Musings

I lived in New York city in the early 60s and loved being there. A return visit a;ways confirms the energy and repeat visits are always welcome though they come too seldom now. But things are different watching America from a Canadian perspective. I’ve also just finished the book, How the Irish Saved Civilization - well worth a read. Much of it talks about the failure of the Roman Empire as the barbarians invaded it. The strange American scene we watch now causes reflection.

There is always a sense that Canadians are different - borrowing, I have often thought from, our British roots as well as our American ones. But the truth is that those roots are far more multicultural than I grew up thinking - even when living in a community where the roots were primarily German. More than 24 years ago we realized that half the people in Canada’s largest city, Toronto, weren’t born in Canada. That was OK and one of the things that made it interesting. There were neighborhoods with ethnic flavours and we sought out their restaurants - Greek, Italian, Indian and Jamaican. While there are clearly groups in our country that have suffered from our white privileged roots, there is no desire for us to return to earlier times, which we know weren’t necessarily great.

Another difference is clear now. We would never characterize our judges as Democrats or Republican - even substituting our local party designations. We don’t have a clue as to what government appointed them. We would be hard pressed to name the members of our supreme court even though we could come up with most of the names of the ones of our southern neighbour. We take it for granted that our judges are apolitical. We speak up when our politicians do things we don’t like. but we don’t demonize them and for the most part we are polite.

Walking to a concert last week, I came upon a very small group of protesters slowing down traffic on a main street. They were shouting “Trudeau must go” - and carrying a very large banner reading “The Trudeau Communist Regime must go”. Passersby generally smiled if they paid any attention at all. We might think that the Prime Minister’s office has too much power - but we would never call it a communist regime, unless we were very young with more enthusiasm than knowledge.

I get the feeling that we still think truth and facts are important. I hope it stays that way. Empires come and go. Thank goodness for the Irish scribes who thought learning from the past was important. If truth and facts can’t find common ground and stay in memory, they begin a downward spiral.

Productivity

In reading 4000 Hours again - a common practice, because I rush through books and then often re-read to absorb more of the details rather than the main argument - the author spends a good deal of time debunking our notions of productivity and our lack of control over our work and our inability to focus - and thus our fritter away our lives.

I was reminded of an interaction with a grandson about 12 years ago now. I was called into action as a sitter for two small boys on an afternoon when I had a tight deadline. I thought I had come up with a clever idea to keep them busy for the next hour so I could finish my assignment. I presented them with two large sheets of plain paper and a collection of markers and crayons. My instruction was to keep busy- and use the entire sheet of paper - while I got on with my work. “This will keep them occupied for a good long time”, I thought. I was wrong. The younger one returned within five minutes with the assignment completed - even with some decoration. There are many kinds of productivity.

Finitude

I have a new word in my vocabulary. It comes from a book that attracted my attention when I escaped from being too involved with a project, walked some final letters to the post office - because there are still people without email - and crossed the street to my neighborhood independent bookstore. Book City combines a large range of magazines, new books and remaindered ones in a relatively small space. I tend to head toward remaindered, after looking at the new releases.

But this time a new one published in 2023 appeared to have my name on it. Four Thousand Weeks, Time Management for Mortals. by Oliver Burkeman. Its cover reads Embrace Your Limits, Change Your Life. My life needed a change. Being burned out as a retiree ought to be an oxymoron.

Four thousand weeks is what you get if you live to be 80 years old. I’m already beyond half way to 4700 weeks if I make it to 90. The introductory chapter is headed, In the Long Run, We’re all Dead. Time Management seems like a solution and I have read all the books for years. This one does take a different and salutary direction.

The author is quite witty and well read - he has lived through both Trump and the Pandemic nad like me, still here. Perhaps the kernel of what he says comes from - of all people, Martin Heidigger, who defeats all students of philosophy by being more obsessed with the subject of finitude than any other. An d there is the addition of the two strikes of being a member of the Nazi party for ten years, and being almost impossible to read. Burkeman though, helps us through Heidigger by pointing to the question, somewhat like Hamlet, :What does it mean to be”? He says the only real question is whether we are willing to confront that one or not. The answer is that we are mortal. We are born here, we live here, we die here. All we can do is live our one miraculous life - a gift that never depended on us.

I’ve also been reading a report this morning of the results of some consultations - with one group of people saying, “If only we could get back to the past when everything was the way we wish it were now, it would be so wonderful” - and another group saying, “What do we have to do to make the future exactly the way we want it to be - which will be so wonderful”. I tend to join the second group with all its worry and anxiety. But the truth dawns. The only life over which I/they have any control is the one I/they have right now. It’s not as if we can manage time. Our life is our time - with limits.. It’s not as though our choices don’t matter because clearly they have consequences. But to pretend that we can fully control the future by our actions or recover the past is crazy. Learning finitude is important before it’s too late - both for me and everyone else.

Morning Coffee

Reading what comes in via email reflects the world we live in precisely. First one. Several are responding to a letter and a report designed for the same audience. I wrote one them. The purpose of both is to ask for more money from the organization’s supporters and they differ in how to do it. The matter needs action and a further discussion will determine the direction. One view is that a more folksy and emotional approach works better. Another is that maybe we shouldn’t be too forward in asking for money since we will want to do it again later in the fall. Meanwhile the organization is surviving by drawing down its shrinking endowment. The meeting happens tomorrow night,

A second comes from the admirable George Monbiot of the Guardian. The newspaper’s online communications arrive for free and I generally support them occasionally. There is always an ask - and today’s suggestion is that it could start at as little as $2 a month or a one time donation. That’s a rather good way to put it. Is it time to send through the $25 that I occasionally give, with a reminder that I value this organization each month about the same as I do as one cup of my morning coffee. Can do both without sacrifice is a bit ridiculous? Monbiot’s article surrounding this appeal notes the same thing that I did in my previous post. The weight and seriousness of the climate emergency competes with lots of trivia about an affair of a British film producer with 10,000 recent new items - contrasted with five for a serious science report - trivia always wins. The media world is not the real world, but we believe it is. As he says, celebrity gossip is always more important than existential risk,

Third there’s Gas Busters. This is a group that wants to ban gas powered leaf blowers. Most people complain about the noise - and I join them there. I think much less about the air pollution they cause. The Toronto City Council voted to pursue a ban - not pass it even yet. At least that is better than doing nothing, but I am now asked to do more writing to City Councilors and staff. Anther item for the task list.

Then there is the organization of seniors working on climate action - now. They have a coming meeting that conflicts with one of my own. A report of a subcommittee focuses on the allocated number of members, and says that a person who recently volunteered will be excluded because of lack of experience with this spsecific organization. What if that person was one that turned up unexpectedly once in my world - who had just retired as chief geologist for the provincial government. We’ll never know - being a current member matters more. There is also a complaint about more men than women on the committee - six to four. A financial report indicates $65. in new memberships. That means 15 of them, because one of them at $5 per year was mine. Even for a very new organization, Five dollars a year isn’t enough to make it go anywhere,

What comes through is how easily we are distracted by incoming news all with the organizational appeals - and all arguing the side issues, which saves us from having to act on matters we think are important or support them. And the health of the institution or group always ends up at the forefront, not the causes they espouse. How do create our personal priorities? They matter. I might need a second coffee to sort out my own.

Importance

We’re influenced by what we read. We certainly know that newspapers are biased and we are likely to choose ones that correspond to at least some of our values, as well as hoping for a degree of objectivity in actual news items. I’m glad that the ones I read make it clear whether an article is news or opinion.

But what about items that appear as actual news? The Washington Post sends me a daily summary of the seven top stories of the day, They appear below:

1.Ukraine has started firing a controversial U.S. weapon at Russian forces.

2. We are living through Earth’s hottest month on record.

3. A nationwide UPS strike appears increasingly likely.

4. Seven big tech companies agreed to alert people to AI-generated content.

5. Ancient soil from Greenland suggests some of its ice could disappear

6. The U.S. plays its first game at the women’s World Cup tonight.

7.The biggest movie weekend of the year is here: It’s time for Barbenheimer. (Barbie plus Oppenheimer).

And here are some questions about the ordering:

• Which ones have implications for our long term future? What would that order be?

• Which ones show the priorities of our culture?

• How would I number these in order of importance? I’ll let you decide for yourself. To do so says much about what we value as we skim over the realities of our universe.