Author Archives: Steve Mays

The Spirit of Zen

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Last week I read The Spirit of Zen by Alan Watts and one paragraph has stuck with me. It touches on one of the (many) ways religion is viewed differently in the East.

“In the East the effectiveness of a religion is judged by its success in producing a comparatively small number of thoroughly enlightened men, for it is not believed possible fundamentally to alter the lives of vast numbers of people within the span of a thousand years or so. Great social changes are not expected; the religions of the East are more concerned with the enlightenment of some few individuals than of society as a whole, because society is made up of individuals, and will only become enlightened when, after thousands of years, more and more individuals have proved themselves fit for the highest knowledge, until the chosen few have become the whole community.”

Which reminds me of this excerpt from a novel by John Burdett (Bangkok Tattoo).

Junior-Senior Prom

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Junior-SeniorProm-KHS2

With prom season upon us (already over?) here’s Ms. Betty Jane Lowrance, Kennett High School Prom Queen of 1965. Pictured with Ms. Lowrance is Junior Class President Steve Mays.

Turns out I was the only one that didn’t know the junior class president was responsible for decorating the gym for the prom. (I thought the field of candidates seemed a bit sparse) Note the manly confidence with which I hold the prom queen’s hand.

Ideal weight

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When I started eating plants (instead of critters) a year ago, I pretty quickly lost about ten pounds (from 155 to 145). Friends still comment from time to time but my physician is fine with my weight and I feel good so I don’t give it a lot of thought. But this post on the Personal Capital blog made (what I thought were) some interesting points.

If you take a look at the weight for the top tennis players, they pretty much all fit in the weight chart ranges above. And if you look up 6 foot tall NBA guards such as Allen Iverson, Aaron Brooks, Luke Ridnour, Sebastain Telfair, and TJ Ford, they all weigh between 155 – 167 lbs as well. Of course none of us are world class professional athletes, but at least we know the charts have veracity.

According to a Gallup Poll, American men are weighing in at an average of 196 pounds today — 16 pounds more than in 1990. The average weight for women jumped 14 pounds to 156 pounds over the same period (neither sexes have gotten much taller since). Given the average height for an American man is 5′ 10″ and the average height for an American woman is 5′ 3″, Americans on average are 20-35 pounds heavier than the ideal weight.

According to the “ideal weight” chart in the post I’m on the low end for my body type (146- 157). Some might consider those ten pounds “head room,” but I prefer to think of them as “ass room.”

Journals

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journal entryI’ve been blogging since February, 2002, and for most of that time I equated the effort with keeping a diary or journal. I was wrong. I came to this conclusion after reading back through some of my journals from the early eighties. (Index below)

I was struck by the personal, private tone of these entries. I would not have wanted to share these thoughts with others, even if there had been a way (Internet, blogs, etc). I usually wrote longhand in a spiral bound notebook. Once in a while I’d type an entry on my manual typewriter.

Reading my thoughts from thirty years ago feels almost… intrusive. That was a very different person. He was anxious and prone to worry. He drank too much ( or thought it did. He worried about it). He lacked self confidence. I feel my shoulders tense as I read these entries. I suspect writing this stuff down was a way of coping. I wish I could time travel back and leave a “note from your future self” telling him to relax. It turns out great in the end.

The image above is from an entry on May 14, 1984. Just a couple of weeks after I accepted the job I just retired from (after 29 years). I’m putting all of this stuff in my Google Drive and sharing it with family.

After a dozen years of blogging publicly, I don’t expect to return to the the diary format, but David Cain has some interesting thoughts on the value of putting one’s personal thoughts down on paper:

“The simple act of writing out a thought keeps it still long enough for you to get a good look at it. Once it’s there in front of you, you can decide if it’s true, and whether you ought to do anything about it.”

Journal entries from 1983-1985

Tom Colvin

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Tom Colvin died last night. He was one of a handful of people who thought I was amusing. We co-hosted a daily, hour-long talk show on a little radio station during the 70’s. The Grapevine was one from one until two each weekday afternoon and featured interviews, listener calls and such. But on most days we just shot the shit and it was great fun (for us). Tom had a really infectous laugh and it wasn’t difficult to get one from him. And he was a good sport. One year we drove a golf cart in the fall festival parade, dressed as Laurel and Hardy. We tossed out hundreds of photos (below) that almost nobody picked up.

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Once a month (more often?) we spent our hour of airtime playing trivia with listeners. This was pre-internet so you had to know your stuff and Tom did. The guy watched a LOT of television. Here we are with the other members of our team. L-R: Jeff Wheeler, John Robison (seated), Tom, and me.

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Tom was a hard-working radio news guy and loved doing play-by-play sports as well. I left the station in 1984 and Tom shortly thereafter, as I recall. He worked in a number of small markets in Missouri before failing health forced him to retire. I went to see him last September at his home in Rolla. Must have been 20 or 25 years since we’d seen each other. I’m glad I knew him. I’m glad I got to work with him.