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Tonight I was goaded into sending my tribute to my mom on her birthday page to facebook because of a discussion ongoing about Rachel Maddow and Glen Beck. In Michigan years ago, the Detroit newspapers had been publishing all kinds of stories about people who had not earned an academic education but who were well read, self educated, and pretty bright and intelligent but just had not suffered the lot of sitting in four walls to gain a sheepskin as some of us had done because of their lack. In my case, my parents wanted me to have what they had not had.

The great depression was the cause of that lack in their lives, but they nonetheless married and raised a son and a daughter who they saw to it did earn an education.

I am well aware of the phoniness and falseness in baccalaureate degrees, masters, and PhD's also and have respect for the purpose, the means, and the methods, but sometimes am critical of the fact that lazy professors also let students get by with cheating, cribbing, and all kinds of other mean nasty things to get ahead in life no matter what the cost. All of life is a game, and I learned that many people get out to work before getting an education as their goal is money, money, and they do acquire it.

So the argument had been that Rachel Maddow has a PhD, has gone to Oxford, has a degree from Stanford, etc., but what does Glenn Beck have? Plus, she was an air force brat as well. Well, I know that he has a following and while I am not into the argument of who should be listened to, since the first thing that one hears about Rachel is that she is a lesbian, so who gives a damn if she is intelligent or not, her sex life is more important than her education.

Can't help it. That is life, baby, and you just better learn it. So Glenn Beck appeals to conservatives who love an outspoken spokesmen for their cause. I have never listened to him in my life, but I have listened to Rachel and think that she and Keith Olbermann are a bit too much at times in their coziness at MSNBC. So it is Fox versus MSNBC and whatever it takes to get the ratings going.

So my point is that it is heart, not mind, that people look for in an interview, and while the mind will appeal to those who have smarts enough and like to exercise their brains, the heart and the emotions will overrule every time.

Yeah, so this is a diversion from the memory lane about men of fame and their lifetimes, or my lifetimes, whichever it turns out to be. They are a part of me now and I distinguish amongst all of them as who is who. For the record, George, Louis XIV, and Genghis Khan had no formal education beyond tutoring and selfeducation...in the end, educational programs are for the limited few who like being stuck in four walls and academic circles. Real people get out and do things, it seems.

Louis did have an ongoing apprenticeship as did Alexander, but Alexander did get a formal education from his home tutor, Aristotle. (Oh dear, if John Maxwell O'Brien ever reads this, he will burst out laughing!)

IF all this time spent in times past did nothing else, it gave me a broad education and worthwhile people to come and know, whether stuck in formal academic circles or on top mountain tops in India. It has been an interesting time to grow. But what a way to do it!