Holiday Card 2018
It is time again to sum up a year in my life. This one was pretty interesting overall, not always in good ways, but certainly it was never bad. I resigned from my job at Susquehanna University with Geisinger in November of 2017 but finished the year out through May of 2018. It was definitely time to move on, no matter what I did next, but, as luck would have it, I heard from my friend Sue Brunsell about her pending new job at a clinic at the World Bank Headquarters for the employees of it and the IMF in downtown Washington, DC in January and decided I would like to join her there. It took a while to get everything finalized, but I started work there in August after moving into an expensive apartment a few blocks away from the World Bank and in a really nice neighborhood. I sold my car in July and rely mostly on the Metro to get around, since the Foggy Bottom station is right across the street. I love this city and the job is just fine, but my enthusiasm will be even stronger once I start running again. I tore the medial meniscus in my right knee in July, and I just had surgery on December 7th (it went well). Thus follows my usual lists and compendiums, and though I try to keep it short, by doing it all digitally I make it as long as it should be and spare at least the trees needed for paper if not the materials used to create the electricity that powers the device you are looking at it on. It is a bit much for one sitting, but certainly those with good appetites should have no problem.
Travel: I got off to a cracking start in January when I went to Spain for the first time with my nieces Madelaine Mills and Kelsey O’Rourke. We packed our days with fun, great food and exuberant culture. It wasn’t bad despite the time of year, though Madelaine would recommend a good scarf. We spent 4 days in Madrid (with a side trip to rainy Seville by high speed train) and 3 days in Barcelona, two worthy cities with lots to do and see on foot. I went to Seattle in March for a medical meeting and liked it. It has a European vibe in that it is set up for people to get around well without cars and has good places to run. My two big summer trips were to Iceland in June and Wales in July. I joined a guided hiking tour in a remote area of Iceland on a traditional trail and had a great time. Our group was so much fun and got along so well, and the weather was good enough, with several stunning days and only occasional rain. The sleeping was hard – crammed into small rooms in huts right next to each other, but we made it work. The only downer was a sore Achilles that wouldn’t let me run as much as I wanted, especially on the trails. I went to Wales with my doctor and friend Ray Douglas. It was another hiking trip, covering 72 miles in 5 days on a well-established coastal trail, and unfortunately it was right after I hurt my knee, so I put up with that the whole time and couldn’t run at all there. Wales is so lovely! I can’t recommend it enough, especially the delightful city of Cardiff. It is hard to get to, though, so think any travel plans through. I made it to our cottage a few times and otherwise enjoy very much being a tourist in my new home. There is so much to do here!
Spain, starting in Madrid on the Cibelene Palace roof, then the royal palace, a temple brought from Egypt, then to Barcelona and Sagrada Familia outside, the ceiling, and then Gaudi’s Parc Guell.
https://youtu.be/Mf0rggTyMF8 link to the video.
Iceland trip, with me in every photo at various scenic points along the way. Every place was scenic and/or interesting. https://youtu.be/Gk-9JsA42E0 video link
Wales, with a few scenes on the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path and from the Keep in Cardiff.
https://youtu.be/4LRV-UmERs0 link to the video of the trip
What is the deal with….(I saw Jerry Seinfeld in April – hardest I’ve ever laughed)
-People with long, bushy nose hair. How can they stand it?
-Noise pollution. Why is someone allowed to ride a motorcycle whose engine is at 130 decibels through neighborhoods? People decry the “Nanny State” for intervening in society, but would that be worse than our current “Jerk State?”
-The people who seem to object the most to “political correctness” want to be able to say mean things about others without repercussion.
- The highest standards for scientific “proof” of well-founded theories like natural selection and anthropogenic climate change seem to be held by people who find some of the most preposterous ideas and conspiracy theories more credible.
Music 2018: It was a good year, and I made a significant shift to bands fronted by women. I went to three concerts, all long time favorites : Trashcan Sinatras’ excellent acoustic tour with my sister Candace in Sellersville, PA, 25 years after we saw them playing the same albums at the 9:30 Club in DC; solo to Grant-Lee Phillips (along with a guy named Josh Rouse) , at the Pearl St. Warehouse on the new DC waterfront; and an awesome night seeing Tancred (they are really good – I’d never heard of them!), then The Joy Formidable (crushed it! In the front rows, too) at a club called The Black Cat in DC.
My favorites for the year, with the female singer(s) initially - Belly – “Dove”**; The Joy Formidable – “AAARTH” ; Tancred – “Out of the Garden,”* “Nightstand”* ; The Naked and Famous – “A Still Heart” *; First Aid Kit – “Ruins” *; Snail Mail – “Lush”. Now the Male-led groups: The Fratellis (these guys should be superstars) – “In Your Own Sweet Time” **; Grant-Lee Phillips – “Widdershins”*; Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – “Chasing Yesterday”*; Van Wagner – “King of the Quarry” and “Recluse”; Soul Asylum – “Live from Liberty Lunch 1993”; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – “Sparkle Harder”; Alejandro Escovedro – “The Crossing” ; Powderfinger – “Internationalist” (reissue from 1998). Less good: Our Lady Peace – “Somethingness”; Manic Street Preachers – “Resistance is Futile”; World Party – “Arkeology”; Colin Devlin – “High Point”; Jon Batiste – “Hollywood African”. ** denotes ones for the ages, * is good, accessible music anyone would like.
I try not to waste too much time on social media and celebrities, but here is one takeaway: You can never get enough of Brie Larson, Saiorse Ronan, Chiara Francini and Hayley Atwell.
Books 2018: I read a number of books at work in the spring, but after that most of the challenging reading was done on a stationary bike rehabbing my knee injury. Each will be denoted with an ®. Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schott ®, a survey of all knowledge related to eating one’s species (pretty good, witty); The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR by Jules Archer ®, the incredible story foiling a plot to overthrow FDR by JP Morgan and other rich guys who hated the New Deal – they didn’t achieve their goal but were not punished at all; Tent Life in Siberia by George Kennan ®, perhaps the greatest travel book ever written, hilarious and fascinating account of exploring Kamchatka after the Civil War; Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong by Paul Chaat Smith ®, often tedious accounting of Native American culture by a curator at the National Museum of the Native American; Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink ®, Exhaustive and exhausting account of the hours after Hurricane Katrina turned to days at the hospital, where more than a few patients were euthanized when they were on the verge of leaving to uncertain fates; All for Nothing by Walter Kempowski ®, a novel set in eastern Germany at the end of WWII as the Russians approached and life fell apart – stylishly written; War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence by Ronan Farrow ®, interesting look at the State Department as our leaders deferred to the military more and more, to little positive effect and many dead and injured; The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis ®, a great explainer at his best showing all our government does extremely well but gets little credit for, and how the current administration is at work dismantling most of it; My Squirrel Days by Ellie Kemper ®, amusing look at a sneaky hot comedienne’s life and opportunities. The books not read at work or while exercising now - - Tailspin: The People and Forces Behind America’s Fifty-Year Fall – and Those Fighting to Reverse It by Steven Brill, comprehensive look at our country and society, why it doesn’t seem to be working, and what to do to fix it; Directorate S: The CIA and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Steve Coll, the brilliant journalist’s look at all the problems rising from the US government’s relationship with Pakistan while it tries to establish a working government in Afghanistan. How is that going in year 17 of trying the same ideas over and over while Pakistan supports our adversaries?; Chance by Joseph Conrad, in his complete works I bought for $.99. This wasn’t worth the time; Sonechka: A Novella by Ludmila Ulitskaya, a well-regarded historical novella from Russia; This Is a Book by Demetri Martin, hilarious drawings and philosophical jokes from an insightful comedian; It’s Better than It Looks: Reasons for Optimism in an Age of Fear by Gregg Easterbrook, an analysis of how all the piles of positive data about our world are overshadowed by the small bits of negativity harped on by various propagandists who usually win the argument by yelling loudest.; The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past … by Peter Brannen, a massive undertaking of supreme accomplishment as it explains the most recent research about the 5 prior mass extinctions in a humorous and enjoyable (?) way. America: The Farewell Tour by Chris Hedges, the opposite of the Easterbrook book, and a lurid companion to the Brill book, it wallows in the gutters of porn and drug addiction to explain how the US is circling the drain, saved only by his insight into human behavior in adversity and how to achieve change when the powerful will do anything to keep the status quo. I also got Shade by Pete Souza, and Kelsey and I went to his traveling show, which was really good.
It is a commonly held belief that laughing while walking alone is suggestive of madness, but I found myself doing it fairly often the past year, first in Selinsgrove on my way home from work and then doing the same in D.C. It always occurs after I survey my surroundings to see if the coast is clear to release the highly pressurized gases contained in my body without anyone else being aware, and then doing so in ways that somehow still surprise me after all these years.
Quotes:
From The Plot to Seize the White House: “Finally I asked him, ‘Then, in your opinion America could definitely have become a Fascist power had it not been for General Butler’s patriotism in exploding the plot?’ ‘It certainly could have,’ (Congressman) McCormack acknowledged. ‘The people were in a confused state of mind, making the nation weak and ripe for some drastic kind of extremist reaction. Mass frustration could bring about anything.’”
General Smedley Butler, one of the greatest Americans and hero of The Plot to Seize the White House: “(War) is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses…The general public shoulders the bill: newly placed gravestones; mangled bodies; broken hearts and homes; economic instability; back-breaking taxation for generations….I had a suspicion that war was a racket, (but) not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it.” “(American boys in past wars) were made to regard murder as the order of the day…We used them a couple of years and trained them to think nothing at all of killing and being killed. Then, suddenly, we discharged them and told them to do their own readjusting…Many, too many, of these fine young boys were eventually destroyed mentally.” “The only way to smash this (war) racket is to conscript capital and industry before the nation’s manhood can be conscripted…only by taking the profit out of war…Let the officers, directors and workers of the munitions makers and the bankers be conscripted to work for the same wages of the drafted soldiers.”
Me: “There is a fine line between tough and crazy/stupid. I try never to cross that line.”
George Kennan, from Tent Life in Siberia: “I had never before realized what a proud and enviable distinction I enjoyed in being a native of our highly favoured country! I could stalk about in foreign lands with a reckless disregard for everybody’s toes, and the full assurance that the more toes I stepped on the more honour I would confer upon benighted foreigners, and the more credit I would reflect on my own benevolent disposition.” Note – he is being sarcastic.
Louis Menand, in the New Yorker: “Most people don’t like righteousness in others. They can be quite righteous about it.”
Donald Glover, in the New Yorker: “the characters aren’t smoking weed all the time because it’s cool but because they have PTSD – every black person does. It’s scary at the bottom, yelling up out of the holes, and all they shout down is, ‘Keep digging! We’ll reach God soon!’”
Wong Ping, Chinese artist, in the New Yorker: “To all righteous thinkers, perhaps it is worthwhile to spend more time considering how meaningless and powerless you are.”
Me, in a letter to Steve Coll: about the US military - “Almost everyone you come across seems to be a dedicated and quality individual, but as you rise up the ranks, it also seems every decision of consequence they make is in their own self-interest or is dominated by how it will advance or sully their careers.” AND “Presidents Obama and Bush famously said there was nothing harder than sending people into combat, but there apparently was, and admitting you made a mistake is at least one of them.” AND “Now that I am older (54), I am always discouraging young men and women from joining the armed services. The sense of discipline and camaraderie are worthwhile things to experience, but they come with the cost of having your life callously cast aside or working with psychopaths and bullies who operate without checks on their behaviors. You can get positive experiences playing on sports teams (but not football, which has similar psychopathologies and risks for long term injuries and callous treatment) that encourage only the good in humanity (I ran cross country and track in high school and college and have kept up the healthy habits to this day) rather than dealing in death and dismemberment.”
Lewis Hyde: “(The con man) is one of America’s unacknowledged founding fathers.”
The comedic genius, Jack Handey: “Crime is down, even petty crime – at least, that’s what I read in my neighbor’s newspaper. In the old days, you always had to look over your shoulder, in case you were being followed by some nut. Today, you can look straight ahead, and maybe even call out to the person walking in front of you, asking him where he’s going and where he got that shirt. But I do miss some things from before. The waitress at the café would call you ‘Sugar’ or ‘Hon,’ and the panhandler would call you ‘Buddy.’ Nowadays, I don’t think they even know your name. There are plenty of shops where you can buy a fancy, expensive cupcake, but where can you go in and have someone pull your hat down over your eyes?”
The New Yorker, author forgotten: “It may be true, as Buddhism teaches, that only when we calmly accept that everything ends, including ourselves, can we see the miracle of this world for what it really is.”
Steve Coll, in Directorate S: “Bordin’s work contained an emphatic streak of skepticism about commanding generals. (He) explored how elite governmental decision makers come to ignore or refute valid information during their deliberations in his work Lethal Incompetence: Studies in Political and Military Decision-Making. Early in his career, Bordin worried that he had been too hard on the commanders he chronicled. Later, he decided, ‘I wasn’t hard enough.’”
Demetri Martin, in This Is a Book: “CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: Terrible way to die: being stoned to death. Worse way to die: being pebbled to death. Better way to die: being bouldered to death. (Much speedier.)” AND “DICTUM: A know-it-all is a person who knows everything except for how annoying he is, Mike.” “TO THE IDIOT THE WORLD PRESENTS MANY MORE MYSTERIES”
Karl Polanyi, economic historian, paraphrased in the New Yorker: “Whenever the profit-making impulse becomes deadlocked with the need to shield people from its harmful side effects, voters are tempted by the ‘fascist solution’: reconcile profit and security by forfeiting civic freedom.”
Me: “Life is hard. Even for me, and I would have to admit my life has been ridiculously easy compared to most. Think of what it must be like to grow up on a desolate homestead in rural Africa, or poor in the USA with incarcerated parents, and most notable recently, a refugee fleeing war and violence to try to find a better life for themselves. The best way to make each of our lives better is to make everyone’s life better. This is now a realistic goal for humanity if we can only shift our priorities.”
Demetri Martin, again: in a humorous fake bio, “He had also done pioneering research in the field of historical biochemistry, recreating chemical models of famous historical figures’ breath based on their diet and ethnic origins.” AND! “The leading killer of daredevils is the ground.” “As soon as I jumped out of the airplane, I realized I had forgotten my parachute. Thank God we were still on the runway.”
The New Yorker: “For many imaginative people, artists or winemakers, life always feels like a failure seen from inside; where the rest of us can only see the accomplishments, they see the unrealized scale of the ambitions that preceded the accomplishments.” After this I typed, “Me.”
Chris Hedges, never one to tamp things down: “The true credo of the white race is we have everything, and if you try to take any of it, we will kill you.” AND: “The alt-right is bankrolled by the most retrograde forces in American capitalism. It has huge media platforms. It has placed its ideologues and sympathizers in positions of power, including law enforcement, the military, and the White House. And it has carried out acts of domestic terrorism that dwarf anything carried out by the left.” Just the usual work of authoritarians, American style, ED. AND : “Instead, rage is most often forsworn by those who seem most entitled to it, and civility is demanded by those who least deserve it.” “Surplus labor, desperate for work and too frightened to challenge the bosses, is the bulwark of corporate capitalism.”
Thanks to all who got this far and again to those who welcomed me or went with me on trips and made the most of their time with me otherwise. Keep me in mind for visits, trips and fun! I hope all of you make great decisions and can enjoy your lives in 2019!
My new address: 2221 I ST NW, #728, Washington, DC 20037. Same phone: 570-238-2084, same email: tlojrmd@gmail.com, same website:
Terence-orourkejr.squarespace.com Same youtube channel: Terence O’Rourke