In the emergency room today . . .

[andyfox]

. . . where my wife volunteers, a man died while his young children watched. A small child who had been abused by her father was touch-and-go when she left.

And when she got home, the first thing I said was, we're in trouble, David Wells just went out injured and the Marlins scored three runs.

Then she told me the stories of her afternoon while we both got tears in our eyes.

How ashamed I felt. How ashamed I still feel. A baseball game.

Count your blessings, ladies and gents. Count your blessings.

[HDPM]

Ah, I was about to say something, but what can you say? /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[MMMMMM]

andy you are mistaken to feel guilt or shame about that.

Of course it is sobering, and of course it makes one think of one's own life and the lives of people close. And the counting of blessings should probably be done more often. But all of that doesn't make caring about a baseball game a shameful act. There is nothing wrong with caring about baseball, except that you picked baseball instead of some better sport;-)

[Zeno]

A coincidence of actions that help each of us to put things in perspective but you cannot expect yourself to be clairvoyant about your wife’s day. You do not need to beat yourself up that much or feel so ashamed. It is a reminder to “count our blessings” and remember what matters most in life and what is really important.

-Zeno

[Sooga]

[ QUOTE ]
. . . where my wife volunteers, a man died while his young children watched. A small child who had been abused by her father was touch-and-go when she left.

And when she got home, the first thing I said was, we're in trouble, David Wells just went out injured and the Marlins scored three runs.

Then she told me the stories of her afternoon while we both got tears in our eyes.

How ashamed I felt. How ashamed I still feel. A baseball game.

Count your blessings, ladies and gents. Count your blessings.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yea, it's kind of like how people who don't normally donate to Salvation Army or Red Cross or anything throughout the year suddenly get generous during Christmas season. Why? People starve and die and get poor in months other than December. Most people just don't sit to think about those things until they're brought up and stuck right in front of their faces. You certainly don't need to beat yourself up about the fact that you felt sad over a baseball game. A father died today, other fathers died today, more fathers will die tomorrow. On the same token, babies were born today, and more will be born tomorrow. In either case, there's nothing you can do about it. Life goes on, whether you think about it, or not.

[Chris Alger]

Interesting. The State Department emails me random "backgrounders" -- summaries of countries around the world. I'm not sure why. I usually delete them unread.

Today, back-to-back, I received the backgrounders for the U.K. and Somalia. I read both and have been mulling over what they mean all day. Excerpts:

OFFICIAL NAME:
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

People
Population (2002 est.): 59.8 million.
Annual population growth rate (2002 est.): 0.21%.
Education: Years compulsory--12. Attendance--nearly 100%. Literacy--99%.
Health (2002 est.): Infant mortality rate (2002 est.)--5.45/1,000. Life
expectancy (2002 est.)--males 75 yrs.; females 80 yrs.
Work force (2000, 28 million): Services--77.1%; manufacturing-- 14.1%;
construction--6.5%; agriculture and fishing--1.7%; energy and water--0.7%.

Government
Type: Constitutional monarchy.
Constitution: Unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and practice.
Branches: Executive--Monarch (head of state), Prime Minister (head of
government), cabinet. Legislative--bicameral parliament: House of Commons,
House of Lords; Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly, and Northern Ireland
Assembly. Judicial--magistrates' courts, county courts, high courts,
appellate courts, House of Lords. Subdivisions: Scotland, Wales, Northern
Ireland [Municipalities, counties, and parliamentary constituencies].
Political parties: Great Britain--Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats;
also, in Scotland--Scottish National Party. Wales--Plaid Cymru (Party of
Wales). Northern Ireland--Ulster Unionist Party, Social Democratic and Labour
Party, Democratic Unionist Party, Sinn Fein, Alliance Party, and other
smaller parties.

Economy
GDP (GDP at current market prices, 2002): £1.0444 trillion=($1.57 trillion).
Annual growth rate (2002): 1.8%.
Per capita GDP (2002): £16,428 ($25,300).
Industry: Types--steel, heavy engineering and metal manufacturing, textiles,
motor vehicles and aircraft, construction (5.2% of GDP), electronics,
chemicals.
Trade (2002): Exports of goods and services--£185.9 billion: manufactured
goods, fuels, chemicals; food, beverages, tobacco. Major markets--U.S.,
European Union. Imports of goods and services--£214.4 billion: manufactured
goods, machinery, fuels, foodstuffs. Major suppliers--U.S., European Union,
Japan. ...

Although Parliament has the theoretical power to make or repeal any law, in actual
practice the weight of 700 years of tradition restrains arbitrary actions.

________________________________________
OFFICIAL NAME (Former):
Somali Democratic Republic

NOTE: Somalia has been without a central government since 1991, and much of
the territory has been subject to serious civil strife. There is no official
U.S. representation in Somalia. Statistical data on Somalia in this report
date from 2002 and are subject to dispute and error.

People
Education: Literacy--total population that can read and write, 24%: male 36%;
female 14%.
Health: Infant mortality rate--123.97/1,000 live births. Life expectancy at
birth--total population: 46.6yrs.
Work force (3.7 million; very few are skilled workers): Pastoral nomad--60%.
Agriculture, government, trading, fishing, industry, handicrafts, and
other--40%.

Government
Type: None.
Constitution: None in force. Note: The Transitional National Government
created in August 2000 was formed to create a new constitution and hold
elections within 3 years.
... The present political situation in much of Somalia is
one of anarchy, marked by inter-clan fighting and random banditry, with some
areas of peace and stability.
Judicial--Supreme Court: not functioning; no nationwide system; Islamic (shari a) and secular courts in some localities.
Political party: None functioning.
Legal system: none functioning.

Economy
GNP: $4.5 billion (2001 est.), of which very limited amount in hard currency.
Annual growth rate: Less than 1%, possibly negative.
Per capita income: N/A.
Agriculture: Products--livestock, bananas, corn, sorghum, sugar. Arable land--13%, of which 2% is cultivated.
Industry: Types--sugar, textiles, packaging, oil refining. Most industry defunct since 1991.
The absence of central government authority, as well as profiteering from counterfeiting, has rapidly debased Somalia s currency. By the spring of 2002, the Somali shilling emitted by the TNG had fallen to over 30,000 shillings to the U.S. dollar.

There are no railways in Somalia; internal transportation is by truck and bus. The national road system nominally comprises 22,100 kilometers (13,702 mi.) of roads that include about 2,600 kilometers (1,612 mi.) of all-weather roads, although most roads have received little maintenance for years and have seriously deteriorated. ...

Air transportation is provided by small air charter firms and craft used by drug smugglers. ...

The public telecommunications system has been destroyed or dismantled. ...

TRAVEL WARNING!
There is no recognized government in Somalia. Travel into and within Somalia is extremely dangerous. The Department of State recommends that travelers not go to Somalia.

[adios]

Hospitals are depressing places. Volunteering time to help in an emergency room is commendable. I need to be entertained once in a while. IMO people, including me, very often lose sight of their own mortality. We all have a very,very short stay on planet earth. Nothing to be ashamed of in watching a game and rooting for your favorite team. Perhaps there should be shame in not volunteering our time. How much time is enough?

[slamdunkpro]

This sounds a little like the Firefighter/Paramedic paradox. We sit around all day being bored wishing for something - ANYTHING to happen. Then you realize that if you're bored - that no one is dying, burning, crashing......

[andyfox]

The White Man didn't carry his Burden too well.

[Utah]

Why ashamed?

The events your wife experienced, and the tragedy of the world we live in, make the baseball game more important, not less. Don't see that?

[andyfox]

No.

Read Chris Alger's post about Great Britain and Somalia. Whether you agree or disagree with my comment on it, the fact is that a person born in Great Britain is blessed; he or she could have been born in Somalia and been destined for a life of sorrow. To complain about small things when the big picture is such a nice one, made me feel ashamed and spoiled.

[MMMMMM]

Well then, andy, I guess this means you should just quit rooting for any baseball teams at all, since you'll inevitably be disappointed if you do, and will then end up feeling like complaining.

I applaud your taking the larger perspective of counting blessings. But feeling disproportionate guilt over emotional involvement in the outcome of a baseball game is needless. What, are you to stop living life and feeling merely because some of your concerns are not as weighty as others, or compared to those of others?

I think you are taking a noble impulse and using it to castigate yourself needlessly. You'll never be perfect, so why blame yourself for being human and taking interest in the outcome of a baseball game?

[andyfox]

Maybe I'm not expressing myself as well as I could.

Sports give enjoyment to people. I've been a baseball fan since 1960. As a kid, I lived and died with the Yankees.

All I am trying to say is that I'm a lucky man. The fact that David Wells hurt his back was a bad break for the Yankees and their fans. But it pales in comparison to the bad breaks that other people have to live with. I don't think there's anything wrong with realizing that maybe I was a bit spoiled in complaining about something so unimportant.

Doesn't mean I'm going to stop living my life or stop enjoying a Yankee win and feel badly when they lose. Just that sometimes something happens that gives you some perspective that you had lost. Hopefully it makes you a better person.

[MMMMMM]

I agree with this wholeheartedly. Just hoping you keep it all in perspective I guess;-) Sometimes I too feel ashamed that I do not spend my time more wisely or compassionately. However the problem is also that it is impossible to spend one's time optimally wisely and optimally compassionately. So it just sounded like you were being a bit too hard on yourself. Anyway if you gave up being a baseball fan and became a quarterstaff fan I don't think you'd be having this problem in the first place.

[andyfox]

I'm embarrassed to admit I had to look up quarterstaff in the dictionary.

Turns out I'm a quarterstaff control advocate. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[MMMMMM]

http://www.quarterstaff.org/frame.html

http://ejmas.com/jwma/articles/2001/jwmaart_docherty_0501.htm

http://ejmas.com/jmanly/articles/2001/jmanlyart_a-wp-w_0901.htm

http://ahfaa.org/wsffrules3.htm

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/wr/wr20000801a