Tuesday, May 26. 2009
 TigerHawk agreed with what I have said here many times: Retirement is over-rated. What is your number? The false promise of idle retirement.
He doesn't get to all of the important considerations, though.
First, many have no option but to retire. Laid-off career guys in their 50s have a tough time finding employment. Some (esp government) jobs offer pensions after x years which make continuing in the job economically silly. OK, they can do something else - and many do.
Second, as Tiger notes, many have jobs which they do not particularly enjoy or with which they have become bored - yet have life responsibilities to fulfill. An "attitude adjustment" might be nice, but it ain't so easy. The main reward of many if not most jobs is the sense of fulfilling a family responsibility rather than the work itself.
Third, many value the notion of being "idle." "Idle" may be the wrong word, though, because most retired folks seem to stay pretty busy, from what I see. It can mean more time for hobbies, for fishing and hunting and boating and mowing your own lawns and fields, doing your own home repairs, spending more time with friends, volunteering, and maybe more trips.
Fourth, I think "the number" is important. If you hit your number (which few can say they have right now), work can be more enjoyable because it seems more optional. You know you can say "Take this job and shove it" whenever you want.
Monday, May 25. 2009
 Here's something worthwhile and wonderful.
Vitruvius at SDA recommends the highly enjoyable and accessible MIT required freshman year intro Physics courses - Classical Mechanics and Electricity and Magnetism. Prof. Walter Lewin, who teaches both, says his goal is to make the student love Physics, and to see the beauty in it. He succeeds. (If you fail one of the required courses, you are sent home.)
I don't know why any college would bother lecturing on these topics when they can use Dr. Lewin's recordings. Both entire series of lectures are on YouTube, for those of us who could not have gotten into MIT with an H-bomb because of our B+ in BC Calc:
MIT Physics 8.01, Classical mechanics
MIT Physics 8.02, Electricity and magnetism
Prof. Lewin makes it all vivid, clear, and entertaining, and the math is straightforward and clear as a bell. Plus no exams, so it's a wonderful way to get some free education, or to refresh your old, fading memories.
For me, Physics, Music (which is Physics + a twist by the human soul), and Religion merge into one sublime cosmic entity which is the awe-inspiring, terrifying, love-inspiring miracle of Creation. I have never understood how anyone can feel like they can feel close to God without knowing all the Physics they are capable of, but I know that is stupid of me.
Photo is Prof. Lewin. Here's his bio.
Saturday, May 23. 2009
 Nantucket summer rental prices are getting reasonable this year. Recession pricing. Places that were $55,000/week now $45,000/week.
Polpis cottage in upper photo now available for only $20,000/week in August.
Lower cottage only $2700/week and available now in August. Seems a lot more reasonable to me, and less pretentious. But outdoor shower "not enclosed"? What? OK, watch me shower in the sun if you want to.
Once you have showered outdoors, you never want to shower indoors again.
Apparently. Who'd a thunk it? h/t, Neptunus. The world has gone mad.
 Surely all agree that Hunt for Red October is the best movie of the past 20 years.
The poll is "Who is your favorite character in this movie?" (in which the casting is astonishingly good - Brit quality, and in which the detail and subtlety of the acting is endlessly interesting. Just the way the head of the Russian Navy drops his teacup, echoing the spilled tea when Ramius kills the KGB guy)
We aren't going to bother with that voting software. Just let us know whether you are able to decide.
Mrs. BD votes for Bart Mancuso, after agonizing over the cynically amusing pol Jeffrey Pelt, the Russian Ambassador, and, of course, Captain Ramius. I vote for Jonesie, but Alec Baldwin, one must admit, was fantastic as Jack Ryan. As was Fred Thompson as the Admiral, and James Earl Jones, and ... everybody else in this wonderfully engaging movie which holds up well after many, many viewings.
Thursday, May 21. 2009
We linked Stanley Fish's God Talk, Part 2, earlier this week. Thanks, reader, for pointing out the discussion of Fish and Eagelton at Augean Stables.
It's a rich and impressive discussion. One quote:
One of the things that always struck me about “post-modernism” was the combination of ignorance and hubris embedded in the name. We don’t know what we are, but we do know that we’ve superseded modernity, that we’re well beyond that period. I always thought of modernity – that is, the liberal project of trying to establish a society run according to the basic rule of equality before the law for all citizens — as a long and difficult process. Indeed, it sometimes takes decades, even centuries to confront some of the difficulties that arise in such an endeavor – letting women and other races vote, de-imperializing, creating a safety net for citizens, figuring out how to treat other nations decently.
What is the gap, across countries, between what people feel their ideal number of kids is, compared to the number they actually have? Gene Expressions
Tuesday, May 19. 2009
From Stanley Fish's God Talk, Part 2, in the NYT, a quote:
Pking gets it right. “To torpedo faith is to destroy the roots of . . . any system of knowledge . . . I challenge anyone to construct an argument proving reason’s legitimacy without presupposing it . . . Faith is the base, completely unavoidable. Get used to it. It’s the human condition.” (All of us, not just believers, see through a glass darkly.) Religious thought may be vulnerable on any number of fronts, but it is not vulnerable to the criticism that in contrast to scientific or empirical thought, it rests on mere faith.
 There’s a new gang in town. They’re not trying to act tough. They don’t have to. They’ve already proven they are. They’re not trying to look tough. They look like your neighbors. They’re not teenagers. They have become worthy adults by passing difficult hurdles.
But, they do have colors. They’re red, white and blue.
The new gang is called the Warrior Legacy Foundation. The warriors are not just military veterans but anyone who reveres the contributions and sacrifices of veterans, and wants to see their commitment honored and passed on to coming generations, whether serving in the military or not.
The binding commitment is to the military code of conduct: “I will never forget that I am an American, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free.”
As one of the founders remarks, “Veterans make the community in which they live a better place.” That community ranges from their block to the world. Think for a moment about how your community would be lacking if not for veterans.
To me, what makes a warrior, in any walk of life, is the willingness to give 110%, more than they themselves thought they were capable of, donating comforts not for glory but for being the best and furthering the betterment of others. Those are the traits that distinguish a worthy life and neighbor and citizen.
The Warrior Legacy Foundation is not out to make claims for government benefits. It is focused on raising the profile of the warrior class as a guide to what we all need to be and raise our children to be. Go to the above link and sign up to be part of this important mission. Be a neighbor and not just a bystander.
Some more info here.
The words for the Mauldin toon are "...forever, Amen. Hit the dirt."
The man likes to sail:
You have nowhere to go, and nowhere to be, and after the second time you take them your sailing companions must lose the urge to talk about the process of sailing in an enthusiastic fashion and simply enjoy it, and the company. And with the sky arrayed overhead, and the sea below, you are content to examine the world dispassionately. And the beauty and simplicity of the clouds that drift, the terns that swoop, the wavelets that tap their gentle knuckles on the windward side, the feeling of motion snatched without struggle from the endless breezes that massage your cheek and sail alike allow you to enjoy the world and all its wonders, and everybody in it, if just for a moment.
Monday, May 18. 2009
A nice email from a friend who came from Russia with his family to work in the US:
Special thanks for the introduction of the Maggie’s Farm. I don’t go to bed unless I read something there. I hope that you are going to survive the Bolsheviks intervention in this country.
Saturday, May 16. 2009
Negro Barber Shop, 1936, Atlanta, GA. Walker Evans. (h/t Dr X, who likes the kind of photos I like.) In 60 years, a photo of your barber shop will be just as interesting.
Friday, May 15. 2009
Here's how (h/t, Rug Rag):
Thursday, May 14. 2009
I hate studies of happiness because 1) I think happiness is fleeting 2) Everybody's happiness is different 3) I think good cheer and happiness come from within and from a clean conscience - not from without and, 4) I don't think life is or should be all about happiness anyway: I think it is meant to be made of sterner stuff than that...but that's me.
Therefore, I believe that "the good life" is not a one-size-fits-all shoe. For some, it's about being half in the bag on a mountaintop. For some, it's struggling with impossible math problems; for some, it's exerting minimal effort. For some, it's about having good relationships, but many folks don't give a darn about that. "Happiness" is a useless concept and, to me, a "good life" means nothing more than an honorable, responsible Christian life, with minimal jail time, and some golf and tennis and a good man in it but, again, that's just me.
Joshua Shenk has a piece in The Atlantic on the now-72 year-old Harvard longitudinal study. He begins:
Last fall, I spent about a month in the file room of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, hoping to learn the secrets of the good life. The project is one of the longest-running—and probably the most exhaustive—longitudinal studies of mental and physical well-being in history. Begun in 1937 as a study of healthy, well-adjusted Harvard sophomores (all male), it has followed its subjects for more than 70 years.
Read Shenk's piece, and tell me what you think. David Brooks wrote a commentary on the Shenks piece, in which he says:
The study had produced a stream of suggestive correlations. The men were able to cope with problems better as they aged. The ones who suffered from depression by 50 were much more likely to die by 63. The men with close relationships with their siblings were much healthier in old age than those without them.
But it's the baffling variety of their lives that strikes one the most. It is as if we all contain a multitude of characters and patterns of behavior, and these characters and patterns are bidden by cues we don't even hear. They take center stage in consciousness and decision-making in ways we can't even fathom. The man who is careful and meticulous in one stage of life is unrecognizable in another context.
Shenk's treatment is superb because he weaves in the life of George Vaillant, the man who for 42 years has overseen this work. Vaillant's overall conclusion is familiar and profound. Relationships are the key to happiness. "Happiness is love. Full Stop," he says in a video.
In his professional life, he has lived out that creed. He has been an admired and beloved colleague and mentor. But the story is more problematic at home. When he was 10, his father, an apparently happy and accomplished man, went out by the pool of their Main Line home and shot himself. His mother shrouded the episode. They never attended a memorial service nor saw the house again.
He has been through three marriages and returned to his second wife. His children tell Shenk of a "civil war" at home and describe long periods when they wouldn't speak to him. His oldest friend says he has a problem with intimacy.
Even when we know something, it is hard to make it so. Reading this essay, I had the same sense I had while reading Christopher Buckley's description of his parents in the New York Times Magazine not long ago. There is a complexity to human affairs before which science and analysis simply stands mute.
Ed: Related, see some of our previous posts on the topic:
Are we happy yet?
The Aristocracy of the Human Spirit: Freedom vs Happiness
Money and Happiness
Huxley's Brave New World at 75
Do Americans expect too much of marriage?
Happiness for Sale! No brain, no pain.
Grumpy. Are Americans hard to please, or do we just love to bitch?
NEVER get out of your car or off your tractor without putting the parking brake on. Never, ever, no matter where you are.
Make it a habit.
Somebody had to spruce up the ole driveway. Gwynnie put a much improved head on my body, but I think it makes me look a bit transexual or metrosexual or mixed frozen vegetable or whatever - sort of like that Boston trolley guy/gal. Which I am not, to the best of my knowledge.
These machines are fun to drive, and it makes the gravel look great until somebody drives on it.
Wednesday, May 13. 2009
h/t, Theo
From Captain Capitalism: Why I got a vasectomy
Monday, May 11. 2009
One of us quoted Dylan recently, who said something like "You got to take your inspiration wherever you can get it."
And we recently posted the lines which begin "Sing, Goddess...." Thus acknowledging that the Goddess is the author, not the man. The man is the messenger.
It reminds me of what my pastor once said to me when I asked where the preaching came from: "I stand up there, and the Holy Spirit uses me. It just flows out. I have nothing to do with it."
The definition of "inspiration" is "the immediate effect of God or gods." How wonderful is it that the word doubles as the medical term for inhaling, and that "expiration" doubles for exhaling and for death?
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