May 12, 2003

• And on the seventh day, he rested – biblical instructions for sociological and psychological health. Whether one calls it “sabbath”, “lazy sunday”, or anything else, the need for taking some time away from work, some time to rest, interact with friends, family, and loved ones, some time to give yourself needed mental space has become more clear to me.
  
  It will take some planning and dedication to stick with it, but for now, it remains a goal. Who knows, if it keeps working, maybe I’ll even be able to find time for coffee with friends. *grin*
  
  Speaking of friends, I seem to have a tendancy to let a lot of people slip off the radar if they aren’t somehow involved in some regularly scheduled activity. It isn’t such a good thing, but the question is, can I find the time to fix it?
  
  Social/political ills have me feeling somewhat overwhelmed again. It is a common thing for me. I don’t make enough time for being involved and I get overwhelmed by the magnitude of the troubles out there and my feelings of responsibility for it. If I don’t do anything, how can I complain? How can I expect anyone else to step up to the plate? But yet, I have so much going on that I can’t seem to find enough time. Heck, I didn’t even get my lawn mowed this weekend and the garden is still sitting fallow.
  
  Someone accused me of wanting to be a hero, but not having the courage to do what it takes. They may have a point.
  
  I’m going to try not to stress about it too much this week, though. There’s not much I can do right now without shirking the commitments I have made. First I have to clear some space.
  
  Three more things I’d like to find more time for: Meditation, Kung Fu, Working out.
  
  Ah well.
  
  For now, lazy sundays are a step in the right direction. I think they may include staying away from the computer for anything other than utility (mapquest/sidewalk.com/etc.)
  
  Oh, I suppose I should look at a couple more of the “10 steps for peace”:
  

  6) The US will make a strong effort to become self sufficient energy wise. This will include developing non polluting sources of energy, but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.

  Well, obviously I support the basic premise of this one. The Alaskan wilderness aspect of it concerns me, but in an attempt to avoid sacred cows, I see it as a viable compromise IF the commitment to developing other sources of energy is real and IF it means reducing the damaging foreign policies that are in place to ensure our oil supply.
  

  7) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don’t like it, we go someplace else.

  Interesting idea. Personally, the way I’d prefer to see it is withdraw all government support for the oil companies and pressures on OPEC. That, combined with a serious investment in renewable domestic resources should create a market dynamic that becomes more naturally balanced. I could see any “state” purchases of oil having a price cap – above which, they need to get special approval or find another power source.
  

  8) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not “interfere.” They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides, most of what we give them gets”lost” or is taken by their army. The people who need it most get very little anyway.

  Hmm.. My first reaction is “aren’t we better than that”, but again, trying not to be knee jerk about things, I’m taking a more open minded approach. First of all, the “gets lost” issue is a real one, often giving more power to the abusers creating the problem (eg: Somalia). I guess ultimately, I’d like to see official international aid under the purview of a restructured UN (which would be required to ensure the aid gets to who it needs to). The US, as a member of the UN, would likely supply food, equipment and personnel to the UN to support these missions. Additional aid could be continued through charity and mercy groups such as missions, peace corp, etc., but should perhaps be privately funded.
  
  Speaking of the UN, I’ll get to 9 and 10 from the list later.
  
  Almost finally, I had an interesting sideline discussion relating to a previous post on gun control/ballistics/weapon tracking. The short of it is that there are a lot of holes in ballistics tracking that may make the cost-benefit analysis not work out so great.
  
  I do encourage all readers (who have not so already) to sign up for a free xanga account so they can use comments and such discussions can take place in the web log forum so others can read/comment/critique. Remember, just because you have a xanga account doesn’t mean you have to use the web log feature…
  
  Finally, a question – are my posts too long?
  

  • 12:21 pm
  • 2 Comments