Recently, I was on the phone with my cousin Lynn. We do this once or twice a week, sharing pieces of our lives. She mentioned she had been going through family pictures and papers and found a copy of a poem in her mother’s things. It is called After a while. It was written by Jorge Luis Borges. He was a noted poet, short-story author, essayist, translator, anti-fascist and much more. He’s fascinating and I’ll write about him in another post.
For now, I simply want to share his words. They spoke to me, and I hope that they speak to you.
After a while
After a while you learn The subtle difference between Holding a hand and chaining a soul And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning And company doesn’t always mean security.
And you begin to learn That kisses aren’t contracts And presents aren’t promises And you begin to accept your defeats With your head up and your eyes ahead With the grace of woman Not the grief of a child
And you learn To build all your roads on today Because tomorrow’s ground is Too uncertain for plans And futures have a way of falling down In mid-flight.
After a while you learn That even sunshine burns if you get too much So you plant your own garden And decorate your own soul Instead of waiting For someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn That you really can endure You really are strong And you really do have worth And you learn and you learn With every goodbye, you learn…
Poem by Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
The original portrait of Borges is by Grete Stern and is in the Public Domain. This version I modified slightly, cleaning up spots and scratches and enhancing the image using brightness and contrast controls. It too is Public Domain.
The odds are against the Ukrainians right now and they may loose this battle. But they’ll keep their country. The World must not be allowed to return to business as usual, after a few news cycles.
The Ukrainian people need our help, not just our prayers and our well meaning wishes. Let us open our hearts and doors to provide shelter for these brave people. And, let us provide the humanitarian and military aid they need to to defeat Russia. Also, let us raise our voices to demand that the entire world stand with Ukraine, including China. The time for national aggression and those who promote it is over.
We have a moral responsibility to stand with the people of Ukraine. They understand what we’ve seemed to have forgotten. Democracy is worth fighting for and, if necessary, dying for.
Last night I was up until 2:30am, watching the news coming from Ukraine. It was a very cold, dark night.
Putin has unleashed the dogs-of-war on a peaceful people. This moment has been coming for years, a gathering gloom on the eastern horizon. Now it is here and with it, the shadows from the past. From the past, I hear whispers telling me, we are about to be tested.
Some of my earliest memories are of watching the news with my dad. I was 6 and riding on a red and white rocking horse. The Korean War appeared as a grainy, black and white blur on a small TV screen. Even though I didn’t understand what I was seeing, I remember my dad’s grim expression, and knew that something was wrong.
Later, again with my dad, I watched the Cuban Missile Crisis and then the assassination of President Kennedy. After that came the Vietnam War along with numerous Fascist coups in Central and South America. All presented at dinner time on the national news. Iraq was the theater for 2 wars with the second, Shock and Awe, setting the standard for immediacy. It was the first, front seat war. I remember watching the live coverage while on the phone with my buddy Tom. We’d ordered pizzas and drank beer, while hell was televised in full color. Who can forget Wolf Blizter and the CNN team hunkering down while buildings nearby blew up?
I watched 9/11 from the first Breaking News. It was a beautiful day in Minneapolis, and warm sunshine lighted my home office. My wife, Becky, was in rural southern France, running our bicycle touring business. I called her to see if she was okay. She didn’t have a TV and didn’t know anything had happened. So, as I watched the horror in New York City, I talked to Becky, 7 time-zones and 4,300 miles away.
The War on Terror dragged on for 22 years, with coverage ever more immediate and intimate. On the Internet, military and cellphone videos brought a video game perspective to the slaughter.
And now, there is Ukraine and Putin’s Imperial War. Ukraine is a friendly country that has been woven into our national awareness over the last 6 years. Both us and the Ukrainians share the desire to live in a democratic nation, ruled by laws, and rid of the corruption of Corporations and moneyed Elite. In Ukraine, the legacy of the bloody Soviet Union leaves a stain and full knowledge of what Russia is capable of.
In every confrontation I’ve witnessed in my life, the media has become more technically sophisticated, with the result that I have become an ever more intimate observer. At the same time, the tactics and weapons have become more diverse and sophisticated. We now face Hybrid Warfare, a mix of hardware and software. Cyber-warfare is now in the arsenals of Russia, China, the United States and others. This makes Putin’s Imperial War different. We are no longer protected by our Oceans or the distance between the U.S. and the rest of the world.
We are already feeling the effects of the war in Ukraine. Today’s stocks and energy markets are volatile. World-wide, commodities such as wheat and corn, major exports of Russia and Ukraine will be disrupted causing inflation and instability in Africa and the Middle East. Likewise, here, inflation will be driven by higher fuel prices and their ripples through the rest of the economy.
The future has further risks, particularly to our infrastructure. We’ve already experienced limited cyber-attacks against individual companies and business and government networks. In April 2021, the Colonial Pipeline Company, the largest fuel pipeline in the U.S., was hacked. This resulted in the 29,000-mile pipeline shutting down for a week. The East Coast experienced gasoline shortages and higher prices at the pump. Colonial had to inspect it’s entire system to see if there had been any physical damage, there wasn’t, but it was a very real threat.
Inexorably, the turmoil we have seen on our screens has moved closer and closer. Now it is here.
This is the most profound test our nation has ever faced. Greater than WWII, we are now just behind the front-lines and potential targets of damaging cyber-attacks. And like in WWII, we will need to make personal sacrifices if we are to prevail against Putin and his anti-democracy mob.
Sadly, as in Ukraine, there is a Fifth Column in the US. Putin sympathizers who are attempting to undermine our efforts to defend Ukraine and Democracy with disinformation and obstruction. As in Ukraine, these people are traitors.
As I said, we are about to be tested.
Judoka is a person who practices Judo, a martial art that emphasizes discipline and the application of a specific force to a particular point.
Photo, Vladimir Putin, Judoka, is by Vasvas (Vassilis Sgs) and is covered by (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 2.0 International License.
Text, Les Phillips, is covered by (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 2.0 International License.
There are two guys I know, that have played chess at the patisserie for years. They are earnest in their pursuit of the game. I’ve kibitzed, as someone who only has the faintest idea how to play the game. They tolerate me and my banter. I am fond of them and their eternal championship, because that is how they play it.
Their manner of play is diametrically opposite. Like the poles of a bar magnet, always repelling and yet essential, hold the dynamic system of the game together. One player is methodical, contemplative, and moves slowly. The other has honed his skills on 100,000 one-minute games. That’s about 1,667 hours or 69 days. Their approach to the game reflects their personalities. They are the perfect match for a never-ending contest.
When I sit down at my table and see them focused on that checkered, 64-squared universe, I feel at ease. All is right with the world. I know that their moves, like the ticking of a cosmic clock, keeps the planets in their orbits and the sun on its galactic path.
I am comforted by the spiritual nature of the moment’s ordinariness. Two people, locked in a metaphysical struggle while piloting ancient pieces across a wooden plane. How many millions have spent countless hours in meditation, pondering the millions of possible moves with their possible outcomes?
Humans have gamed for at least 5,000 years. And over that time they’ve developed numerous categories of board, card, and theme games. They all capture, to some degree, the essence of what I see with these chess players. But, there are four types of games that are the foundation for all others.
Race Games, who can get around the board the quickest and often played with dice or something analogous. Examples are Pasha (Pachisi) from about 1100 BCE.
Space Games, a familiar example is Tic-Tac-Toeor Noughts and Crosses. Evidence of the game has been found in Egypt, dating to at least 1300 BCE.
Chase Games, which, for some reason, escapes me. An early version is Hnefatafl, played by the Nordic and the Sámi peoples in Scandinavia.
Displacement Games, such as Chess and Go are abstract strategy games where there are no artificial elements of chance introduced by dice or hidden information. Modern Chess, based on a 7th century Indian game, Chaturanga, began developing in Europe in the 16th century. Go, on the other hand, has been played in its original form, since 4000 BCE. No other game can claim such a heritage.
So, as I sit watching friends, match wits, oblivious to the world around them, I see a profoundly spiritual moment, created from the most ordinary experience, playing a game.
The photo was taken with my iPhone 8+ and processed using Topaz Studio and Photoshop.
My father-in-law would occasionally opine that younger folks had it easy. He’d say, “When I was a kid, I had to walk to school and it was uphill both ways!” As I’ve gotten older I’ve found that when I was a kid …
Recently, there’s been a thread on neighborhood social media, Nextdoor, about the weather. In essence it’s, “Has it always been this cold here?” And we old-timers cheerfully chime in, “You should have been here for the Halloween Blizzard!” Or, ” Winters just aren’t the same now. We used to get a solid month of below zero weather. Uffda, this ain’t jack!” And we’d be right. Things were different then. Our climate has changed dramatically over the last four decades.
Also, we old-farts can, regrettably, reminisce about perfect summers when the days would be hot and dry with the nights cool and refreshing. Nights when you could count on leaving the windows open to let Mother Nature provide the air conditioning. It wasn’t like that all the time, but it happened a lot. Now summers are hotter, more humid, and the weather more troubled.
We were fortunate to catch the tail end of the Holocene, a period that began about 11,000 years ago with the end of the last major Ice Age. The Holocene was marked by a mild, stable climate that was perfect for the growth of humanity.
Unfortunately, we are also standing neck deep in the first days of the Anthropocene, the first man-made geological age. We’ve altered the surface of the earth, the seas, and the atmosphere to the point that we have become a powerful geological force. Our greenhouse gases are more persistent and damaging than all but the worst natural catastrophes. Super volcanoes and asteroids crashing into the earth are about the only natural events that can compete with the long-term devastation we are visiting upon ourselves.
It doesn’t have to be this way. It will take significant changes and the discomfort of sacrificing old ways. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But the payoff is worth it. If we can turn this planet into a desert, we can turn it into a garden.
It’s late, about 2:30 a.m., and I’m finally winding down my day. I’ve become a night owl this winter. It started several months ago as the nights got longer and the days shorter. Now, I look forward to the solitude that the icy darkness provides. It’s just me and my muse, Oscar.
On this evening, as the arctic wind makes the bare trees shiver, producing a bone rattling sound, I’m sitting in my library, surrounded by dusty volumes of American history. By the intimate light from an equally dusty lamp, I make the last entries of the day in my journal. My buddy, Oscar, lays near-by on my desk. It’s a good time to unwind; cozy with my cat as the windchill plunges to a deadly -30 outside.
The house is creaking. It’s old joints, like mine, feel the passage of time and protest the passing of Summer’s ease. It is simply the nature of life; time passes, things change and we adapt, or we don’t.
Successful adaptation to a changing world requires three eyes; one on the past, one on the present, and one towards the future. This is not easy. We humans only have two, one is firmly fixed on the present while the second wanders, most often towards the past. In our long evolutionary trek, we adapted to a world of unchanging, immediate dangers. Getting eaten was top of the list and millions of years being dinner left its mark on how our brains are wired. We are best suited for threats that we can identify from previous experience and force us to fight or run.
Long-term dangers, situations that appear slowly, befuddle us. We adjust our thinking to accommodate slow changes, even when uncomfortable, failing to see the emerging menace. It’s like the snake that slowly coils and prepares to strike while the hapless mouse is too busy scrounging for seeds to see that lunch is about to be served.
But there are times when, if we let ourselves, we can see the snake. This ancient night is such a time. There are multiple predators who want to eat us. The easiest to spot are familiar and have been lumbering about for years. Russia and China come to mind. Both are traditional threats that our eye on history can identify. Within a few days or weeks we could be at war with one or both of them. Should Russia, NATO, and us get into a fight, China could decide to gobble down Taiwan and eliminate a primary source for electronic chips that are vital to our defense and economy. I wonder what would be for dessert?
Insurrectionists are an example of the snake slowly coiling to strike. They’ve been around since the Civil War and, because we are a racist country, we’ve ignored them. They are licking their chops. However, we have finally begun to see the patterns of racism and now can see the Insurrectionists slithering about. Time is short, but there is still time to act. How shall we have them, perhaps with Fava beans and a fine Chianti?
The biggest threat we face isn’t the historic predators that we’ve seen before. It is a monster that we’ve created and continue to feed. Climate change is already sitting at the table and having us for appetizers. The main course is in the kitchen and about to be served.
Even now, as the entire planet is being pummeled by historic storms, droughts, mass die-offs of familiar plants and animals, along with falling agricultural production, we still can’t get our minds focused on what is happening. The scope of this disaster goes beyond the present. It goes beyond our self-interest. Acknowledging our sole responsibility for this calamity requires a level of honesty that few of us seem able to muster. Understanding the significant changes that we must make, both as a nation and personally, involves an open-mindedness that is difficult for we judgemental Americans. And, to successfully respond to this threat, we must demonstrate a long-term commitment which, considering our demand for immediate gratification, appears to trump our self-discipline.
All is not hopeless. Our species, in one form or another, has been on this earth for hundreds-of-thousands of years. While we can not return to the old world that we’ve killed, it is possible to moderate the new one that is forming. We can make it less threatening, more sustainable, a place where we can continue to adapt. If we choose, we can overcome all of our short-comings.
But first, it obliges us to look about and see what’s for lunch. It’s us.
I sit with my muse, Oscar, listening to the wind sweeping in from the Canadian plains and the soft groaning of the house. Outside it is dark and cold. Winter has come. Yet inside, in the warm glow of a lamp, I pet Oscar, marvel at his soft fur, and calm my mind before going to bed. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?
