Nah, won't spend too much time on this one beyond the thoughts of Adam Tooze, that places like Mar-A-Lago is where 80 year olds pretend that they are 25 forever.
Seems to me that these folks that spend so much time dreaming of yesteryear are really dreaming of the time when they were young. Happily, I mostly avoid that affliction. In that, if you lived that time to the fullest, you really don't have to look back upon it with yearning and angst.
Rather, you can spend today doing what you should be doing with it. Enjoying it. living it, fighting for it. Same as you should have been doing then.
I also look with amusement on the 40-50-60 somethings that ride around on motorcycles, pretending they belong to gangs. Not much different than the old men who dress up as soldiers to play on the weekend. Nothing wrong with it, I guess. Unless you start believing that you ARE a member of the Pagans, or that you would have stood up to cannon fire.
It's not the same thing. I could keep going in the same vein, but won't.
Did the writer ever consider why children used to have the summers off, and now don't?
A 100 years ago, when the nation still had not transitioned from child labor and an agrarian society to a more urban one where little Johnny doesn't get his hand chopped off in the hay baler, subsistence farmers needed that child labor to keep the family in food during the winter. Communities scheduled school accordingly, all in the hopes of creating citizens who could, through education, lift them out of that fearful poverty.
While now, that farming is mostly either a hobby, or done by corporations. Still using children BTW, but now they are hidden and losing their citizenship, even if they were born here to their serf level parents. But hey, outta sight, outta mind, right?
It's the Christian thing to do, right? Builds character.
Meanwhile, In today's service/gig economy, where so many of the poor do not have healthcare, childcare, food security, rights, power, rent security, much less land to grow crops - releasing 7 year old kids into the wild for 3 months, to salve someone's nostalgia for way back when, creates a Lord of the Flies society for a quarter of the year for those without resources to pay for childcare during that 3 month period.
At least the current schedule spreads it out more. Which suits the majority now, same as summers off suited it then. What's wrong with efficiency and democracy, serving the majority rather than a reactionary, entitled minority who often have no skin in the game? Is the writer raising 8 year olds?
And football practices have started in August for as long as I can remember. When I bother too. Think I'd rather enjoy them as they come. The Tour de France just finished up. Pogacar won again. College World Series was before that. Duke made an interesting run, and now their coach is at UVA, as Brian OConnor moves on to the leviathan which is the SEC. Little Leage World Series is coming soon, though the team from Venezuela won't get to play, because the local Klan is Making America Hate Again. Thanks guys.
And then the Hokies will be gearing up for another year on the gridiron, in which Coach Pry will need to either put up or shut up. Meanwhile, yes, we find out if the Commanders are really back, or just a flash in the pan, as the league has had a year to study them and adjust. As they do.
So spend the days you have dreaming of the ones you missed if you must.
Though I think I'll work to make the most of the ones that are here now. They are the only ones in which we have a say. Rather than clinging to the past like a fearful dying leaf does the tree in autumn...
Good one, Donnie. Glad you are still publishing. Have a always enjoyed your experienced musings, and wisdom.
smiley face
Nah, won't spend too much time on this one beyond the thoughts of Adam Tooze, that places like Mar-A-Lago is where 80 year olds pretend that they are 25 forever.
Seems to me that these folks that spend so much time dreaming of yesteryear are really dreaming of the time when they were young. Happily, I mostly avoid that affliction. In that, if you lived that time to the fullest, you really don't have to look back upon it with yearning and angst.
Rather, you can spend today doing what you should be doing with it. Enjoying it. living it, fighting for it. Same as you should have been doing then.
I also look with amusement on the 40-50-60 somethings that ride around on motorcycles, pretending they belong to gangs. Not much different than the old men who dress up as soldiers to play on the weekend. Nothing wrong with it, I guess. Unless you start believing that you ARE a member of the Pagans, or that you would have stood up to cannon fire.
It's not the same thing. I could keep going in the same vein, but won't.
Did the writer ever consider why children used to have the summers off, and now don't?
A 100 years ago, when the nation still had not transitioned from child labor and an agrarian society to a more urban one where little Johnny doesn't get his hand chopped off in the hay baler, subsistence farmers needed that child labor to keep the family in food during the winter. Communities scheduled school accordingly, all in the hopes of creating citizens who could, through education, lift them out of that fearful poverty.
While now, that farming is mostly either a hobby, or done by corporations. Still using children BTW, but now they are hidden and losing their citizenship, even if they were born here to their serf level parents. But hey, outta sight, outta mind, right?
It's the Christian thing to do, right? Builds character.
Meanwhile, In today's service/gig economy, where so many of the poor do not have healthcare, childcare, food security, rights, power, rent security, much less land to grow crops - releasing 7 year old kids into the wild for 3 months, to salve someone's nostalgia for way back when, creates a Lord of the Flies society for a quarter of the year for those without resources to pay for childcare during that 3 month period.
At least the current schedule spreads it out more. Which suits the majority now, same as summers off suited it then. What's wrong with efficiency and democracy, serving the majority rather than a reactionary, entitled minority who often have no skin in the game? Is the writer raising 8 year olds?
And football practices have started in August for as long as I can remember. When I bother too. Think I'd rather enjoy them as they come. The Tour de France just finished up. Pogacar won again. College World Series was before that. Duke made an interesting run, and now their coach is at UVA, as Brian OConnor moves on to the leviathan which is the SEC. Little Leage World Series is coming soon, though the team from Venezuela won't get to play, because the local Klan is Making America Hate Again. Thanks guys.
And then the Hokies will be gearing up for another year on the gridiron, in which Coach Pry will need to either put up or shut up. Meanwhile, yes, we find out if the Commanders are really back, or just a flash in the pan, as the league has had a year to study them and adjust. As they do.
So spend the days you have dreaming of the ones you missed if you must.
Though I think I'll work to make the most of the ones that are here now. They are the only ones in which we have a say. Rather than clinging to the past like a fearful dying leaf does the tree in autumn...