LIFE CHOICE MAKES YOU GREAT

One life choice can make all the difference.

Things were tough on the Oregon Trail and people needed a break.

The Donner Party started with a little known shortcut through the mountains.

If you don’t know the story, click here.

It turned out to be the wrong choice.

If a sales pitch sounds too good to be true, trust your gut.

The Donner Party did.

 

With an assortment of bad luck and problems, the Donner-Reed party finally reached Truckee Lake below the crest of the Sierra Nevada in October.

By now exhausted and low on provisions, the group was met with the first serious snowfall of the winter. They became trapped there for the next four months.

Starvation and desperation soon followed.

When all the animals had been killed by mid-December, the party was forced to eat rawhide to survive.

 

I’ve never eaten rawhide, or been forced to eat rawhide.

But if it was the only thing on the menu, besides my Mom’s green pepper-laden Spanish Rice?

Pass the harness, please.

 

Considering Life Choices

I spotted this guy in Paris and immediately knew he was contemplating his life choices.

Snails for lunch.

Short coat.

Lost in memories of the German takeover in WWII.

Even as an obviously old man, probably my age, he was too young to be alive during the war, but had to have heard the stories.

Paris has historic markers all over the place.

I’m a history guy with a history degree and decades in the field, but the markers in Paris were creepy as fuck.

Just standing on the same land where normal people following orders did their job was one thing; knowing the job they did is a shameful reminder of what humans are capable of.

The German war leaders knew their people:

 

(They) knew perfectly well that they could rely on an array of mostly younger, fanatical Nazis to carry out their genocidal annihilation policies against the disabled, against Jews, and against Roma and Sinti. . . sometimes the fanatics were women.

Mainly, though, they were young, talented, well-educated, and fervently ideological men from Germany and Austria.

 

My big question is how did young, talented, well-educated men from a modern country turn into such barbaric sons of bitches?

How did that happen?

 

Failure To Communicate?

How did Germany slide into the depravity that is so hard to stomach?

German leadership.

How did the people stoop so low?

German leadership.

How does the modern world interpret WWII?

Start with German leadership.

Give little Wolfgang a title that allows him to get even with every bully, every perceived bully, everyone they are told is a bully, who looks like a bully, and turn him loose.

Young, talented, well educated men have the potential to expand human awareness, to explore the deepest reaches of earth and space.

Or they can give in to the allure of some soft piece of shit in a flashy outfit telling them what to do, who to hate, and why.

Check out the chins of the German leadership during WWII.

Who among them stood up for others when it mattered.

Some made their last stand on the gallows.

Ask yourself when you’ll make your stand like this guy.

One guy in a shot seen around the world.

Has be been seen since?

Where are you, Tank Man.

 

No matter what path you take, it is your life choice.

Whether you make the decision or not, it’s your life choice.

Keep that in mind the next time you hear about the new shortcut through the mountains.

When you hear a national leader from anywhere echo 1932-45 Germany? Then what?

Look in your circle of friends and family and neighbors for who is most likely to direct traffic like Tank Man.

And who is most unlikely.