Throwback Thursday: Confronting Evil

I recently came across this post that I wrote almost ten years ago in December 2009. It blew me away to remember that I once felt like this; to remember that I had utter confidence in the leader of our country to try to do what was right and just, whether or not I agreed with his interpretation of that. Those were simpler, more innocent times.

~~~ 

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Confronting evil

I'm not a big fan of David Brooks and I admit I don't often read his column in The New York Times, but a couple of days ago, he wrote one which had a title that intrigued me. It was "Obama's Christian Realism."The gist of the column was that President Obama's thought processes are revealed by his speeches and that his public speeches, taken as a whole, have reflected a remarkably consistent philosophy throughout. It is essentially that there is evil in the world which must be confronted, and, as Brooks states it, that "life is a struggle to push back against the evils of the world without succumbing to the passions of the beast lurking inside."

This is what Brooks calls the liberal internationalist approach. It is an approach that demands that we, as a nation, act in concert with others to achieve our aims. From this philosophy grew our backing of NATO and of the United Nations and of many regional alliances around the world. It is an approach to international relations that served this country very well for more than fifty years and was really only abandoned in this century by the Bushies. President Obama now seeks to return us to that more solid ground.

Brooks reminds us that Barack Obama spoke out against the Iraq war in 2002 and he was booed for his efforts. Throughout his political career, regardless of the opposition he has faced, he has steered by the stars of his understanding of what is right and of human nature's core struggle between love and evil. He is a serious and complicated man, a man who is able to hold two opposing ideas in his mind without succumbing to frustration or self-destructiveness.

I don't always agree with this president. I often wish that he would be more forceful in dealing with some of the more infuriatingly self-centered and self-serving politicians who pontificate in the Senate. I wish that he would act more swiftly to right some of the wrongs that have become ingrained in our system of government over the past eight years. But I am resigned to the fact that he will act with all deliberate speed on his own schedule and that he will not engage in the kind of partisan retribution that has marked the worst of our politics in recent years, even if I might want him to, because it is against his nature and he believes it is wrong.

No matter what the outcome may be, it is comforting to have the country in the hands of a "Christian realist" who is able to see not only good and evil in black and white, but all those confusing shades of gray in between.

Doxology by Nell Zink: A review

I have read several books this year that have dealt in some way, at times just tangentially, with the 2016 presidential election. And now here's Nell Zink's contribution to the oeuvre, although that portion of her story comes at the end of a fairly long novel dealing with the history of American politics and culture beginning in the late 1980s, as experienced by two fairly clueless young people who moved individually to New York City from different parts of the country.

Pamela grew up in an upper-middle-class white family in Washington, D.C. She had all the privilege that such an upbringing entails, but as she neared the end of her high school years, she rebelled against the plans her parents had for her. She did not want to go to any of the colleges they suggested; she had a different vision for her life. And so she packed a few things, took what money she could scrape together, and took off to New York to pursue her vision. She had no contact with her parents after that for many years.

Daniel came from a fundamentalist Christian family in the Midwest. He managed to complete college before he fled, but he, too, made his way to New York and the two young people met there through another friend that Pamela had made, Joe Harris, who was destined to become a rock star.

The three of them are devoted to music and they play together in small, anonymous bands before Joe becomes famous. Pamela and Daniel become lovers during this period and eventually, an accidental pregnancy changes their lives. They decide to marry and when their daughter, Flora, is born, the three of them together raise her during her early years with Joe providing babysitting when the parents are at work.

During this time Joe continues to pursue his musical career with Daniel as "manager" and finally he hits the big time and starts raking in the big bucks. Then comes 9/11 and everything changes.

Pamela and Daniel are concerned for their young daughter living in the toxic air that has enveloped New York in the wake of the attacks. Pamela contacts her parents and asks to come for a visit. They take Flora there and they are all joyfully welcomed. After some time Pamela and Daniel return to New York, but they leave Flora with the grandparents and there she stays for the rest of her upbringing, occasionally making visits to New York to stay with her parents. (Why the parents so easily agreed to this is one of the mysteries unsolved by the narrative.) The remainder of the story focuses on Flora.

She grows up with a fervor to save the planet. She attends George Washington University and pursues her interest in climate change and soil erosion. She becomes increasingly politicized and, when no other jobs present themselves, in 2016 she joins the Green Party candidate Jill Stein's campaign. She knows that the campaign is a joke, but of course, it can pose no threat to Hillary Clinton and she just needs to build her résumé.

Flora meets two men on the campaign trail who are destined to impact her life. The first is a cynical middle-aged Democratic strategist who understands clearly the existential threat that the Republican candidate poses. The second is a young idealistic former Sanders supporter, now a staffer on the Clinton campaign. 

I don't want to give away the entire plot here. Zink's novel is a very ambitious and wide-ranging delineation of the events of the 1980s up to the current day. And mostly, I think she delivers on her objectives. I found the first part of the novel dealing with Daniel and Pamela more compelling, but that may have been only because I found it easier to identify with them. The story lost some of its steam for me in its second half, but, on the whole, the author dealt with the madness of our political times with intelligence and humor and she has produced a very good and readable book.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Poetry Sunday: Auguries of Innocence by William Blake

I spent much of last week reading Olga Tokarozuk's Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead in which the narrator is obsessed with the poetry of William Blake. As I was reading the book, I often dipped into the poetry of Blake to better understand certain quotations and the atmosphere of the book.

Blake was a visionary of his times and, like most visionaries, the world was not ready for him. He was unappreciated in his lifetime. Today he is considered a seminal figure in the history of English poetry.

His poem that I am featuring here is longer than the ones I usually present, but I found it irresistible. It perfectly expresses the sentiments of the narrator Tokarozuk's book. It contains several very well known lines that I didn't necessarily know came from Blake.

Enjoy!  

Auguries of Innocence

by William Blake

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower 

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 

And Eternity in an hour

A Robin Red breast in a Cage

Puts all Heaven in a Rage 

A Dove house filld with Doves &; Pigeons

Shudders Hell thr' all its regions 

A dog starvd at his Masters Gate

Predicts the ruin of the State 

A Horse misusd upon the Road

Calls to Heaven for Human blood 

Each outcry of the hunted Hare

A fibre from the Brain does tear 

A Skylark wounded in the wing 

A Cherubim does cease to sing 

The Game Cock clipd &; armd for fight

Does the Rising Sun affright 

Every Wolfs &; Lions howl

Raises from Hell a Human Soul 

The wild deer, wandring here &; there 

Keeps the Human Soul from Care 

The Lamb misusd breeds Public Strife

And yet forgives the Butchers knife 

The Bat that flits at close of Eve

Has left the Brain that wont Believe

The Owl that calls upon the Night

Speaks the Unbelievers fright

He who shall hurt the little Wren

Shall never be belovd by Men 

He who the Ox to wrath has movd

Shall never be by Woman lovd

The wanton Boy that kills the Fly

Shall feel the Spiders enmity 

He who torments the Chafers Sprite

Weaves a Bower in endless Night 

The Catterpiller on the Leaf

Repeats to thee thy Mothers grief 

Kill not the Moth nor Butterfly 

For the Last Judgment draweth nigh 

He who shall train the Horse to War

Shall never pass the Polar Bar 

The Beggars Dog &; Widows Cat 

Feed them &; thou wilt grow fat 

The Gnat that sings his Summers Song

Poison gets from Slanders tongue 

The poison of the Snake &; Newt

Is the sweat of Envys Foot 

The poison of the Honey Bee

Is the Artists Jealousy

The Princes Robes &; Beggars Rags

Are Toadstools on the Misers Bags 

A Truth thats told with bad intent

Beats all the Lies you can invent 

It is right it should be so 

Man was made for Joy &; Woe 

And when this we rightly know 

Thro the World we safely go 

Joy &; Woe are woven fine 

A Clothing for the soul divine 

Under every grief &; pine

Runs a joy with silken twine 

The Babe is more than swadling Bands

Throughout all these Human Lands

Tools were made &; Born were hands 

Every Farmer Understands

Every Tear from Every Eye

Becomes a Babe in Eternity 

This is caught by Females bright

And returnd to its own delight 

The Bleat the Bark Bellow &; Roar 

Are Waves that Beat on Heavens Shore 

The Babe that weeps the Rod beneath

Writes Revenge in realms of Death 

The Beggars Rags fluttering in Air

Does to Rags the Heavens tear 

The Soldier armd with Sword &; Gun 

Palsied strikes the Summers Sun

The poor Mans Farthing is worth more

Than all the Gold on Africs Shore

One Mite wrung from the Labrers hands

Shall buy &; sell the Misers Lands 

Or if protected from on high 

Does that whole Nation sell &; buy 

He who mocks the Infants Faith

Shall be mockd in Age &; Death 

He who shall teach the Child to Doubt

The rotting Grave shall neer get out 

He who respects the Infants faith

Triumphs over Hell &; Death 

The Childs Toys &; the Old Mans Reasons

Are the Fruits of the Two seasons 

The Questioner who sits so sly 

Shall never know how to Reply 

He who replies to words of Doubt

Doth put the Light of Knowledge out 

The Strongest Poison ever known

Came from Caesars Laurel Crown 

Nought can Deform the Human Race

Like to the Armours iron brace 

When Gold &; Gems adorn the Plow

To peaceful Arts shall Envy Bow 

A Riddle or the Crickets Cry

Is to Doubt a fit Reply 

The Emmets Inch &; Eagles Mile

Make Lame Philosophy to smile 

He who Doubts from what he sees

Will neer Believe do what you Please 

If the Sun &; Moon should Doubt 

Theyd immediately Go out 

To be in a Passion you Good may Do 

But no Good if a Passion is in you 

The Whore &; Gambler by the State

Licencd build that Nations Fate 

The Harlots cry from Street to Street 

Shall weave Old Englands winding Sheet 

The Winners Shout the Losers Curse 

Dance before dead Englands Hearse 

Every Night &; every Morn

Some to Misery are Born 

Every Morn and every Night

Some are Born to sweet delight 

Some are Born to sweet delight 

Some are Born to Endless Night 

We are led to Believe a Lie

When we see not Thro the Eye

Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night 

When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light 

God Appears & God is Light

To those poor Souls who dwell in Night 

But does a Human Form Display

To those who Dwell in Realms of day

This week in birds - #377

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

A flight of White Ibises off South Padre Island, Texas. 

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More than 11,000 scientists from around the world are once again attempting to get the attention of governments and persuade them to take effective action to fight climate change. In a report published this week, the scientists declare a "climate emergency" and outline six major steps that could be taken to address the situation. 

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However, the denialists currently in charge of our country's government refuse to acknowledge any such emergency. This week, they took the first steps to quit the Paris Climate Agreement.

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In the U.K., the government has halted shale gas extraction (fracking) because of fears of generating earthquakes.

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A warmer and wetter climate, the result of global climate change, is benefiting some species of birds on the grasslands of the Canadian prairie.

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A contagious form of cancer that affects mussels originated off the Pacific Coast of Canada but it has now been spread, apparently as a result of human activities, to other species in Europe and South America. 

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These are "ice eggs", a rare phenomenon that is the result of a very particular set of weather conditions. They occurred on a beach in Finland recently. The largest of the "eggs" was football-sized.

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This story might be stretching the definition of "environmental" news but I couldn't resist. On the other hand, if we consider the universe as our environment... 

NASA's two explorers, Voyager I and Voyager II, have now traveled beyond the heliosphere, more than twelve billion miles and 40 years into their journeys. When Voyager II crossed that frontier of interstellar space, it sent a faint signal from the other side, a signal which NASA scientists have now decoded. It gives me chills just thinking about it.

*~*~*~*

Meanwhile, back here on Earth, the current iteration of our EPA has taken steps to weaken rules governing toxic water pollution from coal plants.

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Purple Gallinules have become quite common in our area in recent years, but they are great wanderers, sometimes finding their way up the East Coast and even into the Canadian provinces. Recently, an immature bird has turned up in Central Park in Manhattan to the great delight of birders there.

*~*~*~*

Anyone who has ever spent time around guineafowls might think the phrase "pea-brained" was coined to describe them. They have tiny brains not only compared to mammals but compared to other birds as well. But a recent study of the Vulturine Guineafowl of eastern Africa found that the birds live in complex, many-layered societies, in spite of their lack of braininess.

 Vulturine Guineafowl image from The New York Times.

*~*~*~*

Turtle Doves in the U.K. have suffered a 51% decline in population over the last five years. It is now Britain's most endangered bird. But wildlife-friendly agriculture funded by the government is offering some hope of a recovery for the birds.

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Mexican archaeologists have made the first-ever discovery of pits that were built around 15,000 years ago for the purpose of trapping mammoths. They have found two pits that contained 824 bones from at least 14 mammoths.

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The most threatened member of the gull family is the Black-billed Gull. About 300 of the birds have established a colony with 130 nests in a derelict building in Christchurch, New Zealand. The bird is endemic to New Zealand and is only found there.

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Installing wind turbines and solar panels in the U.S. Midwest instead of other parts of the country would deliver the biggest cuts in climate-warming emissions and improvements in public health, according to a study published on Tuesday.

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The National Parks Conservation Association has released a list of the 12 national parks that are most threatened by oil and gas drilling. Some of my personal favorites are on the list.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarozuk: A review

Olga Tokarozuk, Polish writer, feminist, and activist, was belatedly awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature, announced earlier this year. She also won the 2018 Man Booker International Prize for her previous novel, Flights. This latest novel made it to the shortlist for the 2019 Man Booker International Prize. The woman is obviously on a roll so it was time I made her acquaintance and I decided to start with the intriguingly titled Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. 

I learned that the title is a quotation from William Blake's Proverbs of Hell. The narrator of Tokarozuk's book is a part-time English teacher who is obsessed with Blake and is engaged, with a partner, in translating his works to Polish. The narrator is Janina Duszejko who hates her own name as well as the names of her neighbors. She prefers the nicknames that she gives them. Names like Oddball, Bigfoot, and Dizzy.

Our narrator was a civil engineer by profession. She is now in her 60s and, in addition to being a part-time teacher, she is a full-time practitioner of astrology and a vegetarian who prefers animals to humans. She lives in an isolated hamlet near the border of the Czech Republic that is nearly deserted in the winter. She also serves as a winter caretaker for several summer homes in the area. She suffers from "Ailments" which occasionally incapacitate her and she mourns the disappearance of her "Little Girls" who we eventually learn are her two dogs. She believes that our lives are ruled by our pre-conscious experiences with the stars and planets. She is the very definition of an eccentric and an intriguing character and the narrative is presented entirely through her eyes.

Hunting is a major occupation in the area and Janina is at war with the hunters and poachers. She has made herself a pest with the local police with her letters of complaint about them, but to her distress, nothing is ever done to address her complaints. 

Then one stormy night, her neighbor Oddball comes to her house to announce that another neighbor, Bigfoot, one of the main offenders among the hunters, is dead. Janina goes with him to Bigfoot's house. It seems that he choked to death on a deer bone. They notify the police but only after cleaning up and dressing Bigfoot.

Soon, another neighbor dies in mysterious circumstances, an apparent accident. His body is surrounded by hundreds of deer tracks. Janina insists that the animals are finally taking revenge against their tormentors. Naturally, the police consider that a fanciful idea.

Then, another hunter dies. This one was the operator of a fox farm and he is found in gruesome circumstances. The reader belatedly comes to realize that what had been reading as almost a fairy tale is actually a noir mystery/thriller. A very cunningly devised mystery.

Janina, the crank that no one pays attention to, continues to expound her theory that the animals are dispensing vengeance, some might say justice, and, meantime, the investigators seem completely clueless.

This was a thoroughly satisfying read that manages to explore questions of justice and tradition, as well as ask where is the line between sanity and madness? And what regard do we owe to our neighbors?

I read the book in translation and had I not known that I would not have been able to tell that the book's original language was not English. The translation was done by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, an Englishwoman, and this rich and atmospheric narrative flowed without obstruction. The dark denouement was both unexpected and, one now sees, entirely inevitable.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars   

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson: A review

Jacqueline Woodson's new book is a small treasure. Short enough that it could be called a novella rather than a novel, it still manages to address, as NPR noted in its review, "issues of class, education, ambition, racial prejudice, sexual desire and orientation, identity, mother-daughter relationships, parenthood and loss." In spare language with no wasted words, she tells a story of a family, of mothers and daughters, that will resonate with anyone who has ever lived in a family.

This is actually a story of two families from two very different backgrounds and social classes. There is Iris, the fifteen-year-old daughter of a middle class, upwardly striving African-American family in Brooklyn and Aubrey, son of a single mother barely managing to support herself and her teenage son with a combination of part-time jobs and the assistance of food stamps. The two teenagers come together compelled by their irrepressible sexual desire. Even though they try to be careful and take precautions, the time inevitably comes when their desire overwhelms their caution and the result is an unwanted pregnancy.

Iris's family is Catholic, but she knows that if she reveals the pregnancy they will press her to have an abortion. In spite of the fact that the pregnancy was not wanted, she finds that she does now want the baby. On the cusp of planning for her coming out party at sixteen, the parents learn of her condition, but it is too late to do anything about it. In the fullness of time, she delivers a daughter who she names Melody. 

The novel begins as we meet Melody getting ready for her own coming of age party in 2001 at her grandparents' house. She will be wearing the custom-made dress that was sewn for her mother sixteen years before, the dress that her mother never got to wear. 

Moving backward and forward in time, Woodson tells the story of these people, and through their relationships, decisions, and experiences, she gives us a portrait of the times in which they have lived. We see the very real effects and long-term consequences of children being forced to make life-altering decisions before they are prepared. And we see the strength that exists in families to support each other and make individuals stronger and help them survive difficult times. 

This is a lovely and poignant story of human weakness and strength which left me with a feeling of hope. Not at all a bad recommendation for a book.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars  

Doctored Evidence by Donna Leon: A review

I haven't visited Venice and the Brunetti family for a while, so let's hop a vaporetto and check out what the good Commissario Brunetti is up to.

Well, it seems he's up to the same old thing - fighting the good fight (usually a losing fight) against the endemic corruption in Venetian and Italian society. This is the thirteenth in Donna Leon's popular series and it was published in 2004, so we are slowly getting closer to the current day.

The case that is drawing Brunetti's attention this time around is the brutal murder of an old woman in her apartment. The murder had happened a few weeks before and had been quickly "solved" by the odious Lieutenant Scarpa. It was determined that the woman's Romanian carer had killed her and then she herself had been killed when struck by a train while fleeing police. Brunetti's fatuous superior, Patta, is, of course, delighted with the quick result.

Then a neighbor who has been out of the country contacts the police to provide an alibi for the Romanian. She knows that she could not possibly have killed her employer. Scarpa is not happy and doesn't want to hear it, so he passes her off to Brunetti. Brunetti listens to her story and believes her. He decides to investigate but will have to do it on the sly since Patta considers the case closed.

He soon learns that the woman was universally despised and there are any number of people who might have wanted to kill her. As he and Vianello and Signorina Elettra dig into the background and finances of the victim, searching for a possible motive, they find several bank accounts with a substantial sum of money. Money is always a good motive, but Brunetti suspects something more personal and keeps digging.

While he digs, of course, he still goes home for lunch and dinner each day, prepared by his gourmet cook wife, Paola, and enjoys his meals with her and their son and daughter, now teenagers. The family's interactions around the dinner table are always some of the best moments of these books. His conversations with his wife keep him grounded and give him and the reader a lot to think about - in this case, it's the Seven Deadly Sins!

Maybe the deadliest sin of all is pride and the fear of being shamed. It's the cause of much misery in the world.

The play on words behind the title of the book becomes clear near the end and brings a smile. Clever plotting and a quick and undemanding read.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars