10.27.2023 – fantasies drawn more

fantasies drawn more
real says a lot about what
going on in his head

I allowed myself to get excited when I saw that there was an upcoming article to be published in the New Yorker titled, Life after Calvin.

It was reported to be look at the life of Bill Watterson in one of the few interviews the artist/writer/creator has granted since he stopped creating the Calvin and Hobbs comic strip.

I love Calvin and Hobbs or at least I really enjoy.

Much of it, for me, can be seen as biography.

Much of what Calvin thought, says and does sounds very familiar to me.

With much interest, I have been waiting for this article.

So it is here.

And I have read it.

And …

I am not sure what I wanted it to say.

But it sure didn’t say much.

I think the writer got one or two quotes and fleshed out a New Yorker profile.

I am reminded of something Jim Harrison said about giving interviews.

Mr. Harrison remarked that he could get through any interview by repeating any question back as a statement.

He didn’t have to think much.

And the writer was able to prove all their preconceived notions.

The was one take away thought, but it seems to have been said in some other interview.

The writer, one Rivka Galchen, writes, “Watterson has said, of the illustrations in “Calvin and Hobbes,” “One of the jokes I really like is that the fantasies are drawn more realistically than reality, since that says a lot about what’s going on in Calvin’s head.” Only one reality in “Calvin and Hobbes” is drawn with a level of detail comparable to the scenes of Calvin’s imagination: the natural world. The woods, the streams, the snowy hills the friends career off—the natural world is a space as enchanted and real as Hobbes himself.“

… the fantasies are drawn more realistically than reality, since that says a lot about what’s going on in Calvin’s head.

I like that.

I like that as I think I live that way to this day.

So I can find affirmation of my lifestyle.

As for Mr. Watterson?

In this article, I think there are more quotes from Calvin or Hobbs than from Mr. Watterson.

Maybe the title should have been, Life after Bill.

10.26.2023 – the term for morning

the term for morning
grogginess grouchiness is
sleep inertia

Grogginess.

Grouchiness.

That’s me.

I have never ever been a morning person.

I can’t say I am an anytime of the day person to be honest.

But waking up?

Forget about it.

Of late, I have been noticing how much longer it takes for the caffeine to make a difference.

I am on a ‘hybrid’ schedule and I work from home and I work in the office on different days so getting into a daily rhythm is proving to be a bit difficult.

As I think about how long it takes to wake it seems to make it all the harder to wake up.

Then I read the article, “The Art of Being a Morning Person (Even if You’re Actually Not One)” By Catherine Pearson a reporter for the Well section of The Times, covering families and relationships.

Ms. Pearson writes: Even if you are a naturally early riser, you may not wake up ready to start the day — or even in a particularly good mood. The clinical term for the grogginess and grouchiness many of us experience after waking up is “sleep inertia.” It tends to last 30 to 60 minutes, though the length and intensity depend on the person and circumstances.

I like that.

Inertia.

Sleep Inertia.

Isaac Newton’s first law of motion states that, “a body at rest remains at rest“.

Mr. Newton’s first law is also known as the law of ‘Intertia.’

A body at rest stays at rest.

Yup, that’s it all right!

Ms. Pearson writes: Simply acknowledging that reality can help bring a feeling of peace and acceptance to the morning, she said. Find ways to protect that quiet time: Maybe sit in bed and take a few deep breaths. Couple it with a strategy known to increase wakefulness, such as soaking up some sunlight (or bright artificial light) or moving your body …

So if your goal is to wake up earlier — or to mitigate early morning grouchiness — it is essential to build in immediate rewards … Consider what would feel good in the moments after you wake up. Maybe it’s a delicious breakfast, she said, or cranking up some music that you love.

Be patient with yourself. “Habits are very persistent, and you shouldn’t expect them to change immediately … If you set in place ways to reduce friction, and ways to increase rewards, you’re more likely to be able to change.”

I like it.

I will have to work on other essential, immediate rewards.

But my first choice for a reward is to crawl back under the covers.

And over come a general reluctance to face my day.

On the other hand maybe I will embrace grogginess and grouchiness.

It is who I am and I am what I am.

Though I will feel some empathy with those other drivers out there who have to share the road with me.

10.25.2023 – sclerotic system

sclerotic system
lets people rise through deceit
and thrives through failure

I love that word sclerotic.

Never heard before today.

According to the online Merriam-Webster it means:

“grown rigid or unresponsive especially with age : unable or reluctant to adapt or compromise”

And guess what?

I did not come across the word in any article about the House of Representitives.

Nope.

It was used in an article about the House of Commons in Britain.

In the article, Here’s the key question about Britain in 2023: why do we put up with this rubbish?, by Gavin Esler, Mr. Esler writes:

It’s not the five failed prime ministers since 2016 and their incompetent sidekicks.

It’s Us.

We tolerate a sclerotic, antiquated democratic system allowing people you wouldn’t trust with your wallet or to babysit your children to rise through deceit and thrive through failure.

British politicians lied occasionally in the past; now lying was frequent and shameless. Nothing worked.

The “bad eggs” used to resign; now they were promoted.

They created problems but rarely solved them.

I was watching some on-air discussion about the House the other night and the question was asked, doesn’t this bother the men and women in the House?

The answer was, for the most part, the men and women who have brought about the current State of Affairs had no interest in governing.

They wanted exposure.

They wanted media time.

They wanted money.

For THEMSELVES!

Service to their country?

Don’t waste their time.

I was struck when one commentator said the Republican’s don’t like the leadership role where they have to produce, they would rather be the ones who get to just complain.

I don’t know what to say but we are putting up with this.

As Obi-Wan said, “Who’s the more foolish; the fool, or the fool who follows him?”

10.24.2023 – a living standard

a living standard
so sparse, removed, be consigned
to history books

“Destitute” is a term that conjures up the Victorian era – a living standard so sparse, so removed from modern civilisation, that by all rights it should be consigned to the history books. You only have to read through the aching interviews in the JRF study to see what destitution in modern Britain looks like: children wearing their parents’ clothes because that’s all there is in the wardrobe; eating a banana as a single daytime meal; taking the one permitted toilet roll a week from the local church donation. Gone are the workhouses. Nowadays, we send the poor to sift through charity bins.

From the article, The Tories have created a new poverty – one so deep and vicious it requires Victorian vocabulary by Frances Ryan.

As the two men said to Mr. Scrooge, “… it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts …”

A Christmas Carol was written in December, 1845.

So much progress has been made in the last 180 years.

Then one day you read a statistic that somehow feels both shocking and wearily unsurprising: about 3.8 million people experienced destitution in the UK last year. That’s the equivalent of almost half the population of London being unable to meet their most basic needs to stay warm, dry, clean and fed.

10.23.2023 – Congress? You expect

Congress? You expect
baseline dysfunction but this
is something special …

The joke used to be that if PRO is the opposite of CON, what is the opposite of progress?

Now Congress is the joke.

I have tried and I have wanted to keep politics out of these essays as it wasn’t what I wanted to do but the words in the Opinion Piece, The People Who Broke the House by Michelle Cottle, a domestic correspondent for Opinion and a host of “Matter of Opinion” were to good to pass up.

Ms. Cottle wrote: When it comes to Congress, Americans have come to expect a certain baseline of dysfunction. But I think most of us can agree that the current House Republican majority is something special.

If alive today, I can hear the authors of the Federalist Papers talking back and forth and Alexander Hamilton saying to John Jay and James Madison saying, “What do you think of the House of Representatives?”

Mr. Madison would answer, “I think it’s a good idea. We should get one!“

On the other hand, if they wanted a Government that was representative of the Country, they did a great job setting the current one up.