what are you reading?

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Eighty miles an hour down a street to a bridge going nowhere ... we're thus stuck for a period (of time; bad spot). Actually I'm still on The Inquisitor's Manual ... a handbook of elimination ...

I'm at the part where Arthur Clark's commentary of bad spirits is logged! If they are denied it is indicated that they could haunt you for a long time ... like the effect of Biden on the top card! Is that a draw or Druid ... d'rude! Someone will be all red in the face when facing it ... the vere to virtue! It is like a wend ...
 
My book study group just spent several sessions on "Being Mortal" by Atul Gawande. Published in 2014. The author is a US surgeon who delves into the challenging realm of approaching end of life - social, medical, long-term care, palliative care, hospice etc. It was a good read, interspersed with poignant personal stories & reflections. One chapter explored the role of physicians/health care system and their own reluctance to 'let go' in situations which are seemingly terminal. This is becoming an increasing challenge, as intrusive 'treatments' continue to be offered with faint hope of significant benefit to quality or quantity of life. Another chapter explored 'courage' in the face of such situations.

It sparked important discussions in personal life of various members and in the group. Several members had read it in the past, and noted having a different response to it this time through as their own personal contexts had changed. We pondered our (North American) societal lack of 'death literacy' and resistance to discussing many of these topics. We pondered whether communities of faith might be a place to tackle improving our understanding of such issues. Lots to unpack & interesting to read after digesting Caitlyn Doughty's book on after death practices around the world. Highly recommend it.
 
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"There are certain queer times
and occasions in this strange
mixed affair we call life when
a man takes this whole universe
for a vast practical joke, though
the wit thereof he but dimly
discerns, and more than suspects
that the joke is at nobody's

expense but his own."

This is embossed in gold type on the back cover of my new book.
I mentioned last week, out of the blue, that I wanted to read it.
Like a Life Buoy it has mysteriously surfaced on my reading table.
It is going to be a whale of a read weighing in at 645 (small print) pages!
 
Mostly reading news and a few academic papers and medical journal articles, and blogs, and forums. Listening to music, parsing the lyrics, and watching shows or podcasts, sometimes with subtitles so what they’re saying is clearer, reinforced and sinks in (maybe an adhd thing about lecture sounding discussion and tuning out when “talked at”). Does that even count?

(And posts, and links to other things in posts.)

Also, lately, because of the faith discussion and other discussions, and listening to a few sermons - reading some Bible verses.

It seems like a fair amount of reading actually, but maybe not the kind that counts - or does it?
 
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"There are certain queer times
and occasions in this strange
mixed affair we call life when
a man takes this whole universe
for a vast practical joke, though
the wit thereof he but dimly
discerns, and more than suspects
that the joke is at nobody's

expense but his own."

This is embossed in gold type on the back cover of my new book.
I mentioned last week, out of the blue, that I wanted to read it.
Like a Life Buoy it has mysteriously surfaced on my reading table.
It is going to be a whale of a read weighing in at 645 (small print) pages!

Considerable irony at the hand of the great hammer of Thor Thought? That banging in the Nacht ... raises question about why would it wish to be free ... we have the thing comfortably strangled ... the dogs of Eire?
 
Mostly reading news and a few academic papers and medical journal articles, and blogs, and forums. Listening to music, parsing the lyrics, and watching shows or podcasts, sometimes with subtitles so what they’re saying is clearer, reinforced and sinks in (maybe an adhd thing about lecture sounding discussion and tuning out when “talked at”). Does that even count?

(And posts, and links to other things in posts.)

Also, lately, because of the faith discussion and other discussions, and listening to a few sermons - reading some Bible verses.

It seems like a fair amount of reading actually, but maybe not the kind that counts - or does it?

Is there a difference to being talked at, or to? Could one discern this while in a state of serenity and checking out the control function as avarice without intimate sharing of troubles, flaws and many bothers? Recheck the Serenity Prayer in light of a shadow of a night with a hole ... its like a portal to an apple ... then the ruminant chomps on the whole thing ...

Project yourself as a hard deposit in open space ... instead of the Eire demanding answers ... resolution? Unlikely given the miasma at the edge ... so the wind plows ... once known as dogs of Rome ... deep data? Hidden and sacred info ...

Reminds me of that Canadian novel about Night Aires ... vacant radiology? Maybe about lost thoughts ... displaced souls ... all the materials we don't wish to be aware, cognizant or WOKE to ... thus eclectic dissemination ... a spreading function!

Imagine secret stuff in a myth! How abstract ... not to be mulled ova ... for if one gathered and pulled it together would if be an embarrassing closure?

The entirety of restricted domains ...
 
I think so. I’m pretty sure I do both, and need to pay more attention to it.

It is always good to look at these items of concern from both sides as in a doubled down essence of Dualistic phantom of what was former or came before us ... ad eist? Thus we get a heist of it ... an upper to counter the Kruger-Ross or Dunn thing? It happens after the rush is ova ... GR-oss?

Is that a deformed word?
 
I have been relishing it as I've languished in bed like a Victorian heroine the last two days.
I recall working my way through Anne Rice's The Witching Hour during the recovery from my appendix surgery 30-odd years ago. And the recovery from the recovery (wound site infection).
 
Started reading “A Necessary Journey: Making Progress in Equity and Inclusion. It was published in 2022 and written from a not-long-past Covid and George Floyd perspective.

It’s a collection of non-fiction stories about American companies’ journeys with DEI.

So,far, I can’t help feeling like the moment she was written about, when there was a pivot toward companies looking to improve, has past. Obviously, this was while the US had some reprieve from Trump, and Elon hadn’t taken his chainsaw out on DEI yet.

She saw it as a pivotal time to expand efforts and must feel pretty defeated at the moment. Though, ethical companies can still make a choice to do it anyway, unethical ones can ignore it. They do anyway, at least in Canada. We don’t have affirmative action.

What people misunderstand about affirmative action is that it’s not about putting incompetent people into jobs just because they are from an under-represented group. It’s about making sure all types of people are represented. It’s an effort at mitigating the xenophobia in society. It’s an effort to bringing everyone together to build something better for all. When they make a quota like 30% have to people of colour, let’s say, it’s about hiring from a group of qualified people of colour to fill that quota.

I hope it can get back on track. These things are in her book - about roughly 2012-22. I was seeing more progressive things happening here in the 90s, for an organization I worked for. Then got employment in a pretty specified area of it. After that the real world, most of it looked a lot different though. Not so much progress. We need to not let it slip further away.
 
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