[Above photo: One of many stunning turn-of-the-century brick homes in the West End. Enlarged and viewed on a computer screen, the details are fascinating, if labor intensive to create.]
My daughter returned to Maine from 3 months of kayaking and camping in the Everglades with her friend. She drove from Florida in a rented car, seeing other friends en route. I picked her up yesterday at the Portland Jetport (I love the name, coined when jets were a thrilling novelty.) We sampled great Portland food—Sichuan Restaurant, Tandem Coffee—last night and this morning, watched the amazing “Spencer”, walked dog Pearl several times, and drove 3 hours up the coast to her home today. The undressed trees on our drive made for a bleak landscape. I planned initially to stay the night but I have a lot to do this week, including preparing for a class tomorrow, so we got her groceries at the local Co-op, ascertained that no pipes had frozen and burst, and I made the return trip to Portland.
She is terrific. We get into heated arguments at times. She cannot tolerate my certainty, what she thinks is my liberal naivete, and I have difficulty with her lack of conviction re. political topics, including the covid vaccination. Oh, she’s vaccinated but still reserves skepticism re. its efficacy, its financial beneficiaries, and its long-term effects. Perhaps even the underpinnings of the pandemic are in question. We continue to learn about and alter our understanding of the first and the possible long-term effects simply aren’t known. I cannot believe that Bill Gates or Tony Fauci are making money, or even care to, from the vaccine. Anyway, we seem able, once the smoke has cleared, to talk about our differences. My regular information sources are the NY Times, Washington Post, New Yorker, Popular Information (Judd Legum), Heather Cox Richardson, Robert Hubbell, National Public Radio, and Inside Climate News. All are, admittedly, espousing views and sharing information which seem sensible to me. She reads the Times, but, in addition, listens to podcasts that she thinks more accurately fill out the picture. We all have our biases. Am I simply seeking sources that will confirm them, as I think those following Fox, Hannity, and Tucker Carlsen do?
But wait! There are objective facts and truths, as well as demonstrable untruths. Disinformation is so pervasive, malignant, and difficult to spot at times, especially if it resonates with our pre-existing beliefs. And if we are not schooled in critical thinking. Many universities now have faculty, if not divisions or departments, dedicated to the study of disinformation and its remedies. Generating it is certainly a central tactic for tyrants, as is accusing the other side in advance of what you plan to do. DT did both constantly and Putin is certainly doing the same. I hadn’t realized that one crime of which dictators regularly accuse their opposition is pedophilia, as we saw with Hillary and Pizzagate. It certainly arouses our most powerful and savage defensive and protective instincts, which can then be directed since we are at that moment in time blind to reason.
Also, hats off to George Soros who seems to be accused by the Right of supporting all things evil in the world; he must be busy, stirring up so much mischief! I’m only familiar with his untiring support of democratic institutions worldwide. Inciting caravans of immigrants from Central America— “hordes”—preparing to storm our southern border, I tend to think not. I can also entertain that he may have done bad things. Many people with loads of money seem to feel they are bound only by their own rules.
I am quite anxious about buying a place these days. After seeing two condos and feeling like I would be living in a hotel, I decided on a house with a yard, a garden, and a basement. Small houses are rarely available on the Portland peninsula, so I am looking in the surrounding areas, especially Rosemont, S. Portland, and Cape Elizabeth. Since the competition is great, I must restrain myself from feelings of desperation and leaping into a purchase that may leave me regretting it. After all, I am comfortable in my apartment and have all the time in the world. My daughter has agreed to help my critical thinking by viewing a place before I put in a bid, just as a second opinion. I think my realtor is terrific and will help, as well.
Spring is suddenly here! Crocus, jonquil, and tulip bulbs are shooting up. Kids are playing pick-up basketball and soccer at Reiche School across the street. I can walk comfortably without taking extreme measures against the cold. As I drove up and down the coast today, I felt such relief that I hadn’t bought a place Downeast and wintered there. It would have been so lonely and with little hope of remedy.
Starting my OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) classes at the U. of S. Maine, I am meeting all manner of fun, smart people and feel increasingly like I’ll be a part of life here within the year. The classes I’m taking are: reading and discussing short stories, creative writing, and a seminar on pedagogy, the last in preparation for teaching a course at OLLI. These are all things that I am doing already but in which I am quite untutored, so it is fun to participate in class discussions and see what they stimulate in me.
I don’t know if looking ahead with optimism and curiosity extends your life or not, but I feel very positively about my future, if not the Earth’s. What a gift! Breathe in. Breathe out. Lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub, 68 beats per minute, never stopping for the past 81 years. A modest estimate is, roughly, 2,895,004,800 beats in sequence. Plus, all the other miraculous and complex systems working in more or less homeostasis for the same period. And some high-level productive work to come out of their coordination. And joy. And relationships.
I do hope these “military exercises” don’t result in the extinction of us all, which is a possibility. Too clever, by far, these humans, creating the means of our own demise.
A Psychiatrist in Myanmar 