WOULD YOU KILL? ASK THE LADIES WHO LUNCH

A while ago, it must have been late at night while watching TV, I saw a psychological experiment about human behavior, (of course.) The scenario was 5 railroad workers on 1 track, 1 worker on another track. A high speed train is bearing down on the 5 workers, bringing certain death to all, with no chance for them to escape. The question posed was would you pull a switch to divert the train from that track to the track with the single worker. Most of the subjects asked would do so. Part 2 set the same scenario with a stocky man looking over a railroad trestle. Pushing him off the bridge would also divert the train, saving 5 lives at the expense of 2 lives, the worker and the pushee. Most of the subjects asked would not push the man. There is so much potential for discussion of individual responsibility, avoidance issues, etc., that I posed this question to "The Girls" I lunch with on a semi-regular basis. Subject A pretty much went with the same behavior as the test group. Subject B refused to consider the question. She considered it not right and would not allow even her hypothetical self to contemplate making any kind of decision. Subject C said she could not answer unless she knew the identity of the 6 or 7 subjects, because 1 of them could have been Jesus. So am I to infer that I am not lunching with ordinary people or that they don't trust me enough to role-play? And what are we going to talk about at the next luncheon, if they invite me?

PRESIDENTIAL RACE RELATIONS & THE HAMMER

The title sounds so pompous, but it seems that prejudice, positive prejudice. and efforts to understand the difference have come to light in a new way. I just watched an episode of "The View" and thought it was very unsettling. Maybe that's a good idea, to discuss race in an open manner without bitterness. But I don't think we're there yet and maybe even going back a little. Whoopi Goldberg speaks as a black person and tells Elizabeth that she, as a white person, can not ever take off her "white goggles." I read a wonderful book by Shelby Steele, "A Bound Man" and he addresses the issue of Obama's candidacy in a sensitive and insightful manner. I don't think it is helpful in any way to use one's race as a sacred hammer to pound in the fact that it's impossible and futile for one person to try to understand another unless they're the same color. The hope does lie with our children and the future, but why close the door on the present. And to assume that you speak for an entire race just because you are of that race seem to me to be presumptive and demeaning.

SENIOR SADISTS

So it's a ladies' lunch. It's an organization, so there is a speaker to give meaning to the occasion. There must be a program, and afterwards there's coffee and cake. And conversation of course. Someone mentions gardening and a radio master gardener who advises on pest control. One woman says that her home and garden have been beset by red squirrels. But she sets a live-catch trap and baits it with peanut butter. She used to have her son come and shoot the captured squirrel, but one day the son was away, and when she checked the trap 24 hours later , the squirrel was dead. So now, she says, she doesn't bother to call him anymore. She just lets the squirrels die. When I say the poor things must die from thirst, starvation, heat, cold, whatever, she answers that it only takes them 24 hours to die. The meeting concludes with the National Anthem and a prayer.

THE BODY OF AN AT/AT

The large gray plastic body lies in my living room looking like the next of kin of the dinosaurs. It's a Star Wars All Terrain Armored Transport of 1970's vintage, recently retrieved from the attic. It looks kind of ghostly, lying on its side, legs splayed and mouth agape. The four-year-old has finished playing with it for today, and seems to have lost interest after applying his own set of rules as to how to play with this toy. The AT AT is not the only ghost in the room. Vivid memories of the original owner surface, and the long unheard childish voice which once commanded the beast echo in the room. I can not bear to look at it any longer. I wish someone would put it away someplace.

ONCE THEY WERE ANGELS

"You sound shrill; what's the matter with you?" When you answer the phone, that's not what you want to hear.Why is it that someone asks that question?

Older people are happier. Yeah, right!

Old people are more content because they no longer have much capacity to enjoy the things they used to aspire to. They lack the health, money, means, and most importantly the time to savor what once made them happy, so they settle for the little things in life, and delude themselves into believing that what they have is just what they wanted.

WOODEN LEGS AND HOLLOW HEADS

This week on The View, Whoopi said that when she drank, she could hold her drinks as she had a wooden leg. Everyone chimed in on the discussion that followed as if she had used the correct idiom. No one ventured to suggest that she might mean a person who could tolerate alcohol has a hollow leg. But maybe they're afraid to mess with her.