Category Archives: Blogging

Shock and Awe Kindness (Inspired by Kermit the Frog) (via yearofkindness)

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Two reposts in a row! But you have to admit, I repost good stuff.

Here I am, feeling a bit frustrated because I don’t have time to write as much as I think I should. And instead, I’m reposting a second great post in a row from another blogger. But honestly, these two posts are more meaningful and more real than anything I’m likely to write about politics or simplicity. I write like a reporter, from my own personal knowledge and observations; they write about the good ideas they got serious about and turned into real actions. The world needs reporters, I guess, but what this “can’t-do” world needs most is doers.

To paraphrase the Bible, as best I can from my faulty memory, “You will know them by the fruitfulness of their actions.” — John

Shock and Awe Kindness (Inspired by Kermit the Frog) Dear Kindness Recruits, In preparation for Wednesday’s 100 Days of Kindness mission, I must tell you something. Sometimes being kind is a bit like being green – it’s not always easy and people often give you very strange looks. But this only proves even more just how much the Kindness Revolution is a cause worth fighting for. We live in a crazy, mixed-up world and it’s up to kindness crusaders like us to remind people that it’s not all gloom and … Read More

via yearofkindness

Real Life Interferes With Blogging

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Friends, I apologize for being away from ConsterNation for so long. Hard to believe I’ve not posted since the end of April.

What happened? Long story short, I got a job. I continue to make time for reading.  Later in this post, I’ll talk briefly about “My Antonia,” by Willa Cather, and “Babbit,” by Sinclair Lewis.   Continue reading →

American Debt Crisis: A Cinder-Block Wall, Or A Screen Door?

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No. 1 in a series on the Debt Crisis of 2011.

The American political deadlock over debt and taxes is an enigma. It’s a monster with too many heads. Starting today, I’m doing a series of blogging quick takes, each post only a few sentences, zeroing in on one question. No more windy dissertations.

Today’s question: Is the world as we know it about to end, if Democrats and Republicans can’t agree to raise the debt ceiling?

The sovereign debts of the U.S. and other countries are huge beyond comprehension. But what is their real import? In the 1980s, when “fiscally responsible” Republicans were digging the debt hole, they decreed that deficits no longer matter. Could that possibly be true?

Is the debt crisis being trumped-up for ideological purposes, to kill Medicare, or Social Security?

To be sure, debt exists on paper, as bonds and notes and bookkeeping entries. But what, if anything, does the paper represent? Is national debt a tangible reality, like wood; or an abstract concept, light as air?

Better check under the bed. Is anyone hiding there?

Remember Y2K? End of the world. Planes were going to fall from the sky. Approaching Y2K, it looked like a cinder-block wall, into which civilization was going to crash and burn.

Arriving at Y2K, we passed through it like air through a screen door.

— John Hayden

(Quick-take rating for this post: 215 words.)

Eastern Shore Blogging: On Coastal Connection, 88.3 FM, Friday (via Ocean City Blog)

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Here at Dispatches from Consternation, I write about issues that have no geographical boundary: political and economic change, life after 60, and simple living.

But many blogs have a distinctly local or community focus, reporting on news or life in general in a specific hometown, sometimes even a neighborhood.

I also write one of those community-focused blogs, which I started in 2007 as Maryland On My Mind, and now call simply, Ocean City Blog. I’ll be talking on Friday, April 15, with a couple of other regional bloggers about blogging on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The interview on the local PBS show, Coastal Connection, hosted by Brian Russo, will air at noon and 8 p.m. Friday.

The discussion runs about 20 minutes, and provides a quick general introduction to the subject of community blogging. Details, including a link for Web listening, are in the post below. I hope you can listen in, and perhaps add your own comments below.

Eastern Shore Blogging: On Coastal Connection, 88.3 FM, Friday If youre interested in blogging, particularly blogging on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, youll want to catch Brian Russos Coastal Connection show on 88.3 FM, the NPR news and public affairs station in Ocean City.  The show is scheduled to air on Friday, Apr. 15, at noon and 8 p.m. Brian interviews three bloggers for a sort of round-table general introduction to the state of blogging on the Shore. I was happy to accept an invitation to particip … Read More

via Ocean City Blog

PostaDay2011 Raises A Philosophical Question: Is More Always Better?

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William Shakespeare, chief figure of the Engli...

William Shakespeare, image via Wikipedia

WordPress.com, the best free blog platform in the whole World Wide Web, has thrown down a challenge to bloggers. I’m a joiner, so I’ll take up the challenge.

The goal of the WordPress challenge is to encourage bloggers to post more often. Two obvious options are to post every day during 2011 (that would put you on the path to being the Cal Ripken* of blogging), or to post once a week during 2011. I’m going for once a week.

Let me start by questioning the premise of the WordPress challenge. Most bloggers accept, as an article of faith, that we ought to post more often, ideally at least once a day. (Many people subscribe to the same theory about sex. That is, the more the merrier! And hey, doesn’t everybody do it at least once a day??)

Why? Where is it written that MORE, or MORE OFTEN, is better?

As a career journalist (both reporter and editor), I know from experience and observation that all writers have limits.

To be sure, the late, great Washington Post sports editor Shirley Povich wrote his sports column at least six days a week for years. But columnists usually write perhaps three columns a week, and no more.

William Shakespeare wrote an amazing number of plays and sonnets, back in the day. (But we don’t know very much about the life of Shakespeare. Were the works of Shakespeare all written by William Shakespeare? Or by four other playwrights using the same name?)

Cal Ripken, Shirley Povich, and William Shakespeare were uniquely gifted in their fields. But the WordPress challenge urges every blogger to post daily, if possible. Whereas Ripken, Povich, and presumably Shakespeare, devoted their lives to their professions, most bloggers are part-time amateurs. And before blogging, professional writers were backed up by editors and proofreaders. Bloggers are backed up by spellcheck, if we remember to use it.

So now we have this inferiority complex. Whatever it is we’re doing, we aren’t doing it OFTEN ENOUGH, which translates to the slogan of the assembly line: “Work faster.”

Work faster! (Is that the best you can do?) Work faster, work faster, work faster. Faster and faster!

Capitalism and the Protestant work ethic are relentless in their demand for more production, faster. We have become a society of guilt-ridden and exhausted drones. That’s in our work life. Blogging, for almost all of us, is a hobby, a leisure activity, an avocation. We want to get some satisfaction from blogging. Pushing ourselves to post every single day turns blogging into a discipline, like meditating every day, or going to the gym every day.

Discipline is good for you. But dare I say it: Blogging is supposed to be fun!

In addition to draining the fun out of blogging, the post-every-day work ethic will also drain the quality out of writing. Good writers know that writing takes some time (although miracles happen on deadline). Nearly every written page benefits from being set aside, to be reconsidered later. Nearly every page improves in the rewriting.

There, that’s almost enough. With a few more keystrokes, I’ll have 500 words. I have proven once again that any journeyman reporter can produce drivel on demand, every day if necessary.

Posting every day is not necessarily good for bloggers, or for their craft. Just my opinion.

— John Hayden

*Cal Ripken is the retired Baltimore Orioles shortstop, the “Ironman” who broke Lou Gerhig’s record of consecutive baseball games played. You could look it up.

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Unemployment and $3 Gasoline in the U.S., Austerity and Street Protests in the Capitals of Europe

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BOOK SHIELDS IN ROME. One of many photos circulating in European newspapers and blogs, of protests against government austerity plans. This one shows students in Rome using book-like shields. Tomorrow, you'll likely see similar street theater in London. But only if you have access to European sources.

The beautiful people on CNBC, the Wall Street propaganda channel, chat happily about how high stocks might fly, and the price of gold and oil.  It’s surreal.

Even as they talk, the economy of the Western world is teetering on the edge of chaos. Students protest daily in the capitals of Europe against draconian austerity plans designed to screw the middle class and working class, and especially the younger generations. European governments seem intent on staving off default by cutting deeply into funding for education, arts and humanities. As you can see, ConsterNation is an international state of mind.

You need direct European sources to keep up with events over there. For instance, news and photos of the book protests in Rome can be found at this Italian blog by Italian novelists. If you can read Italian, you could look at their main blog.

Baroque in Hackney reports that students in London will mount a similar protest on Thursday. Ms. B even provides the address where you can go on Tuesday to help make life-sized books for the demonstration, if you happen to be in London. If not, there’s plenty of time to get there by Thursday. It’s a small world, so they tell me.

“With Arts and Humanities a particular target for UK cuts this is a literal display of literary resistance.”  — Ms. B

For more inside information (and videos) from the U.K., you could look at Coalition of Resistance.

Until recently, the U.S. cable channels had been reporting on the debt crises in Greece and Ireland. But as the contagion threatens to spread throughout the southern half of Europe, coverage in the U.S. has all but disappeared. You’ll not likely see film or photos of protests in Europe on CNBC, or any other news channel.

Could the U.S. news blackout on European protests be a conspiracy to keep Americans from knowing the extent of economic turmoil, at least until after the Christmas shopping season? When did I become so cynical? Maybe the news blackout is to prevent protest fever from jumping the Atlantic and infecting U.S. students. Maybe it’s to prevent panic.

Let’s go to the NUMBERS.

Even as the beautiful TV people talk, unemployment in the U.S. is 9.8 percent, officially, and possibly twice that much, in reality. Members of the U.S. Armed Forces are fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq, and for their service they will receive a 1.4 percent pay increase, the lowest in many years. The price of gasoline is $2.97 a gallon, where I live, and more than $3, in urban areas. The snow is knee-deep, or higher, in Buffalo, N.Y.; and the temperature is going down to 30 degrees tonight in Orlando, Florida.

LILY HAS AWESOME POWERS OF CONCENTRATION WHEN A DOG BISCUIT IS BALANCED ON HER NOSE.

And Lily, the golden retriever, has about a one-in-three chance of balancing a dog biscuit on her nose, tossing it in the air, and catching it in her mouth. I had to add the true story about Lily and the dog biscuit for a little comic relief.

No one can predict the future. But let me make a few guesses. The temperature will go up later this week in Florida, and the snow will melt in Buffalo, by late spring.

But across America, it is entirely possible that unemployment will remain above 10 per cent and gasoline will remain above $3. For how long? Forever.

And what will the austerity plan agreed to by the U.S. government and the Wall Street tycoons look like? I will not hazard even a guess.

— John Hayden

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Blogging On Empty

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Monkeys Blogging

Image via Wikipedia

For the first time in more than three years, I’ve hit the blogging wall.

In the past, I’ve taken several purposeful, short breaks from blogging.  But I’ve never lacked the will or the words to write a post.

The political and economic developments this fall — in Greece, France, England, Ireland, and the United States — have left my head spinning. In the din of media coverage, I can’t think of a thing to write that will add insight or bring order out of the chaos.

Here at home, the Austerity Project, the Fitness Project, and my overdue efforts to bring cleanliness and order to this cluttered apartment — all seem painfully slow and inadequate. It feels like wading through a sea of molasses.

I’m temporarily unemployed, looking for change and clarity. At least unemployment is not a crisis, thanks to Social Security.

My head is a muddle, which is normal at this season of the year. Sometimes I  blame it on Seasonal Affective Disorder.  Everything will come into focus after the holidays. There’s nothing here that can’t be fixed by a new year, a new part-time job, or an epiphany.

I’ll snap out of it any day now. In the meantime, I think I’ll take a nap.

— John

How NOT To Simplify Your Life

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Here’s eight easy steps that I do not recommend:

  1. Quit your night job and run for an obscure political office.
  2. One blog isn’t enough. Try three blogs.
  3. Get yourself adopted by a cat.
  4. Volunteer for a political campaign. Better yet, volunteer in TWO campaigns.
  5. Freely offer unsolicited advice.
  6. Begin each day promptly at the crack of noon.
  7. Experiment with carbohydrate-rich nutrition.
  8. Be too busy for prayer. Be too busy for exercise. Forget to be grateful.

Every day is a good day to repent and start anew. Today, for instance. For starters, one blog will be enough, don’t you agree?  This blog is the one. Humor me. Stay tuned.

Social Security at 62, Because You Never Know What Might Happen Next

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I didn’t wake up yesterday knowing I’d have the opportunity to take a picture of a Studebaker pickup truck. I didn’t even know that Studebaker MADE pickup trucks.

See, you never know what you might learn on any given day, and you never know what might happen next. Expect the unexpected. So here’s this shiny burgundy Studebaker pickup waiting for me in the church parking lot.

Which leads to the point of this post. Life is too short to waste it writing only serious blog posts. Going forward, I will give priority to posts and photos that make me smile. Or that surprise me with the unexpected. If there’s any time left over, I might write something serious.

Perhaps this editorial policy will make Life After 60 a more interesting blog, while not losing sight of the reality that ordinary Americans might still be making an unscheduled crash landing in a storm of economic change.

I see this concept of writing the fun posts first as a sign of maturity. Delayed gratification has its place. But since I’m an over-sixty Baby Boomer, and I’m not flying as high as I used to, it seems like a perfectly mature and logical decision to eat dessert first.

To put it another way, since I’m losing altitude, it makes perfect sense to start collecting Social Security at age 62. The economy being what it is, and with age discrimination being a fact of life, it’s not surprising that Social Security at 62 is a trend among my generation (folks who are old enough to remember, with a smile, the Studebaker, the Edsel, and the Rambler.)

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT FOR THE AUTUMN OF LIFE -- EAT DESSERT FIRST.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT FOR THE AUTUMN OF LIFE — EAT DESSERT FIRST.

Anne Tyler — ‘Noah’s Compass’

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I’ve got it. Noah’s Compass, the 18th novel by Anne Tyler, one of the great authors of my lifetime. It’s just out in hardback. I don’t buy many books anymore, but I need this one. I think it might be about me.

The dust jacket says Noah’s Compass is the story of Liam Pennywell, “A schoolteacher, who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life.”  With a name like Liam Pennywell, you know right away he’s not an Alpha Male.

I don’t know which is worse, the lost job or the “final phase.” It sounds so . . .  so Final.

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