Some Quotes

--Hope is the poor man's bread.   George Herbert

--Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.  William James

--It takes immense genius to represent, simply, and sincerely, what we see in front of us.  Edmond Duranty

--All learning has an emotional base.    Plato

--It is well to lie fallow for a while.  Martin F. Tupper

--I drink to make other people interesting.  George Jean Nathan

--Men use one another to assure their personal victory over death.   Ernest Becker

--Every dogma has its day.   Abraham Rotstein

--Gross National Product is our Holy Grail.  Stuart Udall

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Noticing

I'm just watching things unfold in our societal reality. It's interesting, and I'm feeling at least a modicum of hopefulness in the political realm.

I never knew, when I was younger, how much of what affects us relates to politics.

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Ivanka, Louise and the Little People

 I'd like to suggest a nice opinion piece by the great writer, Frank Bruni. It's published in The New York Times under the title listed above. It's dated November 25, 2017.

It talks about Ivanka Trump's suggestions for a pretty Thanksgiving dining table ("festooning the terrain around the turkey with Waterford crystal, Astier plates ($300 and up for a single place setting)..."). But, more importantly, it talks about the plutocratic cabinet Trump surrounded himself with in his first term. Here's a snippet:

--Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary and a former Goldman Sachs partner--net worth, $385 million.

--Gary Cohn, director of the National Education Council--net worth, $250 million.

--Wilbur Ross, Commerce Secretary--net worth, $700 million.

--Betsy DeVos, Education Secretary--net worth, $1 billion.

That buys a lot of turkey.

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Climate Change

The fires in France and Spain seem to be getting the world's attention. A New York Times' article sums it up well, "Earth's Warming Primed France and Spain to Burn, Scientists Find." 

Also, on Bill McKibben's Substack, he had a piece called "High Heat, High Drama," which laid out the many bad things that have happened because of climate change. 

Not to sound like a Cassandra, but when will the world wake up. Time will tell, but it is running out.

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