goatee
highlanders
°2023.06.22.Thu | Hello Nixie
On June 3 we returned from Mutt Rescue with a new dog.
“Nixie” (or “Nix”) was similar to her rescue name; Nora and I like Nixie tubes (i.e., Numeric Indicator eXperimental); her bark is raspy like Stevie Nicks; and she’s curious, following us to the bathroom even, hence “nosy Nixie.”
You can see more of her her first month photos with us.
°2023.06.07.Wed | The next stage?
Nora and I have lived in our current apartment longer than anywhere else in our lives – as a couple and individually. Highland Avenue was to be our modest apartment during a one-year Harvard fellowship, but it has been our home for 13 years. Though we love Cambridge, the apartment’s lack of sunlight and leaky walls and the expense of any other place in Cambridge led me to think that we should, at some point, move on. We were able to save money while here, but we won’t be able to live here forever.
I’m sure we’ll think of this period as the Casper years, who passed a few months ago. This felt like the closing of a significant chapter in our lives. And while I greatly appreciate aspects of my job, I feel as if I’m about ready for one more thing, for something else.
Given all this – and that Nora now works at home and Boston is expensive – I’ve been researching places we might move to. I won’t conduct a job search that is hopefully in a place we’d like; I’ll find (a less expensive) place we’d like and figure something to do once there.
This sense of change is also prompted by a financial goal: to FIRE myself (“Barista” style). During my research on life hackers, I delved into the Financial Independence and Retire Early (FIRE) movement. There are different levels of FIRE: “barista FIRE” means you still work part-time or on a passion project; above that is “lean FIRE,” which means you must live modestly. (Lucky are those who can “fat” FIRE.)
Being in your 50s is hardly early – savvy techies can do so in their 30s – but it’s less than 65 or 70. My father died before he hit 65. I could live longer, but I might not.
I’ve long been an advocate of a “good life, good death.” Should I be faced with extended or ruinous ill health, I believe I would exercise my right to die. I’m not so presumptuous as to predict the future, or even how I might feel, but I don’t feel obliged to save enough money to live my last years in a dementia care facility.
But I get ahead of myself. The current chapter is not yet over. The market downturn and inflation have changed my calculations. And I have another book project that I want to make a solid attempt at. I hope to remain on Highland for another three or four years. Then, depending on fate, I will turn a page to the next chapter, whether it’s the penultimate or concluding one.
°2023.03.06.Mon | Elliot Tower upon the Great Blue Hill
It’s spring break this week, but we are staying close for Casper, who can’t do much, but he enjoyed the portage up to Elliot Tower atop Great Blue Hill.
°2022.08.30.Tue | Sunday River, Maine
Visiting a ski resort in the summer makes for beautiful views. We took chair lifts up the mountain and hiked along a trail.
°2022.08.21.Sun | Red-tailed hawk at Arsenal Park
This weekend we pedaled up the Charles River to Arsenal Park, where we spotted a red-tailed hawk. She spotted us, as well.
°2022.05.11.Wed | Garden in the Woods
To celebrate Nora’s birthday we went to the “Garden in the Woods,” a “naturalistic plant collection that showcases New England native plants with complementary specimens from across the country.”
I loved this small hut with a green roof.
°2022.03.14.Mon | Caladesi via Clearwater
In 1985, Hurricane Elena filled in the Dunedin Pass, separating Clearwater Beach from Caladesi Island, though it is a bit of a (lovely) hike.
You know you’re near the boundary, when you see the shell trees.
And you know you should hurry back, when the tide starts coming in.
°2022.03.13.Sun | Gulf Coast Sunset
Something that tickles me, as a New Englander, is an aquatic sunset.
°2021.11.02.Tue | Education, wealth, racism, and remedies
I’ve been skeptical of student debt forgiveness for the typical reasons: my own sense of frugality (e.g., going to a state school and paying off debt ASAP), concerns about moral hazard (i.e., increasing credential inflation and education costs), and even the ever increasing federal debt (i.e., a ponzi scheme that will one day fall).
That said, I know the world has changed since I was an undergrad. I also appreciate the U.S. has a stark wealth gap along racial lines that needs to be remedied. (And I recognize most conservatives seem to care about national debt only when social programs are being discussed, but lose that concern when considering military spending and industrial subsidies.) This discussion between Tressie McMillan Cottom and Louise Seamster in favor of student debt forgiveness gave me much to think about. This includes the policy issue of debt relief and the ethical issue of equity.
If equality is about ensuring equal opportunities, equity recognizes that neutral-seeming policies aren’t enough to counter historic and systemic biases: “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination” (Kendi 2019, 19). I strongly support equality and removing that which perpetuates historic and systemic bias. But I dither on equity. I wish I could find a taxonomy of remedies, like those sketched below, with which to think about the ethics and pragmatics of remedying injustices.
- systemic reform
- reparation
- equity
- affirmative action: quotas
- affirmative action: “preferences” (non-quotas)
- Kendi’s Department of Anti-racism
I am a strong advocate of systemic reform: ethically necessary and practically achievable though distressingly difficult to achieve. On affirmative action, I am ambivalently moderate: cautiously supportive of the balance struck in Grutter v. Bollinger, though it is usually bureaucratically incoherent—often requiring doublethink—in practice. I am sympathetic to the obligation of reparations to those directly harmed (e.g., the internment of Japanese Americans), but the passing of time decreases its relevance. I dislike Kendi’s authoritarianism for many reasons. I wonder if there is there a comprehensive treatment on this topic that attends to the ethics and pragmatics of these and other options?
References
°2021.09.07.Tue | North Shore, South Shore
This labor day weekend, we got a car and explored the coast around Boston.
On Saturday, we explored the North Shore and happened across Gerry Island, for which there is a path when the tide is out.
Monday, we explored the South Shore, and enjoyed the rocky beach of Webb Memorial Park.
