Caught up with the most recent episode of Maron’s podcast & enjoyed the bit in his usual rambling opening where he called out Trump on not citing his sources, being a coward for not giving credit to Hitler.
A good trick is not being too high on being present, when one is lucky enough to experience that, to not capitalize on what you might notice.
I don’t think I’ve learned that trick yet.
Accountability, hope, gratitude
This morning The Childe held me to account on things I had promised to repair and he reminded me of a litany of things in the backlog that were not yet, or successfully, repaired. He was sad and frustrated (I hadn’t yet fixed the loose, frayed thread from a not that made up a stuffed sea turtles nostril). I’ve done that now. He wasn’t yet jaded by any of my missed deliveries.
Rock and roll and news radio
I want a good rock and roll radio station (or whatever is closest to that these days, I’m pretty ecumenical myself—just not looking for top 40 pop) that has news on the hour. I’m not sure this exists. (If it does, I’d love to hear about it and stream it.) I have a memory of WETA FM (serving the Washington, DC area) playing classical (it still does) and having NPR news at the top of the hour.
I haven’t been to a punk show in a while, let alone one at 9:30 in the morning. It was of course, all ages—and my Childe’s school Spring Pre-K/Kindergarten concert.
War Culture Hates the Ethical Passion of the Young
We (the United States) have a war culture. We’ve been at war, one way or another, at substantial expense, my entire life, and longer, and most of the time, really. That, and my being politically aware and anti-war on most fronts (with a couple of exceptions that have their own equivocation) for 25 years (ugh), means this resonates with me: “War Culture Hates the Ethical Passion of the Young." Also, I used to work for IPA.
The clock ran out on "if" a long time ago.
This still feels like equivocation. In other words: too little. Certainly far too late for tens of thousands of dead innocent civilians, and what infrastructure there was to support the social and physical fabric of a society. (Israel is attacking clean water!) Not sure this stops, or rights, a genocide. Those are the table stakes now. Not enough, Joe.
The worst cynicism
I continue to abhor military violence. I can still understand how, by the rules the United States and Israel play by, Iran’s direct attack is entirely “fair.” With state violence, “fair” only illustrates how fucking insane the game is. Each side and their powerful are responsible for their own actions, but those who write the rules and effectively own the board or who have weighted the dice have more overall responsibility.
Three anecdotes of The Childe, from yesterday
In the Natural History Museum we made a pitstop at the rest room for my sake. Someone was using an air blower to dry their hands as we entered. The Childe hates these. The sound is overwhelming for him. He clamped his hands over his ears and said, “Daddy, don’t use that!” I replied that I would not if I had paper towels to dry my hands, reinforcing that I also had to wash my hands after using the bathroom, just as he does.
Dragging myself ... forward.
I was short with my father on the phone today. I couldn’t take his fatalist “it will get worse,” (and he’s a Trump voter) point of view. It may seem ironic to some who know me, because I also can say “It will get worse” — before it gets better. I think I am still not fatalistic, but my hoarder, prepper, some-kind-of-Republican father, who doesn’t even think Trump will fix things, is.