It Has Been A Good Enough of A Vacation - Stories Written, Superman, Inequality

Group therapy was moved to last Thursday, so I took Thursday and Friday as vacation days. It will hard going back tomorrow. 

Nothing to report about the group meeting - I do need to set down my thoughts, so far - as nothing much happened, other than the discussion about Elon Musk. What I am getting from the group meetings is a vibe that lets me understand MAGA. 

I spent too much time sleeping. Yesterday, I just fell apart after running over to Payless. Friday morning I went to see Superman. It was kind of a reward for revising "Colonel Tom" for what I hope is the last time. I probably should not have eaten the buttered popcorn, it caused me problems until the wee hours. I also treated myself to barbecue ribs at The Downtown Farmstand on Friday night. I wrote some more, I went to bed early, and then in the middle of the night I woke with indigestion creating a rebellion in my stomach. Only a little vomiting gave me any relief. I stayed up and read a little and then slept in.

The stomach continues to bother me. Less RC Cola seems like a good idea.

The front room and the bedroom were not cleaned, as I planned on doing.

I finished rewriting "No Ordinary Word" last night. Not quite the production I wanted, but then I lost all energy late yesterday afternoon. I finished it after I slept like 6, 7 hours last night.

About Superman, I had wanted to see it and the selections at the local theater almost dictated seeing it (kids shows, three horror movies and F1). I have been a fan of Superman since I was a kid and saw the George Reeves TV shows on re-run. I went to see the first two Christopher Reeves movies at the theater, and left so very much impressed with them. I even went to see The Return of Superman at the theater. The Zack Snyder movies I had to see on the TV screen - not the same as seeing them in the theater. Now, about this one.

I went to see it. I loved it.

It is a love story- or a collection of them. Lois Lane may be the best since Margot Kidder; maybe even a little better. (It actually lets her be smart and independent and competent; it also gives us something I do not recall from Kidder - a romantic vulnerability.)

I disagree that Gunn botched the metaphor about being an immigrant. It's about identity - the conflict between what parents want and the child deciding what they want.  It is about being human. That is the real center of the film - amidst all the whiz-bang action, and is the real plot hidden in the amusement park of a story. The emphasis is not on the super but the man. Strange to think of someone with all that power just trying to be a decent human being. This is not Peter Quill, who is a boy who never had to grow up, but a very powerful being trying to be a good person. 

The dog actually works. Strange, but true. I came back and looked through some of the reviews, and Krypto gets mentioned - usually in a negative way. Also getting mentioned  - and often the focus of much criticism, is Gunn's sense of humor. I would say the most obvious outcroppings of funny involve Krypto. As well as a very emotional outburst from Superman. I remember Krypto from when I was very young; I do not think I really cared for him then.

Hoult is the most comic-like Lex Luthor. 

Finally, it is no more goofy than Reeves in Superman II. It did not feel like a warm-up for a sequel. Gunn could walk away with just having done this movie. Or a source for spin-offs - The Justice Gang serve their purpose in the story and the story fits in their presence without pointing the way to a spinoff. There is more feeling than what has been common in these superhero movies. All the real fanboys can argue over the details like Talmudic scholars, missing a couple of what I think are the important points: this is not Citizen Kane or La Dolce Vita; and for all you have invested your life into Henry Cavill or Christopher Reeve, you miss the importance of addressing every work of art on its own merits. 

It was worth the money. It was good to see that Warner Brothers knows how to make a superhero movie. That's good enough for me.

The reviews I collected, some of which left me wondering if they saw the same movie:  Superman review – is it a bust? Is it a pain? James Gunn’s dim reboot is both (The Guardian); Superman movie review & film summary (2025) (Roger Ebert); ‘Superman’ Review - by Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark); and Fans are Missing the Point of Superman's Parents' Message.

My three favorite reviews came from YouTube; the last I disagree with most until he starts criticizing superhero movies in general, and then I found him spot on.

Since I was working on my short stories, I read Cups of Kindness, published by Pangyrus. The subject is a marital crisis approached through a family get together and the choice to have children. I admit to dissatisfaction with the opening - but I will put that down to me being distracted and not giving the text its proper respect. The pacing, the plotting hit the right marks. The ending, subtle and organic. When I went back to "No Ordinary Word" I started paying closer attention to my own pacing, and to how the story appears to be about one character and is about two others, but is about only one thing. So Cups of Kindness is a story worth your reading and your consideration; especially for its irony.

Inequality has risen from 1970 to Trump − that has 3 hidden costs that undermine democracy (The Conversation) is my shot of politics for you.

1. Fraying social bonds and livelihoods

Not just an issue of income and assets, growing class inequality represents the fraying of American society.

For instance, inequality and the resulting hardship are linked to worse health outcomes. Americans die younger than their peers in other rich countries, and U.S. life expectancy has decreased, especially among the poor.

Moreover, economic struggles contribute to mental health issues, deaths of despair and profound problems such as addiction, including tobacco, alcohol and opioid abuse

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2. Increasing corruption in politics

Inequality is rising in the U.S. largely because business elites are exercising more influence over policy outcomes, research shows. My related work on privatization explains how 50 years of outsourcing public functions – through contracting, disinvestment and job cuts – threatens democratic accountability.

Research across different countries has repeatedly found that higher income inequality increases political corruption. It does so by undermining trust in government and institutions, and enabling elites to dominate policymaking while weakening public oversight.

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3. Undermining belief in the common good

National aspirations have emphasized the common good since America’s founding. The Declaration of Independence lists the king’s first offense as undermining the “public good” by subverting the rule of law. The Constitution’s preamble commits the government to promoting the general welfare and shared well-being.

But higher inequality historically means the common good goes overlooked, according to research. Meanwhile, work has become more precarious, less unionized, more segmented and less geographically stable. Artificial intelligence may worsen these trends.

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Yet democratic decline and inequality are not inevitable. If restoring broad prosperity and social stability are the goals, they may require revisiting the New Deal-style policies that produced labor’s peak economic share of 59% of GDP in 1970. 

And for everyone having a bad day, I ran across this yesterday:

Now, I need get ready for church.

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