Milt Mays • Page 11 of 13 • Milt Mays The Official Author Blog

Adios Amigo

April 25, 2012

Adios amigo

Peter Gallagher died on 4/23.

He was my stepfather, a friend really. What can you say about a friend who can no longer listen with wise ears, can no longer edit my writing with expert care, can no longer comfort and love my mother, his dedication most dear?

I saw their last dance together. I’m so glad I did.

He wanted no fuss. Just a quiet goodbye. Let those who survive remember and carry on in goodness. He trusted that would happen. He spread his goodness a long time:

88 years.

There were those saved by his service translating Chinese for the OSS in WWII. Who knows exactly how many, or what he did. He would never say. Secrets until the end. The only thing I knew was he hated war. Imagine that.

Many legal clients were helped by him, both in Albuquerque before he retired some thirty years ago, and in Manzanillo, Mexico, where he lived and offered his services, usually for free.

His palpable legacy is a beautiful house in Manz, wonderful children, whom I have come to know and respect, and the lovely Luce, my mom, a woman without equal. That should be enough for any man.

There is the legacy, though, you can’t see, or touch, or hear. It is there, in the minds and hearts of those he knew. That legacy is more than the stars.

Thanks, Peter.

Goodbye, my friend.

Milt

War, Oil, and Family

March 30, 2012

(No one came up with an answer to my last blog. So I will keep trying.)

In my life, War and Oil are intertwined like a crown of thorns and thistles around Family. They make my love bleed. The biggest thorns are war, causing untold injuries the results of which I see and weep over, every damn day: Agent Orange causes diabetes, coronary heart disease, all of which blossom into strokes, heart attacks, stents, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc., etc., etc. Every war breeds mental disabilities, PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury, leading to alcoholism, other addictions, cigarettes, depression, suicide . . . etc., etc., etc. There is no end.

Really?

Yeah.

The last decade of wars aches for more oil. Please, we must have it. Oh, and keep the oil companies in profit (Billions a quarter? No prob.). Who cares if us lowly peons have to pay more and more for gas? Grow that crown of thorns, war, by ensuring the thistles, oil companies, are as healthy as possible. Those two weeds are choking our priorities of life right off the planet. Soon, flowers, trees, wilderness will be merely another challenge to overcome in order to feed the weeds. Well, actually, they already are. Don’t look now but a fracking well may be moving in next door.

Then there is family, our loved ones, those who support us when we fight for our country, defend freedom. They support us and cry blood for years after we come back. If we come back. Are we defending freedom, or ensuring the continued survival of an overwhelming machine of war and support for oil. Can we tolerate $10 a gallon, or will civil war result in son fighting father? Sister killing brother? What is the price we are willing to pay for driving our cars to work? Mowing the golf course twice a week? Four-wheeling for fun over wilderness terrain?

We are the most powerful nation the world has ever seen and we act like adolescents in conservation, peaceful negotiations, and putting love before violence. Can we survive? That is why I wrote Dan’s War, to ask some of these questions, and get people to think. Every word, action, and evolution in Dan’s War is not only possible but becoming more probable every day. It can happen. Tomorrow. And the only thing left will be our humanity—if we haven’t destroyed that, too, with war. In Dan’s War humanity may save the hero. May. We must find a way to make humanity work, to rid beauty and peace and all those creations that make us laugh and cry, from the most destructive and ugly force in history: War.

As long as we are at war, ugly things happen, like killing children, massacring villages, virginity checks. Who knows, we might even drop a nuclear bomb or five that kills millions, “To Save More.” How can war not cause bad things, when war sucks out love and preaches kill thy enemy, and do it now, and move on; kill more. Can you find a way to stop it? Please.

I know you have hope. We have a whole generation of new fodder for war that we can save with that hope. Do it. Find a way to prevent another war.

Maybe even a cookie?

Milt

REVIEWS: http://tiny.cc/mt6b7

Buy it now–Amazon:

Barnes and Noble:http://tiny.cc/htmrb

Smashwords for all other e-book formats:http://tiny.cc/o0nh3

More at my Facebook Author Page:http://tiny.cc/sumdo

Contact me at www.miltmays@gmail.com

Kony 2013

March 11, 2012

Kony 2013

Yes, I know, the big deal is the Kony 2012 video.

My question: Where will this be in 2013 and how will we get there?
The YouTube/Facebook video, now over 50 million views, touts getting rid of Kony, a warlord for LRA who kidnaps kids in the night, has them run his “revolutionary” army, disfigure his enemies, kill their own parents. This travesty must end, and the Invisible Children supporters, including the great guy who made the video should be applauded.

But, and this is a very BIG BUT, are we waging another war against another boogie man instead of finding peaceful solutions? The video wants us to support military “advisers” to the African Army so they can find this monster and bring him in. What exactly is their “advice?” Hint: They are military. The video wants us to make Kony famous, so we can get everyone to be against him. Got it.

Historical rewind: We all wanted to do the same for Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, bin Laden. How many lives were lost in the War on Terror because of one man—bin Laden. Bin Laden was famous in an instant—9/11. Our country tried to end his continued reign of terror worldwide, not just of a small part of Africa, like Kony. How much money was spent on this same War over the last ten years? But, we finally got him, right? Was it worth it? Did we work hard on peaceful solutions during those ten years of war? How much money went into peaceful ideas vs. new Humvees, tanks, drones, jets, soldiers, soldiers, soldiers, etc., etc., etc.???

So, in 2013, if we still don’t have this guy, Kony: What then?

My pessimistic side says probably we won’t get him, though my optimistic side hopes for a quick capture, using a “surgical strike” (that means only a few get killed in the “tiny” attack—Right.). And if we do get him, will his methods, his LRA end?

My plea is: Let’s find peaceful solutions to make Kony go away. Any ideas?

Come on! Did you just want the social media to be a video fest, or actually do something useful?

Milt

Dan’s War is an award-winning novel about the end of world oil . . . in two weeks. Cajuns and one lone computer geek try to save us against an eco-fanatic and his army who want to get rid of OIL to end global warming.

It’s about WAR, true, but also about family struggles with teenagers serving their country vs. college, and a computer genius with near-Asperger’s and desperate to be a hero at his job, but most of all in his son’s eyes.

REVIEWS: http://tiny.cc/mt6b7

Buy it now–Amazon:

Barnes and Noble:http://tiny.cc/htmrb

Smashwords for all other e-book formats:http://tiny.cc/o0nh3

More at my Facebook Author Page:http://tiny.cc/sumdo

Contact me at www.miltmays@gmail.com

Techno-cure for the Fragile Human

February 27, 2012

Gotta be Facebook, or Twitter or Google Plus. They’re the cure for our deepest desires, the wine for our fish. They’re the REAL world, right? We can connect with the world and feel needed and wanted and . . . Ignore real people when they need us most.

Video of ignoring car jacked injured veteran

Are you kidding me? Did you forget life? You know, the one with grass, snow, trees, rivers, mountains, sky–what about talking to the PERSON (PERSON=Human being) sitting across from you while you eat instead of Tweeting to someone you’ve probably never seen, never touched, and the only laugh you got from them was LOL. You can’t even hear it!

The TV commercial: “Do you realize how much data you use?” advertises for unlimited data plans, showing a very busy woman constantly looking at her smart phone while she sits in a beautiful park, waits at the busstop (next to real live people), or eats at the table in a restaurant (Does she know what she’s eating? Is she actually tasting it? Did she ever consider talking to those other human beings surrounding her?)

She may have all the data she needs for her smart phone, but life just passed her by.

How sad that we have become a nation of texting rather than eye to eye, mouth to mouth, touch to touch communication. Humanity is dying.

If Kurzweil is right in his book, The Singularity is Near, and we will soon have implants in our brains to do our jobs faster and better, what have we lost? If ever there was a soul, I believe that will kill it forever.

Talk to people, see them, touch them, hug them. In a few years, we may all be part robot. Enjoy the real people while you can.

At the very least, smell the flowers. They may be gone soon.

Milt

Dan’s War is an award-winning techno-thriller with heart, about the end of world oil . . . in two weeks. Cajuns and one lone computer geek try to save us against an eco-fanatic and his army. REVIEWS: http://tiny.cc/mt6b7

Buy it now–Amazon:

Barnes and Noble:http://tiny.cc/htmrb

Smashwords for all other e-book formats:http://tiny.cc/o0nh3

More at my Facebook Author Page:http://tiny.cc/sumdo

Contact me at www.miltmays@gmail.com

The Fragile Human

February 20, 2012

Have you ever wondered about how one day you can be on top of the world, thinking you are the greatest author the world has seen (move over Faulkner, Shakespeare and Stephen King), love your family, and wish everyone was as lucky as you; and then the next day something stupid happens: you find a dumb mispelling in your greatest novel, or your computer crashes with fifteen short stories, three novels and all your family pictures from the last three years, or whatever—it would be better if you picked—and suddenly you’re ready to eat ice cream until you pop and watch movies all day, or maybe, like Whitney Houston, you take a hot bath and . . . .

Surviving today can sometimes be difficult, even if you’re a great success. Just look at Whitney Houston. Artists might be at the far end of fragile because they put their guts out on the street for people to see, and sometimes trounce upon, with cleats. Artists want people to feel the same way they do about important matters. They look at things differently, and allow us to see the world for what it really is, instead of what it appears to be. They touch us deep inside; make us cry or laugh. They create their intuitive placard about life and hope we “get it.”

The problem arises when almost everyone is moved and praises the artist. It’s not a problem for their art, their placard, but for their very fragile nature, on being a human. The praise is addictive and they want more, each time striving for better, more, sometimes turning to drugs to get that high they got after that first “discovery,” when everyone loved their art and told them so.

Think of hitting notes like Whitney, as clear and steady and heartfelt as a spring sunrise. If you could do that, feel that rush, know how it moved others, wouldn’t you long to do it over and over?

You don’t have to be an artist. Think of the soldier on the battlefield—some might say as far from art as you can get. He is praised for killing others quickly, efficiently, and without complaining. So when he does his job well, he also gains recognition with medals and promotions, parties, and then . . . when it all stops and he comes home, everything hits bottom. It’s no wonder these soldiers have depression and psychiatric problems, aside from the fact that they were committing something that before their military days was considered murder. How in hell can we continue to force young people to do this? Whose idea was THAT?

Bottom line—we are all fragile emotionally, and must practice some self-praise on a daily basis to get through the rough times. Meditate, exercise, pray, do yoga, walk with music in your ears—something positive. If you feel you are doing something wrong, negative, stop it. Change. Love yourself first. And don’t take yourself so seriously. Don’t dwell on yourself; make sure you know you are an okay person, failures or not. Time will prove you right. Maybe even tomorrow.

I’m singing in the rain, just . . . .

Dan’s War is an award-winning techno-thriller with heart, about the end of world oil . . . in two weeks. Cajuns and one lone computer geek try to save us against an ecofanatic and his army.