Trail: Ready for 2011-2012 Season

Today I went out in two different sessions and finished the trail.

I am leaving it a little rougher this year, instead of clipping every single bit of growth. I’ll see if there is sufficient use to keep it all tromped down. I plan to hit it at least once each day as part of my ongoing work out plans.

Side note: I try to work out five times every day. I usually get at least three. That’s a heavy workout at wake-up to get the metabolism going. Then again around mid-morning just enough to make me break a sweat. Somewhere around mid-day I do the aerobic portion, either walking or riding my bike. Then in the afternoon I try to do something vigorous, again until I break a sweat. Lately that’s been turning a few rows with shovel in my garden. Finally, unless something has caused me to hurt too much, I try to workout before bedtime.

I made sure the trail is just barely bike-able, too.

Approximate trail in orange.

Unholy Days

Holidays reveal the best and worst of humanity, but often more of the latter.

Here in the US we celebrate something called Thanksgiving Day. It’s hardly what the label implies. The mythology taught in public institutions is tiresome. We aren’t going to explore that, but look at what the mere existence of statist orthodoxy has produced.

It would be easy to go too far either way. I could fully engage and be all social, even though I feel nothing of the sort. I’m an introvert. I have better things to do than lie to Aunt Hildie about how wonderful her foul concoctions are stinking up the house. Civility does have limits; they are rules about how we do or don’t discuss what really matters. It’s about diverting unjustified demands, from within ourselves and coming from others. It’s as much about stopping fakery as it is sparing feelings.

Because we refuse to balance, holidays often turn into disasters, or at least a form of hateful drudgery that serves no good purpose. They certainly bring no joy.

The basic assumption is feelings matter. They don’t. The agreement which is fundamental to civility is we don’t get too deeply into each other’s business, and this crap which says I’m supposed to care about yours but you don’t have to care about mine is evil. I’ll keep my rude thoughts to myself; you keep your rude demands I like your crap to yourself. Success should not be keeping peace long enough for everyone to suffer equally through a very unpleasant social constraint. This Germanic feudal demand that one party must submit to the other should have been mercilessly slaughtered long ago.

You aren’t permitted to demand I appear in your court. You aren’t permitted to burden me with social obligations for your own convenience and conceit. Too often what is promoted as “respect for the family” is simply “respect for my ego” when it comes from some wannabe matron. It’s rule by embarrassment; a raw and brutal coercion as ugly as that on the bloody streets of political protest. I’m not your servant, and you aren’t mine.

That is, unless we agree to something under a godly covenant. Your personal fantasies of family tradition is not a covenant. If you were willing to submit to God’s Laws and more ancient traditions, we would have room for discussion. Otherwise it’s just projecting your wishes, demanding everyone feel what you feel. This is about as evil and dehumanizing as it gets.

So long as Western Civilization demonizes the “live and let live” ethic necessary for world peace, no Western holiday will be a “holy day.”