Daily writing prompt
If you could have dinner with any philosopher, who would it be?
Of the ancient ones, probably Socrates. Of the more recent thinkers, perhaps Hannah Arendt.
Finding Motivation
There’s fear of bodily harm, fear of death, fear of a lost relationship, fear of failure.
I try not to let fear get the best of me, which is sometimes easier said than done. In certain situations, trying and failing is somehow better than not trying at all.
Fear can be overplayed, draining, irrational, but it can also be a sort of spidey sense, protection, an early warning system. We fear things that may never come to pass, but fear can also be a motivating factor. It can contribute to charting a course, whether reactionary or more methodical and thoughtful.
Fear and self-doubt seem to go hand-in-hand. I’ve had an issue with self-doubt most of my life. It’s something I’d like to say I’ve grown out of, but that wouldn’t be truthful. I abhor the paralysis and the hesitancy. There have been periodic breakthroughs, though, a throwing of caution to the wind, because a state of inertia– standing still– is somehow even worse.
Insult to Injury
Donald Trump, President of the United States. Twice.
The Rare Nice Surprise
I can’t think of one. I know there have probably been a couple over the years that we ended up watching on TV just as something to do, and were pleasantly surprised, but no titles are coming to mind.
If I go to a theater to watch a movie, it’s usually because I’m interested in seeing it and have heard good things about it, and I can’t remember ever being disappointed.
If I expected to hate a movie, I probably wouldn’t make much of an effort to watch it.
Deep
A mysterious, evolutionary inevitability. A happy/unhappy accident.
Asking this question, over and over again, and never really settling on an answer. Except that it means different things to different people… ugh.
Maybe it’s about wrestling with a satisfying answer to “Why?”
Or finding love.
Don’t
Just sayin’… with all due respect… like,… devastated… traumatized. There are probably others.
Only The Good Die Young
At the end of the day, all that’s left to us who are resisting Trump’s stupidity is to protest, gird our loins, do everything we can to thwart the ugly intentions and ineptitude.
We complain every day. We go to sleep, get up the next morning, and find 52 new tweets or other reasons to keep complaining and shaking our heads. The predictability and repetition only exacerbate the frustration. But at some point, even the frustration will subside, and there will be nothing left for us to draw on.
Trump is playing the long game, so we have to find a way to match and exceed his cursed stamina. The naptime in the middle of meetings is apparently just another smokescreen. He’s highly motivated by anger and greed, on some mission to wreak havoc and get even and enrich himself, because he never really grew up and is a ‘roid-raged Ebeneezer Scrooge minus the visitations.
Our only hope is that this craving for vengeance and living with dollar signs in his eyes at some point does him in.
Not Quite Wingin’ It
There’s not much planning involved. On the rare occasion when we do hit the road to a destination other than New England, the extent of the planning consists of entering a starting point and destination on Google Maps or some such app, and deciding which route makes the most sense. Most times we don’t even make lodging reservations ahead of time, though we probably would consider doing that if we happen to be traveling during a holiday period. And we might take note of a few points of interest along the way.
Since we aren’t currently driving an electric vehicle, there’s no plotting when and where to refuel. And road trips are usually when we fall off the wagon of healthy eating, unless we come across a Chipotle.
Our main objective is to get to where we want to go. There might be a bit more leeway for balls of twine and such on the return trip.
Not Quite Sophie’s Choice
The writing prompt this morning got me thinking about the idealism often involved in standing up to large corporations with their lawyers in tow, who come into a community, wanting to buy property on which to place some sort of structure(s) that may or may not provide the promised economic stimulus, or long-term employment opportunities, or increased tax base.
It’s one thing to oppose such a proposal based on perceived, perhaps justified suspicion of large corporate entities, or possible damage to wetlands or other environmentally sensitive areas, or the less quantitative defense of “quality of life” issues that may arise.
But it’s another thing to oppose something simply because change is hard and we prefer things the way they are and have always been.
Data centers are at the fore in this neck of the woods right now. I’ve read my share of op-ed articles and news reports, and I’m of the mind that opposition to such huge projects, while based on the potential for undesirable outcomes, may also be short-sighted, given that the main reasons for such data-driven expansion are because of the billions of us who upload or watch videos on YouTube or hold Zoom meetings or depend on TikTok as an income stream or store our billions of photos in “the cloud” which is not a cloud at all but myriad computers tucked away in one of these demonized data centers across the country and around the world.
In short, no small reason for this expansion of data capabilities is… us.
While it is appropriate to maintain a certain amount of skepticism regarding the potential for abuse and misuse– i.e. surveillance and data collection, nefarious AI manipulation, etc., Big Brother stuff– the main driver appears to be our own demand.
In a conversation I had with Chat GPT, which I find a bit ironic to admit, I learned that modern society has shifted from being electricity-intensive in the industrial age to electricity and computation-intensive now.
So, it appears we may have a choice to make– swallow hard and back away from our on-demand lives, or scrupulously and persistently hold Amazon and the rest to account after they knock on our doors looking for acreage and dangling “life-changing” million$ to build giant buildings full of the technology that supports our online habits.
In The Moment
Daily writing prompt
What’s a moment that made you realize you were stronger than you thought?
There are different types of strength. I might be physically stronger than what some might think, just from looking at me, but average at best.
I guess it might be some of the moments in parish ministry when I was called upon to keep my wits about me, my emotions in check– the occasional heated Council meeting, certain hospital visits, a death in a family, offering words and support at a graveside service or funeral.
I remember attending a special town meeting to voice my opinion on some project that was going to ruin a piece of perfectly good open space. I had never done anything like that, never envisioned myself having the courage to stand up in front of the board and community members and offer an opinion. I was this close to chickening out, but made my way to the mic and offered up my pie-in-the-sky idealism. It was ultimately to no avail, but at least I followed through.
