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.
Time's winged chariot does hurry along. As life goes on, it hurries faster, frighteningly so.
I know only one way to slow down that acceleration: do new things, take on new challenges, visit new places, have new experiences, find some fresh successes and failures, make new friends, . While routine and structure are generally useful and comforting for people, new challenges and adventures, large or small, which entail some special stimulations and anxieties.
Yes, anxieties. New stresses are good. Seek God, learn Mandarin, lift heavier weights, remodel the house, take a Great Courses course on something about which you are totally ignorant and uninterested to open your mind, find a new mate (not for me - we make new together), climb a mountain, or try some good therapy and reawaken or unleash parts of your inner true self which have been smoldering in the dark for years.
All such things have the effect of adding punctuation marks, or even fresh chapters, to the humdrum prose of life.
While it's not just about a manipulative seduction, Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) was spot on with the time thing.
To His Coy Mistress
Had we but world enough and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime. We would sit down, and think which way To walk, and pass our long love’s day. Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide Of Humber would complain. I would Love you ten years before the flood, And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires and more slow; An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze; Two hundred to adore each breast, But thirty thousand to the rest; An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state, Nor would I love at lower rate. But at my back I always hear Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found; Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song; then worms shall try That long-preserved virginity, And your quaint honour turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust;
The grave’s a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace. Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires, Now let us sport us while we may, And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
Let us roll all our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball, And tear our pleasures with rough strife Through the iron gates of life: Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.
Again, a Christmas book only for those who wish to continue or to update their secondary or college educations: Campbell's Biology.
It is the current basic text, and it guarantees a thorough grounding in the basics. If you shop around on line, you can find it for much less than the list price.
A magnificent book, clear and easy to read if you recall some basic biochem. If you took college bio ten years ago, you know almost nothing.
I don't want to write another one of those routine "How to deal with holiday stress" posts.
However, I will say this about my profession. When I evaluate a new patient, part of my diagnostic job is to assess their level of functioning in all areas of life, and to make a guess about their potential levels of functioning. What things do we consider? Social functioning and friendships, home management and organization of personal finances, family relationships, ability to work and at what level, hobbies and avocational interests/activities, conscientiousness, stress tolerance, emotional continence, functional fragility, impulsivity, intelligence, and so forth.
These are personal characteristics which may or may not have anything to do with any DSM diagnosis.
Making a functional life is not easy. While every single day tests those capacities in some ways, I have no doubt that this time of year can require us all to stretch our life-management skills.
Life has its vales of tears, but also its hills of delights and, very rarely, its mountaintops of joy. Sometimes I wonder whether the mandarins of my profession seek to pathologize all negative emotions.
Nobody promised you a rose garden. That was Eden. Learning to bear emotional pain, like bearing some physical pain, is part of life. It never hurts, of course, to have somebody or something accompanying you with that.
It's not a rant, but the Prof sure does unload a lot of info and insight in this short clip. "Of course you can just compare yourself to the few people who are richer than you and feel sorry for yourself, but that's pretty pathetic in my estimation"
It's dominating the news these days, and rightly so.
With humans, for whom it is natural to live within cultural/religious contexts, questions about "natural" are always fraught. However, I will claim that sexual abuse by women and men, but more by men because of dominance hierarchies, is part of the animal side of human nature like violence, etc. Human nature contains much unpleasantness.
There are errors in Freud's Civilization and It's Discontents, but he got the big picture right. Living a bourgeois civilized life is challenging for humanoid animals and, depending on the culture, demands some sorts of instinctual restraints or constraints, at least on regular folks. The elites get away with more, and the poor folks often end up in jail.
Claiming that something is "natural" does not claim any moral valence. However, even in a Christian culture like medieval Europe the knights and nobles pretty much had access to any female who took his fancy (and vice versa, in the fancy courts of Europe - if a princess summons you to her boudoir, No is not an answer). Today in American, females teachers are routinely called on the carpet for seducing their high school students (which is not very difficult to do). For many women, "star-f-ing" is a diverting hobby, so it works both ways.
One of the perquisites of wealth, power, dominance, or celebrity is access to sexual adventure without consequences. In our culture, we consider some of it immoral and some of it illegal. Other cultures have very different rules about sexual behavior.
My point is simply that, in our society, there is and has been far more sexual libertinism, rape, and abuse at all levels of society (but perhaps most at the lowest and highest) than people like to admit or confess. Until they are caught. The unleashed sex drive is a powerful force and in people who don't care much, power, money, lust, and indifference to law or societal codes can let animal spirits loose. Attila the Hun is said to have fathered 10,000 children, which is why most Europeans claim him as an ancestor. 10,000 were not consensual, I am certain. But I wasn't there.
My parents would be in jail today for neglect. I think the theory used to be that kids needed adventure and freedom, along with a load of mandatory chores, because the goal was to create resilient and independent people as soon as possible.
We had BB guns and made campfires in the woods. Nobody knew where the heck we were because we had bikes. As long as we got home for tennis lessons, there was no problem.
It is the rare male who is entirely lacking in barbarian fantasies and impulses of various sorts. Rape, murder, mayhem, etc are all part of the dark side (aka uncivilized side) of the human soul. The rich and powerful, like medieval lords, quickly discover that they can get away with lots of id-driven behavior. Thus the world of female pulchritude can become not a feast for the eyes but a literal feast. Lesser people who try it tend to get into trouble fast but in Hollywood it's just tabloid fodder.
I sometimes wonder how people would behave if they were guaranteed that they could get away with anything. Would I rob a Brinks truck, or lift a Cartier watch from the store? Have an affair with Brad Pitt? I would like to think not.
So when I read that Weinstein is headed for "rehab," it knew it was a pure PR stunt. Rehab for living the role of a dirty old predatory man? There is no "rehab" or treatment for rotten behavior outside the judicial system. And that rarely works either. Rules are for the little people, the bourgeoisie, where there are more consequences.
I'll say that being powerful in some way, like alcohol or cocaine or wartime, can be disinhibiting for some or even many people. Most likely, for people with a little sociopathic tendencies because of the evident absence of remorse. After all, the men in question here have daughters...
The Weinstein Co., reeling from the accusations against the co-chairman of the company, released a statement on Tuesday denying any knowledge of the accusations. "These alleged actions are antithetical to human decency. These allegations come as an utter surprise to the Board. Any suggestion that the Board had knowledge of this conduct is false," the TWC board said.
It is a general term for all of these things: being pleased with the way you look naked, feeling energetic, and having well-developed strength/musculature, cardiovascular endurance, and athleticism (agility+speed+power).
I pretty much follow something like the Maggie's program of a combination of weight-lifting, calisthenics, and endurance cardio. About 5 hours weekly but I also play sports one night/week and on weekends. I watch my nutrition carefully because many middle-aged women have a tendency to get sloppy regardless of their exercise program. (No rational amount of exertion can produce fat loss, unfortunately, but physical exertion does reduce subjective hunger and "false hunger" - the hunger that overweight people experience.)
Regarding muscle maintenance and strength-building in middle age (40+), I want to highlight a paragraph from yesterday's post:
Research has demonstrated that low load high intensity lifting at 30% of the one repetition max (1RM) to failure can elicit similar rates of muscle protein synthesis as traditional, high load low intensity lifting at 90% of 1RM. Data suggests that low and high load lifting performed to failure yield equivalent hypertrophy over time. So exercise volume (repetitions x sets x load) can achieve maximal muscle fiber activation, including the important larger type II fibers. This is also much less likely to cause injury, an important consideration at any age.
Note that it says "to failure." That is the key, and that is the tricky part because the mental "I give up" almost always precedes the muscles giving up. Fighting that mental part is the discipline of exertion, and why trainers know they can almost always say "C'mon, give me one or two more." Women have no need to fear developing the hard or bulging muscles of their fit and athletic menfolk. That can't happen naturally with females.
To hedge your bets on the current consensus, I suggest going heavy with the weights on power lifts occasionally. You might even see your 1RM increase if you dare to check it (with a spotter) every few months.
Should "Orthorexia Nervosa" be a diagnosis? No. We are already trying to label every human quirk, foolishness, and obsession as a medical diagnosis. Quirks are one thing that makes people interesting if not amusing. Many people ascribe magical properties to food. Some people think more about food, and some people just view it as fuel.
"Symbolic representation" sounds like a dull topic. Prof Peterson here is stunning as he takes on the organizing myths of human existence. Maps of meaning orient us to the world, and without them we encounter the dragons of chaos, confusion, and existential horror.
He connects psychology, myth, art, philosophy, politics, religion, good and evil, heroism, parenthood, and almost everything except the kitchen sink. The man is a Canadian national treasure.
"Any coherent organizing principle is better than none." Interpretive structures. I gave it a few listenings to fully appreciate this 2-hour talk.
It seems to me that the social value of different personality traits, behaviors, and accomplishments varies widely across cultures and subcultures, and certainly across history.
I'm not sure what "worthy" means, though. Christian praise songs say "Only You are worthy." All I can think of about "worthy" is worthy to marry one of my splendid kids. That is a high bar in many areas, I'm afraid.
It's a strange approach to the subject, written by a therapist of some sort. Why does anybody break any sorts of covenants, agreements, vows, commitments, laws, etc., even when they know how destructive to conscience and good cheer it can be?
Of course it's because we are implanted with strong, relentless desires of all sorts. Food, lust, love, violence, competition, revenge, excitement. Raw life forces. You can call them emotions or instincts or whatever you want to call them. Most human desires lack any moral, much less bourgeois-moral, components and often lack any practical components. We need only refer to our fantasies to see that.
A more interesting topic is to consider is why and when people do notbreak any sorts of covenants, agreements, vows, commitments, laws, social conventions, etc. despite pressing desires. It's more interesting because it's the special human part. The monkey parts are no mystery at all.
Last week, I posted on one reason for the paradox of why overweight people tend to feel more hunger, and to eat more avidly, than others even though they have no nutritional needs.
How can that be adaptive? Not all of physiology is adaptive to everything.
It's an interesting effect which may have some adaptive value, or maybe not. It does explain why many normal-weight fitness-seekers need to force themselves to eat some protein when they have no appetite and no interest in food. It could be part of why hard cardio exercisers lose weight. Exercise doesn't provide fat loss, but the cardio reduces appetite. I am not talking about anorectics, just regular people who want to be in fighting shape and kind to their joints.
Aging is characterized by changes in body composition. CT studies demonstrate that as we age, subcutaneous fat (below the skin, SF) decreases and visceral fat (in abdominal cavity, VF) increases. VF is the enemy. Because it causes systemic inflammation, it is an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease, stroke and death. If that’s not enough, VF also provides the Buddha-belly mid-life midriff.
The other most common age-related change in body composition is muscle loss. Because muscle has a high metabolic rate, its loss is associated with a reduction in energy expenditure. This decrease in caloric burn lends itself to weight (fat) gain.
We term this phenomenon "False Hunger" because overweight people have no need for outside energy sources. In fact, though, overweight people tend to experience more subjective hunger than normal-weight or ectomorphic people. Is that cause, or effect?
A bit of both but mostly effect, as it turns out. It mostly has to do with how pudgy people ramp up their insulin response and the resulting, or related, insulin insensitivity. Illogical as it seems, having extra body fat makes people feel hungrier. Feed me, Seymour. It's a vicious cycle: Always Hungry? Here’s Why.
Overweight people can survive weeks or months without carbohydrates/sugars using their body fat as an energy source as long as they consume protein, fats, and oils to prevent muscle deterioration.
Can you lose weight via exercise? No, not practically
Does high-intensity exercise reduce appetite? Yes, usually. Dedicated fitness people force-feed themselves to keep their strength and endurance improving.
Stomach-stretching? People who eat bulky meals on any regular basis do stretch their stomachs, which can result in increased subjective appetite and hunger. We recommend small meals for everybody, regardless of weight. Except on feast days or special occasions. People feel less tired, more energetic, and more productive with small meals.
Fast eaters, voracious eaters? Fast eaters trick their satiety signals by overeating (ie, greater volume of nutrients than needed to thrive) before satiety can kick in. Very few fast eaters are in good shape. A bad habit, and bad manners too.
Can an analogy be made between the pursuit of mental fitness and of physical fitness during aging? I certainly do not know, so I will remain skeptical.
The idea that pursuing mental fitness could prevent Alzheimer's is ridiculous. However, it appears to me that many retired people take on difficult mental challenges for an hour or two daily to try to keep their brains geared up. I am not talking about passive learning (ie reading), but active studying. A few examples from people I know:
- A retired guy who decided to refresh his college calculus, and has since taken his math studies three levels beyond where he had gone before, and is still going
- A retired gal who has become fluent in Italian, and can now read Dante and hang out in Italy, considering buying a summer place in Ferrara.
- A retired lawyer who has become fluent in Mandarin
- A friend who decided to become fluent and literate in a new language every two years, and has thus far done that three times using Rosetta Stone.
- A friend who at age 50 has taken up piano in a serious way
- A retired executive neighbor who thought he was too smart to take up mechanics in high school who took up small engine mechanics and is moving on to (pre-computerized) auto mechanics. Now a grease monkey and very happy.
- A retired physician who decided to become an expert in immunology and the genetics of immunology, and has been doing so, while having to learn biomedical statistics on the side.
- A friend who has just gone back to college. Graduated decades ago, but feels she missed a lot.
Mental exertions/disciplines like these are analogous to physical training. I'm sure it's not wasted effort because difficult achievement is its own reward. One thing we know is that strenuous physical exertion (ie not walking or relaxed swimming) is good for brain maintenance but not the opposite.
That may or may not be true, but we will all grow old, get sick, and die unless we encounter a fatal accident or get sick and die before we get old.
It's worth reading Cicero's essay On Growing Old before growing old. Appropriately enough, that edition is in large print. Meanwhile, I endorse efforts to remain physically and mentally as vigorous as possible for as long as possible. It makes life more productive and fulfilling but, with luck and if we want to, we might end up old.
I know people who use meditation to settle their minds. I also know people who use prayer in a similar way. Smart guy Robert Wright (The Moral Animal) seems to have become enchanted with a secular Buddhist form of meditation.
As summer begins to reach an end here in the northern hemisphere, I found myself recently alone on a remote beach in Maine soaking up beneficial solar rays with no clothing and no sunscreen. I pulled a small kayak up on the little island's rocky beach, and exulted in Mr. Sun's reaching sweetly into every crack and pore of my imperfect and slightly-aging multi-gravida but decently-athletic body. Mr. Sun doesn't discriminate.
I reflected on the pure animal pleasures as only the human kind of animal can reflect. The delight of touch, like the delight of a warm breeze. A gently rocking boat. The heat of the sun on skin, a breeze through your naked pubes. A hug from a friend or kid. A dog licking your hand. Sexual delights, of course. Powerful. The taboo relief pleasures of peeing and pooing. A hot shower that you hate to leave. The thrill of a violent thunderstorm. The tingle of a spoonful of delicious champagne sorbet or fresh raspberry sorbet. The joy of smacking a tennis overhead onto the sneakers of an opponent on a sunny morning. A hot tomato off the vine. The smell of hot trees and flowers. The pleasure of giving in to gravity onto a cozy bed at the end of a day. The fun of walking into cool air conditioning from a sizzling street, and the fun of walking from a car onto a sizzling beach. A chilly glass or two of chardonnay on the lawn at 5 pm.
Mindless, happy-animal, universal pleasures. Controlled hedonisms with no vomitoria or alcohol- and cocaine-fueled orgies. Each season offers its own set of innocent delights, but summertime offers the most.
Carpe diem, because you and I might not be alive next year. Anything can happen. I believe in working hard and long, but not always being a drudge. What's for supper? Grab a beer and make yourselves a turkey sandwich, family. I ain't cooking.
Again, a Christmas book only for those who wish to continue or to update their secondary or college educations: 
As summer begins to reach an end here in the northern hemisphere, I found myself recently alone on a remote beach in Maine soaking up beneficial solar rays with no clothing and no sunscreen. I pulled a small kayak up on the little island's rocky beach, and exulted in Mr. Sun's reaching sweetly into every crack and pore of my imperfect and slightly-aging multi-gravida but decently-athletic body. Mr. Sun doesn't discriminate.