Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Things I've Learned This Week

 1. This first thing I learned yesterday when I finally (5 months after the referral was sent) got into Physical Therapy: my knee pain is very specific and not the cause of my problems. I have a nerve (femoral or sciatic) which got injured in my fall in February and it's the root cause of my worst pain and my decreased movement.

Happily it's entirely fixable through stretching, exercise and massage. My greatest fear recently has been the idea of going to Japan and not being able to walk. My therapist said that will not be a problem. 

2. Nothing makes a home feel dirtier than broken things in it. 

We had two days of severe tropical storms and flooding and my bedroom got a small flood. Pulling everything up and out has kick started me into spring cleaning (I don't care if it isn't spring) and the worst part was recognizing that I have a broken chair, broken vacuum, broken mop all taking up space. They're in the car now to go for a dump run tomorrow. 

3. Sometimes you really do want to eat an entire cucumber. With a home made reduced calorie ranch dressing. 

4. Forgiveness is key to moving on with your life. Not forgiving those who hurt or diminished you but forgiving yourself. Forgive yourself for living for years in survival mode. Forgive yourself for choices and mistakes that you made. 

5. Mainstream media is dying. The New York Times had 2 recent op-eds: Joy is not a strategy (regarding Harris) and Trump could win on character alone.

Irony is also a victim in this crime.

6. Love is sometimes an obligation. Liking someone never is.

3 comments:

  1. Oh, so glad the knee thing can be addressed--yay for your trip, and for less pain and more mobility.

    Numbers four and six felt a bit like a punch to the face (sending hugs of shared realization).

    Number five: the lie that the media is independent from the wealthy was started to provide cover to the wealthy who own all of MSM media; it's not hysteria to say that that is why they keep selling us on the "liberal media" myth. No, it's not a coincidence that most people writing for them go along with the "fairness" bullshit. No, it's not a coincidence that all the people at the top (publishers, editors in chief, CEOs, whatever) keep trying to get the people who would protect wealthy people above all others elected.

    Is it like hoping the faces-eating leopards don't eat your face? Yes, it is, but people keep loving on the face-eating leopards, then being shocked when the face-eating leopards eat their faces.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In college (so very many years ago), I studied journalism and was the Editor of the college newspaper. I always believed journalists were noble truth tellers. And my own blindness to the manipulation of news lasted years. I existed in liberal spaces and didn't see the bias (starting with Reagan? starting before Reagan?)

      Anyway, Trumps constant harping on the unfair, lying media and fake news seemed ridiculous to me and in a sense it was ridiculous. Trump is just a big stupid attack dog. But the media is so right leaning and money making leaning and biased like crazy cakes.

      Anyway, I get a lot of news from social media. I double check often because I no longer believe in non-biased reporting. And a part of my heart broke when media became what it is now.

      Delete
    2. It is heartbreaking.

      But once you see it, you realize why Felon Husk had to buy and destroy twitter: millions of people got their news from the ground, from eye witnesses. Entire movements for democracy, and equality, and justice, started there, and kept going because the masses could speak directly to each other, and the billionaires couldn't silence them all.

      This is why they went after tiktok so hard too; they made up a foreign attack in order to silence political discussion there.

      Delete