Communique

This election is too important to leave food to chance.  Biden needs a Taster.  I don’t think Trump will stop at anything to win. In  ancient Rome , the duty was often given to a slave (termed the  praegustator ). Roman Emperor  Claudius  was killed by poison in AD 54 even though he hired a food taster named  Halotus . [1]  Tasters were sometimes coerced. [2]  Over history, presidents and royal families have hired food tasters or sacrifices, over fear of being poisoned.  Queen Durdhara , the  Mauryan  empress, ate food that was prepared for her husband and died. [3] Adolf Hitler 's food taster  Margot Wölk  tried the food at 8:00 am every day, and if she did not fall ill the food would be sent to Hitler's military headquarters. [2]  President  Vladimir Putin  has hired a food taster who is part of his security staff to protect himself as well. [3]  In recent times, animals such as mice have been used to detect impurities in food produced for humans, such as during the  2008 Oly

An Existential Moment   We are in an existential moment; both biologically (the plague), politically (the election), environmentally (climate change).  The best way to look at this situation is to acknowledge and savor its uniqueness, whatever may happen, dwell in it, drink it, savor it.   What can I learn from it--about myself, relations with others, both close to home and in the larger community?   I feel more confident that the political moment will be resolved, by the end of the year before the biological and certainly before the environmental.  With all of these factors in play, it could get very crazy.  So I shift back to, “I will ride THIS horse.”  I will let go of what was, or what it might have been, what I might have wanted it to be, and accept what it is.  A wild ride to be sure.  The uniqueness of these times can’t be overlooked.  “I will ride THIS horse”, is acceptance of this existential moment, to see life as a gift, a fragile thing, to be treasured and held.  Savor is t

Close to Home Since sheltering in place, I have done two slideshows of my neighborhood walks, each in four different Portland neighborhoods, photos and sound.  In thinking about the next slideshow, the next neighborhood walks I realized that due to the pandemic and staying close to home I have collected a lot of photos in a photo file simply called “Home”.   Here is the slideshow:  Close to Home These are the walks close to home I have taken again and again for fresh air and exercise.  In this new time I have come to appreciate these close to home encounters.  I’m seeing more now, close to home, small changes.  I have seen in ways not seen before over these last few months.    Repeatedly walking past things I have seen “NEW” and in some cases photographed, documenting what I saw.   Besides the changes in plant life, I discovered and photographed a 1897 house that recently went on the market in the neighborhood.  So I share that here and challenge you to see MORE close to your home.  En

I wake up in the night, feeling warm with a dry throat and wonder if I have the virus.  I dismiss it and go back to sleep. But, there are more cases now than ever.  The normal that one might want to achieve seems farther and farther away.  We are at an extended existential moment.  The future is unknown. I suppose this is more realistic-- thinking one knows the future is an illusion, and yet culture, our culture plants the seeds and creates the markers for this illusion that the future is secure, corollary, one is safe and immortal, this against all evidence.  I suppose my surprise at how strong ideology is, some who are able to deny the science of the virus, is not that different then this culturally propagated belief, the future is known and secure. The pandemic brings this belief into question and we can call it existentialism.  No, the future is not known, so get over it.  Life is a fragile gift, we don’t know what happens tomorrow.  Many people, and cultures have live

I can't breath Reflecting on the horrendous scene in Minneapolis, “I can’t breath”.  I think of the disproportionate number of people of color who get sick and die from Covid-19.  I think of the respirators pushing oxygen into the lungs of people who are horrible sick.  “I can’t breathe” and I think of the lack of good health care in the Inter-cities and among the rural poor in the United States.  Before the pandemic this was just normal.  With people in the streets there is hope for a new normal. Still, I am seventy-one years old and this racial hatred has been present my whole life.  I have seen its many manifestations, a numbing number of means of disadvantaging the other.  I have seen how it has been used for political gain.  Everywhere I have lived, it lives, North, South and West.  When I took the white supremacy in Oregon course I felt overwhelmed by the relentless discrimination, it has so many heads.  I don’t know if it can be changed, it has been so persistent; it

I am at the stage of the “shelter in place” where I am beginning to wonder what is next?  Just a feeling, a question, isn’t there something else I should be doing or considering?  What is on the horizon that I am not seeing or considering?  What should I be seeing?  I have the feeling that something is missing, but what is it? I wonder if others have this feeling, or is this the unsettling feeling that we call “cabin fever”.  At this point it seems obvious to me that it is a changed world.  But, the questions emerge, I’m looking for something that we can know about the future.  Following the news it seems obvious to me, but not to some “policy makers” that this is an uncompromising virus/plague, it’s biology.  What has become clear is that this world created by our culture is usually mediated by compromise;  political considerations, market forces. That is now a fiction.  It is the old reality created by those with power.   Our new world is governed by biology, the virus d