I forgot to blog today. How did that happen? It’s not like I had so much to do. I was scheduled to have my infusion today. Snow was forecast so I suspected it might get canceled. When I woke up my phone screamed at me. It was an Emergency Weather Alert. There was an official snow emergency. I called the infusion center and was told it was closed. They rescheduled me for Friday. As they are at capacity I don’t know how they fit everyone they had to reschedule. Then I called the car service and canceled for today. I rescheduled that online. That was much easier than I expected. You might think this would trigger my anxiety, but it didn’t. My mind did not race through all the things that could go wrong. Don’t ask me why, but I knew this wouldn’t trigger me. Instead, I had a relaxing day at home. I watched Batwoman, played chess with River, watched The Whiskey Charmers, and the St Brigid Day Irish Festival. There are a lot of hours missing. What did I do the rest of the time? I know, I kept warm because there was no heat this morning. I pulled out the heavy artillery, the mukluks.
I bought these years ago. When they arrived, they were not what I expected. I was just trying to replace my old cashmere slipper socks. I thought these would be similar. Now I’m kicking myself for not wearing these more often. They are so toasty. The heat finally came back.
Now it’s the next day. I got reminded that I didn’t play chess with River yesterday. There was a mix up, so I played against the computer instead. I did play with River today. Today is also getting away from me. That’s not a bad thing. There was the chess with River then a phone call from Deni. Then a call from Katrina. That’s a three-day quota of socializing. I’m not complaining, this is beneficial for my mental health. I have to force myself to call most people so getting a phone call removes a source of anxiety. Once I’m talking I love it as I only call people I enjoy talking to. I realize that the source of my anxiety is that there are people I don’t enjoy talking to, so I worry that I’m on the don’t enjoy list of others. Much of my interior dialogue is based on the Copernican principle, that I am not observing the world from a privileged position. What I see is much the same as a random observer. That’s only true for information with no priors, obviously when most people look out the window they don’t see my block. I do take it that if there are people that I feel x about there are people that feel x about me.
The one place where I would like people consider the Copernican principle more is in how they act when there are disagreements. Remember to follow the golden rule, don’t do unto others what would be hateful if it were done to you. Saying that it’s not the same because I’m right and the other person wrong is not a valid excuse, you can be sure the other person thinks that they are right, and you are wrong. While there are objective facts none of us is purely objective. There is no universal accepted answer key that we can refer to, to settle things. I had one friend that I spent decades arguing this with. He saw nothing wrong with the police and prosecutors using coercion or ever creating fake evidence, to convict criminals if “They know that the criminal is guilty.” He could never grasp that we never know it. If we knew it we could convict the person without planting evidence. My friend was not stupid, he finished near the top of his class at every level of his education. He was both intelligent and knowledgeable, what he lacked was self-awareness. He couldn’t imagine himself as the one that was not being objective. He was an extreme case, but we all do it sometimes. I’m sure that I do it. I might be doing it right now. I’m being careful about what I’m saying because of that.
Where I see people often lacking self-awareness is politics. People will decry behavior done by them, while calling for the same behavior from us. An example that immediately comes to mind is those that said that the electoral college should violate the public trust and not vote for Trump, even when Trump won their state, but were horrified when Trump suggesting subverting the results of the last election. At the start of Obama’s term McConnell said that the primary goal of the Senate Republicans was making Obama a one-term president. Now he calls for unity. All I want is for people to listen to what they are saying from the point perspective of others. If you sound like you’re a hypocrite, then don’t do it. Don’t look for an excuse that makes your case different.
I love when a thought comes to my head and takes over the writing. It makes my life easier. Here’s another version of the Golden Rule. When you see someone doing something wrong consider if you have done something similar. Here’s an even simpler version. Don’t be a schmuck.
Now that I got the minutiae out of the way I can get to what’s important. Last night for dinner I made a roasted chicken leg and roasted potatoes. I just learned recently how to roast chicken parts properly in an oven. I was always great grilling it, I learned how to do that as a kid. As soon as I got an air fryer I discovered how easy and great it is. That spoiled me and I didn’t want to go back to my old soggy skinned chicken made in an oven. The secret is to not put the chicken on the pan, so it sits in in the melted fat. I put it on top of a cookie cooling rack now and it makes all the difference. The chicken has crispy skin. My other recently acquired cooking knowledge is that If you put parchment paper underneath it there is less smoke. I love the cooking learning curve. When I started cooking for myself not on a grill I would buy prepared foods. I sank as low as hot pockets. Now I blench at the thought. By my second century maybe I’ll learn how to be a good cook.
Wise Madness 