Comments Posted By aaron
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I’m curious: do your kids know about — and read – this site? No opinion on whether they should or shouldn’t, just wondering. You’re open about your thoughts, experiences, etc in a way I can’t imagine my own parents being and I’m interested in the different parent-child dynamic.
» Posted By Aaron On 27/October/2018 @ 1:51 pm
My parents are set to retire in the next 1-2 years and they’re both, understandably, excited by the idea. I’m a bit concerned, though.
In addition to his current nursing job, my dad plays golf and watches TV. That’s it. Those are his main waking activities in life. My stepmom reads books and goes to the occasional craft fair or theater performance, but like my father, she doesn’t have a particularly dynamic social life. They’re also not the types to build bird houses, cultivate a garden, or take up with the local Elks Lodge.
I was raised (by the people I described above, obviously) with the underlying idea that a job was something you had to have but that you probably wouldn’t enjoy. This was never stated explicitly, but the attitude was modeled and insinuated everyday. On Monday, you count down the days until Friday. You always count down the days until your next vacation. The ultimate countdown, of course, was to retirement. The attitude was always, “How many more days until I don’t have to do whatever it is I’m doing today?”
I was well into my thirties before I realized that jobs and work, even if they are tedious and unpleasant, provide something us with something more than just money. For most of us, they are our primary social connection with the world outside of our own heads. Even more, they’re the chief means by which we are useful and of value to other people, day in and day out. The income provided by all this is necessary (my landlord has yet to accept my job’s psychic benefits in exchange for housing), but that money is more important as a signal that someone valued our role in their lives more than they valued that money. These relationships strike me as being of fundamental importance to our place in the world.
And none of this even gets into the benefits of structure and healthy stress that a job can add to our life. We’re trained – by media, our parents, etc. – to desire a life of leisure, but I’m increasingly not sure that leisure does us a whole lot of good.
None of the above is really a commentary on your situation. I’ve merely followed your site for a long time (at a guess, since 2005 or so) and have been really interested to follow your transition into retirement as I watch my parents prepare for a similar phase in their lives. So keep up the writing – it’s helpful as I think through these things.
» Posted By Aaron On 02/October/2018 @ 2:25 am
John Bradshaw is worth a read/listen, too:
https://www.npr.org/2011/05/26/136497064/the-new-science-of-understanding-dog-behavior
» Posted By Aaron On 11/July/2018 @ 11:19 pm
Can you get a pressure cooker for cheap there? I’ve taken to cooking a lot of items (beef roast, carnitas, etc) via that method that I once cooked in a slow cooker and much prefer both the outcome and the shorter cooking times.
» Posted By Aaron On 26/June/2018 @ 11:32 pm
Add this to your shopping list. Should take care of that CNN problem:
TV-B-Gone Universal TV Power Remote Control Keychain
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006GD9CE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fSPlBbQ3GDHXC
» Posted By Aaron On 24/June/2018 @ 4:11 am
As someone who went through the process with my (Korean) wife over the past year, I can only say good luck and get ready to hold your temper. USCIS f’d up and issued her the wrong visa/green card not once but twice and we only just got the correct green card about a week ago (initially approved in July 2012). Fortunately – nay, miraculously – she was able to enter the States and start her degree program without any hiccups.
» Posted By Aaron On 24/April/2013 @ 5:04 am
Good stuff.
Reminds me of the year my dad gave my mom a new set of (plastic) hubcaps for the Camry as a Christmas gift.
» Posted By Aaron On 14/December/2010 @ 6:20 pm
I have an even harder time believing he’s a Democrat.
» Posted By Aaron On 12/October/2010 @ 9:14 pm
If, like me, you’re wary of leftist governments, South America doesn’t have great track record. That said, I’d love to get to Chile – the only place down there that consistently seems to have its patos in a row.
» Posted By Aaron On 12/October/2010 @ 9:11 pm
«« Back To Stats PageSheehan’s views may not reflect the specific views of the American majority, but they do sit alongside a string of polls that show a growing public distrust of Bush and a disdain for the war. I think most Americans, however – including myself – take a view of resignation: we shouldn’t just pull out now and leave that mess to the Iraqis.
In the end, I think some of Sheehan’s critics are dismissing her too quickly. Is her vision clouded? Absolutely. But she brought the war home in a far more personal way than any other event I can remember.
I agree that her son was in Iraq as a volunteer and, as such, knew of the risks. A grieving mother, however, is prime media fodder and from a PR standpoint, Sheehan’s critics – including Bush and his “get on with my life” comments – make asses of themselves when they gnash their teeth at her.
» Posted By aaron On 22/August/2005 @ 8:42 pm