We are at a hinge point in history. If not in the long arc of human history, at least in the shortened view of our immediate lives. I am currently reading about the essays of Montaigne and it seems like a resource that is not only worthy of study and reflection but also an example for my own self reflection as an itinerant memoirist. Reflect inwards and document your thoughts. What else does one know best?
We are at a hinge point in history. Tomorrow is the election of 2020. It has taken so much mental energy and angst that I have attempted to retreat somewhat away from the world. If not fully, at least from social media, which is whipping itself into a frenzy like a titanic battle between a sperm whale and a giant squid during a furious storm and we on our small boats can only grimly hold on and wait for the sound and fury to die down before loosening the battens and peering out of the hatches into the new day.
I have confidence in the scientific measure of the polling that Biden will win and win rather easily. One cannot discount the possibility of another black swan event, however and even if the probabilities hold and the expected outcome occurs, there are many alternate futures that involve violence and turmoil continuing long into the winter. I fear that that passions and underlying issues that have led us to this point will not easily dissipate. I hope that the future I experience will be relatively placid and calm, but until we start down the path, one cannot help but imagine the worst.
I have been reading some books about alternate histories. I will try to write some reviews as I had pledged to do several years ago and work through my unread collection of books. I recently read ’The Midnight Library’ which relates the possibilities of living out the different choices that you make in your life. The ultimate message is rather trite but still comforting, that the choices in your life are less important than your outlook and attitude towards your life. You only have one life in reality and sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad but your approach is what matters.
Kara’s mother died on Sunday after a rather rapid decline from pancreatic cancer. Kara had been caring for her down in Santa Cruz and had only come up to San Francisco for the day for her daughter to attend some Halloween party and sleep over with her all-important teenage girlfriends. Her mother died early that morning and Kara was not there. I am not sure how she feels about this but I think it probably was for the best. Kara had said her goodbyes and what was left of her mother when she left was just a flickering shell of her former self. I hope that the aftermath will be kind to her.
Montaigne writes about ‘how to live’ but relates the aphorism that philosophy is really the study of how to die. I hope that my reading about his work will be instructive in both respects.
The year of reading 