A Week With a Fox

Remember Isaiah Berlin’s notion of the difference between a Hedgehog and a Fox? The hedgehog does one thing very well, like building a hegehog fence. The fox does lots of different things, some well and some just so-so. I have always felt like I fall into the latter category. Now that’s both a curse and a blessing. This week is a good example:

1. Kate and I went to Broadway to see a play, “Mary Stuart” by Fredrick Schiller, a German poet circa 1700. The play is about the struggle between two women for the crown of England. Schiller was one of my father’s favorite poets. Beethoven used a poem of his for the 9th symphony. He was a champion of freedom. I think that was the idea of the play, two women caught up in the struggle for power. Stuart is held prisoner for 19 years to make sure she does not win the crown from Elizabeth. Underneath the struggle for power there are the Protestant men who don’t want the Catholic men and the Pope telling them what they can and can’t do. The women are caught up in different power groups vying for control.

2. Sunday night we are watching 60 Minutes. There is a segment on the Drone pilotless aircraft and hosted by a new young “glamorous” reporter, Lara Login. She is in absolute awe of this wonderful new weapon of war that can be flown anywhere in the world. It is controlled from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. It can dump its bombs, kill a lot of people, and return home without a soldier getting scratched. Lara thinks it’s just so nifty that we don’t need any pilots to risk their lives while the bombs are falling. I am beginning to seethe. Don’t they know that it has also killed lots of civilians who just happen to be near the target zone!? All 60 Minutes had to do was go on Google and ask, how many civilians are killed by Drones? Over 516 known. And we wonder why people in the Middle East don’t like us?

I’m up half the night sending e-mails to 60 Minutes asking whatever happened to serious reporting? Or are we just going to be subject to obsequious, glamorous women asking cute questions?

3. Before getting to sleep I notice that the outdoor front censor light is staying on. It is suppose to only be on when there is motion in front of it and go off after 5 minutes. I trace the circuits to see what could be causing the malfunction and decide the car parked in front of it is reflecting light; confusing the signal. I move the car, the light goes out. Thinking about the photo electric cell in the motion light, I remember Einstein played a major role in its invention. Back to bed to try get some sleep.

4. Next morning I wake up thinking about drawers on a writing desk I am making in the shop. Assembling the parts is always the most telling part of furniture making. The drawers are not sliding smoothly. Take off a little here, a little there, and finally we are on a smooth ride. Then I think about finishing. What kind of stain, varnish, or maybe a wax finish? We’ll see.

5. I want to do a blog on Social Security (SS). I get so mad when I hear the pundits with their dire predictions of when SS is going to run out of money. The Government in Washington has been taking money out of the SS trust fund for the last 25 years. Remember the 2000 campaign when Gore and Bush were promising the SS lock-box. It never ever happened. Okay, so you want to know how much the Government owes SS? How about 2.2 trillion dollars! Put that money back in and we have many more years to go before it would run out of money. Funny how we could get up all the dough in a hurry to bail out the banks, but we don’t seem to be able to put the money the government stole or borrowed back in the SS. trust fund.

6. I am reading the Atlantic Monthly article on “Happiness.” It is based on an extensive lifetime study of men and what they did with their lives. It’s very interesting, but I will have to put off commenting because I need to go back and take a look at what others have had to say on the many subjects covered in the piece.

7. It’s morning. The sun is shining. Time to cut the grass. The damm lawn mower battery is dead. What could be draining it? I figure there has to be a grounded wire somewhere. Spend the next hour checking each and every circuit. Ahaa, here it is. A wire with the insulation ripped off needs to be replaced. Recharge battery, put in new wire, and off we go.

8. I have started on a series of poems about life in the early 20th century for my great-grandson Soren. It’s not pressing for him since I am sure he’s very smart and it’s going to be some time before he’s reading. But I am never sure how much time I have, so there’s the pressure to get it done.

9. Keep playing the guitar and singing otherwise you lose it. Especially the hands are getting stiff from arthritis and your vocal chords need exercise same as your legs.

An old therapist friend said I suffered from a “divine curiosity syndrome and that can be a blessing or a curse.” For sure it doesn’t make sleeping easy. So goes the life of a Fox. Sometimes I wish I was a Hedgehog and just did one thing perfectly.

Thanks Kate. N.H.W.Y. (Even when she has a nasty cold.)