#superbowl – The Corrigan Encore

All of my Dung Beetle

February 10, 2023 John Corrigan

It is Feb 10 2023 here in the United States and very soon (in four days), most of the country will celebrate in some shape or fashion St. Valentines day. Saint Valentine was a priest who was beaten and beheaded by the Roman state for his crimes. It was against the law for Roman soldiers to get married however, saint Valentine broke the law and conducted the marriage ceremonies for the soldiers. While imprisoned saint Valentine fell in love with the jailers daughter and wrote her a secret love note signed from your Valentine. This is why we pass notes to this day.

Saint Valentine believed in the power of love and the heart. Did you know that Egyptians believed that the heart was the part of the body where the soul and intellect of a person resided? It’s true when Egyptians were mummified all the organs but the heart were removed the heart stayed with the body. When the goddess Ma’at took the person to the afterlife she would weigh the heart against the feather of truth and if the heart was mean or heavy the soul was punished. Egyptians represent the heart as a dung beetle or scarab.

When we love someone and marry them we pledge our heart to them meaning intellect soul and all of who we are. Everyday we should work to make this persons life better for them with all of who we are. When I think about love and the heart I cannot help but imagine the song that was the soundtrack of the movie starring Johnny Depp. The movie was Don Juan DeMarco and the song was Have you Ever Really Loved a Woman by Bryan Adams.

In the song Bryan Adams sings about how loving a woman involves giving up everything for that person and working for that person and basically giving your heart or your dung beetle to that person. The movie involved a man named Don Juan who was a prolific lover and being treated by a therapist for an over active imagination.

Maybe the best Valentine we can give today is a dung beetle on a secret note.

We can’t even agree on this

January 30, 2023 John Corrigan

In elementary school I was taught that, Polio was a deadly disease, that killed many and if you survived you usually ended up with a deformity. Then I was taught hat Jonas Salk discovered and deployed the world’s first Polio vaccination. I was taught that a vaccination delivered a vaccine and a vaccine was a “blueprint” of a disease and with that blueprint my bodies cells could learn and fight the disease.

I was in elementary school a long time ago, about 30 years ago. 30 Years passed and another pandemic faced the world. Covid 19. A vaccine was discovered and deployed, and there was a pocket of the United States that would not get vaccinated. 22% of the United States are unvaccinated from Covid 19.

There were 3 strains of polio and of the three 2 are eradicated and 1 is only present in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan and Afghanistan both face pockets of vaccine hesitancy. Currently there are three known strains of Covid 19 and they are all active. Polio vaccination rate in the United states is 92.5% right now. Polio vaccinations began in 1955 in the United States and the country was a little different then. Many believe that the reason Polio vaccines were more accepted than the Covid 19 vaccine was because the country as a whole had a deep respect for science.

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch on Pexels.com

It is terrifying that the United States cannot agree on what should be basic science in an effort to save humanity. I am terrified because Covid 19 is one crisis of many that society will face and is facing. Humans are cooperative species and humans must cooperate with other humans in order to survive and thrive. If humans cannot cooperate enough to come to a 90%vaccination rate against Covid 19 what else will our species disagree on? Climate change, gun violence, the human rights of LGBTQ+, the human rights of people displaced from their country? Humans have to come together and form shared truths one of which is that vaccines are good for everyone and should be taken.

I see a bigger want and desire to come together in my childrens generation than mine so there is some hope for the future but I do not want to be part of the generation that could not even agree on the science of vaccination.

Leisure Time

January 25, 2023January 25, 2023 John Corrigan

List five things you do for fun.

In 1998 Matthew Perry and Chris Farley starred in a film titled “Almost Heroes”. Matthew Perry plays Leslie Edwards an officer in the US Army who wants to beat Lewis and Clark to the Pacific coast. Leslie elicits the help of Bartholomew Hunt, a bumbling trapper, played by Chris Farley. The movie is a comedy and was blast to watch. There is a scene in the movie where Leslie Edwards asks the team, while sitting around a campfire what they do fin their leisure time. The team answers the leader and their answers are foolish and hilarious. The first thing I thought of when I read List five things you do for fun, was that scene from “Almost Heroes”, lets see what are five things I do for fun?

I enjoy visiting new places with my wife “You two are always going somewhere new. That’s why we love seeing your facebook feed.” That was the comment made by my wife’s aunt at a family function. When my wife and I were dating we would go to a movie theater and buy tickets for the movie that was showing at the time we arrived. I love spending time with my wife and I love doing new and different things with her. There was recently an article published that gave the secret to slowing down our perception of time. The secret was to do new things. Who better to slow down time with than my best friend?
I enjoy walking my dog My dog is my second best friend and when I grab his harness and leash I can see and sense the excitement he has. I have had to use the words down boy while holding his leash more times than I can count. His joy becomes my joy and I fell the endorphins. While walking he gets to smell our neighbourhood and lall the other wildlife and I can chat with the dog listen to tunes and just relax after a day of work. Walking is also a great way to improve and maintain good health.
I enjoy reading Good or bad books, newspaper or magazines, Comic books or blog posts. I love reading every medium. Reading is an almost intimate act between the writer and the reader. The writer has spent time effort and thought in their writing and now I get to get a glimpse into this person or team of people’s psyche. How cool is that? It is very cool and if the story or story and art (comic book) is compelling than, I am in heaven. Reading is also very good for brain health.
I enjoy the theater with my wife or by myself Live theater is pretty awesome. It can be Broadway in Manhattan or the community theater at my local theater. I love seeing people perform something that they practices together> With theater you get to hear the writers voice and see the actors emotions. The movie theater is alos a favorite of mine. The movies are sanitized version of live theter though and I kind of enjoy the chaos and unpredictibality of the live shows a little more than the movies, don’t get me wrong though I will watch a movie in aecond of course.
Learn and do new things A project is a lot of fun. Creating something new can be thrilling. I love to learn and build new things. By things I mean every and anything. One year I built a boat out of lumber in the garage. I have written software applications for my website, computer and phone. I wrote a book. the art of creation gives you a sense of accomplishment and lets you learn new things about the world you live in and how you navigate it. Creation is fun and exciting and it also improves your health.

So there are five things I do for fun. I try to find fun in all life but if I get the chance to seek out and engage in fun in my own way on my own terms this is what I would do.