Day: July 25, 2023

I meant to find a blog about lists. I wanted to write about how far I’ve come in starting to and continuing to list things in order to get them done. Alas, what popped up was The Breakfast Choice, forcing me to take a look back at where I was then to where I am now. Short version: I fell in love and found a partner who is an actual partner in the sense of us looking out for each others better interests. In other words, she feeds me.

How’d we get here?

Back then I was in a situation where I would go to work and find myself hungry and not wanting to work. So, I’d go to a place–either Village Inn or Wildflower Bread Co (the pancakes there are top 5 all time–#1 being held down by Frankie’s Diner in Victoria, BC). I’d order the pancakes (of course) and whatever else I could squeeze in with that. I’d get down to business right away, handling a dozen papers or more during that time. Often I’d just sit there for an hour and write. I loved that time to myself. Unfortunately, it cost me a lot of money. Furthermore, when I didn’t go, I didn’t eat.

Now I’m with the love of my life and she gets it. She is quick to point out when I don’t eat and often suggests I do go to such places to get back to writing. I’ve learned to find balance between being a healthy daily eater and finding the time to go out and lock in on the words. In fact, I might find my way to a breakfast spot later this week, because I feel like I’ve earned it. I feel like I might need it too.

Some Thoughts:

1. Giants signed Barkley. Dope!

We had a chance to see John Oliver perform live tonight and it was pretty much exactly what I hoped for. His take on America and on Britain hits chords that have me laughing out loud. He has so many things to say and so much of what he says resonates as a sound truth. Perhaps above all else his note of optimism in the people of this lovely planet is what I find most endearing. He sees that we are getting it wrong over and over again, but he also sees that we all have the capability to recognize that and, maybe one day, work this shit out.

Comedy disarms. Comedy puts you at ease enough that you can listen to an argument from a perspective that is not your own, and in that see that there may be other points of view at play here. Oliver is entirely disarming in a way that makes you feel like, ‘yeah, I totally feel that’. For example, he broached the subject of expertise and how we have created a cycle of treating experts and non-experts with exactly the same weight. He’s not wrong. One of the fundamental problems in my household is that whenever I speak on a subject that I have studied or been intimately familiar with for decades I’m immediately treated like I don’t know what I am talking about or that they know as much as me. I’m ‘google fact checked’ every time I open my mouth. And if what I say doesn’t exactly align with whatever comes up first on that search, then I’m automatically the one who must have it wrong. Now imagine how it must feel if you’re a top scientist and some random twitter troll tells you that your findings have to be wrong and the masses choose to believe the Troll… That’s what a lot of the filter bubble of modern reality is pushing. It is hard to talk about that–about confirmation bias–and do it in a way that disarms vs. escalates. Oliver has that locked down.

Not a lot of time left here to speak this evening, but I will end with this. Comedy lightens me. It reminds me that I’m not the only one who feels like things are messed up and way too polarized and heavy right now. It make me feel like I’m not the only one who thinks we need to learn to laugh at ourselves a little bit.

We do.