The Weekend of Foolish Attention
Bits and bytes from the week
Eliminating pointless behavior. Just lately, I’ve been really digging into the idea of self discipline and slowly identifying which of my standard go-to’s turn out to be wasted time. Maybe it’s an effect of recognizing that I now have less time time in life than I did decades ago or just that I’ve been kind of in a holding pattern for the past year but recognizing the things I do that tend to have no practical benefit to myself or anyone else.
Walking as often as I can find the time? Practical benefit.
Eating more than 1,000 calories of anything per day? I’m not an athlete or body builder, I don’t work in a huge manual labor field. I don’t need more calories per day than that.
Cooking for my family? It fills their bellies and fills my joy.
Binging streaming TV? Nope. It’s fun, it fills the time but unless I’m actively involved in the storytelling or using it for inspiration for writing, it’s an overhead view of myself sitting on my ass, staring at a screen.
Anticipating and actively planning my future? Solid benefits and not quite so impulse driven.
Arguing about politics or religion? Waste of energy on almost every level.
Delayed Christmas punch in the nuts. Last weekend, my sister, niece, and I came over to mom and dad’s and we pulled all the Christmas decorations (tree, lights, etc.) up from the basement. I made breakfast, Vic and Jackie decorated, and we listened to Christmas songs. It was really fun and put me in the mood for the season, you know?
My mom gave me a fake palm tree for my apartment and I left the Vegas Christmas tree in Vegas so I decided to break out the boxes with the remnants of the Dana/Don holidays. She packed them last so I didn’t know what to expect.
No lie, it was knock in the ballsack. It was sad. I picked through ornaments that were mine before she and I met (maybe ten) and decorated my tree. There were a pack of Christmas cards from her to me but none from me to her which indicates that she was planning on getting out of the marriage as far back as the January before. I took the box of cards and unwanted stuff and dumped it down the garbage shoot. I cried a bit (yeah… even an alpha male like myself cries so get over it) then put together the color wheel light I bought in Vegas because I always wanted one.
I suppose rebuilding my Christmas is now a task I’ve put off but will reclaim for myself. And I always have my family—Christmas has always been a holiday celebrated with them. Mom has a little Nativity that she tells me I picked out at a K-Mart when I was five years old. That’s the juice, gang. That’s the real spirit of the holiday.
Follow the money. Lots of handwringing about college students protesting against Israel and for Hamas. It’s a little weird but not surprising.
The Qataris are long-standing financial sponsors of Hamas, having forked over hundreds of millions of dollars to the terrorist group in recent years. The regime has also provided Hamas with a headquarters where the terror group has operated for more than a decade. Top Hamas figures Khaled Meshal and Ismail Hanniyeh have for years operated out of Doha. Hamas military official Saleh Arouri—who masterminded the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens that triggered the 2014 war between Hamas and Israel—often travels to Qatar too.
You know where Qatar puts a whole bunch of cash? American universities.
The American universities that received the most significant funding from the Qataris, including Cornell, Georgetown, Northwestern, and Carnegie Mellon, established branches in Doha, the capital of Qatar. Cornell, which belongs to the American Ivy League, opened a medical school for $1.8 billion, Georgetown received $750 million for a school of government and Northwestern established a journalism school for which it received $600 million in 2007.
Speaking of pointless behavior… Why, given Donald Trump’s imperviousness to multiple criminal and civil indictments decreasing his polling numbers, are the other GOP candidates even bothering to debate one another? Also, who are these goons?
One answer (or twenty). If Trump wins is a thoughtful but terrifying collection of essays in The Atlantic from all along the political spectrum. Some are brilliant, others just thought-provoking, but it’s definitely worth the time to read through these pieces.
The stigma of nicotine? I sort of understand the open disdain of people smoking cigarettes. It is smelly, the butts do cause litter, and second hand smoke is a liability. It’s a vice and in the hypocrisy of society, it’s easy to be disgusted by one person’s flawed choice while completely ignoring your own.
“Jesus. You smoke indoors now?”
“I stopped smoking. Even the pipe. This is a vape.”
“Still smoking,” he sneered as he pulled all of the mini-Snickers from the candy bowl I leave out for folks swinging by my office.
“All the Snickers?”
“Gotta have my chocolate, man!”
I find it curious but obvious that, while the younger generations have abandoned smoking, I encounter more and more of them who vape but in secret. All the delicious nicotine with the social ignominy associated with lighting up.
High Drama, Low Impact Indignation. Just read that phrase in terms of the Left’s eventual response to the Trump presidency and it’s a perfect distillation of everything I find disappointing in the current wave of everything in terms of performative activism. Lots of hair pulling and outrage as if throwing a tantrum is the only road to change. Perhaps, when parents just allow the tantrums and reward them by giving in to them, it makes sense to go apeshit when things don’t align with your desires as an adult but it is exactly that—high drama, low impact indignation.
A real barnburner. Mom and I love Survivor like my sister and niece love football so we hunker down every Thursday night to watch the show (complete with Season 45 Buffs). This season started slow but has turned out to be one of the best seasons in recent memory.
It becomes very clear after 45 seasons of this show that the best players have mastered a balance of owning their emotions (in a very vulnerable state) and making thoughtful, pragmatic choices when the moment to do so arrives. All logic destroys the game as does highly emotional play. If you feel like your life is a constant challenge, watch Survivor instead of paying through the nose for a self help seminar. Watch, listen, and learn.
That’s all I got this week, friends. Try not to stress about Christmas presents this year. The people who expect to get exactly what they want aren’t worth the anxiety. Trust me on this.
Nit...There is no significant "left" in American politics. Center-right is about as far left as it goes with maybe half-a-dozen exceptions.
No matter...
Reading your rambles slaps a huge grin on my kisser...wish you were here...