1. Yesterday, I wrote about how I thought physical movement would help improve my balance and the odd sensations I feel in my head. I heard back from three different friends: Nini expressed concern about what I said about myself and hoped my doctor visit on Thursday would go well; Liz (she and I are the same age) told me she experiences the same sorts of things that I do and agreed that exercise helps diminish them; Kathleen wondered in an email if what I was experiencing was part of what comes with aging and possibly doesn't have much to do with my kidney transplant. I agree with Kathleen. The only way I connected my kidney situation to the symptoms I described yesterday was wondering if they were related to the medication Jardiance I took and to the steroid infusions from back in June. By the way, Kathleen and I are both in our 70s and she kindly told me that she, too, has experienced what I have been as she's grown older.
I focused some of my effort today on walking in place, being sure to swing my arms so my Fitbit would record my steps and walking with arm-swinging purpose around the house.
I racked up over 3000 steps and already I am feeling a difference in my legs and some relief of the sensations in my head. (Those sensations always diminish as the day passes.)
I will continue to write myself reminder notes and make lists about everything!
2. Yesterday, I wrote that I wanted to get back to some of the things I've enjoyed doing that I've strayed away from over the last four months.
In that spirit, I spent time today listening to podcasts.
Two stand out.
I discovered that the hosts of Shield of the Republic, Eric S. Edelman and Eliot A. Cohen, conducted an interview with Laura Field discussing her new book, Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right in which Field explores the intellectual and philosophical underpinnings of MAGA and the past and current intellectuals and institutions that have shaped the political theories that have shaped what she calls the New Right.
I've read some about Curtis Yarvin and Peter Thiel and some about the thinkers and ideas that have influenced J. D. Vance. I've also read a bit about the historian Leo Strauss and the German thinker Carl Schmitt, an intellectual supporter of German National Socialism and a participant in that movement.
Listening to Laura Field discuss her book helped me understand better a variety of contemporary writers and professors, including Strauss and Schmitt, whose insights oppose liberalism
The podcase involved some healy lifting and I'm not sure I've got the brain power to read Laura Field's book, but I might give it a try and add to the reading I've already done about white power movements in the USA.
Before interviewing Laura Field, Edelman and Cohen pay tribute to Dick Cheney and comment on last Tuesday's elections.
If you'd like to listen to this podcast, here's the link:Why MAGA Loves Illiberalism | Shield of the Republic
3. I've written quite a bit in this blog about my admiration of Leah Sottile and, in fact, it was her work investigating the Bundy family and her podcast on Timothy McVeigh that led me to read up more on what Professor Belew calls the white power movements in the USA.
A while back, I noted in this blog that I listened to the first season of Sottile's podcast, Hush. It tells the story of Jesse Johnson, whom the state of Oregon incarcerated for twenty-five years for a murder he didn't commit. Hush tells his story and more.
Now Leah Sottile has completed a second season of Hush entitled "Love Thy Neighbor".
I listened to the first episode today, which begins to tell the story of the 2019 death of teenager Sarah Zuper who was found dead in a ditch just 400 feet from her front door in Rainier, OR.
The case has never been solved and this podcast examines the circumstances surrounding her death and the factors that have contributed to the case never being solved.
All of the episodes have not come out yet.
You can listen to the first five episodes at Oregon Public Radio,here.
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