SELF: AWARE/INDULGENT

Another stellar summer day, although warmer and muggier. It was thoroughly pleasant in my apartment. I am still improving, still relaxed from my time away. I just read and moseyed around. I had a fabulous nap after which I moseyed over to Melissa and Tim's to share the Mr. P's Mountain Smokehouse bounty and watch True Blood. There was a Bloody Mary popsicle left so I had one of those and some blackberry savignon sorbet. Fun fun fun. Plus, Tim and Missy's house is cat paradise as they have four and three of them are most friendly.

One of the articles I read in The New Yorker was about a Chinese author and blogger named Han Han. I knew nothing about him or that he is the most popular blogger in the world, shattering my self-esteem.

As I work my way through my the influences and history that shaped my family and me, I am interested in how my life and assumptions compare to other humans. Hell, I just try to understand the world and the culture I live in. I thought this was interesting ... and for me, "interesting" is reason to live nearly.


"He [Han] hails from the first generation born after Mao and the advent of the one-child policy—the baling hou, or "post-'80 generation"—which serves as a reference point in discussions of values and the national character much the way that baby boomers do for Americans: a generation that came of age amid radical social transformations which alienated its members from their parents and left them either newly self-aware or self-indulgent, depending on who's talking.

— Evan Osnos, The Han Dynasty: How far can a youth-culture idol tweak China's establishment?  NY'er 7/4/11


Self-awareness and self-indulgence seem like reasonable words to describe the poles between which our popular culture continues. Even sounds pretty close to what I think I go through in my mental meanderings. Might even be how the great world spins in post-God times.