Things that are currently worrying me, just off the top of my head:
The dumbing down of discourse. Oh, I could write a whole essay on this one, on the mad 21st century fixation on multi-tasking and list-making instead of thinking and focusing. But for a start, see this brief article about Margaret Drabble complaining that she's being encouraged to flatten her nuance.
The inability of people to learn. Too many examples to list. But, okay, what does McCain and his handlers think they're doing when they beat voters into a froth at their campaign stops? Where do you suppose they think this will lead if he's elected/if he's not elected? Do you suppose they do think?
The fact that Obama is ahead in the polls but it's only by an average of 7.6% and the Bradley Effect could negate most of that. If it still exists.
The stock market. Last week was the worst week ever for stocks (the Guardian article is a really good roundup of what's been happening in Finance World, do read it), as in the worst week in the Dow's 112-year history. It fell 18%. In one week. It's down 40% in a year. This, people, is Not Good. We're not close to the bottom.
No on 8 is losing. The Church of Latter Day Saints is pouring cash into this mean-spirited proposition, and they're winning. If they win, the possibility of same-sex marriage will be set back decades--possibly, in my worst nightmares, generations.
Now here's a really huge one: the striking down of Posse Comitatus. So many people don't even know what it is, and yet you could argue the Bush administration has literally staged a coup.
And I haven't even got to US healthcare going the way of the dodo if either of the current candidates get to implement their silly plans, global warming, pollution and species die-off (including our own), financial apocalypse, and the occasional earth-shattering asteroid.
So why aren't I stocking the closet with MREs, water filters, hand-squeezed radio/flashlights, sleeping bags, guns, antibiotics and trade goods (like wine and opiates)? Because, well, it's a lot of work. Because I think we'll all muddle through somehow. Because the sun is shining and Goldberry is waiting. (And if you don't know what that means, go read The Lord of the Rings again and rediscover a world where, while bad things do happen, a good heart and friends, especially friends, will make all the difference.) While you're waiting for the book to arrive, please make a donation to No on 8.
p.s. Just in case this is all too depressing, I've spent some time today pondering a very practical (and pleasant) solution to feeling overwhelmed by the world, to feeling embattled and alone. It's something we can all do, that I believe we'd all enjoy; it would make us safer, happier, and more connected. I want to think about it for another couple of days, but then I'll share.
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I'm looking forward to your pondered solution, N. Part of my own peace-of-mind practice is news avoidance, but I'd be glad to have another positive action in my arsenal.
ReplyDeleteThe dumbing down of discourse. I hear you. It isn't just publishers and the media who are pushing for this. One of the rules of thumb when translating from Spanish into English these days is to dumb down ALL the Latinate words so they sound colloquial. I wouldn't object to SOME, but ALL? The argument is that people in English don't talk that way. Has someone listened to the way people speak in Mexico? It's pathetic. You can pretty much convey any idea by using güey every three words and madre every five. Depending on the context, madre can take on any of its twenty-something novelty meanings. It needles me, that the few language geniuses we have in Spanish, such as Jorge Luis Borges, are dumbed down in the new translations. I listened to an interview with one of the PRI guys and Borges' English was just as erudite as his Spanish, except with an accent. If I need to read Borges with a Spanish dictionary by my side, why shouldn't the English reader be allowed to do the same? Seriously, if the mind of the average citizen is to be the cap on literature, we are doomed. Oh, wait a minute, we're doomed anyway.
ReplyDeleteUS politics are very scary. I try not to comment much on this because I don't live there. But I will donate this week's spending money to No on 8.
The economy in Mexico---as a direct result of the situation in the US---is going down so fast you can see the flames coming out its tail. I'm looking up, expecting to see the mushroom cloud produced by the crash any time now.
Stocking up on Apocalypse Camping Kits... I often ask myself why am I not doing everything you mention and more. When I look at the world objectively, it seems like the most pragmatic thing one can do: find a place with water reserves, enough land, a huge storage (maybe even a bunker), lots of weapons and a very high wall all around. But instead, I'm writing and translating and going about my day. I do keep my carbon footprint really small: I don't turn on the heat even though this Mexican is freezing 90% of the year in Canada, I recycle, I leave the car parked and take the bus every day, I'm vegetarian. But I know it's not enough. The big guys are stomping all over.
I'd love to hear your solution.
I lived through the Bay of Pigs. I was issued a dog tag with my name,religion,blood type and other needed information. This was issued by the school district! Only when I was older did I fully understand that the tag was to be used to identify my body. I still have it-the tag. :)
ReplyDeleteWe had drills on what to do if you "see the flash." My neighbor built a bomb shelter. We were poor and would have been lucky to have food let alone a shelter.And, when I was older, I pondered if I would even WANT such a survival option. This was in the 60s.
My former, and now deceased father-in-law, hid money in his basement along with tools, weapons, food, and homemaded blackberry wine. (I may have retreated for that). He warned my then husband and I that if we did not do likewise "people" would come to our home and shoot us for whatever they wanted. This was in the 70s.
Maybe. like Alyx, I am now practicing "news avoidence". However, my brother just told me yesterday that he lost $80K in one day. I recently met with a woman whose husband had a CVA and she was just recently diagnosed wth MS. Their retirement was in AIG. They lost $19K in a week. So there is really no true avoidence.
Am I fearful? Of course. But I move about my world knowing that I will get by. I have had to reinvent my life so many times already. I have chosen to live with life's basics, I have a garden, I am a vegetarian-and I do own an old rifle. But that has ALWAYS been the way I live. But I sadly have no idea on how to make homemade wine.
Every day is a new day. I am NOT Pollyanna but I know I cannot control the craziness of our "leaders."
What is in motion is in motion. I have faith,still, knowing that although we may get knocked down on our collective backsides, we are truly a rich country compared to the rest of the world who have no clue what a SUV is let alone cable televison,stocks,retirement funds, or ARMs.
Linda, I like your comment. And your closing line: "...we are truly a rich country compared to the rest of the world..." also holds true for Mexico. If we are worried, I can only imagine how countries that have been torn apart---by war or sickness or drought or all of the above---are doing. They probably worry a lot less because they are busy trying to feed themselves and theirs. I don't own a rifle, either. I doubt I'd even consider participating in the whole man-hunt crap that an Apocalypse would bring about. Checking out early is always an option for me. No panic room. Maybe that's why I also try to avoid news and just go about my life as best as I can. I'm also hoping this is just our typical human paranoia, but it feels different this time. Maybe it always feels different.
ReplyDeleteI think we are in for a rough couple of years but it won't be Great Depression material and the long term will be bright. It's hard to see just like it was hard to see a post-Soviet world in the 70s. We just need to deal with grim times the way we did then - awesome gritty post-apocalyptic sci-fi!
ReplyDeleteI look forward to your contribution to the genre.
Personally I think the Bradley effect is dead. Consider how many of the top TV shows feature cross-race romances, most people just don't care about that. If they cared, the shows wouldn't do it because nothing is more based on popular opinion than network TV.
News avoidance is a Good Thing, to the degree that it's possible. Most news is designed to do one thing--sell adverts. They do that by being sensational. The often involves pumping up the danger-level. And what we're going through is awful but, John is right, it won't be like the '20s and '30s. Economic and financial technology is much better. But the economy will be miserable all next year and most of the year after, IMO.
ReplyDeleteLinda, I think you're right. As a country, we are rich. But 'rich' is a relative term; what matters in terms of happiness is how we feel about our situation. When we feel poor compared to a year ago, we feel miserable. But a lot of that misery can be alleviated by understanding all the ways in which we *are* rich. And by not feeling so alone, so silo'd.
John, I take your point. I think the Bradley effect is greatly reduced. I don't think it's still at the 7-8% level claimed by old-time pundits. But I think it's still there, hanging out at maybe 2-3%. I expect we'll know more on November 5th.
Karina, the lowest common denominator has always been lower than we like to think. Sigh. When I first sold Ammonite my publisher said, 'But of course you'll have to change the title'. I said: 'No'. My editor said, 'But no one knows what it means!' I said, 'Then they can fucking look it up'. Keep fighting the good fight.
Having grown up with a mother who said "go look it up!" in EVERY instance we didn't know something and invariably wanted a quick answer, I agree with you, Nicola. Learning isn't facilitated by "quick." I think at the root of our very low common denominator is the tendency of the US citizenry to WANT THINGS NOW! In my wing chun class, as just one example, my non-US born teacher cautions us regularly about falling into this trap. Wing chun isn't something one learns in a month, or even a year. Learning wing chun feels like learning to walk! It's agonizingly slow sometimes, yet when some 'bit' I've learned has imbedded itself in my reptilian mind/body, it's absolutely delightful.
ReplyDeleteOn fear, well, my father always said that if we experienced a nuclear attack, he'd take us all out onto the front lawn. Surviving and not being able to help anyone, as a physician, is not something he could stomach.
That said, I think it's smart to have a little water, a little food, stored up even in the most normal of times. Winter alone can knock out power lines, roads, etc... Practical preparation and good community/ neighbors/ friends can dissipate a lot of fear.
And, as Karina suggested, doing what we can (in my case insulating my home, installing an on-demand/ tankless water heater, buying bulk and locally grown foods from my local co-op, having "naked lady" clothing swap parties, biking to work, growing a garden, etc...and cultivating friends who are also excited about what we CAN do) can dissipate a lot of hopelessness. -Sarah
Sarah, yes, the loneliness vs. community issue is what I want to talk about in a couple of days.
ReplyDeleteWhat's a 'naked lady' clothes swap??
Naked lady clothing swaps are parties in which women get together with their women friends (a multiplicity of heights and weights make it most fun); bring clothing they don't wear anymore but are still decently contemporary, clean and in good condition; bring food and drink to share; and get naked in the living room trying on each other's clothes!
ReplyDeleteSee http://www.getcrafty.com/wiki/index.php/Naked_Lady_Party
My group of women friends has been doing this for several years. Our next swap is on Sunday, October 25th (anyone want to join?) :]
Anyway, my favorite clothes are second-hand: either they remind me of a friend who used to own it, or it's a broken-in pair of something that I paid $5 for. I've lived in my city for 13 years and been to the mall maybe twice. It's a much more civil way to get new clothes!
Our group doesn't have many rules as the link suggests. People bring what they have and take what they want. We *do* sort things by type (long-sleeve shirts, short-sleeve shirts, pants, jackets, skirts, boas, bras, etc...) before we all dig in.
And one couple even got together, I think, from such a swap. The nakedness may help. :]
-Sarah
"My favorite clothes are second-hand: either they remind me of a friend who used to own THEM..." (not it)
ReplyDeleteSorry...grammar glop.
-Sarah
P.S., we *do* donate anything unclaimed to a women's center that helps to provide suits and such free of charge to women looking for work, or to Saint Vinnie's... -Sarah
ReplyDelete-O.O-
ReplyDeleteCool! I'll have to find one of those parties in Vancouver. My favorite clothes are second hand, too. There were five years in my life when I was so broke the only rags I owned came from one of the orphanages in Guadalajara. They sold them for so cheap, like 10 cents a piece. And they looked awesome. I still have a few, which my wife threatens to throw out one of these days. She can be such a silly snob sometimes. ;-)
First let me be clear, I am not defending Bush. The comment on Posse Comitatus was extremely frightening, so I followed the link. I read Naomi Wolf's piece and followed that back to Amy Goodman. The articles are very different in content, so I went to the original source, the Army Times. Supposedly the article was originally written by Gina Cavallaro. Unfortunately or thankfully, there is no such article in the Army Times.
ReplyDeleteI do think we make some incredibly boneheaded decisions in this country. I am hopeful that this is not one of them.
I love broken-in clothes--I'm downright suspicious of new things. They must hang in the closet for at least three months before I can bring myself to wear them. Kelley finds this amusing.
ReplyDeleteI spent my entire late teens and 20s wearing clothes from Oxfam shops and church jumble sales. I still have a wonderful Daks suit jacket that I bought for 50p from a junk shop nearly 30 years ago.
NICOLA:"Linda, I think you're right. As a country, we are rich. But 'rich' is a relative term; what matters in terms of happiness is how we feel about our situation." -
ReplyDelete"Rich" is relative depending on what it is you VALUE.
My daughter lost her teaching position as the result of having a melt down at age 32. She lost her new Tundra but was able to pay cash for my sister's older 4-Runner with 120,00miles on it. She can't buy new cameras,or "yard stuff", expensive mountain bikes, or give me, her sister or grandmother extravagant gifts as before. She can't hop a plane and visit friends in Sante Fe. She clips coupons. She still has her own home and we hope that she will be able to keep that. She has been reduced to the basics. This occured long before our current financial crisis.
"Miserable" is not a good word to decsribe when this was new to her. It slipped into more sadness at the loss of a freedom of sorts. But she is now moving in a better direction. She is a good person and cares about others and the state of our planet very deeply. I truly believe her "falling down day" was from carrying the weight of all concerns for so long and feeling powerless to effect lasting change.
She has never been self centered. We talk more about the loss of self worth these days than money. She's healing and hopes to return to work.
Our current crisis perhaps will be a time for all of us to "step out in the(financial) yard" of sorts a la Sarah's father. Our standards of living may take a definite shift. So be it.
Living so close to the Gulf Coast I have always stored water and stuff for such catastrophic events. Just makes sense to do this.
Naked lady clothing swap parties... At my age getting naked in front of a group of friends would mercifully get me clothed very quickly!
Hi, Sarah here again. I've really enjoyed this blog topic and have read and reread what everyone has written... I even find myself considering the title again - "things that are worrying me."
ReplyDeleteOn hearing/ seeing the word "worry," my Pavlovian mind recites the Dalai Lama's words:
If you can change it, why worry?
If you can't change it why worry?
And yet I laugh at myself, see how untrained my mind is... Ok, I confess (even though my earlier posts were so level-headed), earlier this week, I read a document from the Arlington Institute (http://www.arlingtoninstitute.org/tai/john-l-petersen) and I freaked out; actually tried to persuade one of my sisters to leave the major city in which she resides.
It's an understatement to say that I felt a bit foolish later, even while still have nagging "what ifs."
The experience was a good exercise in observing how easily unnerved I can get. Who it is I choose to be? No matter what the times.
Caroline Myss, a medical intuitive wrote in her online newsletter in September:
"That we are now living in a time of immense chaos is obvious. But it is precisely for times like these that you have prepared your inner consciousness... to transcend reptiles of fear (as Teresa of Avila would say) in order to keep centered and clear headed.
...When are you melting too much into the world of illusion, for example? Do you know? Can you recognize when that sensation of melting is happening to you? Are you able to say to yourself, “Careful, I am now losing my power in this conversation because I am becoming frightened?” And then, equally if not more important, are you able to detach from that conversation and potential fear once you spot it? If not, you become captured by the illusion, by a fear that you should have been conscious enough to protect yourself from as this is what your inner work is all about: learning to discern what is truth from illusion – at all times, in all places. That test never stops, it never goes away. The moment you think you have conquered a part of yourself is the moment you are tested, like the addict who announces he has won his war with alcohol, only to discover that his hubris is his downfall.
...Consciousness is hard work and when we slip, which we all do, the net that catches us when we fall is chaos itself."
I'm not sure why I'm sharing all of this here on Nicola's blog. My sense of the human spirit, the capacity of our spirit, well, it intrigues me, compels me.
I would like to think we all have the capacity that Viktor Frankl, one fine example, demonstrated, to say yes to life rather than illusion, no matter what. -Sarah
Oh, god, I can't stop. Diarrhea of the blog. SOrry. Sarah again. :P
ReplyDeleteKarina, one or two friends started our naked lady clothing swaps. If you wait to find one, it may be a while. It's not like they're advertised. Besides, getting naked (really, mostly near-naked) is easier with people you already know and the people they bring.
Linda, we always offer bedrooms and bathrooms for changing so anyone not comfortable has that option. Anyway, after showing your, and seeing your friends', cellulite and body hair gone awry a few times, the novelty wears off and nobody cares. :)
Rory - Loss of the Posse Comitatus Act comes up in the Arlington Institute document I mentioned, TAI Alert: 17 - Dream Report. Yes, VERY frightening. (breathing in... breathing out...)
I am chuckling...noting Posse Comitatus and body hair in the same post. But I guess that's how life is... -Sarah
rory, here's the Army Times article.
ReplyDeletelinda, I'm sorry about your sister.
sarah, hey, chat away--no word limits. And I'm with the Dalai Lama on worrying. Mostly I don't do it. It's just that every now and again I have to get things off my chest. WRiting it down helps me focus, analyse, decide whether to do or discard. It's like that Armenian (?) saying (and this is a very loose paraphrase because I'm crap at remembering quotes): get the work out of your head and onto your shoulders. That is, stop gnawing at it in your head and fucking *do* something. Or walk away. But worrying is the most useless activity known to humankind. At least it is if you keep on and on and on with it.
Nicola, thanks for the link, I think. :) That is really frightening and disturbing.
ReplyDeleteIn this past year I've had to replace all my clothes, and I've chosen to get recycled everything. It has taken longer, but otherwise been a wholly gratifying process.
ReplyDeleterory, you're welcome and, yes, it is.
ReplyDeletealyx, I draw the line with underwear--it's gotta be new
Oh, yes, that's right--skivvies and socks are not part of the recycled clothing process for me either.
ReplyDeleteN,
ReplyDeleteT just rushed into the room yelling, "You have got to see this commercial." Being only in the middle of something I was reading on Kelley's blog, I hesitated just long enough to miss it but T told me the jist right away, anyway. She said the little girl rushes home from school, and the first thing she tells her mom is that she was that they told her at school that now she doesn't just get to marry a prince she can marry a princess if she wants. Her mom immediately collapses in pain as the voice over explains why we should all fear the failure to pass Prop 8.
T seemed to think it interesting that it would play during Oprah while Suzie Ormand was the guest.
I think it was explained very well in a social studies text entitled Caste and Class why one minority (Mormons/Catholics/Evangelicals) will attack another minority. Keep someone else under the gun and on the bottom and things for your caste don't seem so bad.
Yep, shit rolls downhill and makes us all feel better. Sigh. But this ad is why we need to send some money--even $10--to No on 8. They need to be countered, ad segment by ad segment, and that costs $$.
ReplyDeleterhbee, I have the link to the ad on YouTube, if you want to see what you missed. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteThat's another way Canada rocks. I was visiting a straight friend who just moved up here from Mexico. Her seven-year-old son came back from school and said something similar, that boys can marry boys and girls can marry girls when they grow up. She stared at him and asked, "And who do you want to marry, Pablo?" The boy replied, "Nobody. I want to watch Chucky again." He loves monster movies, so he ran off into his bedroom. My friend looked at me with that concerned look, and I smiled. Then I guess she looked at herself in her mind's mirror for over a minute. It was a long pause. And, finally, she laughed. She said, "I'm really glad we live here now. I don't have to worry about whether my boy grows up to be gay or straight. I can be sure he'll be accepted by society regardless."
My mom said something similar when she came to visit me in Canada. She was so homophobic for so many years back in Mexico. The night before her flight back, she said in between tears, "I wish I had known there was a place like this in the world. I would have handled things so much differently. I just didn't want people to hurt you, that's why I didn't want you to be the way you are. I can now see I became exactly what I was trying to protect you from. I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me."
I guess that if parents really sat down to think about what is so scary about the possibility of having a GLBT child, they'd come to the same conclusions the two moms above reached. And they wouldn't be taking away people's rights.
Here in Calif we're holding our breathe as to the outcome on prop 8. It was my 10 year anniv. yesterday and this a.m. I heard a yes on 8 commercial. I punched the radio and when it broke and went silent, I punched it again.
ReplyDeleteNot the most mature reaction, I know! Voting NO on voting day, much better.
karina, that's a lovely story. Your mother gave you a much more gracious version of the same apology I got from my mother just before she died.
ReplyDeleteanonymous, yep, vote if you can. If you can't, send money. I hope it wasn't an expensive radio. I hope you didn't hurt your hand.
nicola, I'm glad we both got apologies from our mothers. Any version is better than none.
ReplyDeletePeople, I also meant to say that if you see any of those homophobic videos on YouTube, please do not comment under their pages. It will only push them higher up the viewing rank and so many more impressionable people will see them (as if Oprah's audience wasn't enough, ugh). I don't want to send them more traffic. That's one of the reasons I'm not posting the link here.
Prop 8 continues to fall in the polls here in CA. Here is a link to donate if you can spare the cash. For today only, your donation to the HRC will be matched - doubled. There is a $5 minimum.
ReplyDeleteIf you don’t have any money and you have the ear of anyone voting in CA, check this out.
Here's the pollster for Bradley's opponent debunking that the Bradley Effect ever existed:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/the_bradley_effect_selective_m.html
dave, I hope he's right. Here's an article in the Wall Street Journal that I found interesting. As they say, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics...
ReplyDeleteIt seems like people sometimes just need to lie to themselves. But I've never really understood why so many people seem to lie so much of time.
ReplyDeleteStockpile canned good like vegetable as well as other thing. Vegetables are packed in water. The cans would be useful tools and could even be used for cookig the contents. Trade goods: coffee, whiskey, and salt. Books for health and first aid. water. Lots of water. And ammunition. Lots of ammunition.
ReplyDeleteand having a safe place to go.
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