Dear Everyone,
It’s been super cold (below 0) for the past few days, and
now we are catching the northern penumbra of the super storm that is blanketing
the south and northeast. I drove to
aikido this morning, but just a couple of people were there, and we decided to
just cancel class. The roads were very
bad. It’s in the upper 50s in Malta,
where we will be all of February, with a few days in London/Bristol on the way
home in early March. They’ve had some
bad weather too; Cindy has clips of big hail storms, a cyclone that washed
small fishing boats up the wharf in a small fishing town in the southeast (Marsaxlokk),
and reports of a 50-foot wave recorded in the waters between Malta and
Sicily. She was also recently reading of
attempts to get money to build a bridge or a tunnel between Malta (the main
island) and its smaller neighbor, Gozo, as the weather has been so bad recently
that the ferry has not been able to run for days. Do you have at least 2 billion to spare? Because the distance is a couple of miles,
longer than the Messina straight between Italy and Sicily (where a bridge has
been ok’d). Needless to say, we want to visit Gozo, but maybe not live there!
The news in the US has gone from bad to worse to worse, and it’s only one year into the regime. You know that I don’t usually venture deeply into political thought in these letters, but I am slack jawed by the events of the last month. Will we even have elections that matter come November? The American historian Timothy Snyder decamped to Canada, and if anyone knows about the descent into authoritarianism or fascism it’s him. I am perpetually astonished by the parallels between the Nazis, the Bolsheviks, and our present time. Discrediting of science? Takeover of the media? Lawless paramilitary forces? Gormless and craven industrialists and politicians? Written evidence of their plans (project 2025)? Complacent population who doesn’t believe what is happening in front of their eyes (if indeed they aren’t watching lying right wing propaganda)? Threats and actual takeovers of foreign neighbors? Demonizing helpless groups? and even more... I’m proud that my Minneapolis relatives are out protesting in a situation that is clearly with risk, with two homicides of US citizens by ICE agents already. But I don’t feel ashamed that I am strongly considering running away. If we do leave, our apartment will be open to refugees!
I am suffering a bit from the Bears overtime loss
to the Rams, but they ended up having a great, if cardiac event inducing
season. Caleb Williams has shown he was
worth the #1 draft pick. Let’s hope they
can put a team together for next year! Cindy was out of town in Connecticut visiting her twin grandnieces during the weekend of the game. Andy and Gail met me in Oakbrook for a Greek dinner at Violi. While she was gone I made food she won't eat: pasta with capers and sardines, mashed potato/turnip, and an eggplant stir fry.
On more lighthearted topics, Jasper and Vivian convinced me
to watch True
Beauty on Netflix. I must admit it’s
a great antidote to thinking about real world happenings. The subject matter is pretty low stakes - - the
fate of the world does not ever come up; there are no murders and little violence,
the characters rarely even kiss. The worst topics are bullying, suicide, and
Korea’s lookist society, but most of the time it’s a pretty carefree fictional
depiction of high school. Not so a fantastic book (recommended by Bill Watkins),
Nothing to Envy,
about everyday lives in North Korea from 1950-2010. I certainly hope we don’t descend to such
depths, although Trump would love to a Kim.
I also recently read Donald Westlake’s The Ax, the basis for
the recent adaptation (its second) into film, this time the South Korean No Other Choice. Quite
prescient, and perhaps explains some of the anger seen by the typical American
worker today, that has led us to where we are now.
The next letter will come from Malta!
Love, H
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