The headlines are really such a source of amusement for me. Let's see, this morning I found out that the Gifford woman who was shot (seriously, do I really need to elaborate?) is doing well. How well? Well, apparently she wants privacy so the person who spoke to her declined to comment further other than that she was doing well. She wants privacy? Does she have any idea that the biggest news of the day was that she hadn't died and it went on and on and on right up to her move to the rehab center. I think it is funny that the media decided it was no longer a story to follow. The Astronaut and the Congresswoman. Ridiculous.
Another huge story today is that Charlie Sheen's opening show about his breakdown was not such a hit. Odd, huh? An actor who makes his living memorizing lines is not a comedienne. The media grew a bit weary of him, I wonder how long it will take for the goddesses to realize they are living with a psycho who needs major help. In truth, I don't give a you know what and I would just as soon not be reminded that psychotic breakdowns are fun to watch. Because they really aren't. At. All.
Moving on, hmmmm, a leak was discovered in the Japanese nuclear reactor which "probably" explains why radiation levels are being detected in surrounding areas. Again, this is not really news, it's just awful. That radiation -- that same radiation that is going to affect each and every one of us because that is how the planet works -- is a catastrophe beyond epic proportions and is why nuclear power is such a gamble. Just understand that you will never read much about it because they are going to cover up every bit of it that they can. They have to, otherwise it might freak people out. These things just go away on their own, you know. Does anyone remember something called the Gulf Oil Spill?
I read an article where the company who runs the reactor is offering crazy sums of money for people to go in to the contaminated area and do things. Some people are taking that money; full well knowing that the radiation is going to kill them. I think I would consider those people heroes -- the fact of the matter is, if the thing goes into a full fledged meltdown (and it probably already has and we will probably never know because radiation is colorless, odorless and travels quite happily) these people rightly assume that they will die. At least they are attempting to keep other people from being exposed. It is honorable and we are lucky to have such selfless people in the world. I ask you, would Charlie Sheen do that? Or would he send in the goddesses? The scary part, is WOULD THEY GO?
We have a new war going on, but how does that affect us, really? I don't mean to sound like I sound, but when Obama announced that they had bombed Libya, I was like, great, we are in another war. When they rained the first bombs down on Bagdhad in the year ??? (all I know is I was working in our second Manchester office, not our third, so it was a damn long time ago) I thought OH NO. This time I just realized it's never going to end. We did not learn from our mistakes ... removing dictators from power doesn't necessarily mean the war is over. It's just a different war. I did think that the uprising and eventual departure of Mubarek in Egypt was exciting ... it is that type of collective determination of a people to take back their lives that really resonates with me. I thought the same thing about the Wisconsin union brouhaha -- these are all signs of a disgruntled people -- and while we think we are above all that, just remember that in the United States of America the North fought the South. The southern states are just littered with battlegrounds. We will fight each other and die trying. Back then it was about cheap labor; today it is oil.
These are not bad times; despite the recession/depression and the wars the earthquakes and tsunamis and crazy ass weather in different parts of the world -- this has all happened before. These are just times ... the time we happen to be alive to experience or at least view such events.
When I was watching coverage of the Japanese tsunami, all I could think was, I have seen this before. We've all see the doomsday movies -- they have been around since I was a kid -- but the technology has taken it to the level that when they show the Statue of Liberty being swept up under a wall of water, it looks as real as if it had just happened. So as I watched the wall of water sweeping across the Japanese countryside, it felt familiar. I'd seen it before. The veil between reality and theatricality was not showing itself on the TV screen for that is where it all takes place. My point is, we have been de-sensitized to a certain extent and these terrible things should invoke something deep within me. But instead I think, that is horrible. But they have been living with small earthquakes in Japan forever. Those are what some people might refer to as a warning. The same thing with California -- since I was a child I have heard that it is going to fall into the ocean.
So I forego the beautiful weather and all the many things that California has to offer because falling into the ocean would kind of suck. And it has never been "if" it should happen, it is when. And the state is rampant with warning signs, no one cares to pay any attention to them. So I ask you -- if you are living in a state of denial in a state where it has been stated will come to tragedy, is it up to me to feel bad if your life is lost in such a likely event? Just wondering. I mean, what was it like that morning when they thought the tsunami was coming in a big bad way? Holy Shit batman, that is warning three thousand and one, take it or not, but I do expect to be watching California bite the dust on my TV screen in my lifetime.
I am not a doomsdayer -- not at all. I am more or less stating facts with little emotion. I just read a book about world war two -- and I think that after all these years of reading and reading and reading about the holocaust and just not being able to wrap my head around the fact that these people LET this happen to them, I get it. I completely and totally get it. They just didn't believe it. True, they heard stories, but they never thought it would happen where they were (in this case it was then Chezkoslavakia, though that was divided in two ...) anyway, this Jewish family was sure that it wouldn't come to them. (though the husband sets up swiss bank accounts early in the war under the assumption that if nothing happens, great, no big deal, but if something does .... which as we know it does, he doesn't lose all of his money and has the means to escape.)
But I think the understanding for me came with what is my own experience -- not certainly of that degree -- but how the notion of certain things is so beyond comprehension that it is just easier to pretend it won't happen. Like peak oil. It is even becoming mainstream now to insert comments in articles such as "it has been determined that it is most likely that oil production has peaked and is in a downward cycle." You never read that before because peak oil is not good for anyone. Not business, politics, etc. etc. so it is just easier to pretend it doesn't exist. And then ... when it is good and underway, just make it common and obvious that oh sure, we've known about peak oil all along and well now it is here and why the hell else do you think we are firmly entrenched in foreign countries who have all the fricking oil?
A hot topic, for sure, that you can't really discuss with people because no one knows any hard or true facts, just speculations and beliefs. I personally have been reading about it for years -- and I have examined the charts and graphs and well, it makes sense. Just the over-consumption we have taken on in the last decade is enough to convince anyone that our reliance on it is not healthy. I used to cover myself with vaseline. Which is petroleum jelly. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to put petroleum in something that we put on our bodies? It freaks me out. Now I use coconut oil, in case you were wondering!!! (Interestingly enough, petroleum jelly was the substance that used to stick to an oil driller's rig and gunk them all up (in the late 1800s) but it was also noted that it helped cure burns and cuts, so it was of course later marketed as such!)
Back to the holocaust; I was simultaneously listening to an audio book that was about holocaust survivors and reading a book about the same topic and the double dose from two different points of view is I think what finally hit it home for me. The survivors did just that; but they had seen things that would haunt them forever and had lost so much that even though they tried to live normal lives it wasn't really possible. And those who escaped lost everything but
their own lives for they left behind their possessions; their careers and their families -- and all were forever lost. The enemy was a hazy concept until it was knocking on their doors. And it's really no different for any one or group of people -- until Hitler sweeps you up or those hundreds of thousands of little earthquakes turns into the big one -- you just hope that everything is going to be fine.
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