Saturday, February 24, 2024
Wise words from Mary Oliver
Wise words from Matt Haig
Apropos some of my previous posts; Matt Haig sums it up
beautifully when he writes that 'happiness isn't very good for the economy'. I
would go one step further and say that the media is invested in depressing us.
Why? I would guess it has to do with ratings, because the more we watch, the more brainwashed we become, and then they can sell us whatever world view they wish to push on us. They have an agenda for sure. On social media, it has to do with clicks that are given to each article posted.
All of the clickbait stories bring in revenue for the advertisers. Again, we’re
back to money. How cynical the world has become.
Matt Haig writes:
"The world is increasingly designed to depress us.
Happiness isn't very good for the economy. If we were happy with what we had,
why would we need more?
How do you sell an anti-ageing moisturiser? You make someone
worry about ageing. How do you get people to vote for a political party? You
make them worry about immigration. How do you get them to buy insurance? By
making them worry about everything. How do you get them to have plastic
surgery? By highlighting their physical flaws. How do you get them to watch a
TV show? By making them worry about missing out. How do you get them to buy a
new smartphone? By making them feel like they are being left behind.
To be calm becomes a kind of revolutionary act. To be happy with your own non-upgraded existence. To be comfortable with our messy, human selves, would not be good for business".
(from his book: Reasons to Stay Alive)
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
John Steinbeck quotes
In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror. It seems to me that if you or I just choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to our world.
If you're in trouble, or hurt or need - go to the poor
people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones.
You know how advice is. You only want it if it agrees with
what you wanted to do anyway.
No one wants advice - only corroboration.
We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we
get it.
Time is the only critic without ambition.
A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is
to think you control it.
The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most
important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he
knows it is not true.
I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of
amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.
Men do change, and change comes like a little wind that ruffles the curtains at dawn, and it comes like the stealthy perfume of wildflowers hidden in the grass.
Monday, February 19, 2024
Restoring equilibrium and peace by not watching the news
Saturday, February 17, 2024
Snowdrops are the harbingers of spring
I can't wait for this miserable winter to be finished, done, over, caput. Hopefully it will soon be a distant memory, once spring comes and I can return to my garden. Today is a beautiful sunny day that reminds of spring. In the garden, the harbingers of spring are the humble snowdrops--so beautiful. It will be a while before they pop up in the garden (most of the snow has to melt first), but they don't seem to mind the chilled ground.
I'm posting a a very nice little poem about snowdrops and a photo of them that I took some years ago.
Have you heard the snowdrops ringing
Their bells to themselves?
Smaller and whiter than the singing
Of any fairy elves.
–Sydney Thompson Dobell (1824–74)
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Winter prison
Normally I have always liked the winter season. I'm a person
who enjoys all four seasons. I may not ski or ice skate during wintertime, but
I've never been particularly bothered by the cold or even snow, as long as it's
possible to get out and walk, and as long as the temperatures hover around
freezing. Neither have been the case this year.
I have disliked every minute of winter this year, especially during January and February. In December we are
distracted by Christmas, thankfully. I am neither handicapped nor am I elderly.
I can normally get around with no problems, and a little bit of snow on the
sidewalks does not usually bother me. It’s when the sidewalks are sheets of
ice, no matter where you turn, that my dislike turns to anathema. I've written
about the build-up of ice and snow in Oslo during wintertime in previous posts
during the past decade: A
New Yorker in Oslo: Slipping and sliding away (paulamdeangelis.blogspot.com); A
New Yorker in Oslo: The sidewalks of Oslo in winter
(paulamdeangelis.blogspot.com); A
New Yorker in Oslo: Clear bike lanes and icy sidewalks in Oslo
(paulamdeangelis.blogspot.com); A
New Yorker in Oslo: Why isn’t it possible to shovel sidewalks in this city
during the winter? (paulamdeangelis.blogspot.com).
The sad thing is that the situation hasn't changed much in the past ten years. Sidewalks are sheets of ice, some of the roads likewise. We're told to buy shoes/boots with spikes in order to walk on the icy sidewalks, which I find infuriating. These shoes are expensive and are often sold-out. They are also annoying to wear, as sometimes the spikes get stuck in the ice (meaning your foot gets stuck). I and many others have chosen to walk in the (for the most part, ploughed) streets rather than use the sidewalks. The emergency rooms are filled with people, young and old, who have broken bones from falling on the ice. Actually, I'm guessing it's mostly young and middle-aged people who have broken bones, because elderly and handicapped people are just plain trapped in their homes during wintertime. They don’t get out, and how they stand it, I don't know. I find it appalling that more people don't react, don't get angry, and don’t criticize the city government for failing to do the job they should be doing. You can find all these kinds of criticisms on social media post, where people vent and rant and rave, but the regular media--newspapers and tv--just seem to ignore the problem. We're constantly told that this is a winter country and that we should be used to snow and ice. Yes, that is true. And so what? If this is a winter country, that means that Oslo should know how to get rid of snow and ice on sidewalks. It doesn’t mean that the city has a free pass to ignore shoveling, salting, and setting out gravel. There is so much passing the buck in this city. The city government has a budget; that much I understand. But this is not your proverbial small town; this is a big city. People of all ages and people with special needs, need to get out to shop, go to doctors’ appointments, go to work, etc. Someone has to take responsibility. Yes, snow removal, salting and spreading gravel cost money. Perhaps more than what was budgeted. So what? Spend it. But they can’t, because they’ve already used up much of the budget to keep the bicycle lanes clear, so that the very few younger people who bike all winter long can do so without problems. God forbid they should slip and injure themselves. This is typical of the Green Party thinking that permeates this city. The main focus is on eliminating all dangerous emissions from fossil-fuel vehicles. That means riding bicycles year-round. Additionally, they've become obsessed with electric everything--cars, buses, scooters, etc, all of which function properly in the spring and summer months. But not during the winter months. Come wintertime, the bitter cold destroys the proper functioning of the batteries. So buses come to a halt. Trams and trains, which are electrified, have always had problems. Frankly, I used to care about climate change, but it’s no longer a main priority. I just care about having a functioning city during the wintertime, a city where people of all ages and with special needs can get out and walk, shop, take public transportation that actually functions, and use their cars if necessary. In other words, escape their winter prisons that have been foisted upon them by this city.
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Monday, February 12, 2024
Saturday, February 10, 2024
Two good pieces of advice
"I’m not telling you to make the world better, because
I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just
telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not
just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the
picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take
pride in it. To seize the moment. And if you ask me why you should bother to do
that, I could tell you that the grave’s a fine and private place, but none I
think do there embrace. Nor do they sing there, or write, or argue, or see the
tidal bore on the Amazon, or touch their children. And that’s what there is to
do and get it while you can and good luck at it.”
Joan Didion
“Find meaning. Distinguish melancholy from sadness. Go out
for a walk. It doesn’t have to be a romantic walk in the park, spring at its
most spectacular moment, flowers and smells and outstanding poetical imagery
smoothly transferring you into another world. It doesn’t have to be a walk
during which you’ll have multiple life epiphanies and discover meanings no
other brain ever managed to encounter. Do not be afraid of spending quality
time by yourself. Find meaning or don’t find meaning but 'steal' some time and
give it freely and exclusively to your own self. Opt for privacy and solitude.
That doesn’t make you antisocial or cause you to reject the rest of the world.
But you need to breathe. And you need to be.”
Albert Camus
The bad news that envelopes us
Just a sample of the bad news that is available to us 24/7. This is just today's list of the negativity that defines the world at present. Everything is 'catastrophic, problematic, alarming, deeply troubling, staggering, on the verge of collapse, deadly, etc'.
Atlantic Ocean Currents Could Collapse and Shut Down, New Study (businessinsider.com)
What Does the 1.5 C Marker of Global Warming Mean? - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Why Does Everyone Seem To Have The Flu Right Now? (msn.com)
'No common symptoms' for deadly fungal disease sweeping US, public health agency warns (msn.com)
Measles Now Spreading in 9 States Amid 'Staggering' Outbreak, CDC Warns (msn.com)
Costco, Trader Joe's, Walmart products recalled amid listeria outbreak (msn.com)
California knows the way to end homelessness. It's time to find the will. (msn.com)
New problem found on Boeing 737 Max planes | CNN Business
How production pressures plunged Boeing into yet another crisis | Reuters
California earthquake: Millions in Los Angeles and Malibu feel quake after Hawaii tremors (msn.com)
Vladimir Putin wants 'massacre across Europe' after 'deranged' Tucker Carlson interview (msn.com)
Thursday, February 8, 2024
What Erich Fromm wrote about extremely narcissistic people
I am currently reading The Heart of Man: Its Genius for Good and Evil by the psychoanalyst and social psychologist Erich Fromm. Published in 1964, it describes his view of what he calls the syndrome of decay and its opposite, the syndrome of growth. The syndrome of decay is comprised of extreme forms of the following: necrophilia (love of and fascination with death); narcissism; and incestuous symbiosis. When these are combined to excessive degrees in a person, he defines that person as evil. Hitler is his primary example, but he also lists others--Caligula, Nero, and Stalin, among others.
He writes:
There are other examples in history of megalomaniac leaders who 'cured' their narcissism by transforming the world to fit it; such people must also try to destroy all critics, since they cannot tolerate the threat whcih the voice of sanity constitutes for them.........we see that their need to find believers, to transform reality so that it fits their narcissism, and to destroy all critics, is so intense and so desperate precisely because it is an attempt to prevent the outbreak of insanity. Paradoxically, the element of insanity in such leaders makes them also successful. It gives them that certainty and freedom from doubt which is so impressive to the average person. Needless to say, this need to change the world and to win others to share in one's ideas and delusions requires also talents and gifts which the average person, psychotic or non-psychotic, lacks.
In other words, political leaders who behave like this have a desperate need for their followers to share in their beliefs and delusions. They are never cured of their narcissism, and it's doubtful that they understand that they are narcissists. They simply mold the world around them to fit their brand of it. Their followers reward these types of leaders for their lack of self-doubt (total self-assurance, arrogance), their solipsism (self-centeredness--they are the centers of the universe), and their xenophobia (in this context, fear of anyone who doesn't share the leaders' beliefs, also parochialism, insularity, intolerance).
Sound familiar? Look at some of our current world leaders and would-be leaders. Again I ask, how did we get to this point? Perhaps the better question is why. Why did we get to this point? Why do so many people want to abdicate personal responsibility in order to follow these types of leaders, to become little more than toadies? I can only conclude that following such leaders is preferable to thinking for oneself and to taking charge of one's own life. It's easier to place one's decision-making in the hands of someone who promises you complete and utter security and certainty (a fantasy), who promises you the past (also a fantasy), and who promises you that nothing has to change--lack of change and growth. Lack of change and growth is important to those who do not want to focus on personal development or bettering themselves, which involves change and growth.
Fromm's book is worth reading. He's a good writer who can take complex ideas and clarify them for his reading public. When we were young adults, his book The Art of Loving, was very popular. I remember reading it then, but I never ventured further with his other books until now. Reading The Heart of Man is helping me to understand the current political situation. It may not provide solutions, but it's good to know what we're dealing with and what's at stake.
Saturday, February 3, 2024
More Joseph Campbell quotes
Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.
I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life
as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.
The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.
Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot
cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.
When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own
self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.
Sit in a room and read--and read and read. And read the
right books by the right people. Your mind is brought onto that level, and you
have a nice, mild, slow-burning rapture all the time.
Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over and
over again.
Regrets are illuminations come too late.
We're in a freefall into future. We don't know where we're
going. Things are changing so fast, and always when you're going through a long
tunnel, anxiety comes along. And all you have to do to transform your hell into
a paradise is to turn your fall into a voluntary act. It's a very interesting
shift of perspective and that's all it is... joyful participation in the
sorrows and everything changes.
Not all who hesitate are lost. The psyche has many secrets
in reserve. And these are not disclosed unless required.
Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come
when life seems most challenging.
Marriage is not a love affair. A love affair is a totally different thing. A marriage is a commitment to that which you are. That person is literally your other half. And you and the other are one. A love affair isn't that. That is a relationship for pleasure, and when it gets to be unpleasurable, it's off. But a marriage is a life commitment, and a life commitment means the prime concern of your life. If marriage is not the prime concern, you're not married....The Puritans called marriage "the little church within the Church." In marriage, every day you love, and every day you forgive. It is an ongoing sacrament – love and forgiveness.... Like the yin/yang symbol....Here I am, and here she is, and here we are. Now when I have to make a sacrifice, I'm not sacrificing to her, I'm sacrificing to the relationship. Resentment against the other one is wrongly placed. Life in in the relationship, that's where your life now is. That's what a marriage is – whereas, in a love affair, you have two lives in a more or less successful relationship to each other for a certain length of time, as long as it seems agreeable.
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Rush - Tom Sawyer
Mean, mean stride
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean, mean pride
Don't put him down as arrogant
His reserve, a quiet defense
Riding out the day's events
The river
Is what you say about society
Catch the mist, catch the myth
Catch the mystery, catch the drift
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his skies are wide
Today's Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you
And the space he invades, he gets by on you
To any god or government
Always hopeful, yet discontent
He knows changes aren't permanent
But change is
Is what you say about society
Catch the witness, catch the wit
Catch the spirit, catch the spit
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his eyes are wide
Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the energy you trade
He gets right on to
The friction of the day
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Greed will be the death of us
Boeing has had its share of problems recently. This quote is from The New York Times article published today: Opinion | Boeing’s Problems Started Long Before the Alaska Airlines Mishap - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
"What Boeing has missed, as it tried to dump costs and speed production, was the chance to ensure that safety was a cultural core and a competitive advantage. Corporations can choose to push back against the Wall Street-driven notion that safety equals cost and thus lower profits".
This type of thinking--cutting costs and speeding up production--has invaded every corner of the business world. It's a disease without a cure. Every time I turn around, I read or hear about more budget cuts that result in fewer employees and more work for those employees who remain. When the emphasis is on keeping costs low, something gets compromised, and that is usually quality work and eventually safety. Even employees who want to do their absolute best (and more) will not be able to get it all done in the best possible way. Corners will be cut in the name of saving money and time. After all, time is money. Those employees with good ethics and a conscience know that this type of thinking won't work in the long run, and they leave. Highly-competent employees who don't want to compromise quality and safety leave to take other jobs that won't force them to compromise their ethics. But what happens when the majority of companies behave in this way? What happens when companies that prioritize ethics and quality work become a minority?
As always, Wall Street figures into the picture. What would happen if companies delisted from the stock market and focused on the business they were created to do, rather than on corporate profits and having to satisfy shareholders (investors)? Would they lose all of their investors? I understand that companies need investors who will provide the money needed for the company to grow. And of course investors want their money back via profits. I don't understand enough about how the stock market works to really discuss this in detail. My only question is: when is enough, enough? If and when investors are paid back, do they need more money? The Norwegians have a saying: 'mye vil ha mer'. It means the wealthy will always want more. I guess that's part of the investment deal. As long as companies have to consider their shareholders first, employees and quality work will take second place. Budget cuts, fewer employees hired, outsourcing to cut costs, loss of competent employees and eventually substandard finished products are the result.
Greed will be the death of us.