Happy New Year. Hopefully you find serenity in this next trip around Sol.
Be sure to check out the Roses & Thorns section and hit up the comments with your own!
Without further ado, here are some thoughts based on headlines I’m seeing, the classes I’m taking, the YouTube holes I’m falling down, and the adventures of/with my 3-yr-old son.
New Year
It’s a new year [everywhere in the world except China].
For a great long time now we (that is, we in the West) have acknowledged January 1 as the start of the year. We refer to this as the “calendar year.” You know (or should) that our modern calendar is referred to as the Gregorian Calendar, in reference to Pope Gregory XIII who instituted it in 1582. (According to timeanddate.com the calendar was created by an Italian doctor, astronomer, and philosopher named Luigi Lilio who developed it in the 1570’s.)
Of interest to me is the assumption of compliance. The head of the Roman Catholic church says, one day, that this particular way of tracking days and seasons is better than all others, and so it is.
Obviously we know that it didn’t happen over night, and it wasn’t a seamless transition. Like everything else there were holdouts (still are) and it took time for it to catch on. But what came before? Why did we move away from the Julian Calendar (so named for Julius Caesar). And why did Caesar (ego aside) adopt a different calendar than had been before?
These things and more are playing in my head as we enter this new year.
MOAR POWER
I’m confused by how it makes any sense to anyone to give more power and responsibility to an entity which has consistently and constantly showed itself incapable of the proper implementation of that power and responsibility.
When was the last time you went to the DMV? Was it flawless? Was it a good experience? Perhaps you can answer yes to that, but I have never had a good experience at the DMV. I have only ever encountered disgruntled NPCs who forget that they are humans with autonomy and agency. Given that [for the sake of my point] why would we want to enlarge the breadth and depth of their purview?
Look at public government schools. Why does it make sense to increase a school’s budget only when they are failing, or seem incapable of doing anything with that budget? If an organization cannot do anything of worth with what it has, it ought not to be given more.
But all of this is the mentality of the American Left. They are people who start from the premise that Government can, and should, be a force for good. From that premise they then assume that if Government is failing, it is not the fault of the policy or, god-forbid, the people implementing but because the Government wasn’t given enough to succeed. In other words, failure is not indicative of bad idea, or planning, or inevitability, but rather is indicative of some external, interfering force.
The problem with the Left’s worldview in that regard is that it’s wrong. It’s incorrect. It’s not real. Trying again and again to implement “real socialism” is not going to lead to Utopia. It will just further illustrate that socialism is a failed idea. Always.
So why do we think it’s a good idea to hand over more power to an entity which has consistently and constantly shown itself to be incapable?
Weekly Why Files
I was happy to discover that a few of you are also The Why Files fans. This brief back & forth with Demi Pietchell (
) really made my day. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who does these deep YouTube dives (even though I know I’m not) and having discovered some real gems I get passionate about sharing them however I can.This week the episode was about Near Death Experiences (NDEs) and what we can and do know about the immortality of the soul and ‘life after death’. I got choked up when AJ was talking about his personal experience.
For my part, I believe that the NDEs that are reported are real experiences. I understand the skeptic’s argument (as I had been a staunch materialist most of my life) but I no longer find it compelling or explanatory. I’ve now actually read the reports and circumstances surrounding a lot of the experiments that have been conducted and I am convinced.
Roses & Thorns
To close out the free series this week I’m going to attempt to find three good things (roses) and three bad things (thorns) from the past week. The intent is to both learn to see the good and reward ourselves for the successes as well as learn to objectively see and correct things that need to be corrected.
Roses
Christmas went well and despite my mother-in-law’s oven not working, she and the family were able to pull together a dinner for 12 (using a travel-Traeger grill).
This was my fifth Christmas sober and I’m finally understanding what it means to not have to insert myself into every situation. I was able to be present, but wasn’t compelled to control everything.
It was my birthday this last week. I debated putting this in the Thorns section, but I don’t actually feel that way. There was a time in my life when I was convinced I wouldn’t live past 18. Then 25. Now I’m approaching 40 and I’m comfortable with the idea that it might be a while before I’m called to judgement.
Thorns
I ate entirely too much fondue on New Year’s Eve. I also know myself well enough that I will most likely not “resolve” to do better. Ugh.
People decided to shoot off a bunch of fireworks at midnight (NYE). I should have anticipated that, but didn’t. So having gone to bed relatively early I was awakened by a series of loud pops and booms which doesn’t do good things for my PTSD.
As you can tell, Roses & Thorns is unique to you and can run the gamut from small wins (or losses) to big things (in or out of our control).
Share your Roses & Thorns in the comments below.
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