I really wish my father were here. Then I wouldn't have to depend upon my friends (that's you, M.B.) and anonymous readers (that's you, Sean) to pat me on the head and tell me how naive I am. "Taxes are bad because they take money from the people who have earned it and make it impossible for them to start new businesses, hire workers, and generally benefit the economy all around." My father loved this argument when he was talking about trying to get his auto shop to make some (any) money, but for the last fifteen years of his life, he worked for the surgery department in a public university and spent the greater part of his time at the V.A. hospital, being paid by, um, the government. He was also, in his younger days, adamantly opposed to any government-supported health care system; by the time he died, he had revised his thinking on this somewhat. The bureaucracy, waste and corruption of the insurance system had convinced him that the poor--whom he spent the...
FB: thanks. This has been a very enlightening theme.
ReplyDeleteI've become horribly aware that addictiveness probably runs in my family. I have a number of siblings who ... ermmm ... like their drink too much, and that has been an issue for me too. Though not as much as my tendency to get sucked into compulsive interests that have no benefits in the real world: playing Go on the Internet, editing Wikipedia, or answering questions on Yahoo! Answers.
But lately I took up accordion (and I mean weird accordion - Russian B-system button-key accordion). The compulsiveness has manifested in assiduous daily practice: I feel uneasy if we're away somewhere and I can't do it. And it has benefits: I'm up to a level where I can play in public, and enjoy doing it. People find it surprising and cool.
These traits can be harnessed.
Ray: You are most welcome! Thank you for sharing your experiences with me. It's powerful stuff, addiction. We have drinkers in my family, too, but I'm starting to see that it's a bigger issue, not just about drinking. It's anything that we use to suppress feelings that we would rather not have. But if we allow ourselves to feel them and understand why we have them, then we can actually address what is upsetting us. Which is hard. But ultimately healing. It's such a fine line between passion and compulsion, it's, well, sobering.
ReplyDeleteAnd musically stimulating! Congrats on your playing!