Recommended reading: first, the sensible ones.
Then it's on to someone who needs to work a bit more on her
logic skills. Someone recently wrote to
href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=104&e=2&cid=104&u=/020818/1
55/225kg.html">Ann Landers about the increasing prevalence of self-destructive
behaviors among Americans: "As we descend further and further down the slippery
slope of addictions (which include not only alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, but
shopping, gambling, overeating, sexual obsessions, and more), we are becoming a
nation so harmful to itself that terrorists need only sit back and watch us self-
destruct. How can we be truly strong and healthy as a nation when we are comprised
of individuals who are not strong and healthy?" Interesting opint, though I tend
to think it's not entirely that simple an equation.
Ann's answer
included this: "People usually engage in self-destructive behaviors because they
are trying to avoid dealing with unpleasant emotions or situations -- so they
comfort themselves with substances or behaviors that when used to excess can be
damaging." Valid so far, but that's where her logic falls short. That paragraph is
crying out for further analysis. If, for the sake of argument, you assume Ann's
right, and her correspondent is also, then those two propositions lead irrovocably
to the conclusion that Americans are experiencing an epidemic of 'unpleasant
emotions or situations'. I don't know. Maybe we're not -- maybe one or both of
those premises is untrue. But if we are, then that's a problem worth some serious
study and it might be more profitable to go to work on the root cause than to try
to treat each manifestation of symptom individually, as we have been
doing.
Sports report:
I rowed 10,500 meters
today, That's not quite 2 full laps so I'm still a weenie compared to my husband,
who's been trying to row 4 laps once a week. Ick. I have no desire to do that,
ever. The city program and the juniors were back out on the water today after
their summer hiatuses (what's the correct plural of that?) so the boatyard was
unpleasantly crowded. I've gotten spoiled lately, having to share the lake with
just a few other scullers. If I don't watch it, I'll be slacking off again, or
going to rowing on only two days. I'm going to tentatively plan to do the race in
Newport, CA, this year, just to give myself a training objective.
Slightly disappointing: when I went to check out
href="http://www.mythoslogos.net/journal/blogger.html">Mer's report that MSN
is cataloging online diaries, with blurbs about each one, I found, regrettably,
that it's true but that all Diaryland diaries are lumped together as "A community
of writers who keep online diaries." Well, I suppose.