Oh, man. John Jay in The Federalist is kicking my butt in Philosophy class. I cannot for the life of me parse his sentences in terms of premises and conclusions. I'm just terrible at these old style guys with their tricky, flowery sentences and their habit of scattering the subjects and predicates all over a gigantic, never ending, constantly digressing paragraph. Give me Aristotle or Socrates any time. I do fine on them. Well, fine on identifying their premises and conclusions.
Why, no, the Argument Exercises are not going particularly well. But I persevere. These old dead guys aren't getting the better of me, no way. I'll just have to... uh... study, or something.
Meanwhile, John and I have cancelled our trip to Antigua. I really could not face the additional three hours check-in recommended for international flights when we already had eight and half hours of flight time plus a change of planes involved just to get there. We would have had a mere three days on the island; the rest of the vacation would have been spent in airports. No thanks, not relaxing. I'll have to try again next year.
So we're going to Maui instead. I've already set it up. Nothing fancy, not like Antigua, but I'm looking forward to it because I haven't been to the island in 22 years. My folks used to own a condo there so I remember the coast north of Kaanapali when it wasn't all developed and there were still actual houses on the beach. I hear it's changed, she said drily. Anyway, I'm still getting my beach vacation, it's only 5 hours away, and I don't need to be at the airport more than an hour and a bit in advance because it's a domestic flight. I can deal with that.
Lines at the airport have died down considerably, by the way. You don't need to check in two hours early for a domestic flight, that was mostly due to the backlog of people trying to get home. And although I hear they're requiring two forms of identification at the New York airports it's not an airlines rule so it doesn't seem to apply anywhere else. Your passport or photo i.d. is just fine. Unless you are of Middle Eastern appearance, in which case I think you can pretty much count on racial profiling and some extra questioning by security.
I would like to mention, by the way, that I do, in fact, have one of those quickly whipped up nylon American flags on a flimsy plastic flagpole at my desk. Just so you know I'm not immune to a bit of patriotic symbolism from time to time. But I don't think it makes me more patriotic than someone who didn't spend $2.50. I bought one because the money goes to the NY Firefighter's 9-11 disaster relief fund. I wholeheartedly admire firefighters. They are brave, brave people. I didn't think it was much to contribute until I heard the store selling the flags to raise money for disaster relief sold 44,000 of them last week.
I also admire the ASPCA for their work in Manhattan. I sent them a check, and you can contribute, too. My friend Ellie Lang was very grateful to them when their Pet Rescue Command Center assisted her partner in returning to their apartment to retrieve their pets two days after evacuating. I know I would be frantic if I could not get behind police barriers to rescue my animals. They are a worthy organization providing pet rescue and veterinary care for many rescued animals until they can be reunited with their owners -- please support them.
And if you aren't in a position to write checks, that's all right. Someday you will be, and then you can support the charity of your choice. There is no wrong time to donate. I hope it will be in a time of less immediate need. No amount of philosophy can take away the hurt of last week's attacks, but it made me feel infinitely better to do what I could for those who are on site trying to save lives.
Maybe I should have sent them some quotations from Aristotle.
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