9/30
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| The playoffs begin |
Today, in honor of the Yankees in the playoffs, it’s a Yankees hat and Yankees “Game of Thrones” t-shirt.
We are discussing Erich Fromm’s analysts of narcissism both in individuals and society, Given the reality of last night’s Presidential debate, it is all too painfully relevant. Fromm believes that narcissism is a result of individual’s not being able to recognize their inherent worth and value and then seeking to counteract that through putting oneself and a select group above all others.
Steve H tells of his interactions with colleagues who have been involved with efforts to confront the power of gangs and their impact on communities. In their view, nothing can be accomplished through working with the gang leaders, you need to go one level lower into the second tier of leadership who may be changeable. At the very heart is is self-loathing and insecurity. The inability to see the inherent worth in oneself. One answer to this would appear to be love.
I share the story of my fried Jacob Holdt, Danish photographer who befriended an imprisoned Ku Klux Klan leader who he concluded had been wrongly incarcerated and who then fought for the leader’s release. Ultimately, the Klan leader renounced his commitment to white superiority and as a result suffered violent reprisal and alienation from his family and friends. Steve H says , “not all who come with you can go with you.”
We look at the spectrum from sociopath to psychopath. And ask, how can help be rendered? We need to help communicate that the goal of equality is not to make anyone feel worse than others, that is, not to make your life worse, but to make everyone else’s life better. The wearing of masks was said by Matthew Fox to be no different than our willingness to obey red lights. We need “stop signs” for the common good.
As I walk up Fredrick Douglass, I see yet another body splayed out on the sidewalk asleep. It is so upsetting. And what to do? Try to rouse the man? Call 911? Just walk by? And so I walk by. Troubled and uncertain. It’s almost a daily occurrence.
Today the restaurants reopened for indoor dining with 25% capacity. Not nearly enough to get by.
“The Gluey Zoomy Show” featured an artist who was a national guardswoman from Erie, Pennsylvania; a Brooklyn skater kid hip hop artist and a soulful singer from Uganda living in the troubled city of Kenosha, Wisconsin. My friends "Hot Glue & The Gun" continue to create a world that could be.
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October.
One of those days when Covid related or not, I can’t decide what to do. And everything I do try doesn’t work. With school reopening, the hours for neighborhood food distribution have shifted to late afternoon. I miss it by 5 minutes. I go to the grocery store and it’s “temporarily closed for cleaning.” I decide not to take an hourlong subway ride to Brooklyn to perform and to watch the Classical Theatre of Harlem production instead only to discover that even with 15 minutes left until showtime, “tickets sales have stopped.”
There’s a new app sponsored by the state that will inform you if you’ve been within six feet of someone with Covid. I find that both costing and honestly disconcerting.
My doctor’s office is unable to schedule me for my flu and shingles vaccinations. So I go to a neighborhood pharmacy instead. Last night I had a fever and chills and today my right arm is still sore and stiff.
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| Ready for customers |
Make my first in person visit to a restaurant in six months. They use that gun to take my temperature which always makes me feel weird when they point it at your head. And I have to fill out a lengthy contact form. Why?
I accept the day for what it is. Tomorrow will better.
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