Department Of Aging Well
As soon as you’re within sniffing distance of The Medicare Age ®, look out. I thought all the television and mail (smail- and e-) solicitations were over-the-top, but lately moiself has been running across ads for podcasts about that subject-most-subjected-to-stereotyping: aging.
“In this podcast, reporter ___ ___ explores the challenges of aging.”
“Aging is inevitable. We can fight it (despite knowing we can never win) or we can learn how to embrace it.”
“(podcast series name) is about why and how to live a long healthy, fit, energetic and vital life and never be OLD at any age. ____ will offer you mind, body, spiritual proven (sic) tips and strategies that (sic) guarantee will help you resolve most health challenges and age fearlessly and never be old.” [1]
I get the impression that many of these programs and podcasts are going to perpetuate the stereotypes they purport to address. Never be OLD [gasp!] at any age – gee, no pejoratives about aging there.
The problem is not with aging; it’s with ageism. Yeah, I’ve brought this up before; yeah, as we get older we might tend to repeat ourselves. But this is something that bears repeating, until we all get it.
* * *
Department Of Apropos Of Nothing,
I Recently Remembered The Most Apropos Tribute Ever.
It was a billboard erected by Star Trek fans, upon hearing of the death (2-27-15) of actor, poet, director, author and photographer, Leonard Nimoy.
* * *
Department Of Sometimes (Translation; Many, Many, Times)
Moiself Thinks About These Things
Dateline: Tuesday morning 7:45 am-ish. [2] I’m walking in a neighborhood near Shadywood Park in Hillsboro. A person is approaching me; she is also, moiself deduces, taking a morning constitutional. [3]
As we get within eye-contact-making-distance (approximately 15 feet away from each other) we each, almost simultaneously, say to the other, “Morning.” Not, “Good morning,” or even its truncated version, “G’morning.”
And not for the first time in my life moiself thinks about that. I think about why, as a form of greeting-a-stranger-in-passing, we each say a word which could be taken, in another culture or by an alien anthropologist, as a statement of fact.
Morning. Well, yes, as per the time of day, it is morning. Why don’t we exchange some other factual/descriptive word(s)? The walker approaching me could’ve said Sidewalk (she was walking on the sidewalk) and I could’ve said Asphalt (I was walking in the street). Or, I could have said, Trekking poles (which I was using) and she could’ve responded with, New Balance Nergize Sport (or the name of whatever shoes she was wearing).
Perhaps if Star Trek was/is correct and there are mirror or parallel universes, even as I type this there is a parallel moiself, a behavioral scientist studying this question of upmost importance to…well, to me.
Or, perhaps mirror moiself has a real job.
* * *
Department Of Why People [4] Don’t Like Christians
In the past few months Florida governor Ron DeSantis has used several bastardizations of a certain bible passage to rally his like-minded cretin stormtroopers motivate his conservative base. DeSantis referenced the apostle Paul’s “Armor of God” passage in the New Testament’s letter to the Ephesians while speaking to, respectively, the national student summit for Turning Point USA; the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference, and another rally in February:
“You gotta be ready for battle. So put on the full armor of God, take a stand against the left’s schemes, stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. You will face fire from flaming arrows, but the shield of faith will protect you.”
“It ain’t going to be easy. You got to be strong. You got to put on the full armor of God. You got to take a stand, take a stand against the left’s schemes, you got to stand your ground, you got to be firm, you will face flaming arrows, but take up the shield of faith and fight on.”
“We need people all over the country to be willing to put on that full armor of God to stand firm against the left.”
Here is the actual passage:
“A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:10–12, NLT)
DeSantis – surprise! – conveniently stops his misquotes before verse 12, which inconveniently (for DeSantis and other right wing Christian politicians) states that Paul is not talking about politicians or citizens, or earthly opponents of any kind, but spiritual ones. Surprise again, DeSantis replaces taking a stand against “the devil” with taking a stand against “the left,” leaving no doubt for his listeners:
Y’all paying attention, kids: The Left/Democrats = Satan.
At least one Christian blogger noticed and took issue:
“Politicians quoting the Bible in an effort to garner votes or appeal to the religious beliefs of their supporters is nothing new; politicians quoting a verse completely out of context is equally common….
A politician blatantly changing the wording of the Bible is something else entirely, especially when it’s done to gain the support of the very people who should be outraged by it. Christians of all stripes (liberal, conservative, moderate) and all denominations (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant) may disagree on the interpretation of the Bible, but few if any would go so far as to change the actual words to fit their worldview.”
(“Ron DeSantis Changes a Well-Known Bible Verse to Fit His Own Agenda,”
medium.com 8-3-22 )
Moiself disagrees with the blogger’s last statement (in the above excerpt). Experience and observation have taught me that the opposite is true. It’s not few if any – it’s most if not all religious believers have no problem fiddling with “the actual words” (of their scriptures, of anyone else’s scriptures, of anything) to fit their worldview.
The above-quoted blogger went on to wonder/despair at the lack of concern – or even recognition – other Christians have shown re DeSantis’ hyperbolic scriptural contortions. Moiself’s concern is how those who identify as Christians will handle the most recent “un-Christian,” [5] headline-grabbing stunt pulled by DeSantis (who’s a proclaimed Christian).
“A couple of weeks back, The Economist published a long cover story on ‘The Disunited States of America,’ detailing how, on issues such as abortion, guns, voting rights, and immigration, America’s red and blue states are engaged in a “new politics of confrontation.” As if on cue, Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who often seems as if he is campaigning to succeed Donald Trump as the nation’s Provoker-in-Chief, staged his latest political stunt: using Florida taxpayers’ money to charter two planes to fly about fifty undocumented migrants, mostly Venezuelan, to Martha’s Vineyard. DeSantis was not even relocating the group from his own state—the flights originated in Texas.”
( DeSantis’s Heartless Migrant Stunt Provides a Preview of 2024,
newyorker.com, 9-17-22 )
I felt no pressing need to condemn DeSantis’s cruel, political stunt…even though (and of course) moiself eventually did, when I found that someone else had edited, DeSantis-style, the very scriptural passage I’d been thinking of:
My comment to this FB repost: “All these Christians ignoring one of the few unambiguous statements in their scriptures…all of those mega churches in Texas apparently open their pocketbooks (and hearts) only for themselves and their rapacious ‘pastors.’ ”
Yes, The Immigration/Undocumented Migrant Issue ® is a problem that is intractable and almost/ultimately seems unsolvable. But, however you purport to solve this problem – any problem – you don’t do it by exploiting the vulnerable. Tell me, Ron-DeS-boy, whom would your Jesus manipulate?
DeSantis’ hard-hearted action condemns itself. Here’s a thing which keeps coming back to moiself.
Decades ago, before designated dog parks were a thing, I remember reading a newspaper article about a town’s escalating disagreement between neighborhoods: Some of the townsfolk living in one neighborhood discovered a nearby neighborhood which contained two adjacent, un fenced, empty lots owned by the city. Neighborhood #1 folks were advocating for those lots to be designated as a dog-walking/play area. Many people living in the neighborhood by the empty lots were opposed to that idea: they feared that such a designation would attract dog owners from outside the neighborhood, which would exacerbate the dog feces problem they already had (not-so-long ago, when taking their dogs for a walk, most dog owners let their pooches poop with impunity without picking up after them). As the debate heated up, some of the “anti-dog-yard” people gathered up bags of dog feces and deposited them on the front porches of the “pro-dog-yard“ people.
That is literally the first thing I thought of when I read about DeSantis’s vile act:
he’s treating vulnerable human beings like bags of dog shit.
With all the migrants have been through, having their dignity dissed is perhaps the least of their worries at the moment. However, I’m sure the humiliation will come back to haunt them. The Humiliation of being treated like bags of dog shit – like something people would be aghast to find on their front porch.
* * *
Department Of A Sure-Fire Mood Uplifter After Reading The Nasty News
Made By Ron DeSantis And Other Nasty People
The following made my day…week…month… Say what you will about social media (and moiself does), but without it, I might have missed seeing this.
Ballerinas can fart, too!
This is going to be my new mantra. It is applicable to sooooo many situations, including those involving the kinds of discrimination and injustices which can only be mitigated by the realization of our shared humanity: remember; we are all human. Ultimately, we are all ballerinas, and yes, ballerinas can [6] fart.
* * *
Punz For The Day
MGE [7]
I started reading a book about anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put down.
I dream of taking a sailing adventure in an ocean of orange soda.
It’s just my Fanta sea.
Wife to husband: “Honey, it sounds like elk are falling from the sky!”
Husband to wife: “No, it’s just reindeer.”
Doctor to patient: “The tests confirm that you drank a bottle of food coloring,
but you’re going to be fine.”
Patient: “But doc, I feel like I’m dyeing inside.”
Biologists made a lab frog immortal by removing its vocal cords.
Now it can’t croak.
I was going to make my husband a belt of watches…
but then I realized it would be a waist of time. [8]
* * *
May you fight ageism and not aging;
May you be remembered, vis-à-vis the Vulcan saying, Live Long and Prosper,
as someone who did;
May you remember that ballerinas can fart, too;
…and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
* * *
[1] And never having to worry about being able to construct coherent sentences.
[2] Not amish.
[3] Which sounds so much more posh than “going for a walk” — it sounds downright British, in fact. My tribute to Queen Elizabeth.
[4] As in people who are not Christians, whether they claim a different religious affiliation or are religion-free.
[5] The words of others, not moiself.
[6] And evidently do.
[7] Miscellaneous Groaners Edition.
[8] No, this does not require a footnote.
