I hope that our host won’t mind if I dispense with all internet traditions, but I am on the road to Canada right now, and blogging entirely by voice to text.
Louis CK did a wonderful routine a few years ago about how everything is awesome and nobody’s happy (alas I cannot link to YouTube with my voice).
Well despite the fact is that EVERYTHING isn’t awesome -we have things like Republicans, global warming, unending wars in the Middle East, and enough nukes to blow the planet sky high hundreds of times over- but the fact that I can do this, literally talk into my phone and have the words appear as text and then later up here on the internet for everybody to read, this is Pretty. Fucking. Awesome.
Open thread.
where in Canada? music?
Thank Louis CK rant is one of my favs. This is why I’m essentially an optimist. Forget technology; there are miracles everywhere. Constantly. The sunrise. The cool breeze against my face. The fact that, while I write this, I’m looking out on the Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands. The food I’m eating. The fact that my wife loves me. (Not at all sure I deserve it.) Our baby boy — talk about miracles! Or how about life itself. The fact that it happened at all. We were born into this world of miracles and none of us did anything to deserve it.
One could go on and on and on about the blessings in life and never run out of things to talk about.
Baby boys are indeed miracles. Teenage boys — not so much. But don’t let me rain on your parade. Just enjoy that little one. Love him. Play with him. The time is shockingly short. And eventually those teenage monsters become young men. Then they start bringing the miraculous babies over to Grandpa and Grandma.
I find most television to be insufferable these days. local and national news are idiotic and hysterical about every little thing. With the exception of a few standout dramas, I find most storylines on television programs to be facile and shallow. and the sound hurts my ears in a way that radio does not. In most cases I prefer the internet because I can choose whether to hear things are not.
Yeah, I’ve also got a 23 year old son who would like to think he hatched from an egg. My 28 year old daughter is more appreciative of family but only in small doses. Different ages are challenging in different ways. But it’s all miraculous.
Parallax makes some good points. Lots to be thankful for. But I have found myself thinking the same thing Brendan does. To get information from the internet instantly is a huge thing. No more scouring through endless books for that little elusive nugget. Don’t have to watch the teevee for news. Access to live music recordings – from yesterday or decades ago – is a dream come true. Widespread internet use is less than 20 years old, but it has changed everything at least a little.
We have three sons, ages 27, 25, and 21. The oldest was diagnosed with leukemia at age three. He survived and is doing great. In the 1970’s, that type of cancer was a death sentence. When he was diagnosed, the cure rate was 70%. And now, it’s over 80%.
That’s about the best news we could ever hope for. And it could mean a 100% cure rate down the road. So we celebrate the big stuff and the little stuff, because it matters.
One of our neighbor’s girls had leukemia when she was about 10. A few weeks ago we learned (they moved away about ten years ago) that she is now married and has a little girl herself. I was 10 in 1955. As you say, it was a death sentence.