Making Sense of the World Around Us

 We had decent weather over the holidays but are paying for it now as it is -25 or -35 with wind chill. I didnt mean not to blog, just life around here was so dull, getting through the day was enough. Tanya made  nice Christmas dinner and New Year's Dinner for the two of us, three counting Lucky. I cut way back on reading my inbox. Too depressing and instead watched a few movies. 

The New Year is upon us. We have no choice but to bumble through it as best we can. Maybe it won't be as bad as we fear and maybe pigs have wings. Our Prime Minister is as popular as a wet dog at a picnic. I have not seen that he has resigned yet though the demands are deafening. There are two good candidates to replace him. Failing thst Pierre PeePee Poilievre could well become out next Prime minister. On the other hand since American billionaires are opposing him, maybe Trudeau isnt as bad as he is made out to be. But he has to go.

Borowitz has good advice for surviving 2025:

There’s no way around it: it’s 2025. And that means we’re just days away from Elon Musk’s presidency. If you’re feeling anxious about the U.S. government being run by a man whose rockets regularly explode on the launching pad, I understand.
I want to help keep you sane this year—and the next four.
I’m not recommending that you disengage from the world, swallow fistfuls of gummies, or go on a four-year hot yoga retreat. I’m offering advice to make you calmer and stronger—and better equipped to do the important work ahead.
A few weeks ago, I published an essay called In Search of Sanity, in which I recommended, among other things, the Serenity Prayer:
God give me the serenity to accept things which cannot be changed; Give me courage to change things which must be changed; And the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.
TBR community members contributed many insightful responses to my essay. Here are some of them:
·         The Serenity Prayer is really a recap of Stoic thinking (sorry, Christians).
·         Epictetus: "There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will."
·         Old Epi (as his friends were wont to call him) was keen on the notion of "what is up to us, and what is not up to us." Sweat the stuff that you can do something about; getting overwrought about the rest of the nonsense is futile. Do you really think your worrying is going to change Trump suddenly from unhinged to "hinged"?
·         Figuring out the difference is not all that hard, but it takes some work, for sure.
·         I'd only add to your serenity recipe some of the prescriptions from Timothy Snyder in his pocket-sized book, On Tyranny: "Stand Out. Be Careful With Language & Listen for Dangerous Words. Investigate. Get Outside. Make New Friends and March With Them. Be As Courageous as You Can." And—support institutions that count, whether they be journalistic, non-profits, local government or whatever makes sense. We can't afford to sit back. Ever.
·         I have a suggestion which I’m trying to get myself to take a little more often: instead of listening to NPR on your earbuds or your home radio, put on MUSIC. Do you remember music? It’s wonderful! Try it sometime.
·         I would add that, in the end, we have as individuals more power over and access to change than we often realize. Look how South Korea just dealt with the martial law situation! Mika and Joe now defend their trip to grovel at Trump’s feet with “That’s our job!” I leave it up to MSNBC and the network to accept that as a proper validation of their FL trip (love your note that their show is “Fox for vegans”). The viewers took flight and if they stay away the ad dollars will follow suit. This type of action/reaction goes for any well thought out strategy to “defend” our rights, our liberty and our Democracy. It just takes a little bit more thinking and a proactive rather than passive (as in victim) attitude!
·         I’m 66, and have a lifetime of anxiety and depression behind me with lots of trauma. Along with many years of therapy, you don’t want to know how many, I started mindfulness meditation training with the Headspace app three years ago. And the main point if mindfulness, is that all we have is right now. The past is gone, and the future never arrives. None of us know what’s going to happen, we absolutely do need to focus on the micro, and do what we can to change our small corner every day. For me that means being kind, helping others when I can, and doing my best to live in the moment. Simple, but not easy.
·         I've been trying to tell my mourning friends that they're mourning before the body's dead. I believe Trump will cause great damage, and hurt a lot of people, but I have hope that the midterms will dull the pain, and in four years the Trump era will slowly start to diminish. I don't think Vance or certainly not DJ Jr. have the personal charisma to keep his rabid followers as riled up. I could be wrong, but history shows us that most political movements reach a peak, then subside. Hell, even the Berlin wall fell.
·         How about Epictetus? Basic premise: There are only two things in life that matter. First: Figure out in any situation what is the best thing to do. Second: Do it.

A friend sent these 

It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense. Mark Twain

 If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide. Mahatma Gandhi

 Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy. William Butler Yeats

 I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain. James Baldwin

A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt dangerous. Alfred Adler

What I try to tell young people is that if you come together with a mission, and it’s grounded with love and a sense of community, you can make the impossible possible. John Lewis

 Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is. Francis Bacon

Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself. Abraham Joshua Heschel

Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense. Robert Frost

Humans think in stories, and we try to make sense of the world by telling stories. Yuval Noah Harari

It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. Franklin D. Roosevelt

There is no such thing as perpetual tranquility of mind while we live here; because life itself is but motion, and can never be without desire, nor without fear, no more than without sense. Thomas Hobbes

 Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes. Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right. Isaac Asimov

 The failure to invest in youth reflects a lack of compassion and a colossal failure of common sense. Coretta Scott King

When I was born, my parents and my mother's parents planted a dogwood tree in the side yard of the large white house in which we lived throughout my boyhood. This tree I learned quite early, was exactly my age - was, in a sense, me. John Updike

 Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. Dwight D. Eisenhower