Musings:
1 There’s an old saw about a glass being half-full or half-empty. Said glass is a metaphor for a positive or a negative outlook on Life. Would-be philosophers follow up with numerous examples of such outlooks. Sometimes, the examples are outright silly.
Frankly, I’m not concerned about whether that metaphorical glass in half-full or half-empty. What concerns me is what’s in the glass. For instance, if a glass contains battery acid, you’re not likely to drink from it, regardless of the quantity therein. On the other hand, if wine were in the glass, you’d drink it down and perhaps ask for more (preferably a full glass!). So, here’s my metaphor: good taste is good life.
2 I’ve watched the Wizard of Oz several times over the years, and each time I’ve puzzled over one particular scene. It is where Dorothy wants to return to her home in Kansas (a contradiction in terms) and asks Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, for advice. Glinda tells her to go to Emerald City and consult with the Wizard. Dorothy then asks how to get there, and Glinda replies, “follow the Yellow Brick Road.”
My puzzlement is this: what if Dorothy were color-blind and followed the Red Brick Road? She’d have had different adventures with different acquaintances. This is an untold story which keeps me awake at night.
3 Speaking of new adventures, grocery shopping at a supermarket can be a hazardous one. One never knows when one will have a collision with someone who does not believe that the rules of the road applies to shopping carts. For instance, you have the Dale Earnhart wannabes who come steaming out of the side aisles and don’t bother looking in both directions at the intersection. Then there are the Australians who drive on the left side of the road and come at you on the right side of the road. Finally, the wanderers seem to need the whole aisle to do their shopping and move from one side to the other without warning.
4 Women who are born and raised in the Judeo-Christian culture experience childbirth flat on their backs and suffer pain and discomfort all the while. They do so because they are obliged to do so, according to Genesis 3:16 (look it up, dear reader). Women in other cultures, however, often experience childbirth either squatting or kneeling and letting gravity do some of the work. (BTW, a man wrote Genesis.)
5 The war in Ukraine has resulted in an increase in the price of gasoline in Western countries. Motorists are running about, wondering when it will all end and they can fill up their gas-guzzler of choice without having to take out a loan. If they owned an electric vehicle (or even a hybrid), they wouldn’t have to worry about the price of gasoline – ever. Duh!
6 Am I the only person on Planet Earth who is not overly concerned about climate change? I’m not overly concerned, because climate change is inevitable, as I have pointed out in a previous essay. The Earth has undergone periods of cooling and heating throughout its existence, and there are several theories about why this happens. The only difference during the current cycle is the appearance of hairless apes with their strange ideas about climate change and how to prevent it. If you remove the hairless apes from the equation, everything would return to normal. Simple, yes?
7 Irony department: Shanghai, China’s largest city, has been in the news lately, because it is experiencing a large number of “cases” of COVID-19. The city has been subject to total lock-down by the central government, and the streets are eerily deserted. The irony conjures up an old saying, i.e. the chickens have come home to roost, for it was in Wuhan, China, where the pandemic started. It is further ironic that Beijing could have prevented the pandemic had it been more forthright about the origins of the coronavirus. Instead, it chose to cover it up lest its finely-manicured reputation for being in control became cracked and dirty.
Just a thought.