8.10.2022 – polarization

polarization
of diametrically
opposed certain views

Adapted from the How We Think About Politics Changes What We Think About Politics by Thomas B. Edsall in the New York Times on August 10, 2022.

Writing about belief polarization, on these opposed certain views, Mr. Edsall wrote: Perhaps the most salient recent illustration of belief polarization is the diametrically opposed views of Trump loyalists and of their Democratic adversaries over the legitimacy of the 2020 election: Trump supporters are convinced it was stolen; Democrats and independents are certain that Joe Biden is the legitimate president.

Mr. Edsall then recounts the trials and travails voting in a democracy and he ends with this warning: These developments — or upheavals — and especially the reaction to them have tested the viability of our democracy and suggest, at the very least, an uphill climb ahead.

Boy howdy and no kidding!

8.9.2022 – don’t cheat yourself out

don’t cheat yourself out
of life be not simply good
be good for something

The full quote is: “Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.“

And it deserves a better haiku and if time allows, I will work on it.

This appears in a letter written by Henry Thoreau on March 27, 1848, to Mr. Harrison Blake.

The text of the letter appears in the Familiar Letters Of Henry David Thoreau – Part II The Golden Age Of Achievement, Edited, With An Introduction And Notes by F. B. Sanborn, Houghton, Mifflin And Company, 1894.

I was struck by the words, as anyone would be, but me more so on this occasion due to earlier haiku’s I recently posted.

On August 1, I wrote:

ask yourselves, have we
each of us, done all we could?
have we done enough?

On July 27, I wrote:

leaving unimpaired
though doing nothing really
is doing something

On July 23, I wrote:

people sat at home
doing nothing and they thought
do something instead

Somehow, Mr. Thoreau is a good response to all of this.

Do not be too moral.

Perhaps one of the most important uses of the word, ‘too’ in recent memory.

You may cheat yourself out of much life so.

Aim above morality.

Aim above morality?

Aim above morality!

Be not simply good;

Be good for something!

8.8.2022 – beach initially

beach initially
was deemed the most useless space
undesirable

I was struck by this passage:

The lords of the beachfront were late to the coastal real estate game. The beach was initially deemed the most useless, undesirable space on the North American continent. (Imagine rushing past the Hamptons and Martha’s Vineyard in your haste to stake a land claim in Ohio.)

Back in the day I had a job interview with the Federal Government.

On the application there was a spot where I could list places where I could not work.

I listed California, Florida and Ohio.

The interviewer asked a lot of questions then said, “Where you can’t work. I certainly understand Florida and California, but what do you have against Ohio?”

Naming my Alma Mater answered his question.

I like the beach.

I can’t remember a time I did not like the beach.

I love the line in the movie Superman II, where Gene Hackman, as only Gene Hackman can, informed General Zod that, “Well, General … the world is a big place. Thank goodness my needs are small. I have a certain weakness for … beachfront property.“

I guess the idea that Ohio was populated by folks who rushed past the coast to get to Ohio pretty much says as much about Ohio as anyone needs to know.

If anyone needs anything more to know about Ohio, just consider the pantheon of personalities you meet when you name the 6 Ohio Presidents.

Grant.

Hayes.

Garfield.

McKinley.

Taft.

Harding.

Now there’s a Mount Rushmore no one ever proposed.

Three died in office and of those, two were shot dead and the other was poisoned by his wife (well that’s what I was told).

Talk about some sort of intervention.

But I digress.

I like the beach.

I like what Mr. Thoreau said when he said about the beach that, “A man may stand there and put all America behind him.”

I hope I would have stopped at the beach.

But right now, I like where I ended up.

Again as Mr. Thoreau says, The question is not what you look at, but what you see.

The passage comes from the opinion piece, We Will All End Up Paying for Someone Else’s Beach House, by Francis Wilkinson (@fdwilkinson), a columnist at Bloomberg, in the New York Times on August 8, 2022.

He closes with this warning.

The wealthy eventually realized their error. They put property markers on perpetually shifting sand, built expensive homes and called in the Army to keep their beaches from drifting away. It’s hard to see how, exactly, they will hold on to much of this sea-level paradise in the face of rising waters and carbon-charged superstorms. But it’s not hard to guess who will end up covering their losses.

The wise man built his house upon the rock but he didn’t have the view and he still, most likely, didn’t have a basement.

8.7.2022 – I saw a tie in

I saw a tie in
a shop window for sale for
three hundred dollars

Ultimately finance is no more interesting to some of us than lazy bowel syndrome, and certainly far less intriguing than the godlike intricacies of a toad or the sprightly roach in the pantry. It is far more sensible to send your kid to a cheapish community college than one of our vaunted Ivy League universities that will cost you fifty grand a year that could be better used for food and wine. Ultimately all that is learned at these so-called best institutions is to wear a necktie, which is a characteristic the financial evildoers have in common: they wear neckties. On a trip last year to the gated community of Manhattan I saw a tie in a shop window for sale for three hundred dollars. If you fail to figure out this satanic connection I can’t help you.

This was written in 2009 in an essay titled, Food, Finance, and Spirit, in the Toronto literary publication, Brick, written by the late Jim Harrison.

Many of Mr. Harrison’s essays like this were pulled together in a posthumously published in the book, A Really Big Lunch.

The front piece states: The pieces collected in this volume have originally appeared in Smoke Signals, the Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant newsletter, Brick, New Yorker, Martha Stewart Living, Playboy, Edible Baja Arizona, Big Sky Cooking by Meredith Brokaw and Ellen Wright, The Montana Writers’ Cookbook by the Montana Center for the Book and the Montana Committee for the Humanities, and Molto Italiano by Mario Batali.

As Mr. Harrison wrote, “... I saw a tie in a shop window for sale for three hundred dollars. If you fail to figure out this satanic connection I can’t help you.“

Just want to say if you can’t figure out the satanic connection here and about so much else in today’s world, I can’t help you either.

8.6.2022 – OUR libraries – place

OUR libraries – place
to read, gather, learn – our heart
how can you lose that

Those people, for reasons known but to them, who read this blog from time to time will be aware that I read the Guardian, a newspaper the originates in Manchester, UK, for my online news.

As the Guardian covers all the issues of today, I was not surprised by the headline, US library defunded after refusing to censor LGBTQ authors: ‘We will not ban the books’.

I clicked on the headline and that is when the surprise set in.

In less than one week, this was the second time that there was worldwide news from where I grew up West Michigan.

The first time was when the local congressman, the geographic and (mostly) repulican consertive heir to Gerald Ford’s old seat in Congress, was thrown out by local voters as this congressman agreed that the former president had failed to uphold his oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The 2nd time was had to do with this US library being defunded after refusing to censor LGBTQ authors.

Turns out that the article was about the Jamestown Township Public Library locate in Ottawa County, Michigan.

Way to go West Michigan!

(UPDATE 5:30pm – my wife wondered if my sarcastic wit wasn’t entirely apparent unless you read the entire post – to be transparent and remove the guess work, reading this story made me want to barf in anger dismay and frustration with those of narrow mind)

Jamestown Township in Ottawa County is where my family settled and set up farming when they arrived in this country back in 1870.

If you turn right out of this library and drive about 5 miles and you will arrive at the Vriesland Cemetery where my Great Grandparents are buried.

My Great Grandparents, who I understand, never learned to speak English.

People who made the effort to leave their homes and come to a land where it was proclaimed in its birth certificate, that it was self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

I don’t want to get into the issue beyond banning books.

Banning books in a public library.

When did we get so scared?

When did we get so scared that so many people feel the need to carry a machine gun with them to church?

When did we so scared that some people feel the only way to protect ourselves and our children is to ban books?

The article in the Guardian quotes Deborah Mikula, executive director of the Michigan Library Association.

Our libraries are places to read, places to gather, places to socialize, places to study, places to learn. I mean, they’re the heart of every community, so how can you lose that?”

So how can you lose that?

The heart of every community.

HOW CAN YOU LOSE THAT?

I don’t understand.

I feel this can’t last, that this can’t go on.

Actually I know it can’t last.

And I know, as its says in the Bible, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” 

When everything is new then maybe, just maybe, we won’t be so scared.

That passage is from the book of Revelation, Chapter 21, verses 4 and 5.

You remember the book of Revelation?

The book written by John while living on the Island of Patmos.

By the way, did I mention the name of the library?

The Patmos Library of Jamestown Township.

Also here is link to the library gofundme page.