Not Really Friends at All

A fellow high school classmate that I hardly knew passed away a couple of days ago from cancer and after piecing together information from a couple of sources, it was probably lung cancer and he was probably told he was terminal when he went to MD Anderson 6 months ago but just did not want anyone to know or feel sorry for him...  so, he shared the fact that everything was fine...

Is this what close friends do with each other?

I had a close friend that I had known from the third grade or over 60 years we both figured and when he got colon cancer and I got lymphoma cancer, we shared our stories, treatments, side effects, and concerns with each other and we did not not to illicit sympathy or empathy from each other but because we were close friends.  A few years back, he passed away and his wife only wanted family members invited to whatever it was that she was planning to do.

Close friends are RARE and are indeed special and if information is not shared then my guess is that the friendship was not close at all, even though it appeared to be at the time.

Being an INTJ, my friends are few and far between and after 73 years of life, I really don't miss not having friends...  but, I am fortunate that I had one close friend for several years...  my life may have been a little different if I had been blessed to have friends, but I was not, so I learned to live without the companionship of friends.

And, to be quite honest with you (as the saying goes) I am glad that I do not have any SO CALLED FRIENDS who are only my friends because of what I can do for them or to listen to them brag about themselves and their accomplishments...  usually of the financial kind moreso than of the humanitarian kind.

Reflections of an Educational Nature

 Kodachrome by Paul Simon

"When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all..."

I have often wondered about this even though it was never articulated until Paul Simon composed the lyric...  yet, I remember countless hours spent in classes from which I learned very little and very little was ever used by me in my 45 year career...  not even to impress my peers or work associates as we engaged in play banter...

UNFORTUNATELY for us all, the classes we took in high school were never intended for us to use that information directly in a work environment...  NO...  those classes were specifically designed to SEND US TO COLLEGE...  and, our undergraduate classes were again not designed to give us information for a possible work career, but to send us to GRADUATE SCHOOL which in turn would send us into a DOCTORAL PROGRAM...

THIS IS WHY EDUCATION IS FAILING...

10-20% all high school graduates should be directed towards pursuing additional education like that which is found in a Community College or a 4 year College or University...  The rest of us are the ones that are going to be actually doing all the GRUNT WORK and don't need additional education.

NOW...  don't get me wrong...  I am not opposed to high schools pushing us in the direction of technical education...  and, it would appear, at least to me, that their FOCUS should be on technical education as opposed to college education.

Who really cares about:

History

Geography

Social Studies

Science

Biology

Chemistry

Physics

English

Advanced Math

IF...  what you are planning to do is open a restaurant, build computers, write computer programs, or drive a truck, or work in an auto parts store, or for that matter join the military or become a professional athlete or musician...

There is no high school course that I know about that teaches students about investing their money for retirement or about balancing a budget or about the pros and cons of having debt or whether they should lease or buy or how to balance a check book or if life insurance is really necessary...

Teaching students CRITICAL RACE THEORY is not going to help them find a job after their high school education other than understand why they cannot find a job...

THIS EDUCATIONAL DIRECTION IS STUPID...

However...  proper communications:  writing, speaking, presenting is a good education to have regardless of what one plans to do with their lives...