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When I complain of the study regimen that Chinese parents, including and especially my wife, put their children through, I am told by the locals that it is for "their future." My retort has been to say that doesn't mean we should destroy the present, which for children means to destroy their childhoods. I further add that I want a future where children are allowed to have childhoods, so why not make that future happen now? Now, I have just come across this quote from Simone Weil: When we are disappointed by a pleasure which we have been expecting and which comes, the disappointment is because we were expecting the future, and as soon as it is there it is present. We want the future to be there without ceasing to be future. This is an absurdity of which eternity alone is the cure. Chinese parents don't seem to be aware that their children have souls in eternity and are not just future members of some society.
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Now, I hope that what I have just blogged, by way of denouncing Chinese parents' attitudes to schooling (which they mistake for education), does not make anyone think I am being a libertine. Having self-discipline, a work ethic, and the ability to control one's urges in the present for a future goal, are all fine and necessary attributes which to instill in one's children. But there are ways of accomplishing these goals without being absurb about time (no present, all future) and treating children as merely economic or societal units. Again, I say children have souls and there is something higher than the rat race for which the parents think they are preparing their children. So I say, become detached and cease to make the future our objective. Choose eternity.
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My son Tony listens to music, via a smartphone, when he takes a shower. Recently, he was listening to the Smiths. Burn down the disco! Hang the blessed DJ! That's my boy!
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On a tip saying the shopping was good, we drove to Metro (which is what passes for a Costco here). Metro is a twenty minute drive from Casa Kaulins. On the drive, to and fro, traffic was light (but not light enough for me not to see people driving like idiots.), and we passed the spot where there was an infamous infrastructure malfunction late last year. (A overloaded truck caused a section of an overpass to collapse) The scene of the mishap was closer to Casa Kaulins than I thought. I had avoided taking the route on which the accident happened because I imagined there being a big detour. In fact, it was not so bad, but there was congestion to be dealt with, as well as a place where one had to make a left-turn from the right lane. (Not bad, the second time to get through it.) The Metro was not over-run and there was plenty to buy, like six packs of Corona, but some things were out of stock. We had to buy cans of Spam Lite. Entering the store, our temperatures were checked by a security guard. Everybody in the store was wearing masks. When we returned to the apartment complex, security guards were making the entering cars fill out forms. They wanted to know where the cars were coming from. My wife told them that she wasn't coming from out of town and that we had merely gone shopping.
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On a Monday morning, I watched the Super Bowl in bed on my smartphone using a tencent app where you could watch the game and also post on-screen comments. I made a lot of comments in English, and a few using the Chinese characters I was familiar with to cheer for the Chiefs and denounce the 49ers as football players and moral agents. One thing that I using Chinese characters was that the Chiefs had heaven's mandate (酋长人有天命) and someone responded by thanking me for invoking Chinese gods. My son Tony watched some of the game with me but we went back to sleep for the second half. I snoozed through the half-time show and from the reports I read about it later, I was glad that I did so.
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I am communicating with a ex-colleague who is quarantined, with his wife and son, on the campus where he teaches. They haven't left it for two weeks. They get food via delivery. The wife has an app she can use.
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Jenny has just been told that Tony's school is now closed for all of February.
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