Metaphor Country

A Quick Note from the Road

I'll miss the debate tonight -- will instead be hanging out on Amtrak Train 175, on the way back from this week's gig on the Alzheimer's World Tour.

Just as well.  I'll let somebody else worry about the Big Issues.  Will instead stay occupied running the Alzheimer's support system that I cobbled together myself because, you know, we don't want institutions taking care of those things.  "We must trust the American people," as I think Bush said the other night...

Whatever.  Things are what they are.  And in the near term at least, the ambulance is not coming.  Once you realize that... well, you don't get self-reliant all at once.  But you do start to relax.

Last Saturday when I was hanging out with the Zen guys at the Zendo, and we were doing some Zazen (I was looking forward to writing that)... last Saturday... right after one of the more experienced guys had been going on about koans and enlightenment (they're Rinzai, so they do that), I was sitting there and toward the end of the sitting this thought came to me: your entire life is a fucking koan.

And I started to relax.

Side note: Zen is not primarily about relaxation, as they'll tell you over and over.  But it doesn't hurt.  And since at the moment I'm dealing with this, among other things, I figure I'll look for help in multiple quarters, Zen being one of them.  Nothing like focusing on unmediated reality to get you straightened out...

Side note II: am also thinking about Job as the most Zen (Zennest?) thing in the Bible.  Might say more about that at some future point.

In that spirit and in that general mood, I came across this.

After you've read it, check out the comments here.  They're a hoot.

Actually I should be more respectful.  I understand the objections, and might even be inclined to agree with some of them.  But in spite of that, the piece struck a chord.

For the moment, let that be my character note.

Issues and Candidates and Other Noise Overhead

There are elections and people covering elections and candidates and such and I really should be paying attention, but I'm not.  I've been busy over here, mostly.  And keeping a finger stuck in the wind to see where the local economy's going and where there might be project work to be had.  And happily waiting (ok, waiting) for one or another of those candidates to wander down from the abstract plane and connect with something that might actually be going on in my life.

I'm sure connections will be made and viewpoints will crystallize and I'll set myself a political direction.

In the meantime, as pilots like to say during cockpit fires, we're a little busy up here...

Roundup

Meanwhile, elsewhere on Metaphor Country...

A quick take on the Sopranos.

A thought or two about scholarship, intellect and jihad.

And finally, with apologies to Jon Stewart, a moment of Zen.

Enjoy.

NYC Economy -- Going South?

A week from Monday Mrs. Deconstruction (spouse) starts a new job at a law firm in Philadelphia.  She's moving there on the merits -- but also reports that the New York litigation market is soft, very soft.

The New York communications market is soft, very soft as well.

All this being the case, we've got to make the geography work somehow.  Not sure what the solution will be -- an exercise with a map and some string suggested Princeton, but downtown Philadelphia is a possibility as well.

One of the complicating factors -- how to work with our friend Judith, who's been helping us keep on top of apartment entropy (translation: she cleans) since a couple of apartments ago.

This morning Judith calls out of the blue, all hesitant, to tell us that we're now the only people in New York employing her -- her agency isn't booking any jobs at all -- so much as she regrets it, she's about to take off for Florida, where she has family and where there seems to be demand.

There are several lessons from this -- not least of which is that if you're not to quick to jump in and take action and intervene (as in, breaking the news to Judith), the universe seems to take care of itself (as in, Judith breaking the news to us).  Buddhist-influenced observations about this will follow at some point.

But the more obvious and useful observation is that, if you're willing to draw conclusions from direct experience (which at the end of the day I have a certain amount of faith in), it seems like the New York economy is going south in all kinds of ways -- including literally.  Is anyone commenting about that?  I know there are more learned and sophisticated ways to look at it but when the housecleaning agencies are hurting for demand, that tells you something, doesn't it?

I'll be keeping an eye out for more microeconomic signs like that.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal writes today about the growing demand for $70,000-a-year butlers.  It seems there's a severe shortage.

Can you say "income disparity," boys and girls?

Or maybe, "new career opportunity"?

Things are most definitely funky out here in timespace -- at this particular time, in this particular location.

Updates to follow as we see where it goes.  And where we go.

Alzheimer's, Ageism, and Getting Radicalized

So my father calls just before 4 a.m. in distress because when he turns the lights off the room gets dark, and his Meals On Wheels delivery hasn't come, and the digital clock says three-five-six and he doesn't know what that means.  It's crazy, he says, and he wants to know if the same thing is happening where I am.

I tell him it's four in the morning.

He asks me what he should do and I say there are many possibilities, but maybe the best thing is to turn off the light in the bedroom and go to sleep for a few hours, and when he gets up the food will have come...

No one is calling this Alzheimer's yet.  The reason they're not calling it Alzheimer's is because it doesn't really matter what you call it.  His sister died of Alzheimer's, and he's past 84, and when you look at the stats and the behaviors it's hard to imagine what else it could be.  But our primary care physician holds the line at calling it an impairment, and adding that it's significant.  And that's all that needs to be said.  No sense in putting a frightening word into play, because whether it's in play or not, we'll still have to go to the elderlawyers, and get the assessment from the Visiting Nurse Service, and decide what accommodations are best, and take a series of actions...

I mention all this for several reasons -- first, to explain the continued silence on the blog, and second, to anticipate future entries that will reflect a growing degree of radicalization.  And third, because I know I'm not remotely alone in all this.  So I'll share for whatever it's worth.  I know -- because I've been on similar territory before -- that I'm about to start a long series of rounds with well-meaning, underfunded agencies that mostly send you mimeographed lists of resources and leave you on your own with respect to navigating them (Visiting Nurse Service will be an exception in this regard - they're good, and hands-on).  It reminds me how thin the safety net is, and the state of denial we're all in.  Here we all are in the middle of a big demographic catastrophe, and the fact is we've got hardly any base of support...

Occasionally I stop thinking about that and start thinking instead about the number of friends and colleagues I've got who can't find full-time work because they're over 40 and therefore too expensive and therefore they're making do on the fringes of professional society, more or less.  Professional society, please note -- I'm not even starting to talk about actual poverty and even deeper crises in the labor force...

I mention the white-collar angle, along with the aging-parent-entropy angle, because it suggests to me that, although no one's really focused on it, when you take the two together you've got the seeds of a deep and lasting radicalization.

I know I'm not the centrist I used to be.  I don't think I'm a doctrinaire leftist, but I'm beginning to think that there are no centrists in foxholes.

I wonder how this will begin to play out on a national political scale.

Which is a useful form of wondering, because it distracts me from what's under my nose.

On both counts -- more to follow.  Watch this space.

Heard Vali Nasr, Still Recovering...

Last night to an NDN-sponsored small-group session in NYC with Vali Nasr.  A lot to absorb, much of it alarming, some of it depressing, and some of it both.  Maybe harder for me since I haven't yet read him in detail.  But his take on U.S.-Iran relations (move to normalize them, as per China in '71-'72) seems to answer these objections.  He also suggested that the rationale for the War Czar is to shift blame from the White House to the Pentagon (only military need apply).  A more informed response to follow when I'm, you know, more informed..

Imus, Tim O'Reilly and The New Civility

Daniel Henninger, writing in today's Wall Street Journal, begins to make connections between Imus and Tim O'Reilly's call for a new civility in the blogosphere.  But wait -- there's more.

NEXT-DAY NOTE: Further thoughts here.

Cartoon Mayhem: Restraint, Perhaps

To be filed under "Thank heaven for small things..."  A correction from today's New York Times:

A Critic's Notebook article on Wednesday about the Danish cartoons that satirize the Prophet Muhammad referred incorrectly to the reaction in Auckland, New Zealand. While there were protests after the cartoons were published, imams there have not demanded executions or amputations for the cartoonists and their publishers. (Go to Article)

I don't know about you, but I'll certainly breathe easier.

WWJHOHiP?

I've never before had the occasion (or for that matter the opportunity) to reprint a whole press release. But since I link occasionally to Beliefnet (an excellent site, by the way), I seem to be on their media list -- which is why they just sent me this. It deserves an audience:

Media Advisory

Press Contact: Jocelyn Weiss The Morris + King Company

WHAT WOULD JESUS HAVE ON HIS IPOD?

In a New Beliefnet.Com Online Poll, 55% Vote That Jesus Wouldn't Even Own an iPod

New York, NY - January 9, 2006 - Beliefnet, Inc., the leading multi-faith spirituality media company and online community, today announced the results of their online survey on "What Would Jesus Have on his iPod?" More than 55% of those polled voted that Jesus wouldn't even own an iPod-- proving that even the "Digital Messiah," Steve Jobs still has room for further converts.

The following is the complete poll results:

What would Jesus have on his iPod?

* Classic Rock - 11%

* Traditional Gospel - 7%

* Christian Rock - 13%

* Hip-Hop/ Rap - 3%

* Soul/ Funk - 4%

* Songs of King David - 11%

* Jesus would never have an iPod! - 55%

About Beliefnet

Beliefnet is the largest religion and spirituality website, according to Media Metrix, attracting 2.5 million unique visitors per month. More than 5.5 million people subscribe to Beliefnet's daily email newsletters, accounting for more than 11 million subscriptions. Beliefnet also runs Soulmatch, a faith-oriented online dating service and has just published a series of "Beliefnet Guides" with Doubleday press. Additionally, Beliefnet regularly partners with ABCNews World News Tonight on its religion and spirituality coverage. Beliefnet is independent and not affiliated with a particular religion or spiritual movement. Beliefnet, Inc. is a privately held company funded by employees, individual investors, Softbank Capital and Blue Chip Venture Company.

Further proof that you can't invent anything anymore.

Additional question -- what, no classical?

Beyond that, and speaking personally -- I have to say I find this encouraging. I've mentioned before that, as a native and therefore safety-minded New Yorker, I don't use an iPod, because when I'm outdoors, I want to hear everything that might be gaining on me. And wasn't it Jesus who said, "Those who have ears will hear"?

Biblical exegetes, take note.  "As opposed to those who have earbuds" is clearly the missing text.

And now, on with modernity, already in progress.

The Democrats Get/Fumble Religion

All I can say is, yes.

And also that I find it a little strange to agree with a Heritage Foundation fellow.  But I do.

All I'd add is that this isn't just typical Democratic Party ham-fistedness (though it's that, too).  It's also part of the broader corporate impulse toward branding as a substitute for -- rather than the result of -- policies, actions and relationships.  It's seductively easy -- and completely ineffectual -- to use words like "faith" and "worship" in opposing a particular piece of legislation.  It's a little harder -- but not much better -- to draw broad analogies and forge loose connections between social policies and scriptural passages.  It's very hard -- and absolutely necessary -- to go out and meet, get to know, engage in dialogue with people of faith.  Or, better, let's call them "people who use the vocabulary of religion to think about difficult life issues" (because, you know, there might just be some intellect involved).  If you do that, you'll have to spend a fair amount of time listening, rethinking, maybe formulating new polices. But the policies won't necessarily be bad policies. And because the relationships are authentic, you stand a chance of breaking the Republican stranglehold on faith-based communities and values-based messages.

Worth a shot?

Or, as the ads used to say, you can turn the page.