Friendship Without Borders: Afghan Conversation 40

(NOTE: For the past year, I have been publishing letters or conversations from a young Afghan friend living in Helmand Province. I am protecting his identity for his safety and also the identity of a mutual friend who has been providing him and his family with some financial support.)

Dear David:

For the past year on days when life showed its dark side, with the suffering of my nation and feeling like my future has been stolen, the friendship I have with you and one other American friend I will call M has been like a merciful rain in the desert.

Our friendship has kept my desperate heart warm. 

I have learned a lot from you and M during this year. I have learned how to study and which books in English to read. In the process I have gotten to know some great writers. My English has improved a lot. And writing has become part of my own life.

I have also learned the true meaning of friendship. From the conversations we have had, I have formed a general picture of life in America, what the American people are like, and what American culture consists of. 

Most importantly, I have learned how kind friends can be. In Afghanistan, with our poverty and oppression, sometimes it is difficult for people to be as kind to each other as we should be.

So my friendship with the two of you is the mountain of hope that I rely on. Whenever my heart is heavy, and I want to complain about life here, there is no one to express those feelings to, except for you and M. The words I have heard from both of you have always been kind, heartwarming and encouraging. 

The financial help M. provides is like a jug of water for a thirsty person in the desert dying of thirst. It not only provides food for me and my family but also preserves honor and dignity to our lives. This help is vital to the economic crisis our family is experiencing. 

I do not know the exact definition of friendship in America. But what I am sure of is that your relationship with me is more than a friendship. It is more like a parental love that is unconditional. It has been something that I am deeply grateful for. 

I can't find any words that can express my gratitude for your kindness. What can be said is that if you have not been, I'm not sure if I would have gone through all those hard days alone, depression would have knocked me down, despair would nibble me like leprosy nibbles someone's flesh, hunger would force me and my family to disgrace ourselves by asking for loans, and my brothers and sister could not continue to go to school. 

Thank you!

***

NOTE: I normally do not publish my answers to my friend’s messages. But this time I will.

Thank you for your beautiful tribute to our friendship. Both M and I are very grateful to be your friend. I hope someday we can meet in person. I also hope our communications can serve as an inspiration for others. That is my hope — that Americans will not forget about Afghans.

TODAY’s LINKS:

• How Biden Got It Just Right on Student Loan Forgiveness (Newsweek)

• Biden’s Student Loan Plan Squarely Targets the Middle Class (NYT)

• Biden student loan action ignites instant political battle (WP)

• The big winner of Biden’s loan forgiveness: women (Politico)

• The White House called out Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.) and other Republicans who criticized student loan debt relief but benefited from debt forgiveness of the Paycheck Protection Program loans during the pandemic. Some of the lawmakers were forgiven in amounts upward of $1 million. Meanwhile, the Trump University founder dares to rail about "fleeced" students. [HuffPost]

• Joe Rogan grills Zuckerberg on how Facebook moderates controversial content (CNN)

• Trump Mar-a-Lago search court papers released (BBC)

• Trump Mar–a-Lago affidavit reveals ‘handwritten notes,’ highly-classified material led to warrant request (Politico)

• Affidavit to search Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate says 184 classified files found in January (WP)

• Barr: Trump using 'extortion' to control GOP (Yahoo)

• n fiery midterm speech, Biden says GOP has turned toward ‘semi-fascism’ (WP)

• Dems now have a 65% chance of winning the Senate. It has been rising aLl summer. (538)

• Biden calls abortion restrictions ‘beyond the pale’ (AP)

• As a trigger law banning abortion in Texas with no exceptions for rape or incest goes into effect, Beto O'Rourke has released his first two general-election ads calling out GOP Gov. Greg Abbott. “From this day forward, Aug. 25, women all across Texas are no longer free,” women say in the ad. [HuffPost]

• VIDEO: Death Toll Climbs After Russian Missile Strike in Eastern Ukraine (Associated Press)

• Ukraine narrowly escapes nuclear catastrophe as plant loses power, Zelenskiy says (Reuters)

• Power restored to nuclear plant; Zelensky warns of ‘radiation disaster’ risk (WP)

• Fears of a radiation leak mount near Ukrainian nuclear plant (AP)

• U.N. Set to Inspect Ukraine Nuclear Plant Early Next Week (WSJ)

• How Ukraine turns cheap tablets into lethal weapons (Al Jazeera)

• Putin Orders a Sharp Expansion of Russia’s Hard-Hit Armed Forces (NYT)

• Russia’s Dwindling Manpower in Ukraine Spurs Recruitment Drive (WSJ)

• For nearly 70 years an imagined line running down the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China has helped keep the peace, but the so-called median line is looking increasingly meaningless as China's modernized navy asserts its strength. Recent visits by guests from the United States have reinforced Taiwan's determination to defend itself, President Tsai Ing-wen said as she met the latest U.S. lawmaker to arrive on the island. (Reuters)

• Arrests and Killings Drive Afghan Troops Once Allied With U.S. Into Hiding (WSJ)

• Could Engaging the Taliban Help Afghan Women? A year after its withdrawal, the United States must choose between humanitarian concerns in Afghanistan and legitimatizing the country’s religious dictatorship. (New Yorker)

• Extreme heat persists in China (NHK)

• Chinese city’s residents made to queue for Covid tests in heat above 40C (Guardian)

• Pakistan floods hit 33 million people in worst disaster in a decade, minister says (CNN)

• Inflation eases as consumer prices rise 6.3% in July (AP)

• California to ban sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles (Guardian)

• California’s move to phase out gasoline-powered cars, with other states expected to follow, matches automakers’ plans. The challenge will be making it happen. (Cal Today)

• CA Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday a $100,000 donation to the campaign of Representative Charlie Crist, who won the Democratic nomination for Florida governor and will run against Ron DeSantis, the incumbent. (The Hill)

• EPA to designate ‘forever chemicals’ as hazardous substances (AP)

• NASA’s Webb Detects Carbon Dioxide in Exoplanet Atmosphere (NASA)

• NASA Sets Sights on Moon With High-Stakes Artemis (WSJ)

• There's a 'Lost City' Deep in The Ocean, And It's a Place Unlike Anywhere Else (ScienceAlert)

• An ice-age bison was discovered! Then soon eaten — once the foul taste was smothered (NPR)

• Skeleton of an 82-foot-long dinosaur was found in a man's backyard in Portugal. (CBS)

• Cellphone dead zones could soon be a thing of the past. T-Mobile is teaming with SpaceX to bring cell coverage to more than 500,000 square miles of the U.S. using satellites, the companies said yesterday. (WP)

• $350 million for WeWork co-founder shows how broken and biased venture capital is (NPR)

• ‘Are We the Problem?’ The New Dean of Columbia J-School Wrestles With Its Place in the Industry — Does J-school even matter any more? Jelani Cobb is on a mission to mold the next generation of journalists. But first comes fundraising. (Politico)

• A New Test for an Old Theory About Dreams — When a sleeping animal’s eyes twitch beneath its eyelids, is it looking around a dream world? (Atlantic)

• Spanking is staging a comeback this school year in the classrooms of one small town in southwestern Missouri, where the district will now allow corporal punishment for any unruly student whose parents give their blessing. (Reuters)

• The Workers Who Relish Going to the Office on Friday—When No One Else Is There (WSJ)

• Coworker Loudly Typing Away Like 1930s Cub Reporter Chasing Hot Lead (The Onion)

LYRICS:

“Visions of Joanna”

Bob Dylan

Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin' to be so quiet?
We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it
And Louise holds a handful of rain, temptin' you to defy it
Lights flicker from the opposite loft
In this room the heat pipes just cough
The country music station plays soft
But there's nothing, really nothing to turn off
Just Louise and her lover so entwined
And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind

In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman's bluff with the key chain
And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the "D" train
We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight
Ask himself if it's him or them that's insane
Louise, she's all right, she's just near
She's delicate and seems like the mirror
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna's not here
The ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face
Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place

Now, little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously
He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously
And when bringing her name up
He speaks of a farewell kiss to me
He's sure got a lotta gall to be so useless and all
Muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall
How can I explain?
It's so hard to get on
And these visions of Johanna, they kept me up past the dawn

Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial
Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while
But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues
You can tell by the way she smiles
See the primitive wallflower freeze
When the jelly-faced women all sneeze
Hear the one with the mustache say, "Jeez, I can't find my knees"
Oh, jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule
But these visions of Johanna, they make it all seem so cruel

The peddler now speaks to the countess who's pretending to care for him
Sayin', "Name me someone that's not a parasite and I'll go out and say a prayer for him"
But like Louise always says
"Ya can't look at much, can ya man?"
As she, herself, prepares for him
And Madonna, she still has not showed
We see this empty cage now corrode
Where her cape of the stage once had flowed
The fiddler, he now steps to the road
He writes ev'rything's been returned which was owed
On the back of the fish truck that loads
While my conscience explodes
The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain
And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain

Boyhood Scrapbook

This is an essay from 16 years ago.

After my first marriage broke up, I moved my stuff to a house across town. Everything was jumbled together in boxes, so for a while I couldn't find anything. Then, I moved again a month later, this time into the house where I would spend most of the next year.

Slowly, as I unpacked my boxes, I sorted through old letters and books, some reaching back to my childhood. My son, then about 8, had just become a big baseball fan, rooting for the Giants, playing little league, and collecting baseball cards. I told him about my big collection back in the Fifties, when I was a kid.

He came over to spend the night one Saturday and I dug through my boxes, just to see whether any baseball-related stuff had survived the many moves I'd made since childhood. Out tumbled this old scrapbook, circa 1958, with prime baseball cards of Willy Mays, Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams, among others, glued inside.

This turned out to be pretty much all that was left of my boyhood collections (I once had collections of virtually everything -- stamps, bottle caps, stones, shells, seaglass, driftwood, bullet shells, bones, you name it). One battered scrapbook with boyish scribbles and notes throughout.

For some reason I had carefully retyped the 1958 baseball season stats; an indication of how much I was into baseball at that time.

Baseball and numbers, real and imagined, these were the elements dominating my fantasy life when I was little. Two other things have showed up over the decades — investigative reporting and the opposite sex. Add it all up and --presto! -- you get the general outlines of one boy's life story. 

TODAY’s STORY LINKS:

• Justice Department releases unredacted Barr memo detailing decision not to charge Trump with obstructing Russia probe (CNN)

• Who has student loan debt in America? About 1 in 5 Americans hold student loans. More than half of those 45 million people with federal student loans have $20,000 or less to pay, with about a third of all borrowers owing less than $10,000. (WP)

• Is Biden's student debt forgiveness fair? (BBC)

• Student loan forgiveness could help more than 40 million (AP)

• Actually, Canceling Student Debt Will Cut Inflation — Biden’s targeted loan forgiveness will help, not harm, the economy. (Atlantic)

• Judge orders release of redacted affidavit in FBI search of Mar-a-Lago estate (WP)

• Abortion to be put further out of reach for millions of women as slate of 'trigger bans' take effect (CNN)

• Trump’s secret papers and the ‘myth’ of presidential security clearance (WP)

• For Lindsey Graham, a Showdown in Georgia (NYT)

• Putin orders troop replenishment in face of Ukraine losses (AP)

• Biden Urged to Act Swiftly on Ukraine Nuclear Plant (WSJ)

• Occupied nuclear plant disconnected from grid - Ukraine. (BBC)

• Defiant Under Russian Strikes, Ukrainians Celebrate a Nation ‘Reborn’ (NYT)

• Ukrainian nuke plant near fighting cut off from power grid (AP)

• For Tehran, Afghanistan is a problem not an opportunity (Middle East Eye)

• One year on, Afghans at risk await evacuation, relocation (AP)

• The United States’ Unvarnished Cruelty in Afghanistan (Undark)

• Taiwan proposed $19 billion in defense spending for next year, a double-digit increase on 2022 that includes funds for new fighter jets, weeks after China staged large-scale military exercises around the island it views as its territory. (Reuters)

• California is poised to phase out sales of new gas-powered cars (NPR)

• Twitter is facing more employee departures, company executives told staff, as leaders sought to address multiple challenges, including whistleblower allegations and a legal battle with billionaire Elon Musk. Employee attrition is currently 18.3%, Twitter executives said during a company-wide meeting. (Reuters)

• A Tennessee police officer who was involved in the brutal arrest and beating of a young Black man in a small town in July had a documented history of excessive force and other departmental violations, according to records obtained by HuffPost's Phillip Jackson. The officer had been reprimanded for physical violence and having sex in his patrol car. [HuffPost]

• After 22 years, a rural Michigan town defunds its library over an LGBTQ book (WP)

• Taxing Tech Companies for the Failure of the News Industry Is Just Unfair (Politico)

• MacKenzie Scott supports child mentors with $44 million gift (AP)

• Sports Streaming Makes Losers of Us All (Atlantic)

• 7 million years ago, our earliest relatives took their first steps on 2 feet (LiveScience)

• Scientists create ‘synthetic’ mouse embryos with brains and beating hearts (Financial Times)

• ‘Monster’ fish eludes capture as Chinese city drains lake, millions watch (WP)

• Hero Conservationist Convinces Suicidal Galapagos Penguin To Put Down Gun (The Onion)

One Small Step

 Biden’s plan to forgive $10,000 in college loan debt to those earning under $125,000 is a very good thing on almost every level. I suppose it might contribute to inflation marginally, but that is trivial compared to other government spending measures, such as the bloated military budget.

The negative reaction of some to this move — ‘I had to pay mine off, why don’t they have to too’ — is a sentiment I can’t comprehend. It’s part of the bitterness some old people seem to feel toward younger generations, as if somehow they should have to face the same hurdles we did at their ages.

Actually, we should be fervently hoping they face fewer hurdles than we did! What else have we been working for if not to improve conditions for our descendants?

The sad truth is by most measures they are worse off than we are. Among other burdens, according to the Department of Education, the typical student graduates college with nearly $25,000 of educational expense debt. 

And don’t bring up climate change.

Those now struggling to pay off their college loans face also the worst housing market in history in our best urban areas. Wages are relatively flat in many professions and good jobs still prove quite hard to get for most people.

There is very little job security in ‘work for hire’ states like California. Benefits are generally better than when I was young (then there was no paternal leave for example), but those benefits don’t help pay off the high service cost of their debts.

They need years more of education than we did, including advanced degrees, and then a large dose of good luck to land a high-paying job. And by the time they get one, that educational debt load is a crushing burden for all but the wealthy few.

So Biden’s plan is a good first step. But much more will be needed to even the playing field. 

LIST OF LINKS:

• President Biden Announces Student Loan Relief for Borrowers Who Need It Most (White House)

• Biden to cancel up to $10,000 in student debt for most borrowers and $20,000 for Pell recipients (WP)

• Big student loan forgiveness plan announced by Biden (AP)

• Democrats hold onto key House seat in N.Y. special election (Axios)

• Democrats’ Outlook for Midterm Elections Brightens After New York Win (WSJ)

• Tuesday brought more evidence abortion rights could help Democrats in November (NPR)

• President Joe Biden's public approval rating rose this week to its highest level since early June, following a series of legislative wins, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll. (Reuters)

• Trump Kept Over 700 Pages of Classified Documents, Letter Says (NYT)

• Trump appears to concede he illegally retained official documents (Guardian)

• Trump, Without the Presidency’s Protections, Struggles for a Strategy (NYT)

• Laura Loomer, an anti-Muslim extremist and self-described "proud Islamophobe," lost her Republican primary race in Florida to incumbent Rep. Daniel Webster. Meanwhile, Trump-endorsed Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who has spent much of the past two years under federal investigation for alleged sex trafficking, won his GOP primary, likely ensuring another term representing his deep red panhandle district. [HuffPost]

• USDA to allocate an additional $550 million to help poor farmers and increase diversity in agriculture careers (CNN)

• Maxwell Frost won the Democratic primary for Florida’s 10th Congressional District, virtually ensuring the 25-year-old progressive activist will become the first Gen Z member of Congress. Frost campaigned on gun violence, climate change and "Medicare For All." [HuffPost]

• In response to the growing number of threats borne of conspiracy theories that agents were going to aggressively target middle income taxpayers, the IRS announced it was conducting a comprehensive safety review at its facilities. High-ranking Republican lawmakers have spread lies about the IRS and how the newly allocated funding through the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act would be spent. [AP]

• The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection has reportedly interviewed former national security adviser Robert O’Brien. In speaking with O’Brien, the House select committee may inch closer to understanding who knew what about Trump’s intentions on Jan. 6. [HuffPost]

• 225 reported killed in rocket attack in Ukraine on Independence Day (NBC)

• In Ukraine, a Nuclear Plant Held Hostage (NYT)

• VIDEO: U.N. Calls for Demilitarization of a Nuclear Plant in Ukraine (Associated Press)

• Battle for Kyiv: Ukrainian valor, Russian blunders combined to save the capital (WP)

• Ukraine was "reborn" when Russia invaded six months ago, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, marking 31 years of his country's independence from the Soviet Union with a vow to drive Russian forces out completely. We look at how Russian President Vladimir Putin is betting that a winter gas chokehold will yield Ukraine peace - on his terms. Here's what you need to know about the conflict right now. (Reuters)

• Daria Dugina's assassination could spell trouble for Putin's allies in Russia (NPR)

• The Afghan Women Left Behind — After the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, a U.S. organization shut down the country’s largest network of women’s shelters. Its founders think that it made a huge mistake. (New Yorker)

• Terrorism analyst Bill Roggio on state of counterterrorism fight in Afghanistan — "Intelligence Matters" (CBS)

• Biden orders airstrikes against Iranian-backed groups in Syria following attacks near base holding US troops last week (CNN)

• Fighting erupts along border of Ethiopia's northern Tigray region (Reuters)

• California air agency to ban sales of gasoline-powered cars by 2035 (Politico)

• Europe’s Rivers, Starved by Drought, Reveal Shipwrecks, Relics and Bombs (NYT)

• Crucial illegal road threatens Amazon rainforest (AP)

• Scientists discover fossils of giant sea lizard that ruled the oceans 66 million years ago (Phys.org)

• Young adults are using marijuana and hallucinogens at the highest rates on record (NPR)

• ‘Magic mushroom’ psychedelic may help heavy drinkers quit (AP)

• Drying Danube River Reveals Thriving Underwater Society Of Nazis (The Onion)

Slaughter Inc.

Among the worst aspects of the way our species goes about its daily business on this planet are human rights abuses whenever and wherever they occur anywhere in the world. Even one case is too many but when they reach an industrial scale they become impossible to ignore.

Such is the reality now in Ukraine, where officials estimate at least 25,000 war crimes have already been committed by Russian troops. In a significant piece of reporting in a recent issue of The New Yorker, Masha Gessen documents a few of these stories in a matter-of-fact tone that underscores the wanton brutality of the crimes.

It appears that Ukrainian civilians not engaged in any kind of resistance are being systematically gunned down simply like target practice by Russian troops occupying their country.

Gessen illustrates how the difficulty of prosecuting these types of crimes means very few of these cases will ever result in the conviction of the responsible parties, though there will be at least some measure of justice here and there.

War is brutal. We know that. But the practice of purposely executing civilians seems to be a matter of official policy for Russia. And that is unacceptable.

The global community at large will have to come to grips with this slaughter. A few show trials in the future will not be enough. Somehow we have to make the architect of this particular war pay a high enough price that others will not dare to follow in Putin’s footsteps.

LATEST LINKS:

• The Prosecution of Russian War Crimes in Ukraine — Twenty-five thousand cases have been identified thus far—what does justice look like for the victims of Russia’s atrocities? (New Yorker)

• Twitter’s former security chief alleges company misled regulators about spam and lax security (WP)

• What the Twitter whistleblower could mean for Elon Musk's takeover deal (CNN)

• Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is seeking documents from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey as the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX pursues his legal fight to walk away from his $44 billion deal for the social media company, according to a court filing. (Reuters)

• New whistleblower allegations could factor into Twitter vs. Musk trial (WP)

• Zoom cut its annual profit and revenue forecasts as demand for the video-conferencing platform cools off from pandemic highs amid stiff competition from Microsoft Teams and Cisco WebEx. (Reuters)

• Trump sues US government over FBI search of Mar-a-Lago (Guardian)

• Trump Had More Than 300 Classified Documents at Mar-a-Lago (NYT)

• Documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago were among government's most classified, letter shows (Politico)

• The federal judge who signed off on the search of Trump’s Florida home said the facts presented to him by the FBI are “reliable” and that he may in the end decide to keep the affidavit justifying the search warrant completely secret. The judge said the redaction could render the disclosure meaningless but added that he would make a final decision once he heard back from the government. [HuffPost]

• The threat of election deniers (Politico)

• Americans urged to leave Ukraine amid fears of renewed Russian attacks (CNN)

• Files copied from voting systems were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers (WP)

• New York takes center stage in fight for control of the House (Politico)

• Biden nears decision on canceling $10,000 in student loans as allies feud (WP)

• 2 men convicted in plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer (AP)

• Weakening economies in Germany and France piled more pressure on markets as decades-high inflation and surging gas prices drag Europe towards recession, pushing the euro to a 20-year low against the dollar. As euro zone business activity contracts again, we look at how Europe's economy succumbed to crisis. (Reuters)

• Global Economies Flash Warning of Sharp Slowdown (WSJ)

• AP-NORC poll: Most in US say they want stricter gun laws (AP)

• The Question Menacing Brazil’s Elections: Coup or No Coup? (NYT)

• Japan grants refugee status to 98 people who fled Afghanistan (NHK)

• Heavy rains across the drought-stricken Dallas-Fort Worth area flooded streets, submerging vehicles as officials warned motorists to stay off the roads and water surged into some homes and businesses. [AP]

• Almost half of Europe under drought warning conditions (Financial Times)

• One million square feet of Los Angeles roads are being covered with solar-reflective paint. (Fast Company)

• A Mysterious Illness Is Killing Dogs in Michigan (WSJ)

• Public health experts sound the alarm as new polio cases emerge (PBS)

• Mild electric shocks to the brain may protect older people from memory loss (Guardian)

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom Vetoes Safe-Injection Drug Bill (WSJ)

• Journalist killed in Mexico, 15th to die so far this year (AP)

• Mom Compliments Foreigner On How Cheap Everything Is In Their Country (The Onion)

Best Place on Earth

 

(NOTE: I first published essay ten years ago in August 2012.)

This morning, my youngest daughter and I were up by 5:30 to drive down Highway 101 to the outskirts of San Jose. It was a cool and overcast morning, perfect for soccer. 

Club level soccer is a demanding game; only a small portion of the kids who play soccer move on to this level, and in most places, far fewer girls than boys.

It has not been seen as a feminine option, in our culture, although that started changing in the 90s with the success of the U.S. Women's Olympic team.

From my perspective, it is an ultimate testament to femininity in the sense that a woman can be an athlete and use every ounce of her strength and speed and energy with every bit as much of beauty as any male.

What's good for the body is good for the mind and the soul.

In yesterday's games, the girls seemed tentative, holding back. Today they held back nothing. They came out to play and they played well. Though they lost, they contested the ball at every moment of confrontation, which in soccer is a constant stream of moments.

I was proud of my defender (#43 on the far right above) for her spirited play. Today she showed off the kinds of skills that got her to this level, standing strikers up, stripping the ball, running in spurts, and kicking accurate, long hard passes down field to set up scoring chances for her teammates.

She was at center back today, where her brother plays, and she looked a bit like him out there, at least from where I was sitting.

As I get to know a new set of parents along the sidelines, and cheer for new girls even before I learn their names, I again appreciate the value of team sports like this. 

Parents have to make sacrifices -- it's costly, you drive a lot, and you cannot really have any kind of personal agenda for your weekends, but often I think that the very best moments of my life have been there on the sidelines, cheering my kids on, win or lose. 

In these moments, time sometimes seems suspended, as if nothing else in life matters all that much. Watching these beautiful young people work together, play hard, and try to succeed makes me forget about the painful job losses, breakups, financial pressures, IRS audits, sad losses of friends who have passed, and many other depressing matters.

During a good game, when the outcome hangs in the balance, the world seems to slow down and come into a particular type of sharp focus. It's your child fighting for something beyond herself -- her team -- against other children fighting just as hard on behalf of their team.

Someone is going to lose and someone is going to win.

The air has a certain freshness; you can almost smell the ocean even when you are far inland. The sounds of the game -- the kids communicating with one another, the referee's whistle, the ball hitting the turf, the parents cheering them on, blur into a kind of poetry of motion.

The smells of fresh-cut grass, steaming coffee, perspiration, and sunscreen permeate your consciousness from time to time.

Sometimes you forget who you are, where you are, or why you are even there. At these times, you float like a being suspended up and down the line, engaged with the action as if you were connected to it by an invisible thread --an invisible thread of caring.

Of course, you want your kid and her team to win, but some part of you remembers the other parents of the other kids of the other team, and you empathize with them (as long as you are ahead!)

Mostly you at one with your child in this experience.

As I dropped her at her Mom's house after today's contest, my daughter flashed her lovely smile at me and said, "Thanks, Dad, for driving me and always being at my games. Some kids don't have that in their lives."

"You don't have to thank me," I replied, "because there is nowhere else on the planet I would rather be."

LATEST LINKS:

• A grim winter will test Europe's support for Ukraine like never before (CNN)

• Brazen Attack Near Moscow Rattles Russians (NYT)

• Excerpts from a Russian soldier’s journal: ‘I will not participate in this madness’ (WP)

• Russia fired rockets at towns to the west of Europe's largest nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine while the capital Kyiv banned rallies this week to commemorate independence from Soviet rule for fear of Russian attacks. With the conflict reaching a grim milestone this week, we look back at six months that shook the world. (Reuters)

• Ukraine: 9,000 of its troops killed since Russia began war (AP)

• Is the U.S. giving Ukraine some weapons secretly? (Politico)

• What Russians See in the News: A War Over Western Plans to Subjugate Them (NYT)

• Files copied from voting systems were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers (WP)

• White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci to step down in December after more than 50 years of public service (CNBC)

• Teachers at Ohio's largest school district vote to strike just before start of school year (CNN)

• The Senate looks like a jump ball. Here are the 10 seats that will decide the majority (NPR)

• Dems’ chances to win Senate up a tick to 64% (538)

• Why Freedom of Speech Is the Next Abortion Fight (Atlantic)

• Massive dark money windfall: New conservative group got $1.6 billion from single donor (CNN)

• The remote work revolution is already reshaping America (WP)

• Judge warns redactions in Trump warrant affidavit could render it ‘meaningless’ (The Hill)

• There Is No Happy Ending to America’s Trump Problem (NYT)

• Floodwaters overtake cars and trucks in drought-plagued Dallas as summer's worth of rain falls in a day (CNN)

• A deluged eastern Kentucky is left to ponder what it means to rebuild entire communities when "1,000-year floods" become a generational phenomenon, after this summer's disaster killed 39 people. “We never knew the water could get that high,” said Marley Green, who worked at a beloved Whitesburg community center that was destroyed. [HuffPost]

• Britain recorded its biggest fall in output in more than 300 years in 2020 when it faced the brunt of the COVID pandemic, as well as a larger decline than any other major economy, updated official figures showed. British consumer price inflation is set to peak at 18% - nine times the Bank of England's target - in early 2023, an economist at U.S. bank Citi said, raising his forecast once again in the light of the latest jump in energy prices. (Reuters)

• Stocks fall broadly on Wall Street, extending market losses (AP)

• Ford is laying off 3,000 employees (Verge)

• Covid may increase the risk of getting some brain disorders. People were more likely to have lasting brain fog, dementia, epilepsy and psychosis two years after a coronavirus infection, according to a large study published last week. (WP)

• China's scorched southwestern regions extended curbs on power consumption as they deal with dwindling hydropower output and surging household electricity demand during a long drought and heatwave. (Reuters)

• U.S. Delegation Visits Taiwan for Trade Talks, Risking China’s Ire (NYT)

• Over the past 12 months since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, human rights violations against women and girls have mounted steadily. Women’s employment in certain sectors was also targeted, with many not being able to return to work. HuffPost's Hamed Ahmadi spoke to several Afghan women who described how their work has been affected. [HuffPost]

• South Korea and the United States began their largest joint military drills in years with a resumption of field training, officials said, as the allies seek to tighten readiness over North Korea's potential weapons tests. (Reuters)

• Report Reveals Jesus Christ May Have Benefited From Father’s Influential Position To Gain High-Powered Role As Lord And Savior (The Onion)

Dream Worlds: Practicing the Future

 One of my grandmothers claimed she was psychic. She claimed she could see other people’s thoughts. She was very convincing in this regard.

So much so that some of my cousins and I wondered whether we were psychic too. We tried to read each other’s minds, with mixed results. Giving each other enough hints, we could sort of read each other’s minds, sometimes.

So the question remained open for me.

***

One of the better pieces I’ve read about the phenomenon of precognitive visions, or dreams about future events was in Psychology Today a few years back.

The article cites research that roughly twice as many women as men report prophetic dreams, which is interesting in itself, and provides many possible explanations for what such dreams may mean and why they occur.

But what really caught my attention was a quote from Carl Jung that such dreams may be “an anticipation in the unconscious of future achievements, something like a preliminary exercise or sketch, or a plan roughed out in advance.”

This makes sense to me from conversations I’ve had with friends about their dreams and my own memory of dreams I have had. Such anticipatory dreams often occur when we are just starting a new job, or preparing to give a major presentation, or on the verge of some other significant event.

Our minds seem to be working out a strategy for us to at least survive that future event, which is clearly causing us some anxiety, and maybe even help us thrive. In the dream, we become hyper-aware of our vulnerabilities — of the possibilities of failure in unanticipated ways.

This type of anxiety about the future is productive on several levels, I suspect, for creative work.

Many writers wake up from dreams with ideas for solving writing dilemmas. If they can shake themselves alert enough to do so, they turn on the light and write the idea down for later use.

Later in the light of day, that idea may seem stupid or foolish or naive, but at other times it indeed turns out to be a flash of brilliance. Either way, it helps inform our future work.

NOTE: This column is a followup to my recent essay “Dreaming the Future.”

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