INTERESTING TIMES

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that does fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

--William Shakespeare, The Tempest

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NO. Because we are animals. Our instinct is to be wary of creatures that are much different. Unfamiliar races are too strange to our animal selves for us to ever completely override that instinct with intellect. It would take either a LOT of evolution as a global community, or substantial racial blending and homogenization, or both, to reduce this response. It appears to me that before either of these mechanisms is complete way we will have a substantial reduction in human populations and return to a more tribal way of living which will separate us and reduce the blending of races, thus slowing or reversing the process.

I just signed up for an email newsletter from Remarkable Communication, by Sonia Simone. Looks interesting. About business and communication.
http://www.remarkable-communication.com/
http://www.remarkable-communication.com/50-things-your-customers-wish-you-knew/

Online Business School — Why We’re Broke and How To Fix It
http://ittybiz.com/online-business-school/?ev=6b86593dd4

This is the first of my (extensive) Summer Reading project. It is written by Karen Armstrong. I started it yesterday afternoon, and am already 1/3 of the way through it. In it Karen tells the story of her 7 years in a Catholic convent and the aftermath of that experience. When she attempted to integrate back into the regular world, she became mentally ill, and was unable to find real help. She was studying English literature at Oxford, and could still function as an academic, writing beautiful "Gothic" essays. But she had lost the ability to connect to other people, to love or accept love. She is a beautiful writer, nonjudgmental and straightforward about what happened to her, and how she has come to understand it. Her retrospect is quite clear, though she constantly refers to another book that she wrote prematurely, attempting to explain her experience. She says it was the "worst book I have ever written" and she is glad it is out of print. I am learning to understand Catholicism and its effects on culture at a new level.

I picked this book up first because Joe just recommended it the other night. Renee had recommended the same book, probably years ago by now, and I acquired it at Bookman's in Flagstaff, and have been carrying it around. That's how I am with books.

OK, I was provoked to search around a little bit because gavin6942 says he can't support Ron Paul because of his position on the writer's strike. He said Dr Paul actively tried to stop the strike. I haven't found any evidence yet for this. Dr Paul agreed to an interview on The View rather than abstaining from it to support the strike. I am certain that he supports the rights of the writers to strike. He supports everyone's right to unionize. It appears that his appearance on Jay Leno was also during the stike. So the claim is that Dr Paul is against the writers because he interviewed during the strike. And the desire is that he abstain from making television appearances to support the strikers.

Frankly, the writer's strike is far less important to the future of this nation and to the writers themselves than the other issues under consideration. This seems to me to be an example of an individual identifying with a small group whose cause is more important than the greatest issues of our times. A job is a job. A government is a government. A nation is a nation. A planet is a planet. Which is more important?

I understand and support Ron Paul's choice to accept opportunities for media exposure during this crucial time, even with the chance that writers may not see the big picture and may choose to paint him as their enemy because of it.
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The rain started earlier than usual today. I was out walking in the recently shorn forest, taking picture of the big logging machines. There was one machine picking up the trees, sawing off their remaining limbs, and tossing the tops in one pile and the even-length logs in another. There was another machine with four claws that picked up piles of logs and put them on a semi truck. There were lots of guys in orange standing around beside their trucks. One of them said good morning to me. I was almost surprised that nobody chased me away.
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"Anyone who is really alive in their own time will have to be a political writer. As we reveal different worlds to each other, we move us forward into being more compassionate people. Virginia Woolf said writing improves society and makes the writer a better person, too," ---Alice Walker

Andre is a regular comentator on NPR, and his voice with the Romanian lilt is so familiar that we're on a first name basis, though we've never met. He is a poet, teaches creative writing in Louisiana, and lives in New Orleans. He spoke at Prochnow Auditorium on the NAU campus, and the venue was about 3/4 full. Inga the Gringa drew a bigger crowd. But Andre is funny, witty, and really intelligent. He brings the outsider's view to our culture, the appreciative perspective of a refugee from World War II. He brings the wild joy at our freedoms that artists feel.
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