Boots Jaffee

Boots (Leonard Stephan) Jaffee is my younger brother; four years younger than I and now 60. I love him very much and he knows it.
Much of what anyone has heard or read about him is at least partly true - some is hype, but it always makes for a great story. He has run his own security business, a one man company, but many of whom he says were clients were not. So what?
He has worked with the Greatful Dead in several capacities and has met many famous people.
He was road manager for Merle Saunders Rain Forest Band for years and traveled all over the country with them.
He is a great self-taught chef, like my dad, only Boots make money at it. Forget the cooking in Italy and France. Hype. He did win a medal in an industrial "Iron Chefs" competition - his boss sent him. That's appreciation. He won it after wrecking his car and being bruised up on his way to the airport! I'm certain first place would have been his, had he caught his flight uninjured.
Bootsie likes to drink and so do I. He's is always a sweetie as am I when inebriated.
He is a wonderful artist. He sends out a new hand sketched Christmas card every year. I have kept them all . We're Jewish, but I look forward to his artwork regardless of season. I keep pushing him to pursue his art and make some money at it.... but....
Boots has two boys of his own. Zac is all over the world acting, but now in NYC, Asa is in California living the vida loca and loving it. Facebook got us in contact. I love seeing my nephews photos and hearing about their lives.... Boots and I both missed out on these guys living so far away from them.
Boots has a life long relationship of adoration and mutual respect with Odetta - the lovely, open-hearted folk artist of the sixties and on. Odetta has passed, but my brother venerated his memory of her.
Chris, is a lovely woman who has put up with my brothers for many years. Since she is a women of great heart, insight, strength; they have both found steadfastness in each other. What can I say? Boots must be wonderful! She is. Boots has established close and trusting relationships with all three of his stepchildren. They put up with him too.
Talent, compassion, loyalty, and love of life. Boots Jaffee

Tea Party

Let's have a tea party. Want an invitation? Are you white, narrow minded and a constitutional supporter (what American isn't, in the broadest sense of support).
Tea Party: We get together and make sure we are all against something. I guess like the Republican party. We congregate and carry signs of our discontent. We don't like change. We want the status quo, but not this status quo. We want the George Bush status quo. You know the kind of status quo which brought us into deep recession and economic collapse..
We rail against the economic stimulus package, not because the country didn't need it, but because the President got it passed. Simply, it cost too much and not enough earmarks helped us personally. We believe the economy would fix itself as soon the corporate executive realized that their salaries and bonuses were incommensurate with their performances. We believe that whatever goes down comes back up. Except if the Democrats have anything to do with it.
Come to the tea party. Have a cup of discontent. Get a toy monkey, put it on your shoulder and march with the rest of us bigots. We all know that the President doesn't belong here in the U.S. Isn't he an African? Well the rest of us here are Americans. White Americans.

To tell the Truth

What is the truth? For now, forget about philosophical definitions and arguments.
I'm speaking colloquially. Truth is what you have learned and experienced to be true. Communicating truth involves an active consideration and avoidance of deception or attempt to influence others by partiality or omission. Truth is "the whole truth".
No doubt that truth is useful. It bolsters scientific knowledge and discovery. Truth generates trust. It can be comforting (or discomforting).
My question is: is truth necessary? I think anyone could think of hundreds of times where the truth seemed hurtful, complicated, or disadvantageous. Everyone lies. The world goes on. Absolute, constant truth is not necessary. I have been thinking that the world would be a very strange place if everyone's primary and highest value was to tell the truth.
First of all, there would be no poker games. Perhaps not a great loss for many.
Secondly, everyone who could survive the truth might develop an hardened self-concept, comfortable and inured to the truth. Imagine a homely women asking someone in a dress shop how she looks in the dress she has selected. The clerk responds, "You look pale and misshapen in the dress.Try another color. Your pockmarks clash with the dress's pattern. Try a larger size, your big ass and gut show."
Thirdly, what would happen in the world of politics? I think I would need a book to describe an honest government, but in a nutshell it would be different, strange and wonderful.
I'm stopping the counting. I don't know how many more examples are necessary to make the point, but I'd certainly like to add how different religion would be. Truth is the death of religion. Not end of belief, but certainly the end of organized religion which requires members to lie about their beliefs, or most certainly refrain from questioning them. Which religions are true? Certainly those religions with conflicting dogmata must expose several which cannot be true, by logic alone. Would any religion buy stock in Truth?
Imagine leaving a religious service one morning when the woman who sat in front of you asks how you liked the service. You reply, "It was about the same as usual, very boring, I don't know why I come any more. I almost left in the middle because your noxious body odor was making me sick."

What is privacy? how to have it.

Privacy seems to be of utmost importance to some people. What is private in a person's life ?
Private things are feelings and acts that are solitary and not shared with or expressed to other individuals. Being private means separating that private part of your life from others usually because you don't want intrusion into your affairs or you don't feel the necessity of discussing or worse defending your decisions and behaviors. I believe that having privacy means having a buffer, a safe zone, a comfortable retreat in your life. In those respects, everyone not only deserves his or her privacy, but should feel that others' privacy is just as sacrosanct.
Whatever are your intentions about privacy, however, most of us act in public. We work with others, are seen by others, talk with others, and are members of networked communities that have many facts about our lives. It is almost impossible to be totally private in our society.
If you truly wish to have secrets, if you truly wish a part of your life to be private, part of what you must do is sequester yourself. You can't let others know about your secrets or your plans.
A little privacy is a healthy thing. If you don't want others to know something about you, don't tell ANYONE. Don't expect most of your life to be private, unless you are well off and wish to be a recluse.