Between the World and Me documentary on HBO is the real deal. Watch ASAP

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12890926/ 

Trauma-sensitive mindfullness

This is the book I am currently reading to gain some sophistication about teaching mindfullness.

Multi-genre music release in a quartet

https://artifactrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/synergy-signals 

The saxophone player on this is Jon Raskin, a friend and husband of my high school friend Lori Lorenzo.

A palette cleanser of lovely visuals

https://mymodernmet.com/jeffro-uitto-driftwood-animal-sculptures/

Cautious victory

 While I share the positive feelings around the defeat of tRump, I am not euphoric. 70 million people voted for him after witnessing his actions and words for four years and they are not going away. The Reeps in the Senate will do everything they can to block Biden. There are more than two months to go to the inauguration, during which all sorts of mischief can be accomplished, by tRump, by the Senate and by the MAGA fanatics. I saw a guy buying American flags and black dye to color them; he is not going to go along with the mission we are pursuing. Neither are the Facebook fascists calling the election stolen and Biden a fascist. I am not convinced that violence will be avoided nor that Biden’s cooperative approach will work. Well, we shall see...

I encounter banal evil

 As I ate lunch last Saturday I overheard a conversation between two men, one of whom I vaguely knew. They openly marveled at the details of the Hunter Biden scandal story, mentioning child porn, political corruption, and story repression. While I see this routinely online, it was different to hear it directly. What struck me was the banal ordinary quality of the conversation, the way in which they assumed it was all true and well known by everyone. They off-handedly voiced support for Trump too. Because I was acquainted with one of the men, I was surprised and brought down; he is my age, a former punk musician from two bands I knew back in the Eighties, a nice guy and a hard worker, yet fully bought into the Earth 2 narrative. As I mulled over the conversation I was overcome with alarm, a sudden feeling that the Blue Wave would not happen and that perhaps Trump would win. Clearly Trumpism is more widespread than I and my friends believe. This feeling was prescient and borne out by the election (partial) results. I am very sad and discouraged by this, the ordinariness and ubiquity of something abhorrent.

Increasing discipline

 I am well into the second six months of my meditation program, so I can comment with confidence on new developments. After the first six months of 40 minutes/day every day I missed two days due to illness (violent allergic reaction to an antibiotic), but began a new program: two periods of meditation/day, usually for 40 minutes the second time. I also began to sandwich a 40 minute treadmill session between the two. This practice is inspired both by my experience in the previous six months and the report that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey meditates two hours/day. I feel on the right track. I have also lost ten of the pounds I gained during lockdown, via increased exercise and restricted carbs. The next step I am considering is an hour of book reading each day. Onward...