Category: Right Conduct

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The Pandemic Blues – Take II

I had a disturbing round of golf Friday.  Oh not about my golf game, I describe myself as a Dr. Hyde / Mr. Jekyll golfer.  I never know who is coming out, and sometimes I see both these sides in a single round of golf.  I figured out last millennium that I was never going to play golf professionally, or even at a stellar amateur level.  I am good with that.  I still enjoy the game.  My discomfort on this round of golf centered around attitudes about corona virus.

Let me describe where I golf most frequently.  It is across the Rio Mississippi in the small town of Columbia, IL. This is southern Illinois and it is hoosier land.  If your breed is more southern, substitute redneck for hoosier.  It is the same concept, different words. I go to this particular golf course as the rates are more reasonable than in Missouri, it is usually easy to get a tee time and the course is generally in good shape.  The greens always are.  While not the cow pasture golf Continue reading “The Pandemic Blues – Take II”

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Coranavirus masks as a political statement

I’ve been saying for 2 or 3 weeks now that not wearing masks and gloves in public was a political statement by many of those folks.

Here is an article that says the same thing: Wearing a mask is for smug liberals. Refusing to is for reckless Republicans.

From the article:

For progressives, masks have become a sign that you take the pandemic seriously and are willing to make a personal sacrifice to save lives. Prominent people who don’t wear them are shamed and dragged on Twitter by lefty accounts. On the right, where the mask is often seen as the symbol of a purported overreaction to the coronavirus, mask promotion is a target of ridicule, a sign that in a deeply polarized America almost anything can be politicized and turned into a token of tribal affiliation.

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God Bless Costco

Missouri is opening for business May 4th. Whether this is a good idea or not , will be seen.  I am not sure what St. Louis County will do as we have been the worst hit county and city in the state.  I’m unclear if they even have the option of going against what our wonderful Republican governor dictates.

I received an advertising email this morning from Costco.  Maybe they have been sending them out during the quarantine, but this is the first one I remember receiving in a while.  In it they detailed their guidelines Continue reading “God Bless Costco”

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Dollars are votes for Fox News

Fox News at one level is simply a symptom of the disease overtaking our country.  At a different level they are aggravating and are part of the etiology of this malady.  The malady is ultra conservatism.  The malady is aggrandizing  of Trump, unfettered capitalism, racism and pseudo-religious values.  The malady is the denigration of immigrants, other religions, people of color,  people that do not fit into the Norman Rockwell Continue reading “Dollars are votes for Fox News”

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I’ve become Melvin Udall

If you remember the 1997 movie, As Good As It Gets, you might remember who Melvin Udall is.  He is an OCD  misanthropic author, played by Jack Nicholson.  Melvin had several compulsive behaviors in the movie including excessive hand washing.

I’ve always been a bit of a hand washer. This habit is partly for good reasons, and partly because of some kink in a neuron somewhere in Continue reading “I’ve become Melvin Udall”

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Before you vote, write a letter to your grandkids…

I was listening to a Living on Earth podcast as I was doing yard work this afternoon.  On one segment they were interviewing the author of The Optimist’s Telescope, Bina Venkataraman.

She made a point that struck home with me.  We are a society much too focused on the short term.  We are builders of quonset huts and not of cathedrals. When people go to vote they are thinking of their own immediate issues, probably whatever issue or problem is most current.  Her suggestion was before you go to vote, write a letter to your grandchildren or even great grandchildren. Explain to them why you voted they way you did.  The whole point being to make yourself think more of the long term.

This harks back to a theme I have mentioned several times in this blog, usufruct. It is actually a legal term referring to (layman here) the right to enjoy and profit from real property as long as you do not alter or damage it.  For me, this invokes the concept of stewardship.  We were handed this earth by the stewards that came before us, our ancestors.  We have an obligation to be stewards for the generations that are coming after us.

Write that damn letter to your grandkids.

Here is a link to that Interview with Venkataraman.