#271 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Thursday February 10)
Good morning,
A few random observations on past musings…
THE THIRD ACT
From Peter Bain, following up on my musing about our generation’s “third act”—how boomers will fashion how they live the rest of our lives. He says:
“I have taken increased notice (courtesy of some highly explicit input from my four children) of the contempt in which the Baby Boomers are held by our children’s generation. Rightly or wrongly (and I am beginning to think rightly overall), the Boomers are viewed as selfish, egomaniacal, greedy, and uncaring. Not for nothing did the mocking phrase ‘Okay, Boomer’ emerge into the general lexicon.”
Peter notes that our lives after 60 should be more focused on caring, mentoring and community engagement. He says that “it not only is entirely appropriate, but is duty.” Finally, he cites David Brooks’s recent book, The Second Mountain, as providing an excellent discussion of this topic. It also allows hiim to advance the agonizingly groaning line: “The Second Mountain is a great guide to The Third Act!”
SCIENCE IS THE CURRENT TRUTH
A friend corrected me that my recent statement that “science is truth” perhaps wasn’t entirely true. The “truth” evolves with greater knowledge. The known world evolves as observed facts present themselves and scientific knowledge expands. Science is the current best hypothesis to explain observed facts. Thankfully, as we learn more, these hypotheses are refined based upon new data and discoveries. But this is not to say that science, as currently understood, is to be ignored.
Just because the protocols for dealing with a previously unknown disease continue to evolve with better data, we ought not scoff at the current science and elect not to follow it. The science is, after all, still a better indicator of how to behave in the pandemic than is, say, listening to the ramblings of a Fox News commentator or someone “doing their own research” on the Internet.
MORE WORDS THAT ARE PAST THEIR SHELF LIFE
A while back I wrote of words that once were in the vernacular but now are seen as quaint or corny.
Kristin Shimizu Eagan offers up hunky-dory, lallygag, and dawdle, while Bruce Patterson, groovy even back in high school, likes “groovy.” Elizabeth Druschel likes “Totally rad, dude” (each of which is a bygone word all by itself). Glenn Raines likes the new spelling of “ol’ skool.”
In the meantime, it seems everybody who ever went to Loara High School in the 70s liked, still likes, and uses as often as possible, “bitchen” (although Brad McGirr notes it must be used in the right context).
Sometimes a word continues in usage but with a totally different meaning. Bob LaMeres notes that “followers” once meant “religious people.” Touche.
FINALLY, THE “INNER NERD”
Lastly, Adam Torson proved even more nerdy (and precise) than I. He noted that the Asimov story I referenced yesterday is Nightfall (I said it was Darkness). Going even one better, David Rievman decided to pull out the actual story yesterday morning, read it and then recount details in an email.
Have a totally rad day,
Glenn