Here and now, I’m watching the lunar eclipse through my window. As I watch the moon disappear, I know it will reappear again. I wish I felt that confident about eroding rights in the USA.
Later today, I’ll be watching people in remote therapy sessions and at my local polling place. In the evening, I’ll be watching the news after the polling places close. Depending upon the results, I might take a mental health break by watching Joan, who seems to spend a lot of time watching me.
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Here are other things I’ve been watching lately:
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I’m hoping that many Daily Bitches (like me) are voting in this election.
Here’s the first thing that shows up when I search YouTube for “what I’m watching.”
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I’m watching those I love with gratitude, including you.
Last night, I asked hundreds of people on Twitter, who have never met me, what I should watch.
Several people suggested that I watch other musical documentaries and other productions related to the Beatles. The suggestions included some of my favorite movies including A Hard Day’s Night, Help, This is Spinal Tap, and Stop Making Sense.
I loved this suggestion about what I should watch …
… and I loved this suggestion, too.
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Today’s images include other things I’ve been watching.
This morning, I asked Google the question, “Why do we care about celebrities?” I found several online answers as I read this article and this one, too. As I expected, the articles cited empathy, the need to connect, and an antidote to loneliness. Both mentioned positive and negative aspects of caring about celebrities.
Personally, I’ve noticed my caring about celebrities ever since I cried uncontrollably at my school locker when Bobby Kennedy was shot in 1968. In retrospect, I think that sobbing was
a collective response to all the assassinations in the 60’s,
empathy for his children (I remember that being my main thought at the time), and
a “safer” and more distanced way to feel my grief about some personal losses, including my many hospitalizations, operations, and unexamined traumas due to my heart problems.
Since then, I have deeply cared about other celebrities, including Gene Kelly, the Beatles, Davy Jones, Mel Brooks, Pat Metheny, Bonnie Raitt, Jackie Chan, Prince, Clay Aiken, Stephen Sondheim, and many more. I have theories about why I’ve cared about each one of those people, who are all musical, funny and/or underdogs and who somehow speak to something in me. For example, I “figured out” my obsession with Jackie Chan — who often creatively uses common props at hand as he fights off many people with his martial arts and acrobatic skills — when I realized that I had an image of myself grabbing an I.V. pole when I was a kid in the hospital and fighting off people there to escape from the pain I experienced. Also, more simply, Gene Kelly looks like my my father, whom I miss every day. And Clay Aiken, who was an underdog on American Idol, has a clear, soaring tenor voice, as did my dad.
I am also thinking about this question because my son Aaron, my husband Michael, and I finished watching “The Beatles: Get Back” last night, and I was noticing (1) how the Beatles are so familiar to me that they feel like friends or family and (2) I couldn’t look at John Lennon without thoughts and feelings about his murder in 1980.
Do you see caring about celebrities in my images for today?
Do you care about St. Nicholas and other celebrities?
Today’s blog is brought to you by my mind and by The Daily Bitch Calendar.
Yesterday, my mind tried to set Twitter on fire with flying thoughts about popular proverbs and other matters:
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My mind was very occupied facilitating two Coping and Healing therapy groups yesterday, so I hope you don’t mind that I have only three photos of the outdoors to share today.
Are you going to leave a comment? Whatever works for you.
it works for me to express my thanks to all who helped me create this whatever-works post and — of course! — to YOU, for your time, effort, great energy, and whatever!!
Here’s a meaningful thought: This is my first post in many years of daily blogging that’s been explicitly meaningful. I mean, I’ve written four previous posts focusing on meaning (here, here, here, and here), but never one with the word “Meaningful” in the title.
It’s meaningful to me where “meaningful” comes from today:
I saw that meaningful poem last night in the window of a shop in Brookline, Massachusetts. Apparently, that store held a meaningful contest for meaningful children to write meaningful poems, including these:
All of the images in today’s blog post are meaningful to me — otherwise I wouldn’t have taken them. However, one seems particularly meaningful to me, here and now.
Which one of those photos do you think is most meaningful to me? Even more meaningful, which photos are most meaningful to 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.
First, I notice that today is the first of the month.
Second, I will share, for the first time, the first photo of this post.
Here are the first and second questions I had when I first saw that box:
How did Michael decide which knick-knacks were secondary?
Where the hell is the other box of knick-knacks?
It’ll take me just a second to share some other photos for the first time.
First comes peace. Will anybody second that?
Here are the first and second songs that come to my mind:
What do the firsts and seconds in this post mean to you?
It’s not a first for me to end with gratitude. First, thanks to all who helped me create today’s post. Second, special thanks to you — of course! — for being here, now.
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The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 