Trying Something New

 How does one choose what to write about after a long hiatus? So much water under the bridge, some of it sweet and clear, and some brackish, muddy, carrying along oak trunks festooned with desperately clinging raccoons. The boring, the sublime, the absurd: life has had plenty of it.


Choosing the right thing were too difficult, so instead we are going to play a game. Matt Drudge is going to have a headline, and I am going to give my half-formed opinion about it. I hope this will be fun for both of us. I promise to keep it short form, as long as you promise not to read it.


Let's get started.


DEVELOPING: HOSTAGES RELEASED

I'm honestly shocked the hostages were released. I would have taken odds against it a month ago. I think we should all hope and pray for the peaceful transfer of power from Hamas to civilian authorities, and that humanitarian aid may flow freely, and that this is the beginning of an era of peace and healing for the people of Gaza.


But I doubt it.


And take my doubt with a grain of salt. I would have said that the hostages would never see the light of day. That Hamas would have decided that Tell Umm Amer was the hill to die on; they had already damned the cost so many times. And Israel was so determined not to blink. They said no peace without the hostages back, and they meant it even Gazan's died 100 to 1 to the victims of October 7th. On both sides, we got a glimpse of what war looks like without mercy.


I doubt that the ceasefire now is for mercy, on either side of the equation. We saw implacable hate on both sides of this conflict, and I imagine it has not abated, but calculation is ruling the day.


At this moment, I reflect on the end of Edward Rutherford's excellent--though not uplifting--novel Russka, which ends with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the professed hope by one character that Russia will finally put its love affair with authoritarianism behind it. And the author expresses his subtle doubt. Prescient for a man who finished writing years before Putin, and over a decade before we saw Putin's true face.


I'm not sure what it takes for a whole people to change, especially an ancient people like the Russians. Now what about a more ancient people, like the Semitic Muslims of Palestine, or the Mizrahi of Palestine and the 30 other places they got thrown out of by Muslims after Ottoman protection (well, protected tax farming) disintegrated.


Maybe this is the traumatic event that change people. Maybe the ruins of a city and exhaustion from facing the horrors of war will change them. Or maybe the next strongman is around the corner.


The most fascinating part of the cease fire, and the only amusing part, is the silence of social media influencers on the topic. They do not know how to react. They do not know how to feel about it. They have not yet been told how to feel about it. The paralysis that comes from the fear of saying the wrong thing is still upon them.


The Bell weathers will move soon. Until then, enjoy a few moments of blessed silence.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Patrick's Pub

One of the key selling features of our house--besides it's lovely hard wood floors and great windows and light throughout--was the large wrap around wet bar in the basement. "This," I said, "is just the spot for entertaining." It looks like you might have torn it out of a small neighborhood bar and dropped it in this basement. Dark stained pine wall paneling straight outta the 50s with bar facade to match, aqua-blue vinyl counter-top of interlacing gray and blue boomerangs, shelves beneath for all the extras, and plenty of wall space to work with. I was certain that I would make it my own, and then I would have people down here (where did you think I was writing from?) two nights a week at least. The prospect of having people over was fun and exciting. In part, because it would be fun to have friends over in an actually comfortable space. And for the other part, I'm a bit of a social lazybones when it comes to putting in the effort to contrive additional s...
Read more

Tired, not Sleepy.

*Danger* *Point of no return* I am at war. There is no enemy except the one within, and my task is not to fight him, but to keep him disciplined. The most annoying thing about this battle is that, in my everyday surroundings, the longer and better that I hold my discipline the more it becomes a burden. It is abnormal in the eyes of society, and abnormality is a grievous sin. I will not comply and my non-compliance is often misconstrued as dysfunction. I do not have a girlfriend. There is a lot of weight in that phrase. Healthy American males of my age are expected to form romantic attachments. If they do not form any attachments of this kind, it is often thought that 1) We are not sufficiently attractive, or, 2) We are merely anti-social. What on earth could possibly be wrong with me? Why is that child unable/unwilling to attract a mate? Has he been gelded? Is he afraid??? My pride would just as soon answer them by doing as they expect. What better way to shut them up than to give up a...
Read more

Eleven and One Half

Yesterday was spent in the company of family at Mounds State Park. Aside from the obligatory trip to the emergency room, all went very nicely. Cooking over an open fire, slowly assuming the same aroma as said fire, and hiking in the woods definitely all count as good fun. Today, however, I am back to drudgery. It's almost all writing that I have and the greatest task is not actually from one of my college professors. My short story requires something that I really need work on, Dialog. Also, I am concerned about the format of book discussion. This concern came about as I was doing my English midterm. Part of the midterm was an essay form self examination and an examination of the way the class is going in general. In comparing large and small group discussion, it hit me that all insightful/useful commentary that I hear is from the small discussion. People are much more likely to venture a criticism or strong opinion when in a smaller group. Book discussion has ballooned and lost a ...
Read more