How is it possible for events to conspire to maximize the hardship in one's life?
I am a survivor of adult orthodontics, having been out of my braces for five years. Saturday night my top retainer broke. ( I wear retainers at night and probably will for the rest of my life in order to keep my investment sound.) This necessitated a hurried trip to my orthodontist yesterday after work.
Let me add that I am also a survivor of a twenty percent pay cut as a result of the sour economy. Over the months I have slowly ate into my savings just to take care business. Yesterday's trip wound up costing me $265. No help here from my dental insurance as my orthodontics were considered "cosmetic" because of my age.
Added to the recent expense of relocating my mom (as mentioned in my last post) and in anticipation of a brake job for my 1990 Chevy S10, which is now starting to show the first signs of that needed attention, not mention the fast approach of cold weather and winter heating bills, it seems my life is about to get even more interesting real fast.
A pick up at my work would certainly help. Obviously I can do little about the conspiracy of life events. I keep reading about the economy recovering. But in looking into the details, especially on the employment front and business sector in general, I'm struck that this "recovery" talk seems akin to the doctor telling you that your loved one who has been in coma for months just experienced a slight eyelid flicker. I wait and hope.
Of course, it could always be worse. That all-purpose philosophical pick-me-up, guaranteed to make you feel maybe a little better, at least up to the point of your death, is still true.
So life goes on.
Still, I'm aching to break into a chorus of "Happy Days Are Here Again."
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
That Blushing Animal
Wow! Has it been ten whole months since I last posted a blog piece?! I confess that I've missed having my outlet for rants and random thoughts.
Well, lots has happened in my life and I needed the break. My stepfather got very sick and eventually died. My mom is old now and not in good health so I had to move her here with me (which is some thirty miles closer than she was) so I can better take care of her. This now takes a large portion of my time. Her mind is still good and she is quite independent, so I needed to get her a place of her own. But it is the next street over from me so we still have our space and yet closeness.
During all this drama I had some reading and studying I had put off seems like forever. Books and articles had piled up unread. I have accomplished catching up on a great deal of this. Don't know if I'm any wiser, but certainly it didn't make me any dumber!
And then there is my job. Thankfully I still have one - the same one I've had the past sixteen years. But both my position and the company I work for has changed so much during these past two years that I hardly recognize either. This has been a constant source of stress and distraction. All the friends and coworkers who have slowly vanished from my life because of the constant cutbacks has been a major downer.
So what has all this to do with blushing animals?
The first blog I ever started was called The Blushing Animal. It was about what Mark Twain called the "damned human race." 'Twas about how utterly senseless we humans can be and usually are. The name was taken from his observation that "humans are the only animals that blush, or need to." I eventually let it go because I felt it was too negative. Somehow there is this innate religious nature that I have in me and sometimes it takes hold and causes me to think overly lofty thoughts ... to think that maybe, just maybe, we humans might be a little something more - or at least have the potential to be something more - than the "lower animals." At the same my common sense observations told me time and again that this was folly. We have larger, more complex brains, but still: if you want to know much about human behavior, study the animals.
After The Blushing Animal I graduated to politics and started blogging about what I hoped was only a fringe element in our society. This too took a toll on me emotionally. First, I found that I am surrounded where I live with this fringe element. Second, I came to see how truly depressing it is that the average Joe and Jane are too easily manipulated by the lies and rhetoric of this bunch. Fear mongering is their effective method. They seem to be able quite well to tap into something the majority of us have within us in varying degrees: a fear of the new. I suppose the familiar is always easier than the new and unknown, the path less traveled. Makes progress kinda hard, I believe.
I finally almost came to the point that comedian George Carlin came to and began to feel I am less of an advocate of anything and more a disinterested observer. If people are so determined to be sheeple and follow the herd, so be it. I can only really do something about myself. A self-destructive lot we tend to be. And seemingly we are hastening our own demise. But what the heck.
When I gave up on politics the depressed state I was in allowed that innate religious nature to take hold again and caused me to launch this current blog. Yeah, let's take a good long look at this thing called life and examine the different parts of it and see what it all means. Ah, optimism.
I think now I should have stuck with my first blog. There is no meaning in life, I fear, except that which we place on it:
Oh, call not this a vale of tears,
A world of gloom and sorrow;
One half the grief that o'er us comes,
From self we often borrow.
The earth is beautiful and good:
How long will man mistake it?
The folly is within ourselves;
The world is what we make it.
If truth, and love, and gentle words,
We took the pains to nourish,
The seeds of discontent would die,
And peace and concord flourish.
Oh, has not each some kindly thought?
Then let's at once awake it:
Believing that for good or ill,
The World is what we make it.
(I've no idea who wrote this. I found it in an nineteenth century elementary school reader and saved it because I like it.)
Guess overall I have a bipolar outlook about things: humans suck and life is largely pointless beyond what we make of it ourselves ... but oh, what I wish they could be and what I think humans could together do! (At least I think like this when my spiritual nature is in charge of my outlook).
Well, lots has happened in my life and I needed the break. My stepfather got very sick and eventually died. My mom is old now and not in good health so I had to move her here with me (which is some thirty miles closer than she was) so I can better take care of her. This now takes a large portion of my time. Her mind is still good and she is quite independent, so I needed to get her a place of her own. But it is the next street over from me so we still have our space and yet closeness.
During all this drama I had some reading and studying I had put off seems like forever. Books and articles had piled up unread. I have accomplished catching up on a great deal of this. Don't know if I'm any wiser, but certainly it didn't make me any dumber!
And then there is my job. Thankfully I still have one - the same one I've had the past sixteen years. But both my position and the company I work for has changed so much during these past two years that I hardly recognize either. This has been a constant source of stress and distraction. All the friends and coworkers who have slowly vanished from my life because of the constant cutbacks has been a major downer.
So what has all this to do with blushing animals?
The first blog I ever started was called The Blushing Animal. It was about what Mark Twain called the "damned human race." 'Twas about how utterly senseless we humans can be and usually are. The name was taken from his observation that "humans are the only animals that blush, or need to." I eventually let it go because I felt it was too negative. Somehow there is this innate religious nature that I have in me and sometimes it takes hold and causes me to think overly lofty thoughts ... to think that maybe, just maybe, we humans might be a little something more - or at least have the potential to be something more - than the "lower animals." At the same my common sense observations told me time and again that this was folly. We have larger, more complex brains, but still: if you want to know much about human behavior, study the animals.
After The Blushing Animal I graduated to politics and started blogging about what I hoped was only a fringe element in our society. This too took a toll on me emotionally. First, I found that I am surrounded where I live with this fringe element. Second, I came to see how truly depressing it is that the average Joe and Jane are too easily manipulated by the lies and rhetoric of this bunch. Fear mongering is their effective method. They seem to be able quite well to tap into something the majority of us have within us in varying degrees: a fear of the new. I suppose the familiar is always easier than the new and unknown, the path less traveled. Makes progress kinda hard, I believe.
I finally almost came to the point that comedian George Carlin came to and began to feel I am less of an advocate of anything and more a disinterested observer. If people are so determined to be sheeple and follow the herd, so be it. I can only really do something about myself. A self-destructive lot we tend to be. And seemingly we are hastening our own demise. But what the heck.
When I gave up on politics the depressed state I was in allowed that innate religious nature to take hold again and caused me to launch this current blog. Yeah, let's take a good long look at this thing called life and examine the different parts of it and see what it all means. Ah, optimism.
I think now I should have stuck with my first blog. There is no meaning in life, I fear, except that which we place on it:
Oh, call not this a vale of tears,
A world of gloom and sorrow;
One half the grief that o'er us comes,
From self we often borrow.
The earth is beautiful and good:
How long will man mistake it?
The folly is within ourselves;
The world is what we make it.
If truth, and love, and gentle words,
We took the pains to nourish,
The seeds of discontent would die,
And peace and concord flourish.
Oh, has not each some kindly thought?
Then let's at once awake it:
Believing that for good or ill,
The World is what we make it.
(I've no idea who wrote this. I found it in an nineteenth century elementary school reader and saved it because I like it.)
Guess overall I have a bipolar outlook about things: humans suck and life is largely pointless beyond what we make of it ourselves ... but oh, what I wish they could be and what I think humans could together do! (At least I think like this when my spiritual nature is in charge of my outlook).
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