Well, this is my birthday--ugh! ("Barfday" might be more descriptive.) However, I feel fine, look okay for my doddering self, and am looking forward to a family gathering today.
Was pretty busy yesterday. Made two recipes of "Nana Mix" to give Joel and Jen, plus made "sweet and spicy pecans." Think I'll give the ones in a pretty container to Susan; she and Walter are going north to her daughter's for Christmas.
Went out and bought a Christmas tree. Most of them were so humungous I couldn't go for them, but I managed to get a five-footer. Joel will pick it up for us and the nursery guy will trim it so it fits in the stand. (We may be the only people on the eastern seaboard who still buy a live Christmas tree.) I know, I know, the artificial ones are more symetrical, they're already equipped with lights, they don't shed, they're beautiful, and so on and on. I don't give a damn. In this plastic world, I want something that speaks of nature--0r at least, NOT commercialism gone nuts.
Wider: Continuing to read Morris Berman's book, I find it ominous, frightening, and--unfortunately--right on the mark. He asks rhetorically, "Would our penchant for aggression have been any less if Kerry had been elected?" Sadly, his conclusion is no, not in the long run, but it may have been marginally lessened. (These are paraphrases.)
Early on, Berman points out the seeming inability of Americans to give up their game and celebrity fixations to allow even a low level of serious intellectual activity. It seems to me the universality of television marks the truth of this belief. It's everywhere! It's hard to find a doctor's waiting room without one--or two--and many supermarkets have several. Wal-Mart has one at each check-out. I don't often go into many other stores, so I'm sure I'm missing some. What's much, much worse is, I understand, the routine introduction of television into classrooms, from kindergarten (and, for all I know, nursery school) up to college. No matter where you go, it seems, the constant din of plastic people making mindless noise, is going to follow. It makes me crazy.
But I'm going to enjoy my birthday, anyway.