Life & Cataclysm

One day, we were speaking with a senior member of the team at our favorite restaurant. And that person was talking about the owner, who was now beginning to think about retiring and moving.  Note he was not going to do it soon, but had begun considering the possibilities.  But I began thinking . . . “No, you are not allowed to retire and move on.  You must in fact stay in place at least until we croak.”  See, I realize that someday I will croak and my wife will also.  We’re at that age when the thought has now entered our heads. When you’re 30, that thought never enters. I suppose it’s there, but it remains properly in the brain’s background.

But everything around us is also supposed to remain in place. Our favorite restaurant, Central Park (when I still lived in Manhattan), the Museum of Natural History, my siblings (now departed).  So many people and places. They are all part of my mind’s landscape.  And although I might soon depart, that landscape must remain in place. After I am gone, the landscape can do as it pleases.

It’s interesting to observe, because life changes about you all the time. Folks come and go, some more dramatically than others, even the odd building might decide to up and disappear. And things also change about you. It is why, when you have been gone from some place you once knew well and loved, you sometimes decide that you do not wish to return for a visit.  India is like that for us. We lived there for four years during the 1960s. We loved our lives there, and all the amazing places we visited while living there. Not just Delhi, but places like Agra, Jaipur, Darjeeling, Simla, Kashmir.  Seeing the Taj Mahal at full moon.  But we are told that smog now envelops the country. Could you even see the Taj at full moon any longer?  See, so many changes doubtless have taken place over the past 50+ years, that we might not like all those changes. So, better not go for another visit.

And then I think of Ukraine.  How many “favorite restaurants” have been decimated by the Russians? How many homes destroyed forever just because Vlad the Impaler is a weak little man who seeks to prove his manliness by destroying a neighbor?  People awaken daily there to find some loved thing gone forever.  People, places, things, all destroyed.

And then we have people like Queen Elizabeth II. For most of the world and certainly the British population, Queen Elizabeth has been a benign presence who symbolizes continuity, decency, and the presence of a system of benign governance that is supposed to last forever. But Elizabeth is beginning to simply wear out. Soon, she will be gone, with no obvious source of continuity.  Yes, Prince Charles or Prince William will step into her place and resume as King. But it will not be the same. Referring back to my restaurant, it would be like another restaurateur taking over, or simply establishing a new and different restaurant. For me, that might be a blow too hard. Now to be fair, I know replacing a restaurant is not quite the same as replacing the Queen of England.  Still it defines this continuity thing of which I am speaking.

I think the stability thing is a function of the brain’s ability to cope with changes. The brain apparently is fully capable of coping with change, so long as the change arrives within a sea of stability.  I imagine, for example that, for children, the dissolution of a marriage, causing one of the two partners to leave, and perhaps the entire family to have to move into new quarters goes beyond some brain boundary of reasonableness throwing the whole family into a confused state of being.  See, that is simply more change than the brain wishes to deal with, and some brains just revolt.

It is why we all need to stabilize the conditions within our lives. Now, to be fair, lives will become deadly boring should no changes ever greet those lives.  Our move to India for four years is a great example.  It was probably borderline traumatic for at least one of our two kids, but fascinating and expanding for the family as a whole. Travel generally expands your kitbag of useful information. I assume too much travel throws too much useful information and the brain again might rebel.

And so our lives need both stability and changes, and we need to pay attention to both so as to achieve useful balance.

So, we really do not need to have a foreign power drop bombs on our cities, or move tanks into neighboring  territories (Canada take notice please. No bombing is allowed).  It’s funny. As I write this I am reminded of our town’s NIMBYs.  You know NIMBY right (Not In My BackYard)??  Several times we had minor villager rebellions by our local NIMBYs about changes coming to our village. The best example was the near revolt that occurred with the announcement that a large jail would be built next to our County Courthouse.  And the NIMBYs totally lost it. They would not have a jail within our charming little village downtown area.  What folks were ignoring of course, was that most County Seats (our village) have to have a jail to accompany the County Courthouse, so the judges would have a place to send all those nasties who are convicted of dastardly crimes.  Well, eventually the issue was settled and the jail was built and the NIMBYs returned to their scrabble games (maybe they all play Wordle now).  But the dispute raised the issue of stability v. change at the community level. NIMBYs demand continuity. Developers demand change. So let the games begin.

Meanwhile, I sit at home playing my mind games, since I have nothing useful to do any longer.  I’m old remember?? Hahahahaha.  Champion Balance in Life. Make changes, retain stability. Balance. That’s good.

Waiting for God

 Not too long ago, I noticed an Arts Advisory position posting in the City.  And I thought, “Huh, were I only, say, 65, I would almost definitely apply.” But, as it is, even though, at the moment, I still have all my marbles, no one would even consider me, given my advanced age of 87.   Anyone with a functioning brain automatically assumes that an 87 year old is simply too old, and could not be relied upon to carry out normal job duties, of any job really.  So, even “advisory” positions are out of reach, meaning essentially, that no one any longer wants my views/opinions on anything.

And I now understand that I am, almost literally, “Waiting for God”.  For those of you not given to watching British TV series, “Waiting for God” is the name of an olden comedic series about a bunch of elders living in an elder home—sort of glorified motel with meals, where no one does anything any longer, aside from chatting it up, and, oh yeah, then occasionally dying. They seem a happy enough lot, but a happy lot with nothing to do any longer with life.

And so, we move on awaiting that God thingie.

Now, we still wear masks when we venture out, as in shopping at a food store, but that’s about it. We still have no interest in acquiring familiarity with the COVID mess. See, we don’t think of masks or vaxxing as “freedom” issues, but more as “staying alive” issues. So, the dudes running around the beltway in DC in their semitrailer trucks seem a pointedly stupid lot to us. But we’re old, so what do we know?

Happily, Carol doesn’t need anyone’s permission to continue making her quilts for sick kids at the local Children’s hospital. She just got herself a new sewing machine, so she is back to quilting happily. See, she knows how to quilt and doesn’t need anyone’s permission.  So, she and her quilting BFFs just keep on doing their good work. Now, I used to act in the guise of a pseudo-artist. That is, every quarter, the local Arts Council would schedule an Art Walk and I would create and then enter my artsy pieces. It was fun pretending to be an artist. Here’s a couple of pieces I entered in one of those olden Art Walks. The first is an early sunrise at our daughter’s place in Virginia. They have nice sunrises. The second is a Buddhist priest at a temple in Kathmandu, praying while he is hiding from the Chinese who invaded his original home in Tibet lo those many moons ago.  See, I have a lot of pictures taken over the years, and I like showing them off. I know, I know, they don’t qualify as real art—no paint brushes involved.  Still those used to be great fun.

But then along came COVID and essentially shut down the old concept of Art Walks. See Art Walks used to involve indoor spaces (we had an old bank building no longer occupied as a bank). That was great space, but it was great indoor space, with lots of folks mixing together and chatting it up with the artisans who were selling their works. And I displayed my works. Once in a while, I actually sold a piece. But mostly, I just chatted with folks who always asked me how I produced the works on display. Whenever I got around to mentioning the stage at which I created the work in Photoshop, they would say, “oh you Photoshopped it” and then walk away. I finally got to the point where I invented something called the “Adobe Magic Wand”. And then when folks asked me how I did it, I would say, “Oh, I used my Adobe Magic Wand. See, you bring up a picture in Photoshop, wave the magic wand at it and the wand then creates the final artsy creation.”

So, I never really acquired the “Artiste” designation. Still, I had fun. But then along came the Pandemic and shut down all those sweet indoor gatherings.  Occasionally now, the Arts Council will sponsor what they call an Art Walk. But that is, they provide a space on the street in downtown Concord. You provide a table and a tent to house your art work. And if it doesn’t rain or snow and folks actually come by, you can still pretend to be an artist. But that is just beyond my discomfort tolerance level, so I have given up Art Walks. But that was my last vestige of community participation. Now, it’s all Facebook, all the time.  I can pretend to still be alive and participating by posting things.  And my “Friends” at least look at my postings, so, See, I am still here.

I was going to say something about Vlad the Impaler and his preoccupation with bombing hospitals and little sick children, but I think enough has been said. I guess we could say more about our local idiot-malenfant, Madison Cawthorn who announced his view that Mr. Zelinsky, the Prime Minister of Ukraine was a ”thug”, but how can I comment on someone that utterly stupid? Imagine, real humans actually voted for that idiot.  Made me wonder actually whether Cawthorn actually knows what the term “Thug” actually means. Probably not.

Well, I will leave my commentaries on Vlad to another time, perhaps after one of his BFFs assassinates him. Won’t that be fun?

Ta Ta.

 

Is There a Future?

I’m 87, old by any definition.  I can’t even fool around about it any longer. I used to say I was still 39, but in my 46^th 39^th year?? So, now I’m in my 49^th 39^th year?? Yeah, Haha. So, my age always creeps into my thoughts whenever I try to think about tomorrow, or, heavens, Next Year? Yeah, who knows? The Shadow doesn’t even know.

But, until maybe the Pandemic, I could at least imagine the future for my kids or grandkids, and even my Great Grandkids. See, they have an expanse of life in front of them, whereas I have . . . well who knows?

And then that Pandemic thing hit us a couple of years ago. And we had to get vaxxed, and then boosted, and then wear masks everywhere. And we really couldn’t comfortably gather in groups, especially indoor groups.  And so, that future thing became cloudy at best.  Still, the younger sets could still look forward to a future maybe free of masks. I mean that 1918 flu was really awful. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC):

“The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919.  In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918.

It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States. Mortality was high in people younger than 5 years old, 20-40 years old, and 65 years and older. The high mortality in healthy people, including those in the 20-40 year age group, was a unique feature of this pandemic.”

So, we are at least in the same league. We in the US are now approaching one million COVID deaths, and, although it seems to be moderating, it ain’t over til it’s over.

And then we are reading and beginning to see signs of Climate Change.  From the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)

“The global warming that’s changing our climate is already having dire consequences.

In just the past few decades:

Rising temperatures have worsened extreme weather events.

Chunks of ice in the Antarctic have broken apart.

Wildfire seasons are months longer.

Coral reefs have been bleached of their colors.

Mosquitoes are expanding their territory, able to spread disease.

What’s causing these harmful changes?

It’s mainly us.

We humans are the ones who burn fossil fuels and chop down forests, causing average temperatures to rise worldwide. That global warming trend is increasingly disrupting our climate — the average weather over many years.

Earth has already warmed by about 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, since the 19th century, before industry started to boom.

While we experience the effects, we’re on our way toward 1.5 degrees C (2.7 F) by as early as 2030.

Why a half-degree more is such a big deal

Climate change is breeding storms with heavier rainfall, flooding farms — such as this one, which grows cotton.

A warmer world — even by a half-degree Celsius — has more evaporation, leading to more water in the atmosphere. Such changing conditions put our agriculture, health, water supply and more at risk.

Picture a North Carolina cotton farm that’s been around since 1960, with global average temperatures rising by roughly half a degree since it grew its first crop.

The increased evaporation and additional moisture to the atmosphere has led to 30% more intense rain during heavy downpours in that part of the U.S.

Then a hurricane like 2018’s Florence — already strengthened by warmer oceans and higher seas — dumps this excess rainfall on the farm. The crops get more flooded and damaged than they did half a century ago.

It's how you go from half-degree of warming to economic hardship.”

And we are already experiencing the early effects of our changing climate.  Wild fires in California, extreme weather events delivering heavy storms and flooding in several parts of the globe. For example, in Australia, New South Wales has been experiencing flooding such as they have never seen before.

And so we cope with a deadly pandemic and we face a near-time future of catastrophic weather that seems to want to interrupt our entire lifetimes. And now I begin to worry not about my limited future, but the very futures of my grandkids and great grandkids. And people say, “oh, stop worrying and enjoy today.”  And I am thinking, “well because folks aren’t worrying, and enjoying today, we may have no tomorrow”. We actually need to begin today to act so as to combat this warming trend.  Instead we have idiot-malenfants like Bolsanaro in Brazil overseeing the cutting down of the Amazon rainforest. And what will that do?  From The Guardian:

“The collapse of the Amazon rainforest is inevitable if Jair Bolsonaro remains president of Brazil, academics and environmental activists have warned amid a fresh government assault on protections for the forest.  Despite evidence that fire, drought and land clearance are pushing the Amazon towards a point of no return, they say the far-right leader is more interested in placating the powerful agribusiness lobby and tapping global markets that reward destructive behaviour.

Since Bolsonaro took power in 2019, deforestation and fire in the Amazon have risen to their highest levels in more than a decade. The past three months have continued that trend, though slightly behind last year’s peaks. Given the tinder-dry conditions in many parts of the Amazon, there are fears that the usual peak of the fire season in July and August could be worse than usual.

Scientists suspect the rainforest may be slipping into a series of vicious cycles. At a local level, land clearance and burning led to extended droughts and higher temperatures, which in turn weakens the resilience of the ecosystem and leads to more fire.

At a regional level, this can intensify drought because the respiration of the rainforest normally acts as a pump to drive humid weather systems across a wide area of Brazil, South America and the Atlantic. When the forest weakens, that pump is less effective.

There are also global repercussions because land clearance is turning the Amazon region from climate friend to climate foe. A study published in Nature reveals forest burning now produces about three times more CO2 than the remaining vegetation is able to absorb. This accelerates global heating.”

So this is what happens when you act like tomorrow will take care of itself, while you continue to enjoy today.

And so, I wonder about tomorrow.

And then Vlad the Impaler enters our world, via an invasion of the Ukraine. Now the Ukrainians did not do anything to inspire Vlad, aside maybe from stiffing him. See, Vlad thinks of the Ukraine as part of Russia, because it was at one time. He seems to want Imperial Russia back in the world, only bigger and more powerful. He thinks he got stiffed at the end of WW II, and even more so with collapse of that Soviet Union, that began in 1989 and carried into 1992. Russia was different, and Vlad would say “lessened” after that period. He wishes to move back in time.  And so, with Ukraine acting increasingly independent of Russian influence, and increasingly friendly towards the West, Vlad decided to invaded, just because he could. And now we face a World War of currently unknown proportions.

And I began thinking of the Ukrainians. Suppose you are a citizen there of any age. Have you any future at all?  You have the COVID pandemic laying folks to rest, but more immediately, you have Vlad the Impaler ordering the murder of innocent civilians by bombing them into oblivion. Or maybe just shooting them on the streets of some Ukraine city. And why? Well, because he can, and he just feels like it. And so those folks have no idea whether there will even be a tomorrow for them.

And that’s the state of our sorry planet at the present time.  Such a happy place, huh?  And how will this all end? That’s a tale for tomorrow, I think, because at the moment, nobody knows how the Russian cataclysm will end, or even, IF it will end.

And meanwhile, our republican front, led by Donald Trump, applauds Vlad’s work –“Genius” one says. Huh. Really folks?? And so, I am supposed to stop worrying about tomorrow, and make believe that today is just fine.  How am I supposed to do that??

Convergence

Everyone, including me, keeps wondering just what the hell Vladimir Putin is doing, or rather, why is he doing it? I mean, what is the big point behind laying waste to this country called Ukraine?  Ukraine wasn’t really doing anything especially threatening to Russia or Putin (the two are separate).  Putin strikes me as what you get were Donald Trump smart. He has a combination of a reasonably competent, functioning brain, and a brain that has somehow been corrupted by world events to enlarge the domain that makes it Evil, rather than Benign.  Yeah, Putin is intelligent and evil.  Now, I do not suggest that Putin is really smart, or even brilliant.  No, because were he that smart, he would never have invaded Ukraine.  See, he would have determined that invading Ukraine would provide some momentary pleasure (beating up someone is such fun), but that it would bring on likely disaster for Russia and maybe even for him personally, so he would have avoided doing something that stupid.

But I imagine that Putin has been paying attention to global affairs, especially those in the US of A.  See, something is going on globally, but especially in Russia and in America.  What do we see here in America? Well, first of course, we saw Donald Trump claim the Presidency in 2016. Now that may not seem like much, but consider. Donald Trump has the brain of an underdeveloped two year old. He has failed at virtually everything he ever attempted. What does he have—six bankruptcies, three failed marriages, disasters as children, and then a truly failed presidency. I mean, he ignored the worst pandemic since the 1918 flu epidemic, leading to thousands of Americans dying and hundreds of thousands seriously ill in hospitals.  He pulled away from our allies globally, thus weakening our international alliances.  He focused on his racist base via The Wall, thereby creating a world joke. Because he was himself abysmally ignorant, even stupid, he appointed a cabinet filled with incompetents—Think Betsy Devos as Education Secretary.  His only praise went out to Who?? Vladimir Putin and Kim Jung Un, two of the worst creatures on the planet.  And then he was the inspiration for groups such as The Proud Boys, and The Oathkeepers, twin NeoNazi organizations in America.

And meanwhile, back at the ranch, Vlad the Impaler is sitting there watching all this nonsense take place in America.  And maybe he was thinking, Hmmmm, maybe America is really failing, and perhaps I should consider moving to expand my empire.

And then came 2020 and with it the election that toppled Donald Trump. But Donald Trump wasn’t yet done with America. First he had to organize the January 6^th Insurrection, with those Proud Boys and Oathkeepers at the helm.  And so, the Great Denial—“The Election was Rigged. We need to take back America!” And that slogan triggered Donald Trump’s ego, stirring him to join a course aimed at reversing the election results of 2020, and re-electing Donald Trump in 2024.

Now, to be fair, he has lots of help. Think Mitch McConnell who spends all of his waking hours figuring out how to defeat any/all accomplishments of the Biden Administration.  And then think of Kevin McCarthy, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Bohbert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Josh Hawley, and those Proud Boys and Oathkeepers, all of whom are working hard to subvert democracy in America.

Now, Vlad is sitting in his office somewhere in the Kremlin, observing America turning itself into a Nation of Idiots foaming at the mouth.  And he begins thinking, “Maybe now is the time for me to assert myself permanently on the scene”.  Joe Biden is a bystander who may not be around that long, if America reasserts itself.  Maybe now I can act somewhere to demonstrate to the world that I am The Man. And he looks around and sees Ukraine mildly asserting its independence, and he thinks, “OK, I think it’s time to smack them in the head, and get them to pay obeisance to me.” And so he orders his troops into action.  And then the games begin, with innocent people dying, cities being destroyed, and threats of nuclear annihilation tossed onto the table. “So pay attention America. Stay out of our business, cuz we have nukes!” And our American neo-Nazi’s continue on their course, with truckers organizing marches and rallies across America, just to show who’s really in charge. Yeah America, way to go.  Oh and Texas??? You only threw out 30% of the vote by mail ballots. Got to get those other 70%. Can’t have Americans voting for God’s sake.