My writings - and those of others.
Language reveals us
Through the years I have watched Peter Baker on PBS and read him in the New York Times - as well as his wife Susan, who writes for the New Yorker. When the couple recently produced a book on the Trump era it looked like an interesting read. Rather than buying it I put a hold on it on Libby to read on a tablet - and assumed that since it has just recently been published, there would be a long wait - I certainly wasn’t at the top of the line.
And then it arrived. It was some 1200 pages on the device with a limited time to go through it, but I have persevered. I’m not surprised that those waiting for it an anticipating learning something new have given it a rather quick read and are somewhat happy to be freed from it. It would never have been a keeper that I would want to return to for either facts or inspiration. This is what stands out.
The Trump era has mostly been in plain sight, so there is surprisingly little that an American politics obsessive like me didn’t know already from reading or watching the New York Times, PBS, Washington Post and even Canadian news and the Globe and Mail. The main takeaway from their comprehensive reporting is the perpetual use by all the key players is - the F word. It must occur in quoted conversations in the book at least as many times as Trump’s 30,000 plus lies. I suppose there was a time when such quotations were shocking but now it’s just banal.
The authors never comment on this. I have no idea how they feel about it, though they are quick to pass judgment on many other issues in the book. But I will. I grew up in an era when the use of profanity was a shocker when it occurred; it was rarely used even in private. Get on any bus now and the F word has actually replaced “like” as something to amuse one’s self counting.
But words do say something about our society. Occasional profanity in the past suggested that the sacred actually mattered. Using the F word in every sentence means we have moved way beyond obscene - and any kind of violence is okay now. Civil society used to demand something better. It suggested a world of citizens who were polite to one another because others were human beings. There was such a thing as civil rights. Civil law had to do with things that had different implications than criminal law. Those who worked at any level of government were described as civil servants.
As Americans head into mid term elections, our own little news cycle here notes that the provincial government has withdrawn its use of the Notwithstanding Clause of our constitution - due to a good deal of backlash to shut down a strike - and the union has called off its strike of school support workers and custodians - those who support the lives of our children. It’s a small consolation that both will at least return to the negotiating table. I have no desire to be a fly on the wall in that room. But let’s hope for even a small degree of civility. When tempers flair, no amounf of use of the F word is going to make things better. It’s always arrogant because the speaker is always responding to the other. I echo my fellow octogenarian Ursula LeGuin in her wonderful essay in the book, No Time to Spare. “Would you please just F-cking STOP.
Subject - not Object
In a plenary session of a course this week, a participant observed that she watched a news report with an interview of a Russian soldier. He commented that he didn’t know who to shoot - because “they look like us”.
There is something obscene in this report. Is it all right to shoot someone who doesn’t look like the speaker? Is it all right to shoot anybody at all? Not only are we being asked to reflect as we stand by and watch the needless slaughter of others. We have lived in a dream world too long.
Gratitude
I’m cheating by one day to try to post twice a week - but the last week was a busy one. As the American Thanksgiving weekend winds down and the news that Black Friday online shopping was lower than in previous years, perhaps we are discovering that being grateful is more satisfying than acquiring more stuff. In fact a recent article written by a physician and published in Fast Company backs that up. Here are ways to be ensure it. Nearly all religions and philosophies tell you the same things:
Be thankful for the beauties of nature and its constancy. The sun rises and sets each day
Compared to other living species we have been blessed with consciousness.
Good conversation enlivens us.
Love and encouragement of friends and family assures us.
Giving thanks in the morning and evening reminds us of how fortunate we are.
Writing thank you notes reinforces our gratitude
A journal allows us to record the good things that happen.
Seeking experiences rather than just buying things gives us pleasure.
Making gratitude a habit helps us through sorrow and challenges - so that we can remember that there are other good things waiting for us.
Teachers
It is quite wonderful to discover an interesting character in a novel and then find that it is based upon the life of a real person. In this case it is Suzanne Simard, who appears in Richard Power’s The Overstory.
What she has discovered after years of forest research, and its dismissal by other scientists, is that trees in a forest, like people, have relationships - and one tree may act as a protector of other younger ones. We can learn from the forest’s wisdom. We know that people use networks; what she has found is that there are similar patterns in the plant world. In the same way that thoughts and feelings are hidden within our unconscious, there are similar ones in the plant world unseen and underground.
I’ll le her speak for herself here:
Progress not Perfection
This blog is becoming a site of qualfiers as COP 26 proceeds. Among the recent complaints are too many old white men, so here is a refreshing message from a different cohort.
The young East Indian CEO, Svanicka Balasubranian was watching it from home on her family’s farm, where over several decades, ground water has fallen by more than half resulting in crop failures. She recognizes the frustration of many with lack of progress, but has some wise things to say.
First, when we tell stories we have to stop painting them as black or white and introduce some nuance. Few stories in the media are as glamorous or positive as they sound in terms of generating results. She sympathizes with the young, but at the same time, their dismissal of every effort may not be helpful either.
Second, we have to become more holistic. Favorite agendas can blind us to the strengths of other options. Often the agendas - especially in their marketing efforts - are filled with self-interest. It doesn’t hurt when opposed groups like Nestle and Green Peace actually sit down together and see what they can come up with that might work for both.
Third, the silos long decried in the government and corporate sectors are just as evident in the stakeholders of climate change. There are no single silver bullet solutions, she says, To over-engineer one, may be a waste of time and energy. It is more like a jigsaw puzzle with many pieces needed for completion. What matters is accountability in particular situations. Solutions may indeed be local rather than universal and the point is how much positive small changes can happen.
Small measures can indeed have good consequences. You can see what she says about that in her TED Talk.