4/29
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| New masks by Mili |
We’re discussing Michael Moore’s new film, Planet of the Humans, and the issue of “Biomass” and how ultimately it doesn’t really solve the clean energy problem.
Clyde makes a reference to the long lamented Life Magazine
and I recall am old song by Gabriel and the Angels, “That’s tough, that’s life..” Joel quickly finds it for us.
'That's Life (that's tough)"
We are gambling peoples’ lives to reopen. The President has ordered the meat plants to stay open even without adequate protection for the workers.
Today's hat of the day honors the Negro League Homestead Grays, arguably the best team in history. Clyde says : "Better than the Monarchs?" I say "..with Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell...yeah, of course.."
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| aruably the b |
The mayor is considering closing subway stations as a means of dealing with the homeless who are sleeping in the subways. The promise is they will be taken to shelters. But the shelters are already overflowing. Clyde repots that at Wards’ Island there is no social distancing and still no soap or hand sanitizers. He knows people who left the shelters because they did not feel safe. And people rousted from the subways often lose half their possessions.
Pascal said: “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
Steve Phelps offers a Camus quote connecting unhappiness and the lack of language….
We ultimately need to be able to handle solitude.
Our current situation can feel like Sartre’s No Exit.
We turn our conversation to our final look at Camus’ The Plague.
I’m taken by the character Cottard who loses it at the end. He is unprepared for the plague to end. He had found meaning his life he had never had before. When the plague ended, he opened his window and starts shooting at people. I recalled the time after 9-11 when some people, deeply involved in volunteering, began to find their life in 9-11 world. When the “emergency “ ended 18 months later, they didn’t know what to do .
Sam cals this a liminal space and Steve Holton says our job is to hold onto that liminal space. Sam says we need to be both observers and participants. The liminal is an opening to another world. And we now have an opportunity to recreate the world. That is the gift. She feels that in this solitude she’s revisiting her life. As Joel says, thinking of his childhood when they ended “corporal punishment,” it’s like we’ve all been sent to a "big timeout.”
I understand the importance of absurdity to Camus. The plague is ultimately absurd. It has no inherent meaning. Meaning is found in our response to the absurd. In humans, it brings out the good and bad. With a slight edge to the good. At the end of the book, the almost personified plague will return to test us again.
Isaiah said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts an day way she not your ways.” (55:8). We can’t be looking for cause and effect. And we must take care of ourselves, like in the airline preflight instructions, put your own mask on before helping your child.
Phelps suggests it’s all in how we define absurdity. Every act or idea can be seen as meaningless and therefore absurd. In the lack of ultimate meaning our acts can be observed to be absurd. For a Christian, love is the way to come close to the divine. And references Gianni Vatimo for th ethought that there is nothing in Scripture except hope. There’s a pattern to how people respond to plagues. Only more dead people changes opinions. Some saw the novel as a metaphor for nazism. Camus’s effort to come to terms with the murder of millions and millions of people.
There is the issue of proximity. If it’s not next to me I don’t see it. The woman protester who doesn't understand why she can’t get her hair done. Perhaps she would feel different if getting her hair done killed her mother Or daughter.
We don't need to return to normal. Normal was a problem the future can be better. As US death now lead the world, where’s the chant ‘We’re number one!”?
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| the sirens are constant |
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The PCUSA Central America study team is trying to deal with the Presbyterian General Assembly being turned into a virtual assembly dealing with primarily institutional issues. In the smaller context of ongoing conflict within the bureaucracy,
In the meantime, in Guatemala, recent deportees arrived with the virus. In Honduras, people are being sequestered in stadiums, just like in Camus’ Plague. The former leader accused of mishandling aid. And San Pedro Sula is now a hot spit.
Throughout the region, the absence of remittances from migrant workers in theUS has a devastator effect on the economy.
Nicaragua has essentially ignored the crisis. Rosario said that God would protect Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba. Meanwhile, Venezuela is using community organizations to track the spread of the virus and those who have been infected .Cuba works on medical responses and sends out medical volunteers to hard hit countries. Someone take Nicaragua aside and wake them up . There are neighborhood volunteers working on concientizacion, that is awareness of the disease andh oe it spreads.
Venezuela hashed over 10000 rete and is being gadded by Russia, China and Cuba. Cuba was angered at he arrival of infected Nicaraguans. Nicaragua has finally closed its airpot until June.
The study team has its work cut out for itself because there's now a before, and after.
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Strange when your excitement comes from the arrival of a new order of masks. And these were not exactly as expected. So we will reflect and reconsider. Yes these are masks we are talking about.
Even on a cloudy day, it's still good to walk. In the Conservatory Gardens, a man and his family are celebrating the publication of his new children’s book.
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| The Conservatory Gardens |
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One of our long term...and high risk... PHEWA members has been diagnosed with the virus. He is old. This is concerning. It happen at a rehab facility…
The husband of West Parks former music director, a man in his mid 50’s dies. The drug stores are running out of sympathy cards.
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| tulips |
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