We arrived home yesterday from a wonderfully relaxing Kelowna holiday. Today just disappeared. It’s already almost 5:30pm and I’m left wondering where the day went?It doesn’t matter that the holiday wasn’t a run-around-fun holiday, and that most of what I did was relax anyway. Day one after returning home from a holiday feels like a recovery day.
Is it just me or do you often feel like you need a holiday to get over your holiday?
Yesterday was our last full day in Kelowna, and while we did a hike around these falls every day, I finally followed the creek into the falls that we could hear at a lookout, but couldn’t see. I didn’t think I’d see the falls, I was just curious.
I didn’t know I was going to be able to make it to the falls, I just wanted to check out the stream… this was a wonderfully unexpected, and special experience!
Kelowna, BC, Canada last night.
I’ve seen a lot of beautiful sunsets, but this one enamoured me like no other. It was truly magical.
I’ve never been someone who stretches as much as I should. With all the challenges I’ve had with my back, this has been less than ideal. Recently I’ve started going back to a physiotherapist because my lower back has been aching in a way that I know IMS, intramuscular stimulation, will help. The physiotherapist gave me a set of stretches to do for my hips and hamstrings, and I’ve done them religiously ever since.
The one thing that helped me do these is music. I have a playlist called Enya Stretch and it’s 10 minutes long. I listen to ‘My! My! Time Flies!’ twice, once for each leg, then ‘Only Time’. A former student asked if my stretches looked like this:
https://twitter.com/laefk/status/1555598193622077442?s=21&t=byE0vfyJOu-PZgA2dsNwiA
They look nothing like that, but I find it funny that the song from that commercial is the same ‘Only Time’ from Enya that I listen to when doing some of my stretches. That said, my splits look more like an equilateral triangle than a straight line.
Still, the point isn’t to become Jean-Claude Van Damme flexible, it’s to reduce the ache I feel when I stiffen up, and to reduce the future pain I know that’s in store for me unless I improve my flexibility.
Having a 10 minute playlist really helps. Without it, I’d either rush the stretches, or skip them. Knowing that this is only 10 minutes long makes me realize that I can find the time. The transitions in the songs become queues to let me know that I need to hold a stretch longer and push me to eke a bit more of a stretch out in the last few seconds. And the process feels more like meditation than stretching… which is great because I’ve never really enjoyed stretching.
I finally have a morning stretch routine that I’m sticking to, and I’m sure that future me will be very thankful for the time I’m putting in now to care for my back. Just 10 minutes a day, but hopefully years of flexibility and agility ahead.
The idea of being rudderless suggests being at the whim of the tides; of not being in control. But have you ever meet anyone who just goes with the flow and everything just works out for them? One person has something challenging happen and they become a ‘Karen’, whining and complaining, and making a scene. Another person has a very similar situation occur, and not only does it not bother them, but they end up getting better assistance or service than would be expected.
For some people bring rudderless means floundering and being a victim of circumstance. For others, being rudderless means they get to ride the waves and travel to places most others only dream of going.
Our societies and cultures teach us to be driven and to steer our way through life, but sometimes I think we spend too much time trying to steer and not enough time going with the flow. We need to have a rudder, but maybe we don’t need to use it so aggressively… Let the universe lead us where we need to go.
There are three things that I’ve seen recently that defy common sense. All three suggest to me that there is a cult of stupidity that seems far more prevalent than should be possible in this day and age.
1. “People are vowing they’ll never go back to Cracker Barrel after the chain added vegan sausage to its menus” (Yahoo news). Cracker Barrel didn’t take anything away from anyone. All they did was provide another option for people. This is equivalent to complaining because a wheelchair ramp was added to an entrance of building. How does other options for other people threaten someone so much?
If this was just about boycotting a restaurant, that would be fine, but this is just a small example of a kind of thinking that is harmful to our free and open society. When groups of people limit the rights of other people because they don’t want other people to do something they disagree with, but that doesn’t directly affect their own lives, that’s scary. Imposing religious beliefs on other people are asinine, and there are many places around the world where this is happening.
2. The Alex Jones trial is so comical it hurts. This clip showing the judge explaining (again), “…just because you claim to think something is true does not make it true,” and basically scolding him for lying under oath, summarizes a core problem: People like Alex Jones and the thousands of fans he influences, can’t distinguish facts from beliefs. The amount of harm he has caused doing this is sad and disheartening. That his fans actively harass the parents of victims of a mass shooting, telling them they are paid actors that didn’t lose a child to a gun toting murderer is deplorable. Yet he plays a victim at his own trail and his fans believe he is being unjustly attacked.
3. Flat Earth believers. This is the pinnacle of stupidity. In this day and age you can’t have a single drop of intellectual integrity and also believe the world is flat. I’ve discussed this before (here and here) but with the new photos coming from the James Web Space Telescope I just don’t know how anyone could imagine a universe where the only flat-as-a-pancake celestial body is the one we live on?
Bonus (related to #1): Believing that any text written by men is the word of God. A lot of people find strength in their faith, and I’m happy for them. But looking at a scripture and believing that it wasn’t written by men and influenced by the cultural and moral conduct of the people of that time is blind ignorance. There is a lot of good that can be taken from scriptures, but there are also harmful memes that perpetuate harm, hate, and even violence in those same scriptures. Literal interpretations of scriptures as if they are somehow ‘THE Word of God’, leads to very ungodly like behaviours towards fellow human beings.
I used to think that lack of information led to stupidity, but the cult of stupidity that I see today tells me the roots of stupidity are much deeper than a simple lack of information.
I meet my uncle on Zoom every Monday morning. We usually start the meeting at 6am on work days but over the summer break we have been meeting at 6:30am, (9:30am for him in Ontario). This morning I was up on time, but on holiday mode I ignored the calendar reminder that popped up without reading it, and so was late, only getting online after a text reminder. We are in a campground and so as not to wake anyone, I headed down to the beach for my conversation.
Our friends are up here, one campsite over, and also wake up early. They saw me and took a few photos.
What a wonderful location to hold a meeting! There are times that I wish I had a job that I could do from anywhere in the world. If I had such a job, I’d do my best to be near water often.
Yesterday I shared this 16 second video on Twitter from the same location, taken at dusk:
Ripples more than waves… pic.twitter.com/l4aFyXJNqB
— Dᴀᴠɪᴅ Tʀᴜss ∞β (@datruss) August 8, 2022
I love being near water, be it an ocean, a lake, a river, or even a tiny babbling brook. It seems like a mixed metaphor, but I feel grounded around water. I feel calm and centered. It’s always a good day when I can spend some time near water.
What’s an environment that comforts you?
Holidays are funny things. There is this delicate dance of feelings whereby one moment you are wanting to plan what you will do with your day so it isn’t wasted, and another moment whereby you are enjoying doing absolutely nothing. Well, not nothing, but going for a walk, laying in a hammock, listening to a book, or taking a nap.
It takes a while to decompress and allow yourself to enjoy doing nothing. It takes a while to appreciate being still, and not spending your time planning what’s next. But once that’s achieved, then decompression really begins.
It’s fun to plan things on your holidays, and it’s also fun to plan to do a little bit of nothing.
There were only 3 items on the menu, Pulled Pork on a Bun, Confit Duck Wings, and Jerk Chicken Tacos. When I walked in the cashier said, “You look like a guy ready to try some Duck Wings.”
“Actually, I would like the Pulled Pork.”
“Really, you can have that anytime you want, try the Duck Wings.”
“You are right, absolutely.”
She kept convincing me, even though I made the switch, and I repeated that she convinced me.
“You won’t be disappointed,” she said confidently.
This reminded me of a friend, Geoff. He’s a colleague from a district up north, and I’ve had dinner a couple times with him when we connect for meetings. Both times he left the ordering of food completely in the hands of the waitresses. Completely. When one of them asked clarifying questions, the only thing he shared was, ‘I’m fairly hungry.’ No hints as to what he likes, or what part of the menu he would favour. He told me that he’s done this hundreds of times and only once was he ever disappointed.
I’m not as brave. I have often asked a waiter or waitress what their favourite is between 2 or 3 choices and if they reply with anything specific, (rather than, ‘they are all good’), then I’ll take their recommendation. The idea of a person picking anything off of a menu for me doesn’t seem appealing. But the idea of a recommendation between two hard to choose items appeals a fair bit.
Back to the Duck Wings. They were delicious! So much better than another pulled pork sandwich that I could have had in so many other places. Food is a great place to be brave and make choices you wouldn’t normally make. Don’t duck out. 😜
I’m having a bit of an existential moment. It occurred to me that I do not end where my body ends. I do not begin where my body begins.
This morning I went outside to do my morning stretches and a cool breeze gave me goosebumps. My body involuntarily responded to the environment. This made me think of how much our environment influences who we are. We shiver, we sweat, we find it easier or harder to breathe. Stairs affect us going both up and down them. Rain, snow, wind, temperature, all affect our comfort level. So does availability and kinds of food that sustain me. I am not me without considering my environmental surroundings.
This morning I went for a walk with my wife. At one point she picked up the pace to a jog, and I picked up my pace to join her. We are social beings and those around us affect us. We may have choice, but we are not without influence of others: A boss asking us to do something, a friend wanting company, an aggressive driver yelling obscenities, an upset person in need of compassion and support.
A question asked in a good or bad tone can affect our answer, and can affect our physiology. A disagreement can lead to conflict, anger, and even physical violence. Words can hurt, bring joy, frustrate, and enlighten. I am not me without considering my social surroundings.
The physical and social environment I surround myself with help define me, help me develop my personality, my disposition, my attitude, and my identity. All of me includes my environment, and includes my social connections. I do not end where my body ends. I do not begin where my body begins.
I am more than what you see, I have an extended identity.
