I want a back massage. I may NEED a back massage. Almost every day for the past week, intermittent pain in my upper and middle back has been a source of discomfort. It’s not terribly bad, but sufficiently irritating that I want the practiced hands of a massage specialist to do what must be done to eliminate the pain. I’ve probably been sitting too much, sleeping too much, and delving too deeply into the sedentary lifestyle. I do not want to stop doing any of those things; I just want their consequences to be happily and comfortably resolved.
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Legislators might be more careful and more honest in writing laws—and voting to enact them—if lawmakers knew their children would be held accountable for legislation later found to be intentionally flawed. That is, laws crafted to serve a legislator’s ulterior motives. One consequence of “legislative parental sin” laws probably would be a significant reduction in the number of laws on the books. Another would be a sharp decline in the number of people willing to—much less desiring to be elected to legislative roles. Such circumstances would be utterly unfair to the children of criminal legislators. But, then, self-serving laws supported by dishonest or lazy legislators do a disservice to legislative constituents. Perhaps a process by which legislative dishonesty is penalized through intensely harsh public flogging of the bad actors would be more fair to the children… though their parents’ punishment would embarrass the kids.
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There are Men Wolves too Gentle to Live Among Wolves Men. James Kavanaugh’s poetry equated men with IBM eyes with wolves. Sometimes, that seems such an insult to wolves. In reality, too many gluttonous men…and women and children…unnecessarily adopt the “kill or be killed” predatory styles of hungry forest creatures. How many is “too many?” I ask myself. How many is “enough?” How many is “too few?” Every answer to those questions implies some level of predation is acceptable. That’s the problem; we ask the wrong questions. Every answer, though, if properly framed, can be acceptable if the right question is asked.
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Taxes and medical records, neither of which I dealt with yesterday in their entirety, are on my agenda today. Retirement—a time of rest, relaxation, and comfort—is sometimes interrupted by obligations that interfere with its more pleasant aspects. At this very moment, I am adjusting my agenda to provide for a brief respite from planning for the rest of the day; I will sleep again before the day begins in earnest.
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Another day will begin before long. Ach.
