Fascinating and urgent
Ammo Grrrll of Powerline writes
…I seem to be at a stage in my life where I find almost everything equally fascinating and equally urgent.
I can relate – up to a point.
Like Ammo Grrrll, I’m also at that stage in life I could call early old age if I’m being honest, and somewhere in middle age if I’m not. Like her, I’ve noticed a creeping increase in impatience about certain things that I suddenly find not just fascinating but fascinating right this minute. And the things I find to be that way are also increasing in number and scope.
For me, this mostly involves reading. Sometimes it involves writing. And sometimes it involves phone calls or visits.
Or watching any of the YouTube videos in the series “I Shouldn’t Be Alive.” Not only do I find them irresistibly compelling, but I always cry when the person (or people) is rescued. I’m thinking of starting a 12-step program for others likewise addicted.
But all of this goes along with procrastination. A lot of things seem both fascinating and urgent, but paying my bills or doing my taxes never seem to be among them, although they get pretty darn urgent as deadlines approach, when I begin to attack them with a flurry of long-delayed energy. My daily exercise is another thing I usually perform, but sometimes quite late in the game – meaning that I tend to know the exact time of sunset every day and plan accordingly. Emails can pile up, too, as can laundry.
And don’t ask me about my vacuuming habits.
Is this a function of being older and feeling the pressure of time? I find, for example, that I’m more impatient about books. If the first ten or twenty pages of a novel don’t grab me, that book gets shut forever. For non-fiction, I often get the gist of it in fifty or a hundred pages and skip the rest. When I was younger I used to plow through anyway, although sometimes so quickly that I probably didn’t absorb everything. Now I lack the patience to go on reading if I think I’m not gaining much from it.
But poetry – ah, poetry suits me very well.
Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter–and the Bird is on the Wing.Whether at Naishapur or Babylon,
Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run,
The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,
The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one.
“Time gets mighty precious, when there is less of it to waste.” Bonnie Riatt
Neo: “And don’t ask me about my vacuuming habits.”
I can second that, unfortunately.
On a positive note, I’ve begun devoting more time to reading in general. I got back on board the local library’s winter book discussion program after missing the last several years. It features excellent speakers from various area universities (some of whom drive two hours to lecture and/or lead the discussion). And for the most part, both lecturers and attendants leave their politics at home.
You responded to my email pretty quickly when I reached out to you. I was surprised because I know you do get email. I continue to be grateful for your blog and your writing.
I have the same responses to books and movies, if it’s not fun immediately, out they go. it also reminds me of visiting my parents several decades ago and noticing that they weren’t getting the local paper. My father explained that he’d read the same stories over and over in years past, why bother reading repeats with slightly different details. I only get the Globe for the sports page for the same reason. The front page stories are about the same sad sacks, corrupt politicians, and do gooders that are going to save the world this time for sure.
We used to have subscriptions to the symphony and theater but let them go for the same reason, been there done that. Modern plays are especially dreadful for the most part with mediocre dialog and about problems I don’t care about, or could solve in fifteen minutes by taking a verbal baseball bat to the immature idiot characters.
Somewhat off topic, but …
A remarkable person who, at the least, shows what you can achieve if you decide on a goal. Even late in life.
https://www.rightjournalism.com/whistleblower-known-for-investigating-obama-and-muslim-brotherhoods-infiltration-of-us-government-found-shot-to-death-video/
Thank you for the heads up, Jim.
RIP, hero Philip Haney.
At only 73, soooooo young!
“And for the most part, both lecturers and attendants leave their politics at home.” – O&W
What a refreshing change! We quit going to author lectures and small-venue concerts when the performers made it clear that they assumed everyone in their audience was a Democrat.
Don’t like my politics?
Don’t ask for my money.
JimNorCal – saw this post about the whistleblower earlier today, and remembered when his story first came out a couple of years ago.
Whistleblowers are only revered in the first person – our whistleblowers.
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/02/22/obama-administration-whistleblower-found-dead-of-reported-gunshot-wound-889937?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Kind of sidetracking the thread, but maybe because it’s fascinating and urgent?
From Jim’s link:
May have to add a line to this menu board.
https://i0.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2020/02/IMG_2613.jpg?w=640&ssl=1
The only cause of death is birth. Accept that simple truth. And reveal in the time you have
Looks like they got another one.
RIP.
The Democrats and their supporters/allies are getting very, very desperate.
And the violence is ramping up.
Of course, it’s always possible that there’s no connection between the two.
What Haney was warning us about is simply what’s been happening in Europe. The UK, France, Sweden and Germany come to mind. But it’s also in the Netherlands. Belgium, ironically(?), is in huge trouble. Denmark is trying to push back but one wonders whether it’s too little too late. (The Danes seem to have a resilience and pride in their country—and a sense of realism/sanity—that is missing elsewhere; perhaps it’s because of their minute size, perhaps because of their experience in WWII, perhaps because they have a history of empire, if limited.)
There should be no doubt that the same insidious takeover was/is planned for the US, under the rubric of “Human Rights” and other slogans of decency and goodness and morality.
They’ve been quite successful, but Trump got in the way—of “the arc of history” (or whatever)—somewhat at least. Just another reason why he must be removed….
And here we go!
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/02/justice-sotomayor-accuses-scotus-conservative-majority-of-pro-trump-bias/
Now that’s one “wise Latina”!!
(Or should that be “strategic Latina”?…because one can never, ever have enough chaos and hatred, I guess…. Oh and destruction.)
As I come to realize that I am nearer the end than the beginning this sense of urgency you mention increasingly grips me. Add to that we are engaged in moving (selling one house, buying another) and I find myself reflecting on the past 40 years or so. Wistfully. The thing to do that works best for me is to be around friends, family, coworkers, or to engage in projects and activities.
parker,
I heard a quote about life I really like. I am pretty sure I heard it from Jordan Peterson, but the cynicism of the quote seems inconsistent with his generally positive demeanor.
“Life is a sexually transmitted disease and it is fatal.”
I am 56. A few years ago I noticed I was skimming fictional works, sort-of speed reading. For most of my life I read every word, methodically. But now, when I notice patterns in novels and quickly deduce the gist of the passage, I jump to the next. I just finished reading Crichton’s, “State of Fear” and it only took a few hours.
I enjoy movies but I find I rarely have the patience to sit for 2 hours to watch a screen.
About 20 years ago, I gave myself a 40-page limit for fiction, less than that for non-fiction, skipping through non-fiction for the interesting bits. I was working in a library and would bring home an armful of books every day. So many books, so little time. Now my eyesight is giving me more trouble. I need more light and new reading glasses every year. The hundreds of floaters will never go away, and in fact, increase seemingly daily. The result is that I chose my reading material carefully and quickly discard anything boring, or poorly written.
A Dyson V11 cordless vacuum cleaner will make you younger and keep your floors clean. It is a life changer. You read better in a clean room.
It’s life experience.
You’re a veteran at life now. You know what’s important “right now!” and what can wait. And what you can get away with in putting off longer and how long to put that off.
You’re past the Trial and Error part of growing up.
Barry – but Justice Roberts assured us that there were no Obama or Trump judges!
Seems like neither the Right nor the Left agreed with him.
spectator.org/of-course-we-have-obama-judges-and-trump-judges-clinton-judges-and-bush-judges/https://spectator.org/of-course-we-have-obama-judges-and-trump-judges-clinton-judges-and-bush-judges/
Of Course We Have Obama Judges and Trump Judges, Clinton Judges and Bush Judges … that “we do not have Obama judges or Trump … The Left runs to an Obama or Clinton judge in the West to …
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/chief-justice-roberts-is-wrong-we-do-have-obama-judges-and-trump-judges/2018/11/23/ee8de9a2-ef2c-11e8-8679-934a2b33be52_story.htmlhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/chief-justice-roberts-is-wrong-we-do-have-obama-judges-and-trump-judges/2018/11/23/ee8de9a2-ef2c-11e8-8679-934a2b33be52_story.html
Nov 23, 2018After President Trump called a judge who ruled … declaring in statement “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.” Roberts was not only wrong to speak out …
Commenter at LI had a good observation:
Modern fiction and poetry have become so downright dreadful — I can barely think of anything written in the past twenty years which will be read in another twenty years, much less fifty — that it’s no contest when I decide whether to read something new or go back to something I already read or wanted to read back then but didn’t get to.
Likewise modern music.
Modern art is the worst — it’s become a zombie apocalypse out to eat your brains.
Fascinating reading, and — sadly — still urgent.
How Prof. Jacobson started his blog and why he keeps going.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2009/09/thanks-a-million/
The EU only loved the UK for its money.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/02/eu-summit-collapses-as-members-fail-to-fill-81-billion-brexit-size-hole/