Baby Steps

Sometimes we worry so much about the big things we fail to see the importance of the little things.

After all, no single drop of rain holds itself responsible for the ensuing flood.
-bill kenny

Hoping for a Quiet Weekend

We had a bit of a stir not just in my house yesterday morning as a mild tremor shook large parts of the Northeast. 

Shake without Bake

I'd never experienced anything like that before. I may need to revisit my Elvis impersonation. Or not.
-bill kenny

National Knickers in a Twist Day?

Sunday as you probably know was Easter. Easter as you may not know is a moveable feast; that is, its date of celebration changes from year to year. A lot of math is involved; I'm not sure the Pope would approve. 

You may heard/been involved in some of the brouhaha that went on when The White House, as it has done every year since 2009, marked Sunday as the International Transgender Day of  Visibility. MAGA nation was outraged-though I don't remember hearing any howls when it was celebrated when Pantload45 was in the Oval Office.   

However, for trivial pursuit fans everywhere, it wasn't just Easter and International Transgender Day of Visibility, au contraire! It was quite a day of observances: 

Anesthesia Tech Day, Cesar Chavez Day, Dance Marathon Day, Easter Sunday, Eiffel Tower Day, International Hug a Medievalist Day, International Transgender Day of Visibility, National Baked Ham with Pineapple Day, National Bunsen Burner Day, National Clams on the Half Shell Day, National Crayon Day, National Farm Workers Day, National Prom Day, National She’s Funny That Way Day, Tater Day, Transfer Day (U.S. Virgin Islands only), and World Backup Day. PHEW!

“It’s a good thing Jesus believes what I want to believe.” Amen.
-bill kenny

The Days of the Old Schoolyard

In another life, I attended a prep school in mid-Manhattan (I'm not listing the name, my brothers and sisters know it and that's enough) as something akin to a duck-billed platypus. 

My father was headmaster of the lower school so I was a 'scholarship child' in the upper school though I don't think I fully appreciated that at the time. I even attended 'tea-dances' as they were called; heavily chaperoned mixers with all girl-schools complete with live music from five and six-piece ensembles. Seriously. 

My recollection is that for both tenth and eleventh grades, I shared a homeroom with the heir to the New York Times publishing dynasty, who was a good person with a great sense of humor. I was thinking about that sense of humor when I fell across an article from McSweeney's.

I only know about McSweeney's because of a very dear Facebook friend, C.R. Foster, who is also a superlative writer (you should check out their latest, The Rain Artist), has on occasion had short pieces in the magazine.   

Not like the one I found. Anyway, I hope both of them can find it as funny as I did. Enjoy.
-bill kenny

Blame Is Better to Give than Receive

One of my favorite expressions is "He who abandons a sinking ship that doesn't sink, needs to be a very good swimmer." Or at least look presentable in his Speed-O's and bathing cap. This is the time of year to try to get some laps in at the old swimming pool unless you can walk on water.

I've written before about the six phases of a project: Enthusiasm, Disillusionment, Panic, Search for the Guilty, Punishment of the Innocent, and Awards and Honors for the Non-Participants.

Whatever we do for a living and whoever we are, that same pattern holds even if we pretend otherwise. As an example, we all cheered that brave soul who volunteered to lead the team that would turn peanut oil into jet fuel, until it was demonstrated that it absolutely, positively couldn't be done, and then all we could do was shake our heads and roll our eyes the next time their name as mentioned ('I could have told you...'). Sound familiar?

Look to our nation's capital if you want to see a collection of people dedicated to the proposition that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people should go chase itself, Lincoln be damned.

But, if you watch only one minute of C-Span, all of them are so relentlessly polite and respectful to one another while being disagreeable in the most agreeable way imaginable. Thank goodness for The Loyal Opposition and My Distinguished Opponent. Whom else would we, currently in charge, blame for all manners of awfulness and illness if we didn't have The Other Guys and Gals?

Practically all of the 'issues' and 'hot buttons' that have driven our national discourse over the last eight to ten (and more) years are still with us like Banquo's Ghost. They've gained a few pounds and some fellow travelers. But they’re still here. We have more conflicts, less money, more anger, and fewer reasons to be hopeful than at any point in my almost seventy-two years here on earth.

I'm sad not so much that we seem to have lost our way (an unoriginal thought we've often had in our two-hundred-and-forty-eight-year history as a nation), but that we don’t want to find our way back to who we are. We’ve decided to settle instead of continuing to strive to succeed. We decided success and happiness were like pie, there’s only just so much. If you and yours have too much success there must be less for me. Absolute insanity.

We don't even hear the cognitive dissonance as the gap between what we say and what we do grows wider and wilder. Vox Populi has been replaced by ST*U and e pluribus Unum is now rendered as nolo contendere and is usually part of a plea bargain for time served accompanied by a weepy-eyed televised apology where someone takes 'full responsibility' whatever that means.

If our children ever figure out what we allowed to happen to their dreams, they'll murder us in our sleep and they'll be right but everything will still be wrong. You can break things only so often and only so badly before they cannot be made whole again. We may be nearing that moment, Armageddon, End Times, oops! whatever it's to be called.

We will not have to worry about what the day after that happens is called because we will not be here to experience it. But don't worry, we'll blame someone (just not ourselves) because that's how we're wired.
-bill kenny

Music Is What Feelings Sound Like

I do not play a musical instrument and cannot carry a tune in a bucket. 

Sadly, just because I cannot sing don't ever assume I will not sing because you will be bitterly disappointed. 

I found this and hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
-bill kenny 

First of April

Today, April Fool's is a sort of holiday around the world and has been with us for the better part of a millennium (Falcon by Ford; to say nothing of Harrison). The origins of this day seem to stretch back to the time of Geoffrey Chaucer, and Canterbury Tales. 

I wonder, had Geoffrey ('Jeff' to his friends, perhaps) seen Ashton Kutcher's interpretation, if his face, at first just ghostly, would turn a whiter shade of pale.

Here in lower New England, the calendar says spring but the weather not so much-at least we haven't had the snows blanketing the nation's middle. Perhaps the meteorologists are just getting into the spirit of the day. 

Today, you can stand the world on its head. By tomorrow, no one will remember because nothing you may have done today will seem out of place in a vulgar and venal vale of perdition. A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now. Except now.

-bill kenny