Brideshead Revisited or The Rum Diary?

I thought I might write about tonight’s walk through the neighborhood and the woods.  I have been walking a great deal, so much, in fact, that my feet are painful with blisters and bruises.  I seem to have much on my mind…and so I walk.  And such nice walks, too.

This evening’s highlights include a beautifully calm lake reflecting a late evening blue sky and a family of deer.

Doe and fawn ate quietly, perfectly in the manner of Bambi, an early scene at least, while the buck, about 40 yards distant down the trail, pretended not to care.  Not about the two other deer, not about me, not about anything.

No pictures of the deer.  I need a better camera.

I also thought I might write about the Affordable Care Act, but I would only be repeating endless chatter about that…and be lost.  So I thought I might write about that shameful dingbat, Michele Bachmann, Minnesota’s disgrace, but picking at her stupidity has lost its appeal; there’s no sport in it.  She opens her mouth and it is plain stupid, not even remotely funny any longer.

Bachmann “CRAZE” (Photo credit: Mr_CRO)

Bachmann promised today that repealing “Obamacare” would ensure that the economy would create millions of well-paying jobs.  Really, Michele?  We don’t have Obamacare now, where the hell are the jobs?  Republicans and their endless excuses.  We all grew up with bratty children like this, didn’t we?  Why the hell do we elect them to important public office…or any office, for that matter?  The world needs ditch diggers, after all.

Overall I feel like I am at a crossroads of some sort.  I might be a shade beyond my 39th year, but not dramatically so, and so I thought I might revisit Brideshead Revisited, where our protagonist deals with such a crossroads.  And it is a good read.

Then I thought…what about The Rum Diary, Hunter S. Thompson‘s tale o a man who, as an adult, finds himself with uncertainty.  It is full of drama and a late escape, if I remember correctly.

I doubt either would be a very appropriate model to follow, not in this era or at my stage in life, but it is good to think about.

And guess what I found as I thought about my choices!  A fantastic television series to fill the lack I endure now that I have completed all of the available Columbo episodes and have watched All Creatures Great and Small often enough to be thought strange.

So to hell with any important life decisions in the here and now, we have a wonderful television series to watch.  Advice to my many, many readers, however.  Read Waugh’s novel prior to watching the television series.  I simply think it is key to experience the original before turning to an interpretation.

Let me check back with you later.  I have to get to episode 2 yet tonight.  (There is a movie adaptation of The Rum Diary now, too, right?  Yes, there is…much to do.)

English: Madresfield Court Much of the picturesque moated Madresfield Court is Victorian with some of the Elizabethan building surviving, though the house is on a site of an early building. The house has never been bought or sold and has remained in the same family for twenty-eight generations, some 1,000 years. In the 1930s, the author, Evelyn Waugh was a regular visitor to Madresfield Court, thus providing the inspiration for his book, ‘Brideshead Revisited’. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Making a Mess of Things

Check back next week.

You won’t be invited to visit me for tea anytime soon.  I got this crazy idea to look for some lost things and do a little cleaning around the house as I did so.  At the same time my car came back from the garage with a bag full of clutter that the mechanics gathered up before tearing my car apart.  That bag is now being sorted on my dining room table along with stacks of papers from work, a writing project I am trying to restart, and a few copies of the New York Review of Books that I want to scan one more time for book titles.

Add to this the fact that I have had a lot on my mind and so I haven’t been eating much…well, the place is a bit disorganized.

It is odd, I think, that when I stay out of the kitchen it seems to get more disorganized than when I actually use the kitchen.  Who would have thought salami and American cheese sandwiches could be so messy?  And a friend brought over a bottle of wine a while back which I mistakenly recorked and placed on its side.  The bottle then slowly leaked for several days all over the refrigerator’s bottom shelf.  A mess.

Among the things I am looking for, by the way, is a ring this particular friend (possibly) misplaced here long ago.  So she’s responsible, at least in part, for the mess.  (See, it isn’t all me.)  And contrary to this friend’s somewhat limited perspective, I DO indeed prefer to live without the clutter.  (I just put it all in a giant walk-in closet, close the door, and consider it archived.)

For heaven’s sake, if you’re cleaning house the place should get cleaner, right?  Even if you are a casual reader of this blog, you know I claim to be an expert on everything from lightning to economics, but I don’t seem to be very good at throwing out old paper.  What’s the secret to that trick?  Recently I seem to be much better at making a mess of things.  And once again I have to go face it.  Clutter.

(Perhaps I need an assistant.)

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Marriage, the Bible, and the Law

Adam — I am not sure if he is theAdam, but it is fun to think maybe he is (and would be

The Destruction Of Sodom And Gomorrah.  Is marriage really as bad as all of that?

my first celebrity commentator!) — commented on my post opposing the proposed anti-gay marriage amendment in Minnesota and elsewhere.

Adam the Commentator tells me “God created marriage to be enjoyed by one man and one woman” and cites Genesis 19:1-26 to prove it, arguing that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because the people there disobeyed that commandment.

Apparently, the interpretation is, the men of Sodom wanted to “know” two men — I think they are said to be angels, actually — who visited Lot, and the angels blind a group of men gathered outside Lot’s house as they try to get in or something and there is your proof that God wants marriage to be between only a man and a woman.  Yeah, ok, whatever…I know there is no logic there, but who needs logic.  We know what we know, right?  (It is in Genesis 18 where God tells Abraham he is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.)

You really have to come to this story with a lot of presumptions to draw the conclusion that men knowing men means something homosexual in the first place.  And if God was angry about men knowing men and for that reason destroyed the Sodom and Gomorrah, well, what about the women??  And how about Lot’s poor wife?  Seems kind of reckless to me.  You have to wonder about Lot’s daughters, too.  Were they married before they got to “know” their first men?  I missed the ceremony.

For my part, it is a prejudiced stretch to conclude that God is out to destroy homosexuality in Genesis.  In Genesis 13 Abraham is prospecting for land and the original inhabitants are said to be “exceedingly wicked” and something will have to be done about that!  (Sound familiar?)  And in Genesis 18:18-22, we find out exactly what will be done.  The inconvenient locals well be dealt with.  In short, it appears to me that God simply is choosing favorites.  God likes Abraham because God thinks Abraham will be righteous and obedient.  To hell — literally — with the rest.  This freaking out about homosexuality is a side show built upon modern male insecurities.  (Tell me it isn’t.)

But If you want to believe that god destroyed the Sodom and Gomorrah because he doesn’t like homosexual men, go ahead and believe that — interpret ancient scripture as you wish and lead your life your way — but why should today’s laws governing us all be ruled by the beliefs of some?

Isn’t that the basic question here?

My advice to Adam and the rest supporting these anti-marriage amendments is simple:  Relax.  It seems obvious to me that God will take care of any wicked digressions without help or counsel.  It isn’t in the realm of mortal men to settle the issue.  After all, God didn’t send Abraham to pass judgement and destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, right?  In fact, didn’t the Lord command the righteous to leave the city?

Likewise, Adam, your complaints about same-sex marriage really isn’t something you need to resolve on behalf of your God.   It is an issue between Tom and Dick and God, is it not?  And we certainly don’t need to waste time and money promoting division among people, right?

If faith and belief is so power, what are you afraid of?  Read Psalm 23.  ”Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”  God has your back and the evil gays won’t get you if you believe.

Religion, regardless of your faith, is about peace, is it not?  It is transcendent and escapes the grasp of mere mortals such as us, correct?  In fact…Google your Christianity and you might find:  ”The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

In other words…chill.

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Do I Work in Sales or Belong to the PTA?

I have a sales career, but recently I feel more like a member of the local PTA.

Sales people should be out finding and maintaining relationships with clients, right?  I seem to be spending all my time in meetings, alas.  Hell, we’re close to having meetings about our meetings…in fact, we are having meetings about meetings!  And when I am not in meetings I am filling out paperwork, usually as the result of some meeting.  Don’t let anyone tell you that we are in the digital age.  Not in my world, unfortunately.

Makes me wonder…Did I get up on the wrong side of the bed a year or two back?

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Minnesota Marriage Amendment and Advice

This protester was on his own and letting Minnesota state Senators know his position on gay marriage. This is freedom of speech in action. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I believe a key reason why “mainstream” conservatives — a disappearing breed, indeed — support crazy proposals like a so-called Marriage Protection Amendment is to rally conservatives to the voting booth.

I have a hard time believing that more informed and socially sophisticated conservative leaders really sees something like gay marriage as a threat to our country.  Gay marriage, a threat to America?  Really?  What about jobs, the environment, education?  Or gay marriage as a threat to the sanctity of marriage?  How about divorce?  That seems like it is doing more damage to the virtues of marriage than people choosing openly and freely to join together.  (Perhaps John Edwards or Newt Gingrich have some pointers I am missing.)

These hot button social issues simply play a key role in keeping otherwise aloof voters active.  So I have always thought, don’t freak out.  Most of America is relatively sane and sanity will prevail.

But then I read Baird Helgesen’s assessment of how the vote in Minnesota might hinge on a general rural versus urban divide among voters in last Sunday’s Star Tribune.  That got me thinking more about this.  First of all, social issues increasingly straddle political lines and there really is no objective identity with an issue one way or the other anyway.

Which political party, for example, really has the corner on “family values.”  I would argue, however, that one party has done a much better job co-opting the language of social issues and the discourse of topics like family values.  That is the Republican Party.

This is an important consideration if your goal is defeating something like an anti-gay marriage amendment.   Strategically, defining your “base” is difficult and depending on that base to vote consistently with your ideology might add another layer of uncertainty.  In the anti-marriage amendment example, the state might run blue, but how deep is that shade of blue?

Baird brought up a good example.  In Minnesota the Iron Range tends to be socially conservative.  And if politically active voters on the Iron Range turn out whether you bait the ballot with a social issue or not you still put a social conservative in the polling booth.  They might vote pro-labor and anti-marriage, for example.  These socially conservative democrats mark a troubling tipping point in politics when progressives stay home, making once progressive states like Minnesota more a robin’s egg blue than deep navy.

So, since legislators are increasingly eager to let the public legislate by putting issues up majority vote — which flies in the face of what the Bill of Rights is intended to protect, i.e., the rights of the minority against the wishes of the majority — why not put progressive hot issues on the ballot?  We could have a Clean Air Amendment, a Right to Education Amendment, and a Chicken in Every Pot Amendment!  Who doesn’t like chicken?

Ok, I am joking…kind of.  What progressives need and don’t seem to have is the ability to stir up its aloof base.  The left doesn’t seem to have a solid and consistent policy discourse.  The left doesn’t have simple ideas people can grasp.  ”Change We Can Believe In” is much more abstract than the simple — and simple-minded — “one man, one woman,” for example.  In short, progressives need a better message, need more guts.

Today when you listen to the debate about our economic malaise, for example, you hear Democrats speaking the so-called moderate language of compromise and pragmatism.  Democrats are in a double-lose situation.  The right has hijacked the discourse of freedom while the left struggles to co-opt the language of failed conservative policy.  The result is a somewhat poorly defined Democratic Party and disengaged political support.

To quote my man Paul Krugman, “Compromise, if you must, on the policy — but never on the truth.”

So two-fold advice.  First, progressives cannot take it for granted that the wacky minority will be defeated by a more sophisticated and calm majority.  You have to rally to vote.  Every election is important, whether local or national.

Second, while I believe progressives need to put teeth into their political messages, I also think they simply need more fight.  Find stronger policy positions and promote them consistently and aggressively.  Engage and re-engage the voter.  Most Americans are not going to sift through the marginalia of political discourse anyway.  Right now I don’t see a lot from the left-of-center that seems all that definitive.  Instead I see too much compromising on the truth.

And if that is going on, then these divisive social issues do indeed matter, and could present potentially regressive results.  It is bad enough that we live in a society suffering from failed conservative fiscal and economic policy.  It isn’t going to get any better if we start making laws that strip citizens of their basic rights.

A lot divides this country politically.  It is hard to see how divisive issues set up as fodder for political discourse and as tests for political identity are going to reunite the country.  These are distractions that have to be dealt with, but the bigger issue is the bigger message.  In politics it is all about “What have you done for me lately?”  In that regard I believe the left needs a better PR wing.

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Lunch Today…A Summer Classic

Well, shoot…Don’t let the disappointing photo of today’s lunch mislead you.  While my photo of today’s lunch is a complete flop, the lunch itself was a classic!

Often the simplest things are the best and this lunch is simple.  You do need a few essential summertime staples.  In this case you will need hamburger buns, salami and/or ham, American cheese, and either orange or grape soda.  Garnish with Fritos corn chips.

First the hamburger buns.  Don’t be suckered into buying fancy bakery type buns that are common today.  You want the stuff that was made hundreds of miles away and delivered in a big truck.  Look for brands like Wonder or Taystee.  They absolutely must be WHITE hamburger buns.  Don’t be tempted by buns with ingredients like “whole wheat” or “honey.”  You want plain white buns promising to be “classic” or “family choice,” stuff like that.

If for some reason you find yourself without hamburger buns, first swear that you will never allow that to happen again.  Then substitute soft white bread.  None of this fancy health nut stuff.  You have plenty of time for that.  Traditional white hamburger buns have a sweet flavor that you want and need for this sandwich.  Classic white sandwich bread should have the same characteristics…or it isn’t classic.  (Think Beaver Cleaver…what would he eat?)

Second, choose your salami and ham carefully.  I sway from the more traditional roots of this lunch here.  I prefer buying ALL of my meat from non-industrial sources. You should too.  So pre-packaged ham and salami is a no-no.  Try to find something locally sourced and made.  It can be done.  And when buying ham and salami the price difference is small if you shop for basic ham and salami.

Too Fancy.

Plus…when building the classic summer salami sandwich, you only use a couple thin slices of salami anyway.  I come from a large family.  Mom prudently allocated three slices — no more — per sandwich and I turned out just fine.  (And thin and fit too.)  There was a time when Dagwood-styled sandwiches were a joke, not an expectation.  Resist the trend that says more is better.  It isn’t.  And you might live longer.

Next…the cheese.  You want the stuff that really isn’t cheese and is just barely food.  Buy the pre-packaged American cheese.  It isn’t good for you — empty calories, indeed — but it tastes best on this 1970′s era classic and your summer sandwich should be a treat, not a way of life.  You do have to be a bit fussy, however, some generic brands taste absolutely horrible and there is no point in that.  In Minnesota I stick with Crystal Farms and Kraft.

(Note…it is perfectly acceptable to substitute Velveeta slices.)

Finally…lay off the condiments.  Mom never used them, you shouldn’t either.  And if you insisted she used mustard on the ham sandwich and mayonnaise on the salami sandwich.  Stick to that rule and just barely wet the bun with either condiment.

Stick to these basic ingredients and you’re set.

Making these sandwiches is a breeze.  Even a kid can do it.  Put your couple slices of lunch meet and one slice of American cheese between the buns and enjoy!  No cooking, no cooling, no mess.  Garnish with corn chips (allowed for this meal) and wash it down with a orange or grape soda (preferably one made with cane sugar) and float back to Seals and Crofts‘ and Summer Breeze!

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Silent Night, Owly Night, Part 1

A different sort of owly night tonight.

Down by the lake this evening an old couple sitting together on a bench stopped me in my tracks.  They were so simple and yet so present that they could not be missed.  And their presence resonated with me, my moods and thoughts, in particular.

It was a beautiful thing.  A cool wind blew steadily and strongly across the lake, and she sits bundled in a light coat and scarf.  She shields herself from the wind by leaning in against him and talks to him lightly, looking up into his face as he gently nods and watches the lake.  And I wonder it happens.  How, exactly, does that happen?  With all the people and activity breezing by them, they are perfectly and happily alone together, entirely content.  How does that happen?

I have seen young lovers at the lake many times, but never do I think I have seen a couple so easily at peace.  Such an owly couple, they are!  So calm and controlled, so self-assured.  And it made me think that love — your true love — comes with time and maturity, and maybe just a bit of effort.  How rare that seems to be.  How rare indeed.  It is something to chew on.

The couple soon stood and left, and when they left, they very much left together.  They walked across the street behind them, got into a sensible car, and I haven’t any doubt they are still together now and will always be together regardless of whether one or the other is near or far, there can be no doubt about this.  Even the end must seem sweet to them.

Yesterday I wrote about owly of another kind, the ornery kind that goes storming off in irritable disgust.  I focus on this because we all deal with the all-too-human owly.  Frankly I don’t believe unhappiness always begets more unhappiness anymore than I think a moment of happiness is a guarantee of unbroken bliss.

This old couple was a gift tonight, an answer to those thoughts.  Certainly it is a gift of time and experience, both good and bad, that gives them the comfort they share alone together.  It seems clear to me that owly — both in the calm sense and in the cantankerous — work together and form something of a gestalt, a wholeness that is more than its parts.

Very simply, the irritable owly can coexist with the calm owly and form something other than either one or the other.

My walk in the woods felt sobering and detached.  It fit the mood perfectly as a mix of sadness and optimism.  I like the woods.  A peaceful place to think.  Tonight my thoughts did not rest, however.  The old couple was a touchstone which let many pieces of thought and experience fall — not always comfortably — together.  It never hurts to see the possible and sometimes that is a matter of first giving up the impossible.

Above all else, however, one needs to be open to what is possible.  I cannot imagine the old couple being where they are today if one were naively optimistic and the other stubbornly unsure.  The two must mix and mingle and that comes with looking forward and accepting the possible.

The Sweet Pea

See how easy it is?

Well, ok…perhaps not easy…

Staying with the couple — I cannot help myself — if you are going to be both yourself and something more than yourself, you would need to accept the possible in the other, right?  I think it is the same with just about anything.  Easy in theory, complicated in practice, but straight-forward either way.

Part 2, by the way, is nothing but an easy walk in the woods and moments sitting in the sunshine staring at sailboats.  (Perhaps more on that later.)

Somehow it will form a whole, I’m sure it will.

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Owly Night

Tonight has began owly and ends owly, but not just the same.  And when I dug around for a definition of owly, I found two different definitions to match each part of tonight.

One definition comes from the authority of the Oxford Dictionary.  It defines owly as someone who resembles the qualities of an owl, especially an owl’s unflappable calmness.

The other definition also appears in Oxford, but is more common as slang.  That is the irritable, cranky, and irrational man…or as likely…woman.

So strange that two very different human qualities can be expressed by one aloof animal.

I know the irritable and cranky animal all too well.  One that refuses contemplation and calmness.  It is much easier to be seen (usually seen marching away in some opposite direction in my experience) than it is to be heard.  The cranky, irritable owly doesn’t seem to have much to say.  Anger is the answer.

But…thank you sweet baby Jesus…there is the other owly.  Now I can’t say I have found many examples of this other owly in human form recently, but the calm soothing pleasure of owly calmness calls once again — airily, peacefully — from outside my window.  It is my Screech Owl and his … or perhaps as likely … her tremolo call that completes this night so nicely.

Unlike my human owly, this owl prefers to be heard rather than seen, and softly heard at that.  Just being present seems to be enough.  It is a calm presence, one sure of its place out there in the world.  Quietly marking its contentment with a soft call, evenly spaced in the night, the owl invites one to dream.

I see no reason why people cannot be the same.  The owl acts by its nature, people act by choice.  But perhaps people are too complex; perhaps they cannot choose the peace they seek.  In that way people are sad creatures, prone to mistakes and loss.  They are also wonderful creatures, however, with opportunities for great happiness and contentment.

So why is it then that we most often associate “owly” people with the more cranky connotations?

I’ll think about that as I let my owl call me to sleep.

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Wow…Crazy Coincidence. Sad Bradbury News.

I want this copy…

Two weeks ago I posted an article on my blog (it is hardly relevant now…a rambling mess) that made some references to the film Fahrenheit 451 and just a moment ago I decided to see if it was in my Book Collector database.  Twitter was open on my computer screen.  And right there in front of me was a tweet about Ray Bradbury‘s death.

Crazier still, when I thought about looking for the book, I wondered whether Bradbury was still alive.  I think that is strangely crazy.  Is that Bradburyesque?

I have never read Fahrenheit 451.  It is among the many books I buy with right-minded intentions, but don’t read.  I am sure it is here somewhere.  I think it is time to read it.  What am I doing blogging about a movie based on the book without reading the book in the first place!

And my condolences to all the Ray Bradbury fans out there.  I am sorry about the news.

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I Am Going to Write a Book

Simon Newcomb

I am going to write a book.  Of course a few details are a bit obscure.  Fiction?  Non-Fiction?  Shall I write about whales?  What about a man and a whale?  Perhaps I will write about my exciting career.  Yes, maybe.  I could call it “Death of a Salesman,” but that seems to pessimistic and familiar.  Hasn’t it been done?

And I don’t know how long my book will be, but I suppose that’s the way most good books begin, especially books written by first-timers.  So I’ll just set a deadline.  It is an election year so let’s say I have a working draft complete by election day, five months from now.  We will see what we have then.  Perhaps my “book” will be a mere 15 pages long.  We’ll see.

Today feels like a good day to start a book anyway…or to at least start planning to start a book.  Today marks the transit of Venus across the face of the sun.  If I don’t start my book, it is very difficult to find any other cosmic significance in that event.  Rare solar-planetary events deserve some sort of significant context.  Seeing none with Venus today, I shall grant it some significance.

(It is important to note, however, that the transit of Venus is the event that first gave astronomers an opportunity to measure the real distance between the Earth and the Sun.  I’m not sure how they did it, but I think Edmund Halley, of Halley’s Comet fame, got the first accurate calculations down.  Don’t quote me on that.  I might be wrong, however I don’t have time to look up no silly facts right now.)

Other than giving the Transit of Venus some significance, the only other certainty is my patron.  I shall need a patron.  There should be nothing arbitrary about this, nothing whatsoever.  We have five months.  A nice even number.  I think an equally even $500,000 should sufficiently match my blossoming talent.  Being that this might be a somewhat quixotic literary crusade, I’ll knock off 10% and find a way to make $450,000 work.

So let’s get to work!  What shall I do next?

(NB:  It looks like my recollection of astronomy lessons is a bit flawed.  Some character named Simon Newcomb – I will be sure to find him space on my dedication page – first calculated the distance between the Earth and the Sun using the Transit of Venus to verify his data.  God, not even five minutes into my venture and I am already stumbling over mistakes.  Best stay to fiction.  Perhaps a drama.  When was the last time you read a good tragedy?)

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