Just a quick, or semi-quick, maybe, life update for all my fans out there.
Things have been going pretty well for me -- they're mostly normal. In the lead-up to the midterms, I've been simultaneously trying to remain pissed off and stress-free. These emotions aren't as contradictory as one might think. I heard Rebecca Traister, one of my favorite voices of feminism, on a podcast recently promoting her new book Good and Mad, and she talked about the virtues of anger, and how being mad doesn't preclude you from being healthy and sane. In fact, anger is often the appropriate human emotion for a situation, and actually letting yourself feel it, embracing it even, is better than bottling it up and pretending it doesn't exist, or feeling guilty about feeling it. The key, I think, is focusing it in the right direction.
Right now I'm focusing my anger by donating to various blue candidates and causes. I will vote too, which is the most important thing, of course, but I live in DC, so it doesn't matter much on a national level. (Although DC politics is interesting and important in it's own right.) Now, if DC could obtain statehood that would be a different story, but I don't see that happening in the immediate future. It is something, however, that I think Democrats should fight for. Why not? We are US citizens. Why don't we have the same representation as everybody else? Same for Puerto Rico.
The answer, of course, is that Republicans are in power, and they don't want it, because they are very unpopular among the people who live in these places. And the key mission of Republicans -- their primary unifying feature -- is staying in power even if it means employing anti-democratic methods. The Republicans are the party of entrenched power, and they use that entrenched power, mostly to further entrench their power, even if it means denying the will of the people -- and that's exactly what it means right now. One thing that annoys me a bit is when liberals blame Democrats for being weak and/or not being able to win elections. There is some truth to it, of course, but the far bigger issue is that Democrats, being the party that represents traditionally marginalized groups (racial minorities, women, LBGT folks, youths, etc.), are constantly fighting an uphill battle against the centuries-long vice grip on power of older white males who currently comprise most of the GOP. You can see this in the voting results -- Democrats almost always win more total votes than Republicans. They frequently win the "popular vote" -- often by a significant margin -- and still lose. Clinton received millions more votes than Trump; Dems in Congress received millions more than their Republican counterparts; and yet Reps control all three branches of government. It's not fair; it's not democratic (little d). And it's because Republicans don't believe in fairness or democracy. They believe in gerrymandering, voter suppression, fearmongering, and straight-up lying. This isn't some unhinged, leftist rant; this is an accurate assessment of the current political situation that I could back-up with a bevvy of facts and examples.
What to do about it? Donate, vote, speak up, get involved, don't give up, don't get discouraged -- what else can you do? Overwhelm them with democracy at every level. Be angry. But also stay sane and live your best life. Don't let the bastards get you down. That's my advice.
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On the topic of staying sane, my Krav Maga classes have become and important part of my life maintenance. There's something so satisfying about exhausting yourself physically, and doing it in a group is way better than doing it alone. I fear my gym is struggling financially, though. They recently raised rates -- it's not cheap: $50/week -- and I've noticed a down-tick in class attendance. That's expected -- it's basic microeconomics -- but I don't know if they're making up for it with the higher rates. I got a text from them the other day that said, "Hey! This is E from Krav Maga :) Just checkin' in! How's training been going??" and I'm not sure why they would send that unless it's some sort of virtually glad-handing. I also didn't really know how to respond. Is this a pro forma group thing they sent out to everybody? Is E actually expecting me to continue a personal dialogue? If I ignore it, and then I see her at the gym, will it be awkward? Will she say something about it? I wrote back, "Pretty good, I think. Thanks!" And then she wrote, "Awesome! We love having you here!" So, it obviously is a membership outreach thing. Also, perhaps she's trying to trawl for people who might be considering leaving. I think reliable cash flow is an issue, which is why they went to a weekly payment system instead of their old monthly system. Anyway, you probably don't care about any of this, so I will move on.
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S and I had a date night on Friday, and we saw First Man at this cool, trendy boutique theater in this cool, trendy part of town. It's good to have the occasionally reminder as to why it's nice to live in the city. The movie itself was decent -- not fantastic, but worth watching. The main problem with this movie is that it couldn't match the magnitude of the actual event. The moon landing might be the coolest thing humankind has ever done. This The Onion article captures it perfectly. Also, the film is a biopic of Neil Armstrong, and Armstrong was a very quiet, calculating man. Those are fine qualities for leading a stressful space mission, but they don't necessarily translate into great cinema. The entire time I was in the theater, I just felt like I'd rather be watching real footage or reading about the actually moon missions rather than watching Ryan Gosling look pensive on the big screen. (Nothing against Gosling, who is good in the movie.) Also, as S pointed out, there was too much screen time from inside a capsule with the camera shaking repeatedly.
One thing I appreciate about it is that it was very accurate -- at least with respect to the verifiable things. Obviously, not every conversation Armstrong had with his wife is captured verbatim, but the facts about the mission are, as best I can tell, spot on. (And people who knew Armstrong said in interviews that the film depicts him very accurately.) Every time I thought something was exaggerated for dramatic effect, I looked it up afterwards and found out it wasn't. It didn't need to be, because the moon landing was a precarious and dramatic mission from the get-go. There was no guarantee that they were actually going to touchdown on the moon successfully. I think Buzz Aldrin said he gave it 50/50 odds before the mission. Having to abort and return to Earth without landing was a definite possibility. Although, if that happened, they probably would have just gone back a few months later and then a few months later if that didn't work, until they got it right, and we would have all forgotten the failed attempts, once they actually landed. So, maybe the stakes weren't that high as far as aborting is concerned. But also there was the very real chance of them exploding or getting stranded in space. The odds of one of those things happening were much higher than I think people realize.
One weird thing about moon exploration is how little we've done of it. The Apollo missions represent the entirety of physical human contact with the moon, and those ended in 1972. We haven't been in over 45 years, and only 12 people have walked on the moon total. I think we need to go back as a warm-up and then go to Mars. I know it's expensive, but, it's worth it, in my opinion. Doing crazy, mind-boggling shit is a worthy human endeavor. I do concede however, that there is a big drawback to space exploration: There's nothing interesting close to us. Why aren't there Martians and moon creatures? If our universe was made by a divine creator, he or she actually did a very ho-hum job.
On that note, until next time...
Oh, one last thing, a crossword puzzle acquaintance of mine has won on Jeopardy! the past three nights (and he did something on the show, which I don't get but ascertain is funny). He's the fourth person I know from crossword puzzles who has been a champion on the show -- that's nuts. Watch tonight if you're a fan of trivia. He's the reigning champion with the Afro.
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