Post-Scotland musings, June 2022

Random thoughts, comments and refections stemming from the last eighteen days, most of those days spent in Scotland, or in traveling to and from Scotland.

Flying business class is not the comfort or value it ought to be. The best part of business class is not being on the plane; rather, time in a good lounge, like the Qantas OneWorld lounge in Heathrow. Yet Heathrow along with O'Hare, is a horrible experience, from the busses, to walking forever, chaotic customs and security, crowds, etc.

Saw a commencement speech from a Boston College philosophy professor, about lies from popular culture. Better yet, call it "woke" culture. Pretty bland but it reminded me of another cultural lie, "Diversity is strength." First, diversity among different 'tribes' is more likely to produce conflict. Second, the truly important diversity, i.e., diversity of ideas and views, is abhorred by the current DIE police, who would rather cancel a potentially productive, innovative idea for the sake of not offending a self-identified victim.

Saw an article in the Guardian about how farming is bad for the environment, carbon and sustainability, and is a driver of suicidal climate change. About the same time I saw an article expressing the view that climate change was destroying agriculture. Given that warmer weather would enhance crop production, especially at a time of food shortages, and that farming is one of the best ways to reduce carbon in the atmosphere, both articles are illogical if not idiotic.

The Carolina Panthers hired a transgender cheerleader. This may be the "jump the shark" moment of the NFL. Meanwhile, Christian Pulicic decreed the poor attendance at their LGBTQ themed match against a lowly opponent, not recognizing that they are offending mush of their audience with their political stance. Tampa Bay baseball players, most of them Hispanic, tore the LGBTQ patches provided by the league from their uniforms.

Gaby had us update our Mallaig train to get her back to speak to her colleagues in the States. Two weeks earlier she spoke to her peers in Baltimore and now she is running the data science boot camp, the first of which was for her old cybersecurity team this week. And she has two interns to manage. And she received a mid-year performance-based raise.

The longer I live in Harrison, the lonelier it becomes. My phone is my lifeline to friends from my earlier life, be it via gmail, Facebook, Instagram, FaceTime, phone, text or whatever. My reflexive response to my phone drives my girls crazy; they don't understand my social isolation that only the phone can overcome, if only a little. No local "guy" friends, with Fr Carl the closest to being one of the "guys." Holy Spirit playground work is with elementary and middle school kids. The school board consists of people, primarily women, who are 20-25 years younger than me, more like the soccer moms from my LTRC days fifteen years ago when even then I was much older than the soccer moms, e.g., Anne Stuzin. The UWGB gang bores me. Mass and the rosary have become more like a remote out of body experience than meaningful prayer. My relationship with God has become quite transactional, e.g., I behave and He treats me fine, I pray daily and He treats me very well. Hank gets so irritated at my conservative claims and "rants," to the point of where I just need to take him out of the dresses when I write responses.

And my body is falling apart. Soreness and stiffness is the rule of the day. I have been recommended for a CPAP but I have no faith in its power to offer me better sleep or a better quality of life. I find it hard to put on socks in the morning. Other than walking about 18 miles a week I am generally physically inactive. I graze through the day. I crave and shop for comfort food. I can't curb my sweet tooth nor my cravings for ice cream, eg., Breyer's mint choc chip, Cedarcrest coconut explosion. Seven months of Wisconsin cabin fever, from October to May, has left me lethargic and bored, often joyless.

More than ever I realize how lucky I was to get out of Loyola, Baltimore, Maryland and higher ed in one fell swoop in 2019, with my honor and finances intact. All I lost was a sense of purpose and structure, yet I also lost the possibility of being cancelled, fired, suspended or otherwise punished under the campus cancel culture of today.

Nonetheless, this is not how I imagined retirement would be. Wisconsin was never on my short list of desirable places to retire. With Dena working (overtime) on a regular basis, I am left on my own five if not seven days a week. Visiting Jane and Abe was alright for awhile and an occasional visit is okay, but time with them and their peers only reminds me of the prospect of physical demise and death. After fifty years surrounded by college-age people, this is a foreign landscape for me, very foreign. Wisconsin culture is more like Eden, but Eden was more than fifty years ago and two or three generations removed from Harrison.

At least I have achieved competencies in some important areas, most but not all of the below: