A View Askew
(Or: Did the Dinosaurs See the Comet?)
Mar 2014 Issue 9
Direct to you from the beautiful beaches of Marco Island FL . . .
. . . Now Get Out of Here!
Short Takes
Not sure if this was meant to be ironic but it
could sure be the “Duh” headline of the year. It cannot be a shock that there
are a LOT of old people here - and pretty much everywhere else as well.
Ever been to Marco Island? (It was just declared the No. 1 vacation island in the US, No. 4 in the world - go figure. Must have been a lot of seniors on the selection committee.) If not I can describe it
very quickly: it is a Walt Disney city for seniors. Wonderful weather, beautiful
beaches, good restaurants, you can eat off the streets,
stop signs have flashing lights when you approach (I suppose so geezers won’t
drive through them.) Everyone is white with median age of 60 - there is more tanned, dangling flesh than you can
possibly imagine.On the other hand, you can’t get into a bar or restaurant from 4-10PM - and then the streets are rolled up.
Folks that have been coming here for a long time say they have never seen so
many people here before. Again, duh.
There’s too many old people. (I’d say well-to-do
old people but that’s almost an oxymoron here, (excluding me, of course.) It occurs to
me that actually there are just too many people in general not just us seniors
(and yes, it physically hurts to say “us.”) I’m serious. This is a big country but there
is a huge amount of it that apparently no one wants to live in thus any place
that is decent is overrun. Or maybe I’m just going to all the wrong places.
Middle of Mississippi or Wyoming anyone?
You add more “real” winters up north and places
like FL and AZ will sink - I just can’t
wait to see what it’s like in ten years!
Everyone is Celebrating Dear Leader’s BD!
Well, It's My Birthday Too, Yeah (Birthday, White Album, Beatles, 1968)
Has
it been a year already since I was last trying to sneak away from another
birthday? Crap, it has! How come it takes forever for a couple months to pass
before golf season but an intervening year takes like two weeks!? Yet
another of those insoluble riddles of human existence, I guess. (Right up
there with why a guy’s stomach gets bigger and his chest gets smaller and hair
grows lustily in his ears but disappears from his head.) While life zipped
by like the merry go round it is I did have an opportunity to occasionally
grab some metaphorical gold rings of great enjoyment.
I
continue to have the pleasure of the company of many good friends – and made a
few new ones too. (A good thing too since I have long maintained that it is
easier to get new friends than it is to get new lines!) I did lose my
father-in-law and some friends to the ravages of the human condition and
these things always hurt (even as they occur more and more often.) Overall,
however, things could be much worse.
Have
I mentioned before that the greatest gift of age is perspective? If so, I
apologize. If not, it is. Many of the things that once held great allure no
longer seem to shine so brightly. Conversely, much that I, when wearing a
younger man’s clothes, once considered laughably boring - or worse – I now
clutch closely to my breast (my bosom?) It is a cliché that not all that
glitters is gold yet like all clichés it holds some truth (duh! That’s why it’s
a cliché!) What is less well understood, however, is that statement had to have
been made by someone who has indeed held the glittering, golden trophy of
youth - but eventually traded it for the much more valuable (although not
inevitable) prize of a healthy and happy midlife. . . okay, LATE midlife. . .
okay, okay early old guy! (And yes, that is really reaching for metaphor but
it’s my birthday – nyah - so there.)
That’s
my story for this year and I’m sticking with it. 66 ain’t so bad . . . is it?
(Or more on perspective, as my mother-in-law says, “Oh, to be 66 again!”)
High
School Hockey Madness
Before I left I had been following two separate but related
things regarding high school hockey. That’s ironic since I really don’t know
much about or care about hockey. Yes, I am native Minnesotan and yes, I went to the Harvard of the North, UMD, but still have only seen maybe three games in my life and not sure
what I saw.
Here’s the deal. First, there was an article in the
paper that said a lot of national hockey scouts who used to HAVE to attend MN boys
state hockey tournament now don’t bother. Know why? Because so many of the best
kid skaters are opting out of their HS team so that they can attend some sort
of hockey club schools where the main curricula item is hockey.
Separately, a comparable girls program – a private online
HS that specializes in hockey training with school classes on the side – is
being investigated for a number of girls being ineligible because of residency
issues and things. That happens all the time in all sports when kids change
schools. But an online HS that specializes in hockey for girls? Yikes!
You know, I have long thought that hockey is not so
much a sport as a cult and I think these kinds of things support that view. I
understand a parent wanting to have their kid succeed in sports – we dragged our
daughter around to basketball tournaments for years and she did end up a two
time All American in college - BUT even if there were a comparable BB school
like for hockey and even if she begged to go there would be NO WAY. What a freaking signal to send to your kid –
of course sports are more important than anything especially the experience of
going to school with your friends and neighbors. Academics? Ha! You can get a hockey scholarship so don’t
worry about it.
It’s this kind of stuff that makes me wonder how
otherwise apparently smart, successful and usually good, rational parents can be such . . . dopes.
I guess if we have learned anything, however, it’s
that Americans aren't rational about sports in general (see building stadiums
for billionaires and paying college coaches millions more than the governor.)
God bless America – and protect us from ourselves!
Things That I Think
About
Climate Change – Beliefs vs Facts
Given the delightful weather in Minnesnota this winter
I thought it might be time to talk about climate change. Don’t worry, I’m not
going to connect crappy weather to the climate nor am I going to try to
convince you one way or the other – it’s just too damn complicated.
I’ll bet when you looked at the picture above you
had one of two thoughts: oh my, the world is ending if we don’t stop global
warming OR what a bunch of scare mongering crap.
Lord knows there’s lots of arguments and
disagreements about global warming (renamed global weather change to the
delight of the skeptics!) Rather than try to convince you one way or the other
– and I do have my own opinion - I’d like to talk about this from a different perspective. It seems like this is really more of a battle between beliefs than it is about facts.
And there are a few facts. Over 95% of all peer reviewed papers (something on the order of 850 out of 900) on
climate change tend to agree that the climate is changing, generally getting
warmer and is at least somewhat caused by man. (Despite the pain of this winter
in MN, this was 4th warmest in the world since record keeping began in 1880 –
just ask the people in Alaska. What a terrible joke to play on us in the
heartland!) There is a lot of other evidence of "stuff" going on around the globe that implies some sort of climate change. Perhaps, most importantly, many industries and most major insurance companies are assuming it’s
there is some sort of change going on and are modifying their businesses to adapt. I think that these data are what most of what I will call "true believers" hang their hat on.
On the other hand, those that don’t believe in global warming (so called Deniers) are
quick to point out that climatology isn’t really science like physics or
biology, it’s more like economics; there’s no way to disprove the theory which
is how “real” science works so it's really just speculation (and that would be at least somewhat true.) More importantly to them, they would also say that all those climatologists
are really only fishing for government funding that comes with agreeing with
this consensus view. Essentially the deniers would say that this is nothing but a conspiracy among hundreds if not thousands of scientists (something I have a difficult time believing but whatever.) Worse yet, it would encourage more government intervention in the economy and make expensive and major changes to our lifestyle for nothing (again there might certainly be some truth to this.) Besides
climate always works in natural cycles and we are in a warming one. (I have no idea if this is true.) It is important to point out, however, that those climatologists who do not agree with the consensus are nearly all funded by the coal
and petroleum industries – think Koch brothers - and are hardly objective sources either.
So what to believe? That’s the question, isn't it? It
seems to me that people fall into four categories. First there’s a large group,
probably a majority, who either don’t know, don’t care or can’t figure it out
so they just ignore it. Then there is a somewhat smaller group who believe in global
warming and feel we should probably do something about it but just aren't sure what so they sit and ponder. Finally, there two smaller, roughly equivalent groups on opposite sides. There are those that that
are convinced of global warming and feel we need to do something now – and find
the other side irritating and ignorant. Finally, those who think that this is really a
non-issue and further, it is just an attempt to let the government take over more of our lives
– and find the other side irritating and ignorant. Here's what I think: each side truly believes what they
believe not just because of the facts, however they see them regarding global warming, but also, and perhaps mostly, because their beliefs about this issue really reflect other deep seated beliefs they hold about life in general. You could probably substitute liberal and conservative in there if you wanted to although I think that’s too broad and isn't fair to either side. Who knows why people believe what they believe?
So what’s your belief? More importantly, WHY do you
believe it? To help you, perhaps a thought experiment is in order. If you are a non-believer and you were presented with overwhelming, incontrovertible evidence that climate
change is true and influenced by us with fairly dire consequences would you change your mind? For climate change believers, the exact opposite question - would you alter your beliefs? I suspect that many people, the “true believers” on either side, would probably have a difficult time abandoning their
beliefs because it would just cause too much change in their entire life view.
Cognitive dissonance anyone?
Belief is a good thing for religion but not so much for things like this. If climate change simply comes down not to facts but to beliefs I think we are in trouble because life will be very different for everyone in the
future depending on which belief turns out to be true.
But if it does come down to belief then maybe we should remember Pascal’s Wager. It proposes that it is better to believe in God and be wrong than the other way around. Might a version of that wager be applicable here? I don't know but it's something to think about . . .
But if it does come down to belief then maybe we should remember Pascal’s Wager. It proposes that it is better to believe in God and be wrong than the other way around. Might a version of that wager be applicable here? I don't know but it's something to think about . . .
You've Got the Music in You (You Get What You Give, New Radicals, 1998)
Note: Following isn’t about getting old, it just
seems that way. It’s about music.
"It has long been held
that, just as objective time is dictated by clocks, subjective time (barring
external influences) aligns to physiological metronomes. Music creates discrete
temporal units but ones that do not typically align with the discrete temporal
units in which we measure time. Rather, music embodies (or, rather, is
embodied within) a separate, quasi-independent concept of time, able to
distort or negate “clock-time.” This other time creates a parallel temporal
world in which we are prone to lose ourselves, or at least to lose all
semblance of objective time. Perhaps the clearest evidence of musical hijacking is this: In
2004, the Royal Automobile Club Foundation for Motoring deemed Wagner’s Ride
of the Valkyrie the most
dangerous music to listen to while driving. It is not so much the distraction,
but the substitution of the frenzied tempo of the music that challenges drivers’
normal sense of speed—and the objective cue of the speedometer—and causes them
to speed."
BY JONATHAN BERGER, Composer
That’s exactly what I have been thinking! Okay,
maybe not exactly but close. I think everyone knows that music has a special
effect on us; they understand how it can launch you back to specific time and
place with as much accuracy as a time machine. What I wonder about is why?
I listen to a lot music because Mrs. Dear Leader
listens to a lot of music. She is more up to date but we both still mostly
prefer music from past. I suppose I’m thinking about this because it’s my
annual anniversary of another trip around the sun so one tends to reminisce.
And nothing says reminisce better than music from your “glory days.” (Or you could
just say younger if you want.) As Mr. Berger says, music “distorts clock-time”
allowing us to actually relive some other period of our life. And it’s not just
the “good” times but also the bad times so it’s an equal opportunity device.
I admire the people - people of a certain age - who
wholeheartedly embrace the most recent music of another age (and I acknowledge
that there are a lot of talented people out there now) - but generally I’m not
one of them. So again, I wonder, why? Do I think “my” music is so superior that
it’s not worth my time to even listen to new stuff? (Okay, someone, top the
Beatles or Steely Dan!) Is it because I can’t relate to the people who are
creating new music? (Well, Bruno Mars and I do have the same kind of hat.) Maybe I just don’t have the energy, ambition
or desire to stay up to date (I’m very busy you know!) Or maybe like comfort
food, there’s comfort in music; music that you are familiar with and that you
identify with. Music that allows you to instantaneously escape your current
situation (or problems) and maybe revisit the younger you or at least who the
younger you was when that music came out. Yeah, that’s it! It allows us to
forget the whole aging process and slip back to that young, svelte handsome
dude of yesteryear.
On the other hand, it could be more than just
revisiting your youth. Time speeds by so fast leaving all in its wake –
including our youth – that it’s easy to think that our lives kind of lose their
meaning in the debris. So maybe these musical journeys back help to validate
us; to prove that, hey, I lived on this planet too, you know!
It occurs to me that during our “prime,” music is just
enjoyed in that moment. After all, there were so many more moments ahead then.
And I don’t think anyone thinks about how music will affect us in the future –
ha! Little did we know!
Ah well, maybe this all just
bunch of psychobabble. Maybe it’s just because we all just turn into fuddy duddies
like our parents - carn sarn that hip hop! Where are The Eagles and Chicago when
you need them?!
And Where is
Douglas Adams When You Need HIM?
“Golgafrincham
is a red semi-desert planet that is home of the Great Circling Poets of Arium
and a species of particularly inspiring lichen. Its
people decided it was time to rid themselves of an entire useless third of
their population, and so the descendants of the Circling Poets concocted a
story that their planet would shortly be destroyed in a great catastrophe.”
“Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy,” Douglas Adams
“Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy,” Douglas Adams
If you are fortunate enough to have either
read “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”
or saw the series on public television several years ago (it might have been a
movie too) you are familiar with this. It is full of wonderful satire about
modern life and far ahead of his time. It continues,
“Yes, The
Golgafrinchans sent off their middle-class
persons; telephone sanitizers, hairdressers, jingle writers, accountants, etc.
In other words, all those who either weren't extremely rich, or didn't do any
sort of real work at all. They took off in the Golgafrincham Ark Fleet,
Ship B ('B' Ark). The Golgafrinchans had fed these poor unsuspecting people
crazy lies as to why they all must leave the planet. "It's going to crash
into the sun!" "The moon is going to crash into us!" "The
entire planet is in imminent danger of being eaten by an enormous mutant star
goat!" And of course, the middle-class Golgafrinchans believed them. So
they set off, completely unaware that
the rest of the population was not following them, and began their
five-year journey.
(Bolding by me in case it’s too subtle)
(Bolding by me in case it’s too subtle)
Of course there are two ways of looking at this. First,
maybe he was predicting that the middle class would be sent away because they weren't needed anymore. Hey, not unlike what’s really happening to the middle class today! Or, maybe he
was saying that much of what the middle class does isn't of all that much of real
value anyway. Which could also be true.
In any event, Douglas Adams died far too young but I bet if
he was around and writing today among those he might add are the following: investment
bankers, marketing specialists, people who invent things like Facebook and Twitter as well as most Fox
News commentators (I’d say MSNBC but nobody watches them anyway so who cares.) He
would probably add bloggers too.
Read the books!
Read the books!
(Thanks to Curt "Shanks" Breeding for turning me on to this guy several years ago)
It Will Be Great to be Home Monday – Wah!
In the meantime,
“Be a good citizen of your world . . .” and
don’t be a dope
Quote Du Jour
"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?" Satchel Paige
A View Askew is the sole property of D Roger Pederson, Mpls MN. You may forward without special permission but if you want to use anything here for your own purposes please send me a request at dpeders2002@gmail.com.
A View Askew
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