Christmas Day-Off

I’ve been furiously avoiding the writing assignment for today. 

Not because I don’t like the topic or because I didn’t do any research, but because I don’t have a topic. The day is mostly wasted due my dentist appointment early this morning where I promptly came right back here to read news and check email. Then I ambled over to the couch to read a little more of the novel I’m plugging away at. After an hour or so I decided to get some coffee at a Great coffee house called Double Shot where I read a few more chapters of the book, not because of some need to finish but because of sheer boredom and a lack of a better idea. My brother and his family are still in town because of Christmas so I popped in for while over at my mom’s where they are staying. Then back here to get a little dinner and read some news hoping for spark of imagination or interest. So far nothing, but I’m writing anyway.

I did another scripture commentary yesterday morning, Christmas day. I’m going through the book of Acts chapter by chapter and doing some reflecting on the reading. I said “commentary” but on second look, that sounds a little more intellectual than what I’m going for. I try to do a chapter from anywhere in the Bible once a week. I don’t put them on my website because the pieces are a little too sloppy for the blog. And this is with the full knowledge that blog pages have pretty low standards. 

But by writing them and dumping them into a file folder I don’t have to edit them for clarity or grammatical errors. I don’t have to check for historical accuracy either which is the big one with the Bible.

It’s much more important for the Old Testament because sorting out prophets and messages is tricky without looking them up. Mixing up the Zachariahs from the Zephaniahs might get me laughed out of polite society. Most books contain the same general premise, God’s people forget their covenant and need a prophet. As a story arc it’s all too common, rejection of the old law, problems with war or famine or disease, and finally repentance. But without the repetition and enduring love we wouldn’t get the New Testament, or the Savior, or the accessibility to God and eternal hope through salvation.

   

 For now my reflections are just personal letters. That may change in the future. I need more material and the Bible is an endless supply to me.

What’s strange for me is that work begets work. I’m more efficient when my schedule is full. When I’ve got a whole day with nothing to do, I do nothing. Something tells me this is normal for a lot of us. We complain that we just don’t have time to for home projects and learning. But with a whole day and nothing planned we flip through mystery books and sip coffee. After that we saunter to the kitchen (or waddle) and paw through the fridge looking for peanut butter cups and egg nog. Is it just me? I doubt it. With a full work schedule though I seem to squeeze a lot in, I need structure and deadlines. Or maybe I just shouldn’t feel bad about spending a day relaxing, snacking, napping and reading.

Living With Yourself: Review

I finally finished Paul Rudd’s Living With Yourself on Netflix. It’s only 10 or so episodes that I started right when it came out, I’m not much of a binge watcher though. I got hung up a month or so ago and sort of forgot about it. The Crown came out for season 3 so my TV priorities shifted. Since I'm caught up on the House of Windsor it's back to business. 

Living With Yourself makes assumptions about humans that ring true, we want shortcuts to happiness and our humanity is tied to our unique experiences, good and bad. 

Here is the story in a nutshell. It’s a spoiler alert because I can’t explain the show without giving some of it away. Stop reading here if you plan to watch it. Miles is an ad executive who is in a creative rut. His relationship with his wife Kate (Aisling Bea) is shaky at best; they’re trying to get pregnant but Miles can’t be bothered to show up at the fertility clinic. He is selfish and bored with life until a coworker recommends a spa treatment to revitalize his situation. The spa turns out to be a cloning racket where the ‘scientists’ create the improved clone with less fat and better habits. The host is killed, or supposed to be. It doesn’t take with Miles because of a screw up. He wakes up in a plastic sack buried under ground and scrambles to tear out.

That opening sets the tone for the eerie story that follows. Some of the scene music is creepy and foreboding with some lighter moments sprinkled here and there. It feels a bit horror movie-ish at times. Not because of violence but because of the unknown quality. Having a clone around and trying to keep it a secret presents some frightening scenarios.   

The rest of the series tries to answer the question of ‘how will this arrangement work?’ Can the two men coexist? Will clone Miles murder Miles? Will Miles murder his clone? Will the clone ruin everything by not playing his part?

 Another trick the writers have introduced is to show the same scene from both Miles point of view and the clone’s.  This prevents us from favoring one over the other and works to show distinctions when they’re important. This isn’t an evil twin story despite their predicament. We see one side and then the other.

Are the writers telling us that we behave differently when motivations are different? I don’t want to give too much away, but their approaches to life, as well as attitudes toward Kate are rooted in their histories. The Miles clone has the same memories as Miles but only as images or files that were transferred from another source. Miles carries the pain and emotional attachment to his wife the human way, through his experience. Their connection is physical and emotional and not easily replaced despite their current marital problems.

Miles is not a great guy. He is selfish, he lies to his wife and coworkers and scams local farmers. He is mopey and miserable at home and despite his wife’s request that he go to the fertility clinic, he ignores her. The Miles clone is a better version of himself, friendlier to guests and more attentive to Kate. Miles gets jealous and tries to reclaim some energy and initiative after a while. 

  

I like the simple plot so far. Guy gets mixed up in a cloning accident and has to figure out how to manage him, his clone and his relationship with his wife, which is rocky. Rudd doesn’t oversell any of the parts, he plays both characters straight. There is a running gag about Tom Brady at the cloning clinic that's pretty funny. 

I think there are two lessons from this show. First, no amount of shortcuts will ever lead to happiness and fulfillment. Second, humans are more than just bone structure and DNA with memories. Clones might be copies, but like a copy they are more of a picture than an exact replica. Cloning is really just a fun story telling device. Michael Keaton’s Multiplicity used it as well but played the object lesson (that shortcuts don’t exist) for laughs. ‘Living’ and Multiplicity both begin from the same point, stressed out people do dumb things.  Only Living With Yourself investigates the second lesson, that humans are flawed creatures but completely unique in experience.

6 - 12 Type Thinking

I saw something on Reddit that I thought seemed like great advice. I forgot to save the page and I didn’t know how to look for it so I’ll have to go from memory. In essence it showed how 9am to 5pm constitute work hours, but getting ahead requires putting in extra time. The 6pm to 12am window is for exploring additional paths, hobbies, making additional money and exercise. Obviously the frame of time is different for everyone. Some work early morning hours and others work long shifts 10 or 12 hours at a time.

The point is that to learn a new trade, talent or skill, one needs to put in extra work. It doesn’t have to mean killing yourself until you fall asleep from exhaustion.

Reddit commenters blistered it with negative feedback and outright hostility. What’s the alternative to improving your own lot, waiting for someone to give it to you? Stealing from the rich? The meme was nothing more than “Make the best use of your time and become a better you”. Hardly controversial stuff, but then people read meaning into quotes based on their biases. We all do this sometimes. 

  

 It sounded like advice from an individual who achieved success by using time wisely. Or, maybe they learned a new language, enough to get a job where knowledge of the language made the difference between working and not working. Maybe they taught themselves to code and wrote a program they later sold. I know internet communities aren’t real life; a handful of trolls can have an outsized impact. Still, if the reaction to studying hard and striving gets such nasty blowback what is being taught about self-improvement?

I did a quick google search for “self-improvement tips” to get a sense of the blogosphere’s advice, ideas. A lot of similar items pop up, “learn a new skill”, “develop good habits”, “have a plan”, “reflect”, “make time to relax”. Basically what I thought I’d find but with a few variations. When I googled “Is self-improvement bad?” I saw a better idea of what some might be thinking. 

“Essentially, the self-improvement culture invalidates your negative emotions. It sends a message of toxic positivity that prevents you from acquiring the skills you need to deal with the “real world.”

I don’t agree that the self-improvement culture is as rigid as this author thinks. Or maybe we are defining two different things. In the movie American Beauty Annette Bening plays a cold, sexless real estate agent trying in vain to get meaning from her career, extramarital affair. She is clearly unhappy but keeps on repeating silly positivity mantras. To me that sounds like toxic positivity, assuming that's even a real thing. It's not what I'm describing.

A lot of this seems too competitive to some, like the purpose of self-improvement is to ‘get ahead’ and ‘win’. Either that, or it sounds judgmental, like if you aren’t at the gym for an hour and reading Tolstoy in Russian then you aren’t trying. Maybe that's where the Reddit mob was coming from.

 I find it encouraging every time some 'average joe' makes one small, steady change in their life that causes other changes. Some lose weight and transform their diet completely. Others begin crafty projects that earn extra money and sometimes even become the primary source of income. By taking the notion of working after hours seriously, they’ve transformed their life.

 Think Dale Carnegie not Tony Robbins. We don’t need to break down every psychological component of ourselves to make steady changes to lifestyle or learn a skill. How many people got a real estate license just studying after hours or became a certified trainer at their gym? It doesn’t need to be competitive, it just needs a starting point.  

  

I don’t see another option for most of us. We survive in a vibrant economy that’s constantly churning out new ways to make money and disrupt old ones. Free market capitalism always contained some elements of disruption, but technology kicked it into hyperdrive. What’s tough to accept is that many jobs that had been staples of employment, factory labor, switchboard operator, semi-truck driver either disappeared or just got harder to come by. But with all the turnover and unease about the future, it’s never been easier to do something else, or spend time learning to do something else.

I get that people want to go to work, drop the kids off at basketball practice, make some dinner and watch Netflix before dozing off. But the idea of self-improvement from 6 to 12 isn’t meant to be literal. It’s a goal to use the free hours wisely. For a lot of us facing the real possibility that our job might disappear, it’s insurance.  It’s scary to see the industry you work in losing ground every day, but fortunately the barriers to learn, train, buy and sell are much lower.

A lot of us just entering the work force will have multiple jobs before we retire. Self-improvement means always being ready to acquire new talents, skills and trades.

Cubs update

Offseason baseball.

So the Cubbies are done with Addison Russell as of today. It's been a few months since they played so the name isn't exactly top of mind. He was the shortstop during the World Series run and on the roster for the last 2. An amazing talent whose production slipped a little last year, he still held the day to day starting position. Most fans know about the domestic abuse charge against him. He missed 40 games at the start of the last season for 'incidents'. Fans usually get off the band wagon when they hear about violence against women or children. I'm one of them. Everyone deserves a second chance though and he didn't make excuses or blame anyone, that I saw at least. 

Everyone's team needs pitching because arms wear out, players slump and need surgery. Guys that dominate one season can slump for the next two, that's baseball. The Cubs are no different in that way, always looking for arms. I saw an item that I sincerely hope is in the works. The front office showed some interest in left-hander Madison Bumgarner from the Giants. He's only 30 and still has a lot of upside. I still remember his shut down performance against the Royals in the 2014 World Series. He pitched 3 games and managed a 1.03 ERA, ridiculous! I get that it was a few years ago, but the last couple of years he's had injuries, broken hand and a broken rib. The rib was from a dirt bike accident and the hand from a ball hit back to the mound in spring training. So just, you know, keep him off the bikes. Not much you can do about balls hit back at the mound.

I looked around for some tidbits and news on the North Siders, but it's a little early for baseball trades and roster additions. A lot of it is just filler and wouldn't make the wire during the season. For instance they hired an assistant coach. Big deal. I'm just depressed about the Bears and their lackluster performance this year. I thought they were better. They looked good Sunday again the Lions. Trubisky looked good with 3 touchdowns and almost 350 yards passing. More than any other player he needed a good game. Sadly it's too little, too late to get on a streak. Either the Packers or the Vikings would have to lose almost every game till the end of the season for a playoff shot; I don't see it happening.

Raking Leaves and Giving up the Weekend

Raking leaves is a part of fall I hate, especially when they're wet and heavy. They clump together like old newspapers left out in the rain. The only benefit to wet leaves is that they pack into bags better. Condensed and flat, you can get twice as many in a paper sack. The cheap bags will soak through every time. Dry leaves are light and crunchy but tough to cram in. Here in Oklahoma we use plastic bags instead of those tall square paper bags doubled up like grocery sacks. They're clear as well instead of black; I guess so they can tell if you stuffed any paint cans or used motor oil in there. Not sure why we don’t use the giant paper ones. I've never been able to find them.

So yesterday was my twice yearly rake-a-thon. Why twice? Because the front yard trees drop leaves before the back. When I first moved here I raked and bagged, almost always at Thanksgiving because most trees are still full before that. In Illinois I’m sure the leaves changed color much quicker but I’m not sure how much. My guess is 3 weeks. But even with the faster change in season, we still worked right up till Thanksgiving for landscaping. Most of the work was done by early November but my boss always kept a few customers back until very late.

The first year that I moved to Oklahoma I raked it the typical way, small piles strewn around. Then I walked pile to pile and packed the bags as tight as possible trying not to poke holes through the sides with twigs. It’s exhausting as everyone knows.

The second year I took the lawnmower over the leaves and make a few passes to mulch them up. Overall the mower is easier but not much quicker, less bending over. But my mower is old and doesn’t plow through as well, it smokes and belches like an old Ford Pinto. I can’t pick it up with the catcher either. It’s a pitifully small net that fills up in two passes. I don’t want to stop the mower every time and empty the bag.

This year I went back to raking little piles and scooping them into plastic bags with both arms. Until I get a larger mower I expect I’ll do it this way. The back yard will be ready in about a week, maybe a little more.

 It’s funny how some things get easier as you get older. You figure out work arounds, shortcuts and best practices. It doesn't seem to apply with raking leaves. I tried using my brother’s leaf blower as well. It didn’t help. I’m a bit of a novice with the blower so that probably added to the longer than usual time. But it took the same amount of time as using the rake.

So why all all the bellyaching about a routine chore every year? I only really got one day off this week and half the day (exaggeration) was spend working on the yard. I think I still have this childish notion that I should get, no “deserve”, a full uninterrupted day of football games on TV and maybe a nap. It’s silly I know. We aren’t promised any free time or ‘just taking it easy type days’ no matter how much we want them.

Friday night and Saturday were taking up with a weekend church thing, the culmination of a men’s group that had a retreat feel. You know the kind, soul searching, finding purpose and dedicating yourself to ‘better’. I hope I’m not being flip. It’s a true joy being with like-minded purpose driven men and women. But it does cost something in time. Worth it for sure.

Something tells me I’ll get the time back. God is good that way.

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12 ESV)   

The Mafia and the Chicken

If something is important to you it isn't negotiable. So what are we to make of the chicken franchise getting backed down off their long held fight over private donations? They used to donate money to The Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes or FCA. Today they made a decision to stop because pushy LGBT groups kept them out of big cities like San Antonio and Boston. There has hardly been a sillier reason keeping a business out. The mob won. Chick fil A buckled under pressure to let outsiders tell them where their money should go, or at least where it shouldn’t go.

In 2012 CEO Dan Cathy made statements in an interview condemning gay marriage. The online mob went after him and threatened a boycott. Christians (and other supporters) everywhere lined up around city blocks and parking lots to defend them. Principle won that day. Chick fil A won because they showed that it’s possible to have values and stick to them, and Christians applauded the effort. The mob retreated.

Mobs always come back though, especially in the face of weak leadership. I didn’t realize it before but Chick fil A quit giving to a handful of groups after the 2012 boycott. They stopped giving to Exodus International and the Family Research Council a few years ago. Chick fil A makes long term agreements in their giving. So if they make a 10 year commitment to a charity, they honor it. The donation agreements to the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes were up at the end of last year. In order to get into other cities, or at least to not have mobs descend on your business, a deal was needed. 

Chick fil A rearranged its giving in two ways. First, they’re not giving long term commitments anymore, probably so they can quickly pull back money in case of a controversy. Second, they’re discarding those 'unsavory' Christian charities, Salvation Army and FCA, and giving to much less offensive ones. Homelessness and hunger are far less likely to bring protesters out to hold signs in front of your store.

I should have seen this coming. They did give in to pressure back in 2012 and stop supporting some groups that openly opposed gay marriage legislation. The support and bravery of their stance (a very small one in the larger picture) meant that they were a champion in the culture wars.

Some of my friends snicker at the idea of ‘culture wars’ an ‘exaggerated’ reason to get offended where nothing is really at stake. I’ll admit that much of it is heat and noise, designed to rally troops and causes; we don’t need to go to the mattresses every time another tradition is ripped away like a loose band aid. If Chick fil A were defending tradition for tradition’s sake I’d say ignore it. But they made a decision to stick by principle with the full knowledge that the choices might keep them out of certain markets.

Now their efforts and bravado seem silly.

It’s like they said “Remember that boycott that brought supporters out in droves and turned us into one of the largest growing companies? Uhhh…nevermind.”

Maybe Chick fil A bothers you because they're pro-traditional marriage. But mob behavior works both ways and might eventually come for something you value. Where is your line? What are you not willing to surrender on? I think everyone needs line, a set of ordered principles that no amount of money can influence.

 They threw it all away to get into a few big city markets with mafia-like gay lobbies that continue to treat them horribly. 

Certainly they’ll gain new business, but will they also lose some too?  

Impeachment Stuff

 

I listened to about 30 minutes of impeachment testimony on the radio Friday. This one is feels very partisan. There isn’t a crime, at least not one that anyone can name and these witnesses all seem to have the same angle on the Ukraine situation, that Trump used ‘irregular channels’ with Zelensky. Big deal. Presidents’ can use any channel they want. They establish the direction of foreign policy and can change it on a whim. Whether going around the ambassador is a good idea or not is best left to the voters.  

The case for impeachment hangs on whether or not Trump withheld aid to Ukraine until they coughed up dirt on Biden. But we already know Ukraine got the money without any giving up any Biden info. There was a delay in releasing the money, but is that really worth this? So the committee hearings are just State Department officials complaining that Trump left them out of the diplomatic process. Trump went around them because he doesn’t trust them.

 He survived an attempt to prove that he colluded with the Russians in 2016 to steal the election. Robert Mueller’s report (which took a ridiculous 2.5 years) showed no evidence of collusion and left the question of ‘obstruction’ hanging in the air.

Forget that obstruction was beyond the mandate of the Mueller report, the FBI team handling the probe committed serious errors. A reckoning is coming very soon on the corruption (Comey, Mccabe) that launched the Mueller report.

A lot of Trump’s reluctance (in my opinion) to use regular channels is he doesn’t trust these agencies.

 His administration is clumsy with sensitive matters. He uses poor judgement and has no discipline; he lashes out through Twitter and changes his mind and attacks the nearest bureaucrat. He is a mess, but this back and forth with the Ukrainian president is within the range of acceptable diplomacy. 

There is a lot more in the phone call about the DNC's missing server and Crowdstrike than Joe and Hunter Biden. Trump thinks Ukraine might have some information on this. Who knows?

 During the call he asks Zelensky to look into Hunter Biden and whether anything illegal happened when Joe Biden got the investigator fired. It could be damaging to Joe in the upcoming 2020 race, which is probably why we know about it.

Impeachments aren’t just about criminal behavior; Congress is within its right to impeach on even trivial matters but if they push too hard they’ll hurt themselves.

The trick is to convince the American people that Trump’s phone call was so egregious it demands impeachment. I don’t think it’s going to work. Will these hearings convince Democrat reps in red states to vote in favor? It matters less what he is accused of doing and more about whether they can make a case. Even if Trump is impeached it’s unlikely that the Senate votes to remove him. The Republicans run the Senate and they aren’t likely to toss him out.

He’ll be the only impeached president to run for office if he actually loses the vote! This might be the beginning of impeachment as a regular political tool but I hope not. This Ukraine thing is petty. It’s obvious from these civil servants testimonies that they are offended at having their ‘authority’ usurped by the president. 

We all get territorial about our position, even small things. I worked with a person whose job was to order office supplies and day to day items for the business. I hated going to him with a suggestion about anything. “Can you double up the post-its next time? We are out of forms, can you get a few more?” Every suggestion or request was met with a heavy sigh and a reminder of how busy he was. Problems were dismissed out of hand as ‘not important’ or ‘not my problem’. He didn’t like sharing responsibility either, lest we figure out how easy it is and get rid of him. Most offices have these types, they protect their work and guard information.

This looks like what’s going on with Ambassador Yovanovitch who Trump trashed in his phone call to Zelensky. Whatever his beef, he could fire her for wearing too much makeup if he wanted. Presidents can do that. I think if he had cleaned house right after coming in some of these bureaucrats wouldn’t be such a problem. There are too many ‘threatened’ departments protecting their turf and handling information in their way. Attempts to go around them are seen as offensive.  

The 9/11 Commission Report  (remember that?) concluded that intelligence agencies didn’t share enough information. That lack of sharing, or “siloing”, created an environment where credible intelligence leading to an attack on the World Trade Center was overlooked. We still see a lot of turf protecting today.

Hulu had a show last year called the “Looming Tower”. It showed how the CIA held on to critical intelligence that should’ve been shared with the FBI.  I have no idea how accurate the show was but the performance of Peter Sarsgaard (Martin Schmidt) is brilliant. An unappreciated genius who thinks his knowledge is superior, he hides information from others so they can’t get credit. Worst of all he thinks he is outside the chain of command, a decision maker unto himself. The point isn’t how right or wrong Martin is but how his arrogance transcends cooperation. He is allergic to oversight, contemptuous of other views and calculating to a fault.

So it’s a turf war with a twist. Adam Schiff plays out his hatred of Trump through the familiar idea of turf war and tries to makes a gamble that he can get the votes without alienating large swathes of the public. If he swings too hard people will show up just to vote against his party and all of Trump’s complaining about “witch hunts” and “fake news” will be true. Voters will see it that way too.