Temperature: a windy but sunny 5/41 degrees
Eating: in a minute
Drinking: Can't. Working. Maybe later? A Guinness to ring in the weekend? Hadn’t had one in ages, then had one on St. Patrick’s, and goodness is was gooood.
Watching: my TBR lists grow at an alarming pace. (The problem? A) I read in more than one language, B) I only have one brain, and C) 24 hours a day to spare.) This isn’t working. I need a year off. A year to go off and read.
Listening: to new music from Dido
Reading: As fast as I can. But it’s an epidemic! A cornucopia of fantastic fiction and non-fiction sprouting all over the planet. Could you please give me some time to catch up? Sit on it for a bit? Postpone publication, maybe? I might not get to you if you don’t, you know, and I know you want to be read. This isn’t working. Not for me, and not in your favor.
Thinking: Why don’t we all take 2020 off to read and reflect, and start 2021 in a new and improved state of mind. No? Why not? Because the world doesn’t stop for anyone? Who said anything about stopping?! Your brain doesn’t stop until it shuts down for good. And we have months to plan this, so what’s the problem?
Feeling: I may have gone overboard with the exclamation marks. Totally exceeded my quota for 2019, actually. Like three posts ago. Sorry about that. Can’t promise it won’t happen again.
Dita Parker
Friday, March 22, 2019
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Land of confusion
Yesterday I watched my children head out to the global youth for climate strike, and burst into tears. Sweet baby Jesus you make me proud. How do I keep you safe from harm? What have I done, bringing children into this mad world? What can I do to alleviate their fears and anxiety and frustration? I felt like calling them back and apologizing, saying I’m so so sorry you have to feel this way, as if we don’t hear you or care about you or your future.
And to those who think these strikes are some great green conspiracy: you are absolutely half right. The children and youth of today are stone cold sober dead serious about securing a safer future for themselves if the ladies and gents of their parents’ and grandparents’ generation won’t. What they see and hear is more or less this: we will keep extracting and exploiting as much as we can for as long as we can and to hell with the consequences. Or the grandkids. Is it any wonder they are prone to panic? Why aren’t we?
Those tears were a visceral reaction I couldn’t contain. Not only was I a mess of pride and joy and distress, I’d seen the news from New Zealand but didn’t say a word as they headed out bursting with resolve and vigor, I just hoped they wouldn’t see it until much later. The mere thought of what was done, no, I don’t want to see the vile violent footage, fills me with not terror or fear but deep heartfelt sadness. The thought of someone hurting my children, anyone’s child...I can’t even breathe through the pain and grief that thought rouses. Children are innocent. Those children are innocent. But so were their parents. And grandparents. Aunts and uncles. Friends and neighbors. Fellow humans in peaceful prayer.
If you or anyone living in your sub-human subculture think you will change the course of history or the fate of nations this way, you are wrong. Terror doesn’t work. Look it up. Never has, never will. This was no act of heroism but homicide. This is no righteous warrior but a murderer. We are all cousins on this planet. Taking a life is spilling your own blood. That’s what it is. That’s all it is. Any perceived justification is but a misguided excuse. And chaos... Since you can’t control the outcome or the consequences, chaos is neither a method nor an ideology.
Is that how you start your mornings on this planet, playing victim of this and victim of that, thinking up excuses, thinking “This is what I’m here for. This is how I’ll spend the one life I was given”? Bathe in hatred, moisturize with bigotry, spray on some eau de loathing, bake a fear cake and pass it around? You are no man on a mission, you are lost. You have lost your humanity, your true north, and every cardinal point; love, empathy, compassion and respect. This is your contribution? Ending lives while squandering yours? There are constructive and destructive ways to live a life, apply yourself, communicate and participate. You chose wrong. You chose a road to nowhere.
As my children returned, bursting with even more resolve and vigor, they did ask about the news from Christchurch. Their reaction? Not horror, at least not the kind that was perhaps sought, but a saddened headshake. What a senseless, heartless act that accomplishes... absolutely nothing. Nothing but the calm and continued resolve to reject thoughts and acts and voices that aim to divide and conquer; leaders leading people astray, demagogues and populists, xenophobes and misogynists, bullies and trolls, all who’d rather follow a moral compass gone haywire than think for themselves.
And to those who think these strikes are some great green conspiracy: you are absolutely half right. The children and youth of today are stone cold sober dead serious about securing a safer future for themselves if the ladies and gents of their parents’ and grandparents’ generation won’t. What they see and hear is more or less this: we will keep extracting and exploiting as much as we can for as long as we can and to hell with the consequences. Or the grandkids. Is it any wonder they are prone to panic? Why aren’t we?
Those tears were a visceral reaction I couldn’t contain. Not only was I a mess of pride and joy and distress, I’d seen the news from New Zealand but didn’t say a word as they headed out bursting with resolve and vigor, I just hoped they wouldn’t see it until much later. The mere thought of what was done, no, I don’t want to see the vile violent footage, fills me with not terror or fear but deep heartfelt sadness. The thought of someone hurting my children, anyone’s child...I can’t even breathe through the pain and grief that thought rouses. Children are innocent. Those children are innocent. But so were their parents. And grandparents. Aunts and uncles. Friends and neighbors. Fellow humans in peaceful prayer.
If you or anyone living in your sub-human subculture think you will change the course of history or the fate of nations this way, you are wrong. Terror doesn’t work. Look it up. Never has, never will. This was no act of heroism but homicide. This is no righteous warrior but a murderer. We are all cousins on this planet. Taking a life is spilling your own blood. That’s what it is. That’s all it is. Any perceived justification is but a misguided excuse. And chaos... Since you can’t control the outcome or the consequences, chaos is neither a method nor an ideology.
Is that how you start your mornings on this planet, playing victim of this and victim of that, thinking up excuses, thinking “This is what I’m here for. This is how I’ll spend the one life I was given”? Bathe in hatred, moisturize with bigotry, spray on some eau de loathing, bake a fear cake and pass it around? You are no man on a mission, you are lost. You have lost your humanity, your true north, and every cardinal point; love, empathy, compassion and respect. This is your contribution? Ending lives while squandering yours? There are constructive and destructive ways to live a life, apply yourself, communicate and participate. You chose wrong. You chose a road to nowhere.
As my children returned, bursting with even more resolve and vigor, they did ask about the news from Christchurch. Their reaction? Not horror, at least not the kind that was perhaps sought, but a saddened headshake. What a senseless, heartless act that accomplishes... absolutely nothing. Nothing but the calm and continued resolve to reject thoughts and acts and voices that aim to divide and conquer; leaders leading people astray, demagogues and populists, xenophobes and misogynists, bullies and trolls, all who’d rather follow a moral compass gone haywire than think for themselves.
Friday, March 8, 2019
Same same but different
Temperature: a slushy 4/39 degrees
Eating: Heading out to dinner later today to meet up with my tribe of fierce fabulous fearless women. Happy International Women’s Day! ✊
Drinking: Oh I’m sure there’ll be a toast or several.
Watching: the new Moominvalley series. We need a Moomin emoji. To the Unicode Consortium, let's go!
Listening: to the X Ambassadors
Reading: How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals by Sy Montgomery, illustrated by Rebecca Green. This is a beautiful book on so many levels.
Thinking: Don’t judge me, exalt me, berate me or underestimate me/anyone based on my/his/her sex. What we do, think and say is what counts.
Feeling: A tad bit under the weather from the flu my son gifted me with. But thanks for waiting until carnaval was done!
Eating: Heading out to dinner later today to meet up with my tribe of fierce fabulous fearless women. Happy International Women’s Day! ✊
Drinking: Oh I’m sure there’ll be a toast or several.
Watching: the new Moominvalley series. We need a Moomin emoji. To the Unicode Consortium, let's go!
Listening: to the X Ambassadors
Reading: How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals by Sy Montgomery, illustrated by Rebecca Green. This is a beautiful book on so many levels.
Thinking: Don’t judge me, exalt me, berate me or underestimate me/anyone based on my/his/her sex. What we do, think and say is what counts.
Feeling: A tad bit under the weather from the flu my son gifted me with. But thanks for waiting until carnaval was done!
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