"My Octopus Teacher" is a Netflix documentary about a man who falls in love with an octopus.
In 2010, filmmaker Craig Foster began diving in a cold underwater kelp forest at a remote cove near Cape Town, South Africa. As he filmed his underwater explorations, he encountered a curious young octopus. It was love at first sight; she was equally attracted to him. He soon found himself seeking her out day after day, as he traced her movements through the kelp forest. The two formed an intimate bond, she played with him and allowed him to see her secrets -- how she sleeps, lives, and hunts.
The scenes of them swimming together are a window into their private dance.
Into this paradise, danger enters in the form of a relentless neighborhood shark who twice almost kills the octopus. The second time, she brilliantly uses Foster's presence to trick the shark into abandoning its pursuit. She survives to mate and reproduce with one of her own kind, as her human friend watches from close by. The end of her story is handled with grace and sensitivity, leaving us not diminished but with a sense of hope.
For me, the film is a reminder that there are infinite types of love as long as we are open to them. And that we are but one species among many and if we truly learned to appreciate our potential on this planet, we might just have a better chance at saving it.
***
From the sublime to the mundane:
The contours of Trump's intent have been laid bare thanks to one state official in Georgia who taped the President urging him to throw the election. As if we needed more evidence, this closes the deal on debate over the awkward, unsuccessful coup attempt to overthrow the world's oldest democracy from inside the White House.
The sick, wounded man who would be king cowers in the shadows until he finally slinks off to one swamp or another in Florida. The damage he's done will linger for years, perhaps decades, and we're left with no explanation save the psychological insights of his niece, the lone family member who disclosed the distorted upbringing that resulted in this despicable sociopath.
In movies and historical novels, coups are usually portrayed as exciting events, led by dashing figures with romantic if sometimes misguided ideas of how to topple evil leaders.
But in the present case, it is the banality of evil that greets us day after day in the form of this scared little man waging his sordid coup.
Political scientists and historians will write volumes trying to explain how it came to this in the nation that considers itself the greatest on earth, and their conclusions might surprise those of us who lived through it, should we still be around long enough to read them.
What *is* the historical context? Faced with the inevitability of radical climate change, and the first of what will probably be a series of virus mutations that unleash pandemics among the human population, the U.S. political system simply faltered.
As the factions debated one another, the impending disaster built to the point that the creaky old Constitutional framework was pushed to the brink. At that moment, it was a few unlikely heroes who stepped forward -- state and county officials all over the land, many of them Republicans, who defied the tyrannical leader and helped the system hold.
In the aftermath of this embarrassing disaster, it would be a pity if the GOP itself is a victim of Trump's coup. Some will say it serves them right, they chose Trump as their leader. But I say that the problem is far deeper than that and we all have to own it.
We failed as a country to provide global leadership in an age when the dynamics demanded global solutions to global problems. Instead we chose to act out a reality television show.
Once we rid ourselves of Trump, there remains much work to be done.
***
The headlines:
* Los Angeles ambulance crews told not to transport patients who stand little chance of survival (CNN)
* City officials in Washington on Monday warned supporters of President Donald Trump not to bring guns to protests this week against congressional certification of his election defeat and enlisted hundreds of National Guard troops to help keep order. (Reuters)
* Trump knows no limits as he tries to overturn the election (Dan Balz/WashPo)
* Desperate, deluded and dangerous, President Donald Trump drove America deeper into a political abyss on Monday night in his zeal to steal an election he lost and to destroy faith in the democracy that fairly ejected him from office.The President spewed lies, conspiracy theories and nonsensically false claims of vote fraud before an angry crowd in Georgia on a trip scheduled to help two Republicans in toss up run-offs Tuesday set to seal the Senate balance of power. (CNN)
* As Rollout Falters, Scientists Debate New Vaccination Tactics -- Should second doses be delayed? Should most adults receive half-doses? Scientists are pondering ways to get more shots into more arms. (NYT)
* The time to question election results has passed, all 10 living former defense secretaries say (WashPo)
* A U.S. judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from sanctioning human rights lawyers for supporting the work of the world's war crimes tribunal, the International Criminal Court. (Reuters)
* Native Americans Reliant on Hospital Feel Abandoned by U.S. During Pandemic -- Faced with a budget shortfall, the Indian Health Service reduced a federally funded hospital in New Mexico to a clinic as coronavirus cases continued to rise in the state. (NYT)
* As communities across the country feel the pain of a surge in coronavirus cases, funeral homes in the hot spot of Southern California say they must turn away grieving families as they run out of space for the bodies piling up. The head of the state funeral directors association says mortuaries are being inundated as the United States passes a grim tally of 350,000 COVID-19 deaths. Over 20 million people in the country have been infected. [AP]
* British judge denies U.S. extradition request for WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange (WashPo)
* Workplace app Slack hit with outage on first Monday of 2021 (Reuters)
* In the San Joaquin Valley, medical professionals fear that many in the public still fail to grasp the dangers of Covid-19. [The New Yorker]
* With Concessions and Deals, China’s Leader Tries to Box Out Biden -- Xi Jinping has been making trade agreements in Asia and now Europe, hoping to head off the incoming president’s efforts to rally a united front against China. (NYT)
* In Georgia, the Democrats have pulled out to small leads -- Ossoff by 1.4% and Warnock by 2.0%. (538)
* Rueful Trump Wishes He Knew Republicans This Willing To Overthrow Democracy Earlier In Term (The Onion)
***
Mother Abbess to Maria: "...(Y)ou have a great capacity to love. What you must find out is, how does God want you to spend your love."
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