Web Miscellany: Compilation #110

Hello friends!

Happy Monday! Here we are, launching into another week already. I hope you have some exciting plans in the works.

As of today, we’ve been out of our home for over a year and the HOA board has still taken no action to remediate the space, despite our daily nagging.

We’ve finalizing our estate planning documents to ensure our intentions to be crystal clear. Did you know that if you’re listed as a organ donor, emergency doctors will take less action to save you because they get a commission for saving good organs, which the hospital can sell to those requiring a new organ? I’ve had four different ER doctors (each working in a different hospital network) share that separately. Needless to say, I’ve taken the ER doctors’ advice and am no longer an organ donor. For-profit medicine sucks.

We also have a phone consult scheduled with a strategic relocation consultant to help us decide where to move once my boyfriend graduates medical school, taking into consideration natural disasters, military targets, local firearm policies, and natural resources to support self-sufficiency. My boyfriend survived a 1-in-2MM health event, so we’re quite cautious about all things that could potentially kill us.

As an aside, I just witnessed two aggressively mating birds tumble from a tree branch into to pavement…and then nearly impale one another trying to mate while clinging to edge of cavity in a saguaro. Spring is in the air!

I hope your week to come is a good one.

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Food for thought

Convenience leads to dependence, and then to ruin.

This post by Quintus Curtius mirrors one of my most frequent discussions with the people in my life. To anyone who has extensively studied history, that we’re sliding in to servitude. Big government is stronger and more overpowering than our small, local governments. We are taxed on our income, our property, and our purchases. An administrative fee is tacked onto those taxes before the government hand back a small fraction in social security or welfare assistance.

Those who require government assistance to survive become ensnared in the safety net, from which it’s near-impossible to escape. Political leaders offer false promises of student debt relief, free healthcare, and universal basis income. Nothing is free.

From the author of the post: “Modern Western leaders who outsource their manufacturing to foreign powers—in order to enrich the class of plutocratic elites by using the pretexts of convenience and cost—betray their own nations. Conveniences lead to dependence, and from there to a knife at one’s throat. There is a price to be paid for short-term advantage. But this price is never revealed until the hapless debtor has no choice but to accept it.”

Something actionable

Over time, the person who approaches life with an openness to being wrong and a willingness to learn outperforms the person who doesn’t.

Life is full of anomalies and how we react to them is a good litmus test of our openness. Closed-minded people tend to ignore or gloss over moments that indicate the world doesn’t work the way you thought it did. Open-minded people want to dive in and understand, which may require you to discard previously held ideas and beliefs.

Being open-minded requires a lot of work and it doesn’t happen by accident. When you catch closed-minded tendencies, acknowledge what’s happening but don’t blame yourself. Instead, reflect on what’s going on at a deeper level. Maybe you feel the world should work differently than it does. Or maybe it’s something else. Either way, it’s an opportunity to learn more about yourself and the world.

As an aside, I’m currently re-reading an old favorite, Open Heart, Open Mind: A Guide to Inner Transformation by Tsoknyi. Rinpoche. Back in 2011, the publisher sent me a free copy in exchange for a review on my old blog and, at age 22, it completely shifted my worldview. A little except of my younger self’s takeaways:

“Each of us is equipped with a limitless capacity for openness, compassion, and wisdom; however the journey toward this end is not a passive one. Through simply examining your experience, you can begin to transform it. Beyond that, there are several steps towards awakening the power of essence love; however, it is basically broken down into the following two steps: discover the spark within yourself, and then pass your insights on to others.“

Just for fun

When I was bedridden with valley fever back in 2015, my boyfriend took the opportunity to force-feed me episodes of his all time favorite show, Battlestar Gallactica. During my hour or two of daily wakefulness for those six weeks, I took it in. And that’s how the girl who could never sit through Star Wars or Star Trek discovered her all-time favorite show.

The show is, perhaps, more of an analysis of society that happens to take place in a futuristic setting than a nerd’s wet dream. I would recommend it to anyone, even those who can’t stand science fiction, and especially those who prefer the approach of Ray Bradbury and Ted Chiang.

Thus, I was thrilled to stumble across a thoughtful analysis of the series by Jessica Davidson. Part 1 begins with a brilliant analysis of society, technology, and the nature of humanity though the lens of Battlestar. Swoon. It’s full of spoilers. But, if by chance, you hold a special place in your heart for the show, this post is great. There are also follow-ups on the religious beliefs of the humans and machines in series, and finally the nature of the gods and the cyclical view of history in the mini-series and main seasons.

Meme of the week

If I ever have kids, I’m homeschooling.

Though, it makes me feel slightly better that my boyfriends Gen Z nephews were taught the below and think their teachers are idiots. There may be hope, yet…