Summertime Fun

Well Summer is winding down. Have to say it's been rather uneventful. Mini-me went to Florida for the Summer and did so many things that I wish I were a kid again. He learned to scuba dive, snorkel. He also went deep sea fishing..and what is a trip to Florida without spending an inordinate amount of time at the House of Mouse..aka Disneyworld..

I on the other hand, worked myself to death. In a real sense, having mini-me home is a godsend. All work and no play makes Dad miserable. When mini-me got back..I was surprised at not only the physical growth which happened in 2 short months, but the intellectual growth as well.

As I noted earlier, I am a history geek ( you still need to get over it!) and I used to love political season. Think about it for a second...it's a blood sport. It's a net-zero game which has devolved into war where one side "has to win" only if the other side loses. In reality, all sides lose.

I've always believed that the most basic fundamentals of government is that people basically want to be left alone to live their life. Having said that however, I see one side which wants to dictate how corporations conduct themselves, and, on the other, how people live their life...this gets me back to mini-me's intellectual growth.

We were talking the other day and he asked me what I disliked about the decades I have lived in...80's: Big Hair, 90's: the embryonic stage  of rigidity, 00's: the hatred by and against everyone..and lastly,10's the wholesale adherence to ideological rigidity..His response to the last was.."That's stupid! It takes a whole lot of pride to assume that your opinion is an absolute truth" Never have I have been so proud of him.

I readily admit, I do not get along with some family members only because of politics. They are so rigid in their ideology that they seek to label others accordingly. Every day I hear from them how there is a "War on this" or "A war on that."  Case in point, the brouhaha over the owner Chick-Fil-A statements on gay marriage./rights.  According to family members, this is a fight over Free Speech.

Here's my take on it. 1) there are no Absolute Rights. I use the capitalized version because I seek to make a point..rights are not God-given. We were not born with the right to unequivocally be right.  We protect those rights when we allow a minority to express an opinion which is diametrically opposite our one.

My second point is perhaps the most important..speech, like actions, have consequences. A person can express whichever opinion they like, if they are so inclined. But they have to remember that there are consequences.  Need I remind people of the parable of the Boy Who Cried Wolf?

Am I done with politics? No. We live in political times where even our silence is a statement. My silence on statement is that things have to change. The need to provide what I call "rube bait" needs to stop. It does our nation a great disservice that a 30 seconds sound bite is more important than actually thinking, critically about what faces us. Hatred of the other side needs to end. No "Wars on..." are taking place, insofar as no " they are taking away our rights"  The more one believes these accusations, the more one falls for the "rube bait".

Been a minute

It's been several months. Life has returned to the pattern of father son. By that I mean, work, chillin with mini-me, repeat. Good News I am under a pack of cigarettes a day. Bad news, I am now addicted to breath mints.

Mini-me and I made it through the year of firsts since his mother's passing. We had a private ceremony to remember. I had a really nice "Memory Box" made. My thinking is that in it, we'll put those things for him to remember her. Yet also it will serve as a repository of moments of his life they could not share together. I hope it will become something he'll treasure for the rest of his life.

Other than that, nothing has really been going on of importance. We survived the year of firsts. He survived school. Given that it had been several years since he had seen family, and after talking with family..he has gone to visit them for the vast majority of the Summer.

On one hand I get a vacation, on the other hand, and don't ever tell him this, I do miss him. Having said that however, I have started the necessary clean up this new start requires. This part was something which best be done alone.

I'll be back to writing on this, more than likely on a weekly basis. Perhaps I will throw in some politics..it is the Presidential season after all. I am hesitant to do that though as one always tends to come across those "True Believers" with whom having anything remotely resembling an intelligent conversation is rendered moot.  Sadly though, I think I am related to a lot of those, on both sides of the political spectrum. We'll see though.

Haven't cooked in the last week or so as I went from the ER to bed rest. Hell of a way to spend Summer with mini-me gone for 6 months huh? Although right before that I did make a nice blackened salmon I served with some dirty rice.
I've got some ideas for more cooking. Getting into some claypot cooking, and more international cuisine. We'll see where it goes.