3/16/23

 Thursday, March16, 2023

In bed around 11:15, awake at 4:04, up at  4:48, CPP keeping me awake,, half-dreaming of autumn fishing on the Eagle River chain of lakes, Laurel, Medicine, Island, Big Fork, Little Fork, Deer, Big Stone, Doug Wenger, Bill and Ron Meltzer, Bill Dombrowski,Ken Helgerson, connected to a muskie, and Gerorge, our eldest who died first,  John Gerlach who hooked himself on treble hook jerk bait, Dania Club friends, wondering who is still alive.  38℉, high of 44 expected, wind SSW at 10, gusts up to 23 mph, wind chill is 30℉, ranging from 29 to 38 today.  Sunrise at 7:02, sunset at 6:59, 11+56.

We live in the world we live in.  Imposter syndrome.  Feelings of fraudulence.  Complicity.   Emily Dickinson: "In this short life that only lasts an hour / How much - how little - is within our power.”  I have to remind myself every now and then that I live in the world I was born into and that I live in, the world of opulence, plenty, consumption, intentional waste, intentional deceit, manipulation, hidden persuaders, focused wanting and dissatisfaction, carbon-footprints, etc., and that I am part of all of it, a targeted naif, believer, chooser, consumer, waster, actor.  I'm reminded of all this in considering Matthew Desmond's new book "Poverty, by America," in which he urges us to be intentional in our buying and consuming habits, to avoid purchasing from places like Amazon overwork and underpay their employees and experience an extraordinary employee turnover rate, or from Walmart that floods the economy with goods produced in Asia with cheap labor.  Of course he is correct that when we patronize these merchants we are complicit in the creating of  low-paying jobs and discouraging union-represetation, etc.  How hard it is to be focused and intentional in our purchasing.  My first thought about buying Matthew Desmond's book was to turn to Amazon!  Oh no, would it be better to drive to Bayshore and get it at Barnes and Noble?  or to drive twice as far to patronize one of the few independently-owned bookstores and hope to find convenient parking? And what do I know and how can I find out about their employment policies and practices?  

American 'exceptionalism' and the International Criminal Court. The United States has never submitted to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.  Russia did at one time, but later withdrew its submission.  Now that Russia is probably guilty of a host of war crimes against Ukraine, and perhaps crimes against humanity and genocide, the U.S. would like Putin and his myrmidons to be tried and convicted by the ICC.  On the other hand, we have never agreed that any U. S. serviceman or political or military commander could be tried by that tribunal.  In similar fashion, there are 164 nation-state parties to the Ottawa Treaty, the Anti-Personnel Land Mine Convention.  What nations refuse to join?  China, Russia, and the United States.  We expect 'lesser' nations to bend a knee to international regualtion or jurisdiction while we steadfastly refuse when it comes to the exercise of military might.

Writing Is a Democratic Art  We all can and should do our part to leave a record of our lives behind.  By Imani Perry is a heretofore weekly newsletter on writing published by The Atlantic. She is a gifted scholar of race, law, African-American culture at Princeton.  From her most recent newsletter:  "We all can and should do our part to leave a record of our lives behind. . . Writing leaves a record. Even if imperfect, wrong, or even downright upsetting in retrospect, written works are something to set forth so that the future will know us. Writing also allows us to better understand from whence we come and who we are. . . If I can leave a record, I’ve done something meaningful. And so must you.  Writing is a fine art, but it is a democratic one too. So I hope whoever reads this, whether you write like Joyce or an ornery grader, that you claim the mantle of writing without hesitation. Leave a record for your families, loves, and communities. Consider all who will cherish hearing from you. Take up space in the archives of the future. We need it. It will be a long time before this period in history will be halfway understood. You can and should play a part in aiding our descendants. . . To that point, my grandmother wrote letters. I keep the ones she sent me on my ancestor altar. "

I agree with her that writing "allows us to better understand from whence we come and who we are."  As Flannery O'Connor said, I don't really know what I think until I read what I write.  Without the discipline of writing, thoughts are likely to be like the minnows in a bait bucket darting around my brain when I wake up.  I can't quite agree with her about 'leaving a record.'  That requires someone other than the writer reading what is written.  It's hard to ensure that that will occur unless, like Imani Perry's grandmother, one writes letters, a dying art.  After I re-established contact with my father after a lifetime of emotional distance and 13 years of silence, I wrote him a handwritten letter every day for many months.  I'm sure that he read them.  He may or may not have saved them.  I never saw them after they were mailed.  I knew that he was lonely and that he enjoyed hearing from me. and learning for the first time in his life how and among whom his namesake lived his life.  Those daily letters and quarterly visits helped each of us to establish a relationship beyond the biological for the first time in our lives.  Now, however, I type up some thoughts each day in my journal/blog and occasionally post something thoughtful on Facebook, and occasionally send an email to my daughter and rarely to my son.  Otherwise, not much is communicated or left 'as a record.'  

Credit Suisse requires an infusion of $53B, First Republic $30B, and Janet Yellin testifies "banking system is sound."  The Credit Suisse infusion came from Switzerland's central bank.  First Republic's came from JPMorgan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America [$5B each], Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley [$2.5B each], BNYMelllon, State Street, PNCBank, Truist, and USBank[$1B each.] Are we to believe the wagons are not circling, despite Sec'y Yellin's assurances?  Yellin, Fed Chair Powell, FDIC Chair Gruenberg, and Comptroller of the Currency all cheered the First Republic "rescue."   It all makes me wonder how Sec'y Yellin defines "sound."

Hearthmouse.  I haven't been out of the house in a week except to deal with our trash carts, pick up the mail, and fill the bird feeders.  Not good.