“We Will Investigate That but You Should Know That If We Find That You're in the Wrong We Are Going to Come after You.”

(Please share this post with any police officers or HR representatives you know, I’d be interested in hearing what they have the say).

I have a case I’ve been working on involving a fatality in an auto accident. One of the witnesses was following behind one of the cars involved in the accident right before the accident occurred. She stopped to give assistance. She knew information that contradicted the official police report. Although she’s from a small community in which most people know each other, she has no relationship with the victims or parties other than having known one of the deceased in high school over 20 years ago. She tried to provide what she knew immediately prior to the accident. The police officer involved in investigating the accident immediately told her she was lying and that if she tried to give an official statement she would be prosecuted.

Let me acknowledge something. Her perception of what happened may be wrong, but that does not make her a liar.

I have interviewed hundreds of people who have been business owners, management employees, government officials, HR department employees or have been supervisors. I have heard these persons in positions of power say--when interviewing an employee who claimed to have information about wrongdoing or claim to have been a witness to or the victim of a particular type of harassment or discrimination–they started the interviews with such employees with the statement, “if I find out you’re not telling the truth I am going to fire you.”

I have also interviewed hundreds of employees. I have heard many employees indicate that, when they came forward with information that they thought was helpful to the company or the governmental agency because they had been a witness to or victim of wrongdoing, harassment or discrimination, verify that they had been threatened with termination if what they were telling their bosses or HR representatives could not be shown to be the truth. (The other interesting side note is that the same bosses and HR representatives have a problem with recording and often have policies against it).

Let me acknowledge that some employees are incorrect about what they say they have seen, heard or experienced. But that does not make them liars.

Let me further acknowledge that there are a few rare individuals who make up information to report to the police or their employer. When that occurs, action can be taken but threatening somebody with a criminal prosecution or termination will silence good people long before it stops those who purposefully lie.

Here is some actual testimony of a police officer from a police force within the Wasatch front: “We get complaints, there is no question. Nobody is ever happy all the time with police officers and so complaints come in. And when those come in, it's my opinion when you field that complaint as an investigator like that, the first thing that should be said is, ‘Well, if you are willing to fill out a written complaint and -- we will investigate that but you should know that if we find that you're in the wrong we are going to come after you.’”

Why do so many people in positions of power not understand that such attitudes and statements are a problem? Does it surprise us when horrible things go wrong in police forces, corporations, government agencies when such attitudes are shared by those who should know better? It shouldn’t because these wrong-headed attitudes are strongly held by many who do not understand how difficult it is to come forward with information about wrongdoing, harassment and discrimination.

Loren M Lambert © January 23, 2016.

Who Won Republican Debate? Who Lost?

Winner: Fox News--I have to take my hat off--they put on a good debate.

Who lost along with Trump?

We will lose if we elect most of the Republican candidates because they will unnecessarily take us to war, they will arm those who will use those same arms against us, they will alienate our allies and we will stand alone. They will not make us great but will bring us down to the petty level of our enemies, and they will create more terrorists than they will kill, as we return to thinking that belligerence, torture, and destruction perpetrated abroad against those outside the confines of our borders and not under the cloak of our flag of citizenship, will make us safer at home and will not bring the same to be rained down upon our own children.

It is not a war against depraved warlords we fight, it is a war of ideas, philosophies, ideals, ethics and morals. We need to worry more about winning the hearts and minds of those under either the spell or the heel of their oppressors and less about death, war and destruction.
Loren M. Lambert © January 25, 2016

“Oafissication Atrophic Sympathetic Syndrome” or “OASS” Strikes Seven Out of Ten Affluent White Male Men

I recently learned, in the middle of the night, that I suffer from a mild form of this condition. So I know something about it.

Oafissication is a condition that usually strikes men, rarely women, between their 40s to 60s, and oddly enough, a high percentage of those with a net worth over $500,000. However, it can affect all adults over age 12, during or after puberty, and all socio-economic groups. It is now considered a stage of development or better said, retro-development in many males’ lives, between the height of physical health during a male’s 30's and before aging completely robs them of their virility in their 70's.

It occurs when a person’s incipient thoughts about their material world, incipient business ideas and their unspoken biases and prejudices are transformed into ossified convictions. This usually occurs when a person has reached a certain amount of expertise or excellence in one very narrow realm of study or economic achievement and that person then extrapolates from that success and believes he is competent in all economic endeavors and in all intellectual disciplines.

It also causes a person to believe that everything he says is ingenious- not because it is, but just because they say it and to look back on his or her life and reconstruct it so that everything he has done was a success, whether this is actually the case. He also believes that he is still as attractive as he was in his or her prime and that anyone who pays attention to him are interested solely in him and not his money or positions of power.

Surely and slowly, such persons, without significant intervention, by age 65 to 70 turn irretrievably into an oaf. Some of these oafs are viewed as lovable and endearing grandfathers, depending upon their dispositions, so that their outdated and bad ideas can be seen as simply a remnant of their ignorant pasts, but others become boorish, overbearing and intolerable- especially if they obtain positions of power that give them authority over other human beings.

In his psychological evaluation, the Donald (Trump), was determined to be terminally stricken with this malady. Please send donations to me and I will use them in a manner that advances ameliorating this condition in all those who suffer from it.

Loren M. Lambert, © Jan. 12, 2016.

The Real Dangers of Anthropomorphizing. In Case You Wondered.

I was warned by biology professors not to anthropomorphize animals. I have followed this rule to great benefit–I’ve come late to the (nevertheless very important) movement that even if we use animals for our benefit, we should at the very least make sure they are treated humanely, or at least animal kingdomly.

My professors had no idea about the real dangers ahead- anthropomorphizing my PC, cell phone and laptop. Worse than that, romantopodomestisizing my devices.

I expect them to read my mind, bend to my will, be my constant companions, share in my joys and lighten my burdens and--not only never break down, crash, or passively ignore me--but correct, or at least take the blame when some mis-keying mistake causes me to end up with a computer doing exactly what it was programed to do because of my inadvertent blunders.
 And because they don't, I know, at the bottom of my heart that it's due to some mischievous or malicious motive inside their high capacity memories to mess, spite or prank me. And when they do, they sit back and lol, lmao or luvbaecmt, as I pout, rave and hurl insults at them as if they were listening and as if they cared. Don’t they?

It just drives me crazy!! Why didn't I get that warning!

Don't anthropomorphize or romantopodomestisize your electronic devices!

Unless, however, it’s something that has three or less functions and its easy to power up--then, just like a me and other men--it's pretty easy to figure out, know when to recharge, teach to take out the garbage, put the toilet seat down and bring in a paycheck.

I sometimes miss the days when I was so excited to get a head lamp for Christmas. I didn't anthropomorphize it. I just put it with my back pack and there it sits waiting for me each summer, to hardly ever hear a cross word.

Loren M. Lambert © Jan. 12, 2016.

When I Am President

“When I become president, America will be great again.

Our allies will proclaim our exceptionalism, will recognize my infallibility and will defer to my omniscient knowledge of what is right on all decisions. Our enemies will be so stricken with terror that they either fade into obscurity or will die from fright and all of their relations and children will praise me for saving them from them.

I will resolve all world problems and peace will break out.

All Americans will take comfort in knowing that in our past, present and future, we have done no wrong and those who think otherwise will be shunned and ignored as the miscreants they are.

All our professionals, athletes, entrepreneurs, scientists, and workforce will be superior to all others on earth. And there will be, as my first decree as President, no poor, disabled or downtrodden among us.

Our streets will be paved in gold, our cities will be crime free, and our businesses will be unfettered and only regulated by our markets. There will be full employment. Everyone will be happy.

Our wild places will be left as all wild places should be left- unregulated, unprotected, and open to what anyone can conceive of or desire to do to them, and therefore, truly 'wild.'”
Loren M. Lambert © Jan. 12, 2016.

Narcissism--The Prozac of Our Progression

Even the most self aware need to take measure of areas of their lives that would benefit from improvement in a deliberative and documented way. I've been doing this.

I say this about the "most self aware" because I've always thought of myself as being someone who was highly self aware. The problem is that we are only as self aware as our narcissism allows us to be and narcissism is like that blind spot in our vision that is simply filled in by our brains to be consistent with that which is visible.

If that which is visible is pretty good, who knows what we are hiding in the blind spots. I have a lot of blind spots. So I'm documenting one. Forgivingly, it's probably not as graphic as if I had a videographer following me around 24/7 to record my worst moments, which would probably be enlightening, but perhaps too discouraging.

And isn't that the benefit of having a little narcissism? It's like the Prozac for our progression. It allows us to have the vision of our possibilities always before us as a template we are stepping toward and may some day actually step into. Yet, on the other hand, might it just be a mirage of self deception that we think we have achieved when we have not?

It's both. So I am going to continue my chronicling and steady adjustment so I can truly live up to my own narcissistic view of myself and thereby maybe really end up being be self aware.

Loren M. Lambert © Jan. 12, 2016.

The Problem or The Beauty

Problem is, or the beauty (if that's how you view it) is at this time, opinion and emotion are driving public discourse, and not fact and reason.

As erstwhile Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee might say, the proof is in the pudding and we disagree about how that pudding was made, it's ingredients and what it tells us.

I believe, or my opinion is, that the facts of history and human achievement show that progressives, artists and thoughtful rebels lead and advance civilization and progress and that conservatives reign in the excesses of that progressive vision and help implement and execute the blueprints of that forward vision.

As long as there is freedom, liberty, security and civility, we can find the balance between those two human tendencies.

Any disequilibrium to the extremes lead to greed, envy, hate, tyranny and war.

Loren M. Lambert © Jan. 12, 2016.

"I Am Ammon Bundy" – Media Scoop by Sean Penn

Ammon Bundy, the leader of the armed “Hogtie and Occupy Woodsie the Owl” movement, in a brilliant exposé, stated: “Ugh, we welcome all the un-deodorized and pot smoking bird kissers and Indian folklore mongers to do whatever they want up here, but just know that Native Americans lost their rights to this land a long, long time ago and that ranchers and loggers have priority over all other takers.”

When asked why by the sorry-assed, liberal media guy, Sean Penn, he responded:

“It’s in the Bible dumbass, and it’s in the second witness to Loggers and Ranchers rights-- even the Book of Mormon. In Ezekiel 4: 15 it says, ‘Lo, I have given thee cow’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shall prepare thy bread therewith.’ And in the second Book of Nephi 30:13 it says, ‘and the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together.’”

Then Mr. Penn said, “Wow that’s some really heavy and deep shit, man. Can you whip out your seer stone and translate it for us simple folk?”

Ammon then said, “In order to eat our bread we need a little cow shit everywhere, and the cows they get equal rights with wild animals. Plain as day.”

Mr. Penn then asked about logging rights.

“Well,” Ammon said, “That's in the Bible too, God gave man dominion over all things. Everybody knows that only loggers and ranchers are men. All the rest of you are just a bunch pamsy wamsies, fruitcakes and women.”

Unassailable logic. I declare I, too, am a rancher and a logger. Now how to get me a little bit of that unclaimed federal land that I own. Any of you want to join me?

Loren M. Lambert © January 16, 2016

The New God

I never thought the Iron Curtain would fall when it did, that I would teach law in two former Soviet Block countries and I definitely never thought I'd live to see the day when the Chinese stock market would bring the U.S. stock market to it's knees.

There is a new God in town and it is not Christian nor Muslim. She dines on U.S. jobs in a Beijing restaurant. She bathes in U.S. dollars in a Turkish bath. She sleeps on a French bed stuffed with Chinese Yen, hand-fluffed by senior members of the Chinese politburo. And, best of all, She knows She will never fail like so many gods before her, because with the complicity of her Washington Savior and her Holy Ghost in New York, She is too big to fail.

Loren M. Lambert Jan. 13, 2016 ©

Monkey Toes, 50 Pound Back Packs & A Love of Pain

Pain. I love it. Maybe you should love it too. And the longer you’ve carried it and more intense it has been, the more you love it when it’s gone. But you will learn, that like a faithful companion, it doesn’t stay away for long. Not if you are alive and living.

When I was a teen, I sometimes wore these 5 pound ankle weights during my days at Wasatch Junior High School. I was a Wasatch Warrior. Then when summer came, I went on a fifty mile week long hike with a 50 or more pound pack through the Uintas and up Kings Peak, with Mark Smith, his brother Steve and their friend Peter Campbell, who had toes as long as a monkey’s. 

We knew this because in camp each evening, he would discard his shoes and peel his sock off to unveil those toes and sing the song, “I have ten toes, and I keep them as my-men-toes...” Then he would comb his hair and pick his belly button lint out with them before retiring to a nearby tree to hang ten upside down from a convenient branch.

In the winter I would ski all day on Saturdays at Park City West (The Canyons) and then in the evening go swimming to earn my swimming and life saving merit badges. A few skills we had to learn were retrieving weights off the bottom of the pool, towing a fellow Scout the length of the pool, and treading water while fully dressed until permission was given to strip them off and make them into a life raft in case we were ever on a cruise or a Lake Powell boating excursion and fell overboard and nobody noticed. I am still waiting to use those skills.

I was told these activities would make me strong and turn me into Eric Heiden or Dan Gable and give me a little cachet with the women. And they did, in part. But I probably could have done just as well bowling, playing Marco Polo in the pool or Red Rover or learning to play the guitar.

Yet, they did something else. At times, for awhile with those ankle weights, the backpack, the wet clothes on in the pool, I got used to them and didn’t notice the burden until fatigue set in with its follow-on friend of exertional pain. Then, when I unbuckled the ankle weights, slid the pack off, or jettisoned the wet clothes, I always had this amazing sensation of lightness. The longer I had borne the burden, the greater the sensation and the longer it lasted. 

Pain is like those weights, that pack, those wet clothes. You drag it around. If you are lucky, it’s not too punishing, and you have the physical, emotional and mental resilience and facility to ignore or push it outside your consciousness, or to focus on more compelling things like surviving, it becomes just like white noise to our ears. So we drag it along without complete awareness of the burden.

Then-with some beneficial medical treatment, drug, injection, surgery, meditation method, or good sex-we unbuckle, slip off or jettison that pain, maybe for an hour, a few weeks, months or even years. When that happens, because your body has become numb to the burden it has been bearing and has forgotten what it was like to be pain free, it’s like you’ve been reborn, it’s like a huge weight has been lifted from your shoulders. You experience this wonderful sense of lightness, like you are walking on air. Like you are once again a Wasatch Warrior who could think that putting on those 5lb ankles weights to walk around in is a sensible thing to do.

No wonder so many are tempted to do anything to maintain that sense of renewal. It’s such a liberating experience, and in that moment we love our pain so much that we think we can go back there to stay, back there to be that Wasatch Warrior. But we can’t. Not completely. Not until we can figure out how to regenerate like salamanders. So, try the treatments that can safely work, but, if at all possible, don’t love your pain so much that you feed it opiates. Too many of my clients have died going down that road, or have become addicted and alienate their common sense and their families.

Just think of that pain as your ankle weights or backpack that you have to haul around to get stronger on that fifty mile hike. As for me, since I’m going to live until I’m 110, I’m going to have to get used to a lot of white noise from the pain that I have been blessed enough to work around. Yet have compassion for those who are not so blessed or resilient. It often is truly not their fault. Living with pain sometimes is too heavy a burden. We can’t all tote around 50 lb packs and wear ankle weights until our death beds.

So, in the mean time, I have to have gratitude for modern medicine and I have to be grateful with the realization that the load I’ve been carrying allows me, in direct proportion thereto, to experience a hopefully enduring sense of lightness and liberation at this time. I am a Warrior once again, walking on the clouds. But don’t ask me to put on any ankle weights. That would not be a sensible thing to do. I’ll leave that to the real Warriors.
Loren M. Lambert, Winter Solstice, 2015 ©

A Victory for the Underdog

On the last day of this year I was granted a victory in a workers compensation case that I have been pursuing for several years for an injured Hispanic worker. The case is: Guzman v. Labor Commission, Case No. 20140662-CA and as soon as I can, I’ll post a link to it. He had been working for over a decade doing an extremely arduous job in a pig farm. We have him to thank for the ham, pork, bacon and pork roasts we eat.

He provides a service every bit as important as what anyone else does in our society.

My practice as an attorney for employed workers has demonstrated to me that usually and thankfully, subconsciously (but sometimes consciously) there is a prejudice against certain races, against women and against certain professions. It is harder for these groups to get their benefits. This is for many reasons that start at the very beginning of their injury at work. They are treated more harshly by their supervisors and bosses. They are treated poorly by our industrial medical complex. And they are treated with greater disregard by our Labor Commission.

In this particular case, the Labor Commission’s Appeals Board bent over backwards to misconstrue the evidence, twist the law into something unrecognizable to try to deny my client his benefits, and elevated the role that medical panels play in these cases. In doing so, it also did what is happening in almost every area of law involving injuries and diseases--it relegated to medical doctors every decision in regards to whether or not the person should be awarded disability benefits.

Doctors now wrongfully dictate when we hurt, how much we hurt, and what the effect is of that pain. Doctors now wrongfully dictate what the extent of our injuries and illnesses are and how they affect our ability to function.

Medical science has progressed to an amazing level in its ability to provide for us great relief from many of the maladies that afflict us as human beings. Because of that amazing advancement, they have extrapolated from this achievement and become very arrogant and think they can make certain types of decisions that their science is too imperfect to determine. My further sentiment is depicted in the letter that I posted to the attorneys that practice in my area of law. It is as follows:

 Dear LightSaber Masters,

Attached is an appellate victory I had at the end of the year. It’s a short read but verifies the role of medical panels. Their role is not to be the judge, jury and executioner.

We as a country, as a state, and as a group of lawyers are relegating to doctors the absolute and infallible role of determining who is injured, how they were injured, why they are injured, what their limitations and restrictions are, whether they should be believed, whether they are worthy to be believed, and whether or not they are disabled and deserve workers compensation, Social Security, and long-term disability benefits.

I know many of you think that they actually can do all of these things, but the truth of the matter is, they’re one of those blind persons holding onto one part of the elephant. We think and they think that just because they know all there is to know about the elephant’s hind end, that they can extrapolate therefrom and not only tell us what the whole beast looks like, they can tell us where it’s been, who it’s slept with, the purity of its heart, the thoughts in its head, and where it’s going. They can’t. They only truly know one part of the picture that has to be combined with the testimony of the worker, the expertise of the vocational experts and the decisions that the ALJ must make.

I know this is just a workers compensation list serve, but for those of you who practice in all these areas of law, we need to push back. Doctors know way less than they think they do, doctors are asked by lawyers to answer questions that they cannot answer honestly, and we need to find a way to ensure that doctors with a healthy sense of humility and a good self-awareness of the limits of their science, serve on our medical panels and perform evaluations as medical experts. Impossible to achieve? I don’t think so. We just haven’t tried hard enough.

Sincerely yours,
your humble, LightSaber Caddy and Repair Person,
Loren M. Lambert
Loren M. Lambert, January 2, 2016 ©

There Is Hope: A Single Act

On my mad dash into Costco, I witnessed a miraculous act. It was something I often do but never thought anyone did- especially not when distracted by the feeding frenzy that grips your mind heading into Costco.

And what was it? (Salvation Army bells toll roll). He stopped and picked up a piece of garbage and put in the waste can. Simply stunning. He could have been trampled, or worse, missed out on the chocolate samples being given out at the northeast main corridor.

Spread the word. Do the garbage pick up challenge today. When it is not your designated job, not your business, and when not at your home, pick up a random piece of garbage and dispose of it.

Only good things can come next because it is a known fact that people who pick up garbage when they don't have to never become country western singers, used tooth floss hoarders, or white collar criminals. Don't believe me, look it up.

Loren M. Lamber, December 18, 2015 ©

Eat a Pound of Chocolate for Peace and Prosperity.

I banned my family from bringing any sweets, candy, deserts etc. into the house for Christmas. You see, I am trying to evade my several-year narrowing orbit around the Ghost of Christmas Present’s insistence that we adorn our bodies with internally integrated holiday trimmings around our midsections and nether regions.

So why not just avoid eating them and not subject my family to my lack of discipline?

That’s because I have this other problem. It’s a problem most kids, including my own, don’t have any understanding of. This is because I was too generationally distant to really, enthusiastically, and assiduously beat into my kids, the customs that were zealously beat into my parents (and in turn me), who were raised by my depression era grandparents. And what did they learn and pass on? You can’t let any food go to waste, especially since it may all disappear in a dust bowl and in a bout of over production.

My wife doesn’t have this later problem. So, the responsibility falls on me to make sure no food goes to waste and to also eat my fair share of some of the dessert and chocolate because it could all just disappear overnight and its an act of charity to help them also stay trim. So I’m like the bottom feeding crabs in the ocean--whatever food escapes the mouths of others and comes sifting down from them to settle and rest upon the dusty places in the fridge, cupboards and storage areas, has to be scavenged up by me.

Despite all of this, I’ve been ahead of the curve so far. I am just a couple of pounds over my usual weight, which I can lose in a week. Then, a client of mine brought by some baklava. Nobody would eat enough of it in the office. What could I do?

I went home with it. Upon arriving, there were more treats awaiting me from neighbors and extended family--worst of all, there was chocolate. I forgot about these potential culprits. How do you include them in the ban?

To make matters worse, I had thoughts of my 8th grade US history teacher, Mr. Richards, who somehow managed to escape detection from the administrative office when his cheeks seemed to get a little rosy each year before the holidays and whose breath smelled distinctly with an odor that was foreign to me yet might have been alcohol. He said that the best thing for the economy was to wear out a pair of blue jeans. He said that’s why the great depression happened–too many jeans that weren’t being worn out.

You see, back then, the 1930's economy was all about jeans, not cars, i-pads or houses and not enough blue jeans were being worn out. So jeans piled up on the shelves. Then cotton growers, jean makers (two back then–Levis and Lees), jean designers (three back then–the two who worked at Levis and Lees and my grandma), jean retailers and whole sellers, all went out of business and had to lay off workers. Then those workers didn’t have any money to buy spam, radios and refrigerators. Production piled up in those businesses, more workers were laid off, and then the whole economy collapsed. This then led to more liberal minded movies, WWII and FDR and that is why we are all now living in the socialist apocalypse of the Obama era.

Now in the 2010s, we live in the chocolate, baklava and other festive holiday-foods-driven economy. As a result, too many people make a living off growing stuff for the holidays- designing, baking and selling chocolates, baklava, salami, baked hams and other holiday foods. Not to mention the economy-driving, after-holidays gym-membership sales.

So what would happen if everyone, like me, were Scrooges and ignored the Ghost of Christmas Present and refused to adorn their bellies with fat from eggnog, chocolate, baklava and pie?

Obviously it would result in the collapse of our economy, more liberal minded movies, WWIII, the third wave of socialism–which we know would be the last this country could endure--and therefore the end of civilization.

 So, in the spirit of all that is holy and good, to bring prosperity and world peace, do your part and do what I did tonight, and then every night until you buy your gym membership on January 2nd- eat chocolate and baklava. Oh, and wear out some blue jeans and realize that the Donald is just bluffing, he really is a warm hearted and wise soul and he will bring the capitalist utopia that will last for a thousand years.

Loren M. Lambert, December 18, 2015 ©

New Scientific Study: The Bobble Head Effect and The Next Republican Presidential Nominee

A recent study verified that, if you fast forward the most recent Republican Presidential Debate Circus, here's what you'll learn:

The higher the candidate in the polls--the less he waggles his head around like a bobble head--meaning side to side and around. In fact the, just the opposite, Donald's head shows more vertical movement--but that's all up-and-down chin, lip, and eyebrow movement. The only exception to this rule is Gov. Kasich and he has an incredibly active karate chop--both hands karate chopping up and down.

Perhaps wobbling around means, "I don't know," and the up and down movement must mean, "Yeah, I know, I know." And the karate chop--maybe that's just too scary. At least to those who are influenced by all that.
Loren M. Lambert, December 16, 2015 ©

A Little Empathy for Mr Trump

Poor Donald, unlike the rest of us, he's had so much of what everybody has wanted from him that no one has ever told him that a lot of what he thinks and says is abject bullshit. Had they done so, he might not have been so appealing to the Republican base, polling at 35%.

Contrarily, I've rarely had anything anyone else wanted so I have had to par my thoughts and statements down to a very lean, "get out of the bathroom and give someone else a chance," and "treat everybody's bathroom, possessions and family the way you would want your bathroom, possessions and family to be treated.”

Loren M. Lambert, December 16, 2015 ©

What Is Gun Culture? Does It Require A Special Circumcision?

I was listening to gun talk radio today. I had no idea. But I learned on it that, because of certain political affinities I have, I hate all gun owners (which frankly includes myself and a lot of my family), and their culture–Gun Culture. I did not know this.

Now that I know I hate it, I need to find out what it is.

What is gun culture?

Can you grow it in a petri dish? Do you have to be born into it? Is it like race where, unless you're really rich like the late Michael Jackson (rest his soul--I loved a lot of his dancing and music), or really clever like Rachel Dolezal, you can't just get into it or out of it? Does it need its own country? Do you have to be baptized or take its sacrament? Does it have any special clothes, hair styles, tattoos or signals?

Based on what I was listening to, it sounds like some people who profess to be part of this culture are not, and are either wannabes or worse, frauds, who need to be rooted out from among those that have this culture. And they are looking for us.

Does it make you special and entitled to certain privileges? And are those privileges just given to you? Are there rival gun culture sects who claim sanctity over other gun cultures?

And most importantly, do I have to take some drug or not, does it require me to be circumcised in a special way to be in it, and is there a gun culture deity? At this point in my life I don't think junior could survive another circumcision, I need the drugs I'm on and everybody else’s drugs scare me, and if there is a deity, I want him, her, or it on my side--I suspect it could be important.

Any way, please let me know. Thanks.
Loren M. Lambert, Jan. 3, 2016 ©

Spaces, Where the Art Resides

I have often heard the quote of Austrian-American concert pianist Artur Schnabel, who, when asked what made his piano performances so beautiful, said, “The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes—ah, that is where the art resides.”

Similarly, after failing to interest the US Military and Britain in his and his brother Orvilles’ new invention–the airplane, Wilbur Wright, when visiting Paris to pitch the same to the French, said:

“There is always an open space as big as a city square in front of each building... And in addition there is nearly always a broad avenue leading directly to it, giving a view from a long distance. It is this, as much as the buildings and monuments themselves, that makes Paris such a magnificent city.” (From David McCullough’s The Wright Brothers Copyright 2015)

This reality is what I hope we all understand as individuals, as a city, as a state, as a nation, and as a world. We need our space, in our art, in our lives and between our living and community spaces. That is were the peace, the beauty, the solace, the hope and the art resides.
Loren M. Lambert, © Jan. 7, 2015.