Of Electricity and Vandals

10 January 2021

[Above photo: Mmm. Just makes you want to buy a bottle or two, doesn’t it?]

Vladimir Ashkenazy is playing the Bach French Suites. They come, via Spotify, into my Vivo phone and out into the air through my new Sony mini-speaker. It enriches my life to be able to play any music I want. If you really want a surprise, tune in to Lucille Bogan (1897-1948), a blues singer like Ma Rainey, who sang it like it was. I just heard her for the first time. Her song “Til the Cows Come Home” is priceless in its explicit way. And as a kid, we all thought Nellie Lucher’s “Hurry on Down to My House, Honey” was racy! All to say that (electronic) progress isn’t all bad, even though social media algorithms often seem more to confound than to illuminate truths, choosing drama over depth as they do.

We re-wired a new light in Kelly’s bedroom yesterday afternoon to replace the circular fluorescent in the ceiling. It worked fine, even though both wires I was splicing into were red so I didn’t know which was hot. Everything here is 220v. so it is important for cardiac conduction not to mess around when wiring. During supper at 8PM all the lights went off; the a/c stayed on, as did the fridges. I was sure I had somehow screwed things up, but couldn’t imagine how, since electricity can go either way through a lightbulb. Plus, it’s AC, not DC. We used headlamps for the rest of the evening, I switched the wires for the suspect light fixture early in the morning. Soon afterwards our very kind landlady knocked on the door, asking if our electricity was off. Yes, since last night. She called the electrician, who soon arrived on his electric bike with toolbag strapped on the back. In 15 minutes he had diagnosed it and re-routed the main trunk, bypassing a faulty switch which he’ll replace. 

It is nice to have running water, refrigeration, air conditioning, and ample lighting at night but I suppose we’d get along OK without if we simply didn’t expect to have it. The rapid shift from have to have-not causes the strain, as when our electricity or water would suddenly go off for many hours at a time in Malawi. Like the memorable Thanksgiving when we were suddenly faced with 15 dinner guests and no stove. We borrowed the neighbor’s grill and grilled the 3 chickens to perfection.

The rage, gullibility, and ignorance, a problematic trio, on display at our Capitol last week was sad and troubling.  So many people think what happened was OK. [Ted Cruz has been aptly described as “a snake covered in Vaseline”.] It seemed like a mob of angry teenagers to me, hardly a coup attempt.  There was no plan to govern, hardly to do more than invade, shout, and vandalize. I get their anger and frustration, watching as good jobs disappear, seeing the scornful rich get richer as they get poorer, and feeling ill-equipped to address it, let alone understand it. Feces and blood smeared on our seat of government, windows smashed, doors broken, feet on desks, papers strewn about, a piece of Chinese calligraphy torn from the wall (“We don’t need any Chinese here.”), chanting and shouting, and, then, “Well, what do we do next? He told us to come up here and fight with him, to be strong.” Meanwhile, He’s sitting watching TV in the safety and luxury of the White House. Happily, the PGA has withdrawn their 2022 championship tournament from Bedminster in response.

Having lived for 4 years now in two countries with whose governments I have strong objections, I think that we have a pretty good, although imperfect and often unfair, one in comparison. There is a lot that is very wrong, especially our tax system, structural racism, and economic inequality. We also have trouble not violently interfering in the politics of other countries deemed “strategic” to our interests.  The US can only advance in a stepwise fashion, however, and learning from the recent 4 year debacle can perhaps illuminate other major deficiencies we have in realizing our potential for good in the world. For me, the most important piece is that We, if We mobilize, can change things for the better. If We can change the rules by which the system functions, which We can with time and effort, life can improve.  Where I’ve been living changing the rules is very, very difficult. Try to do so in Russia or China.

What is life about if not to contribute positively to human experience through our work and play, by helping the less fortunate/more vulnerable, in advancing ideas through art, through discovering and sharing knowledge, and creating sustainable conditions for the same? It certainly isn’t a new BMW or a yacht, at least not for me. And I don’t wear a hair shirt; I like my possessions and comforts. I’m OK with basic contentment, which is difficult enough to find even without the complications of vast wealth and piles of stuff. My guess is that for most people, those extras limit, rather than expand, their happiness, in spite of our drive to accumulate them.

The “magical realism” novels from S. America never appealed to me but I am now very taken with Love In the Time of Cholera.  It is, for me, memorable writing. There is a range and depth of human emotion and frailty that rings true. I’ll read 100 Years of Solitude next. It will be a change to return to working regularly, not having time to lie in bed and read in the mornings.

A gecko just skittered across the wall. They are my friends. If I have a mosquito one night, and it is rare, they are not there the next. The gekkos do utter surprisingly loud mating calls at night on occasion. Sometimes I feel like doing the same.