Category: Fourre-tout

To appreciate the light, you must have known the darkness… Mick Deev 

Most of us take ordinary activities for granted. We don’t really appreciate their true value until suddenly deprived of them.

Among the most traumatic deprivations that I can imagine are the lacks of freedom, food or sleep; if deprived of any of those activities you are bound to endure great stress. But there are many other activities that you will equally miss (love, friendship, social interaction, sex) if incapable of fulfilling them.

If you eat steak and lobster every day, you will gradually lose your taste for it. It is only when unable to do so that you will begin to crave it again.
Presuming that you are fortunate enough to draw a large monthly salary, I can guarantee that you won’t appreciate it as much as someone hitting a once in a million jackpot.

The same goes for sex. If you do the nasty twice a day, you won’t get the same gratification as if doing it twice a week. It is the relative rarity of the deed, not the frequency that makes it valuable. You need to hunger for something to properly appreciate it.

Lately due to some reconstructive surgery, I have been unable to walk without assistance, drive and of course play pétanque. All restrictive and frustrating constraints.
Frustration by the way often leads to aggression and I might have been feuding with my feline companion more than usual. When socially engaged, I felt that she did not empathize with me; she just flattened her ears, swished her tail back and forth and stared. She did not show any appreciation for past favors and this is not cool.

My condition is slowly improving and with it the appreciation of what I can now accomplish. While still unable to play pétanque,  I can now walk and drive without too much trouble.
I look forward to showing up on the field and play a few rounds with any you.

The greatest accomplishment is not in never failing, but in rising again after you fall. Vince Lombardi

Do not take routine tasks for granted. Clean the cat box and take the garbage out without grumbling because you don’t know how lucky you are to be able to do so.

Alain

Despite appearances, I am no saint. I seldom walk on water and I don’t love everybody. As a matter of fact there is a bunch of people that I actively dislike.

Among those are Hypocrites, dudes pretending to be what they are not, and doing what they tell other people not to do. Regrettably these Tartuffes thrive almost everywhere, especially in the field of politics and in the clergy.

I admit that it is difficult to be a politician without being a hypocrite, but why would you want to be in politics in the first place? To satisfy a burning desire to help your fellow men? Don’t make me laugh I just had surgery… A lust for power and its beguiling perks is the main motivation and has always been!

To get elected a politician needs to be a political chameleon. He has to charm fool as many people as possible, and he has to make good use of “alternative facts”.

“I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great great wall on our southern border and I’ll have Mexico pay for that wall.”

Fortunately, most of the statements made by a politico are recorded and can (and absolutely should) be used against him.
Beware of people claiming to have higher moral standards than you; they might be the worst offenders..

I would rather vote for somebody who frankly admits his shortcomings than for a lily-white bible thumping hypocrite.

A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation. Adlai E. Stevenson

Hypocrites are more dangerous than liars because they sometimes believe  what they are saying.

Alain

I have being driving since the dawn of time (or so it seems) and I always highly prized this privilege. Last month though, I had to undergo some surgery and was prohibited from operating a vehicle for a while. A mighty blow to my independence, especially since I am living in a quasi-rural area.

When you reside in a metropolitan area, moving around is no problem; public transportation is omnipresent. But when you live in close proximity to cows (yes), you face a different situation. Driving is an absolute must.

My steed has been inactive for about a month and the air in its stall is getting stale. It is high time to groom it and take it out for a ride, because yes Virginia, there is such a thing as galloping fever.

No matter what your occupation is, you need to momentarily escape the confinement of your abode to remain connected with the outside world. And in California you need to drive to get there.

For the time being driving is an absolute necessity but in a year or two, this might not be the case. Driverless cars are starting to materialize and the public seems to be ready to accept them because who needs the hassle of parking?

A license for car riders might not even be needed  anymore.  A vehicle will be summoned by a smartphone and will magically appear on a doorstep. They will say: take me to the ballpark and continue a worry-free conversation with God or their business associates .

I don’t think that driving a vehicle will be missed. You won’t lose your independence and you will get rid of the costly inconvenience of ownership. Just like the horses of yore, individual cars will vanish and become another rental commodity.

But for the time being, I still need and enjoy the convenience of a private car. It takes me where I want whenever I want. And, as a bonus it gives me the pleasure to curse inconsiderate drivers in my native tongue. You could not do this in a driverless car.

Ten to 20 years out, driving your car will be viewed as equivalently immoral as smoking cigarettes around other people is today. Marc Andreessen

Alain

PS: I will start driving again in a few days.