Sunday wrap-up

Sorting through CDs and clothing accompanied by an Oxygen Network America's Next Top Model marathon (Season 7 if you must know. I think this might be the best season I've ever seen). Since I'm about as disinterested in fashion as could be, I can't explain why I find this show compelling. But it works almost as well as football for housecleaning.

New favorite television series - still Breaking Bad. It's on tonight on AMC, thus the plug. Beautifully filmed in a way that you rarely see on TV. Bryan Cranston's multi-layered performance is a revelation. And the entire premise of the series for me, seems incredibly relevant in today's America, a country that truly seems adrift.

Speaking of, I've been in a notably cranky mood as of late. I should avoid political discussions when I'm in this mood. I got into it with one fellow who was arguing that if a lowering of living standards in the US resulted in a raising of those standards in China and India and elsewhere in the world, well, you could make the case that this was overall a good thing.

It's not that I disagree, intellectually. It was the way he argued it, with a smirk and an amused detachment, particularly when we'd been talking about the job loss and pain caused by the economic crisis in this country.

I was feeling anything but detached. I said something like, well, that's easy for you to say from your position of privilege. And you have a kid - you're telling me you want that for him?

He couldn't really answer me, when I put it that way.

Meanwhile his six year old boy was goofing around and making faces in the background, more than ready to go home.

What I figured out later is that though intellectually I could agree, and on every level I want to see living standards raised around the world, that there's no excuse for the extremes of poverty and wealth on this planet, the hard part is, we live in an actual place, not in an ideal. We have neighbors, we have communities, physical spaces in which we reside. If our neighbors and our communities are hurting, it's a hard thing to intellectualize.

Writing: it goes. Slowly. But it goes. Whether it's good or not, I'm not sure. I'm just trying to turn out the words regardless.