As I write this, we are all caught in this liminal condition, this “state between states,” as votes that have been cast continue to be counted. Regardless of which campaign is eventually judged the winner, though, there is a clear loser: America.
Posted in Culture, Politics | Tagged american culture, autocracy, Biden, election 2020, presidential politics, Trump | 3 Comments »
Today, I married my sister.
I’ve been to many weddings, a good few more than you, I’d wager. As a musician, I’ve been to scores, suffering through endless repetitions of Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major. As a groomsman, I’ve been to a handful, often a bit green in the gills, sweating vodka and swaying with my fellows in a shared hangover that hung around us like a fog. As a guest, there have been at least a dozen, some where I just sat and enjoyed the spectacle of hope, and others where I read remarks, made a toast, or simply helped with setup and tear-down. My sister and I were in a wedding before—my first—with me as groom and her as bridesmaid. Continue Reading »
Posted in Culture | Tagged family, marriage, social distancing, universal life church, zoom | 2 Comments »
For most of my life, if I was awake, I had a book in my hand.
Riding the bus, walking to school, in the quad between classes, lounging at home, I’d have a book open, thumb in the crease, my nose buried in its leaves. Novels, anthologies, treatises, memoirs, history, science, poetry.
Anything.
Everything.
I read it.
Then, about a dozen years ago, life went off the rails. Book deals dried up. Friends and family began to die (at least ten during this period). We fostered a young woman, giving her a place to live for a year. Work became a stress factory. The economy tanked, causing the Great Recession. Then along came Trump. And then this pandemic.
In response, my reading habits changed, radically. They became constrained, limited to news articles, political analyses, and works of non-fiction. Instead of a dog-eared book, I carried my tablet with its instant-on, 24×7 access to current events and a front-row seat to our increasingly divided society.
Even so, every now and again, I would return to my fiction books, the stacks of TBR novels that inhabit every room in this house. I tried, repeatedly, to read one of them, hungry for that immersive experience, that miraculous wash of words that would sweep away reality and bathe me in the light of a different sun.
But the miracle never came. I didn’t have the patience, lacked the power to focus., and was unable to drive away the here-and-now with worlds of what-if. Book after book I picked up, opened, began, and abandoned within a few days, the only evidence of my attempt, a bookmark left somewhere in the first thirty pages.
With all this as preamble, one might wonder why, during my recent time off, I decided yet again to pick up a novel and give it a try. I mean, there I was in the last month of the most turbulent election cycle of my sixty-plus years, with a pandemic raging beyond my door, a daily gush of political scandals and turmoil filling the airwaves, and everywhere people shouting and crying and grieving and protesting. Was it hope? Obstinacy? Desperation? Whatever compelled me, it was in this moment, amid this maelstrom of chaos, that I chose to try again, and opened up a 150-year-old book.
And I read it. Cover to cover, in record time.
And then . . . I picked up another book, and read it, too.
And now, here I am, wondering what to read next.
. . .
Do yourself a favor.
Turn off the television. Put down the phone. Leave the tablet in the other room.
Pick up a book. A real book. The one you’ve been meaning to read for so long.
Take a seat near the window, where the natural light will be over your shoulder. Settle in, book in hand.
Open it up. Stick your nose in it. Smell it. Feel the pebbled surface of the printed page, the tension of the spine.
Chapter One.
Read.
I tell you, it’s like coming home.
k
Posted in Books, Low Tech | Tagged books, fiction, modern life, modern living, novels, Reading, self-care | 6 Comments »
This damnable year has taught me two things, the most recent of which is.:
- Vote shaming does not work.
A few times, now, I’ve attempted to convince non- and third-party-voters to cast a meaningful vote in this year’s election. In those posts, I have avoided anything that might be construed as bullying or “shaming.” I haven’t cast aspersions or indulged in ad hominem attacks. I haven’t in any way implied that Americans don’t have the right to disenfranchise themselves.
In discussions, I’ve striven to be firm but not belligerent, hoping persuasion would prove more effective than incivility. I’ve expressed my sincere understanding for each person’s reasons for eschewing both Dems and GOP, but have simultaneously pointed out that there are more important aspects at stake here than just one voter’s preference (or lack thereof) for a particular candidate. I’ve stressed that unity is our strength, and that e pluribus unum is even more true today, in our diverse and multicultural society, than it was in the much more homogenous 1776. I’ve argued that how we vote in this election will affect many people beyond ourselves.
And still, I’ve been accused of bullying and shaming. I’ve been told I have no right to judge. I’ve been unfriended, disinvited, and (I suspect) blocked.
Well, since my last post here on the topic, our current POTUS has moved to replace a liberal icon of the SCOTUS with an arch-conservative, has laid the groundwork for nationwide voter intimidation and nullification, and has found it impossible to utter the simple phrase, “I denounce white supremacy in all its forms.”
Despite this, I still refuse to engage in public shaming of those who have chosen to sit this one out and/or vote for a non-viable candidate.
That does not mean I won’t try to convince them, though.
Because this isn’t about me or about being “right.”
It isn’t about me. It isn’t about you. It isn’t about any one of us.
It’s about all of us.
It’s about my friend’s kid, who’s struggling with their gender identity and fears violence perpetrated by emboldened bigots. It’s about my neighbor whose furlough just turned into a layoff, and who’s worried that the ACA won’t be there for him and his family. It’s about my LGBTQ friends who are fearful of what the new SCOTUS will do (or undo) regarding their marriage. It’s about my friends up and down the West Coast, suffering under smoke and evacuation orders, and those on the East Coast buffeted by one hurricane after another. It’s about the parents I know, worried sick about their kids going to school during a pandemic, worried about when and if life will ever return to something reminiscent of what it was like just a year ago.
We all know friends in similar situations, fellow citizens who are negatively affected by this administration’s actions (or inactions). And we all know this election is a turning point. We can all see the two paths that lie ahead, clearly and starkly delineated. The difference before us is impossible to deny: two paths, two futures.
But which future? Which path?
This election decides, and it is our civic duty, our responsibility as citizens, to take it seriously. Sitting it out or voting for a candidate with zero chance of winning is a total abdication of that responsibility. It does not move the needle. It does not have an effect. It does not make a difference. And, judging from the strident, sometimes vitriolic, often knee-jerk responses I’ve received from third-party acolytes and non-voters, they know it, too.
But here’s the other lesson I’ve learned from 2020:
- Things can always get worse.
And if we do not join together to fight the obvious threat, things will get worse.
Our nation, our democracy, our institutions, and our norms, need you.
k
Posted in Culture, Politics | Tagged Biden, election 2020, third-party, Trump, vote 2020, voting | Leave a Comment »
SELECT Intelligence, Knowledge_of_Law, Dignity, Determination AS GRIT, Strength AS RESOLVE, Empathy, Insight FROM SCOTUS_Requirements INNER JOIN Virtues LEFT JOIN Womens_Rights LEFT JOIN Equal_Treatment WHERE Moniker = 'Notorious' AND Initials = 'RGB';
*Yes, yes, I know this isn’t strict SQL.
Poetic license and all.
Posted in Culture, Writing | Tagged Poetry, RBG, SCOTUS, SQL | Leave a Comment »
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Here in the Pacific Northwest, we know from smoke.
And I’m not talking the cannabis type.
Recent years have educated us about the quality and character of smoke from wildfires, but these past two weeks have been like a full-on mandatory in-your-face master-class from an extremely pissed-off Samuel L. Jackson. Continue Reading »
Posted in Seattle | Tagged AQI, Seattle, smoke, wildfires | 3 Comments »
If you don’t mind, I’ll take a break from past ruminations on third-party voting, COVID, and the goals of liberalism, and instead will recommend to you something that has given us hours of distraction and enjoyment through 2020’s interminable summer.
As you might have guessed from this post’s headline, it’s a game. Of sorts.
It’s not a classic board game—you can only play it once and there is no board—and it’s not an “escape room” type game, either. Rather, it’s a mashup of puzzles and ciphers, clues and characters, documents and artifacts, all wrapped in a murder mystery for you to solve in a month-by-month collection of physical and virtual communication.
It is Hunt-A-Killer, and it is a ton of fun.
Posted in Gaming | Tagged board games, COVID-19, hunt-a-killer, lockdown, murder mystery, quarantine | 2 Comments »
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 