El Castillo
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Year-end Letter December 2015
Dear Friend,
Can another year be coming to an end already? Well, the answer is obvious, but I suspect that you, like me, remain surprised at how quickly each year seems to be rolling by. It is rather trite to keep saying this, I realize, but it continues to amaze me. As in the past, I have divided this year-end set of musings into several sections, so feel free to read selected sections only, or if you prefer, skip the whole letter.
READINGS
Inevitably, I find myself thinking more and more about end-of-life issues – what my eventual decline will be like, the possibility of some form of dementia, and how to best deal with ensuring my wishes are met and that I am not subjected to the worst extremes of our over-medicalized system, something that frightens the hell out of me. To this end, I read two very important books this year – Being Mortal and What Matters in the End by Atul Gwande and Knocking on Heaven’s Door by Katy Butler. Both books provide much food for thought and I will re-read each at my computer, where I can take notes concerning the wealth of important points it is all too easy to forget at times of intense crisis, when decisions are all too often rushed and ill-considered, but then can have terrible consequences. What I came to learn (amongst other critical matters) is that all the standard steps most of us have taken – to have various directives (e.g., living will, powers of attorney, etc.) properly signed and disseminated (to the local hospital, to one’s personal physician, to close friends and/or relatives) provides – at the moment of real medical crisis – almost no protection and that there are many other elements one must be aware of to resist and ensure that “heroic” measures are not taken and one spends one’s final time the way one would actually wish. And it all becomes exponentially more complicated when one is entering into some form of dementia and/or one has no one to act as a dedicated advocate.
Another book gave me much food for thought – The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Not only is it a double biography of two political collaborators, both of whom became President of the United States, but an examination of a period of extraordinary journalism, embodied by McClure’s Magazine. What makes it so interesting is that not only is it good history, but it is relevant for anyone living in our own times. The late 19th century and early 20th century in the U.S. bears a striking resemblance to what we have been experiencing since the mid-1990’s. We live in a new Gilded Age, where the very wealthy and large, global corporations exercise influence and power such as has not been known for many decades. Ordinary people are falling further and further behind, the courts, particularly the Supreme Court, give more and more power to those who already have so much, and leave the powerless even more unprotected than they were. It is absolutely striking how similar our own times are to that early period of gross excess on the one hand, and abysmal suffering on the other. And it makes it clear that without dedicated journalists and their more contemporary equivalents, our “freedoms” do not count for much.
AS LIFE GOES ON
David’s big project this year has been compiling a correspondence with his oldest friend into a book of letters between them, reflecting a certain fascinating time in their young lives (1951 – 1965) and the post-war glow in the U.S. that reflects a now entirely unrecoverable period, but for that reason, remains quite fascinating. It has been a lot of work to transcribe these letters – typed or written – into electronic form and then edit them suitably for publication. The editing is almost finished and the next (big) step is finding a publisher. If will be published, if at all, anonymously.
Early in the year I treated myself to a new, “state-of-the-art” carbon alloy road bicycle (a Scott CRX-1 from Switzerland) to use for longer rides. Almost all of these have been with the Santa Fe SOBs (Seniors on Bikes), a group with far more 55+ members than you might imagine, that goes out for a set of rides every Thursday morning from early April until the end of October. Generally there are a number of groups – A, B+, B, B-, C. The distance covered, the amount of elevation change, and the pedal speed go down as one descends from A to C. I usually wind up in the B or B- group. I still have my ancient Trek 500 bicycle – the bicycle I acquired in Washington, DC 32 years ago when I became a bicycle commuter for everything – work, cultural events, social engagements. It is something of a classic, though of course quite heavy and with a completely out-of-date gearing system. However, I use it for practical trips around Santa Fe – e.g., shopping at Trader Joe’s, medical appointments and the like. The kids at the bike shop whistle and hoot when I bring it in for maintenance – they’ve never seen some of the components on it!
While I have mentioned, in many past letters, all the positives of living in our retirement facility, El Castillo, to be perfectly honest, it is much more complicated than simply being able to eschew the demands and obligations of home-ownership and moving into an environment where everything is problem-free and you can just lock the door when you want to go off on a big trip out of the country.
As with every institution, there is politics and it can be messy. We have important issues – for the residents at least – of governance, transparency, and accountability (from the Administration and the Board of Directors). While perhaps it has been a while in coming, some important issues surfaced this year within the resident community have divided the community with a sense of “them” and “us,” which is most unfortunate. These issues have required a great investment of time – particularly on the part of David, who has been incredibly diligent in bringing his superb analytical thinking to some very significant matters roiling the community. And needless to say, this makes him persona non grata to quite a number of residents whose basic modus operandi is “don’t rock the boat.”
One area of particular concern has been our Health Center (the umbrella name for the Assisted Living apartments and the Nursing Unit plus our “Memory Center” for those with advanced dementia). While on a day-to-day basis it seems to be a place where residents are treated sensitively by dedicated nursing staff, we are aware of some more troubling systemic issues. These are of the type that are inherent in most such facilities. My awareness of them is much greater as a result of reading Atul Gwande’s book, Being Mortal (see above), which has one chapter on assisted living models and one chapter on nursing care models. What Gwande points out is that 95% of such facilities force residents to conform to the arbitrary procedures of the institution, and in so doing, destroy the one thing that is most essential to an aging person who is already aware of his or her decline and loss of many capabilities – namely, a sense of autonomy, of being able to make most of his or her own decisions about when to eat, if and when to bathe, a certain amount of privacy, and countless other day-to-day aspects of conducting our lives we all – who remain independent – take for granted.
Gwande then presents several examples of “new model” facilities that are built around the needs of the residents (i.e., “patients”) where the autonomy of each resident comes first and foremost and the daily schedule is set by each resident; in other words, the institution works around the needs of the residents. El Castillo’s Health Center is very definitely an example of the “standard model” (the patients have to conform to the requirements – often arbitrary – of the institution) and this is increasingly frightening to me. The thought of declining and losing all control of my own life is – along with dementia – the thing I fear more than anything else. I am now feeling that finding a place that supports and protects as much independence and autonomy as I can handle is what is absolutely vital.
TRAVELS
The first half of 2015 was pretty quiet, compared to recent previous years. Some of that was simple recovery from our almost 3-month circuit of Australia, which went from mid-September to early December 2014. Several short trips fell through and my traditional spring camping trip (and fall camping trip) with a friend with whom I have been going on such a trip every year fell through. I’ve described some outdoor service and leadership activities below that went into mid-July. I did persuade David to go with me on a short (5-day) camping trip to southern New Mexico in mid-April, where we camped and hiked at the BLM’s Valley of Fire (volcanic activity) and the new Organ Mountains – Desert Peaks National Monument near Las Cruces. Predictably perfect weather, lots of wildflowers, and comfortable temperatures.
David and I made it to New York for 8 days at the very end of April into early May and it was one of the very best visits we have ever had. After a brutal winter we arrived the week spring broke out in all its glory and we never had a drop of rain. Lots of great theater and museum shows were taking place. Because David had donated a small painting to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the museum gave him two high-level (“patron”) memberships for a year which had some very nice benefits attached to it, which you can bet we took advantage of!
Things began to heat up in August. David and I went to Copenhagen, which neither of us had ever been to. Why Copenhagen? I had booked an Arctic adventure cruise, The Northwest Passage and the Legend of the Franklin Expedition, with Quark Expeditions, the outfitter I went to the Antarctica with in February 2014. I liked the Antarctic trip and how Quark ran it so much that I decided, while I could still do it, to see some of the Arctic also, which had always been high on my list. And the Quark group for this trip was meeting in Copenhagen. So David and I went and allowed enough time to get to know the city, which we thoroughly enjoyed. It’s not London, Rome, or Paris, but has many delightful aspects, particularly its connection with the sea, canals, and the like.
David then took off on his own for a journey across northern Europe with various stops, ending in Paris, where he made a number of short trips to smaller cities he had always wanted to see, or re-visit. His trip report, makes for delightful reading (click on link).
Meanwhile, my group went by charter flight from Copenhagen to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, where we met our ship (the Sea Adventurer, the very same one I was on in the Antarctic). We sailed out of the longest fjord in Greenland (over 100 miles long!) and up the west coast a ways, before heading west to the northern end of Baffin Island (Nunavut, Canada) and then following the route of the legendary Northwest Passage, to Devon Island, Somerset Island, King William Island, Victoria Island and finally the north coast of the North American mainland. Along the way we visited Inuit villages and learned much about Inuit traditions, hunting, and survival, as well as encountering some fabulous wildlife (polar bears, musk oxen, Arctic wolves, Arctic hares, beluga whales, and bearded seals, along with a number of bird species). Of course, lots of icebergs and glaciers. This was a considerably different experience than Antarctica. In many ways the Arctic is more austere, and certainly less isolated (although Greenland came closest to resembling Antarctica). It was a wonderful trip, with many fascinating experiences, but I would have to say, if you can only do one major trip to the Earth’s polar regions, there is no question in my mind that you should choose Antarctica.
On the way home from the Arctic trip, I stopped in Seattle to visit various friends, and where I was supposed to go backpacking for 5 days, but for various reasons that did not work out – all the same, the visit was great, and finally in mid-September I returned home.
Peripatetic traveler that I tend to be, exactly one month later, David and I took off for a long discussed 5-week trip to Sicily and Malta, with briefer stops at the end in Calabria (the province at the “toe” of Italy) and, last, New York. October and November are typically marvelous months to travel in this part of the world – the weather is generally spring-like (although there can be rainy periods) and tourist numbers are way down. We had a few bumps in the road on the trip, but overall, it was a marvelous experience. Weather was a bit mixed for the first half of the trip and then absolutely perfect for the second half.
Sicily was occupied by many different groups – Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Saxons, Normans, Spanish, French, and finally became a part of a unified Italy. It reflects all these influences. Malta has a similar history but was dominated and today reflects the presence of the Knights Hospitallers (the Knights of Malta) and of the British who were the imperial masters from 1800 – 1964. It is not an exaggeration to say that some of the finest sites of Greek antiquity anywhere in the Mediterranean world are found in Sicily – Segesta, Selinunte, Agrigento, Siracusa. The finest Roman villa anywhere is at Casale with a wealth of floor mosaics and wall paintings that boggle the mind. It also has the most spectacular Norman churches, with interiors of magnificent golden mosaics.
The revelation in Malta was the unique Neolithic and Bronze Age “temple culture” – most of the important sites now have UNESCO World Heritage designations. We based ourselves in Valletta, the capital, which retains the magnificent fortifications built by the Knights of St. John (another name for the Hospitallers). The great gate entry into the old city has been completely re-conceived by Renzo Piano but in the spirit of the original gate, and behind it is the new and striking parliament building, again both contemporary and in keeping with the 16th honey-colored stone structures all around it.
Calabria was a pleasant discovery. The capital, Reggio di Calabria, has a wonderful archeological museum where two ancient full-sized Greek bronzes are housed (the “Riace Bronzes”) which, to use the expression in Michelin guides, is “worth a special journey.” Discovered only in 1972 in shallow coastal waters of the Ionian sea off Riace, these have to be the most stunning statues I have seen in a long, long time. I could not pull myself away from them. Another find was the seaside cliff top town of Tropea – a kind of Taormina without the tourist crowds.
The cooking in this part of the world is, without exception, wonderful – pasta in all its forms and sauces is a revelation. Delicious breads, intensely flavored pistachios (not part of Italian cooking anywhere else), a variety of unique sweets, fresh fish and seafood of infinite variety, and excellent wines.
We began and ended the Italy/Malta trip in New York where we never fail to have a great time – fabulous museum shows such as “Picasso’s Sculptures” and “Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom” and great plays (Fool for Love, A View from the Bridge), plus walks in Central Park with fall color still almost at its peak. One of the delights of visiting the Metropolitan Museum is that in many ways it has the best examples of art from the places we had visited – gorgeous Greek vases and statues, the Italian masters we particularly sought out – Antonello da Messina and Caravaggio, and much more, so a visit to the museum was a way to re-experience the trip we had just completed;
A little preview for 2016 – in the plans is a lengthy spring trip with David across central Italy to visit a whole series of midsize cities we’ve always wanted to see, and a 6-week trip, with friends, but without David, from late October to early December, to Ethiopia. The Ethiopia trip is actually a set of smaller linked segments, back-to-back, to trek through the northern highlands and go bird and wildlife watching, along with tribal culture and historic treasures, in the southern highlands.
SOME REFLECTIONS ON TRAVEL
Particularly after our trip to Sicily, Malta, etc., we gave quite a bit thought to a number of aspects of traveling. Here are a few in no particular order.
Clearly, as we age, we don’t have quite the ability to roll with the punches: the confusions, the screw-ups, and the unforeseen events that are an inevitable part of travel. I got tired earlier at night after a full day of exploring, which was a real challenge in Italy, where no one goes to a restaurant before 8:00 or 8:30. I didn’t get up at the crack of dawn to go on an early morning prowl the way I used to do. When things went wrong, as they will from time to time, it was a bit more stressful for us than it used to be. This was particularly true with renting a car – navigating through narrow, streets, losing one’s way (very easy to do), dealing with the impossible parking rules and dearth of spots, discovering with little notice (which we missed sometimes) that parking was temporarily forbidden for some unexpected reason (and getting a fine in consequence or just avoiding being towed away). We have come to the conclusion that for future trips we are going to use public transportation. The car was too much of a source of anxiety and we’ve pretty much ready to give up trying to get around by auto. There were so many things that could go wrong – mechanical problems, fines, damage to the vehicle, etc. Then you add up the rental rate, gas, taxes, etc., and we’ve decided to do without.
On the positive side, I remain amazed at a certain “authenticity” that often feels missing in the U.S. of A. Breakfasts at hotels and B&Bs were almost always beautiful spreads of real food, locally made, fresh fruit, good butter and jams, superb coffee. Almost nothing wrapped in plastic, it was always a sublime pleasure. One experience in Malta really brought it home for me. On the one morning when breakfast was not included in our hotel rate, we went to a lovely café in the old city. We got there a bit early, so morning breads (such as the local version of a croissant) were not quite ready, but we were promised they would arrive in 20 minutes. In 20 minutes, it came – but not delivered from some bakery’s delivery truck, but coming down from a narrow spiral staircase from upstairs, where they had been made from scratch – we had them hot and they were, of course, absolutely scrumptious.
When we walk around the great Greek temples and arches I am struck at how they have lasted for 2,500 years and it brings to mind the thought that almost none of the great structures we build these days are likely to be around that long or even anywhere close to it. We may have many technical advances, but longevity of what we make is not one of them.
I also think that Europeans live in a more constricted world than we do so their way of life does not include the gargantuan proportions that are so much a part of the American way of life. Packaged food comes in smaller sizes, cars are smaller, streets are narrower, and so it goes. And yet, in many ways we found the level of technology quite advanced. Every place we stayed, no matter how basic, had free Wi-Fi. Even old buildings converted to hotels, pensions, or modest B&Bs had modern bathrooms often fitted with gorgeous hardware. Shops built into ancient stone buildings were strikingly modern. This is all particularly true in Italy where the sense of knock-out style never fails to amaze us. One reason I figured that as an American I had such a hard time navigating and figuring things out in general was that we are used to everything being super-explicit – signs, instructions, whatever. Europeans live in a world where everything is understated and they know how to figure things out from much less obvious clues. So often I felt like a big stupid oaf, needing help for what no European needed help on.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Volunteering continues to be important to me, but contributing in ways that make a difference remains quite problematic. The major reason for this is my travel schedule which makes many volunteer activities impossible – ESL tutoring, tutoring at risk kids in problem public schools, etc. Increasingly, I am trying to face up to the reality of my life and not continue with activities that, as much as I know they are invaluable, I am basically unable to carry out effectively. So this year, I wound down ESL tutoring, and I am trying to find a way to work with the “Communities in Schools” program (e.g., being a mentor at school gardens when I am in town) that don’t require an on-going relationship with one or more kids. My activities are shifting to one-time events.
So this year, for example, I participated in a Sierra Club service trip in Colorado, building (and taking down) fences for the Forest Service’s main pack mule station in the West. I did another service trip with the National Smokejumpers Association closer to home (but still camping in the wilderness) that involved clearing fallen trees from a trail and widening the tread of the trail. I was, once again, a workshop leader at the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival, an event I love participating in – this year I went without David but had a great time in Crested Butte (Colorado), my favorite mountain town anywhere in the Rockies. I was a Block Captain for two of the three days of Santa Fe’s incomparable International Folk Art Market. And I continue on the Board of Directors of the Santa Fe Botanical Garden – even though I am often out of town, this is a fairly demanding responsibility, what with regular Board meetings, a number of Committees I serve on and a range of miscellaneous activities and demands.
One particularly fascinating experience was attending the Conference on World Affairs in Boulder, Colorado. A close friend in Denver had been telling me about it for years, and I finally made up my mind to attend. This “conference” has been going on for 67 years at the University of Colorado. It is absolutely free and open to both students and the general public. It goes on from Monday – Friday in early April and each day’s schedule is filled with multiple events in the same time slots. Most of the events are panel discussions by knowledgeable individuals on a very broad range of issues – political, social, economic, cultural, that are shaping and affecting our world. After each of 4 panelists speaks for approximately 10-15 minutes, the floor is opened to questions, with students getting priority. This conference was not oversold by my friend – it was consistently stimulating and I was very glad to have finally attended.
THINKING ABOUT THE U.S. AND THE WORLD
Do I have to? I guess so as I really do give it a fair amount of thought. I don’t consider 2015 a good year, to put it mildly, neither in the U.S. nor the world at large. In fact, when I think about it, my overall sense is one of doom and crisis and concern about the future of the planet and the human race. Everywhere I look, I see disasters and situations we all wanted to believe ended in an earlier, barbaric age. Refugees fleeing horrors in so many places in the world, the growing pace of climate disasters, war and the death of innocents, immigration backlash and fear of “the other,” destruction of the patrimony of all mankind (e.g., such incredible ancient sites as Nineveh and Palmyra), and the growth of fanatical, murderous religious fundamentalism.
Most of the time, as I contemplate the U.S. scene it is remarkably discouraging, and I will get to that in a moment. But I have also long realized that in many ways I am a quintessential American and I have given much thought to what makes all of us Americans “American” in fact. And I also need to keep in focus what I do think is special and unusual about America, that makes me feel fortunate to be an American. So below are a few factors I consider absolutely vital:
· Perhaps the one saving grace is despite all the “bad stuff” going on, we have a robust degree of freedom of expression, be it in the press, online, in speaking out. I believe I have a better opportunity to access information sources that are able to freely point out what is going wrong – whether denial of freedom, corruption, mistreatment of minorities, extremes of capitalist greed, and on and on. This always gives us the opportunity to be informed – if we wish to (which many don’t seem to want).
· Treatment of immigrants. Despite all the xenophobic ranting and regressive laws passed in a number of states, I would say that compared to almost everywhere else in the world, we do an amazingly good job of absorbing and assimilating immigrants and valuing the customs and values they add to the mix of our lives. I don’t think, for example, that any of the countries of Europe have done half as well in absorbing immigrants or in celebrating how they enrich and invigorate their societies.
· Culture – I often think that what makes me feel most American is our unique set of cultural contributions that have now disseminated throughout the entire world. American film, jazz, the richness of American folk music, classic American popular music, rock, and show music – and particularly the contributions of African-Americans, to create a cultural gumbo that for me simply cannot be beat anywhere else. Many countries have a unique cultural tradition, but we have so many. When I think of our folk music, for example, there is Cajun, bluegrass, country, western swing, norteño, contra dance, cowboy, and on and on. Each of these strands is a rich tradition in itself, but they all add up – for me at least – to a sense that they represent my inheritance.
· For all the behaviors that trouble me on the part of large segments of my fellow citizens, I do value the sense of openness and friendliness one so often encounters amongst Americans who are otherwise perfect strangers. When I hike in the U.S., almost every person or party I pass says a friendly “hello” or some such. When we go walking in Europe – for example – and pass someone, rarely do we get a greeting. More typically, the other person(s) just looks straight ahead and passes by us.
So when I complain how things are going to hell, I try to keep the above in mind.
One positive aside, a propos of nothing in particular, is that whatever criticisms I have of Barack Obama as President, I continue to be extremely impressed with his grasp of complex issues and his ability to speak publicly about them as an intelligent human being. I know of no other President in my lifetime who has earned the kind of respect I feel for him, for treating me as an intelligent fellow human being. On so many occasions he does not sound at all like a politician but like a real person – a smart person. I suppose this is part of why there is also such deep hatred of him. He is an uppity black man who speaks well and who does not play the slap on the back, good ole boy. I am sure his memoirs of the Presidency will make the best reading of any recent presidential memoir.
There is one other important aspect about being an American that is not a “positive” but is an essential component. The longer I live and contemplate the American experience and American history, the more I am convinced that the core thread of our society around which everything else ultimately revolves is our history of slavery over 250 years and its consequences in the 150 years since it was officially abolished. For me this is no longer (and never was) a “sidebar” to our history – it is the very heart and soul of our history and everything relates to it – the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, everything. This may seem odd to you, but I think about it a lot and with the passage of time I am more and more convinced that virtually everything in our communal story must be seen through that lens.
Turning to the present moment, I do think we are living through a bad period and it only seems to be getting worse. We are living through a reign of outright stupidity, ideological fervor, and shortsightedness like nothing I have ever encountered in my life before the present era. We are unable to deal with any important national issue – infrastructure, education, climate change, health care, poverty, jobs. Perhaps the one exception – and it is an important one, is confronting mass incarceration and trying to do something about it.
To call the Republican Party “conservative” is a complete abuse of that word. If one reads the classic texts of conservatism (e.g., Edmund Burke), it has nothing to do with today’s Republican Party. Conservatism respects tradition, established precedents, disdains radical upheaval, supports maintaining the social fabric. None of that is evident amongst the mindless fanatics who call themselves “conservatives.” They detest science, have no respect for the sanctity of the planet we live on, and trumpet a militant Christianity that lacks the compassionate values preached by Jesus Christ (and other great religious figures).
Personally, I am incredulous at the behaviors I observe and the statements I hear, because I was fortunate enough to get a good education and to respect intelligence, clear reasoning, and a commitment to the truth. So I am particularly taken with attitudes that undercut all these values. Whether utter hypocrisy (these people know what they are saying is absolute nonsense) or wanton stupidity, it is something I find very intolerable. These ridiculous positions flourish far more here than in most of the rest of the “advanced” world because of the outsize (i.e., obscene) role of money in our political process. It explains why national issues that almost all ordinary citizens back cannot be implemented.
What stands out for me most these days is the absolute triumph of unbridled greed in almost all walks of our national life. If I had to point a finger at one element that seems to dominate so much of what bothers me these days, it is the pervasiveness of greed.
However, 2015 is a year in which several other disturbing factors came to the fore in my mind. A prominent one is the depth and persistence of racism and how it has influenced the relative successes of white and black Americans. Until one really wades into the depths of police brutality, housing discrimination, the educational divide, drugs, bail, prison terms, and many other related aspects, one cannot begin to appreciate the disadvantages that black Americans have faced for centuries and continue to face today – how a web of unfair practices and behaviors means that there are so many people in our society who struggle so hard to achieve so much less than others, and not through any failure on their part. The depth of this institutional inequality becomes more and more apparent to me over time. Unfortunately, the majority “white” culture really does not want to hear this and so the gulf in perceptions and experiences grows wider and wider, not narrower and narrower. This will lead to more and more confrontations and violent eruptions.
With each passing day the insanity of our health care “system” becomes more and more apparent: the price of essential drugs raised a factor of 50 to enrich some sniveling spoiled brat while thousands have to go without basic necessities to stay alive as a result, doctors who cheat Medicare, hospitals that inflate prices beyond anything that can be justified, and on and on. When will we reach the point of catastrophic failure when the American people finally say “enough” and do what every other advanced society has done?
Guns? It is hopeless. We could have a Newtown every single day for another 10 years, and the insanity of this public health epidemic would still be impervious to change. What will it take? I have no idea why we cannot see what every other civilized society is able to see. Same with the death penalty. These are the aspects of American life that seem so hopelessly inexplicable and entirely foreign to me.
I ask myself, frequently, why do Americans respond to major issues – like guns, health care, the death penalty, climate change – so differently from people in other similarly advanced societies, and I am increasingly mystified. So while feeling fully American, I am as perplexed as any foreigner about so many things that go on here. Some of what passes for hardcore beliefs here is so certifiably out of step with basic facts that I don’t understand where my fellow citizens are coming from. But it is sobering that the preponderance of facts can cover 99%+ of one side of a controversial issue and yet that seems to count for absolutely nothing in terms of public policy! Go figure!
Internationally, the story of the year has to be the violent upheavals in the Muslim (mainly Arab) world that have created displacement of peoples, suffering, and miseries we have not seen in many decades. That there are so many well-off people in Europe and the U.S. who cannot understand that most of the migrant tides are motivated by absolute terror and fear for their lives is difficult to understand. As a Jew who has heard all his life about how the doors were all too often closed to Jews fleeing Nazism and Fascism, I keep saying to myself: “Is this what it looks like?” “Is this what it has always looked like?” – this imperviousness to our fellow humans? We can always find excuses to turn our backs and refuse to respond to a gargantuan human crisis – and there is no doubt – this is the crisis of our time. With the attacks in Paris in November, the worst xenophobic tendencies in our country – a theme throughout our history – are coming to the fore. I feel absolutely shame for my country when I learn that Canada, a country with 1/10th our population, plans to take in 25,000 Syrian refugees, and we quake in fear to take a measly 10,000. We have become so extreme in our fear of “terrorism” many of us are losing some of our best traditions of welcome and compassion. (Ironically, the real terrorism in this country is domestic and coming from the extreme, violent right-wing (almost always angry white men) – far worse than anything that has materialized from foreign Islamic fanatics!).
Ironically, most of the turbulence and suffering seems to go in a line from September 11, 2001 to the present day, punctuated, in large measure, by the idiotic U.S. invasion of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. September 11, 2001 set the stage for the fear mongering that permitted the Iraq invasion to occur, and it is – to me at least – increasingly obvious that the chaos we brought to Iraq set the stage for a much wider chain of events in the Middle East that is not even close to playing out. And the same stupidity that led to our absurd confidence that we could topple Saddam Hussein and install democracy 1-2-3 is with us today – the U.S. should just go in and get rid of the bad guys. We know nothing about the cultures and values of so many other countries and so keep making the same mistakes. Will we ever learn?
AND SO TO END
I realize I should put my musings about the world at large somewhere else and not just before signing off, but where should that be? If I begin with it, it will be so depressing that you will never want to read any of the rest of the letter. The weird thing is, day to day, life continues to be, crazily, good. Life in the brilliant sunshine of New Mexico, in an engaged, interesting community like Santa Fe, is always rewarding. We don’t have air pollution, traffic is no problem, we can walk to most everything, we can travel. And by and large, our health continues good. The disconnect between what is going on for so many in the country and the world, and our immediate lives is something that I simply cannot balance – cognitive dissonance I suppose – and yet there is no other option but to accept it.
In short, on the whole and at the entirely personal level, it’s been a good year. I say this somewhat guiltily as I realize what a difficult year across the globe it has been. I hope, in reviewing this year in your own life, you are able to say something along the same lines.
Love,
Ken