[Above photo: The view from our riverside hotel bar in Vangvieng, Laos. Note, please, the steepness of the hill in the distance. And the smog from burning the rice and cornfields in preparation for planting.]
7 May 2023
It has been 40F, gray and drizzly, for 5 days since my return and, then—boom!—it is now sunny and 70. Summer, I think, has arrived. I’ve got my bike ready and drilled a lag bolt into the floor of my back porch so I can anchor it. I also bought a small tarp and have tied it cleverly so the bike will stay dry. The porch is covered but rain comes in on the wind. I’ll join an Appalachian Mountain Club group —car camping with day rides—in Schoodic, an extension of Acadia National Park on the mainland, over the Memorial Day weekend. Acquaintances we met cross country skiing at one of the AMC huts alerted us to it; the group has done it annually for years.
The $800+ plants I bedded last fall are all foliating and the forsythia is covered with bright yellow blossoms. Many of my bulbs are blooming, including jonquils, crocus (I mostly missed them.), and tulips. My Japanese cut-leaf maple—of which we had a glorious specimen in our yard in Berkeley—is fledging and even the lilac that seemed to die when I planted it is now leafing vigorously. I’ll fertilize and mulch them and hope for the best. Remarkably, all of my indoor plants survived my neglect of 5+weeks, excepting a maiden hair fern which was pretty fussy anyway. I’ll stick a few herbs—-basil, parsley, mint, and cilantro—in a large pot I inherited. I may get more ambitious with vegetables next year.
Both of my bird feeders flew off their branches while I was gone, likely in a gale. One has vanished but the other perched on a lower branch from which I retrieved it. It is now refilled with seeds/suet and hanging in front of where I work. I hope the Downy Woodpecker couple re-discover it soon.
Even as I take some pleasure in Clarence and Ginni’s troubles, it is disturbing how much corruption is being unearthed. We may yet see something on Hunter’s laptop, although many of us have had a child with mental illness, which Joe certainly seems to have. It needn’t incriminate his father. John Robert’s wife’s millions from wealthy GOP donors are troubling and is perhaps one reason he seems less than eager to face Congress about the Thomas’ transgressions. I am sure the Supreme Court has been corrupted previously; it is just troubling when it happens while we are watching.
Another mass killing in Texas. 199 massacres since January 1 this year. More guns are not going to help, as in arming “protectors” in any setting. The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution says: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” That’s it. We have a right to them in order to maintain a well-regulated Militia, for which we have the National Guard in each state filling that bill; guardsmen are all able to be armed. Nowhere does it say everyone has the right to keep guns, as many guns as they want, at home, let alone open or concealed carry in a bar. I began, for the first time, to think about moving permanently to another country. We seem so unhinged about gun rights, man-made climate change, vaccinations, a woman’s right to control her own body, the variations of human sexuality, Anthony Fauci, and, especially, notions of what “Freedom” actually means.
To me it means the freedom to believe, think, and speak as I wish, with the corollaries that I can dress and act as I choose within the constraints of the Law. The Law, then, is to ensure my freedoms and yours, and to provide safety, regulate commerce, property rights, etc. Freedom from fear of physical attack would be one type of freedom. “Freedom” to maintain a stock of weapons that are designed primarily to kill and injure other human beings conflicts with my safety. Your freedom not to wear a mask in public during a pandemic infringes on my safety, as well. Both of these examples trump, sic, your right to behave as you wish. You have a right to practice your own religion, as do I. You do not have a right to impose your religious beliefs on me, no matter how convinced you are of their exclusive truth. If my religion is Islam, Bahai, Animism, or hiking in nature on occasional Sunday mornings, it isn’t inferior to your Christianity and thus subject to your domination. A lot of people, tens of millions, in this country wouldn’t agree with me about most or all of the above, which I find puzzling and troubling. We’re not talking about stick shift vs. automatic or even Chevvy vs Ford here.
Two house fiches are building a nest in the tree next to me. Their industry! It has been lovely to watch the geese flying north. This dormant, if not barren, landscape is quickly coming to life. Oh, the finches thought better of it—location, location, location—and flew off. There is a huge bumblebee hovering around outside my window. Is it a bee or a drone? I made an obscene gesture and it flew off, confirming that it was a……….what?
I’ll go shortly for a walk with a friend near the Scarborough Marshes.
A Psychiatrist in Myanmar 