1. I could see from inside the house that the thin layer of snow covering Christy's and my sidewalk was a combination of watery and icy. I decided to shovel this slightly over frozen Slurpee mixture off the surfaces.
I walked out on the front porch and reached to my right to grab the snow shovel Christy and I share.
The shovel had walked off, taken a stroll, decided to amble, booked, disappeared.
Okay.
Someone robbed us.
I blasted down to Ace Hardware, purchased a new shovel (I guess I'll keep it in the garage) and cleared our sidewalks.
It went quickly, might have been unnecessary, but I liked getting it done.
2. Writing about my two summers at Fort Wright College and having superb text message exchanges with Debbie and Deborah buoyed my day. I thought Deborah and I and then, a bit later, Debbie and I aired out our thoughts about and history with the inherent contradictions in, well, everything. How do we or can we be expected to reconcile these contradictions?
I thought when I was young that I'd have these things figured out once I grew old.
The opposite has turned out to be true.
I'm more bewildered by the world and my place in it than at any time in my life.
I don't think things in the world are uniquely bewildering right now. I think I'm more cognizant of being a member of a bewildering species.
Maybe the best I can do is listen to what Jesus instructed his disciples to be as they went out into the world: "Be wise as serpents and gentle as doves." Martin Luther King, Jr. preached on this directive and I agree with him when he says Jesus was telling his disciples to be tough minded and tender hearted.
The importance of being both clear-eyed and compassionate also brings to mind an essay Martha Nussbaum wrote about what she called the chill of virtue. Her essay was a warning that absolute fidelity to belief or principle or virtue can damage others, cause suffering, be, in fact, immoral. One might be admired for adhering immovably to a certain principle or ideology, but it becomes a cold commitment if keeping the adherence intact results in others' deprivation of one kind or another.
Nussbaum called into question Socrates' refusal to take money for his teaching. By doing so, he maintained a high ideal and regarded himself above corruption. No one could sway his pursuit of truth and his instruction with money. But his family suffered in the poverty brought about by his commitment to this principle.
It was, in Nussbaum's mind, a clear example of the chill of virtue.
3. I need to have blood work done once a month. It's been about a month since I had work done in early December. I have to have my blood work done in the morning, in Coeur d'Alene, before I take my morning pills. I take them sometime between eight and nine o'clock.
I'm having trouble falling asleep at night. The more sleep I get in the morning, the less my head aches in the when I get up and the less groggy I feel. I just couldn't get up before 8:00 this morning so I didn't go to the lab. I'm hoping that it'll be different Thursday morning. I want to get this blood work done and I have some other tasks I'd like to complete in CdA before I return home.
If I wake up Thursday to iffy icy roads, I'll stay put and plan to go over Friday.
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