--- Bree Mcdonough <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I agree. If one is an asshole at forty this person > will still be pretty > much an asshole at eighty. In fact,we become more > of ourselves the older we > get. And just because a person reaches eighty > doesn't mean they will be a > font for all wisdom. But we can still learn from > this wise old asshole. > One of the most incredible human beings I ever met > was a woman by the name > of Dr.Louise Belai. Birthplace: Vienna,Austria. She > was 98 when she died a > few years ago.
I agree. Once an asshole, always an asshole. Some people learn from experience, others never learn. If you're just ignorant, but aware of your own ignorance, you learn something. The true asshole is just... an asshole! Your story about Dr Belai is wonderful. This kind of person is a real treasure and it's such a shame when they're gone. Just before Christmas, my kids and I had lunch with my stepmother, who is in her late 70s. She is originally from England (London) but married a Canadian soldier who was posted in the UK during WW II. My daugher, aged 14, started asking her questions about how things were when she (Lily, my stepmother) was a kid. I learned things by my daughter asking (thanks, Sarah!) that I never knew about Lily before. Lily was about 13 when the war was on and at that time, the Germans were bombing London, so they closed the schools and started shipping kids out to the country so they'd be safe. Lily did leave, but she came right back - she wanted to be back with her family in London. Because the schools were closed, her education ended there - she never went back to school. She got a job working for the government and also acted as a volunteer firefighter to go out when incendiary bombs landed. She described crawling on her belly towards these bombs, at the age of 15. These bombs landed and caught fire and the fire had to be put out before the bomb exploded. Lily is a tiny woman, so of course, she must have been a tiny girl and she says she can still remember crawling along, thinking, "I can't do this!" But she did. She also described the sound of the unmanned airplane-bombs - you'd be able to predict when they were going to explode when you'd hear this airplane overhead putt-putting slower and slower until it stopped - and then boom! Or another time, being in a bomb shelter with a whole bunch of people, listening for the sound of bombing getting closer and closer. At one point, people panicked and a bunch of them decided they had to get out and starting pushing and shoving. They were afraid they would be trapped inside by debris. They were running over one another and Lily was nearly crushed by this. Anyway, this is one pretty ordinary lady. But not really. This is all information we're going to lose when they're gone. Which is maybe why, if we don't learn from history, we're condemned to repeat it. ______________________________________________________________________ Web-hosting solutions for home and business! http://website.yahoo.ca
