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The Fog of Should

30 Jun 2016 by KRAG

It's a Trap!Last week, my wife had her 60th birthday.

So, naturally, I’ve been thinking about dying.

In the past few years, life has changed. My wife and I have buried three of our four parents, making me thoroughly cognizant of my own mortality and the fact that I will, someday, end. As a result, I’ve been reevaluating … everything … from relationships with friends and family to the mental gymnastics that, while I’ve been doing them my entire life, are merely bad habits left over from an insecure childhood.

Enter should. Continue Reading »

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , , , , | 15 Comments »

Cognitive Dissonance Resolved

23 Jun 2016 by KRAG

Dragons Ahead[Updated: 24 Jun 2016 — see postcript.]

Know how people say that no one has ever changed their mind because of an internet post?

Well prepare to be amazed, because I have an example of someone who did: me.

Often — and I’m guilty of this myself — when we encounter a posting that runs counter to our opinion it only reinforces our currently held belief. This cognitive bias has been studied repeatedly; we tend to dismiss items that refute our position and, even when faced with factual evidence that we are wrong, we tend to hold onto our opinions with even greater fervor.

In some cases, we’ll even hold two completely contradictory positions, which can lead to discomfort — cognitive dissonance — as we try to maintain our illogical stance.

This happened to me last night. Continue Reading »

Posted in Culture, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments »

#Enough

16 Jun 2016 by KRAG

Dragons AheadFrom Sunday morning until late last night, I spent my time in a vortex of pessimism.

Why? Because despite the media’s assurances, it seemed as though the massacre in Orlando had not “shocked the nation.” Rather, it seemed as though we, as a society, barely looked up from our breakfast cereal to acknowledge the tragedy. As always, we offered our thoughts and prayers, and then went to our respective corners and came out demagoguing. The Left added the cry for an assault weapons ban to their litany, and the Right responded with a full-throated chorus of “From my cold, dead hands”. The progressives blamed the NRA. The conservatives blamed the president. The president wept. Everyone talked. No one listened.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

And I lost all hope. I entered a state of despair. Continue Reading »

Posted in Culture, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments »

Pearls Before the Optimist

09 Jun 2016 by KRAG

Pike Place OverlookFor as long as I’ve held an opinion on the matter, I’ve disliked oysters.

My first experience with them was as a main ingredient in a casserole. It was a dish of unappetizing, crusty brown…something…dotted by pale, rounded, rubbery oblongs that smelled of smoke and tasted of oily tinned fish.

I did not have a second experience.

Until last Sunday.

At which point, I thoroughly revised my opinion. Continue Reading »

Posted in Food, Seattle | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

The Changing Nature of War

31 May 2016 by KRAG

I spent this Memorial Day reading about war; specifically, about the “Great War,” the First World War.

One hundred years ago, Robert Graves, fresh from school, left his home in Great Britain and went to war in France. He recounts his experiences and observations in Good-Bye to All That, lauded as one of the best memoirs of the Great War. Graves, if you don’t know of him, is best known for his biographical novel, I, Claudius (or, as we pronounce it in this house, “Eye Clav Divs,” because of the Imperial Roman font used on the BBC dramatization). If you haven’t read I, Claudius, put it on your TBR list, as it’s well worth reading.

But my intention here is not to write a review, because in reading Graves’s memoir, the thing that struck me most was how much the nature of war has changed, just in my lifetime. The public’s attitudes have changed as well, but not always for the better. Continue Reading »

Posted in Books, Culture, Politics | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments »

Until Today

25 May 2016 by KRAG

fur of satin midnight
she is ever
aloof
wary
silent
an island of comportment
her tail-wrapped feet situated primly
at the boundary of our
all-too-human bustle
amber cabochons
blink in the sunshine
observing
studying
from the doorway
from the top step
intrigued but uninvolved
present but apart
until today
when she climbs up
nestles between us
curls in close
a nebulous shadow of rumbling warmth
dozing beneath my hand

 k

Mouse Road

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments »

The Death of Sunday Night (and Monday, too)

19 May 2016 by KRAG

Chairman MeowFor the longest time, I was a show killer. Do you love a particular TV show? Well, for years, if I loved it, too, it was doomed because, as soon as I started watching it, as soon as I fell in love with the show, its had maybe a year to live before it got canceled.

I’m serious. It got so bad that I would purposefully avoid a promising new show for an entire year, just to give it a chance to catch on. But even with this strategy, if I started watching in Season Two and loved it, it still had a higher risk for cancellation. Continue Reading »

Posted in Television | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments »

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