NOTE: Last year on this date (5/22/21) I first published the following essay:
It's back to the present tense today after a week where my recollections of the early days of the pandemic suddenly took over my writing impulse completely. Maybe the seemingly sudden end of the Covid crisis led to my obsession with how it all began.
In both fiction and nonfiction, you often discover you can't really begin a story properly until you know how it ends. That's why so many murder mysteries start with the body of the victim. Knowing how the story ends makes everything leading up to that conclusion a quest for logic, for meaning.
For everyone's sake, you want it all to make sense. That's what I'm trying to do with the pandemic and also in the telling of my life story.
It feels like I've been asleep for the past 15 months or so, but now I'm awake, I'm wondering whether things really happened as I remember or whether it was all just a dream.
***
Friday started out with my daughter Julia's graduation from Goucher College in Maryland. The president of the college in his commencement remarks cited Bureau of Labor Statistics data predicting that the class of '21 will have an average of 11 different jobs during their careers. Starting now.
Also at the ceremony, the mayor of Baltimore noted that the graduates are entering a world where racism, poverty, gun violence, and other severe problems await new leaders to propose new solutions.
Indeed. And we need to be hopeful for their sake and ours as we welcome the next generation of 22-year-olds to the struggle to make our only partially democratic society much more equitable, peaceful and inclusive.
Their work is cut out for them. That is a cliche and it is true. At least eleven jobs each -- that's what it will take to reach retirement, the experts believe. Personally, I hope Julia can retire a half-century from now knowing she did her best to make this a better world to the best of her ability.
But for now she stands where I did in May 1969. Did I do everything I could have done to make the world a better place?
Not even close. Not by any measure. Like most people, my most idealistic self struggled over and over with my pragmatic self, and often pragmatism won out.
I can rationalize that as well as the next guy, but the universal battle seems to be how to balance self-realization with loftier work; our own needs with those of everybody else.
Okay back to the present. On to the headlines.
Today’s News:
Biden signs $40 billion aid package for Ukraine during trip to Asia (CNBC)
Dodging shells, mines and spies: On the front with Ukraine’s snipers (WP)
Russia halts gas supplies to Finland (BBC)
Russia bans 963 Americans, including Biden and Harris — but not Trump (WP)
NATO Bids From Finland and Sweden Now Depend on Turkey’s President (WSJ)
How a Ukrainian teacher helped students escape Russia's invasion, and still graduate (NPR)
Only diplomacy can end Ukraine war, says Zelensky. (BBC)
Ukrainians don traditional dress under shadow of Russian invasion (WP)
COVID-19, shootings: Is mass death now tolerated in America? (AP)
As China Doubles Down on Lockdowns, Some Chinese Seek an Exit (NYT)
US, SKorea open to expanded military drills to deter North (AP)
‘Huge spike’ in global conflict caused record number of displacements in 2021 (Guardian)
S&P 500 Drops for Seventh Straight Week but Evades Bear Market (NYT)
Tesla’s stock price plummets as Twitter deal hangs in the balance (WP)
With public camping a felony, Tennessee homeless seek refuge (AP)
Japan protests China development of ocean gas field (NHK)
Pessimism engulfs the Chinese economy as foreign investment fades (Financial Times)
A Radioactive Gas Is Lurking Beneath the Permafrost (Atlantic)
Catcher Keeps Signaling 'I Love You' (The Onion)
No comments:
Post a Comment