee had used his usual strategy of attacking at the flanks — with both Union flanks weak — he may well have had a victory to end the war successfully for the South. Lee was a West P:ointer and would have known about Hannibal’s strategy at Cannae, and how effective a flank attack can be. But despite this knowledge, he did a frontal attack against a heavily fortified and very defensible Union center on a hilltop — why? We will never know.
End Ukraine Insanity?
One of the benefits of electing Trump would be ending the Ukraine proxy war promoted by the US and NATO, a war that has virtually destroyed that country and brought back the specter of nuclear war between the US and Russia, which once again is a real possibility.
Trump was a peace president, as shown by his reaction to Iran shooting down an American plane when the State Department demanded retaliation, but Trump said no — didn’t want war with Iran over a single plane. In fact, it appears that Trump, while endorsing having a very strong military, really disparages the US getting involved in any kind of war, for I believe he sees war in general as a negative relative to economic prosperity as well as human life.
First thing Trump would do would be to end all financial and military support for the corrupt regime in Kiev, and he would make it very clear to NATO that the US no longer supported the proxy war, which means that NATO would also back down from it.
The world would breathe a sigh of relief that the nuclear threat would now subside.
Russia could attempt to reestablish amicable relations with Europe again, and Ukraine could begin to heal after the corrupt regime in Kiev is overthrown.
Circumstance
Eugene O’Neil wrote a play about two brothers living on a farm. One brother loved farming and the other hated it. The brother who loved farming was infatuated with a local girl, but she took a shine to the other brother, and they eventually married. The disappointed brother who loved farming decided to cede the farm to his brother, and left to explore the world.
Thirty years later, he returned, after experiencing many difficulties and stresses but no joy, as he had left the one occupation that would have given him great satisfaction — farming.
When he returned, he found the farm in shambles, as the brother who had inherited it hated farming and generally neglected what needed to be done. And his marriage to the local girl proved barren and ended in divorce because, although she loved him, it wasn’t reciprocated.
One of the ancient Greek philosophers made the famous and enduring statement that “character is fate,” and this is so true, as your character will determine how you react to the world, and this will lead to certain outcomes. But mere circumstance is an extremely powerful influence over one’s life, no matter how strong and resilient your character may be.
Friends
Friendship became much less important to me over time because of life’s circumstances. You see, from a very early age, beginning at only age 14, I became a dislocated person who moved frequently. At that early age, both of my parents died, and I moved in with in-laws, but at a different location from where I grew up, so I lost all of those friends from my home and childhood.
Turns out that I’ve have now lived in 13 different locations in my adult life. Each move meant that I lost all the friends from the previous location. So it became ingrained in me that friendship wasn’t all that important because friends would come and go with such regularity — so they were nothing to be counted upon.
But that attitude was a mistake, I now believe. Friendship is very valuable and very rewarding, and I have missed out on a lot because of my somewhat negative attitude toward friendship that developed out of adverse circumstance.
Such is life.
Classic Fights in Boxing
young, undefeated lion against a skillful old pro, will lion continue as contender?
two young, undefeated lions, only one will go on as a contender unless it is a draw, but a draw blemishes both
one-defeat, former contender against an up-and-coming undefeated contender
left-hander versus right-hander, usually left-hander has a huge advantage because the left-hander has seen many right-hander fighters but the right-hander has seen few left-hander fights so that experience makes a big difference
right-hander versus right-hander, most common
left-hander versus left-hander, rare and makes it awkward for both fighters because they are used to fighting right-handers
tall and skinny fighter with a reach advantage who wants to stay at a distance versus the small and muscular, bullish fighter who wants to close the gap
boxer versus puncher
boxer versus boxer, interesting fight for the boxing aficionado who enjoys watching for technical skills, often goes the distance
puncher versus puncher, an exciting fight with a knockout likely
two undefeated fighters in their prime for the belt — the big money fight
Winning
In the end, everyone loses — because you die. But until then, play to win. Don’t wimp out.
But playing to win is much more valuable than actually winning. Winning at best is a brief dopamine rush, like eating an ice cream cone. Just minutes later, the ice cream doesn’t matter anymore. And in the end, winning has no value because in the end, we are all going to be losers — we are all going to die, so what value do your wins have then? None.
Yet playing to win has a lot of value because it gives you a commendable standard to live by — a bright light in the darkness of life.
So always play to win, even though you know winning has no great value.
Manage Stress
Yesterday, had a close to all-day no stress experience. Suddenly realized how enjoyable that is and how healthy.
Realized that I should become much more conscious of how much stress I’m experiencing at any given time, and dial it back when it gets too high. Too much stress is just so debilitating for one’s mental health.
On the Brink
Biden, the neocons in the State Department, and NATO with their aggression pushing the Ukraine proxy war have us on the brink of nuclear war. Providing Ukraine with longer-range missiles that can hit well inside of Russia was the step too far. Ask yourself what the US would do if it were being hit with such long-range missiles? We would retaliate against those countries that provided the missiles.
The woke crowd used to push the narrative that we don’t want Trump’s finger on the nuclear button. Turns out Trump was the peace president who nixed the State Department’s hope for aggression toward Iran. But instead this woke president Biden has brought us to the brink.
We are in an extremely dangerous situation now relative to Russia, and yet all we get from the woke media is silence about that imminent danger. They don’t want you to know. It doesn’t fit the pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia narrative. Proxy wars are supposed to be painless for the West.
Henry's Views 