“Richard didn’t warn us you’d be this young,” said the woman.
Her husband said, “It will wear off,” and his wife laughed.
I considered the word ‘warn’: was I that dangerous? Only in the way that sheep are, I suppose. So dumb they jeopardize themselves, and get stuck on cliffs or cornered by wolves, and some custodian has to risk his neck to get them out of trouble.
MARGARET ATWOOD. THE BLIND ASSASSIN.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Keeping up with the three-year-old busy body.
Yesterday, I worked six-and-a-half hours and babysat six-and-a-half hours and had a very small taste of what it might be like to be a working mom… for twelve hours. I hope one inherits a wealth of energy, etc., somewhere along the path to motherhood, because I came home one tired 21-year-old.
We...
- Looked for “Lightning McQueen lookalikes” (that is, snazzy red sports cars).
- Constructed a terrific fort out of pillows, blankets, and cushions.
- Drew sidewalk rainbows out of chalk.
- Read lots of books about trucks and airplanes.
- Walked twice around the subdivision – well, I walked and Aaron sat in his little red wagon and took great pleasure in dropping things out of it so that I had to stop and gather them up.
- Pretended to be asleep so that Aaron could leap out from under the bed and scare me. He did manage to surprise me the last time—by dumping an entire cup of ice-water on me!
- Reenacted, in great detail, that one scene from Monster’s Inc. where the monster comes back to the factory with a child’s sock on his shoulder…
- Turned me off hot dogs forever, as if The Jungle had not already done the job properly. A.B.C. hot dogs are far grosser than hot dogs fresh out of the package. Yuck.
- Found it impossible to be mad at Aaron for his few less than adorable habits. He sits on my lap, and showers me with kisses, and tells me he loves me, and gives great hugs. That cancels out all offenses. Even ones involving food that's already been chewed.
- Watched the first half of The Little Mermaid. Every time Scuttle the seagull made an appearance, Aaron tipped over giggling.
- Allowed Aaron to mend my “injured” knee with a plastic scalpel and scotch tape.
- Ate strawberry popsicles outside on the grass, because that house is near immaculate with a lot of near-white carpeting, and I am taking no chances.
I only managed to convince Aaron to hole up in his room for the night by presenting him with a fragile (invisible) egg. I instructed him to lay on top of it to keep it warm, but added that he had to lie very, very still and be very, very quiet. I don’t expect this to work again, but last night it did!
We...
- Looked for “Lightning McQueen lookalikes” (that is, snazzy red sports cars).
- Constructed a terrific fort out of pillows, blankets, and cushions.
- Drew sidewalk rainbows out of chalk.
- Read lots of books about trucks and airplanes.
- Walked twice around the subdivision – well, I walked and Aaron sat in his little red wagon and took great pleasure in dropping things out of it so that I had to stop and gather them up.
- Pretended to be asleep so that Aaron could leap out from under the bed and scare me. He did manage to surprise me the last time—by dumping an entire cup of ice-water on me!
- Reenacted, in great detail, that one scene from Monster’s Inc. where the monster comes back to the factory with a child’s sock on his shoulder…
- Turned me off hot dogs forever, as if The Jungle had not already done the job properly. A.B.C. hot dogs are far grosser than hot dogs fresh out of the package. Yuck.
- Found it impossible to be mad at Aaron for his few less than adorable habits. He sits on my lap, and showers me with kisses, and tells me he loves me, and gives great hugs. That cancels out all offenses. Even ones involving food that's already been chewed.
- Watched the first half of The Little Mermaid. Every time Scuttle the seagull made an appearance, Aaron tipped over giggling.
- Allowed Aaron to mend my “injured” knee with a plastic scalpel and scotch tape.
- Ate strawberry popsicles outside on the grass, because that house is near immaculate with a lot of near-white carpeting, and I am taking no chances.
I only managed to convince Aaron to hole up in his room for the night by presenting him with a fragile (invisible) egg. I instructed him to lay on top of it to keep it warm, but added that he had to lie very, very still and be very, very quiet. I don’t expect this to work again, but last night it did!
Friday, August 15, 2008
Look, I can draw big penis!
There is a gigantic pink penis right outside the church's front doors, and I didn't draw it, but it's my fault. I gave Aaron chalk, and while I was drawing friendly sharks and schools of purple fish, Aaron was drawing what I thought were eels, until he said, "Look! I can draw big penis!" It had better rain before church tomorrow morning...!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
The hurricanes are on the run.
A few brief quotes lifted from Al Gore's The Assault on Reason:
● “In order to conquer our fear and walk boldly forward on the path that lies before us, we have to insist on a higher level of honesty in America’s political discourse. When we make big mistakes in America, it is usually because the people have not been given an honest accounting of the choices before us. It also is usually because too many leaders in both parties who knew better did not have the courage to do better.”
● “As a world community, we must prove that we are wise enough to control what we have been smart enough to create.”
● “The truth is that American democracy is now in danger—not from any one set of ideas, but from unprecedented changes in the environment within which ideas either live and spread, or wither and die. I do not mean the physical environment; I mean what I called the public sphere, or the marketplace of ideas. It is simply no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse. I know I am not alone in believing that something has gone fundamentally wrong.” / “This was the point made by Jon Stewart, the brilliant host of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, when he visited CNN’s Crossfire: There should be a distinction between news and entertainment. It really matters. The subjugation of news by entertainment seriously harms our democracy: It leads to dysfunctional journalism that fails to inform the people. And when the people are not informed, they cannot hold government accountable when it is incompetent, corrupt, or both.”
● “Fear is the most powerful enemy of reason. Both fear and reason are essential to human survival, but the relationship between them is unbalanced. Reason may sometimes dissipate fear, but fear frequently shuts down reason.” / “It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they did. In spite of the dangers they confronted, they faithfully protected our freedoms. It is up to us to do the same. […] Yet something is palpably different today. Why in the early years of the twenty-first century are we so much more vulnerable to the politics of fear? There have always been leaders willing to fan public anxieties in order to present themselves as protectors of the fearful. Demagogues have always promised security in return for the surrender of freedom. Why do we seem to be responding differently today? […] The single most surprising new element in America’s national conversation is the prominence and intensity of constant fear. Moreover, there is an uncharacteristic and persistent confusion about the sources of that fear; we seem to be having unusual difficulty in distinguishing between illusory threats and legitimate ones. […] How could our nation have become so uncharacteristically vulnerable to such an effective use of fear to manipulate our politics? A free press is supposed to function as our democracy’s immune system against such gross errors of fact and understanding. As Thomas Jefferson once said, “Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.” So what happened? Why does our immune system no longer operate as it once did? […] The public sphere is simply no longer as open to the vigorous and free exchange of ideas from individuals as it was when America was founded.”
● “Simplicity is always more appealing than complexity, and faith is always more comforting than doubt. Both religious faith and uncomplicated explanations of the world are even more highly valued at a time of great fear. Moreover, during times of great uncertainty and public anxiety, any leader who combines simplistic policies with claims of divine guidance is more likely to escape difficult questions based on glaring logical flaws in his arguments. […] There are many people in both political parties who worry that there is something deeply troubling about President Bush’s relationship to reason, his disdain for facts, and his lack of curiosity about any new information that might produce a deeper understanding of the problems and policies that he is supposed to wrestle with on behalf of the country. Yet Bush’s incuriosity and seeming immunity to doubt is sometimes interpreted by people who see and hear him on television as evidence of the strength of his conviction, even though it is this very inflexibility—this willful refusal even to entertain alternative opinions or conflicting evidence—that poses the most serious danger to our country. By the same token, the simplicity of many of Bush’s pronouncements is often misinterpreted as evidence that he has penetrated to the core of a complex issue, when in fact exactly the opposite is true: They often mark his refusal even to consider complexity. And that’s particularly troubling in a world where the challenges American faces are often quite complex and require rigorous, sustained, disciplined analysis.”
● “In 1999, Israel’s highest court was asked to balance the right of individual prisoners against dire threats to the security of its people. Here is what the court declared: ‘This is the destiny of democracy, as not all means are acceptable to it and not all practices employed by its enemies are open before it. Although a democracy must often fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless has the upper hand. Preserving the rule of law and recognition of an individual’s liberty constitutes an important component in its understanding of security. At the end of the day they strengthen its spirit and allow it to overcome its difficulties.”
● “In order to conquer our fear and walk boldly forward on the path that lies before us, we have to insist on a higher level of honesty in America’s political discourse. When we make big mistakes in America, it is usually because the people have not been given an honest accounting of the choices before us. It also is usually because too many leaders in both parties who knew better did not have the courage to do better.”
● “As a world community, we must prove that we are wise enough to control what we have been smart enough to create.”
● “The truth is that American democracy is now in danger—not from any one set of ideas, but from unprecedented changes in the environment within which ideas either live and spread, or wither and die. I do not mean the physical environment; I mean what I called the public sphere, or the marketplace of ideas. It is simply no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse. I know I am not alone in believing that something has gone fundamentally wrong.” / “This was the point made by Jon Stewart, the brilliant host of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, when he visited CNN’s Crossfire: There should be a distinction between news and entertainment. It really matters. The subjugation of news by entertainment seriously harms our democracy: It leads to dysfunctional journalism that fails to inform the people. And when the people are not informed, they cannot hold government accountable when it is incompetent, corrupt, or both.”
● “Fear is the most powerful enemy of reason. Both fear and reason are essential to human survival, but the relationship between them is unbalanced. Reason may sometimes dissipate fear, but fear frequently shuts down reason.” / “It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they did. In spite of the dangers they confronted, they faithfully protected our freedoms. It is up to us to do the same. […] Yet something is palpably different today. Why in the early years of the twenty-first century are we so much more vulnerable to the politics of fear? There have always been leaders willing to fan public anxieties in order to present themselves as protectors of the fearful. Demagogues have always promised security in return for the surrender of freedom. Why do we seem to be responding differently today? […] The single most surprising new element in America’s national conversation is the prominence and intensity of constant fear. Moreover, there is an uncharacteristic and persistent confusion about the sources of that fear; we seem to be having unusual difficulty in distinguishing between illusory threats and legitimate ones. […] How could our nation have become so uncharacteristically vulnerable to such an effective use of fear to manipulate our politics? A free press is supposed to function as our democracy’s immune system against such gross errors of fact and understanding. As Thomas Jefferson once said, “Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.” So what happened? Why does our immune system no longer operate as it once did? […] The public sphere is simply no longer as open to the vigorous and free exchange of ideas from individuals as it was when America was founded.”
● “Simplicity is always more appealing than complexity, and faith is always more comforting than doubt. Both religious faith and uncomplicated explanations of the world are even more highly valued at a time of great fear. Moreover, during times of great uncertainty and public anxiety, any leader who combines simplistic policies with claims of divine guidance is more likely to escape difficult questions based on glaring logical flaws in his arguments. […] There are many people in both political parties who worry that there is something deeply troubling about President Bush’s relationship to reason, his disdain for facts, and his lack of curiosity about any new information that might produce a deeper understanding of the problems and policies that he is supposed to wrestle with on behalf of the country. Yet Bush’s incuriosity and seeming immunity to doubt is sometimes interpreted by people who see and hear him on television as evidence of the strength of his conviction, even though it is this very inflexibility—this willful refusal even to entertain alternative opinions or conflicting evidence—that poses the most serious danger to our country. By the same token, the simplicity of many of Bush’s pronouncements is often misinterpreted as evidence that he has penetrated to the core of a complex issue, when in fact exactly the opposite is true: They often mark his refusal even to consider complexity. And that’s particularly troubling in a world where the challenges American faces are often quite complex and require rigorous, sustained, disciplined analysis.”
● “In 1999, Israel’s highest court was asked to balance the right of individual prisoners against dire threats to the security of its people. Here is what the court declared: ‘This is the destiny of democracy, as not all means are acceptable to it and not all practices employed by its enemies are open before it. Although a democracy must often fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless has the upper hand. Preserving the rule of law and recognition of an individual’s liberty constitutes an important component in its understanding of security. At the end of the day they strengthen its spirit and allow it to overcome its difficulties.”
Friday, August 1, 2008
And I myself felt threatened by the fragility of the distant poles on which I depended.
Read Antoine de Saint-Exupery Wartime Writings 1939 – 1944 this weekend. I recommend it—it’s very thoughtful, very honest writing—but skip the last third if you don’t want to join him in the depths of depression!
I said to myself: ‘I don’t mind being a traveler, I don’t want to be an emigrant. I’ve learned so many things at home that will be useless elsewhere.’ But now these emigrants were taking their address books out of their pockets, the remains of their identity. They still pretended to be someone. They clung obstinately to some semblance of meaning. They said, ‘That is who I am… I come from such and such a town… I am the friend of so and so… Do you know him?’ They went on to tell you the story of a friend, or a mistake, or any other story that could link them to something.AND And so I said to myself, ‘The essential thing is that something should remain of what one has lived for: customs, family celebrations, one’s childhood home. The main thing is to live for one’s return…’ And I myself felt threatened by the fragility of the distant poles on which I depended. And I might well come to know a real desert.
I said to myself: ‘I don’t mind being a traveler, I don’t want to be an emigrant. I’ve learned so many things at home that will be useless elsewhere.’ But now these emigrants were taking their address books out of their pockets, the remains of their identity. They still pretended to be someone. They clung obstinately to some semblance of meaning. They said, ‘That is who I am… I come from such and such a town… I am the friend of so and so… Do you know him?’ They went on to tell you the story of a friend, or a mistake, or any other story that could link them to something.AND And so I said to myself, ‘The essential thing is that something should remain of what one has lived for: customs, family celebrations, one’s childhood home. The main thing is to live for one’s return…’ And I myself felt threatened by the fragility of the distant poles on which I depended. And I might well come to know a real desert.
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