Category: On Life

Posts about family, work, life, existential dread… the usual.

March Write Day: Where Did February Go?

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On LifeLeave a comment

Somehow, we’re in another month, and we’re already starting to see hints of spring. I strangely don’t feel ready for spring and then summer. Cold days and occasional snow provide a convenient excuse to hold up inside the house and not be bothered with being social. Now comes spring, and all of our plans for this year. Don’t get me wrong, we have some very exciting plans for this year. I just thought I’d have more time to prepare for them, like, mentally.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Read 3 books.
  2. Exercise every other day and get to the gym. 
  3. Finish ending for New Earth.
  4. Outline New Earth for chapter structure.

Read three books?

No, and I actually didn’t finish any books in February. However, just a few days into March I finished two books, I’m nearly done with another, and I’ve made a good start on a fourth.

I finished reading Black Leopard, Red Wolf a few days ago, after powering through it the last couple weeks. I really liked it, but I have some more thoughts I’ll share in a review next week. My goal is to make up for lost reads this month.

Exercise every other day and get to the gym?

Not quite. I exercised more like twice per week and made it to the gym once. Not terrible, but also not as much as I’d like. It’s a work-in-progress, as always. I definitely need to get to the gym more this month. That’s been the toughest part to motivate for so far.

Finish ending for New Earth and Outline Chapter Structure?

Noooooooope. My online class finished just last week, and I had one assignment and a group project that took up way more time than I had anticipated. So, while I really tried to work on my story on nights when I could muster the mental energy, I had to focus on the class.

Goals for March

  1. Read four books! Like I said, I’ve already finished two this month, and I’m well on my way to finishing two more, so I might as well go for it.
  2. Exercise every other day and get to the gym twice. Same.
  3. Finish New Earth ending and outline chapter structure. Alright, my online class is done, which opens up some time during my week. I fell out of the groove, so I just need to get back in it.

Steve D

Book Review: OATH AND HONOR presents frightening account of Jan. 6

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Life, ReviewsLeave a comment

When I saw Liz Cheney’s memoir, Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, available for preorder, I knew I had to read it. While I did not closely follow Cheney’s political career, I had a vague sense of respect for her; she seemed like the type of politician who stood by her principles.

I got this sense in the aftermath of Jan. 6 and during the news cycle around the Select Committee in the House of Representatives to investigate the events that allowed the insurrection to occur.

I have even more respect for her now, having read this..

Oath and Honor is a frightening narrative of the January 6 insurrection. I have felt since that day that Trump and his supporters in Congress were somehow culpable, that they should be held accountable. I now have no lingering doubts. Trump and the members of his administration and Congress who supported his attempted insurrection must all be held accountable.

Cheney discusses in detail the amorphous uncertainty she had around Trump’s administration in the weeks between the 2020 election and the planned inauguration of President Biden. According to her narrative, she had a feeling and even had conversations with others in power that something was not right.

Her account of the insurrection itself is harrowing; to know that the organizers behind the mob had planned to lay siege to the Capitol and return armed after dark is a nightmare scenario I won’t soon forget.

Cheney then lays out what came to pass over the following eighteen months, her involvement in the Select Committee, and her bid for reelection in Wyoming, which she lost to a Trump-supporting election denier.

This moment in US history is still too near, too real and present, for me to take the critical view of Cheney’s narrative from a historical perspective. I think there may be a few minute moments in this account where she comes off as self-righteous, where she lingers just a little too long on her own admiration for figures like her father, and Reagan.

But, this is a memoir, after all. Perhaps in five or ten years, when all of this is (hopefully) in the history books, I will be able to reread this with a more critical ear for Cheney’s own version of these events compared to other accounts that will surely be published. For now, I have to take this accounting of January 6th at face value…

As a warning.

Anyone who cares about the US or who feels compelled to understand what actually happened that day, please read this book.

Steve D