“Busy as a one-armed man with the nettle-rash pasting on wallpaper.”
— O. Henry, "The Ethics of Pig," The Gentle Grafter (1908)
Joel Bowman with today’s Notes From the End of the World: Syros, Greece...
Three... two... one... cast off!
Six weeks ago, and mere days before departure for this very trip, your editor fractured his left elbow during a titanic clash with his bathtub. There were sharks, crocodiles and various other monsters of the deep involved, but we won’t bore you with the details.
All is to say that Friday was supposed to be “Liberation Day” in the Bowman household, when long-suffering wife and daughter would finally be freed from the author’s “constant griping” and “general moodiness” (charges he denies), occasioned by his left arm being in a cast.
In the end, we were not a patient enough patient to wait the entire month and a half, so we split the cast on the kitchen bench a couple of weeks ago.
Since our self-administered treatment, we’ve been convalescing in the little bay out front of our house, swimming laps in the cool Mediterranean waters. And now, with nearly full mobility returned to our ailing elbow, we’ve even been able to resume full time duties... as the family porter!
Stoicism and Garbage Bags
Readers will recall that dear wifey runs the spectacularly popular Substack publication, Classical Wisdom, which deals in the Greco-Roman world of roughly 500BC – 500AD. Anya journeys to these shores yearly to meet up with professors, visit the ancient sites and converse with folks learned about such things.
(You can learn more about Classical Wisdom, “bringing ancient wisdom to modern minds,” by following Anya’s Substack, here.)
We tag along to offer moral support, to help out with daughter’s own Classical Kids project and, as mentioned, to schlep the family bags (strictly carry-on only).
But about that broken arm... and ancient, stoic philosophy... what, if anything, did we learn from our days as a grumpy cripple?
Empathy for our fellow creatures? Appreciation for our fleeting, fragile health? A sobering preview of what’s to come during our declining years?
Sure. Maybe. Kinda.
We do recall pondering the concept of weight... over time. Allow us to explain...
A cast is heavy, you see, though not so heavy you can’t lift it above your head. For a few moments, that is.
But it’s not until you’re standing in the shower (with PTSD flashbacks from that slippery incident, no less), gracelessly attempting to wash your thinning hair with one arm, with the other, clad in a cast, wrapped in a garbage bag and trembling uncontrollably in the mist like that of a surrendering cage fighter, do you begin to realize just how heavy the darned thing is... and how comically ridiculous you look, when you catch a less-than-flattering glimpse of yourself in the mirror.
Two minutes... five minutes... ten minutes... before long it’s like holding a grizzly bear soaked in honey above your half-washed noggin. (And you can forget about conditioner, an aspirational luxury that requires weeks of dedicated focus and training.)
All of which got us to thinking about petty stresses, about our daily worries and concerns, about those little curveballs life throws at us all.
For a moment... a day... a week, even... a trivial matter may weigh on our mind with little noticeable impact. But stew on that issue long enough, mull it over for a while, and it may become an unbearable burden.
That perceived slight... that off-color remark... that “offensive” joke... that nasty S.O.B in the comments section, harassing fellow readers and generally making an unfortunate fopdoodle of himself... (he’s gone, btw.)
There’s a saying that’s become popular in the online world over the past few years: “go touch grass.”
It’s used to remind people there’s a real world out there, an IRL (in real life) realm, a place beyond the Internet’s Orwellian “two minutes of hate,” where human beings actually talk to each other face-to-face, resolve differences and find basic commonalities.
So when we’ve thrown one, or both, arms up in frustration... when we’re at our wits end with some boobus politicanus or another... when we feel like a “one-armed man with the nettle-rash pasting on wallpaper”...
We do well to take a deep breath... step outside... touch grass... and let it go.
Or, failing that, to just cut the blasted thing loose and go jump in the ocean.
And now for your Notes From the End of the Week (extended edition)...
Final Notes…
Lots of feedback on our Super Down Under article this week (see comments here), including some from dear readers who assure us that, while ordinary, hard-working Aussies will be stiffed with the government’s proposed super tax on unrealized gains… politicians themselves will be exempt!
Anyone have some more information on this? Seems the utter height of hypocracy, of what’s good for the goose not being good for the gander…
We’ll revisit the topic again in a future Note, but not before we’ve had a long, relaxing swim to clear our head. Whatever you’re up to this weekend, remember to touch some grass…
… and stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World…
Cheers,
Joel Bowman
P.S. Said the Spanish-American philosopher and essayist, George Santayana…
“Those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it.”
Judging by the cyclical nature of man’s story thus far, those who have never opened a history book handily outnumber those tortured few who have. Were it not so, we might jettison unfree markets, unfree minds and unfree people and, instead, proceed directly to their obviously superior alternatives.
And yet… here we are, condemned to write these pages, making the lonely case for liberty’s lost cause...
BUT!
The times, they are a-changin'!
These humble Notes, for example, are now read in 139 countries around he world and ALL 50 US states! True, our readership is not as strongly represented as it could be in, say, Pennsylvania… or Illinois… or Ohio…
…but maybe that’s about to change, too! (Ahem…)
Wherever you’re from, support the case for liberty in your backyard by joining our growing community of critical thinkers, independent minds and curious contrarians today. Cheers ~ JB
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