Day 198: Monday, Monday....

 Today is the 2nd day of the 29th week, the 17th day of the 7th month, the 198th day of 2023 [with only 160 shopping days until Christmas], and:

• Disneyland Day
• Global Hug Your Kids Day
• International Firgun Day - 'firgun' is a Yiddish word that expresses empathetic joy that something good has happened or might happen to someone else 
• National Get Out of the Doghouse Day
• National Hot Dog Day
• National Lottery Day 
• National Peach Ice Cream Day
• National Tattoo Day
• Record Store Day
• Victims of Baton Rouge Louisiana Attack Day - this was an attack on police officers in 2016
• World Day for International Justice
• World Emoji Day - started by the founder of the Emojipedia   In 2022, the most common used emoji was 😂
• Wrong Way Corrigan Day  to the end of his days, he stuck by his story that he lost his direction in the clouds and that his compass had malfunctioned.  
• Yellow Pigs Day - a celebration of making math fun and an opportunity to show off just how much you know about the number 17
• the new moon at 2:33 PM EDT
• and Voyager 1 is 22h 09m 17s of light travel time from Earth 

Quote of the day:
"The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike."

~ Ralph Ellison, Writers at Work

One of my favorite sayings has always been  "that's my story and I'm sticking to it".  My kids were very familiar with that saying, altho it sometimes came out in the form of parental skepticism [as in "that's your story?"]  When the song came out in 1994, both of them made a point of making sure I heard about it, my son calling from his post in San Francisco and my daughter from college.

And today Calvin and Hobbes had a commentary on the writing of history that ties right in with that vibe, dovetailing nicely with my other steadfast comment that "there is no such thing as an historical fact".   The significance of a particular action is totally assigned afterwards, whether in our personal memories or in our history books.  

History and memory both function the same way in that respect - it is all written from a perspective, and even the person trying to be objective, cannot remove themselves from the culture milieu in which they exist, subject to the 'accepted knowledge' of their time.  Remember, at one point phrenology was considered a scientific method to determine such personal - characteristics as  intelligence  and /or criminal tendencies - just think how an avid practitioner of that 'science' would write about political candidates, for example!

This afternoon, when I went to the trash chute, I noticed my neighbor's door was ajar.  So, I knocked loudly and called several times, but didn't get a response.  There was no way that I was going to just pull that door shut, or open it any further!  So I called the office and reported that it was ajar and I wasn't getting any reply.  The receptionist said that she would ask one of the maintenance men to come up and take a look, but an hour later, the door is still ajar and I haven't heard anyone knocking or anything.  

Now, this happened - I took a picture to show it.  An hour later, when I heard a door close [it was my new neighbors across the hall], it was closed.  But to become an historical fact, it would have to acquire some significance.  It had been tightly closed as usual in the morning when I threw out the garbage at 7:30 AM, or at least I didn't notice anything amiss.  That's my story, but a good lawyer could poke holes in it.  Maybe I didn't look at the door this morning - and I wasn't wearing my glasses at the time.   Why I was concerned is an entirely different narrative, neh?  Am I claiming to be a good Samaritan?  Am I just being a nosey neighbor?  Am I worried about rising crime in the area?  All of the above, none of the above, some of the above - all depending on how I remember my emotions when walking back to my apartment, I noticed it.   

And yeah, that's my story - and I'm sticking to it