"You can't go on forever. At some point you have to stop." -- (Letters to Juliet, film 2010)
__________
In baseball, great hitters maintain a .300 average over the course of a season, which means they fail roughly seven times out of every ten at bats. (If you hate baseball, hang in there. This isn't about baseball.)
To be a successful investigative reporter is to endure through similar odds. (This isn't about journalism either.) It takes something more than pattern-recognition skills, a thick skin, a willingness to take risks, stubbornness, persistence, an eye for detail and a well-functioning, rational mind.
It also takes doses of luck, intuition, instinct and -- perhaps surprisingly -- the ability to hope.
It also helps if you have the support of a friend.
This is not the kind of stuff discussed in textbooks or journalism education circles, where methodology is the usual focus -- how to interview people, how to read documents, gather data, fact-check quotes, discern truth from lies, etc.
Good sound rational stuff.
But take it from a veteran of many battles, once you commit to an investigation, plenty of obstacles are going to get in your way and you're going to need more than rationality to sustain yourself through to the endgame.
***
Writing about Afghanistan for me is not the same as my investigative work but it has required me to summon all the resources I relied on during a reasonably successful career in an impossible field.
As I've been writing, it has stirred up long-buried memories of my time in that faraway country in the present tragic context, requiring a balance of rationality and intuition that at times tests my own sense of sanity.
I admit to having asked a friend or two, "Do you think I am crazy?" The best answer I've gotten was "Not from this distance, but..."
The effort to amplify the voice of one young man for our series of five "Letters From Helmand" has tested the limits of my ability to remain disciplined and objective over what my proper role is in this matter. I can't save him, for example, any more than I can save Afghanistan. I'm just one lone person fighting a battle against overwhelming odds.
Human rights activists know what I am talking about. The rational part of my mind knows that too.
But something happened to me when I was recovering after nearly dying two years ago. My brain changed. After a lifetime functioning at a high level of rationality, a new way of thinking took over.
Call it instinct, intuition, maybe it doesn't even have a good name, but my friends noticed the change right away.
***
For some reason, probably algorithmic, Netflix knows just which movie to serve me on most occasions and lately they all seem to involve journalism, letters and love. Last night it was "Letters to Juliet," the 2010 film inspired by the 2006 non-fiction book of the same name by Lise Friedman and Ceil Friedman.
Both the book and the film are based on the phenomenon of letter-writing to Shakespeare's most famous romantic heroine in Verona. The main character in the film is a fact-checker for The New Yorker, which back when fact-checking was valued was the standard-setter for the profession.
I'll not recount the plot, which is a delight, except that the main point for me was that love assumed to be unrequited sometimes turns out in fact to be requited.
That indeed is the kind of hope I am talking about -- the kind that journalists, activists and other truth-seekers need to accomplish our work and achieve our dreams. And everybody needs requited love.
See, aren't you glad you hung in there? This isn't about baseball, journalism, Afghanistan or almost dying. This is about hope. This about love.
***
THE HEADLINES:
* Mexico decriminalizes abortion, a dramatic step in world’s second-biggest Catholic country (WP)
* Mexico’s Supreme Court Votes to Decriminalize Abortion -- The ruling, which sets a precedent for the legalization of abortion nationwide, follows years of efforts by a growing women’s movement in Mexico. (NYT)
* Garland’s vow to protect women’s right to abortions has more bark than bite, analysts say (WP)
* Was Afghanistan the First “Feminist War”? U.S. officials used the plight of the women in the country to justify the 2001 invasion and subsequent occupation. “Feminism has been delegitimized in Afghanistan because it is associated with an occupying force,” says author Rafia Zakaria. “Now Afghan women are left to pick up the pieces and deal with the Taliban.”(Democracy Now)
* Twenty Years, from Ground Zero to Afghanistan (New Yorker)
* The Taliban’s violent response to the latest demonstration, which included hundreds of women in Kabul, was another sign that they will not tolerate peaceful dissent in Afghanistan. (NYT)
* Video Captures Moment Taliban Fire On Protest in Kabul -- Taliban fighters beat peaceful protesters and fired into the air to disperse the crowd after hundreds of women took to the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, to demand that their rights be respected. (Reuters)
* Afghanistan’s last Jew leaves after Taliban takeover (AP)
* What Comes After the War on Terrorism? War on China? (Thomas L. Friedman/NYT)
* Report: Solar could power 40% of US electricity by 2035 (AP)
* Calling ‘Code Red’ on Climate, Biden Pushes for Infrastructure Plan -- “The nation and the world are in peril,” the president said during a stop in a hard-hit borough of New York City. “And that’s not hyperbole. That is a fact.” (NYT)
* VIDEO: Wildfire Forces Hundreds to Escape Greek Island by Sea (Reuters and AP)
* Booming Utah’s Weak Link: Surging Air Pollution -- A red-hot economy, wildfire smoke from California and the shriveling of the Great Salt Lake are making Utah’s alarming pollution even worse. (NYT)
* The Dixie fire that has burned more than 917,000 acres is well on its way to becoming the largest in California history. (CNN)
* WHO reaffirms call to boost COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to poorer nations (Reuters)
* Pediatric cases surge in the United States as kids head back to school (WP)
* President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are headed to California to support Newsom’s effort to squash the recall. (SFist)
* Women make up nearly a third of the California State Legislature, which is a record. (AP)
* Hong Kong Police Arrest Defiant Leaders Of The Tiananmen Square Vigils (NPR)
* Umpire Who Lost Count Of Strikes Hoping Batter Rips Off Some Foul Balls (The Onion)
***
"What If"
You look around without a care
I'll pretend you notice me
I look in your eyes and what'd ya see
Is made up in my mind
Am I just wasting time
I think this could be love
I'm serious
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