Follow it back: “Do you believe in God?” I say to the itinerant man.
He says, stunned, “Why? Who created you?”
I got it in that flash—you know, that flash of understanding; the satori?
Follow it back. So you’re an atheist and you say, “Well, how do you know there’s a God?” So what is there, nothing? So nothing created you? So you believe in nothing? Therefore, you believe in something—but that’s nothing. You believe in nothingness.
I believe in God. That’s all. How can you believe in nothingness? How is it possible to believe in nothingness? How can something come from nothing? It’s a violation of all the laws of physics! Something cannot come from nothing. It violates physical science, biological science, theological science. It violates all the laws of reason! It violates all the laws of nonreason. So, what I’m getting at is what I learned from that man.
So then I said, “Can I drop you off where you’re going?” I drove him to a freeway overpass that no longer exists. The man got out and said good-bye. He disappeared, and I never saw him again. Who was he? A prophet? Was he a reincarnation of a religious figure? I don’t know what he was. Maybe he was just a smart guy who was a bum. A lot of bums are smart, and a lot of corporate guys are not that smart. They play people for fools. They think that everybody is a fool because they control the money.
What they don’t understand is that there are values beyond money. They’ve never learned that. Unfortunately, our government is exactly the same. It’s MBA all the way, right up into the military hierarchy. They think that an MBA makes them a war hero or a sage, but many would take a pound of flesh or sell their country out for less than thirty pieces of silver. They would teach their children Chinese and move to Shanghai if they had a better offer!
FORTY-FIVE
No Assisted Living
Sometimes I get e-mails that ask, “Is there something natural I could use because my wife and I are no longer doing the funny business together? I don’t want to use that stuff that makes your vision turn blue with mild blindness.”
I told you one of the side affects of Viagra is temporary blindness in some men. I jokingly say that’s part of the effect that’s desired: That’s why you can still do it with someone you’ve lived with for so many years. It makes you temporarily blind, and that’s it. You put the blinders on instead of taking them off—not so funny.
The poor women, what they have to put up with! No wonder the men die first! After putting up with us for so long, they’re supposed to get it all in the end. I don’t know what they do with it, frankly; I don’t know if they enjoy themselves. They seem to enjoy themselves, the older women, and here’s why: (a) Their sex drives have left them, and they’re not bothered with that, and (b) they could do without men. They find out that it was all a myth to begin with. They had the children already, the grandchildren. What do they need men for at a certain point? They’ve got some money; they can travel.
What do they do in the “old age” homes? I know I’m never going to wind up in assisted living or an old-age home. Never. I know I’m never going to be there! My mother wound up in assisted living. Towards her last years it was only about Italian or Chinese food for her. That’s all that she would talk about.
I would say, “Mom, my latest book is a best seller for the fifteenth week on the New York Times Best Seller’s list.”
She’d say, “That’s nice. You know, I had Italian last night. It wasn’t so good. It wasn’t as good as in New York.” That’s all! I’d get that repeatedly.
I have figured this out. No homes for me if I should live long—or longer. Tick, tock, tick, tock. I’m watching the sands of time fall into the hourglass. There’s more sand down on the bottom now than there is on the top. You know what I’m saying? If you take the hourglass of your life when you’re a certain age, there’s more sand up above in that glass than there is down below. In my case, most of the sand has already gone down to the bottom glass. I’m starting to think about certain things I have ignored up until now.
People say to me, even today, “What do you want to do at the end?”
I say, “I’m never going to die.” They think I’m crazy. I won’t make such plans. I will not make such plans. I’m never going to die. I’m never going to get sick! How do you like that? In other words, you say I’m foolish. All right. Call it what you want.
I knew kids when I lived in Hawaii, mainly Japanese-Americans, and at nineteen years old they knew whom they were going to marry. They knew where they were going to get married, how many children they were going to have. They knew where they were going to be buried. At nineteen they had it all worked out!
There are societies that do that to this day. I don’t understand that kind of living. I can’t do that! I’d rather live with the sensibilities of a man who’s going to live a thousand years! I remember that character out of Zorba the Greek—do you remember Kazantzakis’s great character Zorba? I love that character. Of course, it was a distortion. It was played by Anthony Quinn. Do you remember this scene? He’s leaning against a window and says to a woman, “Men like me ought to live for a thousand years.” What a great line that is! That’s the way to go through life every day, by the way.
I don’t like men who, at fifty, say, “Well, at my age,” or “I’m fifty and I think I’ve already got one foot in the grave.” Why think that way? Why start taking that attitude? You’re just going to speed up your own aging and die young if you think that way! Even if, let’s say, I should become enfeebled by accident or disease, I’m never going to go into assisted living. I want to stay in the house, and I want to have care—that’s all! I don’t want to be around a hospital: The other people smell like piss and mothballs in those joints. There’s no reason to be there. You get around-the-clock care if you can. I’ll make sure that I put money away for that. But remember this little secret: “Never let an old person live in your body.”
Credits
Chapters 18–45 previously appeared in the self-published volume Psychological Nudity (2008).
Thanks to Thomas Nelson Publishers for permission to reprint the following stories:
From The Enemy Within by Michael Savage (Nelson Current, 2003): “Dead Man’s Pants,” and “Fat Pat & Tippy the Dog.”
From Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder by Michael Savage (Nelson Current, 2005): “Sam the Butcher.”
Disclaimer: All articles retain the original copyrights of their original owners.
Acknowledgments
For various family photographs, I would like to thank Sheila Weiner and Sam Furgang.
About the Author
Millions admire DR. MICHAEL SAVAGE for his clear-eyed view of American politics and culture. But regular listeners of his wildly popular radio show also know him as a riveting storyteller—a side he reveals to readers in Train Tracks.
The Michael Savage Show is the third most listened-to radio talk program in America, with more than ten million weekly listeners. Dr. Savage is the author of twenty-eight books, including seven New York Times bestsellers. He was awarded the coveted Freedom of Speech Award by Talkers Magazine in 2007. He holds master’s degrees in medical botany and medical anthropology, and a Ph.D. in epidemiology and nutrition sciences from the University of California at Berkeley. He is an ardent conservationist, a dedicated family man, and an animal protector.
www.MichaelSavage.wnd.com
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Also by Michael Savage
Nonfiction
Trickle Down Tyranny
Trickle Up Poverty
Banned in Britain
Psychological Nudity
The Political Zoo
Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder
The Enemy Within
The Savage Nation
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Abuse of Power
Cover Credits
Cover design by Mary Schuck
Cover photograph © by Kerrick James/Corbis
Copyright
The “Credits” page constitutes an extension of this copyright page.
TRAIN TRACKS. Copyright © 2012 by Utopia Productions, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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* See photo insert.
* The nitrates and nitrites are also carcinogenic and associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
* This story is not about a classic financial wipe-out of assets such as occurred in the crash of 1929. It is typical of the losses common to average American speculators between 1969 and the early 1970s. Brought about by an expensive war with no returns, the value of the U.S. currency continued to fall, leading average people into markets for which they were ill-prepared. In this sense, this story is about our times.
* “Monkeys Rampage in Indian Capital,” AFP, November 12, 2007.
* “U.S. Couples Seek Separate Bedrooms,” BBC News, March 12, 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6441131.stm.
* Martinfield, Sean. “Nan Kempner—American Chic.” The San Francisco Sentinel, June 28, 2007.
* Buddha. Teaching of Buddha. Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (BDK).
Train Tracks Page 17
