Tag: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Wednesday’s Theme Music – The Consequences

Ashland, southern Oregon — Wednesday, May 13, 2026.

Cloudy, sunny, windy describes the morning. Thunderstorms are expected. They were also expected the last two days but didn’t show. Today’s clouds look like they have more serious intentions.

They’ve cooled the air. A high of 70 is expected. It’s 56 F now.

We’re talking a lot about the blue wave for the 2026 midterm elections. Hopes are rising that Democrats will be able to gain enough seats in Congress to counter Trump’s rampage through democracy and US political norms. Maybe arrest his war-mongering mentality and willingness to threaten other nations, and bomb and kill people. Perhaps, too, we can then curtail the massive ego massaging that the GOP are doing, going along with naming everything for Trump, ignoring rising prices, a cratering economy, and a shrinking impact on the world. Maybe we’ll also get to see what’s in the Epstein files about Trump that shook Melania enough to make public statements trying to distance herself. We’ll hopefully gain enough votes and influence to restore and repair the social safety net, begin countering climate change again, and stop air and water pollution.

Big ambitions. We did it before. Let’s do it again.

‘No kings’ is still our mantra.

The GOP is fighting against a blue wave by gerrymandering districts to promote and protect Republican candidates. Doing so undermines the progress made under voting rights and substantially diminishes the principles established as part of our democratic republic. Their actions reveal just how little they hold all of that in regard.

Meanwhile, on to Operation Epic LOOK — SQUIRREL! Shimmying and trying shift attention from all the bad things happening under Trump and to Trump — rising prices, failing war, falling approval, rising disapproval, increasing national debt — Trump announced tariff relief for beef. It’s a move he tried in 2025. It didn’t work then. Won’t work now.

Trump is trying to lower the price of beef in order to slow inflation. He’s way behind and not addressing the problem. The cause has been going on for years: droughts are causing shrinking grasslands. Less grasslands support smaller herds. Shrinking herds mean less supply. Less supply = higher prices.

It takes years to rebuild a herd. First, the droughts must end.

Trump supplied the same thinking about lowering mortgages, braying that will help people with buying houses. No; it won’t. Housing supply is still the problem. As long as it remains low, prices will keep going up. Supply and demand.

Now, part of the reason why supply remains low: climate change. Wildfires. Droughts. Flooding. Hurricanes. Tornadoes.

Trump won’t try to do anything about any of them.

Instead, he began a war. That war drove up oil prices. Rising oil prices affect food, transportation — and building. Because it takes gas and oil to build. Bulldozers. Trucks to bring in supplies.

Everything Trump does is opposite of what he tries he’s trying to do.

The consequences of his shallow, short-term, backwards thinking are slamming us in the face.

Oh, and then TACO delayed that tariff relief.

I read yesterday about New Orleans sinking, which means it’s flooding. In comments about the article, people quickly asked, “If it’s sinking, why isn’t Florida sinking?”

I thought, wow. Critical thinking is really diminished in this nation. As we know from history, many parts of New Orleans are lower than sea level. Wetlands dominate. It’s been singing and is well documented. Louisiana has been fighting it but under this Republican governor, they stopped that fight.

Finishing the comparison, Florida is mostly porous rock underneath so it’s not sinking. Sea waters are rising, and that will affect Florida, along with storm surge and flooding.

Today’s music comes by way of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. The novel has a character called Marvin, who is a depressed android. I’m not certain what precipitated me thinking of that book. That then flowed into recalling the movie. From that, The Neurons supplied a 1997 song by Radiohead called “Paranoid Android”.

One line of lyrics goes like this:

When I am king you will be first against the wall
With your opinion, which is of no consequence at all

Yes, certain people came to mind as The Neurons played it in my morning mental music stream.

The song’s music is interesting because of the multiple influences which show up in it. Fun to just listen to and identify them.

I hope your day is excellent in whatever ways are important to you right here, right now.

Cheers

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The Meaning

Does forty-two give your life meaning, or is that just the meaning of life?

Fiction writing gives my life meaning. I don’t know if others actively contemplate what gives their life meaning. Surveying an array of friends of family, I can hazard guesses. What gives their life meaning stimulates them. But I can be wrong. Others would have been wrong in the past, guessing what gave my life meaning.

Some, I think, will answer, living gives my life meaning. By that, they mean, being alive and doing the activities of a living human gives their life meaning. The ends and the means are the same. It’s a simple, inviting approach.

I was raised to follow that working, marrying, and raising a family was what life was about. Extending the thinking behind that, it seems that trinity would give our lives meaning. I attempted to follow the precept, and succeeded to some degree. Aging, and becoming more exposed to the world, I grew disenchanted with that trinity as the reasons that gave my life meaning. I questioned what it meant, to have something that has meaning in my life, or to do, or follow something, that gives my life meaning, and perceived many didn’t have one, and substituted activities and goals to give their lives meaning. Some pursue working and making money; others pursue power, politics, social justice, science, or excellence in some area in their lives. For a few, watching and rooting for their sports teams seem, sadly, to five their lives meaning.

I write, “sadly”, with judgmental thoughts, as though I have the answers and absolutely know what’s going on. I don’t. Watching and rooting for sports teams might seem shallow, but if it rewards and satisfies them as much as my fiction writing, are they wrong? Is fiction writing really a greater calling than watching sports?

I know, I’m becoming muddled here. I read the book, “War Is A Force that Gives Us Meaning,” by Chris Hedges, over a decade again. I thought he was on to something there, that war gives many meaning. So do sports, acting, reading…and writing. It’s something to stake as a passion and focus that drives us.

Oddly, I started thinking of Hedges’ book while watching “Foyle’s War” last night. I’ve seen the entire series once, and have viewed many of the episodes twice. I enjoy and admire much in the series, including the acting, writing and production values. Set in England, the backdrop to “Foyle’s War” is World War II. I always enjoyed the sly reference to Foyle’s war as his resolute approach to solving crimes and pursuing justice, no matter where the evidence leads him. This happened in last night’s show; the killer confessed to Foyle after Foyle confronted him with the man’s lies. The man’s response was to ask Foyle to let him go, arguing that his role in the war would save lives.

Foyle was tempted but did not abandon his over-arching principle. He states it at least once in the series, to my memory. I’ll paraphrase as, “If we surrender our basic principles of law and justice to win the war, then haven’t we lost?”

It’s a great part of why I watch. Foyle continually encounters that wall of reasoning that winning the war at all costs is paramount. Foyle doesn’t accept that. When that reasoning falls to sway him, he’s often threatened by the powers of government. He doesn’t allow that to sway him, either, but I always watch to see if he’ll surrender his principles and betray his values.

Which, I supposed, completes the lap of reasoning about meaning. When you find the meaning to your life, it becomes your rock. You stand on it and gain strength. Without it, you’re lost to the currents of madness and fashion.

Time to write like crazy, or edit, one more time.

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Forty-two, of course, is from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” proving that I’m not the first fiction writer to wonder, what’s it all about? Right, Alfie?

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