July 4, 2009                                       Valparaiso, IN

We often think of genius having a sense of being above the law, even the laws of nature.  (Of course I am thinking about this now because of Michael Jackson's life and death.)

Maybe we have the whole thing turned the wrong way round.  Maybe people are heralded as geniuses because they did whatever they damn well wanted, and the world saw what they did as good.

I personally believe everyone has a genius for one thing or another.  Some peoples' genius will be successful but for some reason or other, never recognized by the world.  (A genius for interpersonal skills, for example, which could anonymously save thousands from death.)

Other peoples' genius just never gets expressed because it is not nurtured at the right time, or perhaps at all.

Or maybe because they don't just do what they want and to hell with the consequences.

A chilling thought.

Hmm.  I also am thinking about this because of our forefathers who revolted against England and to hell with the consequences.

July 3, 2009                                       Valparaiso, IN

Hard workout.  Maybe it was all the berry-picking I did yesterday, or maybe it was eating at the Chinese Buffet, but I am blank.  Energyless.

Not a thought in my head.

Drool...

Later:  Wait!  News! News!  Sarah Palin is stepping down as Governor of Alaska in three weeks!

I have to comment on this.  Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, David Letterman, Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow are all off all week.

There's nobody left but me!

Er... um... well, I gave more notice at a pediatrics clinic file room than Sarah Palin has leaving the governorship.  Maybe my job was harder, more demanding, and more difficult to pass on!

Ha, ha!

Drool...

July 2, 2009                                        Valparaiso, IN

Last night we saw a DVD episode of a TV series called Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America about the Puritans' massacre of Native Americans in Mystic, Connecticut in 1637.  The Pequot tribe, to be exact.  Maybe.  If I've spelled it right.

One Pequot tribe member who was interviewed said that she learned of the massacre from her grandmother, who spoke of it as if it had happened yesterday.

During the massacre, the Puritans, having invaded the wooden enclosure surrounding the sleeping tribal community and encountered more resistance to the slaughter than they expected, torched the dwellings and killed everyone who tried to run away.  Old men, women, and children included.

Some of the surviving Pequot tribe members were sold into slavery, some to the Caribbean Islands.

The technique of attack reminded me of how Frank Lloyd Wright's mistress and her children, along with several employees and coworkers, were killed by Julian, an deeply religious Christian employee native to Barbados who had come to work at Taliesen, Wright's home in Wisconsin.

People who think they have more of God in them than perhaps they do feel justified in doing just about anything to non-believers.  On the other hand, people who lead lives without the sometimes healthy distractions of modern entertainment and technology have more time on their hands to ruminate over past wrongs.

Interesting that I have not heard of the Mystic massacre before now.  We Americans, it seems, have not been much better than any other conquering peoples about recounting our history accurately.

We have managed to forget or justify the terrible wrongs we have committed in the past.  But wouldn't it be curious if Julian's grandmother told him about how his forefathers came to be in the Barbados, and it involved the story of a terrible massacre three centuries before on what is now the American mainland?

A long reach, perhaps.  Just speculation, surely.

But I can't help but wonder...

After all, isn't it a truism that what goes around comes around?

July 1, 2009                                         Valparaiso, IN

The beginning of June used to mean release to me.  The end of school!  Yay!  My birthday!  Yippee!  Father's Day, okay!  Lots of reasons to celebrate!

June was relatively cool.  It is, after all, two-thirds Spring.

The coming of July meant the coming of real heat, in those days without the modern comfort called air conditioning. 

The only cool place in the house was the basement.

Last week, during the last week of June, we got our first heat wave of the year.  The air conditioner stopped working.  "Muggy" wasn't the word for it.  "Soppy" is.  I sat at my hot computer in the hot upstairs, droplets of sweat falling dangerously close to the keyboard.

Luckily for my partner, he was spending most of his working hours of the day in the basement.

He is plastering and painting the whole place.  The humidity was so bad down there during the heat wave that the new paint was seeping down the walls and water was puddling on the Michigan-cellar style ledges he had painted two weeks before.  No wonder the surface of the walls was peeling and discolored!  They were being attacked by water from inside and out!  We had to buy a dehumidifier to continue the job and keep down the mold.  (Also to preserve what few possessions have not already been destroyed by vermin and cavern-loving flora.)

Faced by the prospect of sooner or later buying a new environmentally friendly air conditioner, it is kind of nice to know that we might have a pleasant space to hang out if we want/need to save energy.

We can enjoy naturally bearable temperatures beneath ground level, wine coolers in hand!

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