Saturday, January 16, 2010

30, 2010, 3600000; age, year, yen. It's also the year of the Tiger. I wish it was the year of the Lion, but I will settle for a sweet sweet T-shirt I bought in Thailand with a giant Lion's head on BOTH sides (same picture). I sat a lot while traveling in Thailand, and when I got home I stretched myself into a very sore pelvis/hip. I could barely move for three days. I mean really, it hurt to move. I now feel an empathetic connection to people who take life slower because of injuries or handicaps. Who would want to go back across the room for their cellphone when every step causes distress? The best laid plans of mice and men, how many are hatched with the economy of pain avoidance in the subconscious mind?
I feel I should post more words to this blog. Seems a kind of malaise keeps me from doing so. A rhetorical confusion is the best excuse I can come up with. My discoveries over the past two years seem so obvious now, I feel a little ashamed to write about them, or perhaps they are so obvious it would take too long to write about them. It seems almost baffling to me that my education lacked certain elements. Like maybe somebody saying “ummm...exactly what connections do the words in your head have with your daily existence?”
I just read an article about how much debt countries are accruing to get through the Great Recession. Internet apprised me of this. I had never thought before about countries defaulting on their loans, but it happened quite a few times on this nifty bar graph they drew. So if you are a keen investor, you can make a lot of money shorting a country. You know, buying options and betting that the nation will have to borrow a lot of money at a high interest rate in a short amount of time. If you are on the list for those government bonds, then you are going to make a wad. Shorting an entire economy; phenomenal. It is also cool how other nations may be compelled to borrow money in dollars, which they lack the authority to print more of. I never thought about our position as printer of the world’s money. How great is that for us? But also, 45% of our public debt is held by foreign countries. Anyway, who knows what the Federal Reserve is doing about this, because Congress doesn't get to audit the Federal Reserve.
My family sent me a nice card that quotes Emily Dickinson: "I dwell in possibilities." The one thing I know about Emily is that she lived most of her life as a shut-in, away from the outside world. I love the possible, but I feel this year will be about making the possible, probable. To actualize I suppose I must choose a possibility and go forth with it, not really knowing what will happen. I have been so obsessed with wanting the penultimate surety, I have many times stifled the reality, tempered presence with that feeling of “is this right? Am I doing this right?” I guess I must now admit the script is lost, and the curtain of 2010 is rising.

5 comments:

Justin said...

The script was awful, anyway. Well meaning, but... for a different stage.

I was reading Pope this morning:

Know Thyself
by Alexander Pope


Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest,
In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast,
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such
Whether he thinks too little or too much:
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused, or disabused;
Created half to rise and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled:
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

Ryan Hofer said...

smirky

what to do then? anything?

Anonymous said...

Awesome post !

Anonymous said...

Awesome post !

Ms. Kyla said...

I would like to quote one of my favorite musical artists, Fionna Apple :

"i'm gonna make a mistake
gonna do it on purpose
gonna waste my time

cause im full as a tick
and im scratchin at the surface
and what i found is mine

and when the day is done and i look back
and the fact is i had fun, fumbling around
all the advice i shunned and i ran
where they told me not to run, but i sure had fun
so i'm gonna fuck it up again
I'm gonna do another detour
unpave my path

and if you wanna make sense
whatchya looking at me for
i'm no good at match
and when i find my way back
the fact is i may just stay, or i may not

i've acquired quite a taste for a well made mistake
i wanna make a mistake why can't i make a mistake
i'm always doing what i think i should
almost always doing everybody good
why
do i wana do right, of course but
do i really wanna feel i'm forced to answer you
HELL NO
I've acquired quite a taste for a wellmade mistake,
i wanna make a mistake, i wanna make a mistake
why cant i make a mistake
i'm always doing what i think i should
almost always doing everybody good
Why? "

go forth and make a mess of it all :)