800m & Watergate
I have not posted in a few days, partially because I am “stuck to the floor” tired, partially because in my couch-bound-exaustion, I have just read the seminal book on the Watergate scandal, All the Presidents Men.
Skating is going VERY well. On Tuesday, for the first time in my life, I negative-split an 800m. What does that mean? well, you crank it up to almost racing speed for the first 400m, and then try to go FASTER for the second 400m. I usually can really fly for about 600m, and then I catch on fire like a blown dragster, and crawl the last 200m trailing parts, flames and smoke, usualy dropping several seconds. This Tuesday, for my first 800m, I was almost removed from myself, there was no pain, and I did not slow down at all. It was a sensation like I had borrowed someone else’s body. For the skate geeks out there, I was in the low 29’s for both laps, with low tempo straightaways, like 4-5 steps, I still had lots more speed in reserve. I happily informed a satisfied Boris that my fast splits were “all his fault”.
Maybe I did not feel anything because training now is just deferring the pain, like a credit card “charge now & pay later” and the pain that is usually concentrated during the 800 itself is spread around the day, as I stagger around my home, or can’t sleep because my legs are still stinging from the effort (maybe its also the 400+ lbs I am slinging around on the squat rack too, or the long hill runs, or the.. ..well you get the picture..).
As for the intellectual side of things, re-reading the account of Watergate, shortly after finishing the most recent Harry Potter Novel, and also the excellent read The Darth Side, Memories of a Monster (the best way to experience this is actually to download the .pdf, of the whole blog, its an amazing read, a whole new perspective on Vader). These reads fill my heart with the conviction that extreme danger exists in society when the desire for order & control outweigh respect/love for fellow human beings.
Now of course, 2 out of these 3 things I am reading are fiction, and fiction simplifies things; Watergate itself was incredibly complicated. But the essential truths behind why Nixon & “The Plumbers” “The CREEP’s”& the “Ratfuckers” acted the way they did is as simple/complicated as Voldemort & Vader’s own reasons. Fear, power, paranoia & loyalty lead people into believing that nasty wrongs are necessary to maintain a control/good/wealth/ etc. Destroy Alderaan, but save the universe!
This is not a blog about current politics; you can draw your own inferrences about current events & current crimes & scandals from these thoughts, but as I drive to & from the oval, pursuing my insular, selfish goals, the world is revolving in frightening ways. Maybe I find such peace in this drive for internal perfection & pain, because it is something I can feel hope about, and can say “yes, today was empirically better”.
Filed under: from home
Hi. I am glad you have read that book (”All The President’s Men”). I guess I should read it again, so don’t throw it away.
One of the reasons why the Clinton impeachment struck many of us dinosaurs
as so bizarre was Watergate. Look at the scale of what went on, at the
threat it all posed, and compare it with Whitewater (where even if all of
the charges made were true, it wasn’t even close to impeachable, or
important) and lying about an affair.
Amazingly enough, Watergate is identified by some as the source of our
vicious politics today. How anyone in his/her right mind could think that
Nixon was wronged is beyond me, but recall the reaction from old Nixonites
(including Kissinger!) when Deep Throat was revealed.
BTW, when you get a chance check on the Iran-Contra scandal (Reagan and Bush I, Oliver North, etc.). That’s pretty scary too, and once again the Clinton uproar looks absurd compared to it.
There were rumors at the time that the Democratic leadership felt that Reagan was impeachable over it, but that he was old and beginning to show symptoms of his later illness, and near the end of his term, and so they backed off. It would have been good to have such civility around the Clinton allegations, but instead it was “Let’s get him no matter what the cost.”
Well, enough rants for one evening.
Love, Dad