A Dream to Me

If we've entered a new reality, as per today's top link from the Times, I for one welcome it. Yes the coronavirus is horrible, the political/economic/culture wars are dispiriting, and all of it fades into insignificance as we stare global climate change in the face.

I accept all that. But we've been long overdue to make fundamental changes in the way we live anyway and maybe now is our chance. It's time to take that darker path down into the woods and see where it leads.

Forests are one of the best places to think and feel. Trees communicate with each other through their roots, which connect far below the surface. They seek each other out, offer comfort and warn of danger.

When you're in a forest, if you let their whispers in, you'll hear the trees talking to you.

The same is true of other wild places. I've hiked beaches all over the world and the more remote the beach the more it has to say. Every beach is connected to some other shore by the tides that wash vast distances back and forth, carrying messages from one land mass to another.

If all of this sounds silly, consider your dreams. We classify them into good ones and nightmares, but they persist either way and there's no real escaping from them. Even waking up doesn't help.

But we also have our rational side, that wonderful ability to apply logic and collect evidence before we make decisions. Most of us try to make sense of what we do, if only so we can explain it to one another.

There are all sorts of economic theories suggesting that the sum of many irrational choices by individuals add up to a collective rationality. I may not be getting that exactly right but isn't that how economists explain the movements of the futures markets?

Quantum physics takes all of this out to the furthest place we've been able to venture intellectually, where time, space and consciousness all become relative. Starting with Einstein, physicists have been either getting clearer or cloudier as time passes. Take your pick.

Somewhere beyond the rational is the instinctive, where we know what we can trust when we hear it from the trees or the ocean or our dreams -- or our hearts. They propel us forward to explore.

This may be the path to a future where everything changes. We may be living with wave after wave of pandemics, natural disasters, and other disruptions. Our first instinct may be to huddle down in place, become more conservative, seek what is safe and familiar.

Or we may venture out, try to embrace the unknown and learn from it.

Everyone alive now is engaged in this struggle whether we acknowledge it or not. We have a will to survive but at times we get overwhelmed and want to give up. Don't give up.

The best part is yet to come.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* What if the Coronavirus Crisis Is Just a Trial Run? -- The year 2020 gave us a glimpse of something radically new: tensions in politics, finance and geopolitics intersecting with a natural shock on a global scale. (Adam Tooze/NYT)

* Effort underway to rescue girls soccer team from Afghanistan -- 

They move from place to place at a moment's notice in a desperate bid to evade the Taliban — girls whose lives are in danger simply because they chose to play a sport they loved. (AP)

*

Taliban Battle Opposition Militias, Wield Power in Kabul (WSJ)

* After Quick Victory, Taliban Find Governing Is Harder (NYT)

* Is the U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan the End of the American Empire? (New Yorker)

* A majority of the Afghan nationals who assisted U.S. forces and government were left behind in the country after American troops officially withdrew this week, a State Department official said. Refugee groups, veterans organizations and lawmakers have been highly critical of the Biden administration’s approach to evacuating applicants for Special Immigrant Visas. [HuffPost]

* Tens of Thousands Trapped in Afghanistan as Neighbors Close Borders (WSJ)

* Afghan evacuees in U.S. face shaky legal status, scant financial support (WP)    

* Taliban wrestle with Afghan economy in chaos, humanitarian crisis (Reuters)

* 2 Bipartisan Senators Demand That Biden Protect Afghan Journalists (NPR)

* Rebels hold out in Afghan valley as Taliban set up government in Kabul (Reuters)

* Taliban Takeover Threatens to Raise India-Pakistan Tensions (WSJ)

* Afghans face hunger crisis, adding to Taliban’s challenges (AP)

* Firefighters fear erratic winds will propel flames of massive Caldor Fire toward South Lake Tahoe (WP)

* Rocky Mountain dry: Canada's waning water supply sows division in farm belt (Reuters)

* Two thirds of young adults in California have ‘boomeranged' back to their parent’s homes over the past year, study finds. (WhiteHotPR)

* You Can Now Carry A Handgun In Texas Without A License, Training Or Background Check (NPR)

* Gas shortages sweep Louisiana as hundreds of thousands remain without power (WP)

* Some 30% of global tree species at risk of extinction -report (Reuters)

* Four conservative radio talk-show hosts bashed coronavirus vaccines. Then they got sick. (WP)

* Moderna seeks U.S. authorization for COVID-19 vaccine booster (Reuters)

* Coronavirus survivors face heightened risk of kidney damage, study says (WP)

* Cuba prepares to vaccinate its children, entire population (Reuters)

* Vaccines cut risk of ‘long covid’ in half, major study finds (WP)

* An artist was homeless for years. Now he sells his work to celebrities like Oprah. (WP)

* Supreme Court, Breaking Silence, Won’t Block Texas Abortion Law (NYT)

* Texas’ six-week abortion ban is one of the most — if not the most — draconian and unprecedented anti-abortion bills to ever become law. Reproductive justice advocates warn that it could become the law of the land. “This is not a ‘What happens in Texas stays in Texas’ situation,” NARAL's Kristin Ford told HuffPost. [HuffPost]

* The recall election ballots returned so far show that twice as many Democrats have voted than Republicans and that liberal areas of the state have the highest rates of return. (Los Angeles Times)

* Thirty-nine percent of likely voters say they would choose to remove Newsom from office, while 59 percent say they oppose the recall, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll released Wednesday night. The findings align with other recent polling. (FiveThirtyEight)

* U.S. DOJ preparing to sue Google over digital ads business (Bloomberg News)

* Once green, prehistoric Arabia drew early humans from Africa (AP)

* Elizabeth Holmes Arrives To Trial With Prototype For Black Box That Will Prove Her Innocence (The Onion)

***

"Dreams"

The Cranberries

Oh, my life
Is changing every day
In every possible way
And oh, my dreams
It's never quite as it seems
Never quite as it seems

I know I've felt like this before
But now I'm feeling it even more
Because it came from you
Then I open up and see
The person falling here is me
A different way to be

I want more
Impossible to ignore
Impossible to ignore
They'll come true
Impossible not to do
Impossible not to do

And now I tell you openly
You have my heart so don't hurt me
You're what I couldn't find
A totally amazing mind
So understanding and so kind
You're everything to me


Oh, my life
Is changing every day
In every possible way
And oh, my dreams
It's never quite as it seems
'Cause you're a dream to me, dream to me

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