A couple maxims from my upbringing have sprung forth tonight:

1- If you have nothing good to say about someone, say nothing.

2- Never say something behind someone's back that you would not say to their face.

It seems that I have broken one of these rules. I made a comment that hurt someone's feelings, someone that I care about very deeply.

Personally, I am a jokester. Some of my jokes are crude, rude, or filled with dark humor that nobody but me understands.

This brings me to my point. I firmly believe that every action, regardless of intention, will elicit a reaction. Perhaps a positive action will create a positive reaction, as we all hope. But sometimes a positive reaction to some will cause a negative reaction to others.

In the world of blogs and emails and chat rooms, things can be taken the wrong way. Words without human emotion and expression can easily be mistaken as a slight. So I urge my fellow bloggers to take a step back before clicking the send button. To think about how others may be affected by the words you have written.

Yes, I am an advocate of unadulterated free speech. Yes, I will likely break this rule from time to time. But if we all keep the feelings of others in our minds before pointing and clicking, perhaps the level of discourse will improve, and good feelings preserved.

I'm not an overly religious guy, but if I had to nominate someone for sainthood it would be my late grandmother. This woman never uttered a bad word about another human being, loved everyone regardless of their shortcomings, and expected nothing but love in return.

Grandma died last week. It was, for lack of a better term, a pretty shitty death. The cancer was everywhere and the pain was intense. Even in the trying and terrible last days, humans did what humans do, argue.

See, grandma had a will but not a living will. It was not until after the diagnosis that her eldest son took her to do that. It was also during this time that said son became executor and named his sister power of attorney.

What follows is a very ugly story. The story of a dying woman being berated over last-minute requests for insurance policy changes and relatives being strong-armed to witness death-bed confessions.

The entire family is now ripped apart, anathema to the wishes of my grandmother. Perhaps is this conversation was done before she had two months to live things would have gone more smoothly. But alas, there was no "death panel."

I should also say that grandma was on government insurance, aka Medicare. They did not euthanize her. Instead they set her up with medication, a hospital bed, and a hospice nurse so that she could die in her home, per her wishes.

So let us not be too hard on "death panels." Without them, we are left to the whims of assholes and lunatics.

So I was prancing around the Internet today and came across a very interesting story. It seems that Florida Gov Charlie Crist attributes his pleas to God via notes placed in the Western Wall in Jerusalem for the lack of hurricanes in Florida during his tenure:

Crist told a group of real estate agents Friday that he's had prayer notes placed in the Western Wall in Jerusalem each year and no major storms have hit Florida.

Crist noted that just before his election in 2006, Florida had been affected by a total of eight hurricanes in 2004 and 2005.

"Do you know the last time it was we had a hurricane in Florida? It's been awhile. In 2007, I took my first trade mission. Do you know where I went?" asked Crist, a Methodist.

He then told of going to the Western Wall and inserting a note with a prayer. He said it read, "Dear God, please protect our Florida from storms and other difficulties. Charlie."

He went on to say that no, it he should take no credit. It was God, after all, who made the final decision. Crist did not mention, however, whether God was responsible for the hurricanes in other locations during that time, nor why he prayed only for the state of Florida. I suppose God prefers specifics. 

What really got me was the similarity to another high-profile figure who placed a note in the Western Wall. He never announced the contents of his note (which was removed by a resident student) to the public because, well, you really are not supposed to do that:

A written prayer that Barack Obama left this week in the cracks of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, asks God to guide him and guard his family, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday.

The paper's decision to make the note public drew fire. The rabbi in charge of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitz, said publishing the note intruded in Obama's relationship with God.

"The notes placed between the stones of the Western Wall are between a person and his maker. It is forbidden to read them or make any use of them," he told Army Radio. The publication "damages the Western Wall and damages the personal, deep part of every one of us that we keep to ourselves," he said.

Now, Obama does get points for specifics here, what with just the family and all. But then Obama didn't run around telling people that he and his family are healthy because of a private note he put in the Western Wall.

I am not an overly religious person. I do identify as Jewish, even though I have never formally converted. That said, maybe Obama used a photo-op at the Western Wall to curry political favor with the Jewish vote. Distasteful? Maybe.

But Crist took it to another level, basically telling the Jews of Florida that he, with his pipleine to God via the Western Wall, is keeping them safe from hurricanes..with a photo of the note and recent weather patterns as proof.

If Crist really believes this, and it seems he does, I would encourage him to take the next step and convert. It's obvious that our God has taken favor with him. Perhaps if Crist converts he can eliminate all of Florida's ills, real or percieved. He must ask himself, What Would Yahweh Do?