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Christmas Day
Dec. 26th, 2022 10:04 amPleasant low-grade holiday.
I Remunerated throughout most of it.
There was a morning Zoom with the descendants of the far-flung Plunkett clan.
The SWSOITC logged in from an airport in Istanbul on his way back from a diving expedition in the Maldives.
Bruce Shoe logged in from a shipping container outside Tucson, in which he’ll be living for the next few months.
I saw Marlena and Avery for the first time since they were kids. They have become beauties.
Both my boys were on, looking sleepy.
###
In the evening, I Facetimed for an hour with just the boys:
We must get serious about planning the Guatemala trip!
###
This morning, The Wall Street Journal ran a story about how to survive holiday loneliness.
The story made me giggle.
The WSJ went to great pains to differentiate regular loneliness—" that feeling of social isolation or dissatisfaction with our level of connection”—from existential loneliness—"that alone-in-a-crowd feeling that no one understands you or relates to your experience.”
Honestly, I didn’t think they allowed people with the potential to feel existential loneliness to read The WSJ!
The WSJ sez the way to stop feeling lonely is to remind yourself that other people are lonely too and to pretend you’re connected to them! Also: Bake cookies!
Personally, I think the way to stop feeling lonely is to channel your inner Asperger’s! In fact, I envision a future 10 years from now where high-functioning individuals on the spectrum will be giving seminars and raking in the big bucks: Let Disaffection Be Your New Best Friend!
Gary Shteyngart could write a novel about it.
###
I am putting together my List of Worthy Organizations to whom to donate $$$$ to at the year’s end.
This has been a good year for me money-wise, so I will be donating more than I donated last year.
I’m donating to Médecins Sans Frontières, the National Network of Abortion Funds, and the Hudson Valley Food Bank.
I’m also giving cash to several people I know, although that one becomes a bit problematic since I don’t want these people to feel either humiliated or beholden.
Like I know Lois Lane is in desperate straits.
I can’t pay her January rent, but I can make a donation toward it.
But I don’t want her to feel awkward or weird about it.
I want her to understand: I’ve been there.
That I got out.
That she can, too.
I Remunerated throughout most of it.
There was a morning Zoom with the descendants of the far-flung Plunkett clan.
The SWSOITC logged in from an airport in Istanbul on his way back from a diving expedition in the Maldives.
Bruce Shoe logged in from a shipping container outside Tucson, in which he’ll be living for the next few months.
I saw Marlena and Avery for the first time since they were kids. They have become beauties.
Both my boys were on, looking sleepy.
###
In the evening, I Facetimed for an hour with just the boys:
We must get serious about planning the Guatemala trip!
###
This morning, The Wall Street Journal ran a story about how to survive holiday loneliness.
The story made me giggle.
The WSJ went to great pains to differentiate regular loneliness—" that feeling of social isolation or dissatisfaction with our level of connection”—from existential loneliness—"that alone-in-a-crowd feeling that no one understands you or relates to your experience.”
Honestly, I didn’t think they allowed people with the potential to feel existential loneliness to read The WSJ!
The WSJ sez the way to stop feeling lonely is to remind yourself that other people are lonely too and to pretend you’re connected to them! Also: Bake cookies!
Personally, I think the way to stop feeling lonely is to channel your inner Asperger’s! In fact, I envision a future 10 years from now where high-functioning individuals on the spectrum will be giving seminars and raking in the big bucks: Let Disaffection Be Your New Best Friend!
Gary Shteyngart could write a novel about it.
###
I am putting together my List of Worthy Organizations to whom to donate $$$$ to at the year’s end.
This has been a good year for me money-wise, so I will be donating more than I donated last year.
I’m donating to Médecins Sans Frontières, the National Network of Abortion Funds, and the Hudson Valley Food Bank.
I’m also giving cash to several people I know, although that one becomes a bit problematic since I don’t want these people to feel either humiliated or beholden.
Like I know Lois Lane is in desperate straits.
I can’t pay her January rent, but I can make a donation toward it.
But I don’t want her to feel awkward or weird about it.
I want her to understand: I’ve been there.
That I got out.
That she can, too.
