With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
April 29, 2008 - 2:13 p.m.
I thought I’d have no events to write about today but I was wrong. Last night I planned on just staying home but out of the blue I got a call from Aubrey and we ended up having dinner together, just the two of us. I can’t remember the last time that happened with him. I can’t remember the last time I met someone just for dinner or had spontaneous plans with anyone. We ate at the Scobee Grill, a dinner we used to frequent before he got married. It was a total blast from the past. I even met him at his parents’ house. I’ve been there once in the last 20 years but my car could still find it with no conscious help from me.
This morning was not pleasant. I got up, went into the shower, and was almost frozen solid. There was no hot water. I checked the furnace and it wasn’t working. I hit the restart button and it didn’t help. I called the service company and arranged for them to come during my break between classes. I skipped the shower but still had to shave. Shaving with cold water is not pleasant.
I told the service company I’d be home from noon till three thirty. I got home at 12:03 and found the repairman waiting for me. There wasn’t a spot in front of my house so I just left my car in front of my neighbor’s driveway and let him in then went to find a legal spot. I didn’t want him leaving.
I was pleased that he was so punctual. It was a great relief to not have to worry about it all day.
Aubrey calling me yesterday fits in perfectly with something I wanted to write about. I often mention that I have openings in my social-emotional ecosystem. Most of them are hard to describe but I came up with two that are clear cut. One is a friend that it is assumed will celebrate my birthday with me and visa versa. There hasn’t been many times in my life where nobody has filled that role but there’s been a vacancy in the position for about four years now. I feel the void every year on my birthday.
The other is a friend that I can just call up and say, Want to have dinner tonight? Or want to go to a movie tonight? And expect to hear “yes” for an answer. There have been times where I had lots of people like that. I think what I really want is the Seinfeld situation, a group of friends that basically assume they will do things together. I had that for quite some time during college and grad school. I’d see Carey, Ira, and Lauren every week. Maybe not all together but some subset of them. I was the Seinfeld of the group, the one that knew each of the others first. Farley and Willis (guess which is the husband and which the wife) and Steve were part of the mix too. If there was something I wanted to do I could pretty much always find someone to do it with. More importantly if I had nothing to do I’d have someone to call and we’d do something even if it was entertaining ourselves. I just don’t have those kinds of friendships any more.
Why didn’t you remind me to put my potato in the oven? Good thing I remembered. I have eaten out the last two nights, I need a home cooked meal.
I am planning on hearing live music the next four nights. I was going to play bridge tomorrow but the game was cancelled so I’ll go hear Deni Bonet instead. On Thursday I’ll be seeing Amy Speace and Katell Keineg. Have any of you heard of her? I have known her for years but have never seen her. She’s a Celtic musician with roots in Brittany, Wales, and Ireland. She was born in Brittany, grew up in Wales, and now live in Ireland.
On Friday it is the Red Molly CD release party, and Saturday the FRFF preview tour.
I wish had time to get to the Living Room earlier on Thursday. At 7 PM Cassis is playing. She used to be the leader of the great New York neuromusic band b-blush. I had no idea she was still performing. I want to hear her accordion again.
Now I am going to relax while my potato bakes. It is the only chance I’ll get until I go back to school.
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
On the Road to Westchester County - October 06, 2008
Inside the Madison Square Studio - October 05, 2008
I'm a Bosniac and I'm debating like I've never debated before - October 03, 2008
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile April 29, 2008
