Despite the slowly shortening days and cooler temperatures, some of our late-summer flowers are still cranking along, like our purple loosestrife and lavender (above). Our peruvian lilies are still blooming, as are our Japanese anemones (below)...
...and our dahlias (below)...
...although the dahlias are diminishing in number and seem a little more lopsided as the sunlight wanes.
Things are looking good enough that we had a little gathering in our garden yesterday -- a "band director barbecue," as Dave called it, though there was no barbecuing. His two co-teachers came over, one with her daughter in tow and one with his golden retriever, Luna. We thought Olga and Luna would be able to play together while we ate, but they pretty much disregarded each other and in fact Olga was mostly interested in barking at us. "PLAY WITH ME!" she demanded.
We made hamburgers in the kitchen and brought them out to the garden to eat. We were surprised when a couple of wasps started hovering around the meat and flying away with chunks of it! I've NEVER seen this before, but apparently wasps are omnivorous and they do eat insects and carrion, so I suppose seizing a bit of hamburger is completely within their wheelhouse.
I even made a video, we were so mesmerized by the wasp meat thieves.
After we'd eaten and were sitting talking, Dylan (one of Dave's co-teachers) casually mentioned that he's allergic to bees and could go into anaphylactic shock if he's stung. We were all like, "Hmmmm...maybe we should go inside." So we did.
Fortunately there were no bee stings. Or wasp stings, for that matter.
Hosting is tiring, even for a simple backyard lunch! Of course I had to clean the house before anyone even showed up, and Dave cooked, and then I cleaned up, and this pretty much killed the day.
Last night we rented a movie on Apple TV+ called "I am Michael," about a writer named Michael Glatze, a prominent young, gay magazine journalist who famously renounced homosexuality to become an evangelical pastor. A couple of well-known gay Hollywood personalities were involved in this film, including Gus Van Sant and Zachary Quinto, so I knew it wouldn't be anti-gay in tone. It was pretty good, though the transitions between scenes seemed jumpy. I remember reading the original article (linked above), but somehow I missed the movie until now. Anyway, we enjoyed it and it provoked a lot of discussion!
Here's another cultural morsel I enjoyed -- this article in The Atlantic by David Brooks about why Americans are so sad, angry and terrible to each other. (He says Americans, but I think the same forces apply in many Western countries.) Brooks thinks we have slowly eroded the moral underpinnings of our society by becoming ever-more focused on self. Younger people don't get the same messages about caring for others and sacrificing for others that earlier generations did, and because they live ever-more isolated existences they don't absorb cultural norms through participation in civic organizations and churches, or become skilled at living alongside and tolerating people who believe differently.
Brooks notes that nowadays, people identify more tribally and often through politics. "If you are asking politics to be the reigning source of meaning in your life, you are asking more of politics than it can bear," he writes. "Seeking to escape sadness, loneliness and anomie through politics serves only to drop you into a world marked by fear and rage, by a sadistic striving for domination. Sure, you've left the moral vacuum -- but you've landed in the pulverizing destructiveness of moral war."
It's a pretty interesting article, and quite compelling!
23 comments:
I can't imagine hosting anything now. Family are ok because I can say 'make your own coffee', but a few people as you had would exhaust me. However, enjoy the social times with friends while you are still social.
I can only suggest that while 'the forces' may be in other western countries, they are not like they are in the US. In spite of people trying to push dissent here, it has pretty well failed. My state is about to pass laws banning the nazi salute and other symbolism. Display of the swastika has already been banned. No one is marching on the street to stop the laws.
We have native wasps (good) and European wasps (very very very bad). I wonder if your wasps are your own native wasps or wasps that refused to leave with Brexit.
I read your title and thought Giant Wasps! and then I wondered if maybe you had made teeny tiny burgers.
It was interesting watching the video and I kept hoping the wasp would manage to fly off with his bit of meat.
LOVE the orange dahlia.
Every May we have what we call Cinco de Never and usually have a house filled with people. COVID put the kibosh on that but I think we'll start it up again. It was always a good time.
David Brooks is often an interesting read.
Oh, man. I started reading that article and realized that if I continue, Glen will never get his Sunday morning breakfast. But I WILL read it later.
Human beings are just weird. I say this as a human being myself.
I loved the wasp video!
I loved that wasp video. I really appreciated how you assisted by moving a few things to make it easier for the wasp to get its treat.
I think the world of connectivity has somehow made us less connected. People on the street look at their phones and not at other humans walking by. I can't imagine what the future is going to look like here on earth.
there was one campsite in Big Bend during my canoe camping years that always had wasps swarming around, settling on people's plates. we would tell our guests not to panic, not to swat at them but to blow at them gently and they would move on as they could tell the difference between a gentle nudge and a violent swipe. no one ever got stung.
interesting article about David. it seems to me that despite his years promoting gayness and helping youth, his own successful relationship that he still, inside, loathed himself and all that activity was trying to convince himself of the rightness of who he is. that he turned to evangelical religion and became an outspoken critic and denier of any happiness of a gay life, his absolute conviction, his disdain, now that it is wrong and contrary to god's plan is just another version of his self loathing. and as the author pointed out, he picked the one place on earth where temptation would be minimal. but I could be wrong.
I meant Michael, not David.
I think a lot of people are good and kind and generous and loveing but we don't often hear about them. The haters get more attention.
That's very interesting about your wasps! I enjoyed the video, though it doesn't look anything like the evil red wasps we have around here. And while I don't know if ours are omnivorous, I know they can deliver quite a sting and it takes very little to provoke them!
I didn't know that about wasps but I do know that when we try to eat outside, we get lots of interest from various critters, mostly bees of some sort. I had heard about that story. I think I remember what happens, definitely not an anti-gay story.
Wasps are a huge nuisance when you try to eat outside at this time of year. They go nuts for coke.
I expect the Wasp Food Review will award several stripes for excellent hamburger and great wait staff.
Not so much for the say what people want to read Brooks. His personal history, stepping out on the wife who stood by him throughout his rising career only to see him taking up with his younger, prettier assistant. No,to my mind, he doesn't have the cred to talk about, much less bloviate about, moral standards and social actions.
I love reading David Brooks in the NY Times. I will read that article. Thanks.
That was certainly interesting about the wasp and the burgers. You have to admire its tenacity.
What I have seen with my children's generation (in their late 30s) is a lot MORE tolerance than in my own generation, and I am hopeful that the next generation after that is even better, at least in places where there has been significant immigration, which takes unfamiliar cultures into classrooms early in kids' lives. It's really hard to change people who have grown up knowing only one way to be; it takes time for changes to seep into the collective consciousness. And the more homogeneous the communities with backward mindsets are, the longer it takes.
I've seen wasps do that with a ham sandwich.
I agree entirely about moral erosion. One example: there must have been around 20 church Sunday Schools where I grew up. Every one put on a float in the Whitsumtine procession through the town.
I did not know that about wasps - fascinating!
I think the Brooks article is why I still go to church despite the fact that I don't think I'm really a believer anymore - without that connection I would become more & more isolated because that's my default.
I had no idea a wasp would do such a thing! I have quite a few wasps hanging around my home. One came inside recently and stung me while I was folding laundry. It hurt and left quite a welt.
Love,
Janie
We've seen yellowjacket wasps carve off bits of smoked salmon and after a lumbering takeoff, fly a few inches above the ground with their payload. We learned that if we moved a little chunk of salmon to the far end of the picnic table for them, we could eat in peace.
Here's another article we read today that is tangential to David Brooks' column. https://aeon.co/essays/children-today-are-suffering-a-severe-deficit-of-play
They both have merit.
Chris from Boise
Andrew: I do think confrontational politics are worse in the USA than elsewhere, but I see the trends here in the UK too.
Caro: That's a good question! I will assume they belong until I'm told otherwise. We have an Asian hornet that's invasive but so far that's the only invasive wasp I know of.
River: Well, yes, it might have been overstatement to suggest it stole my WHOLE hamburger. :)
Bob: It's amazing how much damage Covid did to our social routines.
Colette: I like him as a columnist. I think he's pretty sensible.
Ms Moon: Well, we're just animals, and we're tribal. I think those very basic impulses often override all our pretensions to civilization.
Robin: Did you ever see the movie "Wall-E"? The people all floated around on elevated divans, talking into screens. I thought, "That's the future!"
Ellen: I think your assessment of Michael's "conversion" is basically right. The only thing I agreed with him about is the fact that labels can be confining. I can see how someone might balk at calling themselves gay (or straight, for that matter) because it excludes other possibilities as life evolves. Having said that, I am 100 percent gay. LOL
Ellen D: I think that is also true. Especially since social media algorithms have been designed to amplify the most controversial and potentially offensive voices. (Something I think many social media companies have been working to change.)
Kelly: Apparently there are many, many different kinds of wasps. They're a very large family in the insect world.
Margaret: I've had bees and flies approach me when I'm eating fruit or drinking juice or red wine -- but I don't ever remember an insect going after my burger!
Red: Yeah, and I would expect that, insects going after sugar. I had no idea they'd go after protein, but apparently wasp grubs eat only protein, so the adults go out to find it for them.
Boud: Thanks for that thought-provoking comment! I'd forgotten about Brooks' marital issues and that does seem to cast a pall on him writing about morals, doesn't it?! Maybe he counts himself among those of us who have been lured into living for "me, me, me"!
Sharon: It's true! It took it a while to saw off some of that meat but it stayed on task!
Jenny-O: Well, I think that's true -- young people are generally much more open to differences. But some young people are very isolated, and very angry, as we see with so-called "incels," for example. And older people definitely seem angrier, and quicker to demonstrate that anger, than they used to be.
Tasker: Exactly! Years ago there was a deliberate effort to educate people about morals and moral choices. But the world has backed away from that, perhaps out of fear of infringing on parental rights or people's ability to forge their own paths.
Bug: Although I'm not particularly religious now, I think I benefitted from growing up within a church. It gave me a sense of community and emphasized positive messages about life and living. I don't remember my religious education containing a lot of "thou shalt nots."
Janie: Yikes! I know there are plenty of wasps in Florida -- I've been stung there too!
Chris: That was SUCH an interesting article! I definitely grew up in a time when kids had a lot of opportunity for free playing, and I see my nieces unable to do that now, and it makes me sad. I do think kids learn so much in terms of interpersonal skills and empathy (among other things) from playing on their own.
That sounds like an excellent article; From what you describe, I agree with it completely. I really like David Brooks. He's a lot more conservative than I politically and yet he is also very wise and spot on in so much he writes about. It definitely seems true that kids are more isolated these days. Or so programmed with activities (even at a very early age) that they don't have time to play or be. Most of those activities seem to be sports when they are young (versus civic kinds of things that emphasize helping.) The comments about politics, meaning of life and "more than it can bear" feel sadly true these days. I'll seek that out.
I went off to have a read about wasps and found this: "You have probably noticed wasps aren't leaving you alone while you're eating meat. They are attracted to meat because they use it to feed young larvae. While larvae can eat solid foods, including meat, adult wasps can only consume food in liquid form, which is why they love nectar and sweet juices from foods." TBH, I have never seen this before.
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