March 1, 2022
I cried twice yesterday.
The first was seeing two strangers connect through beautiful music.
The second was hearing Rudyard Kipling’s poem entitled ‘If’, read by a man I admire, that reminded me of a man I loved.
“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise…..”
Yesterday I laughed because things are beyond ridiculous. Jacinda Ardern, desperate to get the not-so-minority-fringe protesters out of her hair, spat out reference to “Covid Camp”, at her press conference, based on her figures that 17 out of 14,633 new cases of Omicron had been at the freedom camp, outside her Beehive office - where she has not put foot. She is not happy. Perhaps she is desperate.
I laughed when I saw ‘The Peehive’, a toilet block built with council input by tradies contributing their skills to the camp.
I didn’t cry about Russia and the Ukraine. I don’t know enough about it. I can only imagine the fear and the heartbreak of the people. I don’t know what to think.
I felt somewhat comforted reading Charles Eisenstein’s essay on the subject.
Eisenstein offers a two sided story:
“In the case of Zelenskyy (Ukraine), the righteousness is obvious: foreign troops have invaded my country’s territory and are killing my people. The horror of the onslaught is plain for all to see. In the case of Putin (Russia), the righteousness comes, I suppose, from an historical narrative of NATO expansionism, missiles on Russia’s borders, oppression and mass killing of ethnic Russians in the Ukraine, and so forth.”
I felt sad and deeply disappointed receiving a response to a letter I wrote to our high school asking the board of trustees to cease its discriminatory approach to unvaccinated students, thereby coercing them to be vaccinated.
Theirs was a form we-are-just-following-government-regulations type of response.
What was I expecting?
Some acknowledgement that young people face a greater risk of injury from the Pfizer vaccine than they do from Covid-19.
I was hoping for some push back.
That took me to non-compliance.
I felt nostalgic, maybe even hopeful and inspired revisiting HD Thoreau’s essay on Civil Disobedience, written in 1849.
His message was that following an unjust law may be more likely to cause harm than breaking it.
“If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth - certainly the machine will wear out… but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.”
I felt intrigued when I read an article about quantum physics and reality. Do we live in a real world or is it all a dream play with Klaus Scwab playing Voldemort.
Podcaster Lex Fridman, who read ‘If’ that moved me earlier is a US based researcher and scientist who is dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence.
He is vaccinated.
In his introduction to his conversation with virologist Vincent Racaniello, he says…”But I never have, and never will, talk down to people who don’t take the vaccine. I am humble enough to know just how little I know; how wrong I have been -and will be- on many of my beliefs and ideas. I think dogmatic certainty and division is more destructive in the long term than any virus. The solution for me, personally, like I said, is to choose empathy and compassion towards all fellow human beings. No matter who they voted for. I hope you do the same. Read, think, and try to imagine that what you currently think is the truth may be totally wrong. This mindset is one that opens you to discovery, innovation, and wisdom.”
Lex is an admitted optimist who loves science and people. And maybe he is right. Most people are good and love will conquer.