Here's our bleeding heart, or Dicentra, which managed to squeak out one solitary little heart this year. That's OK -- it's better than I thought we might get. The plant is about ten years old and I'm not sure if it doesn't like its location or what, but in recent years it has not been very enthusiastic. So I'm happy with a single heart!
As I was walking Olga two mornings ago, I found this little foam cow (with sunglasses!) where Olga was sniffing around some rubbish on the sidewalk. I did a Google image search and it turns out to be a game piece for a game called "Herd Mentality: Moosic and Moovies." I don't know where the rest of the game went, but I rescued the cow, who now sits on our windowsill next to my dog-chewed penguin. It's my own golden calf, but I'm not planning to worship it.
One of our orchids is performing at peak level at the moment -- this yellow/green one always sends up a big cluster of flowers.
I am so glad it's the weekend. Despite our day off on Wednesday, it seemed like a long week. And Monday is a bank holiday, so we get a three-day weekend. Woo hoo! We have no plans, though I may take a walk somewhere.
I've been mulling over two concepts related to our current political situation, particularly in the United States. One, that some of our current political mood is fallout from George W. Bush's misguided military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those wars left us with many traumatized veterans and other former military and their families, many of whom for some reason see Trump as an anti-war candidate and president. It seems safe to say that Trump has a lot of support from military and former military, and I think Bush's wars helped mobilize those voters to think and vote the way they do.
Two, in general, our global society seems to be emphasizing and enhancing divisions between people. Increased nationalism, Brexit in the UK, partisanship, economic tariffs, crackdowns on immigrants and immigration, blaming and finger-pointing in general -- all of this draws lines and barriers between human beings, which in my opinion is the exact opposite of what we need. We should be eliminating barriers, not erecting them. We need fewer walls and fences, both physically and psychologically. Many people seem very intent on saving and preserving what they believe is under threat, and walls and barriers are a fear-based reaction to that kind of thinking -- but the fact is, things change all the time, and life requires openness to change. This isn't really a practical solution or even a particularly innovative thought, but it's where my mind is in these trying times.
I realize that I think this way partly because I can afford to. I'm relatively financially comfortable, I don't have children, I and my family members are not homeless or addicted to Fentanyl, and maybe I'd feel less open if any of those things were different. Change is scary, and openness to change is scary, but I think it's the only way forward in a global society that is guaranteed to do nothing but change.
Change is scary, but often, once we become used to the new way, we realise it was a good move. I'm not at all sure that holds up with Trumps moves though.
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't mean we should be open to Trump's changes. I think Trump is anti-change. He's trying to move us backward to some imagined, safer place in our past. I mean we should be more open to the future, to moving forward, which is the antithesis of Trump.
DeleteI think that's what I meant, but got the words wrong.
Delete:)
DeleteI'm always impressed by your sharp eye for finding all these cute little things. I couldn't figure out what the cow's role was in the game after visiting this game's website.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure either! I've never played it!
DeleteThe Herd Mentality game looks like good fun, as long as you have enough people around! As Yael says, I couldn't see where the golden cow appeared. A very pretty orchid.....I only have one flowering at the moment. with just 2 white flowers, though more to come.
ReplyDeleteWe have that one and another yellow/green one in the front window, with two blossoms, and white one with three blossoms, and a white/pink one with three blossoms. All the others are dormant right now.
DeleteYour political reflections suggest that you would make a great advisor to #47 - helping him to radically change his approach. While you are at it, you could teach him about tariffs, photoshopping and the difference between Harvard and Harlem. He would surely appreciate your covfefe bigly and you would get to play golf every weekend.
ReplyDeleteHe would HATE me. And the feeling would be mutual!
DeleteThe gold foam cow is adorable. Did you pick it up with your bare hands or do you always keep disposable gloves with you? And then how did you sterilize it when you got home? That’s the part that skeeves me a bit. I’m no fun. The orchid is a stunner. I gave ours to Isabel when we moved. Still no live plants here.
ReplyDeleteI just washed it (and my hands) with soap and water. I think that's enough!
DeleteThanks for sharing—your beautiful orchid and thoughtful reflections on the lingering effects of war, fear-driven division, and the necessity of embracing change in a shifting world really resonate.
ReplyDeleteIt's not really a "new" thought, as I said, but it's one we should remind ourselves of!
DeleteI think each day here is just exhausting. Trying to keep up w/what Trump is intent upon destroying that particular day. And I will always say, based on my sad experience w/the MAGA veterans in my own family, that his appeal is based on the racism they share with him.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do agree that racism is a huge part of his appeal, whether his voters admit it to themselves or not.
DeleteI love the Pope's words (probably not the first to say it) about building bridges, not walls. You're observation is spot on. I thought about that when I read about your election yesterday and Farage's group winning by only six votes. Close -- but close isn't enough. And you may well have nailed it on the war. I still don't always get the veterans thoughts, but that is a good clue. (Though after what he's done to the VA and Pentagon, I hope they rethink things.) Meanwhile, today we're shuddering on what we knew would be coming with the PBS/NPR/public broadcasting pullback. I'm getting so tired of fighting but I will not stop.
ReplyDeleteI love your little gold cow.That's a very fun find. It looks great by the penguin!
The Republicans have long made a target of PBS so it's no surprise, but it is upsetting.
DeleteThe Felon runs and governs of fear of "others." And that builds walls between us when we really aren't so different from one another. But if you keep a group of people fearful of others then it's easier to manipulate them.
ReplyDeleteThat is true. The constant fear-based messaging helps control and motivate his followers.
DeleteMuch of what this administration is doing is a distraction so we won't notice how much they are personally benefiting right now. If they keep people busy hating each other, they can get away with making big $$$ for themselves.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point! All the constant social-issue skirmishes aren't anyone's top priority, yet we're focused on them all the time.
DeleteAs others have pointed out, Trump's entire strategy has been to create fear and division. Us against them. And boy, is he doing a great job.
ReplyDeleteLovely orchid. Enjoy your three day weekend.
Yes, it's true. That is his strategy.
DeleteChange is essential to life. The variety in the human species as expressed by skin color, culture, food, music, language, personal expression, etc should be embraced and celebrated instead of feared. We all want the same things, we all smile in the same language. I do not understand the desire to insulate against all that variety.
ReplyDeleteExactly! How did we get it into our heads that anyone different is an "other" to be feared? Evolutionary tribalism, I suppose.
DeleteChange is inevitable. In many ways it is progress. It shifts and resets many aspects of life as we know/knew it.
ReplyDeleteChange can impact people from all walks of life and at all financial levels. Some people will experience small changes while others will feel immense change.
Easing changes into place would be the ideal.
Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the style/choice of leadership today.
That is true, and the essence of Buddhism (which I used to practice). Trying to hang onto the past just creates unhappiness.
DeleteIt seems to me that Trump and his cohort are trying to return to former times, when everything seemed black and white and everyone knew their place and their role in life.
ReplyDeleteThis is a generalization, but Republicans seem to LOVE absolutes -- black/white, right/wrong, good/evil. When the world is rarely so clear-cut.
DeleteMovement has ben made possible by globalization. It's easy for people to move and they are opportunists. We will have to get used to different people around us and get to live with them.
ReplyDeleteExactly, and you can't blame them! If I were in their shoes I'd move too!
DeleteI saw a clip of Dubya from years ago warning of just the things Trump is trying to do. I'm just hoping things swing a bit at midterms, then drastically in 2028. I tell myself it's never too late. I love that cow! Moo! 🐮
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how Dubya in many ways seems so moderate now, and at the time I thought he and Cheney were evil incarnate.
DeleteThe human species as a whole has always been on the move, seeking better living conditions and/or get away from danger and oppression, and sometimes just out of a spirit of adventure and discovery. We won‘t stop, and I am all for welcoming strangers in distress, but with some measures of caution in place.
ReplyDeleteYour thoughts on us needing the opposite of fences and walls made me remember a conversation with colleagues at lunch break around the year 2018. One of them told us that his son was doing a school project on the Øresund Bridge, and that helping his son with some research on similar bridges for comparison, he found that there was a time when things (like bridges) were built to connect, not to divide; when we were proud to have an entire continent (Europe) with largely open borders and everyone within was free to move and work and live where they saw fit.
It is hard to define the exact event or point in time when it all started to go wrong.
Don't you think Europe's social climate changed drastically in the mid 2010s when illegal immigration through the Mediterranean picked up to such high levels? I know that has fueled a lot of the isolationism in the UK.
DeleteAbsolutely, Steve. 2014/15 where turning points for Germany.
DeleteYes! More people around the table, not fewer! Open the doors! Tear down the walls!
ReplyDeleteExactly! What's so hard to understand? Why are people so scared of each other?
DeleteI love that bleeding heart. My mother used to have that plant in our yard growing up in Illinois. I don't think I've seen one in person since then.
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree with you on political matters. That Bush era does stand out to me. His reelection was the first time in my life I felt confused and very upset by election results.
I listened to a NYTimes discussion last week about cultural changes. I was hoping it would help me get a better understanding of some of the positions on cultural issues like transgender youth or so called DEI. It seemed to me that much of it boiled down to a fear of change. That and a sort of twisted idea that white people are somehow being disenfranchised.
I agree -- when Bush got re-elected in 2004, I could not believe it! Yes, there is a lot of fear and resentment in the politics of Trump and his followers.
DeleteI have just begun reading "Buddhism for Dummies" (one has to start somewhere!) and your attitude in this post seem to be in line with that philosophy. Good for you, I say. Oh, and by the way, most people are satisfied with only one heart. 😉
ReplyDeleteWell, I did read and study and practice Buddhism for many years, so I guess it rubbed off on me!
DeleteYour post represents the confusion and search for meaning we're all currently experiencing. History says Trump is not an anomaly, but he certainly seems like one in these modern times when we perceive ourselves as more evolved than this. It's complicated, isn't it? I don't know the answers, but your points reminded me of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and related, I think education is the key. In particular, if psychology were a core class in international curricula, I think people would learn to understand themselves and others with greater clarity, the way our brains are motivated/clouded by perceived threats/dopamine/instant gratification/loss of love/safety/freedom and hardwired to think in shortcuts like confirmation bias/reductionism/tribalism/loss aversion, etc. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteInteresting thoughts. I've said all along that Trump is really a reflection of failures in our educational system, for a variety of reasons. I hadn't thought so much about the psychological aspect of that, but you're right, it's a factor.
DeleteI think most people hate change almost as much as they hate random. There is a huge gap between the rich and normal people in the US, more so than other places I think, but I could easily be wrong. There is also a huge myth in the US that money will make you happy and solve all of your problems. In my own humble opinion, a society in which everyone is fed and has access to housing, jobs, and health care, is in general a happier society.
ReplyDeleteYes, the money-solves-everything way of thinking is ultimately shallow and destructive, I think. We do take individualism to an extreme.
DeleteI think change equates to unknown, for some people. It's simplistic, but people prefer that which they know, which is comfortable to them.
ReplyDeleteThere are some days when I simply cannot deal with it, and it feels like a weakness to say that out loud.
I understand! I feel the same way sometimes. And yet I feel like we HAVE to deal with it, though I'm not saying you can't take a break. :) (Plus you have so much going on right now!)
DeleteBleeding hearts are sweet little plants and mine have always been good bloomers. Last year, though, in the deconstruction of my chimney and re-siding of that end of the house, my plants took a beating. I thought they were completely dead but they are growing again this spring. The roots apparently survived - yay! I hope yours do better next year.
ReplyDeleteThe cow is cute and the video on how to play the game makes me want to play it.
I think both your points are well-made and useful to think about. And in this environment of divisiveness, autocratic rulers seize power and increased wealth. Their supporters haven't figured out that the autocrats only want to tax them, not save them.
I'm glad your Dicentras have survived! Yes, we are at a prime cultural moment for authoritarianism, sadly.
DeleteThe only constant is change. And what better way to observe this than in a garden.
ReplyDeleteI admit that I am mesmerised by the never ending chaotic and weird actions of the current US administration. It's like watching a mad tv series with every instalment topping the last and you ask yourself, who writes scripts like that? Mind you, we have our own dangers looming here too and many times a day, I tell myself that even if 25% support the aims of the neo fascists, there's 75% who do not.
Yes, it is useful to think that most people are NOT fans of authoritarians or authoritarianism. They're voting the way they do out of a sense of protest against the status quo (even though they're harming themselves in the process, IMHO).
DeleteChange is indeed a constant and the power of fear to influence people. It's worked over many centuries and appears to still cause people to lean toward cruelty, selfishness and irrationality.
ReplyDeleteIt's very instinctive to avoid change. Even Olga does it!
DeleteGeorge Bush still makes me shudder but in reality, he would seem like a breath of fresh air now compared to our current president.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I know from your background, this is near to your heart, I think a lot of the fear that is plaguing our society is media induced these days. I think a lot of it has to do with our move away from well reasoned arguments that are in magazines and newspapers and towards sound bytes and memes that many consume as their news these days. My guess is that 99% of the population doesn't have the attention span or mental focus to read an entire article anymore.