I've been reading a lot of sturm and drang on Daily Kos lately. Diary writers and commentators frustrated with the political scene and even with each other. Some depression, a lotta snarkiness. Wow, I guess it's understandable considering the times, but what's a mother to do to keep from losing it completely?
I don't know what you do to keep it together, but I read history. "Sometimes the past is the only vacation spot." I think that was Blanche DuBois in Streetcar. But more than being an escape, reading and studying history provides a context and perspective which always winds up saying about the present, "This, too, will pass."
I don't own a Kindle, a Nook, or an iPad. I'm waiting for the prices to hit $49 like they do with almost any new tech device. Gawd, I remember having to buy a scientific calculator for $168 for school that later, and not much later, sold for under $50.
We don't have a lot of room in our house so I've become adverse to buying books. If do buy them, they get immediately donated to the library rather than storing them here on dusty shelves which I rarely return to.
My favorite is to check out the new nonfiction shelves at the library. It's amazing what I run across and take home for a week or so. I had a great time reading "Darwin's Armada" about the four guys who changed science forever in mid nineteenth century England. Then, there was a history of the late Roman Empire which I stumbled across after reading Chalmers Johnson's stuff on the American empire. Bah, we're like Rome, and we're not.
The craziest thing about Rome after Marcus Aurelius (165 A.D.) is nearly every emperor got murdered or assassinated within a few years after assuming power. So, why would they do it? Why would anyone want to be the Big Cheese knowing they probably had less than five years to live? And why, by the way, would anyone want to be president of the U.S.?
Last week I ran into H.W. Brands, who's a prof at the University of Austin. Written many books. This one, "American Dreams", is a survey history of 1945 to 2010. Very readable. Covers my lifespan pretty much. Got to fill in the blanks of the Reagan years when I was busy raising my kids. I still think Reagan didn't do us many favors, but Brands contends that we're really a center right country and liberalism, when it gains power, is an anomaly. Yet, that's where all the progress comes from. Go figure.
Now, I'm looking forward to getting Brands' "A Traitor to His Class" about FDR. I've read quite a bit about him already, but in these times he's a good person and a good period to mull over.
Then, there's finishing cleaning the garage. Hey, stiff upper lip and all that. Let's keep at it.