Big Talk

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My sister died, October 10, 2024, of an accident while on vacation in India. Can't stand it. Can't accept it, really. Wish I could turn the clock back.

More later, but for now:

1. The trait I most admire of my sister is her love of the traveling caravan. Whether the caravan was traveling on a musical pilgrimage, a pilgrimage pilgrimage, or to apply for asylum and refugee status on the southern border, was perhaps of secondary importance. The most important thing was a clear headed awareness that good things happen when you step out into the great wide world, and join the crowd.

2. My main regret is not going for more walks, and more outings, with my sister. We could have set up a routine of meeting for coffee in the afternoon, and then going for a walk around the block, or quick trip to a park, or a palace.

3. I regret much more cold, not particularly friendly, passive aggressive silence, than I do thoughtless, tactless, micro aggressive speech.

4. I've been thinking that it's been nearly 10 years to the day when she bought me tickets to the Giants 2014 NLCS game 5 (the one where Ishikawa hit the walk off home run). We went with my dad and her partner, and went to the El Torito by the Bay for dinner afterwards. Perfect night. It's the kind of thing I would never have done without my sister (I would have been too cheap to splurge on tickets).

5. I wish I had been slightly less of a prig. I wish I had been as good a little brother as Linus:

https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1963/06/30

On the morning of October 16, I woke up with a feeling that my sister, wherever she was, wanted to wait for us. And I also felt that it was part of our job was to reassure her that she need not wait, that we would catch up to her, wherever she was, when our turn came.

A message I sent to my cousins:

"I feel like I did after my father died, only worse: that things can never be the same again, after this, and that nothing seems to matter too much, now."

"We live in hope of the possibility that things can be, not just the same, again, but even better. We live in hope of the possibility that if we keep putting one foot in front of the other, good things can happen, and that the things we have lost can be returned to us, with interest."

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For The Kingdom of Progress Is Like A Union Organizing Campaign

My fundamental way of looking at the election, and elections in general, is that a progressive coalition winning an election is like a group of union organizers conducting a successful union organizing campaign. Some of the focus groups remind me a bit of a union meeting where a skeptical worker says, "Yeah, this whole union deal sounds good, in theory. But . . . "

In this analogy, politicians like McCain and Romney are traditional, honorable, conservatives, skeptical of the unions, but willing to work with them, and not willing to use unlawful means to suppress them.

Politicians like Trump represent a different kind of politics, willing to use unlawful means, willing and possibly eager to call out the Pinkertons, and the goon squads.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goon_squad

Union organizing, like public libraries, post offices and community health clinics, requires high levels of social trust. One of the reasons, perhaps, that Trump has proved useful to the Republican party is because he is so good at shredding social trust. He not only increases social distrust between supporters and opponents. He also increases social distrust between those who oppose Trump with the terrible swift fury of a wrathful, trampled grape, and those whose opposition to Trump is of the more Milquetoast variety.

One of the dogmas of union organizing is that the workers must never be blamed for an unsuccessful campaign. I don't know if it's possible to live by that dogma one hundred percent. But I admire those who try.

This 2020 Into America podcast with the rapper Bun B seems to me to be a good discussion of our political moment:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-bun-b-is-standing-up/id1499906821?i=1000490008571

https://www.msnbc.com/podcast/transcript-bun-b-standing-n1239296

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Little Talk

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How Much Dull Routine Of Existence Does A Man Require?

My current answer:

1. waking up

2. breakfast

3. morning session

4. lunch / midday break

5. afternoon session

6. tea break

7. evening session

8. dinner

9. night session

10. winding down

11. lights out

12. falling asleep

Possible timeline (for example) :

1. waking up : 7:30

2. breakfast : 8-9

3. morning session : 9:30 - 12

4. lunch / midday break : 12 - 1:30

5. afternoon session : 1:30 - 4

6. tea break : 4 - 5

7. evening session : 5 - 7:30

8. dinner : 7:30 - 9

9. night session : 9 - 9:30

10. winding down : 10:30

11. lights out : 11:30

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How Much Waking Up Does A Man Require?

My current answer:

 

1. wake up

2. stare out the window a bit

3. un-tether the phone, and check whether the sky has fallen

4. re-tether the phone

5. stare out the window some more

6. get ready, make the bed

7. ???

8. profit!

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Next post: March 29, 2025