We have hit the boiling point. 212 degrees F. (100 C.). It's been building for a couple weeks, so haven't really noticed, but the last two days are ones where you take a cool shower, and before you can get into the other room to put on clothes, sweat is already starting to pool in the deepest crevices. When we get back from the States in August, it is already full tilt boogie on the thermometer and it is just misery through September. This time of year where I feel like the frog in the pot of water. Put him in a pot on the stove with the water at room temperature and then turn on the heat. He doesn't realize that he is boiling until it is time for frog leg soup. Have tried that analogy out a couple times this week and it just has not gone over. Anyway, I am pretty much a miserable pissed off individual and cannot wait till school ends and we ditch this taco stand.
Might as well just embrace it and let it all hang out today. Couple of quick follow-ups on my clockwise track friends from last time. First, long time reader Mr. Richard Fader from Fort Lee, NJ wrote in suggesting that the black bands I saw were not nipple rash guards, but are fact heart monitors. Those indeed do look like what I saw, so I suppose that it wasn't as egregious as I thought, but does remind me how supremely dismissive I am of the folks that feel the need to discuss how many steps they did today, their work out regimen, or how they have eliminated gluten from their diet. If you are talking to your physician or life coach, have at it. Those people are paid to indulge your narcissism. For the rest of us, I'd rather hear about your fantasy soccer team, how you shot on the golf course, or how great your bratty kids are doing at school. Second, as it is getting hotter, am trying to go for walks early AM or after sunset...not really much better, but anything helps. Going at a different time, I see a whole new cast of characters. This morning, there were a bunch of clockwise runners, but as I have been working on empathy lately, I realized they were simply going back and forth on the side of the track that was in the shade. Part of my self improvement regimen is to show more empathy, to vicariously experience the feelings of others, so I understood their motivation and was good with it. Except for the one guy that was making the full circle the wrong way...he had his shirt on but ran in a fashion that looked like a zombie with the back of his shirt on fire. Not the fast World War Z/I Am Legend zombies, but the lurching George Romero kind. And I don't think a zombie would mind if he was on fire per se, but my zombie runners arms were flailing in an exaggerated awkward windmill motion that looked like he was trying poorly to extinguish the flames. Very distracting. And by the way, have you ever seen an Asian zombie? Think about it.
This empathy kick is not a new thing, I really try to understand a persons/countrys/cultures experiences to understand motives. Doesn't mean that I don't ultimately judge harshly and sometimes incorrectly, but I do try. Empathy was brought to the front of my mind during a talk that I attended about the geopolitics of Taiwan and its place in the world. Probably mentioned it before, but one of the things I have volunteered to do around here is to organize the speakers that give the once a month coffee morning talks at the local English speaking community center ,and have been looking for topics that interest me in hopes that they would interest the community. As having a mid-week talk naturally tilts towards women being able to attend, some of the folks at the center were worried that this kind of a talk would be too "high brow" for that audience. I did not feel similarly and thought that was a bit misogynistic, and am happy to report that it was our best attended event of the year. I asked a teacher from the kids school to give it...Dr. Nick Corbin-Palo. He teaches a class that Paul is in called Crisis and Leadership where they study and discuss various political issues (both current and historic) and have role playing exercises on how the different sides would (should) have dealt with them. Super interesting to me and Paul really likes it. Dr Nick (Hi Everybody) was really good...talked super fast but gave a coherent narrative about the big picture that frames Taiwan and the paths it can logically take while plotting its future.
He has worked (and still consults) for the UN on negotiating strategies, and the second of his three pillars for negotiations is empathy. The first was BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) and the third was durability (basically making a deal that can stand the test of time rather than one that is doomed to fail). It is the empathy part that struck most with me as I think that forgetting to consider the other sides experiences/needs/etc causes almost all of the unnecessary problems we face, from the micro personal to the macro world conflicts we are disgusted by in the news. His example was how his view of the Asian "chessboard" has changed since he came to teach in Taiwan. Previously, he saw that two pieces could be traded between the US and China. China could give up its support in N. Korea and the US could do the same in Taiwan. If you are playing Risk, makes all the sense in the world, but once he got his feet on the ground here and felt the people of Taiwan's real fear of a reunification with China, he realized how truly insensitive and unrealistic that idea was. Think Sykes-Picot, Iran Nuclear program negotiations, or toolio stumbling clockwise around the track with arms spinning like a rusty weather vane...put yourself in the shoes of the people you are affecting judging. Pretty basic idea but one many of us neglect too often.
I read something the other day that made me wretch. Jeb Bush, pandering...excuse me, speaking at Liberty University said that the Obama Administration is attacking Christianity by use of "coercive federal power...demanding obedience in complete disregard of religious conscience" and going on to say, "Somebody here is being small-minded and intolerant, and it sure isn't the nuns, ministers, and laymen and women who ask only to live and practice their faith,". The attack? That providing birth control is part of Obamacare. Ewwwww. I get why there would be outrage over providing on demand abortions, I'm way left on the social issues dial and that issue gives me pause, but I have empathy for women that have to make that painful choice. But birth control? Best way to avoid the abortion conundrum is birth control. This pandering to a base that wants you to not have premarital sex, when you know, you KNOW that they all have premarital sex and use birth control just simply makes these people unelectable (and supremely unlikeable). Jeb later this week went on to say that he'd have invaded Iraq too, so he is pretty much dead meat.
Quick aside, of the GOP hopefuls so far, are there any that haven't made a statement that is so out of touch that you'd shudder if they got a hold of your TV remote, let alone sit in the Oval Office? The only one that isn't already dead to me is Marco Rubio. Yeah, he is wrong on the whole rapprochement with Cuba, but I take that one with a grain of salt based on his heritage (although even that is a bit dubious). Haven't heard enough of him yet so will focus in for a while to see what's what.
Never a huge believer, I used to think that religion fostered values in people for the better, but as I have gotten older, I think the complete opposite and that it is more a tool that people use to promote racism and intolerance. I know that is a narrow statement, and that a lot is done under the guise of religion that does a lot of good, but I feel that the evil tilt might outweigh the good. Seriously, I do not know one person that is a-religious that has a racist thing to say. Actually, they will say some of the most outwardly racist things but that are ways to start a discussion with humor rather than the cloaked racism that I am talking about. The only people that I encounter (and please, am not saying every one of them, but a percentage that seems alarmingly high) that have no empathy are the religious types. Coincidence? My current view is that to be religious, you have to have faith, to believe in something that cannot be proven, but that you "learn" what the "truth" is from humans, who are at best inherently flawed, and at worst...are the worst.
Sorry about that, sometimes the world bums me out and find that getting it out
Speaking of getting bummed out, and it is definitely heat related, but definitely feel myself getting old. Will be 50 in a few months and have noticed something that I am not sure how to handle.. While the number of times the planet has been around the sun since I was born is considered AARP eligible, the different parts of my body have aged at wildly different rates. The extremes are that my knees are that of an octogenarian while my brain still has the maturity level of a 12 year-old boy.
As an example of the latter, some Afghan kids were in town to participate in a Model United Nations (MUN) weekend at the kids school, and Paul was involved. He told me that those kids were coming to his committee to answer questions, and I had one for him to ask, He refused, so I sent it to the teacher (who walks on water in my book and I consider her a friend). I wanted to know if the Afghani's call crocheted blankets Afghans or just blankets? I never did hear the answer, but the teacher told Paul that she thinks that he is more mature than me.
Having a juvenile sense of humor is not the problem. At least that is not my problem, but understand it could be yours. My problem is, I need help sometimes...I want to sit in the chair, people to ask me if I need anything, open the door...basic deference to your elders like I was brought up to act. But my problem is that I am still so damn good looking, that people do not see me for the senior citizen that my aching joints are telling me I am.
Something in the news that bumped me on a personal level was that ESPN was not extending the contract of Bill Simmons. Have been reading him on Grantland for many years and am a devoted follower of his podcasts. Definitely do not agree with him on everything, especially on his New England sports fandom (Boston fans are never not detestable), but he is funny and irreverent and will miss the hole that his departure will leave in my listening world. Am auditioning new podcasts to see if any can stick in my rotation. That rotation is:
Never miss:
Adam Carolla's daily podcast (another whose views can grate on occasion, but his contempt of everything and our shared age/upbringing in LA have made me a devoted listener since Loveline in the 90's.
Greg Proops' weekly podcast called The Smartest Man in the World. Live before a studio audience, just amazing how he can riff on things off the cuff for an hour and a half. Way to the left socially and is a huge baseball fan. Borders on brilliance
The John Clayton Show, which is a 3hr radio show about football from a great voice on the subject. Have been an avid listener for 20 years and being able to dial him up weekly keeps me ahead of the game in all things NFL. His Sportscenter commercial is arguably their funniest.
During baseball season, I will listen to Buster Olney's Baseball Tonight, The Jonah Keri Grantland show and weekly MLB Extras updates by division, and football has me with Dave Dameshek, Greg Cossell (Howard's equally smug but knowledgeable son) and Grantland's NFL podcast.
Depending on their guest, will listen to Greg Fitzsimmons, Jay Mohr and Marc Maron, and usually have the latest Doug (Benson) Loves Movies and Judge John Hodgeman on my mp3 player when I run out of the above...
And Betty likes to listen to the John and Ken show when we are driving to/from work...they are conservative radio host/cranks that we listened to back in our dating days in LA when we were stuck in rush hour traffic.
That sounds like a lot, but they keep me company when I'm in the kitchen, taking a walk or attending to my regular Hausfrau duties. Like I said, have been auditioning podcasts and it looks like the Sklar Brothers podcast Sklarbro Country might stick. Pop culture told comically with a heavy lean towards sports. I would love to talk about any of the above, so let me know if you listen. And if you have one that you feel is essential and would like to recommend, am all ears.
Finally, one more recommendation. Find the first two episodes of a new show called The Last Man on Earth. Here is the thumbnail description from IMDB..."Phil Miller was a normal guy, but when a plague struck, he became the last man on earth. His only wish was to have company, preferably a female. When he meets a survivor named Carol, he starts to rethink his wish." Have only seen the first two episodes, so not sure if it can sustain over the whole series, but the first two had me laughing out loud by myself, especially the first one where he grapples with life as the last man on Earth. Genius.
Not much time left in the Taiwan school year so only have a couple more posts before June, but in the next week I plan to work on taking you on an eating journey of the 7-11 across the street. It will be a challenge to capture in words and pictures the tastes and smells that you can experience, but will give it my best effort.
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