the primrose path

Today the BP posted Isao Hashimoto's visualization of the nuclear detonations between 1945-1998 with the caption, "The World Has Already Ended." It actually illustrates one of his pet points, that we are already living in what is essentially a post-apocalyptic landscape. Certainly one that has been irrevocably altered by the presence of humans.

It actually dovetails nicely with several things I've already got going on right now:

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Anyway, you've probably noticed I haven't been posting much. I'm toying with the idea of giving up LJ altogether. But before I go, in honor of the time I've spent here, and in honor of those who have read, or are still reading, I'd like to clear out my 'notes' file where I've squirreled away unwritten posts, unposted comments, or tidbits that felt they needed an extra bit of imagination. By the time I get to the end of those files, I should have a better idea of where this grand adventure is taking me next.

Join me.

Essayist and activist Terry Tempest Williams will be speaking at Tattered Cover Lodo June 14 @ 7:30. I will be attending. You are welcome to join me.

Here is a 2011 interview:

http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2011/vitality-of-struggle/

Her meditations on politics, family, the American West, and what she calls 'sacred rage' have always resonated strongly with me.

Related Jana Richman's The Last Cowgirl:

http://zalena.livejournal.com/801006.html

Both radically changed my thinking about the American West and the place of women (& religion) in it.

"I don't think civil discourse is enough... how do we really find a more meaningful conversation? It's not enough to get a smile from your enemy. What I want to know is what you're really thinking, what you're really feeling, and how did you come to that knowledge?" - Terry Tempest Williams

I've got a lot going on this morning, but because I have so many chores that need to be accomplished within a specific time frame I'm not free to sit and write. Instead, I'm offering link to two provocative lectures I listened to this week:

Germaine Greer at the Free Thinking Festival 2011 offers a provocative (and somewhat libertarian) interpretation of Freedom especially as relates to whether we will be able to live with the potential outcome of Arab Spring. I recognize the controversial nature of the lecture and the woman who gives it, and offer the disclaimer that I do no claim her or her philosophy for my own, but I thought it was worth a listen. Weirdly, I will be sending it to my mother in defense of the veil:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016vq4v

One of the interesting stances she takes issue with is Rousseau's notion that "Man was born free..." She does not include the second half of the quotation, "...and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they," but does address the problem in her lecture.

Also, from the same Festival, this lovely lecture on "the crisis of commitment" from the Rev. Dr. Giles Fraser, formerly the Canon Chancellor at St. Paul's Cathedral charged with contemporary ethics and engagement with the City of London. He resigned in October due to his stance that anti-capitalist protestors on the steps of the Cathedral should not be removed by force. This lecture --- which uses The Magnificent Seven as its primary illustration on the difference between being "a gunslinger" or "a farmer" and the different types of commitment these stances entail --- is very Xtian in tone, but does offer some really lovely glimpses into the possibility of a Xtian ethics as separate from the faith. It also defines in many ways the struggle I have found myself a part of in engaging with an adult life:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016yrsm

I particularly like his defense of the specific or the local.

Both address the topic of freedom as "the condition of moral action," something very close to my heart. Though the BP would no doubt take issue with the idea of "choice" in this context, instead focusing on the "intimacy of coexistence." He describes compassion as a kind of compulsion in which we are forced to act out of intimacy with other objects, not because it is right, not because it is ethical, but because we are all in this sh*t together. (Against the Grain @ 33:00-38:20) (Enter the Non-Human 44:00, "Viscosity is what compels us, what puts us in the zone of 'the imperative.' (Alphonso Lingis) In this zone choice is not the theatre of moral action....")

The documentary film corps that filmed the Bomb:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/science/14atom.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB

I've recently wondered at the fact that no one seems particularly concerned about the Bomb, anymore. As though the threat went away with the Cold War.

There were two key moments of consciousness re: the Bomb in my life.

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Gary Cooper: American Icon.

I also <3 Gary Cooper, but my favorite Cooper is probably the greeting card writing, tuba playing Gary Cooper from Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. That scene where he gets the butler to hoot like a freight train in the hall cracks me up every time.

Nevertheless, I feel like I need to link to this recollection from Roger Ebert about John Wayne's self-confessed liberalism.

Brother would be likely to say that Cooper, like Wayne, is a 'sandbox': like the place where children play they stand for whatever we want them to be.

Who knew?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/us/29rain.html?em

I love this piece on John Wayne that Ebert posted in his blog, today. I am finding I have growing affection for the icon, who, hilariously, describes himself in this interview as a liberal. Definitely some insight to Red Family/Blue Family here. And some interesting commentary on the Western.

Also, Ebert on JCVD, which I saw last night. It's a genre-buster, with a hilarious opening sequence (really, the best part of the movie.) I can't say I recommend the film, which doesn't stand up to the opening sequence, but it's still an interesting experiment. Rating: on an airplane, if there's nothing else to watch. I highly recommend Ebert's review, which is funnier than the movie itself, and I love the list of aphorisms at the end.

We've been following Xcel Energies bird cams at work. We were all sad to see that the eaglets died of exposure during the storm this past week. Leila also lost a beloved pet. I cried over both. It struck me that so many things in this life are hard just because they're hard. You don't need evil to get suffering.

I had another disastrous interview last week. I have no problem getting an interview, but have about a 50/50 chance of flail once I land the interview. The hardest thing to understand is how to respond to open hostility. My resume is a fairly good representation of my experiences. If you don't think I'm qualified, there's no reason to be mean. Just don't call me.

And for link-of-the-day, here is a site about Plains Indian Ledger Art, which includes scans of full books. Ledger art marked the shift from hides to paper during the late 19C. These books are prized by historians. They are also worth more torn apart and sold to collectors than kept intact, so this project gives people a better sense of context and a way to enjoy the art without ripping books apart. I posted this link in a comment in someone else's journal, but thought it should be more widely available.

I heard this brief mention of a New Deal art exhibit on NPR this morning, and just wanted to give everyone an opportunity to look at the pictures. This sounds like a fascinating show; I would make an effort to see it if I was in the area. Any plans for a tour, Smithsonian?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101275990

From the news piece:
"There was a lot of despair ... and shame at being on government relief," says Ann Wagner, one of the curators of the "New Deal" show. For both artists and Americans at large, "these works showed there was plenty to be proud of in their home areas."

Wagner says the program ultimately produced more than 15,000 works, all of them intended for public spaces such as post offices, libraries and hospitals....

Broun points out that Roosevelt once said, "A hundred years from now, my administration will be known for its art, not for its relief."

Well, that's an interesting, if somewhat ironic, note.

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An article in American Scholar on the Future of the American Frontier. Lots of interesting stuff here. Must write about it later.

And in the interests of fairness, An article titled: Move Over Thoreau. I am actually in agreement about some of the problems the romantic view of the environment has caused, but this particularly columnist doesn't seem to have a very coherent overview of environmentalism. I would say that it's less a divide than a continuum. And the work of the romantics, like HDT, invited us to view the environment in a different way. There was a time when it was something to be battled, then something to be admired, but always it has been perceived as something separate from we humans.

I can't write coherently about the subject myself, but I have been deeply influenced by the thought of a professor I encountered during my undergraduate years. I've recently rediscovered his lectures on itunes U and will soon be reading his latest book called, Ecology without Nature.

From the book description: In Ecology without Nature, Timothy Morton argues that the chief stumbling block to environmental thinking is the image of nature itself. Ecological writers propose a new worldview, but their very zeal to preserve the natural world leads them away from the "nature" they revere. The problem is a symptom of the ecological catastrophe in which we are living. Morton sets out a seeming paradox: to have a properly ecological view, we must relinquish the idea of nature once and for all.