Saturday, August 05, 2006


Today is the anniversarey of a great day for peace. On this day in 1963, the United States, Russia and Brittan signed a nuclear test ban treaty that pledged that none of these three nations would ever again test nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, underwater or in outer space! It was the very first treaty involving the Atomic Age and thankfully it has always been respected and renewed over the last forty-three years. I was a sophmore in high school when this occured and yet I can still remember this event. A Gershwin tune was played in the grand reception hall following the signing. It followed the fragile and almost tragic events of the October 1962 Missle crisis when the United States and Russia were a heartbeat away from nuclear war over missles placed in Cuba by the Soviet Union. Now the Soviet Union is no more and Castro is very close to dying himself. We were to lose John Kennedy by an assassain's bullett less than three months after this historic day! Today we also lost Marilyn Monroe-- what a interesting contrast-- great peace achieved and a great life lost of a woman who had lost her personal peace. We must all be at peace with ourselves. As the great song goes "Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me!" She was indeed a candle in the wind and Hollywood and the world may never again see the likes of some one so beautiful and so intelligent. Marilyn Monroe was no dumb blonde by any stretch of the imagination. I remember how much I loved her performance in that comedy classic "Some Like It Hot". This picture was so wonderfully funny and honest. I also remember the picture's last line-- poor Jack Lemmon can't get Osgood (played by the master Joe. E. Brown) to not like him. Finally Lemmon has to say to him-- I'm not what you think I am...(then removing his wig he says) "I'm a man" and Joe E. Brown says the best line in the whole movie "Well, nobody's perfect! " -- how true. Not candles in the wind. Not great leaders of our time. Not kings or queens or movie stars-- we are all human. We make mistakes. We say things we later regret. We look like we're incredibly prejudice in one angry outburst. So we must take life one day at a time. We must appreciate the gifts that we all have been given. We need to listen to our hearts more and rely on God in every way we can. That means we simply have to surrender sometimes and let God take the wheel! If "nobody's perfect" that includes, life, fate and destiny. I must also take a niod toiday to the passing in 1987 of the great director John Huston who left this sphere of blue on this date in 1987. Mr. Huston was an amazing director. His motion picture "Stagecoach" is a amazing tale of how individual each person of the globe can be. I'm sure he would echo today's theme-- "nobody's perfect"