Ray Foy's Blog, page 5

The Reality of Our Troubles

[image error] A book review I’ve put off publishing for a few months.

I’ve just posted a “Ray-view” of a book I finished reading back in January. It’s called Shrinking the Technosphere by Dmitry Orlov. Its subtitle is: Getting a Grip on the Technologies that Limit Our Autonomy, Sell-Sufficiency and Freedom. It’s a thoughtful book about civilization’s collapse by an author whom I think mostly gets it right. He writes with humor on a subject not given to humor. At times, he gets materialistic with an agnostic’s hubris, but I see that as a minor flaw in a work that otherwise speaks candidly of humanity’s most perilous time on Earth.

I think this book, of Mr. Orlov’s, is especially relevant for computer technology workers, such as I have been for over 35 years. It provides a context for our work beyond the Star Trek and superhero fictions that inspired the most of us who get paid for playing with digital technology. It is a dark, destructive context that Mr. Orlov calls “the technosphere.” This strikes me as a useful way to look at our world. We live in, and are ruled by, the technosphere. The unimaginably powerful tools that the world’s oligarchs use to control governments, economies, societies, climate, and the weather, are all components of the technosphere.

While Mr. Orlov does provide a definition for what the technosphere is, and where it came from, and where it’s going, further reading will nail it for you even better. The books on my “Get A Clue” list will round out your understanding, if you want to understand (and that would put you in the minority of the population). I would especially recommend the works of Quinn and Eisler:

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn

The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future by Riane Eisler

From these works we see the technosphere as the evolutionary descendant of our tool-making, supporting a hierarchical, patriarchal society that recognizes no limits to its expansion, and no value of human (or any other) life.

These are bubble-bursting insights that can suck a lot of enjoyment out of life. It’s hard to enjoy a summer’s day when you know the UV levels are unprecedented (due to the ozone destruction by geoengineering) and the air is so saturated by metal particulates that breathing it is a slow death for humans, animals, and plants. Go here to find understanding of what I’m talking about.

It’s also difficult to find the wonder in travel and living unrestrained, when governments impose endless restraints and foment trouble everywhere. And so I take no amusement in the “antics of Donald Trump.” Someone so unqualified to be president, in being president, only underscores the reality of our troubles. 

Yet, the desire to understand why things are the way the are, can be strong. So reading books written by knowledgeable commentators can be helpful. Hence, the recommendations on my “Get A Clue” list, and my reviews of books about collapse. You can find those on Mr. Orlov’s two principal works here:

Shrinking the Technosphere

The Five Stages of Collapse

A Planet of Apes?

[image error] A planet of apes would actually be a brighter future than that indicated by current trends.

I saw the 3D version of War for the Planet of the Apes yesterday. It was a good and satisfying ending for the trilogy begun in 2011. As with the first two movies, the special effects were great, blending costuming and CGI to create believable intelligent apes, something that’s been a major concern of all the movies since the 1968 Frank Schaffner version.  And there was plenty of homage to that classic movie in this one.

There is a certain darkness to the movies in this trilogy (that started with Rise of the Planet of the Apes). I think that’s inherent in the story since it deals with the demise of humanity. That’s been the case since the Pierre Boulle novel, though the emphasis there was revealing the animal baseness in humans despite our civilization and technology. The 1968 movie took the story more into a “doomsday warning” theme, which was common in SF for the time. In fact, Rod Serling co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Wilson, which probably explains its popularity and endurance.

In Mr. Boulle’s novel, the downfall of humanity simply came through continued evolution-devolution, which switched the places of apes and humans on earth. His depiction of the ape civilization is as an exact duplicate of the human one it replaced with regard to level of technology. Within that premise, he was able to make his points and show “human intelligence” in quotation marks. The Schaffner movie did pick up on that theme as well, but it added a nuclear-war-apocalypse aspect that resonated more with audiences of the time (and probably still would today). It’s not part of this trilogy, however.

All of the movies (and even a 1974 TV series) were spun from Mr. Boulle’s novel because it was a great idea that begged for artistic exploration (The Phantom of the Opera is also such a tale). I see a dichotomy in the story’s telling—one following the novel and one following the 1968 movie. This trilogy follows the movie while the 2001 movie by Tim Burton followed the novel (at least more so than the other movies, and it basically sucked). All-in-all, I would say these last three are the best since the very first one.

So what makes this ape-move franchise so compelling? I think it touches the human nerve that has produced apocalypse literature over the centuries. Perhaps there has been, for 10,000 years, a foreboding that this experiment of human civilization based on “conquering nature” can’t last. 10K years is not long—just a blip between ice ages. In that time, this mode of living has exploded the human population at the expense of all other life, and now threatens to extinguish it all. There is a subliminal sense in the air that only a collapse of humanity can spare life on earth. That view competes with the Star Trek view of hope-through-technology, but it may be winning out now.

War for the Planet of the Apes ends with ray of hope, as is needful for commercial success. It is difficult to end such stories too darkly, anyway. Even the original movies had to give us some hope. But behind the entertainment lies the dark observations of the Boulle novel, and the subtle warning of the Serling-Wilson screenplay. The danger is not that the earth will become a planet of apes, but that it will become a planet of no life at all.

Poinsett Trails

[image error] Another excursion into the field, proving what we can do.

We haven’t been allowed enough dry weather recently to make a hike feasible. The deluge of a couple of weeks ago left the Congaree trails flooded, so I thought it best to wait on those. So when Easter Sunday rolled around with some decent weather (warm and “sunny” through constant chem-trailing) Donna and I decided to hike somewhere. After all our work-outs, we were feeling stronger than we have in ages, so we’ve been itching to see how well we can handle the local trails. Our last outing was the Little Gap Trail back in February, but that was only a couple of miles and wanted something more challenging. The trails at Poinsett State Park seemed a good choice.

Poinsett is about an hour’s drive from home, is on the edge of Manchester State Forest, and offers several trails from 1.7 to 6.2 miles in length. Of course, they all intersect so your actual hike length will likely be longer. In fact, since they do intersect, it’s no problem to plan a hike of about any length you want to try. That was apparent to us from speaking with the park ranger at the renovated park office and gift shop.

Based on the ranger’s recommendations, we decided to create our own hike by following the Scout Trail to the Cowasee Trail, then follow the Whipoorwill Trail back to the Scout, and then back to the park office. 

We reached the park in the early morning and found a number of groups beginning their Easter Sunday around the lake. Many that looked to be preparing for hikes and mountain bike excursions, so I expected we’d have company on the trail. They must have hit different trails, though, because we only passed one other person (though we saw others at a distance). 

The trails struck me as being recently maintained. They were cleared, most were narrow, and the way was well-marked with recently painted, color-coded blazes (which were paint swatches on trees and not “nailed on” markers). Sections of forest were draped in Spanish Moss, creating a garden-like environment.

We took the trails with a feeling of fortitude, never wearing out and enjoying the physical challenge without being overcome by it. We rested, but never collapsed. We maintained a good pace (2.5mph), scaring up a couple of small snakes that we never saw but only noted their scurry through the leaf litter.

The neat point of the hike was our discovery of the primitive camping area. It was a wide expanse with picnic tables and a couple of fire pits (and there may have been more). It was bordered by trails and offered very many good spots to pitch tents. Since you would have to hike into the area, it would also offer a feel for back-country camping. We decided this would be a great place to make our first camping expedition.

As I said, the trails were well-marked and color-coded so we had no problem determining which trail we were on. The trail map and the compasses on our little survival bracelets kept us oriented. Still, we got turned around at the last and ended up walking the paved road back to the parking lot.

All-in-all, I really liked Poinsett. I thought it a good compromise between the “wilderness” of a state or national forest and park conveniences. The large trail network and camping opportunities also put it high on my list for local hikes. We’ll go back.

As for fitness, we handled those four miles and 200 foot elevation change with vigor. Though I was somewhat stiff the next day, I was never drained or hurting to the point I couldn’t move. Donna was the same. I took from the hike, the inspiration to keep doing this, upping the challenge and moving towards some yet-to-be-determined goal.

Thoughts on "La La Land"

A light movie with a disturbing streak…

I finally saw the Damien Chazelle movie musical, La La Land (an allusion to Los Angeles and Hollywood). I thought it was very good and enjoyed it. I only became interested in it when I realized it was getting positive reviews. I read a couple from people I would have thought wouldn’t like it, but did. I really agree with Jim Kunstler that it’s surprising the movie was even made, since it is nostalgic about a time of greater values and appreciation of art. Still, there is a dark edge to it.

While the movie is unapologetic in its nostalgia for the classic Hollywood musicals of the 1930s and 1940s, it never gets lost in the past. So while Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone perform soft-shoe steps and ballroom performances that homage Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, they are interrupted at points by modern life intrusions. That duality is a major theme of the movie. It uses cell phones and traffic gridlock as images of reality versus the the protagonists’ artistic dreams.

That conflict of having to live reality in spite of a person’s deepest desires is not new in drama or even musicals. It strikes me as especially poignant today, however, because current reality is so intrusive and oppressive. 

The movie’s first musical sequence defines that duality theme. A long stretch of gridlock over the Los Angeles freeway is the epitome of modern life. People of all backgrounds, incomes, education, etc, stuck in the same trap. They can’t progress and they can’t go back. The landscape is an uninspiring construct of gray concrete and dull automobiles. Then one woman leaves her car and starts singing (”Another Day of Sun”). She dances among the autos and is quickly joined by others until the traffic jam is a stage for a rousing performance.

The message is obvious and well done. It’s a musical version of people making lemonade (when handed a lemon). The number sets a tone that the movie stays true to until it reaches its “unexpected conclusion” that Mr. Aldridge alludes to.

There is, in this first scene, an added dark image that I think is intentional, though I’m unsure of the intent. The grid-locked drivers do their dance beneath sunny skies streaked with chemtrails. There’s an obvious ‘X’ in the glary white sky that gives the picture (for those who are aware) of dancing in the face of death. It brings to mind the theme of the movie, Cabaret (the 1972 film), which depicted hedonistic revelry in the face of encroaching Nazism. I could write it off as unintentional but for the little clip of a drone-looking jet flying across the screen with no reason for being there within the movie’s world. It is ominous only when the viewer steps outside the movie and considers the wider context .

Now despite that darkness, I did enjoy the movie. The music was really good—jazz tempered with “broadway” music and echoes of 1940’s tunes. The dancing was refreshing in its nostalgia—actual steps on a imaginative stages (like the number done “among the stars” in the Griffith planetarium). 

The plot was basic and also nostalgic: two aspiring artists, one a musician with a deep love of jazz and the other an actress with yen to playwright, find each other and fall in love. The tension comes from their chasing their dreams while trying to stay together. Being true to their art is a major theme and I even heard echoes of O’Shaunessy’s “Ode” in the dialogue (where artists are the “movers and shakers” of this world). But the real world sees no value in artists, and requires aspiring artists to give up their dreams or die, or at least sell out. The movie speaks to this and is, I believe, the point made by the ending.

La La Land is expected to win some awards, and deservedly so, I think. If you appreciate good music and dance, especially from the Hollywood musical classics of the previous mid-century, I think you’ll love La La Land. It is, as reviewers have said, bright and breezy and exuberant. It’s entertaining in a way that we seldom see in movies anymore. I recommend it, but with the caution that it contains a streak of darkness in its overt theme, and at some subliminal level. 

So watch La La Land, and I hope you enjoy it. But if you come away with an unease that you can’t put your finger on, I would point you to the final scene of Cabaret. There, in the midst of all the partying in a 1930s’ nightclub, the camera’s final focus is on one audience member’s swastika armband.

Little Gap Trail (No Sweat)

A short hike on a recreational island to test our mettle.

When you put a lot of time and effort into working out—doing lunges and burpees until you drop, slamming the medicine ball, holding planks, dead-lifting and inch-worming, battle-roping and multiple rounds of conditioning exercises—can you find a motivation to keep going, besides health?

Not that health’s not a worthy motivation—it’s the best, actually. But personally, I find additional motivation in doing something with the increased strength and vigor I’m achieving. Hiking, for instance.

This last Sunday in a long weekend broke cool and sunny, prompting Donna and I to hit the Little Gap Trail at the Dreher Island State Park in the midst of Lake Murray. It’s just over a couple of miles in length and we had never been there. We wanted to check out the Lake Murray area, anyway. It would also be another little gauge of how much our improved fitness levels help us with physical challenges in the real world.

So we packed a lunch and drove northwest for about 40 minutes to reach Dreher Island. It’s actually three  islands in a chain separated from the shore by short bridge-spans. Still, it’s fairly large with camping grounds, boat launches, picnic areas, cabins-for-rent, and the Little Gap Trail. We picked up a map at the front gate and had no trouble following it to the trail head.

Traffic was light, especially foot traffic. I’m sure it being Sunday morning in mid February kept people in. Also, since it had rained the previous evening, people expected the trail to be muddy. It was, though not much. 

Little Gap is an “out-and-back” trail to a loop that makes up over half its total length. Dogs on leashes are allowed but not bikes. The latter restriction might account for the trail’s good condition. It was well-kept and well-blazed. We had no problem staying on it. It wound through pines, sweet gums and pecan trees and up-and-down some considerable hills. The going was not overly tough, but I think it was the most hilly hike we’ve done. The AllTrails website notes the trail elevation change as 400 feet, but the recording of it only indicated a 184 foot change. That’s about 20 feet less than Peachtree Rock, but it felt like more as we were walking it.

As we hiked, I noticed the abundance of white, quartz-like rocks everywhere. These are the same rocks you find all over Harbison State Forest and are apparently a major feature of the South Caroling geology. The boulders at Peachtree Rock must be the large versions. Indeed, we saw a few really big such rocks in the picnic areas.

Overall, the hike was fun and invigorating. The hills didn’t phase us as we made the loop around the southeast end of the island. At the island’s furtherest point into the lake, we noted the rich people’s houses across the water. I think Lake Murray is mostly a place of private developments for the one-percent-wannabees. You see these big McMansions with boat slips in the back yards all along the shoreline. They’re picturesque, in a way, but also indicative of something “not real.” They strike me as pretenses at riches, surely financed by some very deep debt. Compare them to Biltmore, which is what you get when money is no object, and the builder-owner is a person of learning and imagination.

We completed the trail, logging 2.3 miles and keeping a pace of 2.1 mph. I thought we did well keeping up that pace (though we weren’t trying to do it fast) and managing the hilly, wet, and rocky parts without problem. We were not fatigued at all and could easily have kept going. In the past, that would not have been the case. In fact, we went on to have a picnic lunch and then explore some more of the park on foot, including the Billy Dreher Nature Trail. The Billy Dreher is only about one-half miles long and loops around what was apparently Mr. Dreher’s homesite 150 years ago. A big stone fireplace is all that remains.

So we made this trail and explored its environs with no sweat. It was a restorative hike for us, with even the geoengineers cooperating and giving us day without spraying and near-normal cumulus clouds. Mostly, it indicated to us what we can do and that we can handle more challenging trails. Eventually backpacking? We’ll see. Backpacking is defined by the addition of camping to your hikes and some preparation and equipment is required. 

But I don’t doubt that we can do it.

Peachtree Rock Trail

Our first hike of 2017 in a geologically interesting heritage preserve.

Hiking offers a change of perspective that becomes a real need for me after a stretch of work, bills, daily chores, and the struggle of trying to write a novel. It helps to turn my concentration to a physical goal—completing a trail—and finding my way in a place I’ve never been. 

When a recent Sunday broke mostly sunny and warmed up some, my wife proposed making our first hike of the year. I agreed the time was right and had a trail in mind that was close and offered some interesting terrain (according to a guide-book) in a 2.5 mile loop. So we geared up and headed out. We took our dog.

I find it interesting that little pockets of relative wilderness can be found close to urban or “improved” locations. Peachtree Rock Trail is such a pocket, being a less than thirty minute drive from West Columbia, SC. It has no definite address, so the GPS took us to somebody’s nearby trailer off a dirt road. The other side of the dirt road was woods, however, so it wasn’t hard to find the trail-head.

The central Peachtree Trail, as marked by the diamond-shaped blazes, is roughly a figure-eight loop. We hiked the outside path rather than making the cross in the center, following the suggestion of my guidebook. Our intent, besides exercise, was to see the geology of the place and walk our dog.

The area is a Heritage Preserve, maintained by The Nature Conservancy, containing expanses of sand and sandstone rock out-croppings (huge slabs of quartz rocks). Retreating ocean waters some 60 million years ago eroded the out-croppings unevenly so that some were left standing like inverted pyramids. That was exactly the image of the biggest one that gained local recognition as “Peachtree Rock.” It finally toppled, however, (in 2013, I believe) but is still impressive for its size. Now it’s surrounded by a chain fence but is covered with etchings of people’s names and other graffiti (subtle, not colored). The rock is still impressive, though, just for its sheer size.

Within sight of the rock, a waterfall feeds a small stream. A nearby plaque says the waterfall is caused by the surrounding terrain dropping to a point below the water table. It’s not so much impressive as just kind of neat.

Leaving the rock-waterfall area, we continued along the well-blazed trail. Though the preserve is well maintained, parts of it are a maze of little side trails, but it’s not hard to stay to the primary one, which we did. Because it was late January, the trees were bare, so there wasn’t the feeling of being “in the woods” so much as other trails, like at the Harbison State Forest. Still, the interesting terrain and elevation change mitigated that.

The trail’s elevation change is about 200 feet, and at the highpoint, we reached a stretch of white sand that looked like a field of snow. I guess it’s the remains of the sandy ocean floor. Beyond the sand, we reached another out-cropping of rocks that contained the “Little Peachtree Rock.” This is a smaller version of the big one that fell. It looks like the “anvil head” rocks you see in the roadrunner cartoons and is pretty cool. 

The trail, though only 2.5 miles, was an easy hike but still offered some resistance from rocky sections with steep inclines (some augmented with constructed wooden steps). It’s apparently a popular place to walk dogs and we met a number of people doing just that. I imagine it’s pretty busy in the summer months.

We made the hike easily, owing much to our improved physical conditioning from the last months of regular work-outs at a gym (see Fit). So it was encouraging for the potential of more hiking in the coming year. There are several other close, short day-hikes that I want to check out before moving to longer, more challenging ones. I’ll log our progress here.

Here’s the stats on our Peachtree Trail hike from my Backpacking Notebook:

Trail: Peachtree Rock Nature Preserve Loop

Trail length: 2.4 mi

Hike length: 2.5 mi

Date: Sun 29-Jan-2017

Expedition Time:  1:01 hr

Elevation change: 216ft

Weather: 55F  partly cloudy; high alt haze

Inspiring Work Beneath Awful Skies

More thoughts on my current projects and the awfulness of geoengineering.

We’re barely two weeks into 2017 and I’ve got so many projects peculating that I hardly know what to work on from day-to-day. In my last journal entry I alluded to what I want to accomplish this year, literarily and otherwise. I’ve made some progress on those fronts, especially in writing, but reality is constantly “in my face” and it’s hard to fight off a “what’s the use” attitude.

In the writing area, I’ve put what I’ve learned from The Story Grid to good use and launched a major overhaul of Power of the Ancients. It’s a big job but I’m pleased, so far, with how it’s going. Using Mr. Coyne’s methods as a base, I’ve gotten a better handle on this story than ever before. That is, I can actually see it as a story rather than just a collection of scenes. This gives me a better chance of making it “work.”

Speaking of writing strategies, I’ve been using one that I ran across in my reading (I forget the source) that advocates breaking your projects into “Ideation,” “Working,” and “Publishing” categories. You assign your projects and potential projects to the appropriate categories and then work from a given category as you feel the spirit move. If you spread your time across all the categories, you’ll become productive. This sounded like the computer science concept of “pipelining” and I revamped the idea around that model. It has helped me be more productive.

By pipelining, I’ve produced two short stories recently. One of them, “Soul Book,” was inspired by the recent US Presidential election and infused by my views of politics. I have little more revision work to do on the story but I did read it to my writing group, where it was well received. 

My other short story is called “Mission Project” and it has a Christmas setting, though it’s not a Christmas story. It’s based on an incident I observed many years ago and has to do with peoples’ perceptions and the bursting of their bubbles. I’m also still revising this one and have not shown it to anyone.

My intention for both of these stories was to feature them in Annotations (my free newsletter that comes with a free ebook when you subscribe). They may also be submitted for publication elsewhere, but I’m really wanting to see if I can produce some quality short stories fairly quickly. My inspiration for that is yet another writing book: How to Write Short Stories And Use Them to Further Your Writing Career by James Scott Bell. From my work in this area, I hope to compile a good collection of stories for Annotations and other projects.

The other good spins starting off this year has been an emphasis on fitness by my wife and I, that I hope will lead to some backpacking later in the year. If so, I’ll write about it.

Such good momentums, however, risk being overwhelmed by the “in your face” awfulness of the geoengineering going on over our heads. It’s been sickening to see the horrendous amount of chem-trailing going on these last couple of weeks as “winter storms” spread over the country. It certainly got very cold for a few days where I am, but it was a chemical cold followed by a rebound of very warm temperatures (in mid January!).

It’s easy to get down about such things, especially when you consider the senselessness of it all. Where does all this madness come from? Actually, I intend to address that question by compiling a list of books that I believe offer an education into why the world operates as it does. High on that list will be the works of Daniel Quinn whom I believe offers insight into the origins of such evil in his Ishmael books. Dmtry Orlov also offers a very helpful insight into this evil with his recent book (that I’m currently reading) called, Shrinking the Technosphere . I’ll Ray-view it when I finish it, but it’s definitely going on my “Get A Clue” list.

Another book that highlights the evil of psychopathic rulers with imperial agendas is Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee. I recently finished it and posted a Ray-view. It’s an insightful book, but also depressing in a way. That’s part of the heavy price paid for knowing the truth, as Richard Dolan says (UFOs and the National Security State).

While I’m excited by the projects I have underway, the working of them involves forays into truth-seeking. With world being the way it is, I can’t always be upbeat, but I’ll always be honest.

Hoping for Good Spins in 2017

Christmas closes out the year in mellow reflection. New Year’s Day starts a new one in hopeful anticipation. What we anticipate is often in the form of plans and predictions. Our plans are what we want to make happen—determined resolutions to reach goals important to us. Our predictions are what we expect to happen irrespective of our goals. When done well, predictions can serve as a program brochure for the coming year. 

I’m no prophet so I won’t make predictions for 2017. I’ll just note a few trends I think you can bet on. I’ll also note a few of my plans you might find interesting.

Regarding plans, first and foremost, I’ll complete my Power of the Ancients manuscript. This is my novel that’s been in progress for several years. A lot of that time has been spent in learning the craft, but I did manage to pound out a 140K word manuscript. In reviewing parts of it with my writing group, however, I realized it was too scattered. It wasn’t forming enough of a cohesive story.

Then I found Shawn Coyne’s The Story Grid and that book pointed out where my problems lay with Power of the Ancients. Basically, I need to craft the story in a format more akin to the conventions of the SF Post Apocalyptic/Thriller genre and remove parts that don’t support that format. I can already tell from the story grid I’ve put together that this process will greatly improve the novel and enhance its potential to “work.”

Next, I have a long (and growing) reading list to get through and do Ray-views on. Some of these are books I want to re-read so that I can review and include them in my Get-A-Clue reading list. This could actually be a good literary project. My intention is to produce a list of books that I believe provide the open-minded reader with clues as to the world’s reality—who is in control and how they make things work, the reality of climate change and geoengineering, the true nature of society and governments, how the current world culture came to be, where it’s all heading, the reality of transcendence, etc.

All the material I glean in putting together my Get-A-Clue list could lead to compilation into a book, or maybe a series of blog posts, or even some kind of serialization in issues of Annotations . 

My wife and I have put a lot of emphasis on health and fitness this year and we’ve both reaped much benefit from the effort. We’re considering letting this fitness momentum carry us into some endeavor, like a series of day-hikes-to-backpacking expeditions. My thinking is that we can plan a series of day-hikes, break into camping, then do overnight backpacking, and culminate the year with a hiking-camping experience at Panthertown.

I like to find literary slants for most things I do so, if we do this, I’ll keep a journal that I’ll make blog posts from, and you can follow our progress. When we’re done, I’ll evaluate the experience and the material I gathered with an eye towards a book.

That’s the highlights of what will keep me busy in 2017. There’s much more that I’m considering. Those considerations are near-overwhelming, actually. If you’re interested and get something from my work, you can follow my progress in this blog (Ray’s Journal). 

Now regarding predictions, I almost don’t want to go there. If you follow this journal you’ll know that my opinions of this world, of its politics, of its prospects, are pretty dark. What hope we have, I believe, has to come at a personal level. If joy can only come from living in a world of rule-by-law, of peace among neighbors, of unmolested nature and unrestricted human potential, then I fear there can be no joy. Happiness has to come, if it comes, in spite of the world of men. Perhaps it’s always been that way.  Nevertheless, let me offer a few things to look for.

* Trump will take office. I don’t know what was behind all the recount and “faithless electors” hype, because if Trump was not acceptable to the world’s ruling oligarchs, he would never have gotten the Republican candidacy, much less the presidency. He will be no more a champion for the common man than Obama was.

* Attempts to oppose the world’s oppressive regime will arise. Movements in the spirit of Occupy Wall Street will appear spontaneously around the world, but will not last. Nothing but collapse will stop the juggernaut that is hell-bent upon destroying the earth.

* Cries for war with Russia and China will sound loud and long in the “news” media and in popular entertainment. There will be much fighting in the world, but World War III will not happen.

* Restrictions on Internet access and website content will increase, though much of the censorship will be by propaganda (”That’s a fake news site!”) and behind-the-scenes disruption (websites erratically going down). 

* Global warming will push steadily on. 2017 will be warmer on average than 2016. Geoengineering efforts will increase and talk of it as a “potential” for mitigating climate change will be done openly. The intent will be of steering the general populace to accepting it. Meanwhile, chemtrails will blanket the sky with toxic haze, only to be stopped by eventual worldwide financial collapse.

Perhaps you see the dichotomy in this post. I’ve expressed some positive hope and plans for 2017 at a personal level, but see only negative returns at the world level. I think that’s the way it is. The two (individual life vs world civilization) have been in such conflict for at least 10,000 years. They are the yin-yang in synergistic spin producing good, bad, and indifferent results.

My New Year’s wish for all of you, my readers, is for many good spins in 2017. 

A Christmas Rebellion

I see the Christmas Season as a collection of associations that make it meaningful and positive for the Christianized Western world. It’s sort of a “perfect storm” in a good way, in the sense that it evolved from folklore, religious beliefs, history, popular entertainment, and even commerce. Sprinkle all that with the personal associations people make from happy times spent with family (or at least the desire for such), especially as children. Then buttress it with art—music, drama, dance, comedy, poetry—and you have a celebration persisting across the ages of human civilizations.

Christmas is cinnamon-apple tarts baked in a wood-burning stove in a snow-covered tudor-style house in the woods; where three generations of a family resist the cold of wind and world with a stoked fireplace and simple, shared, love.

This image, and its thousand variations, is a powerful one. At its heart speaks the desire for love and need for hope. That’s why it won’t go away and refuses to be snuffed out by greed and trivializing. One notable depiction of this image is James F. Cooper’s classic novel, The Pioneers, where the author describes a Christmas celebrated on the nineteenth century American frontier. Another is, of course, Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. 

Though it ends with joy and reconciliation, there is a dark thread in A Christmas Carol. That darkness is the basic human problem at the heart of all drama—people who cannot feel love against those who can. Scrooge is of the former group but is transformed, via supernatural intervention, into a member of the latter. Such transformation is a staple of drama. It moves our hearts and reassures our souls. It stems from our recognition of the moral duality among people and our desire for its resolution. Light overcoming darkness: that’s the great human hope, and the meaning in Christmas.

I feel those Christmas associations as well as anyone, and have even written about them. In fact, my book of short stories, The Wider World, contains two stories with Christmas settings. In both of these I struggle with trying to enjoy the holidays with the knowledge of how bad things are. I gave The Spark a dystopian setting with an ecological theme that I think has to be there because so much of the Christmas spirit is prompted by nature (gentle snowfall, cold pristine air, the smell of evergreens, the stars shining like hosts of angels, and such). I tell a “saving Christmas” tale where Santa Claus teams up with the ailing Mother Nature to fight the dark forces killing everyone’s joy. I even included a poem with that theme.

How could I not include a nature theme, when 200 species a day are going extinct? And that little fact is, I believe, only an indication of a much larger existential crisis being thrust upon humanity. The nights are no longer pristine but are in perpetual haze from Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering. Snow is no longer gentle and powdery, but chemically induced with the consistency of wet cement. In such a time, Christmas becomes a desperate search for light in a dark world.

Now it is true that we must be careful about dwelling upon darkness, but we must also not delude ourselves into believing it does not exist.

So perhaps in light of such consideration, celebrating Christmas becomes an act of rebellion. Maybe when we disengage from the celebrations our rulers give us—Black Friday, garish lights, crowds fighting over electronic crap at Wal-Mart, “Bad Santa” movies—we say “no” to materialism and help Santa restore health to Mother Nature. Maybe we strike a blow against our controllers when we stay out of Wal-Mart and center our celebrations around the miracle of life and the warmth of shared love.

When the Dark Powers steal our wealth, hijack our traditions, and mortally wound Nature, we are left with either delusion or with what’s real. They may even do us a favor in that. Demons are bringers of enlightenment, aren’t they? When living’s artifice is stripped to the frame, we find that reality is compassion and cooperation. It’s revealed through sincere expressions of love, remorse, and forgiveness. That’s why I put a nativity picture among the homeless at the heart of The Spark.
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So at this time I wish for you to know the love of family and friends in whatever your circumstances. Let this be our season, our joy, our celebration where we give each other expressions of love that create renewal. Our joy comes from fellowship and the hope that long dark nights will give way to a season of light. Hope is a star, bright enough to shine through the haze.

Merry Christmas.

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Annotations

I said it was coming. Well, now it’s here! Annotations , that is—the newsletter I’ve been wanting to put together for some time. I’ve finally decided on content and done some drafts, so I’m ready to put out that first issue. First, however, I need to provide my readers with an opportunity to subscribe.

I’ve done that with links scattered around my website and the Arbordin Park Press website. I’ve also provided them at the end of this post.

Annotations will be the in-depth version of my writing for those who want to go deeper with me. It will be where I share fiction that addresses the realities of life as I’ve found them, and also where I make comment on the current events that reflect the “interesting times” we live in. How individuals cope with such times is the central theme of my storytelling. Humans are born into bubbles of perception foisted upon them by culture, rulers, and civilization. A life well-spent is one that works to burst the bubble.

Bubble-bursters are seekers after truth, and my heroes come from their ranks. Those lonely souls who bear the hardships of desert wastes, mountain heights, and 8-to-5 jobs to look beyond the apparent, earn my admiration. And when they write about it, they earn a Ray-view.

You can follow the links below to read more detail about Annotations and to subscribe, but let me give you a brief overview of what I have in mind for the first issue.

I take as my inspiration, the poet O'Shaughnessy’s poem, “Ode.” It’s the work that introduced the idea of “movers and shakers” into popular culture. It’s central idea is that the real movers and shakers are artists, though their influence is subtle while powerful. This theme infuses my “Manifesto” essay, “Music-Makers,” where I talk more about the role of artists in the world and what I want to accomplish with Annotations. 

I have one of two stories in mind to offer in the first issue. Most likely it will be one set at Christmastime (though it’s not a “Christmas” story) that I call, “Mission Project.” It’s based on an incident I observed many years ago and definitely goes with the theme of “bubble bursting.”

My Ray-view will be of a book by Robyn Davidson who is a travel writer who did much of her writting in the 1990s. She pulls no punches in describing her travels, but rather seeks the truth of places and experiences and does not romanticize. There is much insight to gain from her work, as I noted in my review of her book,  Desert Places. 

There’s so much to chose from for the Worldview section that I’m not sure at this time what events I’ll comment about. The implications of the recent US “election” and what the events surrounding the Syrian fighting imply are at the top of my list. Indeed, the two subjects are related. But the reason I even include a Worldview section is because I don’t believe we should work so hard on bursting our bubbles only to form new ones. We should keep an eye on reality, decerning it as best we can, even though it’s painful.

So that’s an idea of what I’m offering. Actually, I’m offering a bit more. When you subscribe to Annotations, you’ll receive a coupon code that you can use on the Smashwords website to download my Ray-views Volume 1 ebook for free (it regularly costs $2.99). 

Putting out Annotations will be a challenge for me every month, but definitely a labor of love. I hope you’ll join me, and spread the word if you find value in it.

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You can find details about Annotations here .

The Annotations sign-up form is here . 

The Smashwords page for Ray-views Volume 1 is here. 
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