Author: marymom

TODAY’S WORRY

I feel somewhat disturbed by the route that we as a country are taking when confronting the energy crisis. I was just listening to a piece on NPR about the high speed railroads in France. After the energy crisis in the 1970’s, France started a program to bring high speed rail into Paris. This would cut down on gas consumption as well as allow people to remain in their countryside homes. Today, the system is universally acclaimed.

The high cost of energy is a function of supply and demand. This is skewed by the fact that there is a cartel controlling the supply. However, the U.S. always seems to concentrate on the supply side whether it is the war on drugs or the energy crisis. I think we should start looking at ourselves on the demand side as well.

TODAY’S WORRY

In an effort to maintain the sort of not-so-young but not-so-old image that we want, we have invented The Three Step Rule. Now this may sound like a shortcut to sobriety but, alas, it is not. And it is something that only needs to be done while in public. Sometimes, after being in the car for a goodly amount of time, we find that knees and hips don’t just spring out of the seats and jauntily walk away from the car. So we have invented The Three Step Rule as a solution. After getting out of the car, stand for a moment and get your back, hips and knees lined up while trying to look casual. Then the rule is, you must be walking naturally by the time you have taken three steps. Sure, it is easier to creak across the parking lot. But the more you give in to the creakiness, the more it will become a habit.

TODAY’S WORRY

Being the kind of person who is always worried that something will go wrong, I find vacations that I plan very stressful. Since I am the planner, when inevitably some activity does not quite live up to its billing or is a total disaster, I feel it is my fault. In fact my kids always refer to these mishaps as “another one of mom’s good ideas.” Too crowded is often a good-vacation-experience killer. So here’s my advice – take your trips during the off-season. Want to go to Florida? Try April or November. Been longing to visit Italy? There’s nobody there in January and February. Interested in hiking in Zion National Park? I was there last week and there were blue skies and temperatures in the upper 50’s and low 60’s. The desert flowers were beginning to bloom. Being able to experience extraordinary places without thousands of other people is a real joy. Yes, sometimes it’s a little rainy, or cold, or hot. But I find that weather is a lot easier to put up with than too many tourists.

TODAY’S WORRY

Most people who know me would say that I am somewhat to the left of center when it comes to politics. But I try to keep an open mind. This week on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Nancy Sodenberg was on to hawk (heh, heh) her book, The Superpower Myth: the Use and Misuse of American Might. Now, Jon Stewart is not known for his right-leaning point of view but he brought up some points which are valid and are a conundrum to many Democrats. He said, “But what do you make of–here’s my dilemma, if you will. I don’t care for the way these guys [the current U.S. administration] conduct themselves. ….But boy, when you see the Lebanese take to the streets and all that, and you go, “Oh my God, this is working…” Sodenberg replies, “Well, I think, you know, as a Democrat, you don’t want anything nice to happen to the Republicans, and you don’t want them to have progress. But as an American, you hope good things would happen.”

I guess only time will tell if this is a case of a cause and effect, and if so, whether the means justified the ends.