Loose Ends 2022

Long before my disappointment with Amazon's The Rings of Power, I read two books on Tolkien this year.  Both were of a more religious than literary bent, which I don't mind but they failed to impress me as much as other scholarly writings such as Splintered Light (2002).  Still, I found each to be worthy of owning.  They privilege Tolkien's Catholicism in a way that I am sure Tolkien himself would approve.  So really understand Tolkien you have to understand his religious point of view no matter your preference for belief.

Richard L. Purtill's J.R.R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality and Religion (1984/2003) is as much a primer on how Christianity relates to The Lord of the Rings as it is anything.  Being raised a Christian and once accepted to theology school myself, I am aware that Tolkien wrote in his letters that the trilogy is basically “a Catholic work.”  This book delves deeply into that aspect of things.  It contextualizes the value of all the mythic elements in Tolkien as essentially Christian.  This is nothing new and I honestly learned very little from this work.

“So those who do not accept Christianity will see Tolkien at best as an artist giving new imaginative expression to an outmoded view of the universe.” (page 149)  This statement implies that a non-Christian (which is most of the world) is shut off from the essence of Tolkien, which I think is wrongheaded, even if Tolkien himself might have agreed with it.  I see no reason why Tolkien's values cannot be fully appreciated as they stand in the text regardless of one's religious taste.  Among those values are humility, love of nature, bravery, compassion, and, yes, sacrifice.  One does not have to be Christian to connect with any of that and all of it is a part of why I am a Tolkien lover.  See my essay on “the end of Tolkien” for more.

Peter J. Kreeft's The Philosophy of Tolkien (2005) is more insightful and beneficial.  It attempts to break Tolkien's work down into no less than 50 philosophical themes, many of which are also theological.  But there is just as much here about epistemology, history, aesthetics, language, politics and ethics that Purtill apparently doesn't deem essential.  The very use of fantasy, writes Kreeft, is a form of “...recovery.  The ability to see the natural world more clearly by dipping it in myth and strangeness...” (page 82)  This strikes me as a wonderful and highly relevant reading of Tolkien's work.

From my own experience, Tolkien strengthened my pre-existing appreciation for nature.  While I no longer question so-called “progress” the way Tolkien most certainly did, the value of approaching technology and the world created out of that with skepticism remains clear to me.  The artificiality of contemporary life should be questioned before it is accepted (to some degree) or contextualized.  It is healthy.  Tolkien taught me that and Kreeft's work highlights it among many other considerations.  If nothing else, this book proves that Tolkien's work is not ”just” a casual fantasy for entertainment.  It nourishes the mind on multiple levels.  In the end, while I am not the person I was in high school when I first read the trilogy, Tolkien has remained relatable and relevant to me through all the different selves of my life.  

I added two new CDs to my Neil Young collection this year.  Way Down In The Rust Bucket is a live concert from 1990.  I wanted this particular concert because it features the best live version of “Like a Hurricane” that I have ever heard.  The double CD set was released last year and I was able to listen to it with my Neil Young Archives subscription, which is how I discovered it was such a killer rendition of the song.  

Meanwhile, Neil Young: Carnegie Hall is from twenty years earlier and reflects the contrast in Neil compared with the other CD.  This is a live acoustic set.  I actually have a bootleg of this performance, known among Rusties as I'm Glad Y'all Came Down.  Once again, hearing it on his archives made me aware of what a difference the professional remastering of it made.  The music really pops.  This one has best version of “See the Sky About to Rain” that I've ever heard.  Even though I have listened to it on my bootleg in years past, the audio on this double CD set blew me away.

Both are fantastic documents of Neil's range in musical talent when he was at the height of his long career.  The acoustic stuff is very accessible, often tender and beautiful to hear.  The electric stuff is loud, raw and raunchy, featuring those extended “crunchy, crackling” electric guitar solos that I really enjoy.  Listening to them on my iPad through the archives app was cool but being able to really crank it up on my stereo is even better.  

Neil put out four (!) other albums late last year and throughout this year.  Three of them feature Neil with long-time collaborator Crazy Horse.  Barn, Toast, and World Record are all enjoyable to hear but I really had no desire to purchase any of them.  Streaming them on the app was enough for me.  A fourth album featuring a live performance with the more recent collaborator, Promise of the Real, was entitled Noise and Flowers and was likewise good listening but not something I wanted to add to my physical collection.  Perhaps 2022 marks the year I seriously crossed over from owning CDs to streaming music.  At any rate, my basic annual subscription to the archives is definitely a good investment that I will continue into 2023.

Kendrick Lamar finally released the follow-up to his sensational record DAMN.  Since neither MP3 nor CD formats were not an option at the time of first availability (it is a strange world), I streamed Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers on Amazon music a couple times.  It was catchy and interesting and I thought it might grow on me, but it never did.  Of course, he was doomed to produce something that could not match the magnificence of his previous album.  

Nevertheless, Kendrick's wordplay is masterful and the concept of the thing intrigued me for awhile before I moved on to other interests.  I will continue to follow his career, I like his rap style better than most of the musicless monobeat urban garbage that is out there.  I bemoan the fact that generations of young people are growing up without hearing any real music and mistaking what they hear as cool.  When they listen to actual music, say “Roundabout” (here and here) by Yes or “Comfortably Numb” (here and here) by Pink Floyd, it blows their minds.

I bought a new commercial grade Wright stand-on mower.  I still own my old Gravely to mow under trees and around tight places.  The Wright is for my open spaces and to mow areas I let grow tall due to clover or daisies or other wildflowers.  I love it.  It has twice the horse power of my old riding mower and it cuts great.  Of course, its new so you would expect that.  I also have two push mowers I use for special areas in my yard like under bushes, where the larger mowers can't go.

Every year I have five gasoline containers that I multiple times to fuel my mowers.  I took them to be filled in my old Dodge truck (1998 model) in the early spring.  We get a discount on gas at Kroger which can be up to 30 cents off per gallon depending upon how much we spend on groceries in a given month.  I filled all the containers and attempted to fill up my truck as well.  

Gas prices being what they were at the time, I reached $100 before the truck's tank was full.  I did not realize that, when using a special discount, the pump would automatically cut off at that level.  $101 exceeds the maximum allowable use of the discount.  So, I restarted the pump with another purchase on the credit card (with only a three cent discount).  All toll I spent $125 at the pump in that single filling, the most ever in my lifetime.

By coincidence my dad, brother and myself all got new air conditioning/heat pumps this year.  Dad literally had his installed on the same day he placed his order, which is kind of unheard of – they went to Chattanooga to pick up the unit that morning and had it running before sunset.  My brother had to wait a week.  His old unit wore out and he was forced to make it through several hot summer days with just portable room air conditioners.  

I was luckier.  My unit made it through the summer with the assistance of a window unit we installed.  I got my new one in the fall.  The old one was installed back in 2008.  It probably could have lasted another year or so with a lot of maintenance but it is better on my nerves to have something more reliable.  It was never impressed with that unit.  It was inferior and I was sure not to buy that brand again.  During the recent cold snap the new unit performed superbly, handling temperatures in the teens, which surprised me.  When it dropped below 10 degrees, however, I had to switch to emergency heat mode, but that's to be expected.

Amidst reading all that Dostoevsky this year I watched two movie versions of Anna Karenina (one, two).  I have never read that great novel by Tolstoy.  I might get around to it one day but my intention was and is to return to War and Peace again.  So, I thought I'd get enough of the other story out of these different films, which I guess I did.  Of course, it isn't at all the same as reading the prose.  But I am definitely more familiar with the main characters and the story by now without having 1,000 more pages to read.

Part of additional reading time went to finishing a book by Mary-Jane Rubenstein that I started early last year.  I have Strange Wonder on kindle and it is not uncommon for me to get 25% of the way into a book and just let it sit there for months as I turn my attention elsewhere.  I have a great interest in the subject of wonder and the importance of a sense of wonder to our well-being.  But when I think of wonder I think of inspiration, being awestruck, something like that.

Rubenstein takes an different approach, which is part of the reason it took me so long to continue on to the end.  For her, wonder is something astonishing, such that: “...an everyday assumption has suddenly become untenable: the familiar has become strange, throwing even the unquestionable into question.  Wonder, then, comes on the scene neither as a tranquilizing force nor as a kind of will-toward-epistemological domination, but rather as a profoundly unsettling pathos.” (page 3)

That is unsettling to say the least and not at all what I was expecting.  I have never in my life viewed wonder as something threatening, to be taken cautiously.  She proceeds through a wealth of philosophical detail that includes Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida to show that wonder is both “terror and amazement, horror and admiration” among a host of other intense opposites.  She never mentions H.P. Lovecraft, of course, but this is precisely the type for “wonder” that his horror stories conjure.

I don't know what to think of Rubenstein's perspective.  I learned a great deal from Strange Wonder but its approach not exactly my experience with the subject.  I appreciate having my perspective challenged and broadened by Rubenstein.  I have admired her work for couple of years now.  Presently, her work is devoted to a critical assessment of the corporate space development, of all things, which presents another opportunity for me to learn.  Apparently, she is opposed to private space development, manufacturing on the Moon, the mining of Asteroids and such.  That baffles me.  I will continue to follow her as I become aware of her efforts.  But her dialectic view is not what I mean by “wonder.”   

Since Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse was part of the inspiration for Close to the Edge, which I reviewed here, I decided to reread it.  When Jennifer and I married and merged our (then) modest book collection Siddhartha was the only book we both owned.  I read it before I went to India.  I don't recall reading since though I have probably skimmed it a time or two.  Reading it this time made me aware of the distance between then and now.  As Tennessee Williams wrote: “Time is the longest distance between two places.”

When I read it back in the 1980's it seemed profound.  This time, I found it to be very basic, which may have been Hesse's intent.  It is a good beginner's book for someone setting out on spiritual exploration.  It seems rather simple to me today.  This is something worth remembering, though.  “Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom.  One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.”  The book is filled with little fortune cookie nuggets like this which make it a must-read for anyone seeking a broaden their awareness.  Stuff like this recalls my distant past self.  So wide-eyed and eager.  It makes for a good refresher but it isn't especially insightful to me now. That which was once deep is now merely obvious.

What else?  There as a shortage of Jif peanut butter in 2022.  It is my favorite brand of peanut butter and this was a bit of a bummer.  There was a massive recall of it due to salmonella in some production lots.  I had to go almost a couple of months without it.  I know that sounds petty and whiny with all the actual suffering there is in the world.  I don't mean it that way.  It is just a statement of fact.  It reminded me that even in this land of abundance you can suddenly, unexpectedly have to go without.

I managed not to read a single word about the Johnny Depp divorce trial.  Nor have I paid any attention whatsoever to the escapades of Prince Harry and Megan Markle.  This type of trash filled the news in 2022.  Actually, this rubbish consumes far too much of our cultural time and attention.  I am thankful I can filter it out.  In a way it makes me angry to see all this attentive energy wasted on matters that are truly petty.  You might as well turn my whining about the absence of Jif from store shelves into national news.  It is not important.  Harry particularly strikes me as a pathetic, tragic consequence of his overly privileged upbringing and subsequent pathological media focus.

In terms of personal well-being, I continue to fine-tune my diet and supplements.  I stopped drinking coffee and almost entirely stopped drinking alcohol (I had a ceremonious flute of champagne on Christmas Day).  Instead of my usual strong Sumatra brew, I start the day with green tea (which I also take in extract form later in the day).  Along with this, I added resveratrol as a supplement.  Green tea and reseveratrol both contain compounds that help reduce plaque build-up in your brain, among other health benefits.  My success with Alpha-GPC (mentioned in last year's lose ends post) continues to impress me.  Memories of my dreams are more vivid.  I can recall specific details of dreaming for the first time in many decades.  I feel it also helps with my concentration during waking hours.  For me, it is an astonishing supplement.

Not every well-being tweak works, of course.  Everyone's different.  I tried time restricted eating (aka intermittent fasting) for about 10 weeks.  Several studies show that eating all the time whenever you want to is actually pretty bad for your health.  Breaking your eating into a “time window” is supposed to be healthier.  I actually was a 17 – 7 guy. I ate only between 1pm and 8pm and fasted for 17 hours (which included sleep time).  

It was a challenge at first but my body soon adjusted, sort of.  I became accustomed to the eating window but after about five weeks I started losing weight dramatically.  I am a thin guy and didn't have much to lose.  But I continued on.  Weeks later fatigue set in.  I did not have the energy I needed for working on my property and for exercise.  I lost over 20 pounds which is way too much for me.  So, I started adding more calories to my eating window.  That stabilized the weight loss but the fatigue remained.   That's when I concluded that this approach was not healthy in my case.  

I have regained 15 of the 20 pounds lost and feel a lot better.  I might try occasional fasting in the future.  There is just a wealth of evidence that the stress of not eating, of going hungry for a few hours at a time, is beneficial to longevity among other things.  I'm sure this method is great for a lot of people, especially those wanting to lose weight.  My friend Jeffery, who is heavier set that I am, had success with it and lost a lot of extra weight without experiencing any of the negative effects I had.  But persistent time restricted eating is not for me.

On Flipboard I have added a couple of new e-magazines this year.  I've previously mentioned Putin's Ukraine Gambit, covering the war in Ukraine and its geopolitical consequences.  I also added Notice: Classical Music.  I already had Notice: Music for many years which covers all forms of rock, pop, rap/hip-hop, country, jazz, international and so forth.  But classical music is distinctive enough for me to deserve a separate treatment.  Overall, I'm approaching 94,000 followers as the year ends.  Check out my profile to see my large spectrum of personal interests.  The some of my formatting choices work best on your tablet, so get the app.

I have resolved in 2023 to reread War and Peace, which I already started in late November.  It will take me awhile to complete it.  It is several hundred pages longer than anything Dostoevsky wrote.  The absence of probing psychology, however, makes it easier to read, though the novel is weighty in its own way.  I also have a hankering to revisit all 104(!) symphonies of Franz Joseph Haydn.  I have never listened to them from start to finish, so that would be a bit of a new adventure.  Also, I'm ready to see some great art.  Jennifer and I plan a trip to New York City for that purpose at some point in the new year.  Lastly, I will recommit myself to the cultivating the practice of Tai Chi.  There is no excuse for not doing so at my age.  If nothing else, balance and stretching are essential if I wish to remain active for another 20 – 25 years.  Just do it.  Onward!