Category Archives: Discussion and Philosophy

Here is where I can rant about issues, or just calmly discuss them.

Catalogs–a glimpse into other worlds

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We get way too many catalogs at our house. A lot of them are repeat copies from familiar companies, but others come from companies we’ve never heard of before. Once in a while, a catalog arrives that gives an interesting glimpse into another world.
Just recently, I received a catalog from NRS. That’s “National Roper’s Supply”, suppliers to those who engage in cattle roping. It’s a very thick catalog, with everything from clothing to saddles to horse trailers. And, of course, ropes. I have no idea how I ended up on their list.
I leafed through it, marveling at the incredible variety of boots for sale. Nothing surprising about boots for sale in a catalog aimed at people who spend a lot of time riding, but I had no idea that there was such a fashion for brightly colored accents on western boots, or textured finishes on the leather.
Beautiful leather belts, folding knives of many kinds, shirts, hats, and a smattering of household goods followed. Catalogs always include some t-shirts with topical pictures or sayings on them, and this was no exception. I was particularly captivated by a women’s tee that said, “Surviving on coffee and dry shampoo.” Is this a popular catchphrase? I find myself wondering if it simply means “I’m way too busy right now for regular meals, sleep, and dealing with my hair,” or whether it makes reference to people camping out at roping events with their horses and equipment. Perhaps cooked meals and showers have to wait till they get home again?
The largest part of the catalog was concerned with tack and other gear needed for a competition that involves horses. I only glanced through, since I don’t ride, but what struck me is that any item people need will be made available in a variety of colors or styles. Pads and blankets don’t just vary in materials and other functional ways, but in stripes and patterns as well. Breast collars are available with stitched or stamped designs. The selection of spurs made me think of jewelry.
catalog page showing large selection of spurs
On the one hand, then, looking through the catalog reminded me of the many different communities that exist in this country, not just grouped geographically but also by interests and activities. I know almost nothing about competitive cattle roping or the way of life that includes it. I don’t know its fashions or its “in” jokes. I know nothing about most of the essential equipment.
At the same time, the catalog reminds me of some commonalities among people. We all like to personalize our things, to display our own sense of style. Whether that’s more likely to involve patterned Converse high-tops or western boots with neon-blue tops depends on the groups you belong to.
We like to show our sense of humor, too, with t-shirts or tea-towels or bumper stickers. Sometimes what one group finds funny doesn’t translate well to another group*, but we all like to share jokes with others who have the same interests and who will notice our shirt and “get it.”
And given that we like to display our sense of style and humor, the businesses of America will ensure that we have ample choices, not just in clothing but in pretty much every little item that we need, and will send us a big, full-color catalog to make sure we’re aware of what’s available, whether our interests are cattle-roping, knitting, or baking muffins.
We all get catalogs.
Till next post.
*To take an example from some other catalogs– I’ve never understood why anyone would want to label themselves an “Old Fart.” That joke wouldn’t go over well in my family, but judging by its persistance in catalogs, clearly it’s funny to a whole lot of other people. On the other hand, the button “I’d like to save the world but no one will give me the source code” went over very well here.

"For Instant Human, Add Coffee"–are we really that tired?

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So, I’m looking at a paper napkin in a popular coffee shop and it has a picture of a mobile phone that says “Download the mobile app” and the words “Because at 7 a.m. you can barely tie your shoes, let alone count money.” I laugh at image it conjures up.
Wait, what?
Caribou Coffee paper napkin with joke about lack of sleep
Do we really live in a world where lack of sleep is so pervasive, so ordinary, that the thought of people trying foggily to count their change makes us laugh? If I were thinking straight, I would take this as a compelling reason never to drive anywhere near a coffee shop before 10 a.m., lest I run into these people (literally).
But of course, I’m not thinking straight. I’m here for the caffeine, too, albeit in the form of tea. And I already knew that we lived in this world—jokes about coffee and cranky grown-ups abound. You can find them on t-shirts, magnets, and, of course, coffee mugs.
How in the world did this become normal?
There are some people who are painfully aware of how precious sleep is—people with insomnia, or chronic pain, or perhaps a new baby. No doubt they would trade all the coffee in the world for a good night’s sleep. There are other people who can’t keep their eyes open past nine p.m. and who awaken in the morning… well, who awaken. As opposed to crawling out of bed still half-asleep. They probably wonder what the big deal is with morning coffee.
Back to the question—how did being tired become normal for so many people?
Electric lighting surely helped. It’s a lot easier to stay awake if you have bright lighting. (I was going to bring up slide shows and people falling asleep in the darkness, but does anyone do slide shows any more? I think Powerpoint “slides” might be a lot brighter than typical photo slides.)
Not only is it easier to stay awake, there’s a lot more you can do. You can easily read, play cards, make model planes, etc. That’s before we bring in television, then videos, then computer games and Netflix. Now you can be highly entertained twenty-four hours a day. If you do fall asleep, it won’t be from boredom.
Or you could work, if your work involves using computers, answering email, reading professional journals, or anything that doesn’t require you to be on site. You could try to catch up on the endless list of tasks.
Going to bed is boring. Reading or watching a movie is fun. Going to bed means putting yourself that much closer to having to get up again and go to work.Staying up playing a computer game squeezes in a couple of hours more enjoyment before the whole work cycle starts again. No one wants to let go of those precious evening hours.
The consequences are many and varied and have been written about at length (so I’ll be brief). Impaired driving. A tendency to road rage. Short tempers with family members and friends. Accidents, both major and minor. Foggy thinking, and all that follows.
I can tell I’m really tired when I hit myself opening cabinet doors and start dropping things. I snap at whoever is around. I am not a happy camper. Admittedly, I may deal with fatigue worse than some people, but the sneaky thing about being overtired is you can’t always tell how much you are affected, because your judgment is affected as well.
The point I’d like to make here is that this is not merely a health problem, or an inconvenience, but a moral problem as well. Even if you don’t endanger anyone by driving when tired, if lack of sleep leads you to bicker, yell, or fail to pay attention to your family when you should, then it is contributing to your behaving badly.
I have no solution to offer. Saying “Well, just put down the phone/turn off the TV/close the book and get to bed earlier” is like saying “Eat less sugar and starch, exercise at least a half hour daily, and drink enough water.” It’s true, but it doesn’t help us do it. By now, most people who aren’t getting enough sleep are probably well aware of the problem. We have reasons to change, but no urgency. Next week is soon enough for an attempt to change our bedtime. Or next month… And it’s hard to make any change that feels like a sacrifice (“But I don’t wanna go to bed yet!”)
Maybe the right routines would help. I know, for instance, that I shouldn’t start reading a new book after dinner, unless it is very short. It’s easier to avoid starting a book than it is to put the book down when I’m halfway through. Still, sometimes I just want to read.
Maybe we need some collective agreement, some kind of peer pressure? I don’t know. But the problem doesn’t seem to be going away.
Till next post.

Words and Character

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It seems as though people are judging others more and more by their political positions—their stand on particular issues or even specific bits of legislation. While this is certainly one point of reference, it might be more useful to look at how they treat others, both in person and in writing.
What initially got me thinking about this was an article in The Atlantic (December 2017) tracing the personal history of a major neo-Nazi. The article included a discussion of what this man was like in high school. Some of it is perhaps not surprising—problems with drugs and destructive (and self-destructive) behavior. The surprising part was that his political positions seem to have been quite different.

“He often wore a hoodie with a large F[***] RACISM patch on the back…. [He] set up his own website, for a fake record label… that he used to dupe bands into sending him demo tapes. Here, his leftist leanings were on full display: He wrote posts encouraging people to send the Westboro Baptist Church death threats from untraceable accounts, and he mocked the Ku Klux Klan and other racist organizations.” (p.59)

The article doesn’t say whether he did anything of a productive nature toward reducing racism and homophobia—I’m inclined to doubt it. It sounds like his way of responding was to hurl threats at and mock the opposition.What interested me was that while his targets have flipped 180 degrees since high school, his way of treating them remains unpleasantly the same.
It seems to me that there has been an increase in the amount of public name-calling and general nastiness all around. One of the things we’re taught as we grow up is not to blurt out everything we think. Words can hurt. Treating others with respect requires that we consider the effect of our words before we speak.
Of course, there are some people who just don’t care whether they hurt others, and some people who positively enjoy upsetting people and making them angry (or frightened.)  That says enough about their character right there. The neo-Nazi in the article seems to be one of those.
But I would hope there hasn’t been a sudden increase in the number of people like that. I’m hoping that what is happening is that people are getting careless, writing messages and posts and comments and so forth while in the grip of white-hot rage, and sending them off into the world without taking a moment to calm down,  reread what they’ve written, and consider the likely effect of their words. Calling names will not change anyone’s mind. It can, however, lose you a lot of sympathy.
Could that be what’s happening? I started writing this, thinking that people can change their views on issues and even sometimes their prejudices (in both directions, apparently), but that maybe how they treat other people doesn’t change very much.  It would be interesting to find some data on this. But now I’m hoping that people can change how careful they are with words. Hopefully for the better.
Till next post.