Getting through Tough Months, Jet Lag, and the Oscar-Worthy Performance of Pete Hegseth
Seven years ago I wrote a TILT that celebrated getting through a tough June. There were flowers growing. The big job at work (a new website) was almost done. Simon aced his interview prep with me for a job he ended up getting (and reminded me “I learned to maintain eye contact in acting class, Mom”). I was meeting my exercise goals during an exercise challenge at work. I ended with “June was tough, but July is looking a bit rosier...and FIREWORKS next week!!”
This year, June was once again harried and uncomfortable. I came back from Paris with a head cold, which made it harder than it should have been to get my sleep brain back into its normal rhythm. Wikipedia defines jet lag as “a temporary physiological condition that occurs when a person's circadian rhythm is out of sync with the time zone they are in, and is a typical result from traveling rapidly across multiple time zones (east–west or west–east).”
American aviator WIley Post (1898-1935) first noticed the effects of flying across time zones and wrote about it, but it was originally thought to be the result of travel fatigue, anxiety about travel, disruption to routine, and dehydration. In the 1970s, jet lag was finally understood to be related to circadian disruption, but I’m not sure we should discount those other factors.
The term “Jet Lag” derives from the speed of travel on a plane, because a jet can get you through multiple time zones faster than a car or train can. But the term itself is misleading, implying as it does that your “re-entry” is all about sleep. People don’t always talk about the return to home turf after an international trip, but maybe that’s because they’re too busy dealing with it.
You may have heard about how companies who send employees overseas to work will limit those stays to two years, because beyond that, it can be difficult if not impossible to repatriate them to living in their home country again. I worked for a relocation firm many jobs ago and have always found that assessment to be fascinating.
When you return home from a trip to far-away lands, you may in fact be dealing with a sort of repatriation. There’s the sleep regulation thing, sure, and it’s a pain in the butt, but your brain has other adjustments to make. You changed time zones, but you also crossed into a foreign landscape, where maybe you had to navigate a foreign language, or public transportation when you’re accustomed to driving yourself, as well as a different set of manners and customs, maybe even astoundingly alien-looking foliage (think about what someone from London might experience the first time they visit Los Angeles or the canyons of Utah). If you’re lucky, maybe you even got lost.
You probably improved your problem-solving skills, learned to be nimble, decided to forgive yourself for mistakes -- and just embrace the unknown. Maybe you even learned to read a map. (Much of this is true for domestic travel as well, but the time zone thing is not so bad.) Here’s the thing: There’s a price to pay whenever we travel outside our comfort zone, never mind our time zone. It’s not always easy, but as any good teacher or parent would tell you, it’s really good for you.
So June for me was a repatriation month, hampered by a head cold, allergy headaches, my cat’s medicated food arriving very late (you can’t just buy it at Schnucks!), having overbooked myself for appointments and outings with friends, finishing up the end of the event- and fiscal-year with my client, and getting started on the long list of things I have to fix or replace to get my house ready to sell. Then it got hot. For someone with a high pain tolerance, I have an amazingly low threshold for heat tolerance.
So when I re-read that TILT from 2018, after vowing not to over-schedule myself in July, talking to Sara about the trajectory of movies for our podcast, finishing two novels, getting caught up on administrative chores for my client including the accounting work I hate, and managing to get calls made to tree companies and a painter, I began to think that maybe the bad June could maybe, possibly, lead to the good July again.
Then came the bombing of Iran – which I don’t begin to understand the how and why of – and warnings from analysts who think Iran successfully hid enough material and equipment before the bunker bombs were dropped to build a nuclear bomb in a few weeks. Which makes sense when you consider that Trump, while “thinking about it” and before he could change his socks, ordered it. No real thinking went into that decision, no strategy, no research, no analysis, and certainly no congressional oversight. It was likely a failure because (before my right-winger friends jump in here) how could anybody possibly do the required due diligence in two days? D-Day took a year of planning.
I watched Pete Hegseth lash out at journalists on Thursday, with claims about this being the biggest thing ever (um, D-Day??), and found myself alternating between laughing and yelling at the television. I couldn’t really comprehend why he was so brazenly revealing his toddler mentality, but then I read this in Heather Cox Richardson’s daily post yesterday, and it resonated: “Hegseth seemed to be performing for an audience of one.”
And there you have it. Everybody around Trump performs for him. But these performances are putting our safety and that of Israel (and possibly the entire Middle East, if not in fact the entire planet) at great risk. Heather: “Julian E. Barnes and David E. Sanger of the New York Times reported today that it remains unclear where Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is.”
The good, if not incredibly funny in an ironic-hah-hah sort of way, news is that Trump (if reports are to be believed) is now negotiating to put in place elements of the Obama 2015 Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - JCPOA) that Trump dismantled after winning the presidency in 2016. If he had left that plan in place, along with the inspectors who were doing their jobs, we would (probably) not be forced to watch Pete Hegseth lose his mind on television.
Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is back in the news (oh goody). Mitch, who admittedly does not perform for the president, has still not learned any lessons from his decades in government. Even Josh Hawley understands you don’t fuck around with Social Security and Medicaid, but not Mitch. To the concerns of citizens who are calling and writing their representatives and senators about Medicaid cuts: “They’ll get over it.” [ETA: The Senate today passed their version of this immoral bill, and now it goes back to the House.]
And that was the last week of June. For July, I have vowed to keep my social calendar to a minimum. Sara and I have chosen the next few movies we want to discuss on the podcast (including “Amelie,” w/a nod to our Paris trip). I have a tentative schedule for getting the yard clean-up done. The sunflower seeds I sowed rather late have already sprouted. I have tentatively started writing a second novel (800 words so far). My friend Laurie and I are going to see the English Beat tonight. (So much for not overbooking myself.)
And, quoting Heather Cox Richardson again: “The focus of the Trump administration on the concentration of wealth and power among the very richest people in the world is creating a backlash at home.”* As it should be.
July is looking a little bit rosier…and there will be fireworks!
Have a great July!
Beth
*Heather Cox Richardson: “A new Quinnipiac poll shows that 64% of registered voters support a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants. Only 31% want most of them deported. That percentage has swung 9 points toward legalization since Trump took office. Trump is also underwater on immigration more generally, with 41% approving of his stance and 57% disapproving.”
