Beyond the dark mountains

Was thinking about how over the last years so many religious shrines and places of worship have been attacked, destroyed or torched. Of course, the murder of so many people as a result of this savagery is the really troubling thing, but, still, I don't think the two are completely orthogonal to one another.

The destruction of the natural habitat and the attacks on holy places cannot, ultimately, be thought of in isolation from the caging and slaughter of indigenous people, the horrific violence generated by a society in awe of technology, and the unleashing of our baser impulses. To say that 'Man' is by nature fundamentally or exclusively self-interested, a "knave," that life is "nasty, short and brutish," that truth is "lyingly added" says what, precisely, about the picture we have of ourselves?

What image of Man & Woman remains? 


This was from Tom, over at Tomclarkblogspot.com:

GIDEON LEVY: Unfortunately, I must say that John Kerry’s declaration is rather hypocritic[al]. The Americans could have prevented long time ago; the Americans know exactly how to prevent it. If they really wanted to put an end to the occupation, the Israeli occupation would have come to its end long time ago. This policy of only serving carrots to Israel, of flattering to Israel again and again, is now decades long and never worked, never, ever worked. And the Americans never really tried the alternative path of putting pressure on Israel in order to bring Israel back to the international law, back to legal and order, back to morality.

And now John Kerry is saying that this can be prevented and should be prevented? Where were you in the last 67 years, in the last 48 years, when Israel is so much depending on the United States like never before, and you just gave Israel a carte blanche to go wild in Gaza, in the West Bank, again and again, build settlements, go for wars, and never tried to push Israel and to put an end to all this? So, really, with all the respect to John Kerry’s good intentions, this is not the way to deal with Israel after all those years.

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The Return has some lovely images, the hauntingly blue mournful light of the north hinting at disappearances and final loss but, as a film, it doesn't work. 

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A lovely reading of a short story by Grace Paley over at the New Yorker: My father addresses me on the facts of old age. 

What can one say? With time you realize that no-one is that wise, that we only have a few stories after all, none particularly joined up. Some supreme artist, no doubt, could hold her life together, gather it up in one, hand and heart you know. The words we don't say is just the way it is.