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due no doubt to recent events, i'm finding myself having more than usual a problem of expressing my emotions and thoughts. instead i've been seeking and finding ideas, reflection and hope,such as these offerings for a funky tuesday:
"'Make no mistake about it': here, as usual, I try to make sense of my times and the choices and stand my friends and myself take, in life and work. We do not represent any organization or system, we have no power but the power of opinion and reflection, we are only 'voice', we are only many publications, many takes, many discrepancies, many doubts and hesitations, many desires."
- jouke kleerebezem on "6 degrees of terrorism"
"Our best destiny, as planetary cohabitants, is the development of what has been called "species consciousness" - something over and above nationalisms, blocs, religions, ethnicities. During this week of incredulous misery, I have been trying to apply such a consciousness, and such a sensibility. Thinking of the victims, the perpetrators, and the near future, I felt species grief, then species shame, then species fear."
- Martin Amis in the Guardian
18 September 2001
"It would be disrespectful of the dead to in any way minimize the catastrophe that has overtaken New York. Yet at the same time we must keep room in our minds for the fact that it could have been worse. To lose two huge buildings and the people in them is one thing; to lose all of Manhattan--or much, much more--is another. The emptiness in the sky can spread. We have been warned."
- Jonathan Schell
"I DISTRUST FACILE mourning. I consider it an artifact of manipulation. It is unexamined and disproportionate. On April 30, 1991, 139,000 people were killed by a cyclone in Bangladesh. They were mothers and fathers and children; they were heroes and fools and poets and thieves. I recall no candlelight vigils -- indeed, I do not recall the event at all. I had to look it up."
- Jon Carroll
"Oddly enough, the word I find myself returning to again and again is compassion, and I think back to something I read a long time ago, "In the time of war, raise in yourself the Mind of Compassion.""
- megnut
15 September 2001
""Most students here are not racist at all," English professor Pat Hermann said. "But now we're going to be seen as a racial disaster area."" - from Jeffrey Gettleman's article in 10 September's L.A. Times.
having grown up down there, i am conscious of that tendency to denial of even well-meaning southerners. that yearning to be liked, to be thought of as "we're not like that" when confronted with the institutional racism which still has deep roots in the region. that's why this article, and especially the quote by Pat Hermann, made me sad.
15 September 2001
i had hoped to post about the great time i had last Sunday at what's been billed as the first ever SF Bay Area Gay Blog Meet. Alas, today's events have punished me for my procrastination. You can read up on it though, courtesy of the digitally unimpaired Philo.
today was really a good day to take a mental health break. i got caught up in the breaking news and blew off one meeting, then showed up for a second meeting almost on time but twenty five miles away from the right place. and i don't drive.
one co-worker was worried about a friend who worked in the World Trade Center, and i'm afraid that he was not the only one at work in that situation...i couldn't help but think about the "six degrees of separation" being a conservative estimate.
time for silent meditation. the company of friends and family. a cold beer.
11 September 2001
wellllll....of course that was always my secret desire, but nevermind. tomorrow i'm due to take my grand-daughter to a half-day workshop on "Growing Up Female", sponsored by Kaiser and recommended by her therapist, among others. i worry about her and i suppose i should get around to reading Peggy Orenstein's "SchoolGirls", to which I was directed by a colleague. that would be just so i can stresssss even more.
7 September 2001
instead of fretting over the Bush administration's total cave-in to Gates and Company, science has found out that we have a much bigger problem to worry about.
6 September 2001
how now indeed. the next few days are busy. this morning a bunch of us are prepping for a training on unlearning prejudice, focusing a lot on h-o-m-o-p-h-o-b-i-a...which of course doesn't exist where we work...
this afternoon i have my regular standing appointment with T...where we mostly sit and talk. i'm sure we'll find something to chat about...
i am very much looking forward to getting back to a regular schedule with T, me being a person mired in the swamp of routine and all. i am not particularly adventurous, except for occasionally putting on too much eyeliner - as if that was possible!
5 September 2001
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