Postcards from the Imagination

 

Posted by Ginger at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The mind has added nothing to human nature. It is a violence from within that protects us from a violence without. It is the imagination pressing back against the pressure of reality. It seems, in the last analysis, to have something to do with our self-preservation;" --Wallace Stevens, from The Noble Rider and the Sound of Words.

According to the weather clock across the river it's 97 degrees outside. Too hot to do as I did yesterday and take a book of poems (Gerald Stern's This Time) out to the local park to read. There's a cool, quiet spot on Walden Pond where I'd love to spend the day, but alas I don't feel entirely comfortable being there alone. It's too isolated and as a result I'd be on edge about my safety. *Sigh*

My grandmother, aunts, and mother, knowing how I love the city at night, and out-of-the-way places by day, have suggested I carry mace or pepper spray. It's an option I suppose, but one which I intensely dislike. Weaponizing myself would not so much put my mind at ease as remind me of the possibility that I may need to defend myself. I'd rather pass.

After all, it's not the real danger than bothers me so much. Stranger crimes are exceedingly rare. It's the needing to remain alert so as not to become a victim of my own stupidity. For instance, yesterday at the park I'd chosen a little shady area well away from the road and other people. A man came out of the woods behind me and to the left. Had he kept walking straight across the park at an acceptable distance, all would have been well enough. Instead, he cut to the right, walking directly behind me until he got within about ten feet of me, then went around me on the right. At at about fifteen feet ahead of me, he slowed to a near halt. Was he a jerk, or just completely oblivious to the fact that his behavior might be perceived as threatening? I don't know, but I thought it prudent to move to a more visible area of the park. I'm not sure I felt unsafe, but I did feel as though that's what a woman is supposed to do in that situation.

And this is where politics merges with the every day. The conservative solution is more police, more arrests, more prisons. The first sounds like a nice idea, but realistically there will never be enough police protection to go around. Imagine you're in the middle of being mugged, and just as the mugger's about to make off with your wallet a police car pulls around the corner. What do you say to the officer? A) Fantastic! I'd been expecting you! or B) I'm so lucky you happened to come around the corner when you did! More arrests and more prisons, on the other hand, are matters of law enforcement not crime prevention.

For myself, I think going out alone would feel entirely different were the phrase "at gunpoint" eradicated from our cultural vocabulary. One would still have to deal with "at knifepoint" but then the guy would have to work for it, and at risk to his own person, which levels the fighting field somewhat.

An aside: I just looked out my window and saw people canoeing! Just the other day I was thinking how nice it would be to do such a thing, but I had no idea one could paddle down this part of the river. They look so small and strange from here. Makes me wonder if the ducks and otters aren't much larger than I'd imagined.

Posted by Ginger at 05:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I dreamt last night that I chucked up everything and moved to Europe. I don't know where exactly. The place was called Antwerp, but I'm sure it bore little resemblance to the actual Antwerp, since I've neither been there, nor know much about it. Nonetheless I was quite enchanted by my little dream city. It was a beautiful, bustling place, and though I was a bit lost, having made such a rash decision to move, I was not unhappy.

Unlike my ancestors, I'm an American by birth, not choice. On the other hand, most of them were fleeing something when they came here--religious oppression in England, the Irish potato famine, the post-WWI hardships of Germany and Poland.

Do I love my country? My country is hard to love.

I adored Paris, but Paris too has its dark underbelly. It's the only place in the world I've actually seen a child sleeping on the street. A Middle-Eastern boy, about eight years old, was curled up on a blanket on the sidewalk. His sister, perhaps thirteen years-old, was sitting in the doorway behind him, elbows on knees and chin in her hands. She looked numb. Their mother, or possibly grandmother, was also in the doorway, very quietly begging change from passers-by. All summer long in Boston, I'd walked by a dozen panhandlers each day on Boylston St. between Copley and Hynes Convention Center. But at the sight of these three I burst into tears.

"Turns out not where, but who you're with that really matters." (Dave Matthews Band, The Best of What's Around)

I wonder.

Posted by Ginger at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation.  --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from "Beyond Vietnam," an address delivered to the Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam, at Riverside Church, 4 April 1967.

Dr. King's speech was chillingly prophetic.  On March 20, 2005 at Riverside Church in NYC,  clergy representing more than 50 denominations of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and so on, launched a new organization called Clergy and Laity Concerned About Iraq.

The full-text of Dr. King's speech is available online courtesy Stanford University. Substitute Iraq for Vietnam, terrorism for communism, and you've got a speech that's as relevant today as it was in '67.  Worthy reading, both on its own merits, and for anyone sick-to-death of hearing how morally bankrupt the Left is.

Posted by Ginger at 03:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

*Sigh* Bush is at it again. His nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.?  A man by the name of John R. Bolton, who openly disdains the rule of international law and has said, "There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world and that is the United States when it suits our interest and we can get others to go along.''

More mind-boggling quotes available at Stop Bolton.  At Diplomats Against Bolton you can read a petition, "opposing the nomination of John R. Bolton to serve as permanent U.S. representative to the United Nations, [which] has been signed by 67 former U.S. diplomats, State Department officials or officials of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency."

To send a message to your Senators urging them to opposse Bolton's nomination, visit True Majority.  I signed up with them about two years ago and have been extremely pleased with the work they do. The number of emails I receive is entirely reasonable, and they almost never write to ask for money. Every time I send a message through True Majority I receive a form letter from my Senator or Congressman detailing his position on that particular issue.  If nothing else, I at least know my opinions are being logged by my representatives' offices.

Posted by Ginger at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How remarkably easy it is to become distracted and stop blogging, journaling, what have you. Busy start to the month of April. I was in the hospital Tues. night. Nothing serious, and I'm fine now. Thurs. & Fri. we had a poetry acquaintance from the U.K. over with his new bride. They were honeymooning in New York and decided to come up and see us. Very smart, interesting, and friendly people. It was pleasure to meet and host them. On Sat. S. and I went out biking/exploring. Had a great time discovering miles of trails and one beautiful waterfall we hadn't known existed. Classic New England right in our backyard. Today we did the MS Walk in Boston with some of his friends from college. I got my first and hopefully last sunburn of the season. Pale and well-protected will be my new sun mantra. Exhaustedly...

Posted by Ginger at 01:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Raw Story | Lautenberg rebukes DeLay over Schiavo remarks

Kudos to Sen. Lautenberg (D-NJ)!

Posted by Ginger at 06:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)