Back to the Stresspoints, Again
And once again I take up the blog. This time after an even longer hiatus that was promoted by an extended case of not dire but very tiring respiratory illness contracted on the way to or in Guatemala in late August. Followed by an episode of confusion, which persists to this day, about exactly what the point of this blog is, or how it should be prioritized. There are, to explain, two or three other more pragmatic internet projects that maybe I should be working on because their purposes are more clearly defined. But they are equally profit-free and not as personally satisfying.
So … I still have not resolved how this eponymous site should rank in order of importance. My thought today, however, is that personal satisfaction trumps my vague sense of other obligations. And beyond that, I have been slowly incubating the notion that for a variety of reasons it’s important to me to have a subjective record of how I (hopefully) survived the stresses and challenges of the most important election the US has ever had.
The first and, at least in my mind, the most pressing of these potential future entries is a project I’ve had in mind for a few years and have even made a couple of unsustained attempts to begin. But today seems a portentous day to begin anew, because today, January 15, 2024, is marked by two powerful reminders of our national division. On the positive side, today we celebrate the freedom and “good trouble” and promotion of civil rights symbolized by the birth, in 1929, of Reverend Martin Luther King. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, voters in Iowa, dominated by cristo-nationalists who promote theocratic authoritarianism and a whimsical dictatorship, will brave the cold, snow, and wind to cast a ballot for Donald Trump.
So, I feel like the time has come to take this project more seriously. The idea is to make a very personal diary, of sorts, about the political stressors and my stress level resulting from the 2024 elections. There’s no doubt that this year is going to be the election cycle from hell, followed by yet more social confusion and division and hostility among the New Confederacy, as I have begun to think of Republicans.
If I can hold my own feet to the fire for this project, I believe I will end up with a finished product that will be a good reminder to me of my own thoughts and dread-level for the next 10 months, along with some historical notation about specific events that induced me to write the entries in the blog.
There’s always the hope, of course, that somebody else might find my thoughts useful … assuming I ever start sharing the existence of this blog with anybody else.
And as always, I encourage anybody who might accidentally blunder across this blog to feel free to respond. Opposing views that are expressed semi-lucidly, are nominally respectful, are not ad hominem attacks on me or anybody else, and are framed on some sort of logical thought process will absolutely be shared.
And may peace be with you on this day of remembering the great Dr. Martin Luther King