Today’s Daily Stoic writing prompt:  What if I stopped to verify my opinions and initial reactions?

I think a better word here than “opinions” would be “impressions.”  Opinions are just that:  Opinions.  They may or may not be based in fact–a thing that often confuses people reading the “op-ed” sections in newspapers. 

The associated meditation uses the Russian proverb “Trust, but verify.”  What this does is to underscore the importance of avoiding unconditional acceptance of any piece of information, even from a source you trust.  That’s why in academia we were trained to footnote, so that others reading our articles and essays could trace back our line of thinking to our own sources.  And you always do that.  The only thing that makes it easier and faster is building up a repertoire of reliable sources in a particular field–or rather, understanding critically the strengths and weaknesses of all sources, whether contemporary/primary or secondary.  

*****

COVID cases are now at 3K a day, and doctors are saying this “emergency brake” is not enough.  More and more calls to get the vaccines targeted at high-risk populations–which are now frontline workers for things such as grocery stores and manufacturing/logistics plants, as well as teachers.  The Ontario government so far has not budged other than to say that local health boards can reprioritize.  Meanwhile, Peel district schools are closing.  I suspect there may be more of those coming.  The hunkering down will continue.  I just wish the provincial government would care more about those who can’t.

Last day of my break.  I almost forgot about a call with the incoming Lawspeaker, but it went forward and we had a good discussion.  The rest of the day was largely spent goofing off, although I finally have listened to the part of the Shostakovich viola sonata where he quotes all 15 of his symphonies in sequence, made a little progress on a style sheet thing and on the embroidery, and had extensive Discord server silliness.  I was pointed at this, which is absolutely brilliant.

 

Tomorrow, it’s back to work. Time to attempt to remember what the hell I was working on.

(Luckily, I took notes.)

And here is some Tanya Tagaq (warning, some very graphic bits).