May 12, 2024
As I mentioned in my non-existent seminar, it’s Mother’s Day today. Patti and I no longer have living mothers so it’s just a reminder of what’s missing in our lives. We also don’t have living fathers, but we’ll deal with that when we get to Father’s Day. I celebrated the day by finishing listening to a book about motherhood. I thought I would still be listening to it today so I could appreciate moms in my way, but it ended early this morning. When I heard it was ending, I realized it shouldn’t be a surprise. I skipped several chapters in the book.
Two Canadian women wrote and read the book. One of them said things in her chapters that I disagreed with much of the time. My biggest disagreement with her was when she said you shouldn’t be best friends with your spouse. This goes with my general disagreement on dating. We should be friends first and date when the relationship gets more serious. Bars, restaurants, and movies are the worse ways to get to know someone else. Dating presents a fictional version of ourselves. There’s a reason lying is so prominent on dates. Presenting a perfect version of yourself on a date allows someone else to fall in love with that character and not you.
There’s not a book I can listen to that I agree with everything in it. I could only completely agree with a book I wrote myself. Perhaps everyone is this way to a certain extent, but I disagree with a higher percentage of societal norms than most. Being non-religious separates me from most books. I can tolerate the casual use of religious language, but it doesn’t take much to ruin a book for me. I look to fantasy stories to take me away from religion, but most fantasy stories are based on religious myths. In my fantasy stories, religion doesn’t exist. They are pure fantasies. No one ever goes to church, prays, or uses religious language. When I fantasize, the world I create is somewhere I would want to live.
May 19, 2024
Today, I’m going to talk about something serious. Patti said something so disturbing that I can only make sense of it here in this Thoughts paper. When I spell out what she said, you (the reader) will be so shocked and disgusted that you will wonder if I made it up. I wish she hadn’t said it, but she did. She said that The Monkees have better songs than The Beatles. In other words, she prefers The Monkees to The Beatles. As I’m typing this, the spell checker on my phone did not recognize the spelling of The Monkees. It had no problem with The Beatles (unlike Patti).
Patti is entitled to her opinion, but that opinion is based on ignorance. I’m not calling her ignorant. She is quite knowledgeable about many things, but The Beatles is not one of those things. This is not the first time she has discounted the band. Her favorite Beatle is George Harrison, which is messed up already. He’s an excellent addition to the Beatles and is a definite part of their success along with Ringo. They would be nowhere without John and Paul. You may ask yourself, “If Patti dislikes The Beatles so much, why does she have a favorite member?” That is an excellent question. The next paragraph will expand upon the question.
Patti doesn’t hate The Beatles. She acknowledges they have wonderful songs, and she simply prefers The Monkees’ songs. Let’s examine some facts. The Beatles had 34 top ten hits on the Billboard charts. The Monkees had 6 top ten hits. Not everything is a popularity contest, so let’s examine song writing. I know this is a bit of a low blow because other people wrote most of the songs by The Monkees. Although they were actors portraying a band on TV, someone else wrote most of their songs. I listened to a Mike Nesmith autobiography recently. He wrote some songs for the group. He wrote one of my favorite Monkees’ songs, so I’m not completely disparaging their songs.
Let’s talk about longevity. The Beatles had a career of over ten years and only ended when they broke up. The Monkees formed in 1966 and broke up in 1970. Their tv show only lasted two seasons. Their main popularity ended in 1968 with the release of their ill-fated movie “Head.” I bring this up as a reminder to Patti that she doesn’t like drugs, and the film was nothing but a drug trip. It’s no Hard Days Night.
You can compare The Beatles to The Rolling Stones, but they were more of a cover band than The Beatles. The Monkees were a short-lived take-off of The Beatles. The artists who made the songs for The Monkees were as talented as The Beatles, but they were missing a key ingredient. That ingredient was George Martin. The main reason The Beatles had as many hits as they did is because of him. In defending The Beatles, I am defending him. Patti’s opinion is her own, and that’s okay. I’m just saying that she’s misinformed. I like both bands, but they are not in the same league. The Beatles are in the major leagues and The Monkees are a minor league team. I’m using a baseball analogy to appeal to Patti’s love of baseball. Assuredly, she will tell me how it didn’t work.
Thoughts from Life 
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