Grutz says, "Keeping things in perspective. A good perspective." or "There's more to life than guitars and Australian Stumpy Tailed Cattle Dogs?"

Yes, there is more to life than this. And no, not just dog hair.

Ignorance is not bliss.

In my daily adventures, I often lament or comment on the goings-on in and around 1124 W. 19th Street. I go to great lengths writing about the dog, the apartment, the neighborhood, the Hawkeyes, Iowa, etc. Yes, all these things are important to me and Carleen, and we have decided to comment on our lives for a year in this blog (and yes, I know you all miss her and her posts get waaaaaaaay more hits, but she's working hard and is pretty tired, so you're stuck with me for now. Deal. With. It.). Sure, I try to be witty or coy, I try to entertain. But sometimes I'm reminded that there's more to witty, coy comments about the great Arnie or some furniture I've built.

At times I'll switch off NPR and avoid all that happening around the world and nation. I'm working on how events in the news impact me. I tire of getting upset at the hypocrisy of government or the devastating natural disasters striking on a weekly, if not daily, basis. For example, one may ask how a monopoly in the making (Comcast & NBC Universal) had been OK'd by the FCC? Only to be followed with: Wow, a chairwoman on the FCC regulating board who just OK'd said monopoly in now going to work for said monopoly? Here's an article from the Washington Post. I've, hell, we've all seen this before. I've been hiding from these things from behind the simple and wonderful little things in my life. Escapist? Yes, I acknowledge that. So I will try to avoid the negative crap floating around the airwaves and news sites and focus on the good. How's that sound?

Look for the positive, even in a truck load of negative.

Did you know there are men and women serving abroad, fighting in two wars? Yeah, I too, forget over time. It's like a reverse polaroid. An image of conflict slowly fading into nothing. I don't agree with any of it. Many Americans are opposed to the wars. These wars are wrong. But now it's like background noise, there, but easily ignored.

But the men and women serving are not. I forget about this. I don't see the results or effects of these wars. I don't live by a military base/hospital. I only know of a few over seas serving now. I don't see it in my daily life. But reading over the local Dubuque newpaper, the Telegraph-Herald, I was reminded that we are at war. Bad things happen. A Dubuque native and Marine, Christopher Billmyer, was injured in Afghanistan and has been in rehab for some time. He arrived home to Dubuque yesterday. Here's a video from the TH capturing the homecoming. Here's another and article that really sums up the positivity of this event, from KCRG.

Give, baby give!

Black Heart Gold Pants (BHGP) is an Iowa Hawkeye blog that I follow and mentioned in the past. It has informative pieces, such as player analysis and game results. It is also terribly funny (a recent post was written from the point of view of the strung-out Clemson Tiger mascot, really, it's funny). But BHGP is not just sports and high brow hilarity jokes, there's also a soft fuzzy side. This past football season the BHGP community raised over $20,000 for UI Children's Hospital. Yeah! So why am I writing about this? Among all the puns, put-downs, and stats, is a very good post about charity. I recommend you all check it out. At the very least you can get the context for the following line to make sense:

"Marc beat the hell out of zero. Marc won like crazy. Marc ran up the score on zero."

By the way, this isn't a link to donate to a specific cause, just a great reminder of how to think about charity and others thoughts on it. All of us are blessed and doing well, give what you can to those that need. It's good and it's good. End of story.

Lastly, In the grand scheme of things, there really are no ‘errors’.

A most wonderful friend in our lives, Ciaran, is grabbing life by the horns. He's thinking and doing the things he's needing to do on this crazy road we call life. The line above is from a post of his blog, entitled "Savouring the Journey" and what a journey it's been! I invite you all to check it out, here's his most recent post, it involves checkbooks, seriously. It will increase your positive quotient by like, a lot. And that, too, is good.

So everyone! Everyone! Do be good! Think good! See good! Doesn't it feel good?!?