Is Normal Just Routine?

I would say that I don’t know how we got through that first shaky week of this third pandemic-impacted school year, hugging our kids and checking to make sure their masks were secure before they left each morning, except that I do know:  We had no choice.  We still don’t.  Though we’re grateful to their teachers and glad that our kids are once again learning alongside their peers, the worry persists, an undercurrent to which we’ve been forced to adapt as we settle into routines both familiar and new.
Each week brings more pediatric infections, more student quarantines.  Each day, I’m conscious of the fact that I’m allowing my children to assume a risk from which I, working at home, am protected, and this feels hopelessly backward.  I read every update to the school COVID-19 guidelines so I know what to expect after the inevitable exposure, but I can’t tell my kids what they have long wanted to know:  When will things go back to the way they remember?
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Over the past 18 months, a common refrain has been that this pandemic should compel all of us to recognize our interdependence, the inescapable fact that we will not address this or any of the other grave threats we’re facing without collective action.  This is a lesson that I expect many of our children are also learning, though the cost and the danger to them feels too high.  I know I don’t want my kids to conclude that they are or forever will be powerless, or that there is no one who will fight with and for them.  There are many things I still have to hope for to get through each day, and while our children’s survival and health top the list, I also want them to retain their faith in themselves and in their ability to look forward to something better than this — to find, as they so often do, their own reasons to hope.
—     Nicole Chung
From:  “The View Essay: Parenting – Did I point my kids to the wrong North Star?” Appearing in:  Time Magazine;  11/18 Oct 2021
Also online at:  https://time.com/6102019/covid-19-hope-for-kids/
The online version appears as:  “There’s No End in Sight for COVID-19. What Do We Tell Our Kids Now?“
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On This Day In:
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2020	It Is Still About Sharing And Cheering
2019	Sounds Like #LyingDonald
2018	Start Building
2017	Woof! Woof!
2016	Cast Out
2015	Small Pieces
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2014	Uncertain Work
2013	Unpatriotic And Servile
2012	What Price Freedom?
2011	Particular Importance
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Decisions, Decisions

When your absolutely only choice is between an untruth and rudeness, then choose rudeness;  if, however, your choice is between an untruth and cruelty, then choose untruth.
—     Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
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On This Day In:
2021	In Pursuit
	The Music Of Her Laughter
2020	Close, Sustained And Careful
2019	#45: Spread The Fear
	Fear The Beards
2018	Slice, Nick, Cut, Bled
2017	Like Most Blogs
2016	The Window Left Open
	Free Experience
2015	Reality == Perception / (Times Reported * 10)
2014	Tear Da Roof Off Da Sucka
2013	Exposed Spirits
2012	Ow-ow
2011	Focused Relatives

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Choose Possible

Once you choose hope, anything is possible.
—    Christopher Reeve
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On This Day In:
2021	Thousands
	Where Did All The Blue Skies Go?
2020	A Profound Source
2019	Sad Words
2018	Self-Sorted
2017	Right
2016	At Least One Step
2015	Month To Month Rental
2014	Professional Beliefs
2013	Books Are…
2012	True Distinguishing Marks
2010	Sub-300

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MAGA Choice: Reality Or Lies

Like the choice between competing political institutions, that between competing paradigms proves to be a choice between incompatible modes of community life.  Because it has that character, the choice is not and cannot be determined merely by the evaluative procedures characteristic of normal science, for these depend in part upon a particular paradigm, and the paradigm is at issue.  When paradigms enter, as they must, into a debate about paradigm choice, their role is necessarily circular.  Each group uses its own paradigm to argue in that paradigm’s defense.
—     Thomas S. Kuhn
From his book:   “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions“
[Unfortunately for Democracy, Trumpers STILL choose lies…    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2020	A Good Reason To Blog
	Finally Enjoying The View
2019	Living Free
2018	Relative Imagination
2017	Thank You, Senator McCain (So Far Anyway)
2016	What About Friends?
2015	It Tastes Good To Me
2014	Others’ Footsteps
	The Not-So-Modern Samurai
2013	Doin’
2012	A Lover
2011	What Have We Found Here
	Words

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Choose Strength

You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice.
—    Bob Marley
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On This Day In:
2020	No Fear
2019	Propaganda vs. Art
2018	What Did You Bring Up?
2017	Waiting For My First Strike
2016	Mostly Just Masticating
2015	Don’t Mess With Mosa
	How Long Is This Run?
2014	The Importance Of Being Forgetful
2013	Anyway
2012	Habit Forming
2011	And In The Other Hand(ful)
	In Love With Words
	Boundless Naïveté
	Who Did You Say Signed Off On This Treason, Pat?

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Try To Choose Wisely

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.
—    Kahlil Gibran
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On This Day In:
2020	We Have A Window
2019	No Escape
2018	Except When It Is From The Oval Office
2017	Bad Karma
2016	Poor Management Choices
2015	Is It Still Dark Out?
2014	Rule One
2013	Spelling God’s Name
2012	Love Your Life And Sing
	Feeling Under the Weather?
2011	Cheers, Friend!

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Guns Or Butter

Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization.  We must make our choice;  we cannot have both.
—   Abraham Flexner
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On This Day In:
2020	Haunting Illusions
	True Color
	Crackin’ The Flags
2019	Maybe A Slight Advantage
	We Should Never Give Up On Our Dreams
2018	As I Recall
2017	Truly Generous
2016	Choose Your Destiny
2015	Fast And Firm
2014	Neither Head Nor Heart
2013	Lonely, Foolish, Love Songs
	Batting 1.000
	Coward, n.
2012	At Least A Little More Difficult
2011	Speaking Of Fear

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Choice

“Are you a socialist?” Ted Turner asked Carl Sagan.  “I’m not sure what a socialist is,” Sagan replied.
But I believe the government has a responsibility to care for the people,” Sagan said.
“I’m talking about making people self-reliant, people able to take care of themselves,” he continued.  “There are countries which are perfectly able to do that.  The United States is an extremely rich country, it’s perfectly able to do that.  It chooses not to.  It chooses to have homeless people.”
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On This Day In:
2019	He Claims It’s Fake News And Spies
2018	Mine, Too
2017	Who’s Turn Is It Now?
2016	Before You Vote In November…
2015	Two Faithful Thoughts
2014	Love Light
	Orange October (III) – Giants Advance To National League Championship Series (NLCS)
2013	Nothing Ridiculous
2012	Keeping Faith
2011	Summon Us, Don’t Criticize Us
2010	Obama’s Wars – Book Review
	Game Two – Hearbreaking Loss

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You Too Can Choose

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today.  I can choose which it shall be.  Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet.  I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.
―    Groucho Marx
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On This Day In:
2018	In Line
2017	Just Get It Right
2016	In Support Of Common Core
2015	Oscillation
2014	Truth Shift
2013	Real Heroes
2012	Controlling The Beast
2011	1,002

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MAGA?

It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry.
—    H. L. Mencken
[Mencken was a satirist and cultural / social commentator who passed away before the invention of the birth control pill and Roe v. Wade.  Do we want to go back?
I remember growing up and hearing the name used to describe Catholic women who practiced “the rhythm” method of birth control.  It was “mother”.    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2017	Neutral
	Family Over Ego
2016	Hard Learners
2015	Goals
2014	Switch To Dogs…
2013	Times Change
2012	Ashes Not Dust
2011	A Handful From Saudi
	None Of This Happened
	Take Responsibility

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Choose Goodness

I choose goodness…  I will go without a dollar before I take a dishonest one.  I will be overlooked before I will boast.  I will confess before I will accuse.  I choose goodness.
—    Max Lucado
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On This Day In:
2017	Developing Translations
2016	Think Like A Hero
2015	Reductionism
2014	Gravitation, n.
2013	Ups And Downs
2012	Nerd Heard – And Good-Bye
	Your Continuum
2011	Career Tips (Part 2)

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Eeny Meeny Miny Moe

While money can’t buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery.
―     Groucho Marx
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On This Day In:
2016	Feeling Warm Yet?
	Four Documentaries
2015	Just Like All The Others
2014	In My Own Vanity
2013	Filled With Words
2012	Lectio Auget Existentiae Meae
2011	Lied Lately?
2010	Born To Work At Faux News
	Lost Again (Uh, Make That Still)
	Qui Genus Humanum Ingenio Superavit
	They’re Back… (Part 1)

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Choose

An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.
―    Langston Hughes
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On This Day In:
2016	All I Ever Wanted
2015	Compassionate Toward Yourself
2014	All And None
2013	Voices In The Dark
2012	Does Uncommonly Flexible = Flip-Flopping?
2011	A Modest Review Of A Modern Day Classic
	Encouragement Is The Path To Immortality

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Choice

All your life, you will be faced with a choice.  You can choose love or hate…  I choose love.
—    Johnny Cash
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On This Day In:
2016	Growing Worlds
2015	Change The Tide
	Martyr, n.
2014	You, Too!
2013	Bitter Stand
2012	Lost For Words
2011	On Market Reactions…

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Proof of Choice…

Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, most people get busy on the proof.
—    John Kenneth Galbraith
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