Hard Pivots

Unlike Obama’s “hard pivot” to finally focus on the jobs Americans don’t have, my life has taken a hard pivot toward my mom’s medical situation and adding space to my house that she can life in.  I’ll be out again today – today’s morning medical fun includes a nerve conduction study.  In the afternoon, we have two contractor meetings.

Foxfier’s musings on time travel reminded me of my favorite Dan Simmons short and the hard pivot we have yet to take in how we view the war.

Wintery Knight has a couple of posts on Stephen Hawking’s latest, and Drew notes the music scene seems to be taking a hard pivot to the past.  As noted in Ecclesiastes, there is no new thing under the sun…

Henry links to an interesting image about cultural burdens.  What amused me most was the bizarre combinations of symbols on the children’s backpacks.  I assume that’s part of the point – that they conflict.  Maybe I’m not that observant… I just don’t see a lot of that in real life.  Still, food for thought.

Finally, I found this color video of Winston Churchill in 1941 fascinating, especially given that I’m still reading  his 6 volume WWII memoir.  (The abridged version would certainly be a faster read, though…) That was one seriously hard pivot British society took when Churchill ascended to Prime Minister.  (And his relationship with Chamberlain, whom he’d spent a decade bitterly opposing, was surprising cordial.)  In spite of the fact that I’m really enjoying the books, it’s taking me forever to finish because I’m also reading several other books.  (John Piper’s Finally Alive, re-reading Paul Miller’s A Praying Life, Jack Bickham’s Scene & Structure, and yes, I’ll admit it – the Twilight Saga.)  I tend to read whichever one I’m carrying at the moment, or whichever one is in the room I’m in at the time.  I keep thinking of getting a kindle, but until my library has a way to interface with it, I’ll hold out.