January 7, 2005
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It happens every year, that I come to Texas for Thanksgiving and/or Xmas, and I end up with a cold or the flu or a sinus infection, or some other strange malady.
I got here just before Christmas, had a day or two of rebound from the trip, was inundated with the various social events (Xmas eve party and Xmas day visit to my brothers' house), and then the next day... Bam! Sore throat, nasty cough, clogged nasal passages, etc.
It's taken until a couple days ago for me to really feel up to anything. I have zero extra energy for getting excited about the return trip, however. I had all these notions, and they never materialized into plans, and even if they had, being sick soaked up all the time, and now I've just got to wander back to Seattle so I can find a new place to live before next month.
Like I said: This is just how it goes when I visit Houston. I should just stay away. Maybe make it as close as my sister's, up in Conroe, without actually entering city limits.
Comments (5)
physical manifestation of the "you can't go home again" syndrome.
Stress does terrible things to the immune system. This year for Christmas I opted out of all the dinners-at-cousins'-houses, spent only as much time as was comfortable visiting with people at home, then went out hiking alone. It's the first year I can remember that I have not got sick over the holidays.
I think what I meant by my metaphor, wasn't that the left is optimistic vs. the right pessimistic. I realize now how my analogy came off that way. Rather, what I was trying to get at, is the left sees the "have-nots," while the right sees the "haves." The left is driven by exploited workers, by people without health insurance, by oppressed peoples, while the right sees a world that is rich, a world that has more now than ever. The Boy Scout reference was to do with foreign politcy. The right sees the war as spreading democracy, liberating the oppressed. They see themselves, essentially, as Boy Scouts, doing their ethical duty. The left is critical of virtually every military act the US has ever done. Was Columbus a brutal murderer, or did he save the indians by civilizing them? Was US westward expansion a series of unust wars to gobble up land, or was it our "manifest destiny." Every war is going to have its Boy Scout spin from the right, and an anti-war critique from the left.
Dan, I understand your argument, and I understood it on your 'blog, too. It's just that you're wrong.
No, seriously. The pessimist-versus-Boy-Scouts model just doesn't fit. 'The right' doesn't see itself as making the world a better place. 'The right' has adopted a sort of self-delusion, where it can tell itself a fantasy story about democracy in the middle east (currently) or fighting communism (in the past), when what's really going on is a power (economic, financial, and geopolitical) grab. Everybody knows it. No one denies it. They just tell themselves that it's a good thing the world is rid of Saddam Hussein and their internal dialogue stops there. Conveniently. (Forgetting for the moment that supporting Hussein in the past meant fighting communism, whereas fighting Hussein in the present means supporting democracy.)
'The left' is, at this moment in American history, everyone who isn't telling themselves this kind of delusional story. That's the simplest taxonomy, and it's the one 'the right' has set up for itself. The terms 'left' and 'right' are mostly meaningless in their general useage.
hope your feeling better by now. Happy New Year.
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