Mens Rea

(I originally took a picture from the New York Times to post here, but I read some stuff about "fair use" of copyrighted material and although I thought I was in the clear, I still didn't want to infringe on a photographer's right to earn money from her work, so I decided not to include the photo -- if you want to see it, take a look at the New York Times' article written by Charles Blow called "Search Your Souls (What's Left of Them), Republicans" and you'll see the photo I reference here.)

This is a great picture -- from the New York Times -- it's of Mitch McConnell (the leader of the Republicans in the Senate) -- I'm not sure where he is but it is very dramatic, with half of his face obscured as he tries to decide what to do about the latest Trumpian scandal.  I have tried my best to avoid Trump in my blog, because he seems to be everywhere else, but I find this whole latest drama to be intensely dramatic, with Michael Cohen, Trump's "fixer" confessing to the New York state prosecutor's office about the campaign finance crimes he has committed under the direction of "a candidate for federal office".  It is really Shakespearean, with people being stabbed in the back and a leader with endless amounts of hubris (who gave himself an A+ today for the job he's doing -- who gives themselves an A+?) and the guy who said not long ago that he would "take a bullet" for his boss and then the silent Paul Manafort (I don't know if he was silent in court, but I don't think he testified for himself, because the defence didn't call any witnesses) like Iago in the wings (but perhaps, not like Iago, because Trump calls him a brave man who is stoically taking it rather than "flipping" like Michael Cohen).  And then there's little Jeff Sessions who is the worm who finally turned; after months of taking it, he has finally found some self respect and tells us that he is doing a good job (maybe not A+, but good, maybe a B) in the face of Trump's criticisms.

Anyway, I'm not a good enough writer to do it justice, but I wish I was because it would make a great play.  There are so many good characters here - Steve Bannon, what an interesting character he is, all rumpled and red-faced, but imagining himself to be some intellectual powerhouse (and I'm not disputing that he's smart, however repellent he might also be), Jared Kushner, the weasel (who also rarely speaks -- very Becket-like to have these guys who don't really communicate) and Sarah Huckabee Sanders (whyever would she keep the Huckabee?  it just sounds so much like a joke -- that could be some of your comic relief) and Stephen Miller -- oh, what a great role if you got to play him!  He doesn't seem to be good at making eye contact and I remember way back when he was having his confrontation with the reporter, Jim Acosta, about immigration and the Statue of Liberty and he kept saying "Jim" over and over, while Jim went off on him -- that's a great scene.

Anyway, I wondered about whether I could use this photo on my blog.  (You can probably see I am trying to use pictures here now, since I've finally figured out how.)  I looked up the rules about using photographs that are copyrighted and it says that "fair use" means I can use a photo on a limited basis for the purpose of teaching or commenting on the news or things of that sort.  I hope that's correct.  I certainly don't want to use someone's work and not give them credit for it.  I looked up this photo and it is not a New York Times photographer, but rather a Reuters photographer (Reuters is an international news agency and it seems like lots of other news outlets use their material) and the photographer's name is Toya Sarno Jordan.  Anyway, I have no "mens rea" (criminal intent) in my use of the photo, no matter how many other people carry nefarious intents in their hearts (I just finished a Michael Connolly novel about these lawyers trying to impugn Harry Bosch's character as a police officer; the book was called Two Kinds of Truth and if you like mysteries, it was quite an entertaining one.)

I have that great title from the Drama game that I want to use for a play I will write sometime soon -- "Two Truths and a Lie" -- but it's just sitting in my head right now and I have got to sit down and start writing if I ever want it to come to fruition.

Smoke Screen

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We have the worst air quality in the world, according to the CBC.  I just looked again to check that and I don't see the part that says it's the worst in the world (hard to imagine that it's worse than pictures I've seen of the air quality in New Delhi), but it's not good.  Look at the picture!

It's apparently just the worst in our way of measuring the worst.  It's pretty bad anyway, though, no matter how you describe it.  I am supposed to have an outdoor aquafit class tonight -- should I go?  I'm pretty old and maybe it's not a good idea for me to breathe in all this smoke as enthusiastically as I breathe at aquafit.

It's all part of that scary scenario of climate change.  The forests are hot and dry because our climate is changing and so these huge events, like 600 wildfires burning throughout BC and record heat waves everywhere and "superstorms" are part of our future.  Yet we seem so incapable of doing anything about it.  Where's the international will to tackle this thing?  Can't we see that it is an emergency?  I know lots of people fret about jobs and if we do anything to address climate change, then people will lose their jobs and the economy will tank, but if we can't live anywhere on the planet, then it won't matter if we have jobs or an economy.

What can we do to change this direction we're heading in?  Well, I guess it feels like a tiny drop in a very large bucket, but I think we need to take transit and not drive our cars so much.  We have all heard the mantra about "reduce, reuse and recycle" and I think we're pretty good about recycling, but the first one on the list is "reduce".  Don't use so much stuff.  Stuff isn't going to make you happy.  Cliche alert!  The best things in life aren't things.  Instead of seeking solace by buying another t-shirt or pair of pants or SHOES, make something out of what you already have (reuse!).  Go to the thrift store instead of buying something new.  (It is Thrift Store Week this week, in case you didn't know.)

And the final thing (and perhaps the most effective) is to get involved somehow.  Write a letter or an email to your member of parliament demanding that they do something about Canada's role in warming up the planet.  Join a group or volunteer with an initiative that tries to wrestle this awful scourge to the ground.  Spread the word to your friends and family to think about climate change and try to do something about it.  It can't hurt.

Smoke gets in your eyes

We spent a week in Penticton and just got back.  It is VERY smoky there, but we went on with our holiday plans nevertheless.  You can't let thick smoke and an acrid stench stop you from having fun when you're on a vacation.  It was pretty bad with all the lovely views of the lake and the vineyards and the hills almost completely obscured.

We have developed a bit of a tradition in going to Penticton in the summer, so even this summer of having to have the roof repaired saw us making our way there.  We stay at the Best Western Hotel on Skaha Lake Road (no advertisement here, just that's where we always stay).  It is part of the fun.  It is an old fashioned kind of motel place, with a big grassy courtyard and the two story hotel surrounding it.  There is an outdoor pool (for someone like me who can't stand the idea of swimming indoors!) and an indoor pool and hot tub, a bunch of nice barbecues and picnic tables in the grass (and we cook there every night) and breakfast is included, so even if you have a teenager who never gets up before 1 p.m. in the summer, he drags himself into the breakfast room for a waffle at 9 o'clock.  In the evening, after we eat whatever we've barbecued, they show a movie outside -- sometimes it's a good movie (they showed "Finding Neverland" which was interesting) and sometimes it's a silly movie (like "Herbie Fully Loaded" which my son watched a bit of but wasn't able to remain focused on with the lure of the pool).

We always go to Loco Landing which is a little amusement park near Okanagan Lake.  We play mini-golf (I got a hole in one -- sheer fluke) and the adults (this time, my friend who is the mother of my son's friend) go on a wine tour while the boys frolic at the amusement park.  We have always drifted down the channel, but this year, my excellent swimmer son didn't want to go, so they went to this giant raft out in the lake which looked a bit like a huge bouncy castle -- it had a trampoline and a climbing wall and a jungle gym and a number of slides and looked like fun if you like that sort of thing.  (I am a complete physical coward, so I can't imagine wanting to do any of it, but I could see why the boys would want to.)

We spent time at the beach just lolling around and reading and splashing and swimming.  We ate and drank to our heart's desire.  It was a very pleasant and relaxing time.

On the last day, we went to see the National Geographic Photo Ark -- beautiful photos of a huge variety of animals from all over the world -- which was being shown at Liquidity Wines in Okanagan Falls.  The photos were inside the winery and also outside in the vineyard and they were gorgeous, and poignant, because they tell you what status the animal is in, like whether they are endangered or not, and of course, many animals are endangered, because of loss of habitat, climate change, overhunting, depletion of the resources that they depend on -- things that our species has caused.  When you look at the thick smoke outside your window, you can't help wondering what that does to the bats and birds and insects and frogs and all the creatures who can't get away from it.

If you're in the Okanagan, I would urge you to pop in to Liquidity Wines and see the photos.  They are very welcoming and it is a spectacular setting and the photos are great.  You could even buy a glass of wine or have lunch there to say thank you for having the exhibit for us to enjoy.

We're havin' a heat wave! A tropical heat wave! The temperature's risin' -- it isn't surprisin' . . . you really can't . . . can-can!

Whoa!  That Irving Berlin, huh?  He wrote well over 1,000 songs, and whenever you think of a show tune that is etched in your being, it's almost always his song.   Apparently, the wealthy father of the woman he wanted to marry objected to the wedding and disowned the woman when she went ahead and married him anyway.   Irving Berlin gave her the rights to the song "Always" to make up for it.  They were married for 60 something years and had a very happy life together and had four children and stayed in love until her death (and probably beyond that).

How are you dealing with the heat?  I have curtained off our kitchen which takes most of the noonday sun and we have the fans going, but I am loath to use an air conditioner because of climate change.  It is scary what we are doing to alter the world's climate and we don't seem to be able to stop.  We are lucky here in BC that it cools off at night.  My sister lives in Toronto and says it just stays unrelentingly hot the whole time.

Poor Daisy suffers in the heat.  We have our long walk in the early morning and then she spends the rest of the day panting.  We usually go to the creek in the late afternoon -- it is cooler and leafy and shady and she sits down in the water and lets it slosh over her.

We are having our roof replaced.  I pity the fellows up there pulling off shingles in the blazing heat.  Yesterday the hi-ab (I think that's what you call it -- a truck with a big crane on it) came and put the shingles and plywood on the roof.  It was quite amazing to see it done, and now the stuff seems to be stacked rather precariously on the peak of our roof.  I will be glad when it's all done.

Man's best friend

As many of you know, this is my girl, Daisy.  She is getting quite old now and if she didn't have all this silky golden hair, you'd see all sorts of warts (just like pictures of old witches and hags) and she has trouble on the stairs (and our house is all stairs, practically).  She is deaf, which actually helps her a lot, because when she could hear, she would go into these awful panic attacks where she would try to escape from the sound, but on the other hand, it used to be fun when she heard a siren because she would always get this other-worldly expression on her face and start to howl in answer to it.  She doesn't do that anymore, because she doesn't hear the sirens.  Or the coyotes who sometimes howl together in the evening in the forest behind our house.

She still loves going for a walk, although she can't walk as far as she used to.  She loves to sniff things out (especially if there's an old bone under a shrub or a piece of rotten sandwich in a thicket of grass).  She loves a good brushing and gobs of hair are always produced, even if you just brushed her fifteen minutes ago!  She loves food and when it's dinner time (or breakfast), she still acts like a puppy -- jumping up and wagging both her face and her tail.

She used to be quite nasty with other dogs, but now, in her old age, she looks daggers at them and will sometimes woof threateningly, but she certainly isn't willing to go the whole route and jump on them.  Quite a relief for me, her main dog walker.

She gets special food for an old dog and a salmon oil pill in the morning and then mobility pills (which she likes) three times a day.  Whenever she can, she'll go out into the back yard and lie in the hottest sun or crawl under the blackberry bushes and dig herself a hole -- she likes the peace and quiet and I think her old bones like the warmth.  I remember when my dad was getting old, he had trouble with his circulation and used to wear long underwear in weather that the rest of us put on shorts.

We love her so much and find such comfort in her presence in our house.

I just finished taking care of our neighbour's dog, Lily.  Lily is a young dog and very strong and lively.  (She is some sort of Lab cross.). She also likes to go on a walk and she is a passionate sniffer and stops every few feet to smell things that I can't even imagine.  When she sees another dog, she is very happy and wants to play, but oftentimes, the other dog is intimidated by Lily's size (very large) and energy (very high).  Lily loves her family so much and when they go away, she is very sad and sits for hours at the window watching for them to return.  She appreciates me taking care of her, but I am not her family and she misses them with her whole doggy heart.

Yesterday, they were supposed to be getting the late ferry, so I thought I should give her a good walk in the evening, so she would be tired and be able to relax while she waited, so we went out and had a long and pleasant walk in the evening.  When we turned onto our street, I could see the lights on in her house and the car parked in front.  "Lily!  They're home!" I said to her.  Lily didn't understand and kept sniffing things and lumbering along.  But when we got to their steps, she saw them and her heart leaped up and she raced up the stairs and then ran up and down through the whole house, just filled with joy.  A happy dog embodies the word "joy".  And that's why they can give it to us.

I would not wish any companion in the world but you. (The Tempest)

I just wanted to say that this would have been my 26th wedding anniversary.  My sweet, dear husband, Michael died in 2015, but he is still very much part of my life.  We had our ups and downs but we were both committed to our marriage and were good friends beyond being married.  Every day I think of him and miss him and count my blessings (see the previous blog post) that I met him and that we fell in love and got married and had our two terrific sons and spent many happy fulfilling years together.

Happy Anniversary, Mike!

Darkness Visible

“Everyone must keep up the struggle, for it is always likely that you will win the battle and nearly a certainty you will win the war. To all of you, sufferers and nonsufferers alike, I send my abiding love.”

I just read an article about William Styron, the author of many good books, like The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie's Choice.  He suffered with depression and wrote a book about his struggle called Darkness Visible (which I want to read now, having read the article).  In the 1990's, people thought we'd found the answer to depression, through drugs like Prozac, but unfortunately, Prozac and its compatriots don't work for everybody.  The article points out that the suicide rate is climbing alarmingly and suggests some reasons for it -- including climate change (!apparently, people are more likely to kill themselves when it is horribly hot) and the proliferation of guns.  It may also have something to do with the situation many people have noticed -- that we have less of a connection with our community and that we spend less time in and around the natural world -- I will suggest here that if you are feeling a bit low, go somewhere private and just put your full hand on a tree and leave it there for a minute or so.  I find that really helps me for some reason.

William Styron "came out" about his depression when it was not spoken of at all and he became an example to many of how to crawl out of that deep abyss but after a period of remission, it came back and he was concerned that if he told people or if he found himself unable to go on, other sufferers would feel hopeless and follow him down that grim path.  So he wrote an open letter just in case he killed himself and that paragraph is part of it.

My mother taught me many important lessons and one of them was to "count your blessings".  Nowadays, doctors and psychologists will suggest that you keep a gratitude journal, but years before that became a thing, Margaret Richardson (my mom) was doling out similar advice.  She had lived through difficult times -- the Great Depression (when she taught school in the middle of Saskatchewan's dust bowl in one room schoolhouses with desperately poor children in her class), the war, the death from cancer of both her parents, a difficult (my father was not easy to live with, as she often said -- but I don't think she was easy to live with either!) marriage, and then all the garden varieties of difficulties we all face.  But whenever my sister or I started getting down on ourselves, she would say that phrase, "count your blessings", and if we needed help, she could list blessings -- we lived in a beautiful, safe country -- one of the best places to live, we were healthy and smart, we had parents who loved us and opportunities open to us.  I can't ever feel sorry for myself for long -- my mother's voice always chimes in and says these things to me and it sustains me.  You might have noticed that I am trying to include pictures in my blog and so I am attaching a painting my mother made years ago.  I have her paintings all over the house -- she taught me to paint, too!  (I am not as good at it as she was.)

The Obstructed View - David Milne

Bright Curtains - David Milne

I went to see the show of David Milne's work at the Vancouver Art Gallery today.  I am a member of the gallery, and that's a good thing (thanks, Sis -- she gets me a membership for Xmas and what a great gift!) because I thought I didn't like David Milne, but it turns out that that thought was wrong!  I wouldn't have gone except I had to go downtown to get our passports renewed and thought, "oh well, I'm a member -- I'll just pop in and see what's going on".

It turns out I was all wrong about David Milne.  I thought it was all just splotches and dots and monotones, but look up above at this picture called "Bright Curtains".  Isn't it lovely?  He said this picture is "pretty much regular working out of the values problem, which, of course, goes way back".  By "values", he's referring to lightness and darkness, which fascinated him at this time.  It is a picture of his wife, Patsy, at a window and I love how she's looking down and the light is streaming behind her and then there are the block pictures on the wall next to the window and on the other side a roundish shape like a sconce or something.  I always associated David Milne with whites and greens and greys -- sort of washed out painting, but look at the rich blues and greens in this lovely piece.  Of course, he went through different ways of painting -- this is quite an early one -- and I think you can see the influence of Matisse with the window and the light.

There was another one of Patsy reading and she's bathed in light from a lantern but behind her is an ominous huge shadow -  it isn't pretty like this one, but it's quite impressive and powerful and apparently he painted it when he was living with Edvard Munch, so you can see what was going on there, too.

Patsy's figure in "Bright Curtains" foreshadows another interest he had in the obstructed view and the "dazzle spot".  In this case, Patsy is obstructing the view of the bright light, and the bright light is the dazzle spot.  In other pictures, he would put bright white trees (dazzling) in front of a scene of colour and depth, almost like you had to look past the dazzle to get at the meat of the matter.  I thought that might be interesting to try in the theatre.  You have a scene of something rather prosaic downstage, but upstage, you have something compelling -- see how long it takes for the audience to notice it!

He signed up to fight in World War 1 but by the time he got to Europe the fighting was over.  He said, "I was the first tourist, not the last soldier" and his pictures of ruined buildings in places like Ypres and the devastated countryside in France were really haunting.

This is a picture called "Neuville-Saint-Vaast from the Poppy Fields" and I think it should go along with  "Flanders Fields" when we think about the war and the devastated countryside and the hope that the poppies provide.  One of the things that is remarkable about his paintings of cities and towns devastated by war is that he shows people going about their business in the ruins of their town's most beautiful and remarkable buildings.

Of course, he lived in abject poverty for much of his life as many artists do, but I guess that doesn't mean that he didn't have a full life.  All of our lives are struggles and when you have this desire to explore the value of light and darkness, perhaps the struggle is worthwhile in a way that the rest of us "getting and spending" can learn from.  I believe that.

He spent a great deal of time alone and in nature.  He said he was compelled by the "mystery thing" beyond what is visible in nature.  If you've ever been deep in the forest or out on the open prairie or anywhere far away from the city, you've probably felt something like that.  When you put your hand wholly on a tree, you get this sense of a living thing that is connected to you, but very different from you at the same time.

I really enjoyed my time at the Art Gallery today.