Conversation

I think this is the first post I've seen on here about the most recent conflict in the holy land that I can actually agree with♻ @life@kill-the-newsletter.com
Hawkeye: War isn’t Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.

Father Mulcahy: How do you figure that, Hawkeye?

Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?

Father Mulcahy: Um, sinners, I believe.

Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell, but war is chock full of them – little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for a few of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander. - From MAS*H Episode: Season 5, Episode 20
Image/Photo
Swamp sunflowers, by my wildlife pond in the back yard.

Hey y’all,

I know a guy. He’s in his early 40’s, lives in a small town - a village, really - in a mostly white rural county in the South. He’s never been on an airplane. He’s never been more than 4 hours - about 200 miles - from home. I think about him a lot, actually. Especially when the news is like it is right now.

He doesn’t know any Muslims. He doesn’t know any Jews. He’s seen the Nation of Islam folks selling the papers on the street corner when he goes into the big city, but he doesn’t understand what they are doing, or why. And the city seems noisy and crowded and scary.

His social life is confined to his Southern Baptist Church, some friends he has known since High School, and folks he works with. He is on Facebook, but mostly for buying and selling things on Marketplace. He watches the news, but it just confirms what he already believes - that the world outside his circle is scary as hell. For him, the story is that simple.

His life is very different from mine. I have rich relationships with people from many faith traditions, and who have walked away from their faith traditions. I’ve been all over this country and visited other countries. I love cornbread and beans, but also baklava and sushi (not together!). I’ve swam in oceans, climbed mountains, and walked in the desert. My view of the world is much, much larger than his. That doesn’t make me better than him - I’ve just had a lot of improbable opportunities.

And because I have lived this life, when I hear the word Palestinians, I don’t think of some vague brown skinned stock image from the news, but I think about Aziz, and Faisel, and Dikran. When I hear the word Jews, I think about Debra and Judy and Micah. I think about a dozen or so meals, about the souvenirs they have brought me from their travels, and the times I have played with their kids.

And now, people I love are devastated that people they love are in danger, land they love is being destroyed, and both sets of folks are fearful of what can only be called genocide. I’m sad and fearful and scared because people I know are sad and fearful and scared. This is not some thought exercise about the morality of who owns the land, or what God promised to whom.

The people who are dying are real people, with names and addresses and hopes. They had high school sweethearts and have family recipes and a favorite cup from which they drink their coffee or tea. And they are dying, and afraid, and I love some of them very much.

At the end of the day, beyond the religious fights, beyond the politics, beyond even the land, I just want people I love to be safe. And they are not, and like my provincial friend, I feel helpless and afraid.

There are gifts this life has given me. But it has its sorrows, too, and grief, not fear, is the price of love.
Five Beautiful Things

I love everything about Fat Bear Week. I need more of this sort of wholesome content in my Internet. Congrats to this year’s winner, 747.
We Have Not Long to Love

BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

We have not long to love.

Light does not stay.

The tender things are those

we fold away.

Coarse fabrics are the ones

for common wear.

In silence I have watched you

comb your hair.

Intimate the silence,

dim and warm.

I could but did not, reach

to touch your arm.

I could, but do not, break

that which is still.

(Almost the faintest whisper

would be shrill.)

So moments pass as though

they wished to stay.

We have not long to love.

A night. A day....

I wasted an unconscionable amount of time with the Stained Glass Generator (via Recomendo)

Art made from the flight paths of birds. (Via Swiss Miss)

A brilliant piece of spoken word poetry that gobsmacked me. The first 5 seconds alone are brilliant.
TCB

The most clicked link last week was this one, from Ingrid Bergman’s first screen test.

I gained 2 subscribers last week, but lost 8. Pro-tip: If you run a newsletter, there are two schools of thought - one is to pay a huge amount of attention to subscriber counts, and the other is to ignore them. Either way can work, but some of us are wired one way or the other. The most important thing is to know if obsessing about the six who left will cause you distress. It always bothers me, so I need to be one who ignores the numbers, and always regrets it when I don’t.

And a year and a half after I wrote it, the post about Grief Groceries is still the most read thing I have written in over a decade. I get emails about it every week, and it pops up every few weeks on Facebook and has a burst of micro-fame again. As a writer, you can never tell what connects with people and what doesn’t.

My friends wrote a book about meals as resistance, and I have a small piece in it that involves flowers and biscuits and hope. You should buy it.
So, check this out

Ben captured a lot of my thoughts on my frustration with Social Media in this current conflict between Hamaas and Israel: The Virality of Human Suffering.
Thank You!

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To respond to this newsletter, just hit reply. I love getting replies, and read them all, but have reluctantly come to the conclusion I can't realistically reply to most. Trust me, I hate this. But, well, human finitude, etc. Thank you for your understanding.

Take care of yourself. And each other.

HH
The virality of human suffering https://werd.io/2023/fight-and-subscribe