November is "Frost Month" in Japanese, likely named due to the frigid temperatures arriving in that month over the years. I've been spoiled living in L.A. not to have cold temperatures any time of the month, but there was one November it got so cold living in the Hollywood Hills that I had to bought a space heater, which I used for 2 days.....and promptly never used again. Living in L.A., though, also deprived me of the changing leaves that happen throughout most of America, although this year being an election year it's been heralded as the changing of political colors at least in the White House from RED to Blue......Joe Biden officially became the President Elect on Saturday, although as with most things related to Donald Trump, it's pending litigation. Without getting too much into politics (which has become a problem for many people in this country), it will be a welcome change not to have to react to a new outlandish, hard-to-believe story coming out of the White House that's stranger than fiction, or have stock prices fluctuate immensely based on every tweet, or even just keeping track of all the new White House Press Secretaries and other positions seemingly with a revolving door. And the big thing is that Joe Biden (who might not necessarily be better than Trump on some issues) is definitively better on climate change, something denied and consequently pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement. MJ and I watched David Attenborough's latest documentary "A Life on Our Planet" recently and were alarmed by the climate change issues threatening the world, even though the documentary was full of nice videos of animals that kind of softened the blow a bit, but still it was quite eye-opening.
Oh and now that November 3rd has passed, I'm relieved that we're no longer inundated with political ads and we just have the garden variety car, cereal, mattress, and movie ads (I didn't think I would miss them). I'm bothered how much America is pressured by different kinds of groups into consuming things, whether it's a product, a food item, an experience (Travel), a lifestyle, an institution of higher education (lots of ads from Grand Rapids University recently), and especially in election years, a political party. Everything seems like an ad, even things that I thought growing up were genuine, organic things to care about, like Presidential activities, or charities, or eating 3 meals a day, or having a social gathering friends by going out to eat/ drink. These are all things that are pushed to the general populace as "normal" things that everyone should do, but is really just benefiting the leaders of the country or a coporation .Why do we even care about politics so much? Because politicans want power, and they need votes and attention to give them that power. What they're selling is a "better vision of America," or nostalgia to a better time ("Make America Great Again") or some promise that they can make all the troubles disappear. Even hospitals, as MJ is finding out, long having a positive reputation of helping people, sells that image but really is all about just giving patients enough drugs to help them get better and trying to get them home as soon as possible to reel in the next patient and charge them beaucoup dollars for drugs from the pharmaceutical companies. It's sometimes difficult to even know who the villains are anymore, (other than the greedy CEOs! Always those guys) which may be because it's in their best interest to stay hidden and continue the status quo while normal people suffer and get taken advantage of without even knowing it, continue buying material things as well as consuming pre-packaged information, consuming promises of political reform while willingly paying taxes (Where do those taxes go to, by the way? taxpayers have to itemize their own deductions but we don't get an itemized receipt for what the government spends stuff on. Can we direct our funds to the causes that we care about like education and building of roads and infrastructure, but not to political campaigns and election litigation? I don't think so). It's sad, and I sound really skeptical, but if nothing else the 2020 election happening during a worldwide pandemic where politicans are vying for power even while normal people are screwed by the disease and by the economical affects of that disease really made me question the whole democratic system of America.
But hey, at least we can look forward to Thanksgiving (Cyber Monday! Black Friday!) and Christmas, 2 of the biggest consuming times of the year. CONSUME!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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