A Matter of Perspective

 

It is a time of change in this country.  It is having an impact on the world and our relationship with countries that have been long term allies and friends.  The policy pendulum is swinging to the right as executive orders are plastering the walls of the White House faster than Dolores Umbridge did during her time as headmaster at Hogwarts.

Government departments and cabinets are being revamped as if Albert “Chainsaw Al” Dunlop was at the helm.  The numbers, at least to me, of those let go are staggering.  The Federal Government was much larger than I thought.

With the threat of being choked off from Federal funds, colleges and universities are dropping Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs at a rate faster than higher education generally moves.  Tightening purse strings can be a great motivator to move quickly and tow a new line.  The corporate sector folded even quicker, almost as if they needed less incentives, maybe just a green light, to do so.

I could comment about how people identify sexually, the Department of Education, deportations of aliens, the arrest of student activists at Columbia and Tufts, and more.  Those will have to be addressed in future posts.

It is dizzying to me. 

There are times when I believe the USA is in uncharted waters.  But there have been good and bad in every decade of my life and well before that.  The pendulum has swung from right to left with one side feeling triumphant and the other deeply concerned about the future of the republic. Does this go around feel different?  Is it the McCarthy Era.  The domestic turbulence was most disconcerting.  The oil crisis and the Iran hostages dominated the 70s and so on. There was a farm crisis and recession in the 80s.  The 90s brought unbridled corporate malfeasance culminating the demise of Enron at the turn of the century.   The 2000s brought us 9-11, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Great Recession, COVID, and the changes we are currently experiencing. 

Over the years, my commitment to weigh issues and the interactions with each other has led me to have a more fiscally conservative perspective while leaning more left on social issues.  I am by no means near the extreme right or left on either of these but closer to the center on both.  I find myself in a minority position here. 

In December of 2018, I wrote a post, Sydney Harris (1917-1986), about the great syndicated columnist of the Chicago Sun Times.  I read him regularly in the Detroit Free Press.  My favorite column of his was “Why there is Danger in Extremism” which I included in the 2018 post.  It really resonated with me.  Basically, when confronted with extremism on one pole, Harris naturally drifted toward the other pole.  I can relate to that.  Did I believe DEI, Critical Race Theory, and the Woke movement was to extreme for me when it seemed to be the Federal tenor in the Biden and Obama years?  Yes I did.  But I didn’t rant against them because they were rooted realities that needed to be addressed.  I did not speak out much for fear of being attacked for being what… a white supremacist.  As the pendulum just accelerated by me to the right, I still don’t want to protest too loudly against the current extreme for fear of being labelled a radical liberal.  My views haven’t changed.  The only thing that has changed is the policy of the Federal Government. 

Tell me I cannot have a gun, and I will want one even more.  Tell me I have to carry gun and I’ll want to put a daisy on the barrel of yours.  Tell me I have to be woke, and I will say “bullshit.”  Tell me I cannot be woke, and I will respond exactly the same.

Do I know what is going to happen in the next four years?  No.

Am I concerned?  Definitely.  Mostly, as I have written, I am concerned about the extreme policy changes we have had every four years since 2016 and we are in the midst of huge one right now.

A Good Stretch of the Legs

 

I have written and posted in this blog seven times this year:  five posts in January and two in February.  My last post was February 13^th and was about what snow days have become in this age of Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

At the start of March, my desire was to write and post ten to twenty posts.  It was totally doable and a reasonable goal.  Now in the last two lamb days of March, I am posting my first bloggy bit.

Is it something substantial?

No.

It is simply a stream of thought (not even close a stream of consciousness).  This is akin to a marathon runner taking a light jog after taking six weeks off from running.  This is simply a light workout, a good stretch of the legs so to speak.

Why did this writing drought occur in February and March?

It is hard to say.  Really?  Hard to say?  It is my low productivity, and I am not sure?  Well, that sounds silly.  It sounds a little preposterous to me as I type these words.  How can I not be sure?  It is comical.  A case could even be made for a first sign of senility in a fellow of my age.

So… what do I have to say for myself?

I am certain that there are ebbs and flow in my productivity over the years.  In the flow periods, I get a lot done.  In the valley of the ebbs, it takes all the energy and drive I can muster to get the very minimal done.  By minimal, I mean those tasks with absolute, must get it done, deadlines looming.  It is these ebbs and flows that had me intrigued with the short-lived fad biorhythms fad from the 1970s.  The problem with biorhythms is that are predictably periodic and, as far as I can recall, tied to the phases of the moon.  My ebbs and flow have variable durations.  They can be as low as a few days and as long as three or four moon cycles.

I am envious, at times, of those dynamos I see that are always on the go.  They run full blast through their workday knocking off items off their to-do lists.  I am only like that in flow periods.  I wonder if those dynamos I admire struggle with ebbs and flows.  Maybe they have them and power through them.  Maybe the amplitudes of the ebbs are just lesser than mine.  Maybe their struggles are the same as mine, but those folks are better at masking them but forging and maintaining an image of dynamism.  I definitely know people that are gifted at projecting the aura of dynamism versus their actually productivity.

In my case, another factor for my writing drought might be related to my knee replacement.  My right knee was replaced on January 8.  I had an excellent surgeon.  My recovery has progressed well and on the faster side.  I have embraced the physical therapy.  What might all this have to do with writing productivity.  Before the surgery, I did most of my writing in the evening.  In January, while at home recovering and then teaching online, I wrote those blog posts in the morning.  In February, I returned to my normal schedule but when it came time to write in the evenings, I was simply too weary to do so.  I am writing this little piece at 9 am in the morning.

I enjoyed this stretch of my writing legs which was more important than the actual topic.

Well, it is a blog about nothing.