Off to see the Wizard...

Work's sending me away for a week, so I'll either have more or less time to be online - depending on whether my hotel room has Internet access...

Creativity

It must seem a bit weird to my friends that I get all wrapped up in writing something - say, a blog - and then just ... drop it, for days or weeks or months.

Sometimes it's whatever crisis is immediately at hand, of course, like my mother's recent surgery. Sometimes it's actually something good - like my recent birthday, which, with Memorial Day outings, actually got me away from the computer for several days, to enjoy things like sunshine, physical activity, and (gasp!) social, face-to-face interactions.

But those are generally only matters of a day or three. The real kicker is the fact that all too often, even when I have words just bursting to come out of me, it seems too hard to actually put them together into sentences. In stressful times, I go into what I call "survival mode", wherein I expend just enough energy to meet necessary obligations, and for the rest, jsut try to forget about everything until things are better. Reading, watching TV or movies, those help get me through the evening - but anything creative becomes out of the question.

Fortunately, these times pass, and it becomes possible to write again. But having experienced times when writing is easy, pleasant, even something to do with zest or with angry passion... it's bitter to think of the time wasted in the slumps.

Family matters

So my dearly beloved mother has just been in for surgery - a hip replacement. The surgery itself was straightforward, but there were complications after - low blood count for several days. I've been worried into a moderate frazzle, which is why I haven't been writing. Fortunately, she's vastly improved now.

It's funny that although my nerves were stretched and strained while she was still low on blood pressure, my mood after has been pretty unpredictable too. I mean, I had a big feeling of relief and euphoria when I heard she'd be OK... but for the past few days my temper's been short as a hen's nose (ask my poor husband) and I've had flashes of unexplained anxiety. Something of a lesson there... that a strain can have effects long after the cause of the strain has gone.

A more resilient spirit - someone, in other words, not suffering from depression - might have "gotten over it" a lot quicker. It's a pain that this condition can amplify small troubles into great ones, and serious troubles into crises. It poisons the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. (Well, I can't imagine how you'd poison a sling, but you get the idea.)

Dark as a Dungeon

Well it's dark as a dungeon, and damp as the dew
Where the dangers are double, and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls, and the sun never shines...
It's dark as a dungeon, deep down in the mines.
-- Merle Travis

Rest in peace.

Easy as pie.

So Al, Jill, George, and Sophie are all siblings. They decide one fine day to make a pie.  Actually Al decides, because, being the oldest, he's the decider.  As with many deciders, he doesn't do any of the work himself; he just directs it. Since everybody likes pie, they invite the neighbor's kid Luis to come help with the baking. When it's done, Al picks up a knife and cuts a slice out of the pie and puts it on a plate. Then he takes the rest of the pie. "This is my share, because I'm the oldest. The rest of you divide up that slice for yourselves."

Jill, George, Sophie and Luis stare at the slice. Luis asks, "Can I have a bit for my sister Maria?  After all, she helped pick up the ingredients."

And Jill, George and Sophie say...

Well, what do they say?  Looks like each of them has a different answer right now.  But there are a few things they might want to consider.

Keeping Maria out is not as easy as you might think.  Ask the Border Patrol.  See, the Border Patrol has a Decider who's promised them all the latest techno-toys to guard the border... except there are a few hitches, here and there.  The identification cards are troubled by corruption. As for that high-tech fence... well, the Decider is hiring out to a familiar group of military contractors, whose spyplane crashed, whose alarms were set off by passing animals, and whose video cameras just didn't work, period. And yes folks, that's who's getting paid to guard the door again.

And then there's the pesky question of who might just be inviting Maria in - with promises of pie, no less.  I do mean going out and looking for neighbors to come over.  Perhaps becase the neighbors ask for less pie.    That may relate to the fact that poor Maria has no pie at home... which in turn may be because some of the flour and eggs were stolen away from her house by Al. When we're not analogizing, we can just call that NAFTA.

Meanwhile, I'd like to remind folks that Al over there is gorging on pie. Just sayin'.

Secrecy and security

CIA 'torture' lawsuit thrown out

A US court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a German citizen who says he was kidnapped and beaten by the CIA.... The judge did not rule on the truth of the allegations, but said letting the case proceed might endanger security.

People have been letting things like this pass quietly. I must assume they trust the government enough to think that such things either aren't true, or were somehow... necessary, distasteful as the latter thought may be.

They'd better be right. Because if someone in the government - or several someones - were abusing their positions by torturing people, the victims would have no recourse under law. And the public would have no way to know the excesses to which their government had sunk.

You trust the politicians in Washington so much that you're not going to object when they tell you "You can't be allowed to know what's going on, but don't worry, we only do this to protect you"?

You trust these guys to be so competent that they never grab an innocent man by mistake? You trust that they're so law-abiding that they'll never spirit away an American citizen? Say, an American citizen whose next-door neighbor somehow attracted their attention, so that they moved in and grabbed the wrong man and next thing you know...

Even if you trust them so very much as that, consider: if we deny people justice and due process under the name of national security, how long before the "free society" national security is supposed to protect becomes a hollow shell? C'mon, folks! "We had to destroy the Constitution in order to save it"?

This "immigration" brouhaha

I hear a lot of concern from people about their fear that the "flood" of illegal immigrants makes it harder for Americans to get jobs, and thus also pushes wages down and suchlike. It's a valid concern - and in fact, it's something that "company men" have been using for decades to keep labor cheap. Pit one poor group against another poor group in competition for jobs. Then offer low wages and crummy conditions, and if anyone objects, tell 'em they can easily be replaced by the other group.

What puzzles me is why I haven't yet seen much of a call for stronger labor laws as the solution to this issue. Wouldn't the best counter-strike be to require that employers give a "living wage" and reasonable benefits to all employees? Then you don't have to worry about employers who may or may not be checking documentation properly. All you need to know is: are they providing at least the minimum standards to their employees?

If it weren't for the cheap labor, there'd be no reason for employers to hire illegal immigrants. Wouldn't that put an end to this false division (and the people who play on it)? And - in the process - wouldn't it be of vast benefit to working-class people, by which I mean anyone who works for a living, throughout America?