Allan G. Hunter's Blog, page 7

Diary 278

Monday, December 21st

Today was the Solstice, but cloudy skies made it feel curiously like any other winter day. At 6:30 pm I hoped to view the planetary conjunction, the first such since 1623, but again the skies were overcast.

The fact that we can’t see something – that it’s obscured by clouds, by misinformation, by fake news, by a feckless former ‘president’ – does not mean it’s not happening.  The times are a’ changing, and we all know it.

Diary 277

Sunday, December 20th

Today brought the discovery that the grandkids, in their artistic enthusiasm, had appropriated all the Christmas cards and cut them into decorative shapes as Christmas ornaments, all but one of which they’ve now taken home. Trying to buy a decent card at this stage in the year is a lost cause, so I must announce that if you were expecting a card from me this year, don’t. 

[FYI the grandkids are part of our pod; we are not being irresponsible socializers]

The good news is that I loved their creativity, their lack in inhibition, and that desire to make something that was standard into something special. I think it was a trade that was well worth while.

I sometimes wonder what happened to my own creative spirit, and I can only deduce that it’s gone underground for now.

Other news?  Fox News reversed itself on the voter fraud allegations that the former ‘president’ spent so much time on.  Lou Dobbs reneged on his own lies about voting machines. The network now says there was no fraud. So that makes it all right again, does it?

Diary 276

Saturday, December 19th

Today was once again filled with the squeals of delight that arise when small girls get on sleds and careen downhill. Plenty of wet clothes at the end of the frosty olympics (with added Kung Fu snowball deflection demonstrations), and hot chocolate to make sure everyone got warmed up again.

The beautiful thing about all this is that it reminds me, yet again, just how little one actually needs in order to play and have a really good time. We grown ups tend to forget this.

I notice that ‘vice-president’ Pence got his covid vaccination yesterday. I’m confused. I thought the vaccine was for essential workers? There’s nothing essential about Pence, one of the enablers of injustice and corruption.

Diary 275

Friday, December 18th

A piece of good news for me; my father’s memoir of his World War II years, ‘From Coastal Command to Captivity’ which first appeared in 2003, will now be reprinted in paperback. I ‘finished’ the book, which was left incomplete when he died, and which he handed over to me. As he said, ‘Do something with it’. 

It’s due out in March next year.

War and fighting are not my preferred topics, but I do believe that we have a duty to preserve the histories of that generation, to remind every other generation that war is a ghastly activity, and to learn from their pain and fortitude.

Diary 274

Thursday, December 17th.

The Sackler family refuses to apologize for their role in the opioid crisis – one that killed thousands of Americans, and destroyed the lives of those who knew them. The former ‘president’ refuses to admit he has lost the election. He also refused to admit we have a problem with Covid. So I guess that means that if we refuse to admit something is real then it ceases to exist.  Try doing that with your taxes and see where it gets you.  Oh, wait. The former ‘president’ already did that.

This kind of lie-in-the-soul, this sort of solipsistic self-delusion is ultimately ruinous.  Now, how about that climate crisis? It doesn’t exist, right?  Think again. 

Diary 273

Diary 273

Wednesday, December 16th

All the news outlets promise us plenty of snow tomorrow, so today was spent checking the snowblower I got from the trash and making sure that most of its 35 year old bits were still reasonably firmly attached. It made convincing chugging sounds when persuaded, so now I know I’m ready for anything. But the real delight of a snow day will be that I can get down to some truly scientific sampling of the latest batch of fruit syrups from Conspiriti. My dear friend Andrew Peerless created these mixes in England and now has a US outlet. Just add sparkling water. Some people add gin, of course, but that’s up to you.

I’ve known Andrew since we were at school together, so probably since I was 11. Astonishing to think of how the years slip by… Fortunately we’ve both improved immeasurably with age.

Diary 272

Diary 272

Tuesday, December 15th

Today’s pictures are a sample of what happens when one decides, in a fit of enthusiasm, to place Christmas tree ornaments on trees outside.  That’s what I did. They were fine, red apple like things – until it rained. Then they rapidly became more like nuclear-blasted withered rotting red peppers. The one pictured here is the least distorted of them all – the others became a sort of red sludge, a sludge that stained the table I placed them on, requiring some effort to remove said marks.

Somehow I’m reminded of what happens when a nation elects a presidential candidate who looks unusual but will not weather any kind of storm; one who becomes a grotesque distortion of what a president should be; one who leaves a stain behind that’s hard to remove. Yes, that would be the outgoing incumbent of the White House — who still refuses to admit defeat.

Diary 271

Monday, December 14th

The Electoral College has done its duty and confirmed Biden as the next president. I confess I feel relieved. No word from the previous incumbent of the White House. William Barr, the Attorney General and facilitator of many of the ‘president’s’ less sane notions, has stepped down. Finally.

Corona deaths have reached 300,000 in the US, and those are just the ones we’re sure about. The first doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been administered.

For now the specter of authoritarianism has subsided, but we have plenty of work to do to make sure our nation is one in which equality presides. For without equality we can have no justice, no peace, nor any way forwards.

Diary 270

Diary 270

Sunday, December 13th

As I read about far right protesters in Washington DC who think the election was rigged (but who also seem to be chanting ‘Dump Trump’ at the same time), I’m about as confused as the next person. 

And yet I’m also aware of something else. In these turbulent times we are witnessing the surfacing of some deep and historically ugly biases – on left and right. I have no sympathy for the beliefs of the far right, yet it’s impossible not to recognize the circumstances that have contributed to the angry, racist, misogynistic viewpoints they seem to hold. They have been ignored by both political parties, and have decided, as the disenfranchised will, to victimize others. If we’re to move forwards we have to do it by taking into account the damage done over decades to minorities by those who are afraid of them, and the backlash that has created.

The ugliness has surfaced.  Now we need to try and heal it.

Or perhaps a better metaphor is required: we are witnessing the painful birth process of a newer way of being, and birth is always painful.  When this child emerges we’ll have to look after it very carefully and help it to grow.

Diary 269

Diary 269

Saturday, December 12th

Democratic Representative Bill Pascrell has lodged a complaint against the 126 republican lawmakers who refuse to acknowledge that the orange outrage lost the election.  Citing the 14th amendment that prohibits membership of the House to those who engage in actions to undermine the integrity of the electoral process, he asks that those 126 lawmakers be prevented from being seated, as they are clearly treasonous. Personally I’d have to agree. 

Today’s walk along the river let me see a different aspect of the world.

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