all I got for xmas is the flu
Seriously, I woke up yesterday morning with flu, really bad too. All the usual symptoms piled on. I spent the day on the couch alternately laying to nap and sitting up to drink water or do something with the ipad or game controller. During naps I watched netflix because I was rarely really sleeping. Last night I got a great night's sleep thanks to some cold medicine and today I feel merely shitty. If I treat myself the same today I should wake up flu-free tomorrow.
I was born 11 days before the assassination of President Kennedy. I have no memory of that event in another country. I was a baby in my immigrant Dutch mother's arms. My first memories outside of school and family, that noticed the wider world outside, were of a fringed vest. I wanted one so badly! My barbie had one but they were expensive. I was told not to be so silly and shut up. Years later I finally found one in Toronto at Kensington market. I wore it quite a lot till the thing ripped across one side at the seam and broke my heart. I think I still have it, hoping to fix it. It was lovely sky blue suede and the fringes were 18" long. There was 2 layers of them, one at the waist and one across the chest and back.
My first political memories (history and all that jive) were the FLQ crisis. After all, I'm canadian, and the crap going on the USA was much more distant when the media had to be filtered first through Canadian broadcaster priorities. We heard about things like vietnam and the draft, riots and demonstrations, mostly as one hears about the troubles in a foreign country, because that's what they were. Canadians were mostly dealing with the Quebecois and their fringe element of radical french sovereignists. I remember the adults getting all quiet and sober and nervous looking. Their tone of voice got lower and slower as they talked about "martial law" and how we all just lost our citizen rights.
I am old enough now to understand the worry, but I also see that society at that time were still socialistic enough yet that we weren't in any grave danger. Today that same declaration would release badly raised armed men with a chip on their shoulder from our police forces and give them carte blanche to bully anyone they find irritating!
I know it's easy to go on about "youth of today" and talk about society deteriorating but I think there is some loss of socialism that impoverishes us. We don't directly care for each other nor feel any personal responsibility of care to strangers around us. Did we ever? Perhaps it was just upper middle class ladies tired of stepping over need who created a standard of care?
I remember reading about how a King was responsible for feeding his people during famine, protecting them in war, moderating their petty disputes, and providing shelter. Perhaps then what's going on is we've lost sight of what a government does because it's gotten too big to see or to hold accountable. After all, a bad king would lose his head rather quickly in the early days. You have to think well back before mideavil times when a king was able to hold only as much as he could see. Ghenghis got too big and it rendered his service to his people worthless and he lost the loyalty of much of them. However, he kept moving with his trusted cadre of well-fed gang homies so the effect of his conquest with his people themselves was always distant.
I was born 11 days before the assassination of President Kennedy. I have no memory of that event in another country. I was a baby in my immigrant Dutch mother's arms. My first memories outside of school and family, that noticed the wider world outside, were of a fringed vest. I wanted one so badly! My barbie had one but they were expensive. I was told not to be so silly and shut up. Years later I finally found one in Toronto at Kensington market. I wore it quite a lot till the thing ripped across one side at the seam and broke my heart. I think I still have it, hoping to fix it. It was lovely sky blue suede and the fringes were 18" long. There was 2 layers of them, one at the waist and one across the chest and back.
My first political memories (history and all that jive) were the FLQ crisis. After all, I'm canadian, and the crap going on the USA was much more distant when the media had to be filtered first through Canadian broadcaster priorities. We heard about things like vietnam and the draft, riots and demonstrations, mostly as one hears about the troubles in a foreign country, because that's what they were. Canadians were mostly dealing with the Quebecois and their fringe element of radical french sovereignists. I remember the adults getting all quiet and sober and nervous looking. Their tone of voice got lower and slower as they talked about "martial law" and how we all just lost our citizen rights.
I am old enough now to understand the worry, but I also see that society at that time were still socialistic enough yet that we weren't in any grave danger. Today that same declaration would release badly raised armed men with a chip on their shoulder from our police forces and give them carte blanche to bully anyone they find irritating!
I know it's easy to go on about "youth of today" and talk about society deteriorating but I think there is some loss of socialism that impoverishes us. We don't directly care for each other nor feel any personal responsibility of care to strangers around us. Did we ever? Perhaps it was just upper middle class ladies tired of stepping over need who created a standard of care?
I remember reading about how a King was responsible for feeding his people during famine, protecting them in war, moderating their petty disputes, and providing shelter. Perhaps then what's going on is we've lost sight of what a government does because it's gotten too big to see or to hold accountable. After all, a bad king would lose his head rather quickly in the early days. You have to think well back before mideavil times when a king was able to hold only as much as he could see. Ghenghis got too big and it rendered his service to his people worthless and he lost the loyalty of much of them. However, he kept moving with his trusted cadre of well-fed gang homies so the effect of his conquest with his people themselves was always distant.