(Image source - wrestled from Grok with a remarkably long essay)
A Walk to Clarify the Thoughts
It is a chilly Monday morning in my corner of rural North Carolina. 44 degrees °F or about 6.7 °C, for the Europeans and Canadians. Rumor has it that President Trump imposed tariffs, not for economic reasons but to force Canadians to use miles, pounds, and Fahrenheit - "Freedom Units"; your deciliters and megagrams are just a bit too much. Silliness of course. I found as a young soldier that our morning physical training seemed to spur the mind some and drive out mental clutter. Aristotle started the peripatetic school of philosophy at the Lyceum, "peripatetic" is a transliteration of the Greek word to walk about. The romanticized version of history has Aristotle walking about the Lyceum expounding and debating with his peers. I'm not vain enough to think myself above "The Philosopher" as Aquinas called him, so out for a walk I went. So as not to alarm the neighbors, I elected not to talk to myself while walking.
Time Waits for None
I am 52 years old, a bit past the half-century mark. Barring some world-changing medical or pharmaceutical discoveries within the next decade, less time remains ahead than behind. This thought does not evoke melancholy for me. In some ways aspects of middle age are welcome, the passions remain but they seem more governable, tools that can be harnessed - but no longer the captain of the ship. I have my share of pains, though it's hard to discern how much of that can be attributed to age, and what came from the physical demands and toil, of soldiering. I don't dread old age, though staying active to avoid frailty and remain mentally sharp seems needful. The question is how best to use what time and energy I have left to expend.
Local Politics and Civics
For the past year I've been reporting on local civics and politics, in a locally-focused political journal I host on Facebook. I have a political ideology, but the more I write the more objective I try to be. As part of that reporting, I covered a local case of corruption, where a School Board member was convicted of misusing the powers of his office, and felony obstruction. It was a sordid mess, and it exposed a local network of the politically ambitious, who seemed overly comfortable with using unethical tactics to advance those ambitions. As a side effect of my reporting, my reach in the county and audience has grown. I'm wrestling with my obligation to be a reliable source of information, and the responsibility to choose and use my words well. Those thoughts occupied my walk this morning. I think I came to some clarity, or at least an approach to clarity.
Local newspapers and journalism is all but gone. We are poorer for that, and have a citizenry that is less engaged with and informed about civic matters. Hewing an objective course seems to be the most meaningful course, so that I can encourage all of my neighbors regardless of their politics to participate.
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