500 words... week eight
This week's offering, with a dash of political prognostication...
Start over
I’ve gotten frustrated when I just can’t seem to get it right. It can be a trouble with a knot, a bad cast, whatever. It will pull me up short and make me questions what I’m doing. I don’t have a silver bullet cure. Some days it just gets tough. What I’ve learned is to not be afraid to start over. In some cases, tear it down to the studs over. Don’t try to untie the tangled mess, cut it and redo it. It’s helped me many times get out of the sticky situation and move forward. It can be cathartic to fall back to the basics and build from there.
Words
One reader of the last week’s assemblage of random thinking wrote, “I feel like this was written especially for me! My fly cast is slowly improving, and I will be thrilled when I land my first fish.” My response was, “That is high praise and greatly appreciated. I've been casting a fly rod for more than 50 years and I'm still learning. I've also missed more fish than I've caught.” The time spent banging on the keys is cathartic. When it resonates with readers, it’s magical. These days, the challenge is being consistent in writing. Even a bite of 100 words can seem daunting. I’ve come to realize that I want to write stuff worth reading. When it works, then the effort is worth it. I don’t need to write for myself. I can think and then keep those thoughts in my head. I write because I want to produce something worth reading.
Disfunction
I was talking to a couple of people about what was going on in the U.S. House of Representatives and offering my take on McCarthy’s path to preventing a government shutdown. Jay Kuo wrote an excellent explanation of McCarthy’s situation.1 I suspect he may lose his speakership either way he jumps. I don’t think he has the courage to do what’s best for the country if it risk his speakership. Most likely he will try to appease the lunatics, they won’t be satisfied, and we will have a shutdown. He will be ousted, there will be a leadership vacuum with the attendant chaos, all while government funding runs out. Troubling to say the least.
Entitlement
In a text thread the other day, a friend and I were talking about access to public land and the topic of privilege came up. My friend had grown up differently than I had, but we shared a common disdain for the notion of entitlement. He wrote “our debt is greater than our due.” And so it is. None of us living today don’t have someone who helped us into this world. And, at least in my case, I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of help along the way. I taught early on I the notion of “noblesse oblige”,2 to act with generosity and decency to others regardless of who they are.
Action
“So what are you gonna do about it?” Seems like a taunt, doesn’t it? And it is, it’s a challenge to act. One thing that, frankly, drives me up the wall is when I’m in a meeting and the “we” statements start to fly. “We should do this, or we should do that.” I often say “which ‘we’ are you talking about there, kemo sabe.” Meaning who is supposed to do it? It drives me nuts when people want something done, but don’t want to do it. If you think it’s a good idea, then you should be willing to do it, or at least help.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noblesse_oblige