Notes from Maine - 2024/03/24
The crocuses were just starting to peek out from the leaf litter on Friday. Now they’re buried under snow and ice. We had the first significant winter storm of the year yesterday. It changed to freezing rain halfway through the storm, so we only have a couple of inches to show for it, but all the mud is covered for the moment. Albert slid and spun on Bambi legs this morning as he chased the frisbee. The horses snorted and stomped through the crust when I put them out. Today is winter. This week, with temps well above freezing, I think we’ll be back to spring in short order.
My finger was damaged last week. A sharp impact split one of my fingernails and left me with throbbing black blood blisters. I felt sorry for myself for exactly one day. Then I was given reason to reevaluate and count my blessings. All things considered, it could be much worse. Today I’m able to type without feeling jolts of electricity shoot through my hand. All is well.
Perspective is crucial in understanding experiences.
Helen Keller is quoted as saying, “I cried because I have no shoes, until I met a man with no feet.”
Research on Wikipedia says that the aphorism dates back to Gulistān , a Persian book from 1258.
A Reddit user named OK_Incident5985 said of the Helen Keller quote, “Fake quote, not a real person.”
It’s all about perspective.
I wept for my finger until I realized that it’s a temporary setback and it will eventually heal.
I cursed the mud until I had to drag the cart through the crusty snow.
If I could travel to the future, I would be fascinated to know what people are eating. Many things we consume now didn’t exist even a hundred years ago. In the course of a hundred years, partially hydrogenated oils were invented, made their way into tons of food, and at their height it’s estimated that they contributed to 50,000 premature deaths per year from heart disease. The Food & Drug Administration takes six to ten months to approve new food applications. If you’re trying to bring a product to market, I’m sure that seems like forever. If I was in charge of trying to make sure something was nutritionally safe for the whole population, I think I would need to test on at least a few generations of people versus a control group. Given a century or two, I bet I could tell you if a new food was safe to eat. I’m not sure how anyone makes that process faster.
So I’d like to zip a thousand years into the future and see what foods have been banned. Although, maybe a thousand years wouldn’t be far enough. Black licorice has been around for a few millennia and recently the World Health Organization warned, “daily GA [ingredient in licorice] consumption be restricted to 100 mg or less,” because it can, “elevate blood pressure.” A man in Massachusetts died a few years ago from eating too much licorice.
Potatoes and tomatoes both come from South America and weren’t introduced into European diets until the 1500s. Will we eventually find out that they cause ACL injuries or something? My grandfather (half Irish) eventually developed diabetes and he was livid when his doctor told him to cut back on potatoes. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that potato withdrawals cause irrational bursts of yelling, racism, and misogyny, because we all witnessed a lot of that.
I just heard from my friends that the power is still out south of here. The freezing rain took down tree limbs, which toppled the power lines. Central Maine Power recently asked the Public Utilities Commission to authorize 162 million to cover storm damage last year. That money would be collected through rate hikes to customers. Interestingly, rate hikes two years ago led to record profits for Central Maine Power. Some might suggest that profits are taken after the cost of doing business (like repairing storm damage) has been paid, but they’ve found a better way. Capitalism is a proven system that’s driven by innovation in the face of competition. CMP has no competition, of course, aside from easily defeated proposed legislation (Pine Tree Power) last November. I’m not suggesting that Pine Tree Power was a great idea, but CMP reports that it spent 35 million dollars to defeat the competing idea. Other sources say CMP spent even more money that was not disclosed.
I’m sure you don’t care about the politics of Maine utilities. I barely do, and I live here.
For the moment I have power, heat, and my finger barely hurts.
From my perspective, it’s all good.
