Letters to the editor from this week's Chronicle:

Redneck Review!
No. 114 - 6/26/2017
Amazing it is, how some old-time slogans tend to stick in the mind of even older people like myself! And the one that comes back to me at this moment is one I heard years ago," A third time is a charm!"  A pretty sounding something, maybe not meaningful, unless trying to remember a name, or something considered critical at the time. Well, here it is, a third effort to wrap up the topic "Life is a Battle," as it appeared in our last two reviews.
So, returning once again to that theme, it is asserted here that the real battle in the life of every one of us is dealing with the daily clash we all have between doing it our own way, as mentioned in Review 113, or submitting to some higher power, or alternate source.
This ever present conflict was brought vividly home to me several decades ago while I was attending Reed College in Portland, during the summers of 1965-1968. The scene was set in summer institute math classes taught as part of a national effort to upgrade math education around the country. My four year effort there resulted in a Masters of Math degree which definitely affected my high school math classes over the years.
But it was outside the classroom that the "Life is a Battle" reality was driven home to me, a battle between what each of us wanting to "do our own thing"  clashes with some outer authority, tradition, or maybe even a simple fact of nature. An example of the last would be a conviction that a person could breathe under water for an extended period of time!
The scene was set after school or in the evening, when several of us would get together to visit, with every kind of topic discussed,  or news event getting our attention. And a very interesting group it was!  We had people of every kind of belief from all around the country. Christians of different denominations, a couple of Catholics like myself, a Hebrew lady who believed in fundamental Judaism, a born-again charismatic gentleman, a couple of men who had fallen away from a Catholic and a strict Protestant church, and one extreme freethinking gentleman who boldly stated that no church or anyone would tell him how to live.
So positions varied on touchy subjects like abortion, birth control, the size of families, etc. The Hebrew lady asserted boldly that her religion demanded that she should have the greatest number of children possible to protect and preserve her religion and her way oflife.  Several argued that one or two child families was not only the ideal, but a patriotic duty, consistent with the 1960's "politically correct" point of view that the world was fast becoming overpopulated and that resources would run out, leading to mass starvation.
Soon, the conversation boiled down to a difference of opinion between a couple of us who insisted that an outside source was needed to help make  tough decisions versus the freethinker who insisted he would make them himself.  When asked what would happen if he hada wife who wanted several children and he wanted only one, he said HE would decide.  But, when asked, what if the wife believed as he did, that every person should decide for them
selves?  We asked him, would he resort to brute strength, a coin flip..., or would he insist on having his own way!  Well, you can imagine the next hour of the conversation, all of us giving our own opinion on how that battle is best settled. Do we each get to do it our way, or is it necessary to have an outside source we can agree on? Can that source be one we each can choose?  Maybe a simple coin flip would be best!  Hmmm!  What do you think?
Jake Wren


Cottonwood, Idaho 83522
 

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