Two days without coffee. I don't feel any better or worse. I guess it takes a few days before the effects become evident. Who knows. The foot is slowly improving. There will be some sort of return to cycling soon, I hope. The weathers whisper for it. It has not been ideal - being almost immobile as the spring is preparing to mount its transition into summer. I have been good with caring for the foot, or as good as I can hope to be. I've tried to stay off of it to let it heal, but the healing makes me want to walk, and the walking prevents the healing.
Yesterday, I ambled anyway, more than I have in the last three weeks combined, probably. The boy and I went on little adventures, one of which was to the hardware store. For whatever reason, I kept marching him back and forth in this warehouse of concrete, trying to find the few things that we needed. The truth is that I had not worn my glasses. I was being very male about it. It's very easy to do, some would say that it's even natural, but it should be stopped. It's very toxic, we're oft reminded.
One quick political note:
Some of the best writers have hinted that our leader is upsetting so many democratic norms that it's not that we can't know what to expect next, but rather there are only two possible outcomes for him - success or failure. I of course always assume that he can be more mediocre than people have given him credit for. He's trying to destabilize democratic institutions to prevent them from interfering with his clumsy attempts to amass power. That he has been too erratic to do so thus far says everything about him and nothing at all about his ambitions. He's still a dangerous man, even if he is the most publicly graceless fool that we have seen in a very long time. He is famously vain, and dangerous in part because of that.
When I look at the people criticizing him with the most venom, like myself, I'm not sure that any of those people would handle power, wealth, and fame any better. Everywhere I look I see petty, humorless, frustrated would-be tyrants. They universally believe their sensibilities to be the correct ones. Everybody seems to know how to fix things. Or, if they don't, they'll check with Bernie.
I would misuse political power, also, just as I would squander lottery winnings. I'd like to believe that I would make it fun for everybody watching, though history would likely be comparing me to Caligula as well. I look at the way that I've acted when I had very marginal and mostly imaginary power... I, of course, misused it and never quite understood at the time why it vanished from me. Why would that change if I had any real power? And I'd like to think that I'm a pretty good guy, for a male-man.
We know that he was not prepared to be president, but when I look around at all of my deeply incensed friends I'm not exactly seeing any qualified replacements. That could just be me. But, that's not the point. I have something almost close to pity for him now, the more I watch him. He's just an old confused racist wandering around, looking to be liked and not finding many takers.
I'm not trying to normalize him. I don't have to. On one level he is what we should expect him to be, just an old white man acting as you would expect any other old white man might. Just picture him at Thanksgiving dinner chatting with your grandma and you'll get the idea. She probably gladly agrees with everything he says.
So, let your grandma be president.
Don't get me wrong, if I saw Trump limping around a hardware store, not knowing where he was or where what he was looking for was, then I'd make fun of him also. Of course, of course. Without derision it becomes difficult to tell how much finer your superiority is to all else's. It's how we know. Without the power to dismiss then we're fucked.
For a quick glimpse into what I mean, read this first paragraph. It is written poorly enough as to be more comedic than informative. He is the archetypal businessman - a dealmaker without peer.
This must have been approved by somebody that speaks English, right?
Wouldn't that be anti-archetype?
I have the best hyperbole. Everybody says this about me.
.
