. . . how it’s going.
You’ve seen the side-by-each comparisons, I expect. On social media it’s usually one of two juxtapositions:
- Flagging hypocrisy – “These detestable people must be de-platformed because speech is violence” becomes “Gosh, everyone deserves a hearing” when the cause–but not the heat of the rhetoric–changes.
- Indicting failed government policies – “You said you were going to do such-&-such for $yy” but “You haven’t done any such-&-such and you’ve spent 100 x $yy already.”
Fair enough, even funny enough, sometimes. But also tiring enough, in quantity. “Snipe, snipe” is a crummy basis for a society.
So that I don’t do the exact thing that’s making me tired, I herewith launch a new blog category: how-it-started (how-it’s-going). But this one is not for hypocrisy or policy failures. Instead, it will celebrate progress and achievement. To start us off, here’s a friend’s garden from last week. Stay tuned for the promised follow-on shot, later this summer.
How it started . . .
It will also celebrate sheer continuity. After all, it’s good to know that some things last: Not everything disappears or fades away. To start us off, here’s me with the same reaction to sunlight, about 72 years apart. Nope, some things don’t change, although the wrinkles and the hat are both new.
How it started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . how it’s going.
There must be a million things I could say about how being the proposal editor changed you without the benefit of a lot of sunlight.
John – And one or two of those million might even be safe to say!
Again, one of your sidebars sidelined me. Paul Wells’ Substack makes for a compelling read on topics important to me. I hope to be able to contribute to that conversation. Many thanks.
Laurna – I think this series by Wells is one of his best. Glad you saw it.
Great new topic! Nice reminder of your Mom, too. I think squinting is nature’s way of keeping our eyes from burning under the UV, i.e, your body being smart. Question is, why do some people not squint!?
Judith – It’s a good question. Quora offers an answer with 5 parts: differential sensitivity to light (mine is high); eye health (some conditions make eyes more sensitive); vision correction lenses (because they may increase sensitivity); screen time can affect how you react to or perceive natural light; time of day, weather and so on can affect brightness. So, the first 4 seem to me to be basically the same – differential light sensitivity – but with a range of causes from inherent to life practices. The last reason seems odd, because the people we’re with who are NOT squinting are experiencing the same environmental conditions that we are. When I consider the range of ambient temperatures that people can be comfortable in, a range of light conditions doesn’t seem so strange.