The Diversion of Plenty!

Madame:

Summer is my favorite time because people can be more of who they really are, not who society wants or expects them to be.   It is a laid back time.  Expectations are fewer.  People can indulge in the things that really amuse them or excite them.  Yes, yes, I know that other seasons can do likewise, but it is always crammed in among the bustle then.  In the summer, the bustle is of a different kind.  Even the structured things seem less…structured.

My favorite summer things?  I really like to be outdoors, in various capacities—walking, running, biking, hiking, swimming, being by or near water, sitting in an outdoor café, etc., but also just being outside and watching and listening to LIFE (even the silent kind).

I really like finding music, especially outdoor live music.

I like being with friends and family—a lot.

I like watching an action movie or comedy in a cool theater or a drive-in one.

I like being on vacation, both traveling and at home.

I like exploring new places on foot.

I like finding a new cool dessert place to try (just not too often!).

I like to sip tea on my deck in the cool of the morning.

I like to feel the sun on my body.  Before 10 and after 4.

I like to stay up late and feel the cool of the evening under a summer night sky.

I like to talk with family and friends for hours outdoors.

I like to go to gaming conventions and other gatherings of gamers.

I like to take canoe trips.

I like festivals and outdoor markets.

I like pool parties.

I like cookouts.

I like sleeping outdoors when I can.

I like it after a summer rain but before it gets too humid.

I like to take guilt-free naps—preferably outdoors!

I like to read—outdoors of course!

I like soda drinks in glass bottles.

I like homemade ice cream.

I like long hours of daylight.

I like—dare I say it?—bare skin.

I like it when there’s nothing I HAVE to do.

I really like it when I'm not working. :)

Summer is super!

A Feast of Relevant Diversion

Professor J,

You may think from the title that I am going to go down Hedges' path of pointing out all the ways our diverted attention from real issues hurts us as individuals and a society. But this is going to be a celebration and recommendation.

 First, one quick side note: The past few months I've been giving the media a lot less attention. Especially cable news stations where they have 24 hours to fill and sometimes have no real facts and so often fill time with "expert" commentators and wild speculation (think flight MH370). Yesterday I turned it on in anticipation of writing this post and the topics were: the mess in Iraq, the new I-phone, Hillary as a candidate.  Isn't that what they were last year? And the year before? And the year before? My new approach to news is to gather facts, not opinions, and then read some in depth book on topics of interest. Of course the challenge is to be informed enough to have a discussion yet not gorged on irrelevant or misguided information. I'll let you know how it goes.

On to today's topic!

When I was a kid and school started back up we always had to write a What I Did On My Summer Vacation essay. Now I think those poor teachers were so depressed that their vacations were over that this was about all they could muster up on the first day.  What if we did that again? Only it's going to be What to DO on Your Summer Vacation. Here are my first 3:

Visit your local art museum.  Predictable from a docent, I know. But even people who don't care about art will benefit from exposure to beautiful works of art. No art knowledge necessary! You don't have to know who painted it or what style it is, or anything else. My favorite tour technique is to just have people look at a work of art and tell me what they think is going on and how it makes them feel. You don't need a guide for that. Artists, especially contemporary ones, want you to connect with their work on an emotional level. Anyone can do that. One upside of going in summer is that you aren't going to be in crowded galleries with classes of excited school children. Most museums nowadays have fabulous restaurants and gift shops. Plus it's the coldest place in town, in order to protect the art and museums generally have times during the week when they are free (AKA "pay what you can"). Exhibitions change frequently so even if you've been before it will be a different experience when you go back. Here's what's happening at our museum this summer: Meet Marisol.

Make some art: My coffee group has evolved from Starbucks and freewheeling discussion to green tea (wine if we meet at night) and Zen Tangles.  When we meet at our friend's house who is an artist and has a studio with an amazing vibe we chat for the first hour or so, go over the day's new patterns, and then work on our tangles (generally for a little over an hour) in complete silence. We don't mean to do that, and sometimes someone has a question or comment, but this form of meditative drawing is calming and relaxing even in a social setting. After we're finished we compare and are quite impressed with ourselves! Again, as with enjoying a museum there is no knowledge or skill necessary beforehand. The tangle above of the bee is just a practice page and is a bit more deliberate than usual.

Learn a new skill: I'm taking a one day photography class next month and I'm about to take up knitting which has been on my bucket list forever. I have had trouble finding a class or someone to teach me (there's that introvert thing) but last week a Zen Tangle friend's daughter who just graduated from college asked me if I would teach her about beekeeping. In return she will teach me to knit. The second part of this one could be trade a skill with someone. Anything counts! Knowledge about a particular subject, gardening, sewing, carpentry, welding (on my list), drawing, refinishing furniture, the list is endless! And then no one can say you "don't have any skills." ;)

Okay, Prof, what are your favorite summer diversions?

That Policy Sucking Sound

Madame M:

Well, the occasional “business” person has (to be kind) often been far from impressive, although perhaps it’s because they haven’t been business people in the usual sense. 

Yes, with the exception of the first, it’s largely been a parade of lawyers, with the occasional ex-soldier thrown in.  Even Wilson the Progressive, who was an actual political scientist (rather than just having majored in political science prior to becoming a lawyer, as many lawyers do), was also a lawyer.   In addition, although he emphasized it a good deal less, Wilson was a historian.  Given Wilson’s enthusiastic support  and fascist-like enforcement of the reprehensible Espionage and Sedition Acts during the First World War, as well as what could be termed some of his sexist and racist views and actions, it is a caution to this historian and political scientist that not only are people complex and flawed, but power can twist even those who should know better!

In addition, historians in particular, but political scientists too, often have trouble coming to policy decisions.  Whether it’s because they get lost in “analysis paralysis” from looking at so many variables and instances and factors and possibilities, or if it’s just their academic natures, effecting of policy could be problematic.  Although historians can sometimes craft policies (or, rather, portions of policies), my confidence in their execution of said policies (and the quick/real time flexible adjustments necessary as the policy went along) would not be extremely high.

It’s probably better in most instances that historians and political scientists and other specialists sit in positions of high advisement, and have real, significant input into the crafting and execution of those policies.  Finding a decisive non-historian political leader who values historian and political scientist input is unfortunately all too rare in our society, and the few who do often lack the “charisma” factor that the fickle and intermittently attentive America public seem to require.

The Cheney-Bush-Rumsfeld (and Wolfowitz, although he at least displays a small modicum of real reflection on it) et al, gang of barely-or-never-served-in-the-military foreign policymaking imploders have ensured that our treasury is depleted (the final financial bloodletting, once all costs—including VA—of the policy criminality of Iraq alone are projected into the future, will total in excess of $4-6 TRILLION dollars) and that our options from this point forward are poor.  Ironically, we now are not only probably propelled to some accommodation with Iran on what to do in Iraq, but have spurred into production far more terroristic individuals than have been eliminated.  The comments from the general American public, about wanting to stay out of something we so thoroughly broke in our willful ignorant arrogance, are probably closer to the least bad of all the now bad options there are.  Aside from the tribal difficulties of Iraq (a whole ‘nother animal), the triple sectarian contention of Kurds, Sunnis, and Shias will be the Iraqis’ to sort out, likely quite violently.  Our efforts will probably be focused on dampening down any chain-reaction spiraling of involvement of those (Turkey and Iran, particularly) with interests there.  Such a “policy” by us will have a thoroughly mixed reaction in and on the rest of the region and world, but as you said, we have so royally screwed things up (and made possible so much other screwing up and machinations by others), it may be the least-bad option.  The Obama administration gets a good deal of criticism (this Prof may be one of its critics) for foreign policy dithering, but in fairness it’s also been left holding a smelly, rotten bag of crap.

I really was wanting to return us to lighter summer fare, and look at all the air that has been infused into the windbag! :)  Guess my lighter topic will have to wait until next week!

Iraq Questions

Professor J,

Hope your Father's Day was a great one.

Thanks for enlightening us on some of the history of the current situation in Iraq.  People in power never seem to look down the road and imagine all the troubles they cause when they set about carving up maps, even if they are doing it with good intentions. And historically, good intentions haven't had too much to do with it.

Oh, those unintended consequences.

Isn't part of our problem that we get leaders who tend to be lawyers or the occasional business person? How might a country with historians in position to make policy, domestic and foreign, look different? 

Of course that would entail imagining a world where education, history, and liberal arts are valued. All of these connections just keep tumbling in upon themselves.

I'll admit to not being up to speed for an in depth discussion of this situation due to a self imposed cut back on my access to news (or the media's access to me). Tough for a former news junkie. When I hear people bringing it up in conversation while out and about however, the overall sentiment is "why can't we stay home and mind our own business?"

And what's our moral obligation there (if any) given that we created a mass of problems (and destruction) and then left. Is the best course of action to let them solve their own problems even though we are largely responsible for many of them?

How does that play to the rest of the world?

The Price of Willful Ignorance

Madame:

Thank you for your comments.  I will keep working on it.

A tardy Happy Father’s Day to all fathers.  I am posting this behind schedule for that very reason!

Many subjects could be discussed at the moment.  Before we return to lighter summer fare, let me light amplify SOME on our Iraq “policy.”

Iraq is an example of why history is so important.  To really understand the Iraq of today, and especially, to have a meaningful clue as to how to address issues there, one needs to go back at least to the 1920s, and really, probably to the 600s or even earlier.  That mosaic is far too intricate to reproduce here, but suffice to say that decisions made are still reverberating with impact even today.

Because America doesn’t care to understand history like that, its “policies” don’t have lasting strength, they don’t have logic and true buy-in, and they end up blowing back (to borrow from the title of a must-read book) on us.  Further ironically, they don’t even work in the short-term.  We don’t have meaningful or informed discussion prior to “formulating” those policies, and we grasp at flailing ropes (which could be snakes for all we know) when another  perpetual “crisis” appears that seems to “demand” our national treasure and the lives of not just our people. but many people.

Look at the Iraq mess (which the unscrupulous are using for their own political and economic and other selfish ends).  We intervened on at best dubious circumstances (there were no weapons of mass destruction—as any regional specialist worth his salt knew that Saddam would try to make Iran (the historical enemy of Iraq) think that he had those weapons even if he didn’t; there were no terrorists—certainly none connected to 9/11—not because Iraq was a nice place; Saddam  was a murderous Stalinesque ruler—but  because he didn’t like them because they weren’t controllable).  We had no real plan, no end game, no think through.  We improvised when we were “surprised” that things didn’t go well in the aftermath, and then had to support yet another corrupt/incompetent/repressive/petty regime (how many times, AmeriRome, are you going to do that?) that we had little faith in (and, it turns out, neither did its people), and that our very own counter-insurgency/nation-building doctrine said was doomed to fail because of that fact.

So today we have an Iraq that was formerly one of the most secular places in the whole region now becoming militanized and religious extremized.  We have a mixed bag of people opposing a brutal and pathetic regime, but with the most effective of that mixed bag of opponents happening to be ruthlessly terroristic and medieval in outlook.  A group, however, that appears to have little interest outside Iraq and its immediate surroundings, and virtually none in wanting to strike at American targets on American soil.

And that could all change from the first bomb or missile of American intervention.

So:  1) we have created or vastly magnified the power of terrorists where previously there was virtually none, and 2) we have painted ourselves into a corner, where almost all our options look various shades of bad, almost no one trusts us, and there is virtually no confidence we will do the right thing.

That willful ignorance thing of ours is the knife in our own hand applied wildly and uncomprehendingly to our own back.

Timing is Everything

Professor J,

Your plan does have some details that would need to be worked out. Not because they are impossible however but because we have become so use to having everything we want at the exact moment we want it. I can clearly remember my father gassing up the car on Saturday and my mother going to the grocery because things weren't open on Sunday. Everything wasn't closed of course, but enough things that people had to think ahead a bit and plan accordingly. No one complained about it, it's just the way things were.

Today, we're without those restful Sundays for people to rely on anymore, because not only is everything open, but overworked and time starved parents have to use every available moment to accomplish a great many things on their days off. And often those days are jam packed with activities for over scheduled children. In addition to all that, the stigma of using Sundays in such a way is gone. Now I think that's great when I'm the one out shopping for something I need but that cultural discomfort about it protected us in a way. You are correct in pointing out that your Independence Week will need us to "make it socially/culturally boorish to talk about or do work then—sort of a social anathema."

Last Saturday some neighbors organized a neighborhood meet and greet. They sent out flyers and grilled out for the entire neighborhood. I met people I'd only ever waved to in passing. I found out a few other people nearby have chickens and met a woman who is keen to get into beekeeping. The conversation was full of the general questions about why we hadn't done this before and how enjoyable the sense of community was. Of course I thought about your idea for a week of such events. In smatterings of conversation throughout the afternoon people talked about how hard they worked and how little vacation they got (I wonder if the French know how completely jealous Americans are of them?).

People are absolutely ready for an idea like yours.

Another common theme I heard brought up was how tired people are of their "things." Once again I found myself among a group of people working toward embracing simplicity, sustainability, and the idea of living a "good life" as opposed to the good life. Later in the week a workman was here and while we chatted the same topics arose. I keep hearing the same ideas among groups of people and no longer just among my friends or in items I read. Still may be a bit skewed for many reasons but I'm beginning to think it's a trend.

You keep working on your idea. The time may be more right than you realize.

Getting Past El Diablo In The Details

Madame M:

National Independence Week it is then!

Diving into some details…What about the sectors of the economy that others in the world rely on (however they rely on them), such as the stock market?  And what about the service industries?  Restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, airlines, trains, hotels, etc.?  Surely they (or rather, their employees and owners) need a break.  Do all or most of them get shut down for the whole week, forcing people to “stock up” ahead of time?  Do they get opened one day in the middle of the week?  Do only some of them get opened, on a sort of lottery system?  Do all of them to get to be opened for part of the time, only on a carefully thought out rotational basis?

There will be, as there nearly always is in societies in general and democratic capitalist ones in particular, conflicting desires.  Many people, when they are off, want to travel, and to be able to pull into, for example, a filling station anywhere along the way.  Given the deficiency of planning (and logistics) skills in a fair amount of the populace, this could pose a real problem of stranded travelers.

Others want to dine out on their time off.  Do they forego that pleasure altogether for the period, or will it exist but be limited?  And if limited, will it be limited as to hours (to allow the employees/owner to enjoy many of the benefits of the week), or will it be limited as to number of places open?

All of this goes to the complex heart of a modern economy.  There’s so much we take for granted as being always available.  And we all want free time, but we want our whims and desires to be fillable when they strike us on that free time, whether that be for a bookstore, restaurant, hotel, train, convenience store, etc., let alone what we feel are “needs.”  One way we might “have our celebration and shopping too” is to borrow a page from Chinese New Year and permit some farmers markets, etc. to be open.  Since they would not necessarily be classified as “regular” businesses, the burden on them wouldn’t be too much and it wouldn’t be an “unfair” advantage (as it might be for conventional businesses).  Yes, I am aware that it might be greatly advantaging the farmers markets, but that’s okay. One, they largely deserve it, and two, it’s only for a short period of time.

And of course, we haven’t even addressed the “just in time” feature of our economy, which depends on continual transport and delivery of goods, as there really isn’t much of a stockpile of, well, much.  We could get a taste for just how slim is the margin that we live on.

Which might not be a bad thing.

Changing the World with Nothing

Professor J,

I vote for National Independence Week since it would be linked to the 4th of July. You totally had my number my mentioning not making it a week of projects. Though there is a huge difference between people scurrying to get things done with any leisure time they have, like the husband you mentioned, and those of us who are in our zone when restoring a piece of furniture or planting a garden. I have noticed, as I'm sure you have, that home improvement stores have linked every 3 day weekend to projects around the house. Labor Day maybe, but Memorial Day and Easter?

A week of no expectations and no work while socially recharging would be sure to increase productivity. Many of the things our work saturated culture is fond of are actually counter productive (literally). People are recharged after a brief 20 minute nap but can you imagine trying to catch some sleep at work? Several studies show that teenagers need more sleep and for it to go on later in the morning, but what do we do? Have them waiting for school buses before the sun comes up. Healthier employees get more done and are better problem solvers but let's keep them stressed and overworked and then use fear as a management technique.

Simon Sinek gave a great short TED Talk about how great leaders inspire by making others feel safe.

I recently did a silent retreat which I shared about extensively on my blog. I was so completely relaxed that I learned quite a few things. But one thing I realized is that vacations are often not all that relaxing due to the fact that we try to cram too much in. We want to have every experience, see every site, wearing ourselves out along the way. How often have you heard "I need a vacation from my vacation?"

Can you imagine how much actual work would get done in that first week back from our week of socializing? While everyone loves getting away and taking a break, doing it seems to fuel a desire to get things done upon return. I think it would fuel production and creativity.

The link you shared about a family celebrating a week of holidays was interesting. But it exhausted me. There seemed to be a lot of planning and shopping ahead of time to plan for all those things. Good luck finding Valentines in July. I like your idea better. Catching up with friends we keep meaning to see but are too busy for and just being together with family.

On your blog you mention the fact that it generally takes a funeral to get everyone together. Even under sad circumstances we see what we've been missing and make promises to do better. To get together soon. To see each other more often. But the flowers haven't even wilted before we go back to our daily grind of being too busy to do the things we know are good for us.

Let's make plans instead of promises.

Oh, It's Nothing

Madame M:

Since you’ve nominated me to be in charge of this… :)

I’m thinking that the best time would be the first full week that contains the present 4^th of July holiday.  That’s prime summer, minimal productivity, high energy, warm, low maintenance, etc., as well as far away from other holiday periods and (usually) school sessions.  And for the shoulders-to-the-grindstone crowd, combining it with the holiday would mean only four days that would be “additional.”

The naming of it we could have all sorts of fun about: National American Week.  Know Your Country Week.  Know Americans Week.  National Independence Week.  Social Health Week. Invest In Relationships Week.  National Socializing Week.  Community Week.  American Holiday Week. The Beauty of Nature Week.  Social Network Week.  Friends and Family Week.  The Power of Many Week.  Break From Work Week.  National Time Out Week.  Citizens Week.  America’s Gift To Its People Week.  Celebrate Americans Week.  Joyful Nothing Week.  Mid-Year Pause Week.  Happy Mid-Year Week.  One Fifty Two (1/52).  Enough Week. :)

Kwanzaa has been established in the “slow” period from December 26 to January 1, but its inspiring principles could perhaps be carried over to this National Holiday Week.

It’s not precisely fitting into what I have in mind, but it has kernels, and readers may find interesting a Home and Family Specialist’s “Week of Holidays” celebration:  http://studio5.ksl.com/?nid=54&sid=1580843

You are right that our culture has difficulty setting work aside.  We will need the 20 and 30 somethings to help out in making this National Holiday Week a cultural taboo about work, as they have been less indoctrinated with a hyper-work ethic (as well as seeing the effects on their parents).  No talking about it and especially no doing it (the emergency services folks unfortunately having to be the exception).  We have to make it socially/culturally boorish to talk about or do work then—sort of a social anathema.

We may also need a bit of help to make sure it doesn’t become “projects” week, where people spend it home remodeling, cleaning, sprucing, fixing, etc.  Given the American propensity to leave not enough time for that in the “regular” work year, creative ideas about that will be needed.

And while there should be few to no “rules” for the week, perhaps there could be various guideline templates for people and communities to get ideas—or at least see what others are doing or planning to do.  Of course, although a rich array of interesting and exciting possibilities is great, so is complete flexibility and latitude—including the latitude to do that Italian mode of the sweet joy of doing “nothing” (well, nothing planned).  I’m thinking of what a very hard working friend of mine once told me:  His wife was always wanting him to do a bunch of things after he got home from a balls-to-the-wall business trip, and he knew he both wanted and needed to do “nothing, and a whole lot of it.”

Seems like nothing keeps coming up time and again. :)