The dark shadow of space leans over us. . . . .
We are mindful that the darkness of greed, exploitation, and hatred
also lengthens its shadow over our small planet Earth.
As our ancestors feared death and evil and all the dark powers of winter,
we fear that the darkness of war, discrimination, and selfishness
may doom us and our planet to an eternal winter.
May we find hope in the lights we have kindled on this sacred night,
hope in one another and in all who form the web-work of peace and justice
that spans the world.
by Edward Hays from Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim.
I didn't see the movie, "Life of Pi", but read the book and much enjoyed it. The coming days may seem analogous to being shipwrecked, with a tiger onboard, and coping toward victory.
ReplyDelete“I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease. It begins in your mind, always ... so you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.” Yann Martel, Life of Pi
I like to watch the local and world news, ending at 6 PM. Then GiGi is fed and off we go for our evening stroll. Due to this ritual, I'm very aware of the daylight hours overlapping with night. Usually by January 10th or so, there are a few sprigs of light remaining as we set-out, and by the end of January, we are walking with the twilight of sunset.
mike ~ Something that's bothering me lately is the possibility of self-fulfilling prophecy happening amid all the weeping and wailing about the president elect and his Wild Bunch. I'll be as angry as anyone else once he starts doing bad stuff - but until he does, maybe it'd be best to let things develop, not expect the very worst, but realise that hoping for something good will be wishful thinking.
ReplyDeleteThinking wishfully though, could be good in many ways, not least to ward off serious depression setting in! If there is anything to the idea of self-fulfilling prophecy, wishful thinking would help.
My number one wishful thought is that we will not be dragged into a war with Russia - or with any other nation.
Oh, for those blissful days of innocence sans Trump, which have long gone by. Changing the channel to something other than "The Apprentice". Or those days during the primaries that I thought Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, or maybe Marco Rubio would be my despair, and that Trump was only there for entertainment value (alongside Rick Perry).
ReplyDeleteYou say that you're waiting for twitter-fingers to start doing bad stuff. Hasn't there been plenty of evidence provided to indicate things aren't good and have a 99.9% chance of becoming worse? Wishful thinking isn't a good substitute for action.
Here's a former executive of Oracle, George Polisner, that countered CEO of Oracle's support of Trump:
"'I am not with President-elect Trump and I am not here to help him in any way,' he said in the post, which has been read more than 150,000 times. 'In fact when his policies border on the unconstitutional, the criminal and the morally unjust I am here to oppose him in every possible and legal way. Therefore I must resign from this once great company.' ... 'It’s a demonstration, a credible action as opposed to an expression of frustration,' he said. 'Although from a personal economic perspective I’ve probably made better decisions!'"
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/21/oracle-executive-resigns-ceo-safra-catz-donald-trump
mike ~ What action? There isn't any action that will change a thing.
ReplyDeletemike ~ Here's a thought:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ianwelsh.net/trump-and-the-taming-of-the-oligarchs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IanWelsh+%28Ian+Welsh%29
Ian Welsh's essay is a bit on the naive side, in my opinion. He asks where would American companies move other than Russia or China. Plenty of companies are moving their manufacturing to Mexico, Asia, and our standby China. Welsh's article is more about corporate finance, but there's much more to consider, even under the umbrella of finance, such as deregulation and the environment. Add the impact of a petroleum and coal supporting presidency that denies global warming and the businesses required to decrease carbon emissions. Welsh implies that Bannon and Trump will keep these corporations in abeyance via power-plays is itself a corrupt notion.
ReplyDeleteThe Oracle executive, George Polsiner, chose not to work for a company whose CEO panders to Trump, and he's become an outspoken critic of Trump. This came about, due to Trump's recent conference with the technology industry executives. There have been many articles online about this meeting and the implication that these executives want to partner with Trump rather than antagonize. Similar to the meeting Trump had with the media executives a month ago, when he excoriated their portrayal of him during the election, thus serving a powerful reminder that he could bring them down, if they don't play nice by his rules.
Your commenter, Bob, is choosing to not support companies that suck-up to the King. I'm a mini-consumer, already not supporting too many corrupt corporations, but I'll donate small sums of money to keep the press a free media, as well as doing my best to keep truth alive by calling-out my neighbors and acquaintances on their fallacies. I plan on being very forthright when anyone down-plays global warming. BTW - positive thinking hasn't helped the decline of the Arctic and its native species, which has been a vast problem long before Trump, but will decline faster under Trump. I live on a very busy street and I may become a one person protester on my corner, carrying a large sign about my disgust de jour, with placards in my yard. Seriously!
Here's a sideline editorial about my city's recent water problem:
"Four days of thirst. Will it foreshadow the harm that Trump’s fossil fuel friends in the cabinet will bring? We all know the line-up: Scott Pruitt, a climate change denier and advocate for fossil fuel, at the helm of the EPA; Rick Perry, a climate change denier and apostle of Texas oil and gas directing the department he famously forgot he wanted to eliminate; and Rex Tillerson, a man whose successful devotion to commercial profit as the CEO of ExxonMobil is the absolute epitome of placing private over public good."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/21/corpus-christi-water-toxic-leak-environmental-policy
mike ~ O-ookay then! You deal with it in your way and I'll deal with it in mine.
ReplyDelete