charmark

You seem to be having a tough time - I hope you come out of it stronger and better. Yeah, music can have a power over us that goes beyond understanding. I don't know why, but when I first saw a vid of Spielberg's 'Empire of the Sun' a year or two back, the opening theme had me in tears and I couldn't get it out of my head for weeks afterwards. I know now that it's a Welsh lullaby called 'Suo Gan', but I still haven't a clue about the words - but I only need to hear the fitst half-dozen notes and I'm in tears again. Yet the tears always leave me feeling stronger. Snshadow, life can be shit, but we all play our parts and we all touch each other. Something in your post hit a chord with me - you are important to me and, I guess, to plenty of others. Nobody's prying, but if we can help, just ask. 'Be strong, be positive, but - above all - be humble'. Peace, roses and dollars! Mark.

Och, hoots! It's anither wee laddie frae Norrth o' Gretna. Cead Mille Failte! But obviously the shower-room lockers were bigger at your school than they were at mine. Perhaps we should compare sizes some day! Glad tae ken ye! Mark.

Oops! For 'gew' read 'grew'; for 'won'y' read 'won't'. Yeah, I have been drinking, but at least it was Southern Comfort! A very contrite Mark.

I've just checked out the board after an absence of a week or so, and I'm sad to see that the thread which started with a protest at the absence of the French President from Reagan's funeral has been deleted. Would anyone like to explain why? It was, appropriately, the French author and philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) who is credited with the following observation, though it might in fact be attributable to the British biographer S. G. Tallentyre, who published 'The Friends of Voltaire' in 1907. In any event, one or the other of them said - 'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.' Free speech is the essence of freedom. The way to deal with views you don't like is to defeat them by argument, not by censorship. Myr speaks in another thread of beong close to 9/11; I gew up close to Lockerbie, so I fully appreciate what he means. But Justice is, and must be, blind. Btw, though a Brit, I am in many ways very pro-American, and though I take this issue very seriously I am laid back almost to the horizontal about most facets of life. I just feel that your eye is sometimes off the ball and that you are too ready to wallow in introversion and self interest. I admire very much the measured views expressed by Dk (as in dkstories); if you won'y listen to me, listen to one of your own. And remember the essence of freedom. Mark.

Yeah! I was a Scout Leader a while ago, and I met this Patrol Leader who liked to shove his opinions down my throat. And pretty damn fine opinions they were, too! Enjoy.....! Mark