My oldest granddaughter is eight. She's been FaceTiming with me fairly regularly. Also teaching me the whole emoji alphabet and how to custom design emoticons. And she shares her explorations with the effects options. She also plays the piano for me. In exchange I've been providing an appreciative audience. And loving challenges. I've been introducing codes. We've had a lot of exchanges where every second letter is the real one. Slbigkne rtshwims. And I've finally got her working with me on the newspaper Cryptoquotes. And she dazzled me with her magic trick of making a toothpick disappear and reappear. Her calls come whenever and I just don't think there is anything I can do that is more important than being available for her.
But there was also a local Citizen Climate Lobby meeting yesterday. I helped tutor reading in my granddaughter's class via zoom. That's easier than it sounds. I just sit there and listen to first and second graders read books they've chosen.
And Wednesday is the zoom with my SF grandkids for a couple of hours. And I've been keeping up with my DuoLingo Spanish (I'm taking a break from the Turkish - they started introducing too many new words and grammar patterns at once.)
After dark - it gets later and later now - is Netflix time, though their algorithm is now sending us lots of bloody sword fight combat movies. This seems to have started by our watching Marco Polo - which is an interesting fictionalized account of Polo's time in Mongolia with Kubla Khan. There are some bloody hand to hand battles with swords. Not my thing, but getting a sense of the history, even fictionalized, was interesting. The costume designers must have been in heaven. This led to The King - about Hal and Falstaff moving up to King and his general and a lot of blood and swords as they attack France.
That's when the algorithm seems to have gone crazy. We got offered Age of the Samurai; Rise of Empires: Ottoman. All take place around the 15th Century and include lots of battle scenes which include sword fighting, some rudimentary guns, catapults, and some canons to break down the walls of sieged cities. The blood and guts has gotten too much for us. A couple episodes were enough. We passed when they offered The Lost Pirate Kingdom. When we do watch these sorts of shows, we have to clean our our brains with something sweeter, like the Great British Baking Show.
But there are lots of more serious things I want to blog about, but those things take more time. There's lots that needs to be done on the Alaska Redistricting Board, like profiles of the Board members and some contextual pieces on how to evaluate how much the final maps have been gerrymandered. I'm also trying to get information on the law firm that was chosen to advise the Board.
So, no, I've not abandoned the blog - and I do update the Alaska COVID numbers daily (see the tabs up top.) And thanks to the commenters on the last post. I'm thinking about what they wrote.
And while I'm rambling, some thoughts from reading today's obituaries:
"... is survived by his loving wife. . .; children . . . ; two snakes; a goldfish; a turtle; and a cat."
". . . and gave hugs to family and friends to show how much he cared for them and never wanted anyone to feel left out or unloved."
The second one, about the hugs, relates to another issue I've been thinking about - the evolution of what men are allowed to do in their relationships with women. While many Republicans may have been distressed by Trump's admitted (on the tape) use of his star power to abuse women, they still voted for him. Meanwhile, they're all aboard in calling for Gov. Cuomo to resign.
This obituary raises a cultural issue about touching and hugging. Some people grew up in families where hugging is a natural form of greeting. (In France people kiss each other on the cheeks as a form of greeting.) So when men come from hugging families and cultures, that kind of greeting for someone you care about, is usually pretty innocent. But for a woman who comes from a family with little or no affectionate touching, or who has been abused, those touches can have a very different meaning. I'm not downplaying the ways men abuse their power to make sexual overtures to women who work for them. I even suspect a fair amount of male support of Trump is in support of their own right to rule over women. But I am saying that in some cases it may not be about power or sex, but simply cultural differences in how people show platonic affection.
I'd also note that in this second obituary, there are long lists of people who preceded him in death and those who survived him, including "his pride and joy" two sons. But nowhere could I find mention of the mother of those two sons.
So, this is to let you know I'm not brain dead. More like overloaded.
So Steve you skirted the issue of should Cuomo resign? Yes or no. I love it when a Democrat engages in this type of behavior and the first thing that comes to mind is TRUMP rather than the behavior. You might like this Netflix series 'Kim's Convenience'.
ReplyDeleteOliver
Wasn't avoiding the question. I suspect Cuomo should resign, but I want to get past the trial by media and see what is really there. Given the strong divide in the US, I don't think Democrats should automatically resign when there's an accusation of touching. Especially when Republican officials are immune when they admit to using their power to grope at will and they settle things, not by resigning, but by paying women a settlement and getting them to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements. It gives Republicans an unfair advantage. GOP doesn't seem to care too much about how women are treated, but if they can use an accusation to go after a Democrat, they will. You can't have one set of rules for one party and a different set for the other.
DeleteBut I also want to do a bigger piece that looks at different levels of what is now all lumped into one term "sexual harassment." There are many different behaviors, some minor and some serious.
Finally, I think there's another issue - all the people who enable an abuser. The people who know what is happening, even help it happen. They have culpability here too that no one is addressing.
I really did not know that there were GOP levels of sexual harassment and Democratic levels. ‘but if they can use an accusation to go after a Democrat’ Was not the case at the Brett Kavanaugh hearings a trial by media?? I wish I could find the picture of the woman that Cuomo was going to kiss and the terror on her face when she realized she just had to do it You do not have Democratic or Republican levels of sexual harassment; IT IS THE SAME. Its kind of like your posting about Ethan Berkowitz ‘aw shucks I guess everyone is doing this’. And, only Republicans can pay for no disclosure agreements, please see Clintons settlement with Paula Jones.
Deletehttps://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/politics/settlements-congress-sexual-harassment/index.html
Oliver
No Oliver, I actually said (maybe not this explicitly): 1) There are different behaviors lumped into "sexual harassment" and we need to address them as different levels of offenses. Like different degrees of murder. For instance, Kavanaugh was charged with rape while Cuomo was charged with touching and kissing; 2) Accused Dems and Republicans respond differently. Al Franken, for example, resigned for touching inappropriately. If Republicans really cared about the women, then Trump would never have been president. They use these charges as a weapon. (Yes, I understand you think the same about Kavanaugh, but his accuser (and Thomas') were far more credible and had no reason to come forth if it weren't true, and we're finding out now that the FBI under Barr didn't really pursue the Kavanaugh accusations and witnesses; 3) They should be treated the same for the same offenses. Weinstein, a Democratic supporter, was rightly convicted and jailed. Clinton's were in a different era, but yes, if his liaisons were not consensual, he should have been convicted. And as your link points out sexual harassment is rampant. It's a bigger issue, as I said, than just the individual. It's about all the people around them that enable them to get away with it. It's the system that make it hard for women to say no or to report - because they fear their careers will be destroyed or that the abuser will not only get off, but continue in a successful career.
DeleteI sent this a few days ago, but it never posted (or you chose to delete it). Just in case it is the former:
ReplyDeleteAnd I am feeling better about things today. :D
As for your blogging entries “suffering" -- I've found the same with my journal, my facebook postings, my emails, but it;’s not just us. I feel a general shrinking going on, a fraying of wanting to keep in touch with the "outside world”, even close friends. No diminution of love, just — what is there to say… this time out of time is tiresome? a war with an invisible foe? what’s new? nothing much…
It's like we are in status, on hold. At least those who take sequestering seriously. Like older people.
But those of us who are innately curious, well-read, enjoy engaging, listening to all kinds of people — basically ATTENDING this miracle of being alive, in all its goodness and otherwise, even then, ITS collateral beauty -- and wanting to write about it… well, I am feeling a diminution of interest by others wanting to read it, or comment on it … or care. It’s not even anything personal, I have to believe.
Distraction, the voyeuristic entertainment of political divisiveness, conspiratorial nonsense, passive escapist entertainment — they all rule now. And why not — thinking is hard, suspecting the future is just going to be more of the same, only worse… Why bother beginning anything? Hope hurts.
I am hearing from long-time friends the same thing: If this ever ends, I’m not running around so much afterwards, I will stay home more. Not travel. Is this a coming to terms with the shrinking — because we will have no choice? Will there ever be trust of crowds again? Humans are social animals, but will there be an evolution to the opposite? How much of life will die with that? In many things, the flesh is willing, but the spirit is weak.
Over 30 years, I have written many books — some so popular they were ‘chained to coffee tables” of owners (I was told - ha!) — it’s been disheartening to find attention spans shortening, reading comprehensive lowering, curiosity flat-lining, and the COVID year has just accelerated it.
Writing requires a reader to complete the circle, the more discerning the better. A long-time, successful friend whose written dozens of erudite and ground-breaking books told me recently, “I crave to be read,” a revealing admission without president!
Yes, without an audience, one has to draw deeply one’s own resources to keep going. After a year are we depleted? Are we sub- or consciously sensing the end, not just of an audience but of our own drive, obsessions... even curiosity? I fear it happening even a little. Do we have to keep all the balls in the air all the time? Or am I just getting to that age when I NEED to let go?
But I persevere — on a massive editing project (my 9 feet of binders, 5,500 page, a 40 year journal).
My goal is to condense it to 30 inches, including lots of jpgs; I work on it daily -- have done so for 14-15 months! My husband and I have had an extraordinary life as full-time artists — which at the time we took as just what happened next. It is sad to compare that life with today's meager stimulus. We took it all for granted back then.
But is this shrinking an evolutionary stage? Is mask-wearing just part of the stepping back psychically?
Than then there is our mental health under stress — another reason to re-group, step back — conserve our resources just to keep calm, survive intact during all this. Do “demands” from anywhere, anyone have to be ignored to keep our sanity?
After four years, I am way (far?) more sensitive to the chaos esp. in my birth country America. I am "this close" to shutting it all out. The last four years of Trump are still taking their toll and his cult is only growing in their delusions and meanness. Sane minds cannot fathom this insanity. I feel powerless. So why engage?
Barbara, no, of course I wouldn't have deleted it. Somehow it just didn't arrive. Thanks for this 'witnessing' of how the pandemic is affecting people - particularly creative ones. I feel the weight too, but we do have easier access to nature here and that helps.
Delete1. Two mass shootings in one week now, looks like the pandemic is lifting and things are well on their way to being close to normal again.
Delete2. The upcoming George Floyd case. This is one to really really pay attention to. They have to get the correct verdict. Have to.
3. Global warming. I came across two books in my library, one from 1999 and one from 2008. We have exceeded the dire predictions by twentyfold in 22 years.
So, if you're lucky enough to survive the shooting, good luck escaping the race insurrection and seawater. Remember, more people than not couldn't care less, they'll just meet Jesus faster, which is their only goal anyway.