Happy Birthday, America. I'm grateful and glad to be celebrating with family in my own small town, but I am saddened by the polarization of our country, by our domestic terrorism and dismay, by a kind of pervasive, low-level post traumatic stress disorder, not to dismiss more acute and actually diagnosed cases of PTSD, or some that should be diagnosed but aren't. Sigh...
I am sad about Baghdad and all the violence and suffering all over our world. Yesterday, I listened to a lovely talk about Ramadan by a woman who was shattered by the Pulse shootings, the event itself and its timing during a period of peace, compassion, atonement. Baghdad brings the same terrible irony to mind and was calculated to disrupt Ramadan.
This holiday week and weekend I have posted two poetry reviews at
Escape Into Life. One might be the remedy for the other. I hope that Mark Neely, of
Dirty Bomb, might read
Suicide Hotline Hold Music, by Jessy Randall, so he can cringe and laugh in equal measure.
I share your sentiments. What an upheaval sort of month or so it's been. I watched my favorite mayor in the world, Sadiq Khan of London, welcome people of all faiths to share the tradition of Ramadan with him and the Muslim community. The injunction by less enlightened beings to commit atrocities during this season cannot change that vastly more beautiful conception.
ReplyDeleteYes, and thank you, Seana, for that beautiful reminder!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I thought the reviews were great. Both books sound very interesting.
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