It is always reassuring to know that the Atlanta Airport Gold Parking folks value us so much that they have now put up a notice board effective more than five years back!!!!

One thing I often ask myself is what will I regret most when I am in my my deathbed. More often than not, I have concluded that spending more time with my kids and wife would be number one. Number two would be that I never got a chance to keep up with so many other people who crossed my life and made me in so many imperceptible ways the person I am (remember “intersection points”?).
But I have been curious about what I might be missing. So often, I ask elderly people what are the lessons they have for me. And once I got into real trouble because the daughter of this elderly person thought that my question was focusing on her parents’ mistakes (with the negative connotation).
Nothing could be further from the truth. Regrets, or mistakes of others can often be the best guiding star and narrating our regrets can often be the best guidance we can give others.
Finally, I came across something that satisfies my curiosity.

Bronnie Ware, an Australian nurse who spent many years working in palliative care caring for those who were dying had many many conversations with her patients till they died. She eventually summarized her conversations in a book called the “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying”
They were (with my self grades)
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. (I would give myself a B+ maybe even A- on this)
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard. (At best C+ for me)
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings. (D- 🙁 )
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. (Maybe I will give a A- on this)
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier. (Around B to B-)

Do you see me that way?
How would you grade yourself?
If you change nothing in your life, would you have some other regrets we should learn from?

US Govt blocks American Airlines – US Airways merger citing it might lead to higher fares.
In a related news, US Govt also announced increase in income taxes to fund the department of merger blocking 🙂

Not sure whether I am more amazed by the fact that I woke up at 1:30 am and posting on FB  or that I have friends who are yet to go to sleep and are posting on FB 🙂

While the social media is very active on second guessing a jury decision on the Zimmerman case, Rem Rieder did an interesting column on pointing out the bias media takes on reporting the “too delicious”. The factual layout of how multiple news channels had to recant their stories was, at the very least, interesting. Let’s not also forget that most of this is driven by “ratings” – in other words, what we “want to hear and believe”.

I am copying the text instead of putting the USA Today link.

—

Column: Media got Zimmerman story wrong from start.

The role of the media cannot be ignored in the Zimmerman case. 

It’s complicated.

Life is packed with nuances and subtleties and shades of gray.

But the news media are often uncomfortable in such murky terrain. They prefer straightforward narratives, with good guys and bad guys, heroes and villains. Those tales are much easier for readers and viewers to relate to.

Which brings us to Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman.

The story of their tragic confrontation on February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, was framed early on. Zimmerman, then 28, was the neighborhood watch captain/”wannabe cop” who racially profiled and ultimately killed Martin, an unarmed, hoodie-clad black teenager out on the streets of the gated community Retreat at Twin Lakes simply because he wanted some Skittles.

The storyline quickly took root, amplified by the nearly ubiquitous images of the two: a sweet-looking photo of a several-years-younger Martin released by his family, and a mug shot of Zimmerman from a previous arrest in which he looks puffy and downcast. The contrasting images powerfully reinforced the images of the menacing bully and the innocent victim.

Some of the media’s major mistakes stemmed from stories that fit neatly into that widely accepted narrative. NBC News edited Zimmerman’s comments during a phone call to inaccurately suggest that he volunteered that Martin seemed suspicious because he was black. In fact, Zimmerman was responding to a question when he mentioned the teenager’s race. The network apologized for the error.

Similarly, ABC News broadcast a story reporting that a police surveillance video showed no evidence that Zimmerman suffered abrasions or bled during the confrontation with Martin. Shortly thereafter, it “clarified” the situation, reporting that an enhanced version of the video showed Zimmerman with “an injury to the back of his head.”

When it emerged that Zimmerman’s mother was Peruvian, some news outlets took to referring to him with the rarely used phrase “white Hispanic,” which is kind of like calling President Obama “white black.”

Mark O’Mara, Zimmerman’s lawyer, was brutal in his post-acquittal comments about the press’ treatment of his client. Hard to blame him.

While the Sanford police originally declined to prosecute Zimmerman, State Attorney Angela Corey charged him with second-degree murder in the wake of the flurry of news coverage, street protests and a powerful campaign on social media.

But there was much more to the story, as the obvious weakness of the prosecution’s case against Zimmerman and the jury’s not-guilty verdict make abundantly clear. There was evidence that Zimmerman decidedly got the worst of it during the struggle before he shot Martin. Martin was an athletic 17-year-old, not necessarily a helpless victim. Zimmerman may well have been acting in self-defense.

This is hardly to suggest that Zimmerman is a candidate for canonization. This is on him. It was his reckless behavior that set this tragedy in motion. If he had stayed in his vehicle as he was told to do by the police, Trayvon Martin would be alive today.

As more details emerged, so, too, did a fuller picture of the events of February 26, 2012. But by then the popular view of what had happened had hardened.

Conservatives see this episode as yet another manifestation of the pervasive bias of that dreaded liberal media. But there’s something else at play. Journalists are addicted above all else to the good story. And the saga of the bigoted, frustrated would-be law enforcement officer gunning down the helpless child was too good to check. It’s also another example of how groupthink can shape news coverage.

A healthy dose of skepticism should always be part of the journalism process. And in this case there was a particularly strong reason for caution. While some residents of the complex saw some parts of the conflict, only two people knew, really knew, how it went down. And one of them was dead. Under those circumstances, certainty was elusive.

Back in 2006, the nation’s media gave huge play to a saga in which three Duke University lacrosse players were charged with raping a stripper at a team party. But the case collapsed, the prosecutor was disbarred and many news organizations looked seriously foolish.

Asked what had gone wrong by journalist Rachel Smolkin for a reconstruction of the episode in American Journalism Review, Daniel Okrent, a former New York Times public editor, responded: “It was too delicious a story.”

Sound familiar?

But the Duke lacrosse fiasco also provides some hopeful guidance for the media in dealing with the next Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman story. Well before the case imploded, Stuart Taylor of National Journal and Joe Neff of the News & Observer in Raleigh did topnotch, against-the-grain reporting, poking holes in the prosecution’s overwrought version of history.

Let’s hope we see much, much more of that the next time the news media encounter a story that’s “too delicious.”

Couple of hours of decompression…

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” (Guess who?)

Asked to describe me in one word, my wife of 20 years once said “Quirky”. And I agree.
The aforementioned wife believes my refusal to react or get angry when she is mad too is me showing indifference. Perhaps it is.
People who have had the misfortune of inviting me for lunch or dinner has often called my practice of handwriting a full page of thank you letter in a monogrammed envelope “too formal”. And I think they might be right.
Certainly my practice of showing up to parties on time and leaving by 9:30 – often skipping dinner is considered “weird”. And it is.
Getting up at the crack of dawn, running because I want to, calling my mom every single day of my life, wishing 1500 people “Happy Birthday” in a year on their birthdays (and I sometimes mess up the dates 🙂 ), digging up friends from my elementary school days, date nights every Sunday (with my wife, of course; else it would be “weird” 🙂 ), showing up at Durga Pujo in shorts …….
I have often asked myself why do I have to be difficult and different?
I have seriously struggled to answer “Who am I”? and what prompts me not to go in with the crowd…..

Read an eloquent poem by Linda Ellis (1996) thanks to my good friend Samaresh. Now I am hoping against hopes that this is why I am so weird and different 🙂 Anyways, it is a good read…

“I read of a man who stood to speak
at the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone,
from the beginning…to the end.
He noted that first came the date of her birth
and spoke of the following date with tears,
but he said what mattered most of all
was the dash between those years.
For that dash represents all the time
that she spent alive on earth.
And now only those who loved her
know what that little line is worth.
For it matters not, how much we own,
the cars…the house…the cash.
What matters is how we live and love
and how we spend our dash.
So, think about this long and hard.
Are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
that can still be rearranged.
If we could just slow down enough
to consider what’s true and real
and always try to understand
the way other people feel.
And be less quick to anger
and show appreciation more
and love the people in our lives
like we’ve never loved before.
If we treat each other with respect
and more often wear a smile,
remembering that this special dash
might only last a little while.
So, when your eulogy is being read,
with your life’s actions to rehash…
would you be proud of the things they say
about how you spent YOUR dash?”

It is like all of them went to Washington state last night to drive on I-5!!! Not a single one to be found here this morning.
Atlanta does not have any traffic problem that shutting down all schools cannot solve 🙂

You know the name of the Charlotte mayor who has been nominated by President Obama for the Secretary of Transportation? Anthony Foxx ! You think the Greyhound buses are going to have a field day? 🙂