Silver Linings

So the money I'd been saving to live on when I'm older is as good as gone, thanks to our economy being shut down to reduce the spread of COVID-19. And I'm okay with that because doing what we can to reduce the spread of COVID-19 is the correct course of action.

I'm just flabbergasted that we're actually doing it. And at the urging of all our governing politicians, no less. Imagine, who would have thought in 2019 that we'd be sacrificing The Economy! The Economy! in 2020 to save each other from the flu.

But also, and much less noble, I realize now, after looking desperately for a silver lining (I mean beyond Canadians coming together to sacrifice The Economy! The Economy! to save each other from the flu) that I was never going to use that money anyway. I was going to hoard it until after I was safely dead and could no longer enjoy picturing it in a bank vault, glowing with energy, whilst I sipped my tea and nibbled my toast in the old folks barracks.

My little pot of gold for a rainy day that would never be rainy enough for me to dip into it. I could be drowning in rain and still I wouldn't have touched that rainy day fund. Not even to buy a boat. Because as anybody with a boat will tell you, they're all the Titanic when it comes to the money poured into them to keep them afloat.

Anyway, this has all been kind of enlightening for me so I thought I'd share.

Also, don't tell the government I said this but working for it from home is the worst. NOT that I don't consider myself lucky to be able to do it, having scored a casual (temp job at government pay) in February. But it's the worst.

On the Road to Kindness

So I read a cool article today about Jack Kerouac that included a poem, the essential part of which is below:

The world you see is just a movie in your mind.
Rocks don't see it.
Bless and sit down.
Forgive and forget.
Practice kindness all day to everybody
and you will realize you’re already
in heaven now.

Calming, eh?

On the Flip Side

I look at it this way, if Trump et al were telling Americans to practice social distancing by sheltering in place and keeping a couple of metres between themselves and other people, his followers would be owning the libs by shooting on sight anybody who ventured outside for a bit of fresh air.

Seeing the Light in Ottawa

I just realized after reading yet another lamentation for our loss of what we think of as normal, our "drive to work to pay for this car" way of life, that I don't want to go back to normal now.

Normal was stupid. Anti-social, not social. Competitive, not cooperative. And why have we allowed our governments to task us with saving for our individual retirements instead of insisting our governments guarantee us all the same good standard of living later while we put our resources to good use now?

Cripes, we've all witnessed how basic it actually is, old age: get up too early, have a few sips of coffee and a small bowl of porridge, complain about everything to anybody who will listen while waiting for lunch, eat a half sandwich with a glass of bone builder of some kind, snooze with the tv or radio blaring while waiting for happy hour, drink an alcoholic beverage, feel happy, eat the other half sandwich and a piece of pie, watch tv, go to bed too early, get up to pee two or three times in the night, repeat.

How did this become what we're all supposed to work to save our money for anyway?

By the way, our governments have had to do a 180 from attributing virtue to citizens who have paid employment to attributing virtue to citizens willing to forgo it - for the good of the many as opposed to the few (Spock in Wrath of Khan). And anyone with a brain can see that "flattening the curve" would go a lot smoother if we had a judgement free guaranteed basic income in place. So count me out for going back to normal and count me in for adapting away from it.

The Great Leveling

My friend double nickel (he's from France) posted this on Facebook today:

"One thing that has become clear in the past few days is that the people who earn millions per year are worth significantly less to society that the ones who earn minimum wage."

And on that note, as us plucky paupers watch our retirement savings bounce around in ever diminishing returns, at least we won't be in prison for insider trading like a lot of mucky mucks are going to be.

Cripes, what would it be like to go through life without any shame, I wonder.

U.S. Senator Burr?

And the Oscar Goes To...

Well not Jason Kenney for best performance by a premier at a press conference about coronavirus.

And not the press gallery guy who went on about the carbon tax being scheduled to kick in soon and how the gLiberal government in Ottawa wasn't canceling it.

Reminded me of an act I saw in Vegas that made me wonder partway through if we were going to get mugged leaving the theater - or while we were still in it.

Just the Facts, Ma'am

Dear Everybody: Stop expecting Donald Trump to act like a President or in the interests of Americans. He won't. He's a traitor.

You're welcome.