Plus, my [REDACTED] and his [REDACTED] are totally on the outs. My whole family is very sympathetic to [REDACTED]'s perspective, and perhaps a little quick -- in my view -- to crystallize their prejudices about [REDACTED]. There may be a pent up need to do this, because such judgements were previously forbidden but now help bring narrative sense to the big picture by erasing any shades of grey with a bucket of good old-fashioned polarization (and the associated moral authority). Clearly, winners and losers have already been chosen and now we're all just watching the chips fall, confident now that the betting windows have forcibly shut. Poor [REDACTED]. Oh yeah -- and poor [REDACTED], too.

Similar, my [REDACTED] continues to struggle with her [REDACTED]'s lack of responsiveness and responsibility with regard to not only the care of [REDACTED], but also of his own living [REDACTED], which was recently diagnosed as dramatically diseased. I'm not sure when [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] will reach the same sad state as [REDACTED] and [REDACTED], but it seems to me such progress is an inescapable slide toward an unblinking attractor.

Meanwhile, [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] aren't even going to [REDACTED] their own [REDACTED] due to some [REDACTED] confused [REDACTED] about [REDACTED] and, I suppose, a general lack of [REDACTED] about topics such as [REDACTED] practices or modern [REDACTED], proving once and for all that [REDACTED] is not bliss -- it is, rather, [REDACTED].

This follows the end of a long period of animosity between [REDACTED] and [REDACTED], whose differences have finally been [REDACTED] -- or, at least, enough time has passed for them to be safely, though temporarily, [REDACTED]. This is similar to a forgive and forget algorithm, except [REDACTED] and only until further notice. It's the kind of truce you enter unto when you've been [REDACTED] so long you forget your own [REDACTED].

Why do people (such as [REDACTED], [REDACTED] and even -- to an extent -- [REDACTED]) claim to be defending a point of principle almost exclusively when they are, in fact, not? When they are actually defending a point of principal they almost never make a point of saying so. Instead, this point is only pointed out when it's beside the point. The learning? Anyone who says "it's a matter of principle" is likely deluding, chiefly, themselves. Effective self-delusion is predicated on a feeling of inhabiting the moral high ground, after all.

And another thing: why is my [REDACTED] so retarded about [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]'s issues? She's like a fucking Fox News anchor with an addiction to saying "fair and balanced" while maligning one party and jacking the other one up on a pedestal. If I try to object, [REDACTED] accuses me of having an imbalanced point of view in a fit of defensive projection. I admit I am chagrined by [REDACTED]'s paper thin commitment to the institution of marriage. Perhaps I'd done a bit of pedestalizing myself. Reconsidering that, now.

On an unrelated note, it looks like [REDACTED] has a line on a debt-liquidation sale small yacht. He told Littlestar and me he would buy it for us if he could talk them down to a ripe enough price, but I objected on the grounds that we couldn't afford to slip fees at the marina. So, soft-hearted as he is, [REDACTED] offered to cover the slip fees for the time being so my kids wouldn't be deprived of the essential childhood thrill of summers on the water.

I myself do indeed have plenty of fond memories of summers on the water -- or at least near the water -- with my four siblings on Ward and Algonquin Islands, squatting to stare at tadpoles, finding feral kittens, stealing a swig of sun-hot beer when [REDACTED] was busy fixing something on the boat...

(The clang and jingle of loose halyards against metal masts, the flag-like flap of sails. Diesel rainbows on the water, the smell of rotting weeds and the hot oil they used to grease the skids to launch the yachts in spring. Grilled cheeseburgers jammed in with sweaty hands, peppered with little red cuts of we're too proud of to bandage.)

I work too much.