Just a little more than usual
I’m not sure if this means country of origin or the country where I currently live. If it’s the former, I’d have to go with fika— the Swedish mid-afternoon coffee and… tradition that my Mom adhered to religiously.
If it’s the latter, I guess I’ll go with 4th of July fireworks. I know they’re loud and they scare our pets, but I’ve always loved the spectacle of colorful aerial bombs that light up the night sky with brilliant colors. They’re pleasing to the eye, and I don’t mind the noise.
It’s really difficult to narrow it down to one. I guess I’ll go with a day during winter when the whole pond near our house was like glass, totally skateable across its entire length and width. Those conditions were rare, but when they happened, it was a day like no other. My brother and I both called out from work the last time it happened while we were still living at home.
We’d lace up, grab a stick and a puck, and skate until we could hardly stand. There was nothing quite like that. It was exhilarating. Such freedom of movement, total joy.
I haven’t watched a current movie in a while, so I guess it would be a couple of scenes in The Help, which we happened to come across on TNT or some such place.
The splashdown scene in Apollo 13 always gets me, maybe because Ed Harris’s Gene Krantz sinks into a chair and lets the tears flow knowing he and the crew were successful on their watch, turning potential disaster into a major triumph.
And though I haven’t seen it in a while, the concert scene at the end of Mr. Holland’s Opus always opens the flood gates.
The Holocaust, slavery. There’s no shortage of candidates. Since I have to choose one, it would be the nuclear bomb.
I realize it might have led to consequences regarding the ceasing of hostilities with Japan in WWII, but we’d be better off without the leverage and threat, without the specter of annihilation hanging over our heads every day, not to mention the waste of trillion$ on its development and essentially worldwide procurement.
As time passes, I feel as though the assassination of John F. Kennedy has earned its place as an unsettled case. Early on, I took the Warren Commission report as gospel, but I’ve since come to realize that cover-up in general is not beyond the purview of most any government, especially in the case of an earth-shattering event such as this. And though 95% of the documentation from the time is now public, it’s that other 5% that still has me and many others wondering.
Logic keeps asking the question, “How could anyone keep a secret for this long, given the gravity and ubiquitous attention paid to the events of November 22, 1963?” Oswald may very well have acted alone, but the suspicion may lie with the extent of involvement of foreign players and our own domestic agencies in putting him up to it.
I don’t consider myself a conspiracy theory junkie, but this case, now almost 63 years old, still feels like an open wound, for some reason.
Historically, not very well. I prefer answers and explanations. I guess I can compartmentalize and carry on, to an extent, but it’s difficult for me not to carry around the unknowns and have them weigh on me.
I was adulting before I moved out of the house I grew up in, but I don’t think it really hit me until I left for the last time as a single person. I still remember walking out the door on my way to our wedding and thinking something like, “This is it. Life is changing now, and from here on out, I’ll just be coming back here to visit.”
That was a kairos moment.
A place called The Forge gets my vote. I guess one would classify it as pub food. Great atmosphere, friendly staff, a decently varied menu, good beers on tap. Their specialty is a French cut pork chop that’s out of this world– big, tender, and flavorful.
There is also a food truck that spends a lot of time in this neck of the woods– El Puerto de las Empanadas. Exceptional! We occasionally frequent that when they’re around, often order a rice bowl topped with garlic aioli that really hits the spot.
To my past self of high school age: as much as it is in your control, find a job that you like and that pays well. Retirement will come and you’ll be glad to have an adequate nest egg.
Don’t concern yourself with perfection. In some ways, it is a pursuit of vanity, it might consume you, and it will take up too much of your time. Mistakes will be made, and competence is a fine attribute.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not “all about you.” Before you’ve done anything, you’re already the only person in the world like you. Work on being less self-interested. There will be lots of need to tend to.
I’d say Hemingway, but I think I’d be too intimidated by him, and he’s dead. Maybe Juval Noah Harari, John Fugelsang, Doris Kearns Goodwin, or Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
3 Cents' 