Of birthdays, springtime, and a world still at war

Happy birthday to me now in late March, also to my son Jonathan 2 days earlier. I was visiting him for the first time since last November to celebrate our birthdays together, spending over a week in Berkeley Springs, W Va., without any internet or phone. It was a nice respite away from the computer, but put me way behind on correspondence. Here now are some of many birthday messages received on my return.

I hope you are well and keeping active. Many blessings for your birthday. 

Greetings from Honduras.

My friend Sonam Yangchen in mountainous Bhutan sent me this message while I was away: 
Hi Aunty, 
Washington is snowing I guess, how are you dear, take care 
Happy Easter aunty, always, Sonam 

Little does Sonam know the high temperature these days has hovered around 60 F.

While I was away, an errant ship collapsed a bridge in neighboring
Baltimore, killing, several workers, including at least one from Honduras.
Since our country is not producing enough workers, we should welcome those
from elsewhere coming to help us out.

=========================

Walking into my home on my return from W Va., I encountered a faint gas smell, which turned out to come from an oven pilot that simply refused to be lit. Fortunately, I came home before the house had become filled with gas, possibly blowing up? After I’d immediately called the gas company, all gas for the house remained turned off for several days (stove, furnace, hot water). Unbeknown to me, it had  all been silently turned off by the gas company using a switch located at the outside meter. I only discovered that had happened when I found a gas company notice left at my front door. After that, I hired a very versatile workman to permanently shut off the problematic oven pilot, thereby stopping all future use of the oven which finally solved the problem. In days gone by, I did often use that oven for cooking up various dishes for all the dinner guests whom my late ex-husband had invited to advance his career, also when cooking for our family that included 4 kids. But now living alone, I no longer need the oven; stovetop burners and a microwave are enough. Cooking with stovetop gas allows for more versatility than using electric burners and my radiator heat from a gas furnace is cozier than electric heat as well, but gas is also a problematic fuel now being phased out all over the country.  

When I first called about the gas problem in my house, the person answering my call had an accent when speaking English. I now know that most people responding to our calls on almost any subject are physically located elsewhere, as I’ve learned by sometimes asking them where they are located. Some have said Philippines or India; others have only said “off-shore.” I have yet to encounter anyone from Honduras, though I do know Hondurans working for call centers who have learned to speak English without ever having left their country.

Now as a senior citizen, I’ve learned to take things slowly and to avoid multitasking which only gets me off on a tangent. Also, I never get too worked up over relatively small problems, like having no gas or heat. After the untimely deaths of my older son and Cuban foster son in successive years, since I am still surviving, nothing much can faze me any more. 

Before I left for W Va., the redbud tree in my front yard had just started blooming.

Here were the cherry trees beside the Potomac River as we were leaving town for W Va. 

============================

Then in W Va., while my son was on duty at the Coolfont lodge’s front desk, I spent several hours sitting by myself in the entryway, sometimes greeting or talking with folks who passed by. Otherwise, when he was working, I often stayed alone out at his house out in the woods with no TV, radio, or phone, reading old New Yorkers passed along by a friend, with the issues later being donated to the Berkeley Springs public library. 

However, one evening out at the lodge, I sat at the bar eating supper looking at a giant wall screen featuring a lively game of women’s college basketball. It was Tennessee versus North Carolina State, something I would otherwise not have seen, having no TV myself. North Carolina won that game, 79 to 72.

Outside, redbud was in full bloom, though not exactly red.

Yellow-blooming Forsythia was also abundant everywhere.

What are these little yellow flowers popping up near to my son’s front door? Sometimes I see and hear deer running by. (His rented home is located out in the woods over a mile from the lodge where I had been watching the women’s college basketball game.)

One afternoon, I stood out by a canal next to flowering trees near the natural hot baths in Berkeley Springs, from which the town derives its name.

 Sometimes I ate alone in the dining room at the lodge while my son worked or I spent time reading in the lobby.  

My son's young dog, named Willow, sometimes traveled with us in his car. 

 

Though I was away from the news in large part and out in the woods in touch with few people, nonetheless some events, both national and international, still caught my attention.

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh may well have expected never again to hear the name Christine Blasey Ford. Just as Clarence Thomas had weathered allegations of sexual misconduct before him, Kavanaugh may have hoped to see Ford’s 2018 public assertions against him relegated to the dustbin of history. But now at age 57, Ford, a professor of psychology as well as a wife and mother, has resurfaced with a new memoir One Way Back giving her side of the story. She was interviewed recently by Michel Martin on NPR. For the female half of the US population, her accusations still resonate, as we’ve all been there. Nonetheless, 2 justices accused of sexual misconduct still remain on the highest court of the land.

Miami Herald, ‘We are hungry’: Cubans take to the streets in the second-largest city to protest

Folks in the city of Santiago (where I’ve visited) have taken to the streets in a rare public protest for which the Cuban government is blaming the US (nothing new there). It’s very hard for Cubans to actually mobilize, but they did so this time out of sheer frustration. Cuban authorities have since requested aid from the World Food Program.

 

CNN, Pelosi praises Schumer’s speech on Israel, says ‘Israel’s reputation is at risk’

Israel’s reputation has already taken a major hit, so demoting Netanyahu and changing course on Gaza would certainly help, the sooner, the better. By insisting on staying on, Netanyahu is not protecting the wellbeing of Israel, rather putting his own position above the good of his country.

 

Politico, ‘Totally inappropriate’: Netanyahu condemns Schumer for meddling

Schumer has said that Netanyahu simply has to go, so he is just asking Israel to give the US someone else to work with. Otherwise, should the US stop “meddling” in Israel’s affairs by no longer sending any more money? Since World War II, Israel has received hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. aid and remains the No. 1 recipient of American foreign aid. Of the approximately $3.3 billion which that country receives each year in American aid, roughly 15% goes to Israel’s defense budget.

 

Who pays the piper calls the tune.

Politico, From her lips to Chuck’s ears: Schumer’s rabbi weighs in on his Israel speech

The rabbi has totally supported Schumer, saying he is expressing the views of the overwhelming majority of American Jews.

Netanyahu has justified the Gaza assault using Old Testament metaphors. However, a former Israeli ambassador to the US, in a recent radio interview, depicted Netanyahu not as some rare outlier, rather as actually spokesman for a majority of his fellow citizens. Most Israelis really do want to kill all Palestinians, according to this commentator, even willing to eliminate an entire population now thought to be supporting Hamas fighters. However, even if true, wouldn’t such an effort actually be considered genocide? Is Israel, a nation established as a refuge from genocide, now actually willing to inflict genocide on another ethnic group? Already Palestinian journalists, having suffered horrific losses in their own families, are providing graphic and devastating accounts and photos of civilian deaths and injuries going well beyond just the elimination of Hamas. 

An alternative path recommended by the US posits having Israelis negotiate an end of hostilities with Palestinians, including an agreement to support the establishment of a Palestinian state, something which Netanyahu has so far flatly rejected. The US, as the major political and economic sustainer of Israel, is now confronting our own pending elections while voter support for Israel here, even among Jews, is waning, especially among Democrats. The whole world has also been turning against Israel. No wonder Schumer has been saying that Netanyahu simply has to go. War hawk Netanyahu may need to be removed for the well-being and actual survival of his country.

Let’s keep in mind that we Americans once considered Japan and Germany to be irredeemable enemies deserving of total obliteration. Is it then possible to imagine a future of cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians? It has to start somewhere.

CNN, Netanyahu’s response to Schumer widens rift in US-Israeli relations

Independent, Netanyahu agrees to send officials to Washington to discuss Rafah strategy