Hodge Podge

  i really liked how this guy looked working on filling a spare tire in his trunk. The color of his car, the white rims, and the orange wall behind him grabbed me and i hope he grabs you too. So on todays menu is exercise, mind reading, writing therapy, a little politics, and some of Omar Khayams wonderful poetry at the end.

So moving on....why do you exercise? Personally i've been doing it for so many years that when i don't do it i feel like i missed out on a part of my day that i really and truly enjoy. i get mental, social and physical benefits every day of the week.

According to the Mayo Clinic exercise improves mood which i can totally attest to. How could anyone feel depressed after swimming in our beautiful waters, or walking along our gorgeous roads and trails, or birding in some of our out of the way places. Just being out in nature every day is a dose of EPIC goodness.

Lately i've been involved with refuting a conservatives world view. He gladly rants on about how evil government is, how they are stealing our money, and wrecking the economy while i gladly rant on about governments positives. i recently sent him a piece about a day in a life in the USA and the real impacts government has on us. Believe it or not but the piece is from a site called Government is Good.

http://www.governmentisgood.com/articles.php?aid=1

i don't think any conservatives reading this blog today will go check it out. Too much reading and not enough sound bites or photos or hateful resentful diatribes. It has truth they don't want to acknowledge. i tell  him over and over that conservatism to me is all about resentment and fear. 

Doesn't sit too well with him but it is the truth.

i think the big difference between us is that conservatives are committed to smaller government. While liberals are not committed to big government they are just heavily invested in outcomes that enhance society in general. 

So moving on...i've asked this dude to take me off his forwarding list as the stuff he sends out is god awful. Unfortunately i can't just let this garbage slide by so i respond and tear down all the crap. i should put him in the spam box but i hate the idea of no one fighting back.

Did you know there is such a thing as writing therapy? There are fields of study out there that think writing can heal and that writing down your deepest thoughts, feelings, and emotions can be beneficial to your immune system. James W. Pennebaker started studying writing therapy 20 years ago and has been able to show through reproducible studies that writing can reduce physiological stress upon the body.

i don't know if this really works or not but for a while there i was having feet cramps when i swam. i started eating a banana a day and they seem to have disappeared. Maybe it is coincidence and maybe it isn't.

We have climate change deniers and those(like me) who believe humans are having a direct impact on global climate. Well you deniers check this, 16 retired three and four star generals and admirals claim that climate change is a direct threat to our economy and our security. They claim that extreme weather stands to stretch troops thin, spark unrest in unstable regions, and unravel global networks of trade and resources. Their study released last night brands climate change a “catalyst for conflict.”

Even though their motivation is higher, women are no better than men at reading minds.

And so to close...i love the poetry of Omar Khayam which Juan Cole has been translating and putting on his website Informed Comment. Here are two:

Since you can’t comprehend the mysteries,

why wallow uselessly in grief?  Since you‘re
not going to get your way, be happy in
this fleeting moment for which you exist.

Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 458

The elders and the newborns trace
the footsteps of each other, and
it is the way of this world that
no one can live forever here.
They have departed and we’re on our way,
and they arrive again, and go again.
Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, Arberry 1949, 5

See ya next week.