“May you live in interesting times.” Apparently we’re living under “the Chinese curse” and will continue to do so for quite a while. It is often difficult to stay apolitical. I usually only allow partisan discussions in my group when politics interfere with the secular character of this country. Now there is little that I can do to prevent political discussions from dominating many of our local activities. Whether or not the Chinese curse story is true, we ARE stuck with a political situation that will dominate our lives, at least for a while.

It’s the end of January and I’m still working off my “party pounds” from December. I’m almost 64 years old and it seems that gaining weight is easier than losing it. My battle of the bulge includes daily walks and reduced calorie intake. I’ve learned that it takes both but long walks take time. To ease the boredom I listen to a wide variety of podcasts. The subjects of the podcasts I listen to include Atheism, Humanism, Science, Skepticism, Renaissance and Oldies music. I listen to most of them at 1.5X speed—not the music ones of course that would be weird. I also track down Geocaches that are within a couple of miles, pick up trash, and on occasion I walk to the hardware store (2 miles) or Walmart (3.5 miles) to pick up small items that are easy to carry.

While avoiding the political discussion, walking for my health, and listening to a science podcast, I heard something that never occurred to me before—scientifically, cold is not a thing. Hot and warm are real and measureable but there is no such thing as cold. It is in fact referring to a “lack of heat.” Perhaps in a similar way Atheism isn’t really a “thing.” It’s at least not a religion. Can you measure Atheism since it is most accurately described as a “lack of belief?”

Thoughts?