Sometimes we are so adorable, I am suffused with affection for us and really, really root for us to come through this period of history okay. At least for some of us to come through the climate changes ahead, keeping intact some of the cool stuff we've figured out.
Even little stuff...
Like, all the contemporary Xmas ornaments I unpack at work are not the same old crap. There are some clever designs. Here, a kitten realistically batting at something (I put the tree there), and a gay Santa with his guys.
Commercial, yeah, but made with talent.
NOT that this stuff is what I'd choose to survive... though being plastic, it probably will.
Watching reels on IG, you see the most amazing humans doing all sorts of amazing things.
The drive and focus and strength of Ronaldo, the legendary Portuguese soccer player, FLYING through the air to head the ball into the net... here, in slow motion at 1:10.
A screen cap from a reel, Look . . . a Ahead...
He's famous and earns millions, but people share all sorts of genius, for free.
Like this pianist who plays classical piano for her chickens--here, with her rooster on her head--the rooster crows at appropriate passages! (I can't find the reel again--search piayano.)
Last night I finished skimming the disappointing Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism. It offers no special insight, or much insight at all -- it's just a play-by-play of events (interesting enough), and then the trial (not even interesting).
There's very little linking to what's going on now...
It's like the publisher said, "add the rise of modern extremism", and so the author wedged in some references here and there, along the lines of,
"Also, the Proud Boys attacked the US Capitol".
Yeah. Got it.
It would have been so interesting if he'd, say, interviewed modern militia members and asked them about Tim McV.
(I get the sense he lined this entire book up at his desk.) Unimpressive.
BUT, what did impress itself upon me was how clever and energetic humans can be. Though we're not necessarily aiming our energies in the right direction.
McVeigh researched how to blow up the OK City federal building mostly on his own, and carried it out alone... But it's as if Ronaldo flew through the air to knock the ball into the WRONG goal. And hundreds of lives were lost or ruined…
I often think, what would we be if we got the fertilizer we needed all along?
Not fertilizer to blow up buildings. (Amazing! such basic materials.)
No, I mean, of course, if we received the optimal sunlight, air, water, food... and LOVE we needed to grow well.
One of the only lines in the book that perked my ears up was a lawyer saying,
"There was very little love in Timothy McVeigh's life."
His childhood was no more grim and mediocre than millions of others though. (Of course, millions of others voted for Trump, so there's that.)
But most people don't have the ENERGY to do serious harm on their very own initiative, like he did.
What if he (we!) harnessed our energy to do serious good instead?
Or even minor good, like playing piano for the amusement of chickens.
__________________
bink and I went to see the disappointing Wicked the other day.
It's ridiculous---the movie is only PART ONE, and it's as long as the entire Broadway show. Result: it's long and b-o-r-i-n-g.
However, I would totally recommend you go for the last half-hour!
The part when the story finally takes off (finally)--and they sing the rousing "Defying Gravity".
The other thing worth watching is the powerhouse who plays the Wicked Witch--Cynthia Erivo. She stood out playing Harriet Tubman in Harriet. Ariana Grande is good--obviously an amazing voice--but she lacks twinkle.
Erivo is uranium.
In interviews, Erivo is very laugh-y and bubbly, but she can look tough (below, doing a personal work out--she talks about the importance of physical care to protect her voice, etc.).
She is another in my line-up of images of Murderbot--and my top pick to play the character in a movie. 
Off to work now--a day of throwing out a lot of Xmas rubbish, probably... But remembering how fond I am of us, nonetheless.
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