[Above photo: The long shadows of late afternoon the day before I closed our cabin for the season.]
15 September 2022
Yesterday was gray and misty. The northerly breezed in today and it is cool, clear, and sparkling. I love this little town! Friends from Malawi (who live in Hawaii) are on the road for 4 months. This leg of their journey is a cruise from Quebec City to Boston with stops in between, including PEI, Halifax, Portland, and Bar Harbor (a curious backtrack!). I found a garden restaurant and we drank IPA and ate lobster rolls while we exchanged recent history, political opinions (minimal), and renewed our friendships. We then drove briefly around the lovely parts of the West End, which I showed them proudly. They are so open and easy to be with that their company is like a plunge into the warm ocean. Shared experiences, especially of an intense kind like working in a developing country, make for easy relating.
Speaking of which, I finally talked with Kelly, my housemate in Yangon. He’s another with whom I settle in easily. He was sitting on the couch where we’d dip Bin Bins, a brand of Thai rice cracker he craved, into my home-made hummus while we tried to best each other at gin rummy. He now goes from Thailand to Myanmar for a couple of weeks periodically, struggling to marshal his flock (He’s the country director of PACT International) to develop economic aid during these chaotic times. He said there wasn’t much of a military presence in the airport (as there had been when I left) or on the streets and that Saya San Road, loaded with bars and pizza joints, appears as busy and unconcerned as it was preceding covid. It is kind of surreal, since I am talking with my students every week and their experiences sound harrowing, with nearby apartment searches and bomb blasts.
Jose, our neighbor in Yangon, has moved to Chiang Mai with the family dog and two cats. Because of employment his wife, Irene, is now in Bangkok. His household furnishings will follow him and Kelly has added my large suitcase-full of children’s toys and dollhouse furniture to the move so hopefully it will be accessible to me and my students. I’ll see if he’ll pack my books and send them along, as well. Will wonders never cease!
I came across a startling indictment which strikes me as correct: “It is the action of the liberal elites—well-intended but grievously misguided—that have spawned the populist wave. In a variety of ways ruling elites promoting globalization and diversity have deprived many groups in their own societies of opportunity, hope, and security.” Globalization has given us cheap tvs and phones, sneakers and steel, but have hollowed out the good and secure jobs of 45 years ago in the US. Of course, robots and automation have contributed their share. I have given little thought to this in my pleasure at buying inexpensive stuff.
Another two quotations hit me this week:
- Religions, for the most part, are codifications of traditional paternalistic family kinship structures. And,
- People tend to pray more when they want something.
The last came from the pen of Ann Patchett in Bel Canto. I’ve not read her before and randomly selected the novel from a bookcase on the Island. I cannot recommend it highly enough. So observant and wickedly funny about human foibles, the book had me laughing out loud at the times when I wasn’t quietly chuckling or swept away by the romantic improbability and underlying tragedy of it all. I see why it won the Pulitzer, a compelling read.
Now I am onto Caroline Elkins’ Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire. Since I spent my recent 4+ years in two former British colonies and after considering the re-evaluation of the monarchy that the Queen’s death has enhanced, it is intriguing to read. Our politicians and military leaders often talk about “collateral damage”, the unintended (but seemingly inevitable) consequences of military adventures. Thus, the 200,000-400,000 thousand Iraqui civilians who died as a result of our invasion are brushed aside as “collateral damage”.
One positive and remarkable unintended consequence of WWII was that Britain, exhausted and depleted, relinquished her colonies which at one time included ¼ of mankind. Looking today at the Commonwealth, it seems obvious how large it was but I never was aware that the British Empire was vastly greater than that of France, Germany, Holland, and Belgium. I confess, the monarchy is for me a bit like religion: a creation of man that may provide “stability” and has done both wonderful and horrific deeds but, in summation, fulfills our need for “something greater”. Dostoevsky was onto this with his “Grand Inquisitor”, as was Freud with The Future of an Illusion. It isn’t to say that there aren’t absolutely wonderful people or actions that emerge from these structures. However, they are top-heavy, rigidly hierarchical, and paternalistic (even with a Queen!), excluding women, half of humankind, from most decision-making positions. Their legitimacy is, I think, pretty questionable, so few deciding so much for so many.
These musing are a far cry from Trumpland, where nuclear secrets are stashed in unlocked desk drawers, millions of dollars are raised for one purpose but spent on another, and disaffected, angry, and violent armed young men are encouraged under false pretense to “Fight like hell or you won’t have a country.” We can only thank Lindsey Graham (I never thought I’d say that!) for showing the GOP’s hand re. a woman’s right to choose. The abortion battle wasn’t about states’ rights at all. It was simply a wedge social issue, used to pander to the white Evangelical (and perhaps Hispanic) voters. All the MAGA politicians have been backpedaling furiously after they heard about Kansas. And then Lindsey says this. I suspect he didn’t make any friends. Can someone that deceitful actually have friends? Would a friend trust him?
I rushed to the County Clerk’s office today when I realized I’d be in California on November 8. Not to worry, Maine is on it. I don’t know from which pool Maine selects and hires its government employees, but they are friendly , knowledgeable, and efficient (even in the DMV). I’ll receive my absentee ballot the first week of October.
A Psychiatrist in Myanmar 