Building A Better Ballroom

I AM GRATEFUL that the decision whether to build a ballroom adjacent to the White House is not mine. Too much blowback, as we call it, either way. For the record, I am against it, on the basis of incrementalism. First, a ballroom, then what? A resort hotel, par three golf course, and picke ball courts? Perish the thought of Trump, attired in short shorts and a tank top, trying to cover a picke ball court with an extra hundred pounds of midriff blubber, humorous though the image is. Besides, this administration has yet to demonstrate sufficient competance to keep a glorified wading pool clean. Yesterday my sister tried to back her one hundred thousand dollar bright red C8 Corvette out of her driveway to go to church, and trashed her mailbox. Damage was minimal, a true fender bender, except for the poor hapless mailbox, which can be and must be extensively repaired or replaced. You get to the point where you finally realize that maybe its just plain better to leave well enough alone. Change is not always progress, as conservatives know. In the eighteen fifties the French completely renovated Paris, driving massive highways in concentric circles through and around it. That prject proved worthwhile. Tokyo and Beijing have in recent decades undergone extensive urban renewal and renovation, as have several other gigantic Asian cities. A select few American are old enough to remember the "urban renewel" which transformed American cities in the nineteen sixties, razing blighted slumas and replacing them with gleaming skyscrapers and shopping malls, with new all purpose circular sports stadiums thrown in for good measure. Those have long since been replaced by football and baseball specific ballparks with rustic architecture, as styles change. We human beings are like busy little bees, or perhaps ant piles would make a better metaphor. As to whether primates or insects make better architects and engineers is a flip of the coin. My money's on the bugs. The pertinent question is: where and when does it all end, or does it? With bankruptcy? Societal extinction? The ancient Romans overbuilt, over expanded. Maintanance, upkeep costs are perpetual, a forever drain on resources. You'd better get more value out of the structure than the costs to keep it up. That drives up ticket prices, fuels inflation. Then too, unlike those built by the ancient Romans, unlike those built throughout most of European history, our modern ticky tacky American edifices are barely bult to outlast the laborers who lay the bricks and smooth out the dry wall. Its hard to imagine our modern buildings ever doing what our ancestor's structures did and still do, lasting for a near eternity, paying for themselves, consdering the constant flow of resources necessary for their upkeep. More likely, as decades turn into centuries, the expense of preservation against the inexorable forces of the Earth's atmosphere will grind our monuments to ourselves into rubble, and our descendants will behold our folly of ruins, lacking any and all artistic asthetic merit, confronted with the burden of clean up and restoration of the environment. Some future historian, anthropologist, or poet will stand beside the silted in reflecting pool, and will glance first at the crumbling Lincoln Memorial, then at the vine covered Washington Monument, then at the pigeon stained Arch de Trump, and wistfully, ruefully quote Bertolt Brecht. "There shall remain of our cities but the wind that blew through them."

Naming and Curing the Ten Plagues of MAGA

ITS EXACT ORIGIN shall forever remain shrouded in the murky mists of time, unless some future archeologist-anthropologist, using AI, or Carbon 14, makes a major breakthrough. But like the "Ten Commandments', the "Ten Plagues of MAGA" have the potential to be enshrined in the annals of future history, possibly even chiseled in stone on some huge outcropping of limestone down the road from Mt. Rushmore, near the someday to be completed carved out likeness of Crazy Horse. And now, for the list: 1)Intolerance of diversity. MAGA is lilly white, heterosexual, patriarchal, Christian, etc. 2)Contempt for the poor: they alone are responsible for their own plight in freedom's land of opportunity. 3)Disregard for Injustice; If it serves the sacred cause of conservatism, of the far right, what matter if a few unfortunate interlopers get trampled beneath the grinding, inexorable wheels of Darwinistic Laissez faire transactional culture? 4) Disregard for facts and truth: Everyone has a set of facts, a version of reality. Choose that which advances the right, conservatism, 5)Weaponization of rhetoric. Like Rush Limbaugh said, words mean things. Choose them wisely, to reflect conservative values. 6) Weaponization of religion. The one true God, the Christian God, is on our side, the side of tradition, ergo, conservatism.7) Normalization of corruption; corruption, like extremism, in the service of liberty is no sin. 8) Glorification of selfishness. The free market chooses winners and losers, and society is a free market of competition among ideals and individuals, for jobs, wealth, power, status, influence. Collectivism, self abnegation, and the elevation of the masses to supremacy over the individual is a leveling influence which renders all members of society eqully mediocre and stifles individual initiatve and excellence. 9) Glorification of ignorance. Education, especially higher education, is a form of propaganda with which proressive liberalism seeks to indoctrinate the mases into embracing collectivism, socialism,communism. The American system of education, especially on college campuses, has been coopted by liberalism, which ceaselessly indoctrinates contray to traditional American values. 10) Condemnation of and opposition to Celebration of and struggle for equality. Although all people are born with inherently different talents and capabilities, DEI seeks to make everyone equal, and to elevate low achievement while punishing high achievement. Amen. All ten of these precepts and principles are straight out of the fasicst handbook, the MAGA playbook, and constitute the guiding principals of modern American conservatism. Each one is a sickness, a plague of conservative thought. To discern the remedial antidote for each, simply state the oppositie value. 1)tolerance, acceptance, celebration of diversity 2) Respect and compassion for the poor. 3) Opposition to injustice. 4) Respect for, insistence upon facts and truth. 5) Words and speech as tools for reconciliation and societal unity, 6) Religion as a healing force within society.7) Oppostion to and intolerance of corruption, 8) Altruism and service to others and to society as a primary value. 9) Universal education as the means to human progress and advancement. 10) All people are created equal, equal in inherent human value, if not talent... For each of the ten plagues of MAGA, there is a remedy, a solution, an antidote. Each member of society, and society generally, is tasked with the decision whether to embrace the ten plagues, or their remedies, to embrace MAGA, or its destruction.

Trump, Destroying the White House

IN TYPICAL Donald Trump fashion, he proceeded with the demolition of the East Wing of the White House, in order to replace it with either a ballroom or a brothel, not only without bothering to consult the American people, but without consulting Congress for their approval...The former, failing to consult the Amerian people, is perfectly legal but lacking in basic decency, since the White House belongs to the Amerian people, not the president. The latter indiscretion, failing to gain Congressional approval, is illegal,it having been found so by a federal court less than a day ago. It doesn't take a legal expert to have suspected from the outset that Trump, in his finest criminal fashion, was in violation of the law from the beginning of his wantonly destructive enterprise. Trump will of course appeal the obviously correct decision of the federal court to the Supreme Court, as he almmost always does, and will doubtless lose yet again, as he almost always does. Any sane and sensible person, even people unconversant with the precise legalities of the matter, instinctively knows that no American president is empowered to unilaterally mandate and commence with the destruction or reconstruction of any federal property, without the express approval of Congress, representing and acting on behalf of the American people. Trump and his multi million gang of cult supporters often express outrage that their poltical opponents, consisting of a large majority of the American people,frequently characterize the Trump administration as a fascist regime, and his MAGA supporters as a de facto fascist political party. As they say, if the shoe fits. This latest White HOuse East Wing episode provides a clear demonstration of precisely why this is the case. Perhaps the Supreme Court, which is well stocked with far right wing ideologues and is well known to be friendly to Trump, will reverse the federal court and rule that Trump can do whatever he wants with the White House, inclding turning it into a brothel, which, arguably, he already has, merely by occupying it. There appears to be no insane decision to which the current Supreme Court cannot and will not sink. But for the moment at least the people's house is safe from the perverted whims of America's petty dictator. The tragedy is that the nation as a whole cannot make the same claim. We can be somewhat comforted by knowing that the venerable home of America's presidents has suffered through indignities of various sorts on numerous occasions, and has recoverd in fine fashion. The British famously ransacked it during the War of 1812, when they invaded Washington D.C.,and drove the entire United States government into the Maryland and Virginia country side, including president James Madison. Dolly made sure that she unhung and took with her a protrait of George Washington, for safe keeping. The British doubtless would have desecrated it, as they did the rest of the building and its contents. They actualy tried to burn it down, but it proved to be flame resistant. Andrew Jackson's inauguration party got out of control, and a bunch of his ruffian supporters did much damage to the elegantly internally decorated edifice. The beloved house has endured much, and will doubtless endure much more before it reaches old age. But it was sturdily built by slave labor, a labor of blood, sweat,tears, and love. Our fondest hope is that our beloved White House has seen its worst days, and that its future will feature only health and loving, respectful treatment. Cross your fingers. Trump still lives there.

Keeping Enemies Close, and Producing

I'M NOT GOING TO yell at my cat anymore. I've always tried to avoid it, but it at times becomes necessary, like, say, when you want it to hurry across the street rather than sitting down in the middle of it while a car is approaching. And when she screams at me because she wants ten dollar catfood and I just filled her bowl with the nine dollar brand, no problem. I just smile, say "good girl", and walk away. I'll let her figure out that what I gave is what she gets, even if it takes a cat lifetime. Regarding people, Machiavelli got it right: "keep your friends close, and your enemies closer". You'll notice how seasoned professional diplomats always treat each other as if they absolutely adore each orher, when they both know better, and everyone else does too. I've never read the once fmaous Dale Carnegie book "How To Make Friends and Influence People", but my best guess is that he emphasizes being a good listener, making every word count when speaking, and (again) being a good listener. Some dolt can drone on for sseeming hours about nothing n particular, and you can, when finally given the chance, make a one senctence remark which summarizes a situation succinctly and profoundly in a single sentence, or less. My cat just now stopped yelling at me. Yelling requires effort and energy. The food in how bowl, perfectly acceptable to any formerly stray cat, remains in place. She'll eat it when she is hungry enough, She doees this every day, and yet, amazingly, is not underweight. The secret is to swing the bat, and produce. You can type a paragraph of reasonably good expository prose without forethought, notes, or preparation, while a cat is screaming at you, and achieve passable results. Your assignment, class, is to compose an essay of betwwen two hundred fifty and five hudnred words on the topic "what I did on my summer vacation", and have it on my desk by the time the bell rings. Its all about production. A stream of consciousness essay will all tie together, if only because it reflects a history of your thought processes. You can sit for hours, editing and rewriting today's essay, what other people mistakenly call a "blog post", and "at the end of the day", have nothing superior to what would have come out of you had you merely typed off the top of your head, or contracted with a thousand monkeys to type until one of them produced something coherent. The thing is to produce. Producing requires taking full advantage of every opportunity, of every particle of matter and energy within and without you, of regarding no person or situation as lacking value. "There is no situation which cannot be ennobled through achievement and endurance" said Goethe. I was stuck in the nightmarish state of being of agaonizing over every word of every essay, but noticed that the quantity and quality of my producation didn't seem to reflect the effort, which at length I determined was wasted. The world's greatest artists, writers, painters, musicians, tend to produce an immense quantity of work. Not a rare few materpieces, but a vast quantity of work, not all of which can be regarded as masterpieces. Of his thirty eight published plays, several of Shakespeare's, arguablly, are dogs. "Titus Andronicus" comes to mind. In school, we are taught to engage in an elaborate intellectual process to write an essay, or to produce anything, Note cards, outlines, rough drafts, the whole works. That's fine, but as one gains experience, one learns to condense and compress this into a tightly woven ball of yarn, out of which one must fashion fashionable fashion. Buy a few gross of blank canvasses, and fill them with art. At least one of them is, according to the laws of random statistics, almost certain to be a masterpiece. Just ask Dali and Picasso.

Abstaining, But Still Seeking

DURING THE PAST couple of years I have been engaged in a sort of spiritual exploration, attending different curches, contemplating different philosophies and spiritual viewpoints, and have essentially arrived at the conclusion that I am either a spiritual eclectic,or a Pantheist theist. Words matter, but, perhaps, not very much. I am definitely not a Christian Presbyterian, nor any other brand or Christian. The Unitarian Universalist church greatly appeals to me, and I feel closely aligned with it,the only problem being that it takes a twenty mile drive for me to get to a service on a Sunday morning. Since they stream their service on the internet, that option remains open, if a bit less fulfilling. Sacrificial,substitutional, cruxiifiction theology I find primitve, barbaric,personallly revolting. I usually mis qutote this,but still: "If God is God he is not good,if god is good he is not God". That's from either an ancient philosopher or Archibald MacLeish, take your pick.My current inclination is to stay home on ensuing Sunday mornings, sip coffee,play with my at, and mybe meditate and study something. I have long contended that a spiritual life can thrive under any circumstances, and that formal rituals are unnecessary, serving only to reinforce inner thoughts. Jumping around from church to church can be eduational. Immersion within a single church over along period of time builds commmunity. It may be that whatever path I take, I will benefit somehow, one way or another. It may be that any interest at all in matters of the soul and spirit are a "win win" situation. I do know for certain that whatever understanding I ever gain of the unvierse, the limited undersanding that I have already gained of it, has been provided me by science, not religion. One possibility and temptation for me is to declare that my religiosity consists of my understanding of scienece, limited that it is, and to leave it at that. One way of lookng at it is to say that you can't go wrong no matter what you do, as long as you are trying, like exercise. If you are alive and kicking, if you are thinkng, and if you are asking the basic questions; who am I, what am I, and what is all this about, you are a seeker,and an explorer, and thus are doing the only and best thing that any intelligent being can do; exploring and growing. Perhaps these approaches are worthy of a "participation trophy", and that there is no greter award or reeward. Since there seems to be only one universe, should we assume that there is but one creator, and that therefore there ought to be only a single religion on this planet, or any other? Whether or where you go to church may be irrelevant to the larger endeavor, of utilizing the individual mind to contemplate and seek answers to the basic questions of human existence, and cosmic existence. Many people have asked; "Why does anything exist at all? Why is there not merely an endless black void?" Carl Sagan gave us a good comment: "We are a way for the universe to know itself". Confronted with our confusion and uncertainty, that might well be the best we can do in terms of answering the question of our purpose. Considering how chaotic and confusing human understanding seems to be, we might hope that other intelligent lifeforms all across the universe are hard at work asking the same basic questions, and getting better answers. In church, out of church, or wherever, we can take comfort in knowing that even if we aren't winning, at least we are in the game, still trying, still seeking.

Fighting, Like A Caged Animal

YOU'RE TEMPTED fo fight like a caged animal, as Jimmy Connors once said, because you are, after all, a caged animal. The cage consists of the circumsances and limitations of our temproal existences. The animals are you and I. First be always sure you are right, then go ahead, to borrow Davy Crockett's personal motto. I downloaded Facebook in 2007, I think it was, a bit late to the party, when Facebook was, what, three years old? Almost immediately I realized that I would never use it for its intended purpose, to maintain computerized contact with family and friends. I don't have enough family to bother with, and I prefer hanging out in person with my friends. Purely Facebook friendship has never worked for me, although I am ever near the five hundred friend limit, almost all strangers in actualality, people I never communicate directly with. People seem stupid and petty, who, once they get mad at you, remain mad the rest of their lives, as humans tend to do. I opted and opt to use Facebook to promote my website, which was born on September 11, 2011, and to oppose conservatism generally, and later, Trump particularly. All that remains unchanged. My essays and self promotions are but droplets immersed and lost within a endlessly roiling sea of similar endeavors, which are usually called "blogs". People are free to call what I do a web log, and I am free to call it an essay website. I don't write blog posts, I write short essays. It is a great blessing that I or anyone can type, click, and publish, without having to negotiate with a corporate paper pushing book publisher. My work and everyone's work will endure as long as the internet, and that's long enough. Pitch to contact. Don't try to strike everybody out. Don't concern yourself with how many people actually read what you write, I tell myself. Writing is for fun, not for success or fame. Get up, get out, get better. Blame nobody, expect nothing, do something. No matter how many times I think and type those cliches, they remain true. When writing, the thing is to produce. Be not a J.D Salinger, fussing and fretting over every word on every page. Be an Isaac Asimov, typing twelve hours a day, without ever any editing, turning out more than four hundred books, a world's record, in a seventy two year life span. I don't play tennis or go running to attract attention, and again, neither do I write to gain fame. This website is to a large degree a project to oppose political conservatism in writing, and I am dead serious about it, but I still do it for fun. Since September 11, 2011,I have written an published approximately six thousand pages of non fiction prose. My goal is to extend the total to ten thousand before I either lose my mind, which ome might argue has long since happened, or die, which has not, but could at any time, and indisputably will before much longer. Art, of which writing is one, and science clearly demonstrate than human existence is worthwhile, and let's face it, humanity needs to justify its own existence, somehow, considering the immense, enormous damage it has already done to this planet's ecosytstem, with more on the way every day. If we humasn end up commiting species suicide, and take all other life on Earth down with us, may the devil take us. If, on the other hand, we reverse course and end up becoming enlighented beings worthy of galactic citizenship, glory hallelujah. We will determine our trajectory by what we think, write, paint, and do to ourselves, and to nature.

Requiring Uniformity and Creativity

ALBERT EINSTEIN once remarked that when he was a child, he would witness parades consisting of pre World war One German military units marching in lock step, and that the sight of this, upon his later reflection, caused him to question the intelligence of its participants. He never changes this opinion, and much later in life suggested that that if every man of military service age in the world simply refused military service of any sort, mankind could put an end to all war. That falls into the category of "easier said than done". I felt something similar when in high school I took R.O.T.C. class, only to avoid the alternative, gym class. I have never liked conforming, to anything, and as I age, I dislike it more. Social conformity is necessary to a degree, under certain conditions, but beyond that becomes stifling, turning thinking, inherently creative creatures into mere robotic drones. Recognizing the sheer necessity of the military in our current world, I approve of uniforms. However, I have a far greater preference for more frivolous, non essential uniforms such as those worn by sports teams. Those iconic Yankee pinstripes make my heart race and leap with joy. Humans are no more capable of surviving and thriving individually than bees or ants. Man, as Aristotle said, is a social animal. Our evolutionary need for social conformity as an expedient to societal organization and cohesion, however, needn't be an impediment to creative individuality. Difficult though it is in 2026 to find a human being without a smart phone glued to its nose, once you succeed in finding one, if you do, you potentially unlock a treasure trove of individuality unique in all the universe, within a wrapping of social conformity which, it turns out, is only a few layers deep. Is outward conformity wrapped around inner individuality, or individuality wrapped around strict inner conformity? Stipulate that both both metaphorcal constructs have merit. They are, let us stipulate, mixed togethr. When Einsein moved to America he said he was amazed at the basically cheerful, creative American personality, full of optimism based on an enduring optimistic belief that all achievements are possible.This he juxtaposed against German European social and mental rigidity, predicated on an attitude of social hierarchy and limitiations. Nonetheless, he said that on balance he preferred the ways of old Europe, to which he was long acccustomed. What Einstein missed was that we Americans are actually far more conventional and conformist than he thought. Our salvation is our ability to strike a balance between conformity and individual creativity, to allow the individual spirit to take flight, while requiring that each creative inidividual constrain his or her personal behavior and creative urges within acceptable limits, acceptable to the broader society. Einsein argued that the Eurpoean system of education stifled the growth of the mind and stifled its inherent curisoty by confining it, imprisoning it with rote, mass assembly line learning. He flourished intelleectually in spite of rather than because of his formal education. The American model has always been based on the European, with much the same results; creativity wasted and lost. But somehow, against these odds, Einstein flourished mentally, and so do milllions of other creative people. Our salvation is our ability, to whatever extent we use it, to organize societies and cultures while allowing individual creativity to flourish. But what other choice do we really have?

Trump, Talking Healthcare

DONALD TRUMP reportedly said: "We must protect America from healthcare". That report proved false, but not entirely false. What he evidently said, for real, was: "Its not possible for us to take care of day care, Mecicaid, Medicare, all these individual things".(that sounds more like Trump). We have to take care of one thing: military protection." Arguably, what he really said was far worse than what he was falsely attributed as saying."Protecting From Healthcare" could be construed as an intent to steer America away from burdensome, inefficient bureaucratic entanglement in favor of a more effecient, effective system of medical protection. By "us" he presumably is referring to the federal government, evincing a desire to transfer the burden and expense of health care provision to the several states. Either way, it amounts to the same thing. Purely free market capitalistic health care cannot work in our modern age, because it places a dollar value on something that is infinitely valuable to everyone; personal health. Health care in our modern world must of necessity be a collective,collaborative enterprise, like insurance generally. Everybody must contribute to paying its costs, including those who seldom or never need it. Eventually, everyone who does not live forever needs it. Indeed we must all learn to take care of each other, healthy and sick, in these United States of Individuality. Only a tiny fraction of the general population can afford to pay out of pocket for his or her own health care. The rest of us must by necessity pool our money,and those amazingly fortunate perpetually healthy few who seldom or never need to use the pool should be gratefully glad to contribute nonetheless, because without a generally healthy society in which to live, the perpetually healthy would not have a job or a home or a country worth coming happily, healthily home to. What we must actually do for everbody automatically, and require that everyone contribute to paying for it, healthy and infirm alike, is build and maintain a system which is called, shockingly, horrifyingly, dreadfullly, "socialism". The problem with purely capitalistic health care is that the cost would skyrocket, and only the wealthy elite could afford it. If the wealthy elite want only people who can personally afford to pay for their own individual health care out of personal pocket, they will find themselves living in a society drowning in sick people unable to pay their own medical expenses, a society in which the wealthy elite would find themselves paying huge sums for basic services, a society in which the current shortage of workers would reach disastrous levels. Such a society would sink beneath its own dead weight. The wealthy elite medically protected would find themselves sinking in the same societal boat being dragged down and under by teeming masses of sick people without medical care. Trump says that we must take care of the military first and foremost, to keep the country intact, adequately defended from foreign adversaries. Having an effective military is, unfortuantely, still vitally necessary in our current world of international military conflict over land and mineral resources, which is what all wars ever fought have been fought over. Taking care of America's military is vitally necessary, all well and good, but as Jesse Jackson pointed out long ago, the military has no value and purpose if the country it protects has invested all its resources in self defense, and doesn't otherwise have a country left over to defend.

Living With Cats, By Necessity

MY SISTER SAYS that she cannot imagine living her life without cats. I can, but barely. Odds areIwillnever again bewithout at least one cat, despite the attendant expense, frustrations, and emotional agony they greatest of which far, obviously, transpies when tehy die. Cats are extremely mortal, afflicted by all manner of diseases, with nervous systems whichi evolved too early to accomodate modern humanity, its machines and vehicles. I worry about my outdoor cats becase thay are outside, with the cars and dangerous animals, including human beings. I feel as if I have imprisoned my indoor cats, am preventing them from living a full, natural life. I have decided that any future cats of "mine" will have access to boh outdoors and indoors, risks included, risks and limitations be damned. However, as every cat caregiver knows, whatever plans you make for your cats are subject to change. Like coach Mike Ditka said: you can make whatever plan you want, bu you'd better be ready to change it. As cat people age, tehy look back with pensive fondness at all the cats they have loved, all the cats that have passed. There is not a softer, better word for "died". Cat or human, we never cease grieving for our beloved who have preceeded us in death. We love our dogs and cats in the United States of Alienation. more than we love other people, including our human family members, and we insist on the obvious, that our dogs and cats are our family. We tend to consider stry cats a tragedy, lonely, abandoned, bereft of human love. But do we really know for sure that spending a lifetime without human companionship or interaction is really such a terrible thing? If it is, why do so many humans spend a lifetime avoiding it as much as humanly possible? Mistakenly, we anthropommorphize, project our human feelings onto cats. Give a cat a food source and a territory over which to roam and rule, and chances are the average cat knows contentment. Longing for human companionship might be something that only human beings, with human hubris, imagine that cats and dogs actually do. What they doubtless long for is a food source and a sense of safety and security. In Islamic society, which regards cats as angels of God, stray cats are a blessing to all, and cared for by everyone. The last time I pointed out that Islamic people treat cats much better than Christians, I got in trouble at my local heavily Penteostal senior center, a place full of dogmatic small minded prigs. I call that "good trouble", and it doesn't bother me a bit. If they think they can find a better tenor for their gospel choir, fine. (They can't). We as a species much need to reevaluate our relationship to nature, animals included, and we need to humble ourselves, not a little, but a lot. We are perfectly free o consider ourelves somehow "superior" to all other lifeforms on this planet, which does not belong to us as we like to think, while other species, including insects, are perfectly free to evolve long before we did, and to remain long after we have rendered ourselves extinct. Our nobility and worth are determined by how we treat ourselves, each other, and all other plants and animals with whom we share this plaent, which is owned by God. Up until now, and at this point, we can barely give ourselves a passing grade, since we currently seem to be in the process of destroyng the Earth's ecosystem, and thus, all life on Earth. If we succeed in this insane suicidal enterprise, it would be a pity, the greatest pity of all having little to do with ourselves.

Writing A Page A Day

JOHN GRISHAM, who is my age, a more successful writer than I, and who may be better at it, although he and I have totally different approaches to writing, once said that the best way to be a writer is to write, and that to do that, a good formula is to turn out one page every day, of something. Now that I have been involved in actively writing and publishing for nearly fifteen years,I wholeheartedly agree with Grisham. Whether you're talking about exercise, knitting, writing, or whatever, go Nike, and, just do it. There's a lot to write about, or talk about. In our era of Trump, its like somebody said; you get out of bed every day, thinking, "now what"? With what new horrors or disgusting obscenities will we be confronted on this fine summer day? Trump pmore than does his part. Another new war today? Another salacious scandal? New federal crimes, lawsuits, or accusations? We must tend our gardens, as Voltaire said. You can go about your business, clean house, work, whatever, feel good that you are doing your part, taking care of business, with a radio droning in the background - I recommend National Public Radio- and keep yourself in the global ball game. These twenty four seven television news channels feed us mostly escape entertainment, not news, so one has to be selective. Most of my life I have started by finding out what the American president is doing, and going from there. With Trump, I have become almost afraid to continue this approach. You can easily write a page a day about Trump, and indeed during the fifteen years or so that I have been publishing this essay website Turmp has dominated the past ten or so. He is truly that important, much as I hate to say it. I long for the day when he is gone..really "gone". Republicans have disgusted me since Nixon, so there is nothing new in that. A famous historian was asked to provide a succinct definition of "history". His definition? "One damned thing after another"... If you want to write history, keep a idary. There will come a time when your diary will be a valuable historical document in the twenty third century, like Mary Chestnut in the pre Civil War south. History would be geratly served if everyone would keep a diary. The diaries from people in past centuries are valuable historical documents, and scholars do doctoral dissertations about them. You, a cashier at Wal Mart, could become a vital primary source of information about blue collar working class culture in early twenty first century America. History is monstrous, because it encompasses everything; there is a "history" of everything. Every moment of every day is unique, with no repitition. What you are doing this very moment is unique in all the universe, unless our universe is merely a carbon copy of billions of other universes. There is no evidence for that. If we all would write our page a day, about ourselves, and end up with a book which is part autobiography, part societal history, our descendants would know much about who we were. And yes, I think we want to leave as much information about ourselves behind as we can, even more than the endlessly fascinating ancient Romans did. We are all part of history, making history every second of our lives. Einstein wrote a book about relativity, but not about himself. He did, however, leave a note in a time capsuele, which said to future generations: "If you have not become kinder and more compassionate than we were, may the devil take you." Do your writing.

Torturing By Testifying

WATCHING Dr. ANTHONY FAUCI testify before a Congressional sub committee governed by a Republican majority is like watching a particularly brutal episode of "Gunsmoke", in which the gang of outlaws, led by Bruce Dern, has some poor sap, or maybe even Matt Dillon, staked out on his back on the barren Kansas desert prairie ground, with a huge colony of those big black ants a few feet away, ready for dinner, Its just plain hard to do for decent people, so I don't do much of it. For Trumper Republicans, it must be like a visit to a Golden Corral salad bar and buffet, at senior discount prices. When good people suffer, MAGA Trumpers salivate and keen like ravenous wovles over warm carrion. How many damned times does an eminent physician and scientist have to tell the world that vaccines work, and that the Covid 19 virus most likely originated within "lower" primates and jumped happily, opportunistically into the human bio system before the neanderthalic science illiterate flat Earth right wing conservative Republican semi fascists are satisfied, and ready to move on to other, more unwitting victims? In the name of God, country, and fundamental human decency, the eighty five year old gentleman has long since done his duty to country and humanity, by spearheading the effective response to the deadliest bacterial or viral plague which ever beset the human species since the bubonic plague of 1666 and 1330 killed one third of Europe. This group or Republican reprobates, had they been more than mere toddlers in 1955, would doubtles have jumped onboard the bandwagon of the strident minority of morons attacking Dr.Jonas Salk because one out of a million recipients of the polio vaccine exprienced harm, even while the shot was saving the lives of millions. The current war on decency, science, education, and intelligence being waged by the MAGA universe, surprisingly virulent, must at some point be stopped dead in its tracks, because at this point it doesn't appear as if it is going to burn itself out, like most wildfires do after consuming millions of acres. American conservatives of the Trump kind mistrust and even despise science, because science is innovation, progress,and change, values which are the polar opposite of traditional, unchanging systems of belief, the hallmarks of the conservative point of view. Change is not always progrees, but progress is always change. Consider how crude, primitive, and barbaric the blood letting medicine which killed George Washington a bit more than two hundred years ago seems today, because it was. Washington went for a horseback ride one cold, wintry day, caught a cold, was put to bed by three doctors, who voted two to one to remedy the former president's sniffles by draining a couple of pints of blood out of his nutrition starved six foot three inch body. OUr first president was,in effect, killed by his own personal physicians. And even with all the medical advances since those nightmarishly primitive medical days, we really have progressed somewhat less than we might think, My mother, who was a career registered nurse, repeatedly told me that you absolutely must try to avoid being admmitted to a hospital, because hospitals, which are incubators of germs, will kill you, despite the best efforts of custodial cleaning staff. Yes, the naturopaths are quite correct; modern medicine is strictly, severely limited. But its the best game in town, in fact the only game we have, and, as such, we must make do, since we are quite constrained by our own limitations. A good place to begin would be to run the Republicans out of Washington, and stop torturing poor old Dr.Fauci.

Overstaying

MY SISTER did everything the right way, the smart way. Good grades, college, career, military, civil service, comfortable retirement, steady marriage, no kids. Hell, she started out as a volunteer enlistee in an army band, piccolo plyer, and worked her way up to G-12 or something, and became THE personell manager at the Pentagon. Of the twenty seven thousand people who work at the Pentagon, if you didn't wear a military uniform, and most don't, if you were involved with support systems and servies for the military, food, cleaning, and all that, my sister hired you. She had good stories, stories about sharing a jacussi with high ranking generals while sipping margaritas, stuff like that. She retired at fifty five, is now seventy three, is still getting paid, and will be until she dies. One of her stories involves seeing Strom Thurmond walking along a sidewalk somewhere near the Pentagon. At the time he was nearly one hundred years old, had been in Congress for more than half a century, still was, and, as she described him, looked as if he belonged in a "home" somehwere, rather than tottering into the Senate Chamber and sitting behind his little antique wooden desk and harming America.That is precisely where we are now with Mitch McConnell. I googled him this morning, before coffee, and asked: "Is Mitch McConnnell still alive"? (Yes, I really wanted to know.) My sweetheart Alicia assured me that indeed he is, but not in good condition. The news on NPR had been a bit vague about it, going over his life as if he had died during the night, but not actually coming out an announcing it. I am seventy one years old, and have been retired from teaching, high school and college, since I turned sixty. In fact, I retired on the day I turned sixty. I had no desire to hang around and take a job away from an up and coming kid. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe we should all work until we drop, to avoid being a drag on our descendants. Either we keep working, and keep a job that a younger person needs, or, we retire, and live off the government and the younger generation, even though our Social Security money is ours, for, by God, we paid into it. Most of us take more out than we put in, by the way. Some people die too young, some live too long. It tends to balance out, financially. When my mother was sixteen and they started Social Security in 1935, she swore that whe would pay into it all her nursing carrer, and never get it back. She was wrong. She lived to ninety three, and got back far more than she ever paid in, as I have mentioned many times in my essays. Well, good for her. If we retire too young we become free loaders, if we work too long we steal a job from the next generation. To wit, we're screwed, no matter what. We strut and fret for a few decades, then die. The perfect scenario would be one in which we grow up, work at a job we love and contribute to society, then retire, and have perhaps a couple of decades of fun in the sun, as our reward. Some people hate work, some people hate retirement. As in most matters involving human beings, the key, it seems to me, is balance. Balance between work and leisure. People who love too much of one or the other need to recalibrate, and gain a balanced perspective. Mitch McConnell is way unbalanced, pathologically unbalanced. He should have turned over his seat in the Senate long ago, should gave given the next generation the chance to to govern themselves, rather than being governed, as Jefferson said, by their ancestors. I hope he realizes that now, if he is still capable of realizing anything.

Obsessing

I HAVE A FRIEND (actually, I have many more than one, amazingly) who is obsessed with Stevie Nicks. Cant say I blame him. Stevie has got to be the most beautiful seventy five year old woman I have ever seen. Much as I love women, my obsession is of an entirely different nature, a far less pleasant one. I am obsessed with climate change. Anyone who has read even a small number of the more than six thousand essays I have written and published probably is aware of this. Part of it has to do with my basic understanding of science, which forces my awareness and acceptance. of humanity's dire situation. By far the greater part is my having been alive for more than seventy one years, having a very good memory, and remembering what the climate was like sixty years ago, compared to now. It frightens and amazes me how much longer and hotter our summers in the United States are now, how much milder the winters are, and how our annual rainfull seems to be decreasing by the year. It never snows anymore where I live, in the lower American midwest. It used to snow several times every winter. I am convinced that anyone my age, seventy one, or less than several decades younger than I, is quite well aware of what I am talking about. Our climate has changed, drastically. At my age I won't be around to have to experience the worst of it; and the worst,I can assure anyone, is coming, soon. I care, however, about my descendants, even though I don't have any direct ones, aka children. Since I understand that the planet's atmosphere is heating up fast and furious, I am in a panic mode, even thouhg I disguise it well.I must assume that millions of other people,conversant with basic science, are in a similar state of mind. Either that, or they have given up and don't care, or, knowng they are going to die anyway, have decided to leave the worrying and the solutions to posterity. I remind myself that even now science is giving us solutions. We can in effect, reconstruct the Earth's atmosphere, first, by stopping harming it, and secondly, by rejuvenating it. I hereby formally and officially predict that withn a decade or two climate change will have been remedied through science applied by human beings. About twenty five years ago Michio Kaku said that within one hundred years humanity will have the capability of controlling thw weather, hence, the climate. I agree with that. But this hasn't happened yet, and since climate change is happening right before my very eyes,I remain frightened. I feel like I am dangling by a thread over a huge chasm (see Jonathan Edwards), watching the fire department arriving, in seeming slow motion. Another question is; even though we have the means to reverse global warming/climate change,do we have the collective political will to do so? We keep electing morons like Donald Trump, and the moronic conservative climate denying Republican party in America prefers pretending that climate change, man made, is a "hoax". God, what idiots. Knowing that all human civilizations self destruct, that people are at once brilliant and idiotic, and knowing what the climate is doing now does not hearten me. We continue to do too little, too late. We remain behind the curve. Every science teacher in every high school and university in the world tells us this, and they aren't making it up. I hope I can go to my grave satisfied that global warming-climate change is being solved. That means that I had better not die today, or even very soon. If, on he day I die, I can die honestly, realistically believing that human activity is no longer destroyng the ecosystem, but instead nurturing and restoring it, I will die happy, with or without Stevie Nicks.

Getting Up Early, For Cats and Church

I WAS UP EARLY on Sunday morning, for several reasons. Among them, I am habituated to pre sunrsie rising, and the cats, indoor, outoor, and stray, are hungry before dawn. In the heat of a blistering summer, getting outdoor cats fed before daybreak is crucial. Precisely why I don't know, but I sense it. I always feel better when the cats are fed, including the uninvited strays. Knowing that this vital task has been accomplished makes my morning coffee taste batter, as if I am being rwearded for my devotion to duty. I knew that my ride to church would arrive right around eight thirty,and I hate being late, or unprepared. The fact that I am not a Christian per se renders church more, not less valuable to me,the way exposure to a foreign culture does. What I get from church is expansion of the mind and soul, not reinforcement of existing religiosity. A sermon with an original, thought provoking message or unique style uplifts and elucidates me. There is a limit to how much I can do this, elucidate myself, on my own. Reading, study, and meditation, all valuable beneficial tools, fall short. Perhaps I could sit quietly in a cave for hours or years and meditate my way to enlightenment, as others have reportedly done. Somehow I sense that I could not. Whereas it may be that all I really need is already within me,I'm not taking any chances. I have always relied on books and teachers for my education, and I am doubtful as to whether I could at this point in my life, at this late stage, break free from my reliant addiction to and dependance on others for my learning. I readily acknowledge that I am not an island unto myself. Thought, prayer, and meditation, valuable tools that they are, are no substitute for learning directly from other people, people with knowledge I don't have but badly need. To whatever extent my independence of mind is compromised,I accept and embrace it. Mind foreruns all conditions, mind is chief, as the Dhammapada begins. But mind is more than my immediate mind contained within my cranium, and to whatever if any extent my immediate mind is part of a greater intelligence, my mind is closer and I am closer to God, and my being is part of God. or so I believe. There is a certain strangenss about attending a Christian church without actually being a Christian, nor having any desire or intent to become a Christian, My objection, or objections to the Christian religion are acommon ones. There are more than fuor thousand religions on planet Earth. Which, if any of them, can claim to be the exclusive truth? Should each of the four thousand, or eleven thousand, whatever the number actually is, be considered a partial truth, when combined with all the other religions the whole truth, but only the whole human truth? And what of religions, if they exist, on other planets, among other "intelligent" beings who, like humans, look worshipfully up at the starry heavens, and in awe look within themselves at the moral law therein, as Kant articulated? Most scientists, and people generally, knowing that the sun and the Earth are but single examples of a solar system among billions and trillions of solar systems throughout the Milky Way galaxy, and throughout the unvierse in all likelihood, make the probably correct conclusion that planets orbiting stars number in the trillions, and that, it is reasonable to speculate that the number of planets harboring self aware intelligent life also are innumerable. Surely other intelligent beings are no less awe struck by their own existence and the existence of the whirling galaxies than we are. And it seems equally likely that they approach the universe not only with curiosity, but with awe and religious reverence, as do we, on a small planet circling an ordinary star at the edge of a very ordinary galaxy. Getting up early on a Sunday morning, feeding cats and attending church, it turns out, is a very remarkable experience, worthy of awe, admmiration, and indeed reverence.

Being Content With Any Outcome

I like being flexible,being willing to live with either alternative when given a choice of two or more. I have no idea whether anybody will drop by my house to pick me up to go to church this Sunday morning, and will be content with either eventuality. If the horn honks, and my friends sit idling in the street expecting me to appear at my front door and come striding, adorned in my usual camo fatigues and shirt collar, towards their very old Chevy, and hop in the back, so be it,I shall not disappoint. If not,I will be forced to decide between two eqaually appealing options; to drive myself the twenty miles to my beloved Unitarian service, my worship service of choice, or,to go back to bed for what my mother used to call a "wake up rest", snuggling with my always willing and able fourteen year old snuggle kitten. In other words, I can't lose. Usually, when so confronted, I prefer whichever choice involves the least contact with other human beings. Even then, I am ambivalent; my strategy for living "the good life" is to always place myself in a position wherein all possible choices are acceptable, even desirable, and no option is entirely, or even partially undesirable. Whether Presbyterian, Unitarian, or no chucrh at all, my day will eventuate in fine order, because I will make it happen. If push comes to shove, my preferred plan of "action", or inaction, would be to stay comfortably ensconced within my lovely air conditioned home the entire day, a good science fiction novel in hand, cat curled nearby (even in air conditioning, a lap cat can be a bit hot in mid summer). For exercise, I have my treadmill and stationary bike. Every day does not have to be a heavy workout. For my omney, what little of it I have, the secret to life is to always be self positioned that no matter what happens, no matter what other people do, I go merrily along, floating down the rivier of sentient existence with an habitual sense of contentment, wonder, and eager anticipation at whatever may come next, contentment at what has already transpired. Not a perpetual state of mind of enthralled thrill, that would be too taxing, with one's engine at risk of overheating, but with a deep, abiding happiness and contement, the engine of life purring along pleasantly, steadily, like a cat asleep in a warm lap on a cold winter's day or night. We certainly want some excitment in life, but not too much. The best state of mind is one in which the most mundane, everyday experiences seem joyful and interesting, without a trace of boredom. We can indeed place ourselves in such a lasting, pleasant state of consciousness without being bored, but we cannot control what other people do, other people, and the intrusions of the world upon our inner peace constituting the only threat to our tranquil, steady state of being. We know full well that the actions of other people and the vicissitudes of society will intrude upon our inner placidity and contentment. We can minimize this by carefully selecting our friends, and cultivating mutually acceptable social arrengements with them. The best friendships are those in which all participants intuitively know when to call or visit, and when not to, in which case a balance has been achieved. Only people who cannot tolerate being alone are to be pitied. The key to life is learning how to deal with other people, and most importantly, with ourselves. When we are content with our relationshp with and within ourselves, contentment with the world becomes, by comparison, a proverbial piece of cake. I'll just have to wait to see if I get a ride to church. Either way, I'll be just fine, because being happy is a choice, my choice.