My Retirement Diary 2025
go to: My Retirement Diary 2024, My Retirement Diary 2023
________________________________
April 13, 2025:
This past week I saw Her Portmanteau at Central Square Theater. This play is part of the nine play series (The Ufot Family Cycle) which explores the immigrant’s experience from the perspective of a person and family coming from Africa to the United States. While I enjoyed the play, I think there was more emotional depth within the script that could’ve been brought into the theatrical production. I don’t know how, but I’m pretty sure it was there. Several other theaters in the Boston area have done other plays in The Ufot Family Cycle.
We had another ReeBrunch session this week. There were 7 people in attendance, including one new member. The group has been meeting since September and the conversation rarely flags. Not surprisingly, the was a lot of interest in talking about politics, but eventually one member steered the conversation beyond politics – appropriately.
Personally, I am now of the opinion that the only way to prevent fascism from taking over the United States is if there is a major catastrophic event, such as a depression or recession. So, if I have to choose a depression or democracy, I’ll choose democracy every time. But this pessimistic Outlook will not dissuade me from continuing to display my pro-democracy banner.
I spent some time re-working the display for my banner. I just have to wait for the weather to be appropriate so I can go out and display it during rush-hour.
I’m happy to report that both Gail and I got one of our artistic creations accepted into the Somerville Council of the Arts juried show “Somerville Open Studios’ Inside-Out Gallery”, which will be displayed from mid-April to mid-May. I will post a photo here when the display goes live.
Next week is the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. Both Lexington and Concord are going to have celebrations, as they are the location of the “shot heard round the world,” beginning the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The below is from Wikipedia’s American Revolutionary War webpage:
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war’s outcome seemed uncertain for most of the war. But Washington and the Continental Army’s decisive victory in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 led King George III and the Kingdom of Great Britain to negotiate an end to the war in the Treaty of Paris two years later, in 1783, in which the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.
Maybe I’ll display my banner in Concord or Lexington, I’m not yet sure. Gail will be away so I’m going to have to do this by myself.
Gail and I had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Field and Vine (Union Square, Somerville) with M & E. They are always fun and interesting to talk with. M is in my REMBrunch group and E is an prize winning journalist and science writer, her most recent book is Slippery Beast, which is “An unsuspectingly thrilling account of one of marine life’s most enigmatic creatures.”
I finally finished my tensegrity rocking side-table.
I really like how it fits into our living room…
Here is a collage of photos mapping the evolution of this project’s creative process.
We awoke yesterday to find snow on the ground. Fuck, winter is still here. It is time for winter to move on.
________________________________
April 7, 2025: Some press coverage
I am happy to report that photos of my banner were seen in articles in The Guardian, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
________________________________
April 5, 2025: HandsOff 2025 Rally – A Tactical Success
Today we attended the HandsOff! Rally at the Washington Monument. I had spent the past two weeks trying to create a freestanding contraption to hold my banner.
Ultimately, I did manage to build something—not as good as the Pickleball stand I’ve been using, but made from piping that is no more than ¾ inch, as required by National Park Service rules. Of course, no one else on site seemed to follow those rules.
Anyway, I initially set up the banner at ground level, and it worked fine. Later, Gail suggested we raise it higher since the crowd was getting dense and it was hard to see. I reconfigured the setup so we could raise the banner so the lower edge was 6.5 feet above our heads, and this worked great. It did require us to hold the poles, but I have no doubt it was the most appreciated and most photographed banner at the rally.
Since I chose a location away from the stage, it is likely my banner will not appear in national media coverage, but I don’t regret our choice of placement.
Also, as a result of our location and the need to remain by the sign, we were unable to see or hear the stage or get a sense of the total number of people who attended.
In the end, I think we all immensely enjoyed our participation in this rally and felt like we did something meaningful. Whether or not this is going to help promote the rebirth of democracy in America, or whether we’re going to continue our dreadful slide into authoritarianism, and maybe fascism, is to be decided. So, it was a tactical success but it is TBD if it will lead to a strategic success.
There was tremendous enthusiasm among the crowd—but I remain gravely concerned about the future of democracy in America. Maybe this is the beginning of a shift. Tuesday’s election offered a glimmer of hope: the Democrat won the Wisconsin Supreme Court race by 10%, and the Republican margin in two Florida districts dropped from 30% to about 15%. And Trump’s tariffs have resulted in a 10% drop in the stock market.
Unfortunately, the North Carolina Supreme Court recently ruled that many of the 60,000 voters in a Democratic district must re-verify their identity, after which there will be a recount. We’re talking about a margin Democrat margin of victory of only 742 votes, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this flips the result from Democratic to Republican. This is exactly the tactic Republicans are using nationally: if they lose, they exploit any opportunity to reverse the outcome—even when the mechanism of reversal has no historical precedent and contradicts prior judicial rulings. This is how fascists win elections.
________________________________
April 4, 2025: Drive from Somerville to DC
Gail and I drove to DC to visit our friends D and R for a few days; we’ve been friends for 40 years, having met during our internship and residency at Vanderbilt.
We left Somerville around 7 AM and arrived at their house in Silver Spring, MD at 5 PM, with just one charging stop—total travel time was about 9 hours. Tesla’s Autodrive mode made the trip far more pleasant than it otherwise would have been, just as it helped on my July 2024 drive from Somerville to San Francisco and back.
________________________________
April 2, 2025: Great Lecture about History and Today
I listened to Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust and Jon Meacham—both noted historians—speak on “Democracy Through the Lens of History” at the Kennedy Institute of Politics. Meacham is a fantastic storyteller and a fountain of historical insight. I highly recommend this talk
________________________________
April 1, 2025: Another ReeBrunch, Too
We had six people attend our third “ReeBrunch, Too” group. Our political discussion became a bit too confrontational, in my opinion, so I’ll need to figure out how to handle that if it happens again. Given the current political climate, I don’t believe we should or can avoid discussing politics—it’s simply too important. But we need to learn how to talk about it respectfully and amicably.
________________________________
March 31, 2025: A Play, A New Audiobook
At the suggestion of a friend (J), I listened to Uncle Vanya—Chekhov’s play—on audiobook. It’s about a family of seven Russians living on their rural estate in the countryside around 1890, and the local physician who visits regularly. The production left something to be desired.
The story is of a group of people plagued by overwhelming boredom (nothing happens and/or they have nothing to do) and unrequited love. Ultimately, the estate’s owner decides to sell the fiscally precarious estate so he can live more comfortably in an urban setting—a decision that betrays (or ignorantly disregards) the others who live on the estate.
Given the essence of the play, I don’t think I’d want to see this play performed live.
I also recently began the audiobook A Crack in Everything: How Black Holes Came In From the Cold and Took Cosmic Centre Stage, by Marcus Chown—a former physicist turned journalist/author. As the New York Times review states, “Chown’s book is primarily a chronicle of the researchers who helped make black holes believable…” I’m about 25% through the book and am enjoying learning how black holes entered humanity’s scientific consciousness.
________________________________
March 30, 2025: Entertainment, grow a community, woodworking, anti-fascism activism, memory issues
It’s been 10 days since my last post. In that time, I’ve gone to the movies and the theater, participated in social events, done some woodworking, made progress on our potential home renovations, and have been displaying my anti-fascism banner.
The Somerville Theater has been showing a series of concert films: The Last Waltz (The Band), Stop Making Sense (Talking Heads), Divine Madness (Bette Midler), and Amazing Grace (Aretha Franklin). Each had its own unique character, but my favorite was Stop Making Sense; David Byrne’s eccentricity, energy, and magnetic presence made it the most distinctive. If you haven’t seen it, put it on your list.
Last night we went to the American Repertory Theater‘s play Night Side Songs. The play follows several characters, portrayed by five actors, over the course of a few decades. In the course of the play, a young woman develops cancer and the play explores how she, her family, friends, and the medical profession cope with this devastating turn in her life’s story, culminating in her decision to welcome death.
The portrayal was deeply empathetic and emotionally resonant. As a former physician who has often been present in such end-of-life situations—and as a son who watched his mother die of cancer over the course of a year—I found it hauntingly accurate.
Although I wasn’t enamored with the songs, I highly recommend the play.
Afterwards, we went out to dinner with J and B. J, who has survived cancer three times and is doing very well, was a professor of theater. The play really resonated with her.
I continue working to grow a sense of community among retirees through my three monthly brunch groups and a new weekly MIT Club of Boston cycling event. The first ride was a bust—39°F and drizzling. No one showed. The second was canceled due to cold. But I haven’t given up.
Our next ride is scheduled for April 10. I created a new advertisement for the MIT Club of Boston’s newsletter and event calendar. Even if no one shows up, I’m committed to running this event for at least a few months.
I joined Pat Scanlon—a climate activist and musician—for a singalong protest on the steps of the Massachusetts State House. About 100 of us formed a chorus for his latest environmental song. While our audio will be dubbed over by a professional choir (no one wants to hear me sing!), the experience was lively, communal, and Pat really appreciated everyone showing up.
Gail and I went to dinner, mostly spontaneously, with S and D, at one of our favorite haunts, The Abbey in Cambridge. Always fun to talk with them.
Our potential home renovations are moving forward. We had been working with an architect for several months and have now shown the house and the plans to several builders. Once we receive estimates, we’ll decide whether to proceed with the construction.
Although our house is perfectly adequate for Gail and me, it’s not well-suited for hosting our kids, their spouses, and grandchildren for extended visits—especially when they’re working remotely. These renovations, if we go forward, would solve that problem.
I’ve added the final wood finish to my Tensegrity rocking side table and received the glass top. Unfortunately, the custom glass was about 1/16 inch larger in diameter than I ordered—I hadn’t accounted for cutting tolerances. Although initially somewhat distressed, I ultimately came up with a simple workaround for my oversight.
I’ve continued to display my anti-fascism political banner on bridges around Boston. Twice, employees of the Department of Transportation asked me to remove it—apparently, affixing signs to overpasses is prohibited. I find the rule questionable, given that other banners and flags often remain untouched.
To work around this, I modified my Pickleball net to serve as a free-standing display for the banner, eliminating the need to touch any public structures.
During my most recent outing, a passerby confronted me. He assumed that my American flag display signified Trump support. I explained that I am anti-fascist and pro-democracy. To me, the American flag represents the U.S. Constitution, a tripartite representational democracy, and the ideals of freedom, equality, and justice.
I emphatically reject the notion that the American flag belongs to the MAGA movement. I will continue to display the American flag—at home and beside my banner—because it belongs to Americans who believe in democracy and the U.S. Constitution. It is past time for those of us who value these ideals to reclaim the flag as a symbol of our shared commitment to liberty and justice for all. I wrote an essay on this subject about two years ago: “A New American Patriotism and The American Flag“.
Recently the Trump administration secretly rescinded the visa of a Tufts PhD student who had written a student newspaper editorial calling for divestment from Israel, despite her constitutional guarantee of free speech.
Two days after they supposedly revoked her visa and before she was notified of its revocation, on Tuesday at 5 PM, unidentified and masked agents in unmarked vehicles abducted her from in front of her Somerville home, and flew her to a jail in Louisiana – all caught on film. This out-of-state abduction occurred despite a judge’s order that she not be removed from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Boston Globe the story was posted on Wednesday at 5 PM.
When I came upon the article soon after it was posted, I immediately headed into Davis Square and set up my banner. Someone photographed it and posted it to Reddit, where it received 26,000 comments before the platform locked the thread. It was the third most upvoted article on Boston Reddit that day.
Unbeknownst to me, a rally was taking place just a mile away, where 2,000 people gathered in support of her.
Recently, I read two compelling essays about the threat of fascism in America and what can be done. One was an interview with Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut titled “We Are Sleepwalking Into Autocracy.” The other was a New York Times op-ed by Ben Rhodes, “Democrats Can Stop Trump and Save America.” Both are worth reading and are PDFs you can download.
Here are some pictures associated with my banner and my essay: Defend Democracy and the U.S. Constitution! Stand-up for Patriotism and the American Flag!
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I’ve offered to participate in a memory-related clinical study at MGH. The researchers will likely contact me to determine whether I meet their inclusion criteria. There’s no direct benefit to my health, but I hope my participation will help advance the science.
I continue to experience occasional lapses in memory. For example, yesterday, during my five-mile walk, I listened to an audio article in The New York Times titled “What Happens to Your Brain When You Retire?” While walking, I emailed the article to a few Vanderbilt friends from my internship and residency. About an hour later, forgetting I had already sent it, I decided to forward it to all my retired friends—and inadvertently sent it a second time to the same Vanderbilt group.
Perhaps the event didn’t register as something worth remembering in the moment—but even so, it’s concerning. There’s no proven medical therapy to prevent cognitive decline or improve memory beyond what I’m already doing: eating well, sleeping adequately, exercising regularly, and engaging in intellectual and creative pursuits. Maybe this is just part of the normal aging process—or maybe not.
________________________________
March 20, 2025: Time to Take Action Defending Democracy…
Today was my first MIT Club of Boston cycling event, which I had o
rganized. Unfortunately the weather was not optimum, it was about 41° and had been drizzling earlier so it was not surprising that nobody showed up. Nevertheless, I was appropriately dressed, with four layers on top and b – even I wouldn’t have gone, had I not been the event organzer. By the time I had cycled 5 miles I was warm enough. I did my usual 22 mile loop and then return to working on the banner stand.
I spent a large fraction of yesterday and today modifying my pickleball net so I could use it to securely display my anti-fascism banner. Ultimately, I ended up close to my first version. It should now be legal for me to display the banner on bridges in/around Boston. I still may need a permit in most locations.
I think someone should start selling a red hat with the slogan “Make America democratic Again.” Yes, little-“d”.
________________________________
March 18, 2025: Time to Take Action Defending Democracy…
A few days ago, I went to see the Odyssey again at the American Repertory Theater.
I wanted to see the production a second time, now that I know the story better, and to observe whether the theatrical experience changed from performance to performance.
Seeing it again, I found the performance almost identical to the first. In both performances, the first act was a little slow, the second act was better, and the third act pulled it all together and was excellent.
As I discussed in my essay Defend Democracy and the U.S. Constitution! Stand-up for Patriotism and the American Flag! I felt it was time for me to act, as autocracy-fascism is rapidly being imposed on America. Honestly, I think it is now a foregone conclusion, and Trump will never leave the White House for reasons discussed in that essay. Nevertheless, I thought I needed to take a stand, and I came up with this idea of creating a banner and I planned to display it around Boston, hoping it would catalyze someone to begin a mass pro-democracy movement.
I first displayed the banner yesterday, zip-tied to a fence near the Boston University Bridge and the Mass Pike during the evening rush hour.
The next morning, I displayed the banner again, zip-tied to a fence on a bridge that crossed the Mass Pike. After an hour, a Boston Department of Public Works employee told me I had to take down the sign as it was not legal to attach anything to the public fence over the highway. He was very polite, offered to help me take it down, but I took it down myself.
For most of the afternoon (aside from my two-hour cycle), I was flummoxed about what to do next, as it became clear I couldn’t simply display my banner on public property without a permit. This was indeed unexpected and discouraging.
I understand the State has a mostly rational reason for controlling highway banners, but it still feels authoritarian—exactly what I am decrying.
I believe I can walk down a public sidewalk carrying a sign, but this sign—20 feet by 3 feet—is much too big for one person to carry.
I have now created two “free standing” apparatuses to hold the banner.
First, I modified a portable pickleball net so it could support the sign at ground level. It’s freestanding but it will need bricks to secure the sign in windy conditions. The pickleball net only works if there are no ground-level obstructions. For example, a highway guard rail would block the banner but a wire fence wouldn’t be an issue.
I then constructed five wooden posts (which still require additional modifications) to display the banner 3 to 6 feet above the ground, but these posts need to be held or attached to something; they are not truly freestanding.
One of my neighbors suggested purchasing a billboard. I’m not sure it is an affordable or cost-effective option.
I’m going to keep talking to people and see if others have ideas.
Maybe next time I will look for a location where I can use the modified pickleball net.
Or maybe I’ll return to this morning’s location and attempt to wedge the five wooden posts between the wire fence and the guardrail on the bridge over the Mass Pike. The sign would not be “attached” to the fence, but since it isn’t truly freestanding, it still might not be legal.
What’s the worst that can happen? They confiscate my sign? Arrest me? At this point, for this issue, any PR is “good” PR.
________________________________
March 13, 2025: Many good/enjoyable activities and the ultimate political downer
Since my last posting of 2/25/2025, I’ve engaged in a few events.
Social
Gail and I had dinner with M and E at The Foundry on Elm in Davis Square. M is in my REMBrunch group, and they’re both fun to talk to. When I mentioned that Gail and I are planning a trip up to Nova Scotia for a niece’s wedding, they offered to let us stay with them at their house in Maine on our drive there or back. Their home is about midway along our route.
I continue to manage my three monthly retiree brunches, which each meet at a local café, on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. I have rescheduled all brunches so they all are on Wednesday: the first Wednesday, second Wednesday, and third Wednesday of the month. It was becoming too problematic for me to manage the groups when each met on a different day of the week and a different week of the month. I’ve also brought in two new male members, as we’ve had a dearth of men in the two MIT alumni groups. So far, nearly everyone has attended all (or almost all) of the sessions, although I lost one or two members due to moving the brunches to Wednesdays.
Theatrical
As I mentioned previously, I saw Kate Hamil’s play The Odyssey at the American Repertory Theater. This theatrical version of The Odyssey is based on Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey, which I’ve talked about extensively in the past. I am definitely taken by this translation, as it is eminently accessible to today’s readers. The American Repertory Theater hosted a lecture “Myth and Modernity” in which they had four Classics professors on stage talking about the play and the poem. It definitely was interesting, and I learned that there are similar epic stories, told in disparate cultures, of men who go off to war and then return to their prior lives. I thought this was remarkable and maybe says something about Homo sapiens that transcends culture.
After the lecture, I emailed one of the Classics professors asking for additional reading material and he was more than generous in his email reply, recommending some academic readings that are in the Harvard library system. Unfortunately, some of the references required a Harvard ID, so they were not accessible, but one of the references–a critique of Emily Wilson’s translation was in an academic journal “New England Classical Journal” that was accessible. I found this three-page essay provided insights into Emily Wilson’s translation while the author’s comments echoed my own thoughts about the Wilson translation.
I think I may listen to Emily Wilson’s audiobook, The Odyssey, again for a third time, as I now know much more about The Odyssey and literary translations.
In two days I’m going to see Hamil’s play The Odyssey again at the American Repertory Theater–this will be one of the few times that I’ve seen a play more than once in a single production and I am very curious to see what my reaction will be on the second viewing.
A Fun Movie and a Dud Mushroom
A few days ago, Gail and I attended the movie The Last Waltz, at the Somerville Theater. This is the movie about The Band’s last concert and I have seen it many times. Seeing movies at The Somerville Theater can be a very different experience than seeing a movie in most cinemas as the Somerville Theater audience tends to be very knowledgeable and vocal about the movies. This is also true for The Brattle Street Cinema in Harvard Square. At these cinemas it is not uncommon that someone will talk about the film before the showing and movie relevant conversations among audience members are at a high level. Of course, the music is my favorite genre, and that would be true for a large fraction of the audience. Clearly, there were some neophytes at the movie who were unfamiliar with The Band; listening to the more knowledgeable attendees share their insights with the neophytes is always interesting.
I again experimented with psilocybin mushrooms, using the same batch as before, but this time taking a slightly higher dose: three stems and two caps. Although I did not experience any hallucinations, I did have mild nausea lasting for two or three hours. And I can’t say the mushrooms noticeably enhanced my enjoyment of the movie. Published literature suggests a 10-30% chance of experiencing a bad trip when psilocybin mushrooms are taken in a dose sufficient to result in a hallucinogenic experience. Given the nausea I had with such a modest dose, I’m concerned that a higher dose might result in significant nausea which would exceed any potential benefit; thus my enthusiasm to have a hallucinogenic experience has diminished. For now, I am not certain what I will do in the future.
Spring returns and so Cycling
With the warming of the weather, the swans have returned to Yates Pond, in Cambridge, located at the beginning of the Minuteman Bikeway. This couple returns every year and will soon have cygnets. Inevitably, some of the cygnets will be eaten by the turtles, which lurk under the surface. Two or three years ago, all seven cygnets serially disappeared, one each day, until there were none. I don’t recall seeing any cygnets last year.
Now that the snow has mostly melted and the Minuteman Bikeway is largely dry, I’ve resumed cycling two or three times a week. My usual ride, about 22 miles in two hours, takes me from Davis Square to the end of the bikeway and back. After these rides, I often arrive home chilled, requiring a nap, hot shower, and soup to fully recover. Cycling has become a form of meditation for me
New Social Cycling Event
With spring in the air, I decided to try to start a weekly cycling group. The “peloton” will meet on Thursdays from 10 to noon and cycle the Minuteman Bikeway. I’m advertising this on the MIT Club of Boston and will shortly see if it is of interest to anyone; hopefully some retirees will be interested. If some cyclists are interested and they have widely varying cycling abilities, then I will need to figure out how to manage the group in a way that will keep everyone happy. I expect that some will want to cycle a longer distance at a higher velocity (16 mph) while others will want a shorter distance at a more leisurely pace (12 mph). Personally, I’d prefer cycling the longer distance at more leisurely but, we’ll see how this works out.
This group cycling event is a complete change for me. I’ve always preferred to cycle alone, as it gave me the opportunity to “just think,” listen to music, and/or an audiobook. But I think a group ride once a week, with the socializing, and maybe a stop at a café, would be a good thing for me to participate in.
Woodworking
I’m nearing completion of my tensegrity side table project. The woodworking and finishing are done, and now I’m simply awaiting the arrival of the glass top. Minor adjustments may be required for the glass to fit properly, but that should be straightforward. While not as stable as I initially envisioned, the table can easily support ten pounds, though it does sway and oscillate slightly. I’m considering calling it my ‘rocking’ or ‘oscillating’ table. TBD.
With the tensegrity side table project winding down, I started a new project—another atypical frame. It’s in the very early stages and it’s not yet clear to me if this is something worth finishing. Sometimes I fully design a project before I begin building it. Other times, I begin making a project without having created or envisaged a finalized design. For this project, I have a vision only in my mind’s eye; I will need to see (with my real eyes) the interim project, which I will serially modify until I determine whether it should actually see the light of day or get consigned to the pile of scrap wood.
Reading, Actually, Audiobooks
I finished reading THE RIGOR OF ANGELS: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality, by William Egginton. While I enjoyed the book and understood most of the physics, I found it more difficult to follow the philosophy and poetry. Nevertheless, it was very interesting to me that these three disparate experts, a physicist, philosopher, and author/poet, all concluded that our understanding of reality is limited because our brains are constructed to comprehend a three-dimensional world.
Werner Heisenberg, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics, and the discoverer of quantum mechanics, said “In physics, what we observe is not nature itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning”
In the same vein, the physicist, Richard Feynman, in his text “The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume III” said “The ‘paradox’ [ when experimental results do not agree with theory ] is only a conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality ‘ought to be.’“
In Summary
Most of the time, I’ve been busy but not overwhelmed. Occasionally, I find myself without anything to do or not sufficiently motivated to take action, but those instances are infrequent.
By and large, I remain happy and entertained, but to do so requires constant effort on my part. It won’t happen spontaneously.
One more thing: Fascism is [Coming to] Here in the U.S.A.
I deeply wish the political situation were different, but I can no longer ignore what appears to be inevitable and is deeply distressing: I believe that the American democracy as we have known it is finished American democracy as we have known it is finished, and fascism has come to all three branches of our government.
Take a look at this list below, generated by ChatGPT from reputable sources, showing the steps a head of state needs to employ to convert a democracy to an autocracy/fascist state. These steps are derived from real world examples that have occurred over the last century, many in the last 3 decades.
America is now well along in the conversion process.
ChatGPT: The typical chronological steps an authoritarian leader follows to convert a democracy into a fascist regime:
1. Gain Legitimate Power – DONE
• Achieve office through legitimate elections or appointments within the existing democratic framework.
2. Erode Democratic Norms – DONE
• Begin attacking democratic norms, questioning electoral integrity, and delegitimizing political opponents.
• Spread distrust in independent institutions and media.
3. Consolidate Executive Authority – DONE
• Centralize power by weakening or dismantling legislative checks and balances.
• Grant extraordinary powers to the executive branch, often under the pretense of a national emergency or crisis.
4. Neutralize Independent Judiciary – In Process
• Replace independent judges with loyalists.
• Undermine judicial independence, preventing the judiciary from effectively challenging authoritarian actions.
5. Suppress Free Media – In Process
• Restrict press freedom through censorship, intimidation, harassment, legal actions, and physical threats.
• Establish state-controlled or allied media outlets to disseminate propaganda and limit opposing viewpoints.
6. Control Civil Society – DONE
• Restrict or outlaw independent NGOs, advocacy groups, unions, and community organizations.
• Arrest, threaten, or exile influential activists and opposition figures.
7. Manipulate Elections – DONE
• Alter election rules to favor the incumbent regime.
• Suppress voter turnout among opposition groups through intimidation, voter suppression tactics, gerrymandering, or outright electoral fraud.
8. Create and Exploit Scapegoats – DONE
• Identify internal or external groups as threats, blaming them for societal problems.
• Encourage widespread fear, hatred, or suspicion of minority groups or political opponents to unite supporters.
9. Establish Security and Surveillance Apparatus – Not Yet Done
• Expand police powers, surveillance, and intelligence operations.
• Justify widespread monitoring, surveillance, detention, and repression by claiming national security threats.
10. Militarize and Cultivate Loyalty within Security Forces – In Process
• Purge security services and military of dissenting or neutral figures, appointing loyalists who will enforce authoritarian directives without question.
• Use force to suppress political dissent and intimidate potential opposition.
11. Institutionalize Propaganda and Indoctrination – In Process
• Redesign educational curricula and public messaging to glorify the regime, rewrite history, and instill nationalist ideology.
• Normalize authoritarian values and obedience through continuous state-sponsored messaging.
12. Cult of Personality – DONE
• Develop a charismatic leadership narrative, depicting the leader as the sole protector and embodiment of the nation’s identity and destiny.
• Encourage public displays of loyalty, rituals, slogans, and symbols reinforcing allegiance to the regime.
13. Enforce Full Authoritarian Control – Not Yet Done
• Eliminate remaining political opposition through imprisonment, exile, assassination, or forced disappearance.
• Permanently establish authoritarian structures, solidifying regime’s absolute authority and suppressing any remnants of democratic institutions.
I have begun listening to Anne Applebaum (2020), Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism. I am 40% into the book and it paints a depressing picture of the future of democracy in America.
As I wrote in 2019, I think it is unlikely that Trump will agree to leave the White House in 2029 (or before). Should push come to shove, I believe he will attempt to use the US military to remain in power, as he now controls the US military (without regard for the US Constitution) through his appointment of the totally unqualified Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, and his nominee of retired Air Force Lt. Gen. John Dan “Razin” Caine (also unqualified but loyal to Trump) to be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In addition, Trump now controls the admissions to the US military colleges–creating the next generation of senior military leadership.
Barring an unexpected political earthquake, I have regretfully come to believe that America’s 2.5-century experiment in representative democracy is over.
Maybe it is now futile, but I am not yet ready to give up the fight for democracy. Tomorrow I should receive a 20 ft x 3 ft banner that I plan to display at locations around Boston that are highly trafficked.
________________________________
February 25, 2025: First bike ride of the season.
I have decided to adjust my three retiree’s brunch groups so they all occur on Wednesdays, the first, second, and third Wednesday of the month. I’ve been finding it very complicated to manage the groups with one meeting on the first Thursday of the month, and another on the second Tuesday of the month and the third group on the third Wednesday of the month. Having them all meet on sequential Wednesdays will make management considerably easier. I wish I had thought of this along time ago, before I created all the groups, but so be it.
I have already explained to the group why I intended to make the switch to Wednesdays and only one of 12 people will not be able to make the switch to Wednesday. I’m also going to try and recruit some additional retiree who are MIT alumni. I will be interviewing a person tomorrow to see if he would be a good fit for one of these groups.
I have been looking through online cycling trip catalogs, hoping to create a bicycle trip, inn to inn, in New York and/or New England, either to be done solo or with some of the retirees I’ve been friends with. I didn’t have much success in finding a trip that I could propose to them. Maybe I’ll book a trip with one of the established groups and see if anybody wants to join me.
In the late morning I prepped my bike for the first ride of the season: lube, air, sealant, adjustments, etc
In the afternoon, I went for my first bicycle ride of the season as the temperature was in the mid-upper 40s. I rode down the Minuteman Bikeway, my usual path, 22 miles over about two hours. The trail was line with snow but the path had been plowed and was mostly free of snow and ice. There was a lot of melted snow on the trail and two or three patches of ice, where I had to be very careful.
Rather than listen to my book, I decided I would give myself a break and listen to music. And I took a few photos of the Minuteman Bikeway to add to my Minuteman Bikeway album:
________________________________
February 24, 2025: A book I do not fully understand but am enjoying
I did not do much today except for go for a 5 mile walk and listen to the second third of THE RIGOR OF ANGELS: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality. The first third of the book demonstrated the confluence of ideas from a philosopher (Emanuel Kant), a poet writer (Jorge Luis Borges), and a physicist (Werner Heisenberg) that we can never really know reality, all we can do is understand what reality has revealed to us. As Heisenberg said, “In physics, what we observe is not nature itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning.”
The great physicist, Richard Feynman , addressing the conflict that arises when our measured test results of “reality” and not in accord with our understanding of “reality” said: “The “paradox” is only a conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality “ought to be.”
The second third of the book talked about space and time. There seems to be agreement between Kant, Borges, Heisenberg, and the great Greek philosophers, that when we look “outward”, we’re actually looking inward to a single point.
With my understanding of the world limited to a three dimensional world, this was a hard concept for me to wrap my head around until William Egginton, the author, offered up this explanation for a being living in a two dimensional world. Assume you are an ant living in a two dimensional world, on the surface of a basketball. The ant can move forward, backward, left, right, but there is no up or down. Somehow the ant has acquired a telescope that allows the ant to look as into the distance as is possible, but being in a 2-D world, the ant can only sight along the surface of the basketball. Whatever direction the ant turns the telescope (left, right, forward, backward) the most distant point the ant will see is the same point which is exactly 180° opposite the ant, on the other side of the basketball. (Paraphrased from Egginton, with apologies.)
Discovery of cosmic background radiation, which was created at the moment of the Big Bang, has shown us the same thing. Again, per Egginton, “When Bell lab researchers aimed their telescope in any direction, they got the same results, a signal originating from the cosmic background radiation which was identical in all directions. Essentially, whichever direction they aimed their telescope, they’re looking back at the same point in space and time.”
Of course Albert Einstein’s model of the universe (General Relativity) has four dimensions universe, three dimensions of space and one dimension of time – spacetime. When we look out in any direction, we’re looking back in time, and if we could look far enough, to the beginning of the universe, we are essentially looking at the same singularity, the same point from which the universe began, regardless of the direction of our gaze.
Egginton wrote “Dante was right, no matter which direction we look outward into the universe, we gaze inward to the very origin of space and time. Thus freeing our mind from our senses, we find that the universe is indeed turned inside out”
I found it somewhat exhilarating, during the walk, listening to this story. The fact that the universe may not be as we perceive is quite exciting to me-albeit I am certain my understanding from my readings are filled with holes and misunderstandings.
I think I would like to take a philosophy course that addresses the nature of reality, space and time.
________________________________
February 23, 2025: Theater fundraiser, Dinner with family
Gail and I attended a lunchtime fundraiser at a restaurant in Central Square for the Catalyst Collaborative@MIT, a collaboration between Central Square Theater and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which produces plays about science. At the fundraiser, they had faculty from MIT and NASA talk about space. The conversation at our table focused on women in science. One of the people at our table wrote a play about “innovation” which is intended to be performed for kids in middle school by high school age actors and during the play something is created. It was an entertaining two hours.
In the evening, we had Gail’s sister and brother-in-law come over for dinner, C & G and it was fun to catch up on their retirement plans and hear about their ever increasing squad of grandchildren. Unfortunately for us, our kids and granddaughter live on the west coast.
________________________________
February 22, 2025
In the morning, I gave my Designing Your Retirement lecture at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Fortunately, I didn’t have too many technical problems getting the computer to work with the display screen- unfortunately only four people attended the lecture. The lecture ran from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM, but attendees stayed until nearly noon, suggesting they found it engaging. Their comments were very positive; you can read their comments here.
After the lecture, I met Gail, B, and J for lunch at Toscano’s, just two doors down the street. We had a quick lunch then attended American Repertory Theater’s new production of The Odyssey. Despite its three-hour runtime and two intermissions, we thoroughly enjoyed the production, along with most of the audience. This production was based on the Emily Wilson translation of the Odyssey, which I have written about in several locations in my blog. For example, see A Solo Road Trip: 7,226 miles, in a Tesla, over 16 days, with two dogs and look at the entry of 8/21/2024 and 8/27/2024, where I have included two audio clips from the audiobook.
This version of the play focused on the impact of extreme violence—including rape, infanticide, slavery, and the horrors of war—on both victims and perpetrators. It also explored whether it is ever possible to forgive people who have committed horrific crimes, and whether the perpetrator can forgive themselves or reclaim their former lives. The play’s conclusion is that Odysseus was permanently changed by the events and could not return to life exactly as it was before the war.
There’s going to be a discussion about the play at the American Repertory Theater called Myth and Modernity which Gail and I will attend. I am looking forward to learning more about The Odyssey.
Finally, at the end of the day, we attended the opening of the Danforth Museum exhibit “Selfhood,” which included several artworks done by one of our neighbors, Kathryn Geismar, who is a font of creativity.
It was a full and fun day.
________________________________
February 21, 2025
In the morning, I reviewed my slides and notes for my upcoming lecture, Designing Your Retirement, at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. I had intended to do this earlier in the week, but was not sufficiently “panicked” to “motivate” me to commit the time reviewing my notes. Perhaps I wasn’t “panicked” because I’ve given this lecture a dozen times and now remember enough that I no longer need to spend a week reviewing my notes.
In the evening, Gail and I attended From Antartica to the Amazon, a discussion between composer Patrick Harlin and scientist Susan Solomon at MIT’s new music venue. Solomon, who discovered the ozone hole over Antarctica, played a key role in persuading the world to take action against its expansion, which threatened all life on Earth. Composer Harlin incorporates natural soundscapes into his compositions. I had hoped to attend the world premiere of his new composition, but it was scheduled for the evening of February 22, when I already had a commitment.
________________________________
February 19, 2025
Today was my monthly REMBrunch gathering, held on the third Wednesday of each month. Only J, M, and I attended, as the other four participants were traveling for work or leisure. Nevertheless, the conversation never faltered, flowing naturally from J’s current and future web projects to his upcoming music CD, and ultimately to politics. I’m reasonably certain both J and M enjoyed our REMBrunch interactions
It seems that nearly everyone I know is distraught over the state of the federal government, yet uncertain what to do. As depressing as this may sound, I believe that democracy, as America has known it for the last 2.5 centuries, is now in America’s rearview mirror.
I attribute the global decline of democracy to the unedited, uncurated, “Wild West” nature of the Internet, which amplifies misinformation. Falsehoods—such as lies, conspiracy theories, half-truths, alternative facts, and clickbait—spread six times “farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly” than facts, science, and reality-based explanations. In the absence of an unexpected event, I believe America is headed for an authoritarian future, much as exists in China, Russia, and a half-dozen former democracies that have since embraced authoritarian rule.
While many people I know had, until recently, avoided political discussions, that sentiment appears to be shifting toward more engagement – albeit nobody knows what to do. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has failed to proffer a philosophy and strategic plan that might lead them back to power.
Thomas Friedman of the New York Times had an interesting take on America’s short-term political future. He no longer believes that our checks and balances system of government will prevent America’s slide into authoritarianism, but he does believe that the “physics” of reality will mitigate the problem, albeit at a great cost:
“I’ve kind of given up on politics when dealing with Trump because at least until the midterms, there are no levers to pull. The Senate is all in on him. The House is all in on him. The Supreme Court is all in on him. His media ecosystem’s all in on him. I’m now entirely betting on physics, on the hard realities of things. You cannot move 2.2 million Palestinians from Gaza physically. And you are not going to get Ukraine to just surrender to Russia because you bat your eyes at them. There is the hard physics of things, and one of the physics is that our auto industry cannot survive in a world where the steel components it needs get tariffed by 25 percent and you basically crush the EV incentives. The physics of that, the math is not going to add up, and all you have to do is look at the Ford stock price to see it. They say the market is a voting machine and then it’s a weighing machine. And when you weigh the weight of these things, they don’t add up. If this weren’t my country, Pat, I’d put my feet up, grab some popcorn and watch the show. What a show! But it is my country. Trump is driving, we’re all in the back seat, and I think he’s heading into a wall… When the politicians responsible for being buffers don’t do their jobs, all I’ve got left is Newton and the third law of motion: For every action, there will be an equal and opposite reaction. That’s all I’ve got left. I’ve pretty much given up on politics, but I do believe in the laws of gravity. The apple actually did fall from the tree. It didn’t jump from the ground into the tree. And eventually, the laws of gravity will make themselves felt. Unfortunately, as I said, we are in the back seat and he’s driving.“
________________________________
February 16, 2025
Yesterday, we hosted four of our neighbors for dinner. Gail prepared a wonderful meal and an especially spectacular dessert. Despite the fact that many of our neighbors are much younger than us, we truly enjoy these intergenerational interactions. Our dinnertime conversation ranged widely, from updates on our kids to local and national politics, and to personal dilemmas. I think everyone enjoyed themselves.
We are fortunate to have a delightful community within a few of blocks of our home, and I’ve worked hard to nurture those connections. In fact, it will soon be time for me to schedule our spring neighborhood potluck dinner, which takes place every April and October. Typically, we will have 10-24 attendees.
________________________________
February 15, 2025
I gave my Designing Your Retirement lecture to the MIT Club of Boston on February 1, and I’m scheduled to give the lecture at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education on February 22. I will have given the lecture 4 times at each venue but I am having trouble finding other venues. I’m really not certain what to do about this.
Based on the comments I received from attendees at the lecture as well as comments I have received from people who have watched the video on YouTube or Doximity, I believe that the lecture has real value to people who are considering retiring as well as to retirees. I tried to objectively measure the utility of the lecture by sending an email to people who attended the lecture 6 or more months ago and asking them to comment on their perception of the value of the lecture. Unfortunately I have received no replies. Maybe the lecture is less valuable than I believe, or maybe that’s just what should be expected from a survey.
I have noticed that I have stopped reading medical articles completely. So I will let my membership in the Massachusetts Medical Society lapse, even though the cost of membership is trivial. My “physician” identity is receding into the background.
Episodically, I find that I struggle with “what to do” with my time in my retirement. Some of this is a result of “inertia” (the lack of momentum). There are times when I am doing nothing, and I have a hard time getting myself motivated to do something, anything. One of the tricks I employ is to tell myself: “OK, don’t do the big woodworking project in the basement right now, just go clean up the basement” and frequently that results in me ultimately doing a big project. Or I say, “just go for a short walk” and sometimes that will evolve into a long walk.
I don’t like the way I feel when I am sitting around doing nothing. Maybe I need more diverse activities in addition to: exercise, woodworking, blogging/writing. Or maybe I just need to wait for the winter to pass and the spring to come to Boston.
Unrelated to all of the above, this thought has circled in my brain for a while andI thought I should write it down. When my mother died in 2021, I was fortunate in that I had the opportunity to have a final conversation with her. It was not until several months later that I realized there was more I should have said to her.
________________________________
February 14, 2025
I spent all day creating a jig that will enable me to cut circles on my bandsaw. I need this for my current project, the tensegrity side table and for a future project that I call “Frame waiting for an acceptable painting/photograph.”
The most recent prototype for the tensegrity is stable and it is now time to cut the walnut!
I finished reading Octavia Butler’s The Xenogenesis Trilogy. While I did listen to the entire audiobook, and it had a creative and interesting idea at its core, I’m not sure I’d recommend it to others.
________________________________
February 13, 2025
Today was the inaugural meeting of my new “ReeBrunch, Too” group, also MIT alumni. Besides Gail and me, three women attended and all seem committed.
I spent a lot of time in the afternoon generating an advertisement for the MIT COB newsletter to recruit more members. We need a total of 6 to 9 members to make this a viable group. It is my plan to ultimately step-aside from this group and let Gail manage it. TBD.
In the evening, Gail and I attended a talk sponsored by the Cambridge Art Association. They brought in a person who makes frames to address the topic “Does this frame make my art look big.” While there was no formal lecture, the speaker answered questions about the frames that were used for photographs and painting in the CAA gallery. He was very hesitant to criticize any frame, and mostly offered suggestions for improvements or agreed that the selected frame was optimum.
Most of the attendees were artists, and the conversation focused on the subject “how do I choose a frame to make it more likely that my painting will sell?”
At the very end of the session, I mentioned my essay “Does the Picture Frame Matter?” and asked the question “Does a frame have a function beyond simply enhancing the contained artwork?” I’m glad I had a chance to present this point of view to a group of artist and frame maker-some seemed interested.
________________________________
February 11, 2025
Today we had our sixth monthly ReeBrunch session (MIT alumni retirees brunch.) Attendance was good at six members and the conversation never flagged. Most important to me is that the group now has a second male member: 2 men and 7 women. The group does not need any additional members.
________________________________
February 10, 2025
I wanted to give Gail something on Valentine’s Day and decided to create a movie that review our nearly 40 years together. Much to my surprise this endeavor literally took all day even though the movie was only three minutes and the soundtrack only consisted of segments of five songs.
________________________________
February 9, 2025
Gail’s Superbowl dinner party was a “blowout.” She invited five people to join us for dinner and to watch the game afterward. Four hours before the game, one couple called and said they were too sick to attend, two hours before the game, another couple reported they too were ill and 60 minutes before the game, the fifth person said they were too busy with work but they might be able to show up late, which they did.
My wife loved the game because she wanted to see Kansas City lose. From my perspective, the game was also a blowout—it wasn’t close and, therefore, wasn’t fun to watch. I quit before the half-time show.
________________________________
February 7, 2025
As I’ve mentioned previously, I am the only male attendee among eight at my monthly ReeBrunch group. Two men applied to join the group and I interviewed one of them today; the other will be interviewed in a few days and the next ReeBrunch meeting is in four days.
________________________________
February 6, 2025
Gail and I went to the house of one of my REMBrunch members, T & J for lunch, where we met another couple, C & J, who I had met 2 years ago when I was attending the Somerville Council On Aging weekly walks. Again, it was nice to socialize with REMBrunch members outside our monthly meetings.
________________________________
February 5, 2025
Gail and I attended “S P A C E” at Central Square Theater. Before the play, we went out to dinner with one of the attendees of my ReeBrunch group, and it was nice to socialize with S outside of our monthly ReeBrunch sessions. Unfortunately, the play was not great, despite the fact that it highlighted gender discrimination in the space program.
________________________________
February 4, 2025
I lost my sense of smell (anosmia) in March 2021 as a result of Covid. At the time, I saw an otolaryngologist and testing revealed that I had essentially complete anosmia. Other than sensory re-training (it didn’t work for me), there were no treatment options. As it has been four years, with no recovery, I wanted to talk to an otolaryngologist to see if there were any ongoing research projects which I might want to join. Unfortunately, the situation remains unchanged since 2021—there are no good treatment options, and there aren’t any clinical trials in Boston at this time. Maybe I should talk to a neurologist? Or maybe I should accept the situation as it is?
Of course there are much worse “long Covid” symptoms than anosmia, and I’m grateful they didn’t happen to me. The loss of sense of smell has profoundly impacted my sense of taste, so when people asked me “What do you think of this wine/ice cream/food?” I have to explain that my sense of taste is markedly diminished, and my opinion is irrelevant, except to that small fraction of the population who also have complete anosmia. Adding spices and salt to food helps improve palatability, but salt is bad.
________________________________
February 5, 2025: Starting another retiree’s brunch group
I have decided to help startup a third retirees’ brunch group, in addition to my REMBrunch group and my ReeBrunch group.
In response to an event notice on the MIT Club of Boston calendar in which I stated that there is an opening in my ReeBrunch group (MIT alumni retirREE’s Brunch), I’ve received several emails from MIT alumni who want to join. I’m only adding one male member to the ReeBrunch group, in order to improve the gender balance, which currently stands at seven women and one man.
As I now have emails from several MIT alumni who want to join the ReeBrunch group, I thought I would interview a few of these men, adding one to my ReeBrunch group, maybe one to my REMBrunch group and the others to create ReeBrunch, Too–a new group. I will help get the ReeBrunch, Too group off the ground by attending the first few monthly sessions, but Gail will manage this group, as she has been looking for more social contacts since her 15-year-old book club was shuttered. Once it is stable, I may withdraw from ReeBrunch, Too.
Back when I started my first retirees’ brunch (REMBrunch), I had envisaged that if REMBrunch was a success, I would try to create other retirees’ brunches in the Boston metropolitan area.
In an attempt to encourage and help others to create local retirees’ brunch groups, I wrote down and posted everything I learned during my nearly 2 years of managing retirees’ brunch groups: How to Create and Manage a Monthly Retirees’ Brunch. I will update that posting if further insights become apparent to me.
________________________________
February 2, 2025:
For the last month, I have continued to work on my Tensegrity coffee table, attempting to optimize both form and function. The latter is turning out to be more problematic. In the 4th prototype, created today, I think I have hit upon a design that is esthetically pleasing and sufficiently structurally sound. I hope to begin making the 5th prototype tomorrow and if that works out as I hope, then I can begin cutting the walnut – if I have enough walnut. If I do not have enough walnut, I will need to alter the design slightly to accommodate what I have. Once I have finalized the design, building the table will not take much time.
I have been actively posting comments about my Designing Your Retirement and IHaveAnIdea.us essays on social media, and when I do, I can clearly see an increase in my web traffic. Two or 3 years ago, I would get 2 to 5 visitors a day. Now the baseline is 10 or 20 visitors a day, with spikes.
Visitors per month to IHaveAnIdea.us
________________________________
February 1, 2025: MIT Club of Boston Designing Your Retirement lecture
I spent the prior 4 days preparing for today’s Designing Your Retirement lecture. This will be the 4th time I am giving the talk to the MIT Club of Boston. As in the past, the talk was very well received and I posted attendees’ comments and a video of the talk here:
I still need to omit some slides in the first hour of the talk so I can devote more time to the slide during the last 30-45 minutes of the talk.
The audience clearly wants more information about my personal retirement journey and less about the science behind my Designing Your Retirement syllabus. The challenge is that I believe they simply want to be given a list of “things to do in retirement” when in fact they need to understand the “big picture” and really understand how and why I created “The Strategic Retirement Plan.” Once they commit to The Strategic Retirement Plan, they will be able to figure out their path in retirement.
The challenge now is finding a way to bridge that gap—helping them see that the real key to retirement isn’t a checklist, but a mindset shift. I’m not sure how to resolve this quandary.
________________________________
January 31, 2025: Smart home to cave in a flash
Sue and Doug moved into their redesigned house, this move-in was long in coming. Not surprisingly, there’s still a punch-list and I expect it will take 1-2 months before everything is done and debugged.
The attic and basement were full of electrical and plumbing equipment – more than I would have expected. As Doug is an IT geek, everything is wireless. Should there be a massive electromagnetic pulse (EMP) their entire “smart” home will instantly transform into a very expensive cave.
Of course, part of my home too is at risk.
________________________________
January 30, 2025: A Fun Day – NOT!
It was a fun day, I had my decennial screening colonoscopy! Whoopie! I should receive the colon polyp biopsy report sometime next week. By the time I need my next colonoscopy, 7-10 years, I may be too old or too ill or too frail to have it done.
________________________________
January 22, 2025: Visit with our granddaughter and a wedding party
Gail and I flew to San Francisco, then took an Uber to Napa – a miserable 12 hour trip. Unexpectedly left was going to charge $258 for the trip while Uber charge $120 for the trip. I’ve never seen the difference like that between these two competitors.
We spent two days in Napa, California taking care of our granddaughter and that was a lot of fun.
We took her for a walk in her carriage, and she was mesmerized by a horse and a goat up close—as was Gail. Later, we strapped her into a backpack and hiked up the hillside
And Gail got a lot of good one on one “grandma time” with her granddaughter.
Here is a voice recording of our granddaughter babbling in the backseat of a car. I love these baby noises. There’s probably no sound that is more beautiful and appealing – sound of pure innocence.
21 seconds of a babbling infant
We also visit Gaby’s parents and had a lovely lunch at their golf club – which is buried in the hills of Orinda, CA, quite spectacular, and it is literally within walking distance of their home.
Gail and I then went to Redwood City, CA for Cory and Ricki’s wedding party. They have an interesting group of friends, and I spent a fair amount of time talking about retirement (it was a near-retirement crowd.) It was fun and I am glad I went.
________________________________
January 15, 2025: REMBrunch group, again
My monthly REMBrunch group has been meeting since March 2023 – now approaching the two year mark. At this meeting, and our previous meeting, there clearly was a sense of enthusiasm among the attendees. I believe the group is starting to gel!
I believe my REMBrunch group needs at least one more male member as some members leave the area for 3-4 months at a time (house in Maine or NH or Turkey, visit grandkids who live elsewhere.)
It’s very hard to figure out how many members I should keep in the REMBrunch and ReeBrunch groups. I need a sufficient number of members to assure we have a quorum for every meeting, (3 and 4 attendees respectively) but not too many attendees as that would make it difficult to carry-on a single conversation around a table in a noisy Davis Square Café.
________________________________
January 14, 2025: ReeBrunch group, again.
This was the 5th ReeBrunch – my monthly brunch of MIT Alumni retirees. Besides myself, there were six female attendees. At no point did the conversation flag. I’m getting the sense that this group of people is fully committed to the ReeBrunch (high attendance rate among certain members) and, hopefully in time, we will come to know each other in a meaningful way. Gail could not attend this meeting as she was in Miami, but will be at our future meetings.
Subsequent to this ReeBrunch, I invited the group to join Gail and I to see the science play S P A C E at Central Square Theater and one of the ReeBrunch attendees agreed to join us for dinner and theater. Fantastic!
I still need at least one more male member to make this ReeBrunch group more “balanced.”
________________________________
January 11-15, 2025: Gail follows the surf and sun
Gail decided she has had enough of the gray skies and cold weather of Boston and needed some sun and warmth. So she went to Miami, where she sat on the beach, read a book, walked along the water’s edge, and soaked up the sun.
She came back much refreshed.
________________________________
January 10, 2025:
Gail’s boss had arranged a social dinner at a bar on the North Shore with some business associates, and I was invited. In fact, I was the only spouse in attendance. The bar was just north of Boston, located on the coast, overlooking the ocean. It was a beautiful venue and the conversation was interesting, and far outside the borders of my usual conversations which typically involve either technology, medicine, politics or, retirement issues. It was a fun evening for both Gail and I.
________________________________
January 4, 2025: An American Repertory Theater miss
Gail and I and two friends attended the American Repertory Theater production of “Diary of Tap Dancer.” Clearly many members of the audience liked the production, but I was not one of them. In my opinion, the production lacked the requisite emotional engagement, which I believe is essential for any truly successful theatrical production and was a “preachy” and self-serving event.
For the last decade or so, the American Repertory Theater has prioritized telling the stories of historically marginalized groups in an attempt to rectify long-standing societal injustices. While this is a laudable goal, in and of itself, it is not justification for a theatrical production at the American Repertory Theater. In my opinion, the first priority of the American Repertory Theater should always be to push the boundaries of theatrical productions while emotionally engaging the audience, and, in the process, teach them something or they did not know.
I felt that this play was simply a self-promoting production (by the playwright and lead character) which brought to light the many minority tap-dancers who have been forgotten by history. While the play shed light on forgotten minority tap dancers, it relied too heavily on listing names rather than weaving their stories into a compelling narrative. Without deeper emotional engagement, it felt more like a lecture than a theatrical experience.
Some audience members clearly found the production emotionally engaging, but I suspect that was largely due to their deep connection to the dance or Puerto Rican arts community. While that’s understandable, it feels like too narrow a justification for inclusion in ART’s subscription season.
Had I been seated on the aisle, I would have left during the second act—it was, frankly, boring and unengaging
As usual, I received an email from the American Repertory Theater, asking my opinion at the play. I wrote to them:
Yesterday‘s play at the American Repertory Theater was nothing more than a narcissistic, self-aggrandizing production that was neither intellectually engaging, emotionally engaging, nor entertaining. And it added nothing to my understanding of the world. I hope you will do better next time.
In fairness to you, the reader, I believe you are entitled to see the opinion of professional theater critic, so here is a segment from the Boston Globe’s theater critic’s review of Diary of a Tap Dancer:
“Casel (the lead character, tap dancer, choreographer and playwright) tries to squeeze in so much that despite the sincerity, it feels overreaching, unfocused. In spots, it devolves into lecturing, ranging from fascinating scholarly information to scorching righteous outrage weighted by overstatement, derailing the production’s momentum. But in addition to being thought-provoking, “Diary of a Tap Dancer” is, in fact, disarmingly entertaining, … It is a polished yet natural performance. Casel meets us with an open heart, a raw, deeply personal emotional directness that goes well beyond anything she learned from her early training as an actor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she took her first tap class.”
________________________________
January 3, 2025: Genesis – a book review
I should have written this a few day ago…
________________________________
January 2, 2025:
I finished the book Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. It was the story of three college students from MIT and Harvard, who loved playing and creating computer games. The story followed them as they grew up, creating a company, and how their relationship evolved over the years. It kept me entertained. If you’re looking for light reading, this would be a reasonable read. It also prompted me to purchase a game controller (to be used with the Apple TV) and the game Go.
My 70th birthday was on December 23rd. As we had celebrated it with a trip to London in October and a family dinner in November, I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, I cycled and worked on my blog, ultimately posting Favorite Photos of 2024. It was an enjoyable and quiet day.
Christmas was celebrated at one of our niece homes in Milton, MA. It was a relatively small gathering, maybe 20 or 25 people. The big family gathering is July 4 and Thanksgiving, when everyone returns from the corners of the globe and the crowd swells to 40+.
On the evening of December 26, my brother told me he and Ricki were getting married on December 29. I flew out to SF, California on 12/28 to attend the wedding and wedding dinner and flew back on the red-eye on 12/29. Even though they have been involved for > a decade and living together for 5 years, in a sense this was a shotgun wedding. But not because Ricki was pregnant; the precipitating event was the impending Trump presidency and Cory’s concern he might change Social Security. So Cory wanted them to be married no later than 12/31. I had fun hanging out with Cory and Rick and enjoyed meeting Cory and Ricki’s friends at the wedding, they are definitely an interesting group of people.
While I was out there, I had come across two books that I thought would be interesting to read, 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You think, and Successful Aging; but they’re not next up. Today I started the audiobook “The Light Eaters” by Zoe Schlanger. At this point I’m only 18% into this nonfiction book so it’s much too early to proffer an opinion about the book.
Gail and I went to see the new Bob Dylan movie, A Complete Unknown. This is the music we grew up with, and we absolutely love it. The actors sound just like the real singers. The most exciting part for me was when Al Kooper played the opening note on the Hammond organ of Like a Rolling Stone as my REMBrunch associate, Jon, is a long-time friend of Al Kooper, and Jon told me about this Dylan event 2-3 weeks before the movie release.
I have a problem with historical movies. The screenwriter(s) will take liberties with the facts to make the movie more interesting. Unfortunately, the viewer, me, won’t know when the facts have been altered and the movie will become my new historical “reality,” even though it’s not accurate.
Last night for New Year’s, our neighbor invited us over for dinner. There were three other couples and the conversation was interesting. At one point I talked about how I thought unbridled capitalism is a threat to America. I was asked for examples and I think I flubbed the answer. So now I am working on an essay which I have tentatively entitled “Unbridled Capitalism is Killing Americans and is a Threat to Our Democracy.” It probably will require another several days worth of work.
________________________________
Last entry of 2024
December 22, 2024: Reflections One Day before my 70th Birthday
Tomorrow I will be 70 years old, which is a landmark age.
I am not surprised that I “don’t feel 70.” For the last two decades I have always “felt” 2 decades younger than my actual age.
Of late, I have noticed that my cognitive function and memory are not as good as they used to be and it takes me longer to arise from sitting on the floor. I’m not saying that either of these changes are out of the norm, but they are a little bit disconcerting, especially the former.
I am not one who celebrates birthdays as signficant real landmarks. For me, age is a continuum and I do not perceive “getting old” as a negative. I know Americans prize and glorify “youth”, but I’m not one of them. Maybe this is because my role models for the elderly were my grandmother and mother, who were such positive role models. Or maybe it’s because I’m a physician and I’ve seen how life unfolds and I accept aging as simply a normal part of life.
When I turned 40 I sent an essay to my friends and family and said something like “I’m turning 40. If I die tomorrow, don’t be sad. I’ve had a great life.” I immediately received a phone call from my mother, asking me if I was going to do something “drastic”.
If I were to die tomorrow, on my 70th birthday, nobody should mourn for me–I’ve had a great and privileged life, and would only change a few things (don’t ask as I will not answer.) I am totally aware that it has been a privileged life because of who my parents were. Nevertheless, I regret that privilege in America is heritable.
I believe I have helped to make the world a little bit better than it was before I arrived–in my career as a physician, and maybe, to a lesser extent, in my work in the health information technology realm, with some of my “creations,” and now with my Designing Your Retirement syllabus.
But the most important way I made the world better is that Gail and I raised two kids who can stand on their own two feet, have good moral values, and are making their way in the world.
So I will continue on my journey into retirement, keeping myself entertained by blogging, creating, audiobooks, cycling. I will also continue to try and make the world a little bit better by repeatedly volunteering to lecture about my Designing Your Retirement syllabus. And by trying to bring people together.
Of course, there will come a time when health issues will alter my trajectory. For me, it will likely come in the form of a deterioration in my aortic valve, and that will require surgical intervention. As it will not be without significant risks to my cognitive health and physical health, depending upon the age and extant circumstances, maybe I’ll do the surgery, or maybe I won’t. Time will tell.
But it has been a wonderful long strange trip.
________________________________
Go to…
My Retirement Diary 2025
My Retirement Diary 2024
My Retirement Diary 2023
________________________________