Happy Friday, crew!
It’s a beautiful morning, donuts are being pushed absurdly in LA, and I’m about to pack up the telescope(s) for a road trip to the mountains. Join me with a quick cup of coffee and a few stories.
What is Thursday?
A quick shout-out to Thursday. What a fun day! I got to host a blogging class at the Blue Ridge Library, listen to writing industry advice from the proprietress of Book No Further in Roanoke, dance to original rock ‘n roll with some senior buddies on the south side, lecture about astronomy, and…host an impromptu Jeopardy! session. The lecture at the retirement home has a hard stop at 3 pm, because it’s trivia time. Usually there’s another community that video calls in, but they were unable to make it. (The accusation was they were scared. These folks don’t mess around!) So, it was Residents (dubbed “the Original Gangsters”, or “OG’s”), versus the staff (“The Whippersnappers.”) There needed to be an Alex. Duty calls, folks.
“And to the OG’s…This video game was invented in 1974 and…”
For Final Jeopardy, I pulled out my phone, and played the theme music.
The question should have been: “This particular day of the week finds Josh driving many miles in a tiny red car, greeted by a dazzling array of fascinating people, who are kindly, and refrain from throwing tomatoes.”
“What is Thursday?”
CORRECT!
The sun sets over the Roanoke load out. Too bad I’m not putting speakers in that Merc!
The Truth of the Matter
There are so many specks the eyes of the world, it’s beginning to look like one of my star maps. Moreover, I wish I could turn the log in my own eye into some viable lumber. Have you seen the prices at Home Depot lately? (!)
Starting with the (rather large) specks: At first, the sheneigans were easy enough to ignore. But increasingly, I see a genuine problem with the erosion of Truth.
Most of the time, the Truth is prickly, subtle, and highly debatable. (Not to say that it’s malleable, just that it is debated.) Now, it seems to be absurd to the point of parody.
The LA School District posted a video of “activists” teaching children about food.
Per the Daily Mail:
The controversial video, which is no longer up on the department's Instagram account, opens with a woman presenting a plate of donuts to her friend.
Shocked by the half-dozen donuts before her, the friend says the sugary treats are 'bad' for them, but the woman rebukes her friend's concerns.
'You're judging my food choices based on a false standard of health, again. Aren't you?'
Nyemb-Diop then cuts the skit off as she makes claims against 'false hierarchies of food.'
'Diet culture, fatphobia, and systems of oppression have created false hierarchies of food and it shows up everywhere,' she says.
The Sawmill
Stories like this are the literary equivalent of donuts for me. I can smirk all day. “That speck in your eye adds ten pounds.”
Once I recover from my righteous high, the uncomfortable question remains like an angry pile on crumbs on the plate, glaring at me.
What am I gonna do about it?
The log in my eye adds fifty pounds.
To be clear, “It” refers to (but is certainly not limited to): 1. the nature of Truth (and how it directly applies to everyday life), 2. Accountability in my part of the increasing madness. I’m sure many people felt smug as the fledgling Wehrmacht snorted diesel fumes and death in little baby puffs of black smoke, and turned the page on their papers as they sipped their morning coffee, just as we’re doing now. 3. Proper action to take.
In short, how can I build a sawmill for that log in my eye?
I’m not quite sure. It seems like sharpening the mental blade is a good place to start. That French revolution book sure was eye opening. Time to finish that Ben Franklin autobiography, and a new bit on the Wars of the Roses (old school English conflicts that inspired Game of Thrones.) And, of course, the Bible.
But then, it’s not just thinking. It’s acting.
This quote is rattling around in my brain quite a bit: (thanks to James for the book. What a read!)
“It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life — daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.” - Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
I’ll keep you posted. Feel free to join me in the Sharpening. There is much work to do. I’m off to the mountains, and hoping for clear skies. I’d really like to show some folks a city of a hundred thousand suns, who’s light started traveling towards us when we were domesticating sheep twenty three thousand years ago. It seems worthwhile for everyone involved. What does life expect from me?
Symphony of the Week
Hold on to your hats, folks! It’s Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. For this week’s “Cultural Gems” section, Karl Bohm leads the Vienna Philharmonic in Tokyo…(I think? The Japanese captions are way over my head.) Set in the key of A major, it was composed in 1811-1812, Napoleon was doing his thing, and Beethoven’s hearing continued to decline. He started using notebooks to communicate. By that measure, we’re all slackers. Enjoy!
Josh