Accountability? in Everyday Ramblings

The rosemary behind the dahlia here is a nice touch. I am not even sure where I took this picture, but it was maybe a week and a half ago. It must have been the garden, as that is mostly where I am going during this intense heat if I am going out at all. The grocery of course, and out across the river to hang with the guys.

Wow, speaking of the guys, one had a hip replacement 3 weeks ago that I didn’t even know about. We are discouraged from talking about health issues. He has struggled with sciatica for a long time, and this did the trick. He is back with a carved cane he bought in Mexico years ago and says the leg on the surgery side feels longer so he has to get used to a new gait pattern.

And then another who fell down his front steps three weeks ago and ended up with a banged-up ankle, painful shoulder and three broken ribs also was back. He is one of the painters and a week or so ago sent me an email with no text, just two images. One of his front stairs and one of the Tarot card, The Fool. His sense of humor is not diminished. He just had his 84th birthday.

Next week I have a dental CT to see if the bone augmentation from a few months back was effective, and later in the week an eye appointment. I hope to get a new glasses prescription out of that. It has been since before the pandemic, and it feels like my eyesight is getting a bit worse.

And Thursday night we are all going to see a movie about a theater program in a prison called Sing, Sing. This is based on a true story and has some of the originals in the cast but is a fictionalized story.

We made a tentative offer to a prospective office manager for the local League of Women Voters yesterday afternoon. At least for now that process is complete.

Not something I would have imagined being involved in even a few months ago but a time-consuming activity for the last two weeks. Our first pick has another interview early next week and will decide between us if she gets that offer as well. We are prepared to make offers to the backups. But at least the interviewing is over. Interesting consensus process. A lot of making it up as we go along, us volunteers.

I watched the reception of the released prisoners here yesterday about three times and it has made me cry each time. We are all so due some good news.

But it does give me pause to think how civilization seems to be a patina over the abject brutality just beneath the surface that these people were held as bargaining chips for the return of a trained and loyal assassin.

Lately I have been asking myself, is accountability just an illusion? Or only in play for those who have less power? And isn’t that the way it seems it has always been with humans.

We talked this week about how we are all as individuals managing living in a world where it is beginning to seem obvious that we might not survive as a species. Everyone, there were 13 of us, had a slightly different take but the word that came up the most was nature. Trusting nature.

And if one thinks about the brutality and sheer beauty of nature the civilization thing seems to be less important. We are animals, granted what we think of as highly sophisticated ones with lots of toys, but animals none the less.

Maybe that is why seeing Evan Gershkovich pick up his mother and swing her into a hug on the tarmac means so much to us.

We can all understand that.

Last updated August 03, 2024