Almost Thanksgiving

Aye ya ya

I brushed my teeth twice this morning.     Completely forgot about the first time, even though it had just been a few minutes.   talks to Routine, and the body learning to put things on automatic, and you lose yourself in the back of your mind thinking of other things while your body performs its rote routine.    Like driving to work in the morning for the umpteenth time.   You get to work and you have no recollection of the commute you just took.    Home routines are the same.   What you do when you wake up.    What you do before you fall asleep.     Your body falls into the Routine, the Process, so that your mind can start to drift, and you think, wait, did I brush my teeth or not, and you realize you have been off thinking while your body already brushed your teeth for you.

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 I am reading a BOOK.    The first book in years.    Let me just say that I have never stopped reading, and probably spend 3 to 4 hours a day reading, but always on my phone.   My reading habits comprise of web sites that keep me up on current events and news items of the day.   Reddit, Slate, news aggregation sites, cultural commentary sites like The Atlantic or The New Yorker.  The BBC is good for world news.   And, because it is football season now,  I am spending some time every day reading NFL news.     The NFL is soap operas for men.    Yes the games are important, but every football season is packed full of story lines, who is doing what to whom, etc.   Just lots of drama.       No guy would ever admit to this, but it is a Species thing.    We are all drawn into story lines, and this is what holds us close.    Plus the games are fun to watch.

This current season has revealed more than previous ones how utterly corrupt the NFL as an Organization is.   They are allowing betting now, which makes it all about money now, and all the sports commentary plays heavily now on how much money you can make.  Really crass.   Also, one of the football team owners has been caught trafficking pictures of their naked cheerleaders, and the NFL is letting them off Scott free, while also fining players for having their shirts not tucked in during the game.     Finally, the MVP (Most Valuable Player) from last year was caught lying about being vaccinated against COVID, potentially harming everyone around him for the past 4 months,  and the NFL is not doing anything about it.   It is all kind of off putting.  All of it.

It's the hypocrisy more than anything else that gets me.   The crass devotion to money, the craven quest to squeeze every last dollar from every fan at all costs to whatever integrity or moral line that needs to be crossed.     I got into a big fight with my brother about it, who sees it as no big deal, and to me it is.   Probably the biggest fight we have ever been in in our lives, and we are currently not talking to each other.     

The fight is probably just a symptom more than the disease, as we have had low level issues brewing with each other for awhile now.   Talking past each other.  Not listening.  Not Hearing.   Pent up issues.    Like married people get, but - you know - we have been dealing with each other for 60 plus years now, so there's that.

I am fairly certain that we will find our ways back to being brothers again eventually, though I don't know how that will happen.   At least I hope so.

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