Editorial

What are your goals? Where are you, really? Random thought for the weekend ...

Friday, January 18, 2019

Few discussions can be divorced from current political events, and that includes a piece of advice from a life coach.

“What is the Polarity of Your Goals?” Joe Tye, CEO of Values Coach Inc., asked in a recent newsletter. Do you want to make something happen, or prevent something from happening?, he asks.

Tye compares John F. Kennedy’s goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, to Donald Trump’s goal of building a wall on the southern border.

The moon program “sparked a technological renaissance, and launched entire new industries that created millions of jobs,” Tye argues. “The internet, the microwave oven, your laptop and your cell phone all have ‘Man on the Moon’ DNA in them,” he writes. “That goal showed what inspired government agencies are capable of achieving.”

On the other hand, he contends, Trump's goal has divided the nation, will not result in significant technological developments, will create only a small number of jobs and has resulted in a record government shutdown.

“Kennedy’s goal was to accomplish something positive: to put a man on the moon. Trump’s goal is to keep something bad from happening: illegal immigrants coming to the US from Mexico.”

He makes a point, but by the same argument, the goal of winning World War II had a negative polarity: preventing nationalist despots in Japan, Italy and Germany from controlling the world. We doubt he’d argue that was a negative goal.

The same point could be made by the goal of supporters of the wall; preventing unchecked immigration from further draining national resources in an effort to preserve our way of life.

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For another perspective on life, check out “The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man.”

Available on Netflix, iTunes, FandangoNow and Vudu, the low-budget documentary sheds some light on the celebrity’s penchant for turning up in odd places, doing odd things and creating priceless memories for ordinary people.

You may have heard a few of them; the star of Saturday Night Live, “Groundhog Day” and “Caddyshack” was spotted tending bar, pouring shots of tequila no matter what the customer requested. Buying pizza for camp counselors, ala “Meatballs,” giving a random Cubs fan a ticket to Game 6 and letting her sit by him, posing with a couple shooting engagement photos or doing dishes at a house party in St. Andrews, Scotland ...

Granted, few of us have time or money to live like Bill Murray, but the lesson — be present where we are, be willing to take a risk and truly listen to, and interact with, people we encounter — is an important lesson for all of us.

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It will never live up to the hype — “Super Blood Wolf Moon last for 18 years!” — but we’re hoping for clear skies to check out Sunday night’s lunar eclipse.

The moon will appear slightly bigger and brighter than usual because it’s on its closest approach to the earth. It will be a “blood moon” because sunlight scattering off Earth’s atmosphere will make it appear red during totality, and the January full moon is also sometimes known as the wolf moon or great spirit moon.

Unfortunately, the forecast at press time was about 70 percent cloud cover in McCook when the eclipse is set to begin, about 9:34 p.m. CST Sunday, with totality beginning at 11:41. The total event takes about three hours.

Let’s hope the sky clears enough for a good look at one of nature’s marvels.

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