Previous - 89. A Holiday Miracle
Money and time
Yesterday I was reading an excellent article about spacetime -- actually rereading it, as I find some of these concepts hard to grasp, which is why I doubt I will ever understand Quantum Chromodynamics in this lifetime. (HERE's the link. This is about why the dimensions are most commonly expressed as 3 +1, rather than 4. ) But today I was thinking about moneytime, which is really the relationship between money and time.I enjoy imagining what I would do if I won the lotto for a variety of different amounts -- with smaller amounts I tend to be practical, but with larger amounts you have the option of doing really interesting things. It occurred to me that this was in a way analogous to thinking about what you would do if you knew you only had a year or a month or a week or a day to live. In the latter case, time takes on the value of money and becomes more precious the less there is, while what you would do with it also becomes more practical.
If I had $100 million I would want to build something interesting. If you had a year you might want to travel. I might even want to travel, though by train and to places I already knew I enjoyed... that's just the way I roll.
On the other hand, if I only had $10,000 I would get a really nice, zero-gravity chair and eat out more often. And if I only had a day to live... well that would be tricky. Being me, I would want to at least make detailed notes about what I wanted done with my assets and stuff -- since there wouldn't be time to actually deal with it all. Your first thought would be to do all the things you most enjoy, for me that would be favorite breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But I know from previous birthday celebrations, that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. I would probably just contact friends (though how to do this without freaking them out could be challenging) and have a very pleasant day featuring my favorite place to eat. If my last day was a Monday, when my favorite restaurant is closed, I would at least be able to enjoy that final irony. And then I would fall back on another favorite place. I don't know what I would want to read, if anything. Also, these are all hypotheticals, so I really can't swear by any of my thoughts on these subjects. My reality could be completely different and surprising.
Trump
A random insight: Trump's core supporters are very much like the West Bank Settlers in the Middle-east. This came from reading about his interest in Salvadorian gangs on Long Island.I once read an interesting piece on early West Bank settlers and almost all of them were Jews who had been driven out of Brooklyn (or was it the Bronx?) by Blacks. That had been a frustrating "war" they couldn't fight with guns, so they were very eager for this new fight that they could fight with guns. The Palestinians were substitutes for African Americans.
The other interesting thing about Trump's aggressive anti-gang talk is that it is exactly the kind of pack leader posturing that I believe is behind (possibly subconsciously) many voter's inability to vote for a woman President. They want Trump to lead their pack against other hostile packs, and gangs are precisely that -- even more than nations are.
I would actually be relieved if Trump would devote this pent up level of violence against gangs and cults like ISIS. We could even cooperate with Russia (and Iran) in the ISIS battle which would be desirable from the point of view of attempting to avoid nuclear annihilation.
Random and annoying
So I'm sitting in the window at the Pine Street Peet's with my Chromebook open in front of me (because the WiFi is dead slow) and Absalom open in my hand, which I'm reading while waiting for my email to load, when this guy comes up and interrupts me with this convoluted story, involving Meyer Lansky and all these "facts" that I can confirm with the staff, and after I get a bit tired of it and urge him to get to the point while advising him that I can't imagine a situation in which I would give him anything, he reveals that he wants $25. There's some situation where I might be the one who gets millions of dollars from him later, that I couldn't make any sense of. I told him I didn't really want the ten million and that he should share it with someone else. He then told me my computer was controlling my mind and ruining my soul. I was tempted to say, "Not with this crappy WiFi."
He was very disappointed -- both in me, as he had gifted me with a very generous and honorable soul, which I had then belied, and for himself since I think he saw the $25 as already being his, but I was holding it for him and then welshed. It really was an involved and clever scheme. Thirty years ago he would have gotten something from me just for the originality of it. Not now.
He didn't let disappointment slow him down though, he was instantly hitting up a woman sitting near me. I couldn't hear if it was the same spiel, though I'm sure it was, and I got caught up in Absalom and didn't notice how he made out with that fish.
Absalom
Chapter VII: So Charles Bon was Sutpen's son by his first wife in Haiti?! Should I have seen that coming? It does explain why Sutpen went to the trouble of uncovering Bon's situation in New Orleans. So the Octoroon wife was a blind, but did Henry know this?
It is such a teasing but brilliant way to tell a tale.
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