Sunday Special: Who Is Ray Horvath "The Source"?
What Makes This Site Special?
Somebody in a previous comment posed the question, “Who is Ray Horvath?”1 My first response is usually, “I don’t matter. What matters is what YOU think.”
The alternative answer is easy: whoever that person thinks Ray Horvath is2. The rest is inconsequential, because
People are interested in you only as long as it affects them. It’s not their fault; they couldn’t relate to the rest, anyway, even if they had the time, the patience, and the curiosity to find out more about you.
I am no exception. The same commenter also posed the question, “What’s the story?” The answer is easy again: The story is what the reader makes out of it. I do not matter.
My father, well before I was stationed in Germany, used to say that the communists’ slogan was “We, communists, are made of special kind of shit.”
That’s a bit ironic, because, in a way, I believe that everyone is special in some way that they don’t even necessarily know of. Somewhat farcically, that reminds me of a title from the “list of children’s books that never made the cut”3:
You ARE different, and that’s BAAAD!
I am only as special as you are. Albert Schweitzer once wrote that one must never treat certain parties as equal4, and I can attest to that from my early adulthood, when I was a factory worker, until I signed up. Simple people tend to treat you as stupid or weak, until you demonstrate otherwise, but I always give them the benefit of doubt, and when I don’t, they prefer to walk away, because, as my childhood friend put is, “They can see it in my eyes.” Once confronted where we must share the same space, they might even become friends. This one I wrote some time ago, and it’s pretty decent:
The original text of the Second Commandment goes as
“Love your neighbor, because he is like you.”
As much as I could be an AI, I am not. I am too imperfect for that sort of thing.
Still, if you search under “Archive” on my site, you can find that whatever is fashionable now, I wrote about months or even well over a year ago.
Also, this site would be a lot less without my wife’s contributions. It might be unusual to find the “Love of My Life” after 60, but that’s exactly what happened to me. No infatuation, but I love her more and more as time passes by. It’s what she and I call “a package deal.” I’m not alone with this, no matter how rare this is. A fellow author, Charles had a similar experience in his marriage:
Package Deal
This is a sequel to my two previous posts about lasting relationships, and I would like to dedicate it to Steigel’s wife, who has just passed away: His story reminds me of being absolutely grateful for what I have now, and what I wish for everyone. I remember my mother declaring her everlasting love for my father only one week before she died, and it was …
When I put the question in a search, all kinds of nonsense come up, so I’ll just settle with who I am. Other than that, my introduction is public:
https://www.bitsandpieces.us/2011/03/23/childrens-books-that-didnt-make-the-cut/
1. You Are Different and That’s Bad
2. The Boy Who Died From Eating All His Vegetables
3. Dad’s New Wife Robert
4. Fun Four-Letter Words to Know and Share
5. Hammers, Screwdrivers and Scissors: An I-Can-Do-It Book
6. The Kids’ Guide to Hitchhiking
7. Kathy Was So Bad Her Mom Stopped Loving Her
8. Curious George and the High-Voltage Fence
9. All Cats Go to Hell
10. The Little Sissy Who Snitched
11. Some Kittens Can Fly.
12. That’s It; I’m Putting You Up for Adoption
13. Grandpa Gets a Casket
14. The Magic World Inside the Abandoned Refrigerator
15. Garfield Gets Feline Leukemia
16. The Pop-Up Book of Human Anatomy
17. Strangers Have the Best Candy
18. Whining, Kicking and Crying to Get Your Way
19. You Were an Accident
20. Things Rich Kids Have, But You Never Will
21. Pop Goes The Hamster & Other Microwave Games
22. The Man in the Moon Is Actually Satan
23. Your Nightmares Are Real
24. Where Would You Like to Be Buried?
25. Eggs, Toilet Paper, and Your School
26. Why Can’t Mr. Fork and Ms. Electrical Outlet Be Friends?
27. Places Where Mommy and Daddy Hide Neat Things
28. Daddy Drinks Because You Cry
The Fallacy of Saving Lives
Albert Schweitzer, around 1950, announced that the greatest value in this world is human life. In 1952, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of “Reverence for Life,” which is quite peculiar from a Lutheran minister, because in Christianity, the greatest value in this world is one’s salvation.
Excellent article, I feel stronger for reading it. Thank you.
Any writer is an alchemist or chef of sorts, their ingredients prepared, combined and cooked in a certain way then consumed, digested and absorbed by the reader. Am partial to Horvath on toast and never need to add ketchup.