Stuff from March, 2017
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on March, 2017.
Ess and Marge
This is the archive of tumbledry happenings that occurred on March, 2017.
The Future of Not Working is about a few things, among them the test of universal basic income as viable social policy. It touches on the continuing and seismic shift in labor from humans to machine automation. But what it really helped me understand was how to help those in poverty:
This one requires a little explanation. Mykala was out and I was home with Ess, and she needed a bath. But Ess insisted that this picture of Mama (made for a musical Mykala choreographed; we don’t just laminate pictures of ourselves around here) follow her around for her bath. So, the picture watched over Ess while she was in the tub, and came along while she got dried off and warmed up.
Eating salted caramel coconut ice cream for Mykala’s birthday.
Mykala saw Ess’s head poking up above the back of the couch and immediately ran in to investigate.
Mykala has been growing amazing broccoli and bean sprouts. Ess LOVES them and eats them like she’s a little rabbit. Notice how Ess is holding Doctor Toonie’s wing.
Ess decided that Marge the monkey was only going to be able to sleep if Ess arranged every single one of the available towels and washclothes in a tasteful melange about the outside of the crib. Lately, Ess also takes a stuffed animal, puts it down for its nap, and then piles layer after layer of blankets on them. She takes very good care of her charges.
There was a giant aquarium in front of us, hence the blue cast.
Ess, you are growing up so fast. I love you.
The most toddlery morning: find your almost year-old Easter dress in the closet, put it on over your clothes, then eat a banana on the couch in the sun.
That silicone green half-sphere is a soft-boiled egg maker. Ess uses it as a bed for people. Her Playmobil Friend is in there, and she’s telling me about the mama and the dada taking care of Friend.
“What does it mean when something is fragile, Ess?”
“You hold it very very gentle and close to your HEART.”
If you attempt to explain why you should vote to help others while exempting morality and selflessness (which can quickly veer into the tautological) from your argument, you’d be left with an argument from selfishness:
Why are you “owed” a police force, why are you owed a fire department, why are you owed clean water or electricity, why are you owed laws that protect your ideas through patents or copyrights, why are you owed anything you enjoy through a civil society that makes your life demonstrably better than a libertarian wet dream like Zimbabwe?
I’ll tell you why. Because as a civil society we’ve decided what’s a part of the commons, that which we can not individually afford but whose existence we recognize, serves us all. I have news for you: my life is better and more secure if you and your kids aren’t bankrupted by medical bills. My life is better if everyone has safe streets and food. My life is better when the next generation is well-educated to continue the prosperity of this great nation. No one is owed, but it is a gift we give to each other as citizens and the price we pay to enjoy the blessings of our forefathers. And it is the height of hubris to presume to take that gift of a civic society and act as if it never existed before you showed up.
When the music ends, since it is usually playing from a music library or a streaming radio station, Ess expects another piece to begin playing:
“‘nother hong coming!”
She says it to Mykala, she says it to me. It’s very sweet. I do not recall her once getting upset when we couldn’t make another song start playing. It might be the only thing Ess feels particularly patient about right now. Our very toddlery toddler.