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In Which I Ramble Mightily
Aug. 21st, 2011 02:59 pm I was trying to go to a barrel tasting/bottling/farm tour in Napa today, but I managed to screw that up somehow (I don't know if I went to the wrong place or got the time wrong or what, but clearly mistakes were made. By me, I am pretty sure) so I salvaged the driving time by going shopping at Whole Foods. The one in Napa might be the closest one to me, an dit is certainly the closest one I can get to without having to pay a bridge toll, so it is kind of surprising that I haven't been to it before, but I haven't. That made me all wistful and sad. Whole Foods was our regular grocery in NO, and for some reason we'd shop there together more often than not (whereas one or the other of us might run to Winn Dixie, or Raley's or TJs out here) so being amongst all the familiar signage and what not hit me with the sense memories pretty hard.
Anyway, in my driving around I was listening to To The Best Of Our Knowledge, as I generally do. I had years of backlog of TTBOOK piled up in iTunes, for some reason, and so it has become my standard driving podcast (if I try to listen to the same podcasts on different iPods, as I would have to do for switching between some activities, I get lost and frustrated. If I was actually ever caught up I suspect this would be less of a problem, but while I am slogging through extensive backlog certain activities get certain podcasts. And listening to music while I drive is, frankly, dangerous so the radio is right out). I find it highly uneven, some episodes are practically unlistenable or make me very angry, but others are great, it just depends on who they are talking to.
The one that came on today was "A Good Death?" (from 2008, you see what I mean about backlog?) which I'm sure added to my melancholy mood. In one of the segments, the interviewee mentioned that the big question (or a big question, or maybe just a question, I wasn't listening all that closely, really, there was traffic to be negotiated) is once we realize we have this limited span of life how do we not waste any of it? Which is one of the things I think about a lot, though for me it takes the form of 'What is important?'.
I have to bull my way past my first response, which is that nothing is intrinsically important, really. "If nothing we do matters, then all that matters i what we do" has never meant anything to me.
So, okay, there's relative importance, which is fine and a helpful concept, but there are so many options to be weighed and so few guiding principals emerging it's looking like a bot of an endless process. And is that an important thing to be putting my energy into? Who knows!
In conclusion, I have not reached any conclusions. You see why I don't have a good answer when some asks what I've been up to?
Anyway, in my driving around I was listening to To The Best Of Our Knowledge, as I generally do. I had years of backlog of TTBOOK piled up in iTunes, for some reason, and so it has become my standard driving podcast (if I try to listen to the same podcasts on different iPods, as I would have to do for switching between some activities, I get lost and frustrated. If I was actually ever caught up I suspect this would be less of a problem, but while I am slogging through extensive backlog certain activities get certain podcasts. And listening to music while I drive is, frankly, dangerous so the radio is right out). I find it highly uneven, some episodes are practically unlistenable or make me very angry, but others are great, it just depends on who they are talking to.
The one that came on today was "A Good Death?" (from 2008, you see what I mean about backlog?) which I'm sure added to my melancholy mood. In one of the segments, the interviewee mentioned that the big question (or a big question, or maybe just a question, I wasn't listening all that closely, really, there was traffic to be negotiated) is once we realize we have this limited span of life how do we not waste any of it? Which is one of the things I think about a lot, though for me it takes the form of 'What is important?'.
I have to bull my way past my first response, which is that nothing is intrinsically important, really. "If nothing we do matters, then all that matters i what we do" has never meant anything to me.
So, okay, there's relative importance, which is fine and a helpful concept, but there are so many options to be weighed and so few guiding principals emerging it's looking like a bot of an endless process. And is that an important thing to be putting my energy into? Who knows!
In conclusion, I have not reached any conclusions. You see why I don't have a good answer when some asks what I've been up to?
