My blue moon

Uplifted in fatherhood, I was driving back from the baby store late this evening, contented that I had managed to buy a box of hard-to-find diapers. It wasn't the worst hour of traffic, but for some reason, it seemed pretty disorganized. I relived the horrors of "slam-on-brakes-and-hold-your-breath" several times.

Amidst all this, something caught the corner of my eye - a half moon in brilliant cobalt blue, pristine and more dazzlingly beautiful than anything I had ever seen "up above the world so high". To a casual sky-watcher like me, this was amazing; for a split second, I thought I was witness to an astronomical marvel. I was captivated by the charm, as if by a spell; all my worries - petty and prominent alike, magically silenced for a few moments.

This trip of mine to Wonderland was not meant to be - at the next traffic light, I realized that I had been watching the moon through my windshield tint. Ah!!. if only this intrusive uncovering could have waited a few more minutes !!!

I am not disappointed... the marvel just turned from being "the" blue moon into "my" blue moon. Until a day comes by when I can pinch myself twice, look out the window, ask a friend and still believe I am watching a celestial wonder of comparable beauty and charm, "my blue moon" will remain an object of my overwhelming admiration.

Too much work

I dragged myself through one of those afternoons today - when I had a shitload of stuff to do, but just felt like goofing off. I wanted to kill a few minutes - hoping this too shall pass. I grazed the internet and found that some countries like France, Germany and Netherlands support 35-hour work weeks. And they actually seem to see some rationale behind this -

(Source: Wikipedia)

1. To reduce unemployment and yield a better repartition of work, in a context where some people work long hours while some others are unemployed. A 10.2% decrease in the hours extracted from each worker would, theoretically, require firms to hire correspondingly more workers, a remedy for unemployment.


2. To take advantage of improvements in productivity of modern society in order to give workers some more personal time in order to enhance their quality of life

Now I feel motivated.... to goof off.