Misery & Happiness: Life's Eternal Seesaw

Freezing temperature, no electricity, no water, total helplessness to do anything to alleviate all three is a calamity.  Misery came to visit countless folks like us - neighbors, friends,  nameless others from many places - but I understood it came to mean different things to different people.  Misery could be a punisher, a stern teacher, a reminder of the fragile balance between it and its counterweight - happiness.  Misery and happiness are the two companions that sit with us at either end of the proverbial seesaw of life.

It should not take  calamity, such as what just befell Texas and all the other places affected by the winter storms, to make us realize and appreciate the things we take for granted. It should not take for misery to lay its hand on us for us to be reminded of the temporariness of everything and anything we have.  There is nothing corny about this at all.  If anything, there is so much truth in it that is as profoundly real as this: Life can be summed up, in the end, as a balance sheet between the things we cherish and those we would rather not have to endure or be miserable about, because in the seesaw of life - we go up, we go down. Those who do well seem to be those able to consistently adjust their perspectives whether on the way up or on the way down.  Granted, this last episode will not last for very long, or its effects we hope to go away soon like a wisp of pungent air, there are lessons if we make misery a teacher. 

Actually, if both misery and happiness are teachers, the former has a thicker lesson plan while the latter is sometimes the substitute teacher where the whole class does not listen or pay attention but gleeful, nonetheless, with no time to  pause or ponder. Who has time to think in the midst of happy moments.

I should have been miserable going countless times up and down the attic ladder, walking hunched over avoiding overhead studs, kneeling and squatting while cutting copper pipes to cap them shut with solder but unsuccessfully correcting all leaks. Power was off, no water, subsisting on cold sandwiches, misery loved my company. But, you know what?  I was glad to realize that at my age of seventy five years I was able to do so many things, albeit one critically unsuccessfully but the other - capping shut the broken water sprinkler main assembly stopped the rushing water on our driveway.  That was more critical actually, because then we had water from the faucet outside the house when the sprinkler was isolated.  Still no water inside the house.  The next challenge was bringing in water one bucketful at a time - storing it in one of the bath tubs for flushing and other clean up.

Yes, I had every reason to be miserable but I chose not to.  I didn't want the seesaw to go all the way down to the ground with my wife and I both at that one end.  I chose to be on the other side to keep it balanced as best I could.  

And sometimes someone will step at the opposite end to bring you up.  Our next door neighbor from day one had offered us the use of their bathroom for the much needed  shower.  The couple who had been neighbors for sixteen years now had been persistent with their offer so we took them up on it. Not only did we get to shower, the husband cooked us dinner.  So, you see, the weight of one misery at one end is sometimes wonderfully counterweighed at the other for the seesaw to lift you up.

And then, after all of that respite, a good meal and a restful sleep, we woke up to find a good section of the ceiling and insulation piled up on the garage floor by the door that connects to the inside of the house. That part of the ceiling caved in overnight just missing the car.  The weight of dripping water - apparently, the shut off valve to the house, though tightly closed had  not sealed all of the water from seeping in - was brought to bear on the weakened sheet rock.

Misery was not quite through, increasing the ante on mischief, just short of going all in, obviously holding all the high cards against what we held - a measly pair of deuces.  Misery was winning.

The gaping hole at the ceiling gave me a glimpse into misery's cards. It exposed the copper pipe that was leaking.  Aha, it was an opportunity to call misery's wager.  But first, I needed to clean up the mess and get the car out of the way.  I hauled away the soggy insulation and broken up sheet rock, with rake and wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow to one corner of the driveway's extension.

It brought back memories from fifty nine years ago.  I was sixteen years old then. I grew up in one little barrio from one of the Philippine central islands.  We lived in a small thatched roof in a 250 square meter lot.  Part of the lot in the back was next to a pond that during monsoon season made claim to a fifth of the land. My father wanted to "reclaim" that part away from the pond.  I helped out by collecting the nearby neighborhood dry waste, such as dried leaves of coconut frond and fruit trees and oyster and other seashells.  I did several wheelbarrow trips each morning before going to school, before neighbors started burning the dried leaves.  The neighborhood knew me to be that "wheelbarrow kid". We did reclaim that piece of land and years later it proved to be the most fertile part of the backyard.

Now at 75, I kept replaying that episode of my young life in my head as I was shoveling and moving the wheel barrow back and forth.  I didn't let misery to have its fun because I was just glad I can still haul trash away.  Of course, I didn't have to move the trash away but for a mere 15-20 meters, which was worth getting back at misery. 

I capped the one copper pipe and went for the "test". There was another leak at the other adjoining pipe parallel to it!  Misery was smiling.  Again.  I capped that second line. Then the test.  Alas, another leak at the attic just above our bathroom, after inspection.  I capped the one copper pipe.  Then there was another.  There was not much I can do on that one.  It was on an elbow and T-fitting connected to a bigger copper pipe (3/4 inch).  I did not have a 3/4 inch cap and there was none to be had at the local home center.

Well, I wish the story is going to end well but it didn't because as of this writing, after all of that, we still don't have water in the house.  So, back to hauling water in by the bucketful from the garden hose.

More points to misery. Misery with hands on its hips looking at me smiling.

I am not going to let it get me down.  Again, I won in a way because all that going back and forth, up and down the attic ladder, the hunching, crawling, kneeling had little effects on me physically.  I had scratches and a few bumps on my head from hitting the overhead studs a few times, but I have no less mobility than before.

Instead, I keep thinking about the million other hapless folks in unimaginable predicaments right now, with no water, no electricity with very few options other than maintaining the will to survive.

One of the sweetest words in the English language, to help assuage the rapacious grin of misery is, "It could have been worse".  Yes indeed, what we have at home could have been worse.  The worst of any single sentence in the English language is, "I give up".  Even if it only means giving up hope.  Hope only ends when we are no longer conscious of life.

Remember, the seesaw  of life never stops moving.  When on the high end, enjoy but be always thankful to get there and being there, but never lose sight that even on the way down or while being there, the seesaw will soon move again.  Life would be boring and less challenging if not for the constant seesaw.  Don't let misery remain at the other end.  Not giving up is the surest way to dislodge it.

What a mess!

I capped these two pipes successfully

This is where I could no longer fix after capping one pipe.  I can't get a 3/4 inch cap.

P.S. Just three hours after I published this, and almost a week after the first winter blast when we lost power and water, the plumbers came.  Misery was no longer smiling, pouting even in its little corner.  I hope it stays there for a very long time.  But we have to remain vigilant because it is always there waiting for its turn to step on that end of the seesaw. Never forget you and those closest to you are no less formidable. The counterweight to misery - happiness - is just as willing to step at the other end.  Your mind has the entry key to shut out misery and let happiness in.

 

 

Texas Freezes, Climateers Cheer

There, I made up a word.  Climateer:  noun that rhymes sadly with cheer and abjectly with sneer. The latter so eloquently expressed by a New York congresswoman who declared that the "Green New Deal" would have saved Texas from its predicaments.  Also, climateer, obliquely means a proponent of anything against fossil fuel, promoter of solar and wind power to assuage climate change.

The congresswoman's lament was aided and egged on by thousands of twitter followers and by a current Texas gubernatorial aspirant who failed a presidential primary run and denied a post at the current administration.  These are folks who profess science as the foundation of their arguments and their fake entreaties. When they mock Texas they too were impugning the same on the states similarly affected - from Oregon to Oklahoma and all in between.  Texas just happens to be the biggest fossil fuel producer (or, at least best known by reputation)

Let's see how "clean energy" could have saved Texas. Power outages were largely from downed power lines.  Energy transmission from solar arrays and wind farms were not immune to the same, but then they were likely not producing anyhow - frozen turbines and the sun hidden behind dark wintry clouds rendered both inutile.  Money outlaid on "green projects" could have been well spent at upgrading and improving power transmission lines and other infrastructures.

On a personal basis, power was out in our neighborhood for 25 hours in below freezing temperature.  By nightfall, indoor temperature in most homes were likely at between 40 and 50 degrees F ( 4 to 10 Celsius).  How did most homes stay warm albeit in at least one section of their homes?

A roaring fireplace that gets its roar from energy converted from flowing molecules of natural gas through underground network of pipelines. Folks were able to heat water and cook their meals with the same seemingly inexhaustible source (looks that way - more reliably so compared to what batteries can store - unaffected by the frost and cloudy days).

There are not enough batteries in the entire country to store that amount of natural energy. Utility workers worked on 16 hour shifts,  moving from place to place in diesel or gasoline powered trucks and equipment.  Electric ones, if at all, would have had unacceptable downtimes for charging - if there were places to charge them.  

Power plants were running from coal and natural gas. Sworn enemies of the climateer, fossil fuel saved more people from discomfort and extreme physical harm and even death.

So, what are we to make from those politicians who are quick to take advantage to promote their "green new deal" projects at times like these. First, they are strong believers at using any crisis to further their agenda.  Smart?  If we are to fathom the depths of their true intellect or scientific knowledge we will only need a matchstick to gauge it, if that. Perhaps 5 pennies on top of each other are deep enough?

Look at the photo below. I used that little piece of household tool to solder copper  to temporarily plug a busted pipe.  In it and what was stored in the canister next to it was enough latent energy from the humble butane to solder many number of copper connections in the entire household. And, interestingly enough, I purchased that thing a while back as a kitchen tool - to brown the sugar on Creme Brulee. An electric solder would have been as useless as a piece of rock.

The narrow blue flame has so much energy in it that in a few seconds it will fuse copper pipes or cut wires.  Butane: its molecular formula is C4H10. In layman's terms, imagine four C carbon atoms  surrounded by and connected to  ten H hydrogen atoms. 

In other words, it is a compound of hydrocarbon - one of myriad fossil fuel combinations that had been a source of energy for Millenia.  Fossil fuel is nature's gift to us, which took millions upon millions of years to fashion. Decayed vegetation and dead animals since a billion or so years ago are being put to good use today.  It is a gift that climateers want us to reject.

Climateers are a folly lot, unaccompanied by good sense or normal prudence. Take these, for example.  Batteries that can store the amount of energy just for normal conduct of our lives will require oodles and oodles of rare earth elements, lithium being the more well known but there are others. So much earth and mountains are being excavated to mine them with equipment that use fossil fuel.  No electric vehicles can move earth or equipment of that magnitude to process tons and tons of rock to extract those rare earth elements. Sometimes these mines are located in pristine regions of the globe under hostile environments and i countries unfriendly to the U.S. and the free world. Solar panels use a lot of those elements.  And there is that much iron and steel and concrete to manufacture and erect the turbines and manufacture the panels.  All the steps involved use fossil fuel.  Operationally, turbines need grease and lubrication to keep spinning.  We can't go back to boiling whale blubber for its oil.

The Green New Deal is quixotic and a monumental misuse of resources.

Texas suffered so much from dealing with such an epic turn in the weather.  Our homes are designed with building codes for our climate.  It is variations in climate that guide the construction methods in communities like ours.  The Green New Deal will have little effect to change the climate.  Most countries that claim membership to the Paris accord do not even follow or adhere to the guidelines. France itself is not strictly following the rules of the Paris accord.  Meanwhile, we only need to look at the massive clean energy program of Spain and see where it took that country - economically and in its effectiveness.  Can we expect China and India to abide? 

There is much to be said but you get the gist.  The perceived idea that the use of fossil fuel is an existential threat begs to redirect that to those who were saved or whose lives were made a bit comfortable in the wake of the unexpected cold blast because they had access to natural gas, diesel or gasoline.   Tell that to those whose livelihood went away at the stroke of a presidential executive order against the pipeline and oil exploration.  Tell that to all whose businesses were lost so suddenly by the change imposed upon communities directly and indirectly affected by one stroke of a pen.

Remember, all emergency and standby generators in hospitals and places of business are run by either natural gas or diesel fuel.

There is so much exercise of power by a few over the suffering of so many.

Can You Name That Tune?

Late in the year 1952, December to be precise, was when a radio game show - "Can You Name That Tune" - first aired.  Switching its broadcast to television almost immediately afterwards, it ran until 1959.  Those were boom years for the U.S. as it emerged from the last war.  The country was filled with optimism at the height of the baby boom in the midst of an economic revival.  Speaking of revival, the show was re-aired in 1974 until 1977.  Then it was revived again for the 1984-85 short season (five months). For those not familiar, a third of the show is the bidding portion, when contestants must name a tune in as few notes as possible; ten being the maximum notes. 

Then again, another revival recurred this year.  In the middle of the pandemic, no less. And no masks or social distancing in a small-audience-venue. But get this.  Though it is mainly for U.S. consumption, it was/is filmed in Australia.  Why?  Supposedly, Australia had done a much better job of controlling the virus.

Interesting tidbits of trivia.  But readers of this blog, used to the author's train of thought, will have been half-expecting that we will not stay on that rail track for much longer.  And so we go wherever the switch takes us.

It is going to be a departure, off-tangentially for sure, but we'll see where.  I hope to keep the readers' attention for a meandering trip into some of the alluring siren songs that keep us connected and divided at the same time.

One most recent bad news was when the Dallas Mavericks basketball franchise decided to no longer play the National Anthem during home games.  The good news is that in less than 24 hours the decision was reversed.  The NBA commission immediately took up an unambiguous position that the Anthem should be played prior to every game.  The Mavericks' owner relented immediately. Thank goodness for that.  If eliminating the traditional singing prevailed,  and the momentum is carried to all the other sports organizations, it is conceivable that the following generation of young people will be saddled with an inability to name the tune of the Star Spangled Banner in ten notes. { The first documented time that it was played at an American sporting event came at a baseball game in 1862, during the Civil War. The tradition of playing it at sports events got a dramatic boost at the 1918 World Series, during World War I }.

Now, in the real world, a departure from the theme of the show, people typically bid for  maximum effect, or higher  results - in other words, for as many notes in a tune as possible.

Speaking of tunes, anywhere politics is practiced, the singing of tunes permeates the air but invariably only at a period of time unlike any other - as in an election year. Elections are not about naming tunes in as few notes as possible; in fact, it is the diametric opposite of the game show's theme.  A politician will sing a tune in as many notes as he or she can, with the discipline and enthusiasm of a songbird in early spring. The songbird's tune promises the annual continuation of its species while the politician may warble about everything and anything to remain in office or win one, in as many varieties of tunes - the more the better.

It's all about, "I can name that tune one more note longer"

Quote from National Review:

"There are first world problems, and then there are San Francisco problems: for example, deciding whether or not a gay, white father of a multiracial daughter adds enough diversity to a volunteer parent committee filled with women.

That was the most recent head-scratcher for the San Francisco Board of Education, the same school board that voted 6-1 last month to scrub the names of such problematic Americans as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln from local schools".

Here is a typical record of minutes at the San Francisco Board of Education as we can imagine, where members try to outdo one another:

Member A: "I move to remove the name Columbus from the Columbus Elementary School".

Member B:  "I second that but I move further that Robert E. Lee High School be changed to another name".

Member C: "I second that but I suggest we remove Grant from all school names.

By the time the seventh member of the board was through, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were no longer school names.  The City Commission will decide next week on changing street names.  These are cases of people trying to name the tune in more notes, even more than are necessary, to the point of senseless extravagance of revisionism.

Soon we see that it is all about, "I can out-diverse your tune with one more, i.e. one more extra letter after Q in the now popular L---Q acronym. We abhor  food on our table that were from genetically modified plants or animals but modified gender assignments are fine in women sports and girl athletics.

That is what naming that tune in more notes will get us.

Now, moving on, the track switches once more.  It is one of a handful of universal truths, in most places around the globe that politicians can and will unabashedly engage in promissory tunes they know are often unattainable.  

"I propose to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour"

"I propose to raise it to $12".

Now, we're at $15, nationally, regardless of the differences in cost of living between and among states. These are all well and good, except, for the unintended consequences. How will  small businesses in Idaho or North Dakota deal with such an increase in their labor costs; how many jobs will go away when business owners cut back on staff to cope with the higher labor cost; what about the consumer who will bear the cost increases when businesses are forced to pass them on; and adding insult to injury, businesses will employ more automation or resort to android services in lieu of humans. Just simply raising minimum wage, unencumbered by realistic market analysis over pure political considerations is "naming that tune" in many more dollar bills.

Politicians, however, look at these tunes as win-win. (a) If it passes, it looks good on their resume to have proposed and voted for it; (b) If it doesn't, they can always blame the opposition during the next campaign.

Meanwhile, the media play "I can fact check that in .."

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said this "It's reminiscent of Shakespeare [in] that it is full of sound and fury, and yet signifying nothing."

Immediately, a well known journalist chimed in, ".@SenTedCruz says #ImpeachmentTrial is like Shakespeare full of sound and fury signifying nothing. No, that’s Faulkner".

— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) February 10, 2021

Over ten thousand followers liked her twit, others added more disparaging comments against the Texas senator.  But the last laugh was on Ms. Mitchell.

"NBC’s Andrea Mitchell was treated to a lesson in English literature after attempting to correct Senator Ted Cruz’s use of a Shakespeare quote, wrongly crediting the line to William Faulkner despite holding a degree in the subject".

At least, she apologized immediately.  Again, we know what happens when someone chooses more notes than necessary to name a tune.  As it turned out, William Faulkner, like a handful of other authors, borrowed a Shakespearian quote for their book titles.  She should have known better because she apparently majored in English literature.  This is simply a case of naming that tune gone awry.

Now, you know. Keep your ears alert to the tunes.  Brace yourself for many more songs to come but make sure you name the tune in as few notes as possible.  Ms. Mitchell would have been better served had she not relied on her "vast knowledge of English literature" when all she had to do was do one Google search.  If Ms. Mitchell claimed to be an avid reader of American literature she should have known that:

"A major influence on Faulkner’s work is Shakespeare, especially on The Sound and the Fury.  Faulkner used his love of Shakespeare to enable him to write a novel that took some of Shakespeare’s groundbreaking thoughts, ideas, and writing styles and use them to create something innovative and different. It is clear that Shakespeare was a sizeable influence on Faulkner’s writing.  From his youth he read and recited Shakespeare and he has talked about a copy of Shakespeare’s work that he takes with him everywhere".  

 

Just for grins, and for anyone interested, the Texas Senator, as it turned out, recalled the Shakespeare quote accurately:

MACBETH

"She should have died hereafter;

There would have been a time for such a word.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing".

 

Silencing The Lambs While Rattlesnakes Don't Rattle Anymore

The lengthy title stitches two separate musings that were four years apart. I wrote about, "When Rattlesnakes Don't Rattle Anymore", on Nov. 2015, one year before the 2016 election, followed in January, 2019 by, "Silencing of The Lambs", a year before the 2020 election. It is striking a much louder chord to me now more than ever  as we witness the great division in a country  once touted as the great universal example of what happens when people unite and so well deserved to inhabit a nation called The United States. This is not to disparage either party even as each is so well entrenched in opposing sides of the political track, but as a cautionary herald to all. The danger is that we may find ourselves not wanting to cross the tracks any longer as time goes on as to forget that there used to be a much greater bond and an indestructible link between all people beyond political pettiness and socially and culturally trivial squabbles.

I wrote then:

"Now then, when do rattlesnakes no longer rattle?  The story may surprise you.  Naturalists just recently discovered that in places where rattlers are heavily hunted, there was eerie silence instead of the familiar sounds that typically betray the presence of the snakes.  Needless to say, the pickings were slim at these places but there was evidence that rattle snakes were present.  What rattle snakes they caught by sight had fused rattlers that no longer rattle.  The rattles are ring-like keratin tissues (similar material like finger nails or claws) that develop at their tails every time the snake sheds its skin. The rings are connected loosely to each other and when the snake shakes its tail we would hear the familiar rattle.  Some of the rattlers have these appendage atrophied because of a genetic mutation.  The snakes that do not rattle escape detection from the hunters and collectors and there lies the multiplying effect.  As the loud rattlers get caught the silent ones thrive and go on to pass their genes that are inherited by subsequent generations.  Soon we have silent venomous snakes".

Now we have a moral lesson – a metaphor of a sort in social and political discourse.  One of democracy’s most important attributes is freedom of speech.  It is because a democracy works when all sides are heard, discussed and decided upon by the people. 

There is no good reason to silence the opposing side because once one side is silenced the victory achieved by the other is a hollow one. Whatever the means to silence one voice - be it through the media, social media in particular, or by acclimation from the loudest of voices over the silent ones, the muffling effect is real: either by over-rattling one point  of view, shouting down opposing opinions or flat out shutting off the pipeline of alternative views from those they do not agree with. 

Society should be careful when conditions become so dire that the cure every one wants to pursue is to silence one side in favor of another. The silencing of opposing views is akin to fusing the snake's rattlers.

The benefit of a one-sided media is at best temporary, worse is the boomerang effect. It will come back in a manner that is impossible to predict. 

What should be emphasized here is that a group that is silenced will only go underground; undetectable by polls. Democracy works when all points of views are heard because an informed citizenry will make informed choices that determine the kind of government it chooses. When one major group is silenced, only one monolithic voice emerges.  That becomes the gateway to oligarchy where only one class of people exercises authority over others. The silencing of the lambs means that one minority group may no longer speak or express their minds. Their silence can be claimed by the oligarchy as victory but only for so long.

I had hoped to be wrong about what I wrote about two and four years ago.  Like a lot of people I had wished that I would wake up one day to a sunny political climate when all sides are freely heard so that neither side should be in fear of being silenced or oppressed just for exercising their right to speak. It should be a concern for either because political winds will blow one way, one day, and blow the other way, the next.

The New York Times proposed that the current administration create a "Reality Czar".  

A quote: "The New York Times has called on President Biden to create a “Reality Czar” to shut down all dissent, which they immediately label conspiracy theories without any real investigation". 

 

Ordinarily, we will take this with a grain of salt, notwithstanding the NY Times as the platform for such a bizarre idea from one of its columnists, but we have to wonder - hasn't any of its editors any clue at all that there was such a "Ministry of Truth" from an Orwellian world in "1984"?  The word czar is such a tiresome nickname to use in any of today's government positions, if one must note that the birth of communism happened because of the people's revulsion toward czarism in a then imperial Russia of centuries past.  Although this is not to be taken seriously, the fact is that there are actually people out there, from academia no less, who propose that they can be trusted to determine what the truth is.

The risk of a political and societal journey that each side may take that has no return ticket is so grave that this country may find itself passing the point of no return. All in so short a period of time compared to the over two and half centuries  of history, only to potentially become historical footnotes no different from those that describe empires of long ago - gone and forgotten except as mere reminders of what could happen when the strength and stamina of a nation are sapped from within.

I must mention that the use of rattlesnakes and lambs are metaphorical from which both political parties are enjoined to make note.  The eerie silence represented by rattlesnakes that no longer rattle is as dangerous as when people keep their silence and remain under ground because when they decide to come out at some future time, predicting what happens is impossible to know.  It is better to know where the rattling comes from and what the rattles are about than to not know at all.  Those who propose to silence the lambs from the minority or try to hunt down, oppress or extinguish all the rattling from the opposing side by curtailing their voices will eventually regret it in the end.