Monday, November 25, 2013

Blog of Ages Pray for Me

A dry winter freeze has taken over New York City.

Organic Heritage Turkeys are being swiped off the shelves.

Two nights ago, there was snow on some car roofs in New Jersey.

And now this, five somewhat connected thoughts that are barely important:

  1. I am going to Jury Duty this week. I signed up for this truncated weirdo time figuring it would be short, everyone on their way to their dinners. So far it has proven to be easy. Today, we were released after three hours. I imagine tomorrow will be similar. Wednesday, maybe not even a need to show. I have never done jury duty before. True. Never. I got around it by being a moving target. Plus a few other tricks. But I finally succumbed, feeling like a civic heel for not doing my duty. I hate it. I hate it entirely. I don’t see an upside. Being in a gray government building at dawn feels like punishment. I tried to gussy it up by pretending I was traveling. Back Issues of New Yorkers, the Kindle, going through security, sit back, relax, and read. As soon as orientation was over (and the woman up front putting on the show was quite funny and good at it) I fell asleep in a chair and read nothing.

  1. I have a handful of Republican friends and I say, Hi Friends! But now hear this…and this only goes to the real way Drown-the-Government-in-the-bathtub types on the fringes. Question: Why do the people who demand the MOST freedom from tyranny have the most tyrannizing personalities? Seems to me, the ones who fear being controlled are the most controlling.

  1. Magical thinking doesn’t work. All those decades of visualizing and chanting are for Santeria chicken sacrificing types. I was adamant and verbally insisted to many that something I was doing was simply not going to work out—and railed about it nonstop as in, “This is never going to happen. Never. Never. Never. It’s dead. It’s toast. It’s over. Forget it.”— and it worked out. So if my words create my reality, then it didn’t do it this time. And if your words DO create your reality, then that truth would have to be true all the time. Books giving you secrets to the universe and keys to the kingdom are slippery with snake oil. Dogma blows. Life is full of unknowns. Do your best. Worry about it or not. Really, wasting time on trying to control the outcome by yacking your way in a certain direction is just a weird positive spin on worry. Stop counting and cajoling your outcomes. And don’t agree with any of this garbage in this paragraph. Go slam into trees with your head yourself. Figure it out. Who cares?

  1. People keep buying things for each other at Christmas. I am way more of a Dah who doraze type. I have ten year old shirts that look like they’ve never been worn. How much more do you need?

  1. And on a completely contradictory note: Why is all the wooden furniture at Crate and Barrel on the edge of completely disgusting?  


1 comment:

Tandava (Carol Henning) said...

(1) Curious to know about this truncated weirdo time... you showed up in the evening? I have only been called a few times, always at an ungodly hour in the morning. And each time I was bounced at or before the voir dire.

(2) Good observation -- in general the ones who are most afraid that "others" are a particular horrible way, are in fact particularly horrible in that very way.

(3) In my experience it does work, but it has more to do with how you feel and what you believe than what you say. For some of us, saying, "This will never work!" is a kind of challenge to an inner knowledge that it will work. Conversely, affirmations can be deadly (and in fact an affirmation-junkie friend of mine killed herself) precisely because you are constantly speaking things you deeply feel are not true, which widens the chasm between what you want and what you believe. If the converse method works for you, then do that. For a more direct approach, try to be aware of what you believe (and often beliefs are contradictory) and focus on what you want rather than what you don't want.

(4) My family and I stopped buying crap for each other at Christmas years ago. If we see something during the year that the other would like, we just get it. Why wait?

(5) Haven't seen it recently, but in general Pier 1 and ABC has the nicest stuff.