Allan G. Hunter's Blog, page 2

Diary 328

Wednesday, February 10th

Now I’m confused: The New York Times says that covid infections have ‘plummeted’ in the US – but surely it’s too early for the vaccines (which have only just been rolled out, and require two injections) to have taken effect? So is this thing dying out on its own? Whatever you believe, it’s not gone yet, so take care out there, people.

Diary 327

Tuesday, February 9th

I’m writing this just for my own sense of wonder – today marked the opening of the second impeachment trial of the former ‘president’.   

On a different note, the Guardian reports that a 2018 study noted 8.7 million deaths that year from fossil fuel pollution, world wide.  Which means that the numbers for 2019 and 2020 are likely to be similar. I wonder if we can rush through a vaccine for that?

Diary 326

Monday, February 8th

One of Giuliani’s associates has been jailed for fraud at firm that is in the business of a fraud detection. It sounds a bit like Bannon’s conviction for scamming donors to the Wall (pardoned by the ex-’president’).

ICE is also in the news for sending back 72 people to Haiti – some of them infants – despite having been instructed not to by the Biden White House. Would it be a mistake to conclude that wrong doing persists amid those who consider themselves above the law? This is the legacy of the ex-‘president’. And it’s ugly.

Diary 325

Sunday, February 7th

As promised, the snow came and it continued to arrive. So we cozied up to watch the Super Bowl – an activity I still feel is a bit alien to me, but enjoyable even so. I’ve been in the US for thirty five years and I still don’t know half the rules of this oh-so-American game.

I noticed that many of the ads were not the usual testosterone-fueled items.  There was even an ad with Bruce Springsteen, focusing on the ‘Center of America’ (the geographical location) and how we need to bring things back together in a fractured country. Interesting. Then there were the tags on the back of the players’ helmets that said things like ‘End Racism’ and “We are all in this together’. Could it be that we are moving towards something much healthier than the past four years of divisive ‘presidency’ have given us?

The second Impeachment begins on Tuesday. The FBI is still rounding up Capitol rioters, and have charged 235 so far. 

Diary 324

Diary 324

Saturday, February 6th

I looked at this package carefully.  But why did they have to whip that one goat? Was it a scapegoat?

Diary 323

Friday, February 5th

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who spread ‘violent theories’ about the election, claimed that space lasers had ignited wild fires, who supported the notion that Democratic politicians should be assassinated, and oh, so much more, has been removed from all her committees. The Republicans have not censured her, though, despite her anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim stances, and her close ties to Q-Anon. They seem determined to continue on their unhinged conspiracy-rich path of lunacy.

This country has dealt with worse cases than this, and will soon consign them to the ashcan of history. We are better than this.

Diary 322

Thursday, February 4th

Today my old chum Dave and me started something we will, I hope, continue for many moons. We started a poetry discussion via zoom. The idea is we choose a poem, or two, and – wait for it – learn it by heart. That’s right. We make it ‘ours’ through memory.  Then, when we meet we discuss what came up in the process. We will keep this to just two of us for now.

Why do we do this? When poetry and decent prose is committed to memory an interesting alchemy takes place, and we begin to feel the value of the words differently. New aspects of the phrasing show themselves. This is perhaps why people become emotional when singing their National Anthems, to give an obvious example.  Those words come to mean far more than they did the very first time they were heard.

We started today with a Derek Mahon poem, ‘Everything is going to be all right” and allowed it to unfold, like a flower, as we looked at it. And it revealed wondrous depths we hadn’t expected. A very satisfying activity, to be sure.

Diary 321

Wednesday, February 3rd

Our dear neighbor arrived at our doorstep today, bearing a freshly-baked and utterly delicious apple pie. I was entirely surprised to hear our doorbell – it felt like it hasn’t been used for decades. In a time when we’re not supposed to visit, when we can’t do much, she re-affirmed what I’ve thought for a while; sometimes showing a bit of caring requires a bit of covid-safe rule bending, too. Thank you, dear Alice. 

[I’d have included a picture of the pie, but it’s much smaller now…..]

Diary 320

Tuesday, February 2nd

Jeff Bezos, the man who created Amazon and bankrupted a million small businesses, has decided to step down. He’s not leaving the company, just the CEO position.  He has all the money he could ever want. Perhaps he now wants to run for politics? I do hope not.  That kind of ruthless callousness may make boatloads of money but it’s very bad for human beings.

Diary 319

Diary 319

Monday, February 1st

Tonight, as the snowstorm raged and as the coup in Myanmar continued, we settled down to watch ‘The Dig’ (Netflix)

This is the dramatization of the Sutton Hoo archaeological dig in England, in 1939, and the extraordinary treasures it unearthed. But it is far more than that. It is a beautiful, pitch-perfect evocation of the time, with probing insights into the concept of History, who owns it, and what time might be for us; it asks questions about class, sexism, death and what a life of meaning might look like – settling in the end for an endorsement of work as something one does because it needs to be done well, and not for ego gratification. In that sense it is extraordinarily apt for our time – a time when so many politicians (and others) do whatever they can for personal gain and care less about the planet, the future, or anyone else.

Sometimes I finish watching a movie and I wonder what I’ve had for my money. At other times I emerge feeling enriched, stimulated, moved, and reminded of important things.  ‘The Dig’ is firmly in that category.