Winter Sun To Dry

What is it about this room?  The wind is howling outside and it is more drafty in here that I ever recall it having been before.  I’ve got long johns on, a sweater a heavy vest.  I’ve added socks and a scarf and I’ve got a cup of boiling water to sip at but I’m still cold.  There is an air conditioner in this room that is supposed to double as a heating unit but it just pushes cool air around.  Even after the sun is up and I can tell clear that, although its breezy it isn’t that cold out there, I’m still chilly.

I decide I’d better get my ironing done now before I fly to SF.  The kitchen is sunny and I set up the operation up on the table there.  Water leaks from the iron’s tip and the board is wet before I start.  The first cloth shirt absorbs some of this but doesn’t disappear as quickly as I figured a hot iron might do.  I hang this wet shirt over in the winter sun to dry.  By the time I’ve finished the last shirt I check the clock and acknowledge what I already knew, that I was late now and would need to hurry to reach the airport.

Trip out there was quick, eventually.  Check-in was straight forward and though I could have said my plane was already boarding and gotten in a time-sensitive lane, there was no need to and soon enough I was out the other side and in line at Starbucks to get some munchies for the plane.  Knowing I’ll be in economy, I prefer not to rely on the “chicken or the beef,” they’ll have on board.  I’m the last person on and soon there are two women beside me who would appear to be peer aged business women from the Philippines.  They are asleep soon as we wait out a long delay on the tarmac and I self-consciously, eat my beef wrap.

I’ve “allowed” myself the opportunity to finish John Haidt’s “The Righteous Mind.”  He thoughtfully provides little summaries at the end of each of his chapters which feel like steel rails to hold on to as I make my way along, imagining Trump into his analysis of the days when Obama was debating John McCain.  Donald is odd to consider along his Moral Foundations theory:  He is not loyal to anyone besides, perhaps, his family and some foreign autocrats.  But he demands loyalty and even though anyone who gets close to him eventually seems to suffer for it or at the least to be discarded, loyalty is part of his myth.  Authority or respect are things he similarly demands but cannot command broadly.  But his behavior must satisfy the need of some people who want to see these matters touched upon in order to acknowledge someone as a leader.   These are the areas, Haidt' suggests are usually overlooked by Democrats.

Sunday, 11/10/19