As time matzahs on, I’ve had a ball at many seders and many baseball games at Fenway park in Boston.
I look forward to your comments, with or without matzahs or puns.
So matzah thanks to Ellen, her spouse Linda, my cousin Lani, Michael, my late father, my late mother, dramaramasam, everybody else who helped me write this “Time Matzahs On” post and — of course! — everybody who matzahs over to this blog to read it, including YOU.
Words can be weapons and so can a lot of other things. Maybe that’s why I keep hearing the word “weaponize,” which is defined at merriamwebster.com as follows:
Definition of weaponize
weaponized; weaponizing
transitive verb
: to adapt for use as a weapon of war
Recent Examples of weaponize from the Web:
Facebook, in particular, has come under fire for its partnership with Philippine President Rodrigue Duterte, who has weaponized the social media site to attack his critics.
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Alex Shephard, The New Republic, “Facebook Has a Genocide Problem,” 15 Mar. 2018
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Sinclair explicitly weaponizes local TV news’ reputation for impartiality to amplify White House talking points.
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Eric Levitz, Daily Intelligencer, “Local News Anchors Are Being Forced to Deliver Pro-Trump Propaganda,” 8 Mar. 2018
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Hertzberg said in January that foes were attempting to weaponize the allegations against him to kill his effort to overhaul the money bail system in California.
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Taryn Luna, sacbee, “Hugging banned for California lawmaker after harassment investigation | The Sacramento Bee,” 8 Mar. 2018
With all the real weapons in the word, I can’t imagine why so many other things need to be weaponized. Personally, I was hoping that definition would include an antonym, but it doesn’t (and neither does any other definition of “weaponize”).
Is it weaponizing my blog to clearly state that I’m against weaponization and for the opposite? For now, let’s call that”deweaponization” or maybe just “peace.”
I heard the word “weaponize” on the news yesterday morning and for the rest of the day, I tried to deweaponize by taking these photos.
YouTube has been weaponized with videos like “How to Weaponize Fidget Spinners,” “How to Weaponize IKEA pencils,” “How to Weaponize Trash,” “How to Weaponize Duct Tape,” “How to Weaponize a Beard,” and “How to Weaponize Business Cards.” I’m deweaponizing with this:
I’m also deweaponizing with gratitude for all who helped me with today’s blog post and — of course! — for YOU.
Despite my commitment to creating a daily blog post for the past nineteen hundred and thirteen days (but who’s counting?), I have written only one prior blog post about commitments. That was over four years ago, when I had made a commitment to blog daily for one year. At the end of 2013, I decided to expand the commitment to blog daily for as long as I could.
When things are getting in the way of your doing something, it can help to make a commitment to yourself or to others. For example, I’ve been having trouble committing to doing my taxes, so last Sunday I made this commitment to myself:
From now on, I shall work on my taxes one hour every day.
Because I have a commitment to the truth, I’ll tell you that after making that commitment I decided that commitment wouldn’t start until the next day However, I have honored that commitment every day since. And that commitment has helped me
work on my taxes,
leave room for other things in my life, and
let go of worry, angst, and other painful thoughts and feelings about taxes.
I’m not sure why I have a yearly commitment to feeling bad about taxes, but I’ve committed to writing other blog posts about that here, here, herehere.here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. While I made a commitment to link to those many other taxing blog posts I don’t expect anybody to make the commitment to reading all of them.
However, here’s a commitment that’s easier to fulfill — looking at my photos from yesterday. Let’s see if any of them show commitments.
I’m so happy I made a commitment last year to moving near the water.
Is there something you’re having trouble doing, here and now? Take a moment and ask yourself, “What’s getting in the way?”
Is fear part of the answer?
What’s getting in the way of us getting fear out of the way?
What’s getting in the way of my sharing my photos today? What’s getting in the way is my fear that I have only four new photos and 25% of of them include language that might get in the way.
Nothing is getting in the way of my finding two “Gettin’ in the Way” songs on YouTube (here and here).
What’s getting in the way of your leaving a comment?
Nothing is getting in the way of my expressing my thanks to all who helped me get out of my own way to create today’s blog post and — of course! — to YOU.
Perhaps some of you are jumping to the conclusion that I’m writing about jumping to conclusions today because of something that jumped out at me yesterday.
I wonder if there are any conclusions or jumping in my other photos from yesterday.
With all those bunnies jumping out at us, we might jump to the conclusion that Easter is approaching.
I jumped to the conclusion that cats would be in that box and in that card holder, but they weren’t. However, cats were nearby.
This is always on my mind about jumping to conclusions: sometimes we’re right and sometimes we’re not. Let’s not jump to the conclusion that our conclusions are always right and other people’s conclusions are always wrong.
If jumping to conclusions really burned calories, I wouldn’t be gaining weight from eating delicious food.
If you jumped to the conclusion that Michael made salmon last night, your conclusion would be correct.
Has anybody jumped to the conclusion about what music we’ll be jumping to now?
In conclusion, thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and to you — of course! — for jumping to my blog today.
Often, near the end of an important encounter (like a therapy group), I’ll ask people, “What’s left unsaid?”
Yesterday, near the end of a visit with a dear friend and fellow group therapist who has a terminal illness, I asked, “What’s left unsaid?” She and her husband said, “Well, you could come back, you know.” I was so glad that was said that I immediately said, “When can I come back?” and we scheduled another visit in April.
What’s left unsaid, for you, with other people? I’ve said this before: “Say what’s left unsaid, because you don’t know if you’ll get another chance to say it.”
You are in therapy with me. If that is the case, there might be Too Much Information in this blog, which could interfere with the important work we are doing together. If you are in individual and/or group therapy with me, I strongly recommend we have a conversation about this.
Yesterday, Bernadette at Tufts Medical Center was around me.
We talked about what was around us at work and with our families. When I asked her if she wanted to appear in my blog (where I document what’s around me), she said, “Sure!”
I showed her the other photos I had just taken around her.
She said, “Those are great! Where did you find them?” When I told her they were around her, she was all shook up. “Really? I’ve never noticed them!” We talked about how often we don’t notice what’s around us. We both resolved to not worry, be happy, and notice what’s around us.
Here’s what was around me for the rest of the day:
People I love keep telling me to take things with a grain of salt, even though I should be restricting my salt intake.
If you don’t know the meaning of the idiom “a grain of salt,” take this!
“(With) a grain of salt”, (or “a pinch of salt”) is an idiom of the English language, which means to view something with skepticism or not to interpret something literally.
Hypotheses of the phrase’s origin include Pliny the Elder‘s Naturalis Historia, regarding the discovery of a recipe for an antidote to a poison.[2] In the antidote, one of the ingredients was a grain of salt. Threats involving the poison were thus to be taken “with a grain of salt”, and therefore less seriously.
The phrase cum grano salis (“with a grain of salt”) is not what Pliny wrote. It is constructed according to the grammar of modern European languages rather than Classical Latin. Pliny’s actual words were addito salis grano (“after having added a grain of salt”).
An alternative account says that the Roman general Pompey believed he could make himself immune to poison by ingesting small amounts of various poisons, and he took this treatment with a grain of salt to help him swallow the poison. In this version, the salt is not the antidote. It was taken merely to assist in swallowing the poison.
The Latin word salis means both “salt” and “wit”, so that the Latin phrase “cum grano salis” could be translated as both “with a grain of salt” and “with a grain (small amount) of wit”. The phrase is said “with a pinch of salt” in British English and said “with a grain of salt” in American English.
These days, we could all use grains of wit, salt, and other antidotes to poisons.
Lately, I’ve been encouraged to take gloomier forecasts about my rotator cuff injury with grains of salt. Those grains of salt are more helpful than rubbing salt in that wound.
Also, I should have taken yesterday’s forecasts about a “four-easter” in Boston with a grain of salt. I woke up early to find very little snow on the ground, which means fewer grains of salt on the highways and byways today.
Michael, who sometimes tells me to take things with a BIG grain of salt, just said, “I don’t think there’s going to be anything to shovel, baby. If you need any help with your car, wake me up.”
What do you take with a grain (or a pinch) of salt? Any of these photos?
You may take this with a grain of salt, but I think New England ducks have fun in the salt water.
There are at least three “Grain of Salt” songs on YouTube (here, here, and here).
I look forward to the grains of comments about today’s post.
Grainy thanks to all who helped me write today’s salty post and — of course! — to YOU.
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 