Stay Safe!

I read the article that is linked below and realized that, while I am a more adventurous traveler than many I know, I must keep my fears in travel in perspective with the reality of the world.  The graphic below shows how dangerous it is in the United States, and while I have been to Baltimore a number of times, I do find that city pretty scary in places.  DC is dangerous in perspective.  I have never really felt in danger there even when leaving a nightclub late in the evening with my daughter in a sketchy neighborhood.

(  http://www.citylab.com/politics/2013/01/gun-violence-us-cities-compared-deadliest-nations-world/4412/)

War torn nations are terrible places to be, none the less, countries that appear to be peaceful can have plenty of dangerous crime as they camouflage the truth everyday with their reporting.  Yes, below, they are comparing U.S. cities to entire countries.

• If it were a country, New Orleans (with a rate 62.1 gun murders per 100,000 people) would rank second in the world.
• Detroit's gun homicide rate (35.9) is just a bit less than El Salvador (39.9).
• Baltimore's rate (29.7) is not too far off that of Guatemala (34.8).
• Gun murder in Newark (25.4) and Miami (23.7) is comparable to Colombia (27.1).
• Washington D.C. (19) has a higher rate of gun homicide than Brazil (18.1).
• Atlanta's rate (17.2) is about the same as South Africa (17).
• Cleveland (17.4) has a higher rate than the Dominican Republic (16.3).
• Gun murder in Buffalo (16.5) is similar to Panama (16.2).
• Houston's rate (12.9) is slightly higher than Ecuador's (12.7).
• Gun homicide in Chicago (11.6) is similar to Guyana (11.5).
• Phoenix's rate (10.6) is slightly higher than Mexico (10).
• Los Angeles (9.2) is comparable to the Philippines (8.9).
• Boston rate (6.2) is higher than Nicaragua (5.9).
• New York, where gun murders have declined to just four per 100,000, is still higher than Argentina (3).
• Even the cities with the lowest homicide rates by American standards, like San Jose and Austin, compare to Albania and Cambodia respectively.

Prejudice, That Sticky Companion

Prejudice: a precomposed mindset, a foregone conclusion, seeing something through the smallest of lenses.  We all have our prejudices even though we do not like to admit it.  We think we see things fairly and test both sides before coming to our well-thought-out conclusion.  We tell ourselves that we are trying to see things through the eyes of the "other" side.  We sometimes even rally our defenses in the event that someone will point out we are being a little too one-sided in our response.

Let us face it.  We do not have even half the tools to overcome any prejudices we hold.  The emotion is the first to clog our conclusion.  Emotion:  love, fear, and anger are too strong to make us sit and count to ten and then see where we stand and do more research.

Last year my husband and I had planned a trip to Turkey with some friends.  They had gotten a "good deal" through their Catholic newsletter.  Hubby and I were a little hesitant as we are not Catholic and actually not religious.  We assumed it would be an overdose of the history of the Christian religion without the balance of the "other" in that area.   But we also assumed we could pull away from some of the tours and balance our time with more pagan or other religious explorations.  Then the war in Syria grew more intense and certain factions came right to the southern borders of Turkey.  Intellectually we knew that our tour group would not go near this area, but emotionally we realized that as part of a Christian tour group we would stand out like flag wavers at a rally even in the North.  There was always a slight chance that terrorism could erupt in the northern part of Turkey.  Needless to say, the increase in security itself might be an issue as our tour bus went from location to location.

We cancelled our trip.

This spring we are planning a trip to France as part of a tour group.  The group is non-religious and the tour is much more expensive so the travelers will all be upper middle class and mostly westerners.  We are not even considering cancelling this trip in light of the now tragic terrorist activities in Paris and surrounding areas, even knowing intellectually that a rich group of tourists is just as attractive to hostage taking as a group of devout Catholics.  I think this is partly because this is just a non-religious tour group, but also because France is a "western" country.  France is in Europe and not the mid-east.  France is more like us. We are certainly prejudice thinking we could be safer on this tour and that the uprising will not get worse than a few crazy zealots by the time we begin our travel.  We have no facts to base this on.  Just our prejudice and level of emotional reaction.

Art in Many Forms

My recent visit to the Smithsonian museums before the holidays was fulfilling and exhausting.  One of the venues at the Freer/Sackler gallery of art was the display of the personal art collection of the Cosby family.  Bill's recent fall from grace did not prevent me from wanting to see works of art that are not normally available to the public and I was glad that I did.  There was an enormous range in style, medium, and history.  Much of this collection was social commentary.  While there I took one photo of the large space and was immediately told they did not allow photos of this particular exhibit.  I am guessing it might have something to do with insurance, but who knows.  I was a little frustrated, but I do not really like to take photos of art anyway, because everything gets lost in the digital translation.  I was just trying to capture the variety in style that this collection has and also the interesting juxtaposition of art that the Smithsonian curators displayed next to Cosby artworks.

Not to be thwarted I captured some really 'cool' expressions in the architecture that you can take in a museum and I am putting up a few below.  This building was designed by Charles A. Platt at the turn of the century. The Freer was the first of his public commissions in 1913.   I am not sure to what extent he was involved in the underground passage between the Freer Gallery and the Sackler Gallery (both devoted to Asian Art and an odd place for the Cosby exhibit unless it was chosen because it was the most secure or had the most free space.)  Platt favored Italian Renaissance in both buildings and garden design.  I read that his design philosophy emphasized the integration of interior and exterior space through strong visual and circulatory connections, so probably he was indeed an influence on the underground which I photographed below and which you can see reflects that philosophy.  (As an aside and a very small brag, I sold another photo that I took from this subject area recently.  Amazing what a thrill one gets to see someone else likes their expression of art even if so little money is made from it.)

AND I just learned that you can go here and see over 40,000 works of art from their collection digitally.  This is their 2015 gift to us all!

Too Good To Not Pass Along

Banging head on desk and wondering why some people cannot find a country with no government where they can go live and leave the rest of us taxpayers alone.  When you are done reading this brilliant response from a small town newspaper note the first letter in each paragraph.

You can go here or cut and paste below.  It has gone somewhat viral on the "net" already.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/kirby-delauter-kirby-delauter-kirby-delauter/article_da85d6f4-fa3c-524f-bbf6-8e5ddc0d1c0a.html#user-comment-area

About 1,340,000,000 results on Google

This season is finally winding down.  I 'hate' do not like this season.  I mean I will forgive you if you love this season of over the top ads for beer and pizza and violent video games, sound effects like train whistles or war whoops, people who paint themselves like Hunger Games fans, and big handsome guys in casually tailored suits that say things like "I love that guy!  He really brings it."  I can understand your interest in half naked young women with more energy than you ever had on a Sunday afternoon.  I forgive you if you spend hours days on statistical tables or enter the pool with abandon (football pool), but I still find this a long and boring and loud time of year for me.  Yes, I move to another room and try to escape the horns and drums and yells as I lose myself in blogging or reading or thinking with the beat of an anthem following me from the other room.

The odd thing is that I used to be BIG football fan.  When I lived in Texas I knew their names and their games and their aims.  I cheered along with all the others and made fattening, salty snacks for my cohorts.  I liked when the newscasts in the evening had to spend at least 15% of the newshour on sports.  I laughed at the newscasters' jokes which I understood and empathized with their dismay at a loss and shared their ebulliency at a win.  I, too, was surprised when my in-laws wondered how this could be news.

Then I grew up or away?  I would think about the salaries, the hormones and drugs, the excess in testosterone that led to unfortunate events, and the huge business machine that shoved aside city neighborhoods and interfered with my DVD taping of The Good Wife.  I remember when Dan Rather walked off the set of his newscast when yet another overtime game delayed his news broadcast.  I thought he was a Prima Donna back then.  Now I think he was pretty brave.  Yes, many of these dudes are good and honest and philanthropic, but there are now 4 game nights!!  FOUR!  What if there were four nights of Antique Roadshow type shows that delayed your entire regular viewing schedule on a Monday night as people discussed the value of that antique snuff box and took bets---in your living room?  Or four nights of 3-hour-long Duck Dynasty visits.  Yes, with the hundreds of cable channels, there probably ARE, but you are trying to distract me from my point...which is...I find these months drag on far more than the winter itself.

"Guess what the score is?"  hubby calls from the next room.
"What?" I sigh.
"42 to 0!"  he laughs.
"And you are still watching it?"  I call back in an amazed voice but I am truly indifferent.  It is like listening to the Kardashians having a family discussion.

I return to my historical novel on Ireland.  (I am so addicted to that country!)  Go ahead and fill your afternoons and evenings watching for hours...just turn down the volume, please.  Oh, go ahead and Google "football" if you do not believe me.

The Groaning Board

Winter's shadows on a steel gray afternoon

Shadows un-sharpened by the sun

Lie softly upon the wooden floor

Where worn leather soles

Once danced in abstract patterns on the oak

Leaving indefinite memories

Of lives of purpose,

But so long ago no one recalls them.

Heartwood, they boast proudly

Hard hearts lived here.

One has to look carefully for few scars

Scars are well-hidden in the dust.

Perpendicular forces buried

In the grain and quiet tension of the years.

They reflect no weakness in spirit

Or indecision in purpose.

A wooden floor that was built

To live above the earth, protecting a babe’s feet

And to get a foothold in life

Even to frame a braided rag rug that was

Completed with arthritic hands.

They are all now gone and winter afternoons

Whisper so that the wood does not groan.

Endings and Beginnings

May this first few days of your new year start slowly and carefully like the kindling of a winter's fire as you ease into that favorite chair.  May the only noise filling your mind be that of the snap and pop of logs surrendering to the fire as you also surrender to getting a year older and accepting the challenges and rewards of the year to come while you turn away from the challenges of the year just past.  Each year brings new exciting growth for both you and I.  May that cup of cinnamon tea or glass of brandy warm your insides as the flames grow and glow to warm the outside of your model 2015 body.  May your goodbyes in 2014 sweetly release the resolve that you will keep the gentle memories and forget the pain; pain which could only be felt because you cared about something and were not an empty soul.  May your greetings to 2015 be honest and welcoming and forgiving for whatever is ahead.  There will certainly be wonderful surprises if you open your heart to another year.

The Down Side of Living Global

Some new global things to ponder as we enter 2015 and to encourage you to make it a resolution to get your head out of the sand.  Yes, the bright sunlight is painful at first, but the power of seeing is good for you.

The Good(?) side of the economy:
The fall of oil prices due to increase in fracking products and natural gas deposits in the Western world has given our economy a shot in the arm.  Travel and shipping of products is falling making it easier for those on budgets to spend money elsewhere, perhaps on food!  It means certain small businesses can turn better profits.  It means the market will rise for some time maybe with the DOW breaking 20,000 in the coming 2015... in some part due to cheaper energy.  This is a good thing, except that it is pushing conservative Congresspersons to argue for more fossil exploration in our national parks.  If you have not visited a fracking treatment site, you have no clue.  This is a good thing except it has environmental side effects that are certainly tragic and potentially more tragic as global climate change is not just an inconvenient truth, it is a dangerous truth.  Another side effect is it is one cause for the Russian Ruble to tumble.  We are happy for that evil person, Putin, to get this comeuppance but this shove means there is always a fall back somewhere.  Like HERE.  It is a global economy after all.  Pull one thread on this web and others feel it.

The bad side of the messing about where we should not:
We are winding down and ending our War in Iraq...at least that is what they tell us.  What a sticky tar pit we have entered.  The cost in money?  It is anyone's guess.  Some say $800 billion, a low-ball estimate.  Others say it has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest.  Money your grand-children will have to pay.   I think the Bush administration predicted the cost would be about $50 million to $60 million dollars.  Ignorance is bliss, but if you are Dick Chaney, you are making lots of money for your grandchildren, so perhaps it is all in how myopic you are.  And what did we get for this?  Where is Iraq now, 13 years and more than 2,300 troop deaths and over 13,000 wounded later?

"Ali Allawi, a former minister of trade, defense and finance, and author of two books on Iraqi history, agrees. "There is so much up in the air," he said. "There are the trappings of a functioning state, but it is like a functioning state lying on a sea of Jello...The ground is so unstable and shifting.""

Kurdish business tycoon Sirwan Barzani, a nephew of Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani, sees this as a moment to advance his people's nationalist dream and take his country back to 1916!  Back when another developed nation meddled.   "They asked about my plan," Barzani told Reuters in a military base on the frontline near Gwer, 48 kilometers (30 miles) south of the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil. "I said, 'My plan is to change the Sykes-Picot agreement'" –" a reference to the 1916 agreement between France and Britain that marked out what would become the borders of today's Middle East."  He goes on to describe the situation we leave..."Iraq is not real," Barzani said. "It exists only on the map. The country is killing itself. The Shi'ites and Sunnis cannot live together. How can they expect us to live with them? Our culture is different. The mentality of Kurds is different. We want a divorce."  Clearly our Western marital consultation skills are shiiite!  No pun intended, just trying to be polite.

And the Shi'ites?: ""We are like a sinking ship. Whoever gives you a hand lifting you from the sea whether enemy or friend, you take it without seeing his face because he is there."  The sheikh's changing perceptions are shared by other Iraqi Shi'ites. They once viewed Iran as the enemy but now see their neighbor as Iraq's one real friend. The streets of Baghdad and southern Iraq are decorated with images of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei."


Ignorance is artificial bliss, and unless you know this, we will follow other well-meaning or ill-advised or corrupt leaders into other wars.

Battle for the Heart of Mankind

I saw "The Hobbit. The Battle of Five Armies" this past week over the holidays.  It is exactly what the title says it is, so I should not be surprised if I thought most of it was special effects and war ad nauseam.  If it is true to the author of the story, that might be why I never finished reading The Hobbit as a book so many years ago.

It did get me thinking about art and commerce and why the two cannot wed and are continually in a battle for leadership, one a quiet warrior with ideas as weapons and another warrior with dollars to be used to bludgeon the artist.

Then I remember this National Book Award speech I saw a week or so ago.  I have not read her works, but now I want to.


The link follows:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et9Nf-rsALk#t=216

My Wish for You

My original Christmas card to you.  Please forgive my editing of Luke, but I think that was a typo in the Bible.