antronet

It's not exactly a secret that I hate Miles Vorkosigan being in the military, so for RL reasons I was thinking hmm could Miles instead become a doctor, and then followed up immediately with "absolutely he could not" and in fact I could not think of any position in a hospital that he would be suited for, but then I realized I was overthinking this.

Miles would be a great plumber. It's perfect for him. No boss, just clients, and he can pick the interesting jobs. It's bounded but also a place for creativity. He has to find out what the problem is and fix it. Because of his size, he may even be a better choice for certain jobs than other plumbers. He can pick his hours by picking the clients and the jobs, and then hyperfocus on a problem until it's over. If he wants, he can pack his schedule, or he can relax it. But he's not answering to anyone and people are grateful for his help because it's a problem they can't fix themselves, and it's also necessary: everyone will at some point require the assistance of a plumber.

The only problem is that there's no wonderful recognition and pride from his peers, unless we can get him to value the opinions of other plumbers, and then he can just brag about all the impossible disasters he fixed before breakfast. The sense of accomplishment is built-in, as in the sense of being valuable and needed.

And I feel like even Miles Vorkosigan would not find a way to commit treason whilst doing it.

Fun with idolatry and "I'm doing Avoda Zara" jokes! The perek ended yesterday but RL is being busy.

The absolute requisite note on Avoda Zara is one that gets stressed constantly, which is that this is referring specifically to the religious groups amongst whom the tanaim and amoraim were living, and only them. Among the reasons the commentators have said this for a long time is 1) actual real differences between the avoda zarah described in the mishna/gemara and the goysche practices they lived amongst, combined with 2) because if they kept to all of this, there would be many practical problems, because they were a lot more interconnected by that time and working in specific professions, and 3) the outside world thinks it gets a say in Jewish religious texts and would be violently offended if this refers to them.

But definitely there were times when dealing with Artscroll commentary when I had to snap and actually look up when the Meiri lived, and it's like, ah, 13th century France, I understand completely.


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