The Sunday Snewz Issue No. 12
April 2, 2023 What Does It All Really Mean?
“I suppose it’s just a matter of time until you shoot me,” muttered the ghostly white figure towards my Asian daughter. Pushing himself with one foot down the hallway in his wheelchair, hair like that of a grandfather troll doll, glowing from head to toe in a hospital gown the color of his hair. The only thing on him that wasn’t white were the whites of his eyes - now blood red as his lower eyelid sagged so far down all you could see was the bright, pinkish-red flesh that encapsulates the eyeball. Instantly I do the math, this guy served in Vietnam and is directing this racial slur at Scarlett. As she escaped the hallway into her grandma’s sad room, I stopped, stared him down and said, hello. With a vacant stare, he stopped, his mouth lazily forming the words, “would someone just put me out of my misery!” As sad as these words were, I was thankful to realize he wasn’t just directing his desire for death at Scarlett because she reminded him of the people he once fought in a distant war - this guy just wanted to die.
My assumption that this guy was directing his comments at Scarlett wasn’t unfounded. We regularly encounter old men who look to be veterans of the Vietnam War, gazing at her accusingly, unaware she is Chinese not Vietnamese. Unaware the war ended some 50 years ago and was never fought on U.S. soil. Just like she is asked if she is Korean, because as one ignorant twit in a bookstore once said, “her face is so round and flat, like a Korean. Are you sure she’s Chinese?” Well, unless someone gave birth to her in Korea, and then jotted on over to Tonngu with her umbilical cord still attached and left her at the gate of the Chinese orphanage, yeah I’m pretty certain she’s Chinese. To give credit where credit is due, there are plenty of people keen enough to recognize she is in-fact Chinese. They say flattering things like, “oh you must be really good at math!” Or, “So I bet you’re going to go to Stanford and become an engineer!” Suffice it to say my concern was warranted - fuck with my kid and I’ll fuck you up grandpa troll. I don’t care if you are wheelchair bound.
End of life is never easy. My mother-in-law has been held up in a rehab center for the past three months, since falling and breaking her hip. While she is now able to walk for short distances, her memory is clearly not up to snuff. She combines stories from the past with details from the present, insists Casey and I went to school with everyone on her medical team and recalls the time when her neighbor had a grizzly cub outside her window. They shot the cub but then also found the mother near by and took both the mama grizzly and her cub to the zoo, in Washington D.C. She can never return to her home, where she has lived since bringing my husband home from the hospital, 53 years ago. Her husband of 55 years died two years ago so her only option now is to go live at The Bee Hive until the end of her days.
Seeing people at the end of their life stirs questions about what all of this means. Why is life worth living? Is being born, growing up, raising a family or having a career to try and make as much money as you can so you can buy as much stuff as you can, going on a few vacations, retiring and living out your days with memory fading what defines life? Throw in the countless suffering and it hardly seems worth it.
But as Viktor Frankl who survived the Nazi concentration camps where his pregnant wife, his father and mother were all murdered, puts it in Yes to Life, In Spite of Everything, life is defined by suffering. It’s not about seeking happiness, as the more one searches for happiness, the more elusive it becomes. Life is not made up of a series of events and monetary accomplishments but actually “a materialistic life view, in which people end up mindlessly consuming and fixating on what they can buy next, epitomizes a meaningless life.” Frankl argues that suffering, even incurable illness and the inner dignity of dying “one’s own death,” can prove meaningful. “Certainly, our life, in terms of biological, the physical, is transitory in nature. Nothing of it survives - and yet how much remains! What remains of it, what will remain of us, what can outlast us, is what we have achieved during our existence that continues to have an effect, transcending us and extending beyond us.”
So it is not for us to ask what life means, but how we add meaning to life.
Speaking of meaningless materialism, Gwyneth Paltrow’s trial came to a close on Thursday, with the jade egg Gina-Diva coming out on top. The role of Defendant was one of her best performances yet. As I’m sure you know, Paltrow was accused of running down an elderly, well-to-do optometrist and fleeing from the scene, swishing down the luxury hillside on her skis, leaving the man with “life altering brain trauma.” Paltrow refused to settle out of court and instead, countersued the Plaintiff for $1.00 - a not-so subtle way for an elite socialite to say, “Mess with the power of my pussy, and you’ll be left with a goose egg, minus one dollar.”
I suppose she did deserve to be cleared of responsibility for the old man’s injuries, considering a jury of twelve all agreed she wasn’t at fault but in fact, the old man was. But I can’t say I was happy about the outcome - Gwyneth Paltrow is one of those people I’ve always despised. Her breathy speak, gaunt face from the starvation diet she promotes to her followers, the tit-jiggling Tracey Anderson exercise regimen she swears by and her $60,000 hammock (yes, she admits to owning a hammock with a price tag in excessive of the average American annual salary) - I’d like to kick her in the place where the jade egg doesn’t shine. Telling people who were losing their businesses during the Covid lockdowns to, “take advantage of the time to slow down. Learn a foreign language or take up a new hobby.” She epitomizes a meaningless life. What will Gwyneth Paltrow leave behind? What will remain of her when her biological, physical body has transcended this world? Oh yes, the smell of her vagina - which one can purchase in the form of a candle for a mere $75.00.
I try not to bring you news here that you can find everywhere else so I’m going to leave the Donald Trump inditement alone. I will however say that this is looking like more and more like the U.S. government is spending a great deal of time and money to put their opposition in jail. I’m no Trump fan but I’m also no fan of having a government who goes on witch hunts of their opposition. After all, giving money to sluts to keep their mouths shut is nothing new for politicians. Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure Bill Clinton paid Paula Jones $850,000 for his indiscretions but according to so-called fact checkers, that apparently wasn’t hush money because it was part of a legal settlement. It’s different. It wasn’t campaign funds (although who can really keep all that pesky campaign, bribery, pocket-lining money straight.) Plus, it’s ummmm, not hush money if you’re not hush-hush about it.
If defaming Donald Trump is the goal of this inditement, I’m afraid it is going to have the opposite effect. Can’t Democrats get this through their thick heads? If we want Trump to disappear from the political scene, buoying up bogus charges against him isn’t the way to do it. This sort of thing pisses off freedom loving Americans and only empowers his base even further.
A meaningful political story for every American to be following is the continuing saga of what is now being referred to as the Censorship Industrial Complex. No matter your political persuasion, the issue of censorship and the government’s role in it should be of highest concern.
While testifying before Congress on the weaponization of the federal government, (the footage of which I shared last week) an IRS agent showed up at
's home. Coincidence? I think not.This week, Michael Schellenberger was back before Congress. Again Democrats fired insults at him and demanded more censorship not less. But as more and more examples of government interference with free speech surface and more and more people come out to testify, my hope is the evidence will be too much for anyone to ignore.
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If you couldn’t see the double standard existing in our culture before this week, I’m hoping the Nashville school shooting will finally open your eyes. Our President had nothing to say about the victims other than, “there are moral consequences to pay for our lack of action.” So I guess because we haven’t acted to ban assault rifles, the six victims of the shooting are paying the “moral price” for all of us. Disgusting. There is no discussion in the media that the shooter identified as trans-gender, aside from the piece by the New York Post because let’s face it, that’s some pretty bad press for the alphabet community. You cannot deny the fact that if this were a Trump supporter shooting up a liberal arts school filled with LGBTQ-LMNOP students, it would be the top story for - the rest of the year. Mental health is the real issue behind school shootings but nobody is willing to address it. Instead Biden tweets out a celebration of Trans Day of Visibility - a complete slap in the face to the victims of this crime, and all of us really.
What does one do when a person from a group they give unwavering support, picks up a gun, which they despise and kills people they don’t tend to agree with? This is the problem with attaching to ideology instead of humanity. At some point you have to chew your own hand off, or pretend your hand didn’t do anything wrong.
I chose not to read much about the event because I can only handle so much heart ache in one day. I can also handle only so much poor grammar and seeing reputable publications using the word “they” to refer to an individual was just too much to take.
The Wall Street Journal summed up the declining nature of our culture in one infograph they published on Monday. Regardless of your religious, political, or social views, we can all agree this chart depicts nothing but tragedy.
It appears people care less and less about patriotism, religion, children and participating in their communities. They do however, concern themselves increasingly with one thing - money.
As brilliant minds have shown us throughout history, a singular focus on materialism will lead to a meaningless life and we are now proving them correct.
It is easy to feel hopeless when the world seems to be crumbling around us. But a nihilistic world view isn’t the solution (it is actually what got us here in the first place.) There has never been a more important time for each and every one of us to show up and do our part. Not activism nor campaigning. Not shouting down our opponents or pontificating on how right we’ve been and how wrong everyone else was in response to the pandemic. Politics and policy aren’t going to save us - personal responsibility is. Taking responsibility to live a meaningful life. Accepting our role as an irreplaceable individual, meant for this time, meant for this place. How we live our lives is how the world lives its’ life. Each one of us matters. We all have a part to play, no matter how small or insignificant we feel at times.
In the words of German poet and dramatist, Christian Hebbel, “Life is not something, it is the opportunity for something.”
What will you leave behind? What will transcend your physical body and remain long after your remains are in dead and buried? Please let it be some more than a candle reeking of your genitalia.