Featured photo: Man with hat | © Shutterstsock
Table of Contents
Miscellaneous
It's that time again, I'm currently avoiding writing a newsletter. I recently posted the second one and will only contact these recipients to invite them to the obligatory members' meeting.
Incidentally, To procrastinate I read blog posts. Thanks to Telekom, television is hardly an option anymore; as soon as more than two neighbors watch football or follow the games, my Internet switches to emergency mode.
For this, look tomorrow the chimney sweep over, my call was answered. And later a technician came because the washing machine in the basement had developed a life of its own.
Before I try to save the world once again with a circular letter — my previous appeals have gone unheard — I would better quote from an exciting article in today's FAZ (30.7.2024, 14:47) on the subject of "At the edge of an old world". Ingolfur Bloomthorn wrote it.
"Is the only way perhaps to articulate as soberly as possible that democracy has outlived itself in late modernity, has become anachronistic and cannot be restored? Anyone who has previously seen themselves as progressive and wanted to shape themselves as such will find this idea deeply reactionary. Certain forms of democracy may have outlived themselves, but does that also apply to democracy as a whole? In any case, there is no way back to the beliefs that have provided orientation up to now. The bourgeois defense of established democracy may only pour oil on the fire of those who are disappointed with it, rebel against its institutions and thus finally clear the way for the rule of the strongest."
In Heilbronn we should already be one step further.
[https://iiics.org/h/20240730132100]
animal welfare
I have great respect for people who abstain from eating meat because of animal welfare. But less for people who do this simply because they think it will improve their own health.
But when I meet militant vegetarians or similar characters who openly express their personal inclinations and then back this up with vegetarian “sausage” or vegetarian “meat,” I have to ask myself what the point of the whole thing is.
To me, this seems like someone who publicly renounces violence and then spends his time at home playing first-person shooters. Anyone who eats vegetarian "meat products" is not actually killing the animals, but is degrading them even more by eating them as fake sausage or fake meat.
These vegetarians continue to cull their victims in their thought processes.
man with hat
As soon as you think you have really experienced everything, you are immediately proven wrong. But I do not mean the recurring photo series Detlef Sterns and also not my “Boy with Hat” series, which is legendary among a few classmates — “Man with Hat” would have been too much of a good thing even for a high school graduate.
A little later I was given a steel hat and a little later even a Kevlar helmet. But that is not the topic today. Today I am talking about my most recent swimming experience, although the focus has not been on swimming for a long time, but rather on my experiences in and around the pools. Although the swimming today was very relaxed - only my body had to cooperate, which reminds me that I should pay a little more attention to it again.
As soon as I entered the Neckarhalde I was able to overhear a discussion between Heilbronn residents who were obviously using the wrong cycle and pedestrian paths. But every Heilbronn resident knows that we are simply not yet ready for cycle paths - we need two or three generations for that. After almost 50 years we still don't really understand what "pedestrian zone" is, or at least not our local council and city administration. I joined in after all and after a "a little consideration will do us all good", everyone involved was able to go swimming, showering or bathing.
I have known people from Heilbronn for a while now who like to stand in the pools fully clothed. Their conversations are impossible to ignore, even for someone who is hard of hearing like me. Hats, sunglasses, jewelry and (too) much perfume are part of the standard equipment. I have gotten used to it and would definitely miss something if it were different - every city has its own peculiarities.
I myself have often stood in the shower with my weapon and uniform (sometimes with a case of beer), but I prefer showering for the more ordinary cleaning purposes. In any case, I always took off my helmet or hat and even today I prefer to stand in the shower naked.
And so today I was standing in the shower after a few lengths when a man I already knew came into the shower. OK, you can shower in oversized swimming trunks, some even wear their underwear underneath. But what surprised me was when this man also stood in the shower wearing his leather hat. I am still puzzling over the meaning and purpose of this action, which, interestingly enough, reminded me of the recently read Max frisch makes you think, because his alter ego, which he later denied, also just stood around the house wearing a hat.
“If the old refuses to die, the new could not be born.”
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (1989: 535)
