Food for Thought

I've been staying in school late the last couple of weeks. I started off the semester slow, generally getting home around five or six, and leaving the house close to eleven. Part of the reason was to spend more time with my wife who's currently out of work, and part of it was just my own laziness. Now with the term winding down and finals approaching fast, I feel like I should be putting more into my work, trying to pull up my grades this term so that I'm in a better position after the break to look for a job. Not that my grades were that bad last year. Actually I did fine. My only disapointment was in contracts. I had studied diligently for the exam and ironically that wound up being my lowest grade, thereby setting in motion a domino effect of failure, resulting in my losing my scholarship, and lowering my subsequent job prospects. It was admittedly frusterating, especially given the work I had put in, but also for the implication that grades were not a direct function of effort. It's a hard pill to swallow. I had always believed strongly in the maxim that you get out what you put in. Now I'm not so sure.

So despite my eroding trust in the ability of hard work to yield just results, I'm here in the school library when I'd much rather be home eating dinner. I haven't eaten yet today, and I know that seems to be an indication of some kind of disorder, but its not. I used to follow this kind of nutritional schedule when I was younger. In elementary school I would skip breakfast entirely, snack on a piece of bread for lunch, and come home to eat a full dinner. And this worked for me. I didn't feel weak or sluggish, on the contrary, I was plenty full of energy and able to sustain myself just fine. I recently read about this new movement called caloric restriction, a radical attempt to limit intake to the lowest possible nutritional requirements, in the hope that this will prolong the aging process, and extend life expectancy. Of course, this raises the question of whether a higher life expectancy is worth a lifetime of hanging on the edge of starvation. I suppose that' s for the individual to decide. As for myself, extreme crash dieting may at times be acceptable, but I don't think I could ever live like that in the long term.

Iran today announced again that they would like to see Israel wiped off the map. Incredibly, academics and intellectuals wave off such proclamations as empty rhetoric, devoid of any real practicality. Its all posture, they maintain. I'm not so sure. Most of their analysis is centered around the understanding that the president of Iran, who's making these threats, doesnt hold any real power in the government, and that the power rests with the Ayatollah, who they assert is more politically pragmatic. Wasn't that also the case with the Chancellor of the Weimar Republic ?

I remember now what I wanted to write about today, but it's too late. I'll get to it tommorow. I was supposed to fill in a little personal background about who I am, my history, aims and interests. I can imagine your all sitting on the edge of your seats in anticipation. Tommorow, tommorow.