This headline should come as no surprise to anyone. Today’s politicians are only interested in maintaining their own power, not in what are the heartfelt interests of their constituents. No sooner after they’ve been elected, their primary focus is on getting re-elected, by hook or by crook. And sadly, it’s been this way for several decades, with politicians ignoring society’s ebb and flow in pursuit of political self-interests.
Written for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (headline), E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (heartfelt), My Vivid Blog (several), Word of the Day Challenge (ebb), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (flow). Graphic created with The Headlines App.
I didn’t rip your blouse I didn’t steal your money I didn’t pour out your milk Why do you always leap to conclusions? Why do you always shed tears?
Written for Mindlovemisery’s Same But Different Saturday Mix. The object is to take the five challenge words (below on the left) and NOT use them in our writing. The words on the right, below, are my substitutions
cut:rip jump:leap cry:shed tears take:steal spill:pour out
On this very day five years ago I published my first post on This, That, and the Other. It was basically an introduction to who I am, and it was aptly named “Practical Pragmatist.”
In case you are at all interested in reading my first post on this blog, here it is. It’s a rather long post for me — almost 500 words; my average post length so far this year is around 240. But if you have a minute or two, you might enjoy it.
Practical Pragmatist
I am a pragmatist. And I think of myself as a practical person. Thus, I am a practical pragmatist.
So what is a pragmatist? A pragmatist is a person who is oriented toward the success or failure of a particular line of action, thought, etc.
A pragmatist is an advocate or adherent of pragmatism, which is the philosophy or conduct that emphasizes practicality.
Philosophical Pragmatism
The pragmatic philosophy is based on the belief that the best way to evaluate the practicality of ideas, policies, and proposals is through their workability and usefulness. Pragmatism stresses action over doctrine. The philosophy embraces the notion that ideas base their meanings from their consequences; that they are essentially instruments and plans of action.
So how do I know that I’m a pragmatist? When I was a young adult working a full-time job and attending graduate school at night to get a Master’s degree, the girl I was dating at the time lambasted me for putting more emphasis on “dollars and degrees” than on my relationship with her. I wasn’t, she bemoaned, giving her as much time and attention as I was giving my job and my school work. She didn’t like being the third priority in my life, yet she was.
I knew I needed to work hard at my job in order to pay for rent, food, school, and, well, life. I knew that getting a graduate degree would enable me to be more successful and secure in the future. I knew these things because I’m a pragmatist.
So what about “practical”? I describe myself as a logical, rational, and reasonable person. I am not ruled by emotions but by facts, observations, and evidence. That’s likely why, in addition to being a pragmatist, I’m an atheist. There is nothing logical, rational, or reasonable about religious doctrine or dogma. Rather than being based upon facts, observations, and evidence, religion is based upon faith and beliefs where there is no empirical evidence.
This is not to say that I can’t be open to beliefs or faith, either. Every time I board an airplane I have faith that the aircraft is mechanically sound and that the pilot and copilot are sober and competent. I just don’t buy into this whole God thing because there is no empirical evidence that such an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, supernatural being exists other than in the minds of those who have embraced ancient mythologies over logic, rationality, and reason.
Nor does my pragmatism mean that I am devoid of emotions. I am empathetic and have been known to shed a tear or two when I encounter the pain or suffering of others. I may not feel as intensely as some others feel, but I feel nonetheless.
So bear in mind as you read my posts, should you decide to read beyond this first one, that, as a self-identified practical pragmatist, my perspectives are borne out of practicality and pragmatism.
I rarely wore a hat when I was younger. Yes, in the colder months, I’d wear a knit cap on my head to keep my head warm. And I’d also don a baseball cap to shield my eyes from the sun during the summer months.
When I was in the army, I had to wear two different hats. The garrison cap was worn with fatigues and the dress service cap when wearing a dress uniform.
Garrison CapDress Service Cap
But as soon as I got out of the army in the early 70s, I grew my thick, wavy, brown hair relatively long, and I basically stopped wearing hats at all. Period.
When I was in my early 50s, I went through a straw fedora hat (like the one pictured above) phase for a couple of reasons. First, I spent a lot of time outdoors and as my hair was starting to thin out, my dermatologist encouraged me to always wear a hat to protect my head from the damaging rays of the sun. Second, I thought I looked cool in them.
My straw fedora hat phase ended about a decade ago when I noticed that most of the men wearing straw fedora hats were older men. And even though I, too, had become an older man, I no longer felt like wearing a straw fedora hat made me look cool anymore.
(Just an observation about men’s hats. Did you ever notice that in older movies (say from the forties and fifties), almost all of the men in those movies wore hats? Mostly fedora hats? These days, about the only man I know of who still wears a fedora hat is Raymond Reddington.)
Raymond Reddington still looks pretty cool in his fedora hat
After having had a cancerous growth removed from my forehead, and having lost most of my hair, I decided that I still needed to wear a hat when outside, but as I’m no longer into straw fedora hats, I have started wearing baseball caps again.
These days, I have about half a dozen baseball caps to choose from and I never go outside without one of them on. Well, that’s not entirely true. When I go for a ride on my ebike, I have a special cycling cap that I wear.
I wear it under my bicycle helmet and because it has a small brim on it, it keeps the sun out of my eyes while cycling.
By the way, if you found this post to be a bit boring, don’t blame me. Blame Linda G. Hill for her Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, where she asked us to write a post using the word “hat” in it.
This, That, and the Other 