This Might Be an "Interesting" Post and Might Reflect that the Author is "Smart"

I finished reading an article in the New York Times this morning  and found myself declaring it “interesting.”

What the hell does that mean? What is interesting? What exactly do we mean when we say that a fact or a person or a movie or book is interesting? If someone tells me that they saw a motion picture and found it interesting I’m going to assume they thought it was merely okay. Please also keep all interesting books the hell away from me. 

 

One thing we don’t mean is that this thing we’re describing was compelling then again we certainly don’t mean that was boring. Sometimes to say something was“interesting” is to be dismissive. But I suppose sometimes it is literally something that captured our interest if not our imagination. It can be damning with faint praise or noting that we were not put to sleep. 

 

Ya know what’s interesting? That Saturn has 274 moons. I find that interesting. I also don’t believe I’ll be going around telling colleagues, friends, relatives or acquaintances about the number of moons Saturn has. I think it far more than interesting that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the same day and that that day was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (I’ll do the math for you, July 4, 1826). 

Is is interesting or fascinating that Adolph Hitler liked Mickey Mouse cartoons? Depends, I guess on your…uh, interests?

 

Another word that doesn’t mean much is smart. He’s a smart guy. Big deal, so am I. Tell me something more…interesting, about him.

What do you mean if you say someone is smart? Smart how? Good at math? Knows current events? Has an advanced degree? Is good at their job? Most everyone save MAGA people are smart in one way or another. You meet a cardiologists you’re meeting a smart person. Right? Well, yeah, they can figure out what’s wrong with someone’s ticker and in most cases fix it. Gotta be smart to do that. But the last cardiologist I spoke to thought that as an ESL teacher I needed to be fluent in all the languages of the students I teach. Folks, that’s dumb. I knew a school administrator who when it came to understanding issues around education was  -- as they say – smart as a whip. But that same person had no clue what was going on in national politics. This was not someone who you felt comfortable having the vote. 

 

There are different kinds of intelligence – or ways to be smart. There are the general categories of book smart and street smart for example. There’s also emotional intelligence. Some people who are considered brilliant have no clue how to interact with their fellow human beings.

 

If you tell me that you’re child is smart I’m going to assume the kid gets good grades in school. Bravo. That’ll get the child to the next level of school and if they keep it up eventually on to college and maybe many degrees of various kinds. Way to go. But maybe they’ll be a drug addict, or sexual deviant, or sociopath. A lot of good smart does you if you’re in jail, or dead of an overdose or are divorced with no friends. 

 

It's great to be smart at something, but it’s better not to be really dumb at important things. I’ve gotten away with being dumb at mechanical things all my life. I can screw in a little bulb but that’s the extent of my abilities with tools and the like. However if I were dumb about crossing streets I’d not be here today. (Can you be a smart or dumb street crosser? Spose so.) I’m not smart at math but I can slap sentences together. I know my U.S. History but can’t tell you much about Romania. We’re all like that. 

I’ve made a lot of dumb mistakes in my life that would seem to reflect a stupid person. Then again things have turned out all right for me, ya know, as if I were smart.

 

When it comes down to it most people are smart and for that matter most people are interesting. So fucking what?

You'll Sort of Know What I Mean as I Discuss Excess Verbiage at This Point in Time

Twenty one times. That’s 21. One score and one. Ten twice and then one. Four fives plus one. Five fours and a singleton. More than double ten.

Yesterday I was at a 12 step meeting where a gentlemen shared, as one does in a meeting and he uttered the words, “ya know what I mean,” twenty-one times. This was not during the course of a one hour oration, he squeezed that dreaded phrase into what was less than five minutes.

Amazing.

There was a chap at a meeting I used to attend who once let forth with 32 “ya know”s but “you know what I mean” is twice as long as — more than twice as long as — a simple “ya know.”

The worst part was that he didn’t once stop to wait for someone to say, “yeah, I know exactly what you mean” or “no, we have no fucking clue what you’re talking about!” The nerve.

(You're probably wondering: what kind of idiot counts "ya knows" and "ya know what I means?" Fair point.)

I wouldn’t have minded so much but earlier in the minute someone babbled on for well over five minutes (I didn’t think to time him) in a veritable stream of consciousness covering all aspects of his life and sobriety. The real culprit in this situation was the secretary of the meeting who should have cut him short. Several people didn’t get to share because of Mr. Diarrhea of the Mouth.

It behooves me to hear add that the above events are unusual at meetings I attend. For the most part people are respectful and don’t babble on and on and on when sharing and while verbal tics such as sprinkling “ya know” or “sort of” are common enough, a full-fledged battery of “ya know what I mean” is an extreme rarity. 

I suppose complaining or making sport of people who are merely trying to maintain sobriety is gauche but at the same time we can keep off the sauce and maintain decorum at the same time

Here’s something else: I was changing (clothes) in the gym the other day when a behemoth strode between me and the lockers on his way to his locker. He prefaced this invasion of my personal space with the this: “I’m gonna sneak past you.”

Suffice it to say that his attempt at “sneaking” was an utter failure on several counts. First of all there was  his was odd decision to announce the “sneaking.” If you want to sneak anywhere successfully you should by all means keep your intentions to yourself. Secondly, as a man of well over six feet in height and probably nearing 240 pounds in weight, he had zero point zero chance of “sneaking past” anyone who was conscious. 

In other words, he failed to “sneak” past me. But to me the greater sin is the use of the “sneak past” you line. Why not instead employ proper manners and say: excuse me? I would have much preferred those two simple words to his attempt at being cute. It is akin to when someone announces that they’re going to “steal your salt” as opposed to asking if they can borrow it.

But I suppose even that is preferable to the silent ones who require you to stand up at a theater or sports venue as they shuffle by. There are an increasing number of people who fail to offer an “excuse me” “pardon me” or an “I’m sorry” and virtually no one can manage a “thanks” for your consideration. Here I am exception offering both an “excuse me” and a “thanks.”

Earlier I made brief reference to the overused “sort of.” Some people litter their talks with it. “We sort of met to talk about the issue and sort of decided that we’d sort of form a committee to sort of finalize some sort of proposals.” Enough to sort of drive one sort of crazy.

Lastly my favorite podcasters have taken to using “at this point in time.” I often respond to this by saying aloud: “you mean, ‘now’”? 

“At this point in time” has a cousin I very much hate: “at this moment in time.” It can also be translated to: now. 

I guess that at this point or moment in time sounds more erudite to some people. To other people such as me it sounds like excess verbiage. Which is what it is. 

One With the Soil, Reflections and Reminiscences on Dirt

This morning I walked by a house up the street where there is heavy duty construction going on (I here note that there is ALWAYS construction of some sort going on in our neighborhood, when it comes to their houses people can never leave well enough alone). I noted that there was some serious digging, the kind done by a machine, not a shovel. Thus there was a huge pile of dirt and a deep, long ditch. 

Cool.

Ever since I was a wee lad (and dinosaurs roamed the Earth) I’ve had a fascination with holes dug in the ground and the earth thus removed. I used to dig holes in our backyard, at least once this was much to my father’s chagrin.

Why is that? Was I hoping to uncover buried treasure? Dinosaur bones? Evidence of Native American tribes? The answers to these three questions are: yes, yes and yes. 

When I was staying for a short time at my brother’s house in the early Eighties,  and was aimless, scared, lost, confused, anxious and depressed (that was a helluva combo) I didn’t actually dig in his yard but did manage to unearth some artifacts just the same. They included utensils and housewares all from the time a Japanese-American family owned the house and were driven off their property to internment camps courtesy of racist government. So that was interesting.

In fact it’s interesting how archeologists will uncover remains from a particular civilization or time period from one layer of earth and examples from another era a layer or two below.

But I also think I like dirt. (Shouldn’t I know?) Okay, I like dirt. Why? There’s something natural about digging into the ground, being one with the soil as so many of us are after death. The soil is comforting. Why else would so many people love gardening?

I’ve hardly done any gardening in my life but when I have it’s felt good. One with the soil and making things grow. That’s power. You plant a seed, water it, tend to it, something grows. You’re like a god.

When I was young I liked to throw dirt clods. They would be solid enough to throw but then would break up into little pieces upon impact. That was cool. I used to hit them with my baseball bat. That never really worked out. The clod would immediately break into a zillion pieces many of which would fly back in my face. I still did it though. I here note that boys can be pretty dumb.

I like grass and meadows and sports fields. I loved playing soccer in part because you are — again — one with the earth. Well, to a certain degree, anyway. You, the ball, the pitch, teammates and opponents. It was best when the field was damp. Wet can be messy and make the ball move to fast, but damp was good. Actually, muddy was kind of cool too. Never for a game, but for practice and just fooling around. A bit of a puddle was nice. Splash! I had a coach who noted that when we were practicing shots or passing the ball I would always find a spot was there was near mud or a puddle. Controlling and shooting the ball in such spots tested your skills. But it was also fun. Boys stuff, I suppose. 

I remember one year we won a championship game played in a driving rain storm. It poured throughout the entire match. The kind of rain you have trouble seeing through. It was cool with me.

I didn’t mind playing in cold or heat either. If it was cold playing would warm you up. If it was hot you just sweated a lot — big deal when you’re young. Fog was great to play in, gave a sense of atmosphere. But wind. Fuck that.Wind would mess you up. You try a cross and the wind blows the ball past your target or knocks it right down. Messes with shots and clearances too. It could make you look like an idiot. You slam a well hit shot toward goal and the wind carries it well wide or blows it down making it look like a weak effort. No wind for me.

Good God I loved playing. I also liked getting dirty. What is it about getting dirty, muddy even, that was so appealing?

One with the soil.

Make America Great Again? When WAS it Great?

Congress has passed a spending bill that will give significant tax breaks to the richest Americans while imposing huge cuts on programs such Medicaid and SNAP. This will send many more Americans into poverty while denying health care and food to millions. Americans will die. The current government has already eliminated the United States Agency for International Development. It has been estimated that those cuts could cost the lives of millions human beings. Literally. This prompts the question: Is American great again? Or is this among the worst versions of it?

Which leads me to another question: When was American great before?

Was it during the nation’s first eight-nine years when slavery was permitted in fifteen of the country's thirty-three states? Mind you this was a particularly brutal form of chattel slavery in which family members were sold away from one another. It was human trafficking writ large.

How about the ensuing one hundred years when Jim Crow laws held sway. Not just in the South but throughout the country and lynchings were a daily threat for African Americans (virtually none of the perpetrators of these heinous crimes were ever prosecuted.) Was it when Southern Senators blocked any and all anti-lynching bills?

Maybe America was great when it was taking land away from the native tribes who preceded the whites here. When every treaty signed by the US government and the natives was violated. When hundreds of thousands of Native Americans were slaughtered. When they were given blankets infested with smallpox. Was America great then?

Was it great during the Gilded Age when the richest Americans grew richer and the poor got poorer — you know, exactly like today? It was a time when labor movements were brutally put down by greedy capitalists. Sound great?

Was it great during World War I when Americans were imprisoned under the espionage and sedition acts for merely expressing opposition to US participation in the war? When America protestors were set upon by mobs and beaten while the police looked on or in some cases helped the mobs?

Was America great in the immediate aftermath of that war when suspected anarchists, radicals and communists -- especially foreign-born ones were being illegally rounded up and deported for their political views. You know, kind of like today?

Was America great in the 1920s and 1930s when the Ku Klux Klan saw a resurgence and fascist groups emerged many of which voiced support for Adolph Hitler and the Nazis? 

Was America great when during World War II Japanese-American citizens were taken from their homes and sent to internment camps merely for the crime of being of Japanese ancestry?

Was America great in the late Forties and Fifties during the Red Scare when McCarthyism and the paranoid fear of Communists dominated American politics and culture? Was it great when thousands of Americans lost their livelihoods because of the mere suspicion that they might be “fellow travelers”?

Was America great when it used the Mexican-American war as a pretext to steal land from Mexico? Or how about during the Spanish-American war which was used as a pretext to steal territories from the Spanish? 

Was it great when it brutally suppressed Philippine efforts for independence?

Was America great when the CIA was helping overthrow governments all over the world in the fifties, sixties and seventies including — as just one example — the democratically elected government of Chile which was replaced by a military Junta that killed and disappeared thousands of Chileans without trial? Was that great?

Was the United States of America great when it was dropping bombs on North Vietnamese hospitals -- particularly the Christmas bombings of 1972 --or burning Vietnamese villages or massacring their citizens?

How about when this country illegally invaded Iraq and brought more turmoil in the Middle East or before that when they responded to terrorist attacks by attacking Afghanistan? 

Was extra-ordinary rendition and U.S. led torture a sign of greatness?

Maybe the country was great when Richard Nixon was running roughshod over the constitution before, during and after Watergate the break-in only being one of his crimes?

Say could it have been great when the FBI was infiltrating and spying on radical groups and killing its leaders, like Fred Hampton, in cold blood? Were the files the FBI kept on citizens a sign of greatness? How about the spying on Americans by the CIA?

I suppose it’s possible that American was great under Reagan who supported South Africa’s apartheid government and refused to do anything — even say anything — about the AIDS crisis. Maybe Regan’s demonizing of government services was a sign of greatness, ya know when he promulgated the ethos that government services that helped US citizens were the root of all evil and it was better to give hand-outs to businesses.

Were the massacres in places like Tulsa, Rosewood and Wilmington that targeted African Americans a sign of greatness?

Maybe the Chinese Exclusion Act was a sign of greatness. Or the horrible treatment suffered by Chinese immigrants and other people of color in this country.

Perhaps the murder of four protestors and wounding of nine others at Kent State in 1970 was a sign that America was once great, particularly as no one was prosecuted for the killings.

The brutal police repression of peace demonstrators by club-wielding police across the country could have been a sign of greatness. Ya know, like the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

It could also be that our lax gun laws are what has been making the US great. After all gun violence is 23 times higher in the US than any country in the EU. And how about all those mass shootings and school shootings and mass school shootings? Great!

Then again it could be that draconian punishments — such as three strikes — passed from the seventies through the nineties, that made our prisons bulge with young African American men was a sign of greatness.

Not only have we heard that America was once “great” but we’re constantly told that the US is “the greatest country in the world.” The latter is stated by people from both parties and what’s really interesting is that it’s said without a touch of irony. 

I may well hear in response to this post that if I hate this country so much I should just leave. This will be said in lieu of refuting any of the points I made. It will be said by people who don’t have the intellectual capacity to consider that maybe, just maybe America was never really “great.” There is no denying that the United States has contributed much to the world. Through scientific and medical breakthroughs, technological advancements, great artists in all manner of art forms and inspiring leaders who have fought against many of the injustices here mentioned. There have been great Americans and great deeds and great accomplishments and great moments. This is unassailable. But a “great” country? That’s a stretch. “Greatest country in the world”? Who but an arrogant American would think to say such a thing? This is not a contest. We are all part of the same planet. But if you really want to engage in rankings, the U.S. is well behind other countries -- for example the ones that treat their citizens with fairness and compassion.

Fairness and compassion. Wish we had us some right about now.