Archives for June 2016

LA
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Just some thoughts:

So you think you know evil when you see it? Well not always.

He confessed to thirty murders he committed between 1974-1978. He was an American serial killer, kidnapper, rapist and a necrophiliac. He was probably guilty of even more murders than he confessed to. He was considered handsome, intelligent and charismatic. If you saw him chances are you would be attracted to him. He often used these qualities to take advantage of young women. He would even perform sexual acts with decomposing corpses. He decapitated at least twelve of his victims. He even kept some of the severed heads in his apartment for mementos. He was cleaver and engineered two dramatic escapes when once in custody of the authorities. He was described as a sadistic sociopath who took pleasure from another human’s pain and the control he had over his victims. He was evil beyond belief, evil on steroids. 

As a young girl, having relatives involved as law officers, she always had been interested in crime. She once said, “I was always interested in why and how folks got themselves locked up.” Over the years she went on to write some of the best and most read non-fiction crime books of  past years. 

In 1971 she started her career in crime writing and took a job volunteering to work the night shift at a suicide hotline. Sitting next to her and also answering phones on those evenings was a young law student. She described him by saying; “I remember thinking that if I were younger and single this would be almost the perfect man.” 

The lady of crime writing fame was Ann Rule; I recently read her book The Stranger Beside Me. The handsome, charming, dashing, intelligent young man sitting next to her on those evenings at the hotline office was the one described in the opening paragraph. His name, Ted Bundy. 

Rule was once asked if she was ever afraid when she worked next to Bundy. “No, I had always prided myself on my ability to detect aberrance in other humans because of my experience and training and I had that innate skill. I have berated myself silently for a long time because I saw nothing threatening or disturbing in Ted’s façade. He was kind to me, solicitous of my safety and seemingly empathetic. The only clue I had was that my dog, who liked everyone, didn’t like Ted at all. Whenever he bent over my desk at the Crisis Clinic, she growled and the hackles on her neck stood up. The lesson is clear: “Pay attention to your dog.” We think one can always recognize evil? Oh really?”
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June 26, 2016
Keep on,
​Larry Adamson

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Just some thoughts:

Thank goodness somewhere in my past someone lit the spark of reading for me; I’ll give strong credit to my high school English teacher, Mrs. Riddle. At my 50th high school reunion I had the opportunity to personally thank her, not only for helping to create my interest in reading, but for her patience with me and probably many others in our class. I must say, while she created that reading interest, the English skills she taught us sadly remain lacking on my part. If you have read many of my “just some thoughts,” you know that really is an understatement.

 
As I get older, I find myself doing something regarding reading that I would have seldom done in the past. I now enjoy reading a book for a second, or maybe even a third, time. Often, I now find myself going back and picking up a previous reading; one such example is the book The Bridges of Madison County. It was probably made more famous to most people by the movie of the same name with Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. 

 
Tonight, I picked up a Robert James Waller book for the umpteenth time. In the first chapter the main character, Robert Kincaid, makes a statement that gave me pause.  Kincaid is referencing his ex-wife, Marian, when saying, “She left me with more than I left her.” As he drove along the back roads in Minnesota he could still recall her influence, even though that break-up had been nine years previous.

 
I thought about that statement and wondered if score was kept on all of us, would the balance be in favor of “us or them.” Did that special someone leave more of themselves on us/with us than we left on them? Have we had more influence on others, or has the influence been more on us?

                                                 “She left me with more than I left her.”

 I guess he’s saying there is more of her left with me than me with her.

You ever have someone leave more on———— or with you, than you left on them?
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March 12, 2013
Keep on,
​Larry Adamson

LA
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Just some thoughts:

If you were part of a famous happening in your country’s history and were in a picture that is considered one of the most famous in your country’s history, where would you hang it?

Only once in his lifetime did his wife and eight children hear a remark from him about the picture. We generally like pictures, and many folks like to have them taken where there is recognition and some note of importance. Now, come on, don’t be so vain, you know we do.

As I said, he only acknowledged this picture once, and he described it as one of the happiest moments in his life. He did not carry it, or even have a copy. He was asked to appear on television regarding this picture. He never did. The picture was seen by millions around the world, yet it wasn’t even in his possession. The picture appeared on magazine covers the front page of over one thousand newspapers, and it brought praise and respect from millions; and still he had not one copy. There was no question that this was him in the picture, and documents could verify such. The picture was taken with him and five of his closest friends. You would think he would want a copy, wouldn’t you? A picture of you and old friends; the kind of friends you would trust with your life. It is a picture that at one time millions would have recognized, but practically no one could name one person in the picture. I am not sure how many today would even have a clue regarding the picture and its history. American’s knowledge of its history is sadly fading.

I think about that famous picture and ask, “You don’t have one?” Me, you bet I would. Come on, you too. Sitting not far from me is a picture of four famous sports personalities, and there I am right in the middle. Also, hanging here in my office is a copy of the front page of the Wall Street Journal– a picture and article in which I was featured. Front page. What was the Carly Simon song?  “You’re So Vain?” Any picture as famous as the one this man was in, yes, all of us would have one and have it where it was most noticeable.

That’s the difference in him and us. The picture is of six boys: Rene, Harlon, Franklin, Mike, Ira and John. Less than thirty days after that picture was taken, only three of them would be alive. John, well, that was John Bradley. He was the last living member from that group. He died in 1994, living in Wisconsin. He never had a copy of that picture, maybe he didn’t need one. I bet that picture and what took place around it never left his mind. Never. Oh, the picture, it was of six Marines, one of which was John Bradley, raising the American flag on Mt.Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima in 1945 near the end of WW II.

There are some things and some people who have been in our lives and their picture never leaves us; the picture or pictures they always remain.

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I have been told there are more than 17,000 songwriters in Nashville.

One of those songwriters happens to be our friend, Dan Harrell. Below you will find the lyrics to a song he recently penned. If you write a book or a novel you have many pages and chapters in which to tell your story. Not so with a song; as a songwriter must tell his story in a matter of three minutes or less. I think the following song tells it well as I see a picture in the lyrics: