The Real World was getting too long, plus I can't put these
cartoons in comments. Love Kliban. Anyway, as the Tao Te Ching
teaches us: The past and present are illusions, there is only the
eternal, ever changing NOW. As Billy Pilgrim teaches us: There is
good and bad, horrible and wonderful in life and to get through it, try to
focus on the good parts. Comparisons are useless as there will always
people better and worse off than myself but those comparisons do not change my
life, which I am trying to get through by thinking of and looking forward
to the good parts, mostly. I had the choice recently to replace the
dreaded '97 Saturn and was at the brink of buying a Mustang convertible, but
ended up with a CX5. Practical, and out of this world great to a 16 year
old Sudanese, but a meaningless comparison. Can't afford the down on
solar, even though the payback is ten years, solar panels are still very
inefficient and use manufacturing processes that do as much harm as good.
Have to keep the Jacuzzi going because the wife has a bad back (reminding
me to check on the tax ramifications). Burn wood in the fireplace and
with our internal thermostats set low hardly heat the house during the winter
but for the same reason use a lot of electricity in the summer to keep
ourselves somewhat cool.
2022 will release me from having to procure the seven deadly sins
(see below). I plan to let my spirit (what is left of it) soar. I
will stay legal, but not necessarily moral. That is, of course dependent
on my physical and financial well-being until the aforementioned day of
liberation. I'm sure the effects will be mostly localized to whatever
hamlet finds its misfortune to have me as an inhabitant.
