We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
What that "dysfunction" seems to mean is that one is a lousy boss of oneself. A useful concept, I think. People who achieve their goals make rational, practical plans, follow their plans, and are good at taking orders from themselves. When they tell themelves they are going to do it, they do it.
If Plan A doesn't work, they already have Plan B waiting in the drawer.
I think people vary enormously in their executive functioning.
If the weather permits me to get to Ohio for a quick visit this weekend, I will of course try to stop by my favorite 24-hr WalMart in Mt. Vernon. Who knows, might run into Mr. Hardin in a leopard skin suit.
But what to wear? Does everybody at WalMart look unusual? Is this "fashion-forward"? I wonder what Janet Napolitano wears when she goes. Dressing subversively for WalMart is a challenging task for uninventive folks like me. (h/t, Moonbattery):
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
The same thing that is the matter with most of the modern Middle East: in the post-industrial world, its hundreds of millions now are vicariously exposed to the affluence and freedom of the West via satellite television, cell phones, the Internet, DVDs, and social networks.
And they become angry that, in contrast to what they see and hear from abroad, their own lives are unusually miserable in the most elemental sense.
BASIC "female" skills are becoming endangered with fewer young women able to iron a shirt, cook a roast chicken or hem a skirt.
Just as more modern men are unable to complete traditional male tasks, new research shows Generation Y women can't do the chores their mothers and grandmothers did daily, reported The Courier-Mail.
Went to a very enjoyable and festive Chinese New Year party last night. It's the Year of the Bunny Rabbit, I was told.
The special cocktail of the evening was the Lychee Martini. I don't think I had ever had a Lychee before, much less a Lychee Martini. Delicious and refreshing.
Lychees are tasty fruits, flavor somewhere between a pear and a grape.
"I don't understand it. I don't like it. And I don't think anyone would think differently. There's nothing you're trying to say that hasn't been said before you. And everyone who's said it before you has said it better than you have."
That was part of the critique the pupette got on her recent college poetry writing course effort. I guess everything is supposed to be new, despite what Ecclesiastes teaches us. She has always been told in the past that she is a talented writer. She did say "I'd like to point out, however, that this professor is phenomenal."
I emailed back something like this:
"That's what we are paying them for - tough criticism, high demands, and a dose of humility. If you could meet their demands already, what would be the point of being there and paying them money? My best teachers ripped me to shreds. They want to stretch you to your max and beyond it to find your limits, and that is good. We can't all be TS Eliots, and few youths have enough life under their belts to write poems that are more than pretty strings of words anyway. Don't worry - you have your friends and family to love you regardless."
Last week I sent her a poem that my brain wrote during a dream. (I never sit down to write a poem, but sometimes they come to me so I try to put them on paper before they disappear. Generally, I only share them with my sis who is a published poet.) I thought this one might have been about my college pup, or maybe any one of my kids, and did not add the title until I guessed what it could be about. I would not want to show it to a Prof.
Child
First you jumped out of my hand, hid in the sand camouflaged by the sand. Then I caught you with two hands but with a laugh you jumped out again into the water where the sea had carved a deeper channel. The water was clear. You dissolved in the water. I dove in to search but I could not find you.
Later, you returned from a foreign shore tall, and painted blue, asking what we do next.
Some friends in the know told me last night that I might think I am going to North Africa this summer - but that I'm not. Lucianne's headline: U.S. Embassy tells Americans they should consider leaving Egypt as soon as possible because of unrest, violence and ongoing demonstrations. An estimated 55,000 Americans are currently in Egypt. Flights scheduled for Monday
Our mens' study and prayer group is doing Ecclesiastes right now. As we are all more or less middle-aged, we can all relate to this poetic "wisdom book."
Ecclesiastes 1
1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 “ Vanityof vanities,” says the Preacher; “ Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” 3 What profit has a man from all his labor In which he toils under the sun? 4One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever. 5 The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, And hastens to the place where it arose. 6 The wind goes toward the south, And turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, And comes again on its circuit. 7 All the rivers run into the sea, Yet the sea is not full; To the place from which the rivers come, There they return again. 8 All things are full of labor; Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there anything of which it may be said,
“See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us. 11There is no remembrance of former things, Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come By those who will come after.
Mostly, those gloomy Swedes are crazy-depressed, Moslem-loving, atheistic drunk and sex-addicted Socialists who hate hard or unpleasant work, but they got this one thing right.
In response to this topsy-turvy world, the traditional media, tenured professors, well-paid public employees, rigid ethnic and racial lobbies, unions, organized retirees, open-borders advocates and entrenched politicians all are understandably claiming that we live in an uncivil age.
We well may, but we also are seeing the waning of an old established order. And the resulting furor suggests that the old beneficiaries are not going quietly into that good night.
When a child, certain skies sharpened my vision: all their characters were reflected in my face. The Phenomena were roused - At present, the eternal inflection of moments and the infinity of mathematics drives me through this world where I meet with every civil honor, respected by strange children and prodigious affections - I dream of a War of right and of might, of unlooked-for logic. It is as simple as a musical phrase.
(from Illuminations. Sadly, one must be careful about posting poetry in translation - publishers own the copyrights, so you just have to buy the books. Two Rimbaud websites, here and here.)
A big snow is a delight to every Yankee who has a camera. Big snow makes everything new. An ordinary snowfall is not as inspiring. Here's the road I live on:
Just kidding re the above. My friend Nathan sent this pic of Central Park yesterday. I'd guess that was his Leica, not his cell phone:
NYC is a wonderland in a good snow. Our buddy Kab sent these to me from NYC too:
A relative sent in this pic of his house in CT. That's a typical, in-town New England house. It provides shelter. Your heart and soul provide the charm and warmth:
Young Americans already face a future defined by an inescapable reckoning. They already tend to look at our grand entitlements as phantoms, as dead entitlements walking. They already know the problem isn't that we have too few college graduates, but that we -- like Tunisia and (gasp!) China, to mention a few -- have too many for the market to absorb.
(Note Cottontail Rabbit gnawing on my roses. He's my official rose-pruner.) Tree Sparrow, Carolina Wren, Dark Eyed Junco, Cardinal, WT Sparrow, Red Bellied Woodpecker, BC Chickadee, Song Sparrow, Downy Woodpecker, Grey Squirrel (of course), Mourning Dove, Blue Jay.
It just keeps coming. Snow is up to my knees. Got myself plowed and shoveled out at 4 AM this morning, and headed right off into the snowy dark to Dunkin' for my morning fix, and took some snaps.
This would be a good morning to be in Vermont, with skis. It's beautiful.
Tons more wonderful snow and cold this morning, and a bigger dump coming tonight - an Ice Age thanks to the crisis of global warming. From the news, you'd think it was the end of the world.
How do they manage in places like Moscow or Montreal or Winnipeg? They just keep going - and they don't close the schools or the airports either.
The first to seize on the political potential of government workers was New York's Mayor Robert F. Wagner. The Kennedy White House took notice of his success.
Went to a very enjoyable and festive Chinese New Year party last night. It's the Year of the Bunny Rabbit, I was told. 
FOF: 
Tons more wonderful snow and cold this morning, and a bigger dump coming tonight - an Ice Age thanks to the crisis of global warming. From the news, you'd think it was the end of the world.