Gratitude in absence

My son is at his “Grammas’” (he intuitively started using a gender neutral plural diminutive colloquialism when he was about 1). I get an evening to myself. My wife gets an evening off with a girlfriend, before re-engaging in her 70+ hr per week job. I miss my son and I’m grateful for the break. I’ll also be better at making sure he knows how grateful we both are for him while keeping the guard rails up.

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Watching Lewis Black’s beginning-of-pandemic stand-up special … there’s a duality to the experience now. “It’s been so long, wow” and “we never (or I, anyway) quite got back to normal.” Understandable this time. I’m still pissed at all the things lost from before 9/11 though.


Ducked out of the bubble again.


The White House from the South Lawn with Independence Day guests.

Re-watching Slacker, for the first time in a long time, and it is kind of terrifying how relevant it is.


"Why.are.there.periods.in.my.iPhone.searches" Me three!


Bill Clinton and Al Gore killed rock and roll radio.


Finished reading: A Regular Guy by Mona Simpson 📚


Daniel Ellsberg. ¡Presente! It is a story I’ve alluded to too many times in too many places, a boring one at that (I had no role except to be there) but I had lunch with him in early March 2003. He was discussing with my then-boss his premeditated protest outside the White House of the imminently expected invasion of Iraq.


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Just Stop Oil protesters interrupt opera at Glyndebourne festival (The Guardian): “Our highest priority was the safety and security of everyone on site and we would like to thank our staff and performers, whose calm and professional response kept everyone safe, and disruption to a minimum.” I’m with the demonstrators on this. I think everyone’s highest priority should be the climate crisis. This doesn’t mean one can’t wind down and go to an opera, but only if and until society actually realigns to this priority, expect the rest to be interrupted lest we keep thinking everything is fine.

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