At the Playground.

c. David Grim (taken 3/20/10)

I've been appreciating the nice weather again. E. lost his access to the great outdoors when his daycare moved to its present location, and whenever I show up to get him the first thing he says is "We go to playground first, Daddy!" This (of course) means that I may or may not get the caffeinated fuel I need to keep going through the evening, but I don't usually have the heart to stifle his excitement. So off we go to "the slides".

I'll admit it took me awhile to get into the head-space that allows me to enjoy hanging out with a very young child. I was convinced that I was going to be bored pretty much constantly. But now I look forward to spending time with my son as the highlight of my day.

At the playground we throw a little compressed plastic ball around. It is a brightly-colored thing, with Marvel Superheroes depicted on its surface. E. can identify them, and I like hearing him say "The Ting, Oolverine, Ion Men, and The Hauk". We crawl all over the Jungle Gyms, and I watch him slide over and over. We take turn blowing bubbles, and then look at the ducks. On our way home we listen to the Kinks and he demands to hear his favorites (which he calls "La-La" and "Hey Hey!" ) again and again.

Changing the Channel.

c. David Grim (taken 8/19/08)

I didn't necessarily intend to (ever) attribute the quotes I posted last week. If I had, I would have done so immediately. I was a bit ambivalent about the number of responses I got regarding that choice. But in appreciation of the fact that a few people actually cared enough to remark upon the lack of attribution...

I wrote them. Kind of.

I mean... I didn't read them anywhere else. I felt like I was channeling something, and wrote down what came into my head without conscious revision. I certainly wouldn't put text in quotes without noting the source if it had been otherwise. Yet I felt strange about spelling out what had happened, so putting quotes around it and not commenting further seemed like an imperfect, but acceptable, solution.

I realize how nutty this all sounds, but there is a tradition of automatic writing in Western Literature. Sure, some folks insist that angels visited them, or that God dictated their words... but I wasn't going to make supernatural claims.

I did find the interaction with actual readers stimulating, and the experience made me reflect on the nature of authorship.

Our Shining City on the Hill.

c. David Grim (taken 4/6/08)

Sometimes it's difficult to realize just how resistant the United States is to change. Many Americans believe that we have earned a world-leading status due to our progressive approach, and that we have evolved rapidly, thus naturally earning our position relative to the rest of the world. We flatter ourselves that everyone looks at us enviously in the hopes of catching up. No doubt our quick embrace of new technologies has flattered this perspective. When it comes to materialism, we do indeed tend to get ahead, even of ourselves.

But when it comes to real structural change... the kind that would actually change the way we live, we have a strong reactionary segment that invests an inordinate amount of energy and other resources in maintaining the status quo. Even in areas that everyone agrees there exists major problems, our society is ultimately loath to make alterations of any serious substance. Health care is a particularly appropriate and timely example of what I'm referring to.

Given the outpouring of rancor over access to medical treatment, can you imagine what would happen if Obama took a page out of Russian president Dmitriy Medvedev's playbook, and eliminated two entire time zones? I can't think of anything more damning to call the president than the "Anti-Christ", but I'm sure his opponents could. But how do the Russians respond? An online petition opposing the measure with 13,000 signatures. Could the proverbial Facebook "Head of Lettuce" or "Deranged Squirrel" get more fans than that?

And how exactly is this move by Medvedev going to affect people's lives? Ponder this quote from the petition's text: "[i]n the winter, darkness will come almost at lunchtime, which isn't convenient and is psychologically quite hard." Yikes.

The Safety of Conformity.

c. David Grim (taken 4/12/09)

And on and on...

"The ironic thing is that these are often the same blunt minds that bemoan the fact that not enough people listen to them, yet the bulk of mainstream "culture" is directed at their demographic because theirs is the least nuanced, and thus the easiest to grasp. They prefer not to have their worldview challenged, and thus reach for the most mundane concepts to consume. If they don't have a convenient category within which to place the phenomenon, then they are anxious, even without the realization that their chosen paradigm has been threatened. The thing is however... that I suspect the concealed heterogeneity in the secret thoughts of all individuals would simultaneously fascinate me and evoke a surprising sensation of identification. Instead I'm exposed to the safety of conformity."

To Forget that Others Exist.

c. David Grim (taken 8/3/09)

And yet this too...

"I'm wondering why so many exurbanites display a bovine herd-like mentality with absolutely no awareness of the concept of personal space. I guess it's self-evident that human proximity encourages a sense of conscious orientation regarding our fellow creatures. Perhaps it's necessary to cull the herd, but if it's not the appropriate response in your context, and the truth is that we rarely talk of such a need, no matter how obvious it seems, then we must seek an alternative solution (no matter how temporary). You might think that people who live in a place with more acreage for each inhabitant would have an intuitive sense for how others might value breathing room. But yet so often we learn that these folks have only learned to take space for granted. They have developed the ability to forget that others exist. This is why they drive cars with size that appears completely gratuitous. This is why they wander in public spaces obliviously, as if their agenda alone mattered. Ultimately this is also why so many of them become progressively close-minded rather than gaining the useful perspective that there are alternative opinions, ideas, beliefs and ways to live that may be (and often are) just as much (and often more) valid then their own."

To be continued...

Wait for the Punchline.

c. David Grim (taken 4/18/08)

And look...

"Oh how we understand process and means of delivery. Kids today can tell us a number of ways to get from here to there, but somehow the substance and import of the information is neglected. Attention spans have dwindled to virtually nothing. Everyone waits for the punchline, or the kernel that can be exploited for material gain. Perhaps we no longer have the time nor inclination to see the connective threads as conduits for significance, or rather the superstructure that makes everything interrelated. And it's not as if there is a "right" association , a proper relationship... but it's a function of consensus and mirroring. People look for recognition, which is generally simply projection. We've assimilated our pasts, which has no relation to our future aside from preceding it. Yet we shape every experience we have with what came before it. We can't get there from here, but we can reach an approximate point that resembles what we've imagined. If we are mentally "healthy" by conventional terms, we can even pretend that we've arrived at a place that we expected. How glorious it is to be that focused. Sure it's a delusion, but a useful one if we want to fully engage in society as it's organized. Still, what if we don't like the map we've inherited? Where does our will enter the superstructure? What small role can we have in shaping it, and how indelible will the mark we leave upon it be? Most nowadays are mere consumers. If people don't realize that they are just receptors."

Another Node in the Universe.

c. David Grim (taken 4/11/08)

More of this:

"Most of our triumph, and grief, and reputation, and personal meaning is simply the folly of self-importance. We think it matters that we are here because there is no other way to live, and even if we accept the reality of our transient nature, we still make our choices, whether informed or subconsciously, whether passive or active, whether deliberately or impulsively, we do act, and to us it will make a difference, but it is a credit to ego alone that we think we matter. I'm not suggesting that we not participate, but rather that we embrace the humility that can save us from ourselves. Why accept the proposition that isolation is possible? We all have the same name, and that is called "everyone", so when we look at others with disgust, or contempt, or affection, or bonhomie, or fellow-feeling, or jealousy, or respect, we are implicating ourselves as much as our targets. And we must remember that we are all moving targets endlessly shifting, and when we think we have met our marks, it is only the illusion of impact in memory. Sure, our aim was true, but this is no grand accomplishment because anything that emanates from us encounters another point in the grid, another node in the universe."