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NOTES FROM THE CAFE FIASCO
Marshall T. Spriggs
Annual Report - V. 26.0; 2020
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Executive Summary:
I had my annual eye exam a couple of weeks ago and Dr, Kachinsky, my ophthalmologist summarized the state of my vision thusly: “There are some weird things, but you’re stable, so I guess we’re okay for now.” In one sentence, Dr. K pretty much summarized our year here at 35 Amherst Street.
Intro:
It gets dark early and quickly here in the Hub of the Universe, but we look forward to the turn around that starts about now and eventually results in more light and even more hope as we start to wheel toward spring. But with the way that things have been going, it may not even be prudent to count on this and I have the feeling that it’s going to be a long, cold winter, but there does seem to be a glimmer of hope on the distant horizon.
The Year So Far:
January through Mid-March: Pretty much like last year. (See Annual Report V.25.0 - December 21, 2019)
Mid-March through December: (Crickets - only everything changed) Of course, in this regard we’re not all that different from other Americans as we all share the same incompetent and uncaring federal government.
Health:
Denise: D’s headaches have gotten better, but still have not totally gone away. She changed her meds this year and the quality of the occasional headaches that she does experience have changed from migraines to major annoyances. Also, after being diagnosed with sleep apnea, she’s now wrestling with a CPAP machine that she hopes will help with the headaches over the long run.
Harry: About three months ago, I noticed during our daily mandatory petting sessions that Harry had developed some sort of lump under his chin. These seemed to multiply to other areas of his skin. Taking him to the vet and then to a veterinary oncologist (which I then learned is actually a thing) resulted in a diagnosis of Mast cell tumors, a relatively rare condition in cats. So, Harry is now on chemotherapy but seems to be doing fine otherwise.
Me: To be frank, covid has scared the Bejesus out of me for the past nine months. Over the course of the year, my health has deteriorated somewhat but not because of the Big Bad Bug. Not much deterioration, but enough - I currently have a heart condition, high blood pressure, an autoimmune disease that is unlikely to go away (Grave’s Disease), obstructive sleep apnea, and I’ve been finally proclaimed as a genuine, but well-controlled, diabetic (something that’s been coming for a long time). And, of course, I am an official old person now that I’ve turned 70.
All of this makes me a prime candidate for a ventilator should I come down with the recent plague. So, I decided to stay in while D does limited contact with the outside world - and though it’s been nine months now of limited sociality (which I generally don’t mind all that much), I do have to admit that after so long a time it’s starting to wear.
I hope to get out of my “confinement” sometime in the spring when Dr. Fauci tells me I can be sprung. In the meantime, there’s still work to do inside (and inside).
Work:
Denise: The Huntington Theatre Company is not closed. It’s just sleeping.
The HTC was just starting to prepare for a renovation of the main theater on Huntington Avenue when covid shutdown everything in Boston’s theater world. This means that almost everyone on staff was placed on furlough for the foreseeable future, D included. It is currently hoped that the theatre will be back in business come next fall and the renovation of the main theater will be done by March of 2022 when the company will be running on all cylinders. But, as we know, these are hopes at this point.
Harry: Harry doesn’t work - something that sometimes annoys me. But I have to remember that a) he’s not Scottish, and b) he’s a cat. I am jealous of his constant napping though.
Me: Not having an actual job (the very definition of being retired) I, of course, have had to invent one, since life without work is inconceivable for someone like me. So, I invented an Oral History project around an educational experiment that I was associated with at UMass-Amherst during the 60’s (Project Ten). Many of the participants in P10 are still alive and kicking and the UMass archives seem to have hardly any documentation about what happened there (and, take my word for it, a lot happened there). So I’ve been interviewing members of the Project and I’ll be putting up their reminiscences onto the UMass Library archives as the interviews get done and transcribed. This takes a lot of time to do, so it keeps me busy and out of trouble.
The other activity (or non-activity depending on how you look at it) that’s occupied me over the year is the increase in effort that I’ve put into Zen meditation. I’ve been a student of Melissa Blacker, Roshi, of the Boundless Way Temple in Worcester for three years now and I’m starting to feel like I’ve made some “progress’ in my studies. The cultural pause that we’ve all been going through has afforded me the opportunity to sit my butt down on the cushion for longer periods of time and participate in deeper studies of Zen. Just a couple of days ago, I participated in something called a “Jukai” ceremony with the Temple that solidified my commitment to the study, my teacher, and the Temple and produced a new “Zen name” for me - Shinryo - which means Sincere Journey in Japanese. So, now I have yet another name to live up to. Sigh.
Arts:
D: She had upped her painting game over the past few months and has been concentrating on portraits and animals. Harry still won’t sit still long enough for her to paint him though.
Harry: He is working on turning napping into an art form, working on his style many hours a day. He is currently working on his “on top of the radiator” form.
Me: There was some iaido activity in the backyard before the winter actually happened, but none since. No feedback from the neighbors about the old guy whipping a sword around back there and this is probably good. I hope to return to this once classes can be held again in the spring.
The most artistic thing that I’ve done this year is a return to journal work. Every day I sit down before bed and dribble out a few sentences about what happened that day. This has not resulted in a huge amount of output, but it has kept the Muse awake should I get to urge to actually produce something of substance someday.
Politics:
I would love to quote Jerry Ford: “Our long national nightmare is over.” But that’s not really the case. You may have noticed that we had a national election last month and that the forces of reaction are reacting (sic) badly to the fact that they didn’t win. They are currently trying to monkey-wrench the federal government for the incoming administration. Will these people just go away after January 20th? I think not.
If you think of our current President as a symptom of a disease, this begs the question of what is the cause of that disease. And to me, it seems pretty clear.
For the past 40 years, the poor, and the working and middle classes of America have been in a horrible economic squeeze, while the smaller but influential professional class has been expanding into good jobs and the upper classes have been swimming in cash. Add to this globalization of labor and a change in American culture to be more inclusion of Black, Latin, and Gay cultures plus a governmental structure that has been an utter failure in helping them get out of this meat grinder and you get a class of people who will eventually believe almost anything that you can wrap the American flag around and gives them hope of “getting back” to what they thought America should be. They are essentially in future shock.
People, especially white working-class men, are angry (as they have a right to be - they’ve been screwed for years) and they feel victimized (as they have been). This has made them easy pickings for those who would sell them conspiracy snake oil mixed with American Exceptionalism in order to take political advantage of them. Enter Donald Trump and the fantasy land of going back to the 1950’s that he has projected for the past four years. And, of course, scapegoats abound.
You can say what you want about Trump, but he was and is very, very good at this twisting of the truth. His narcissistic disease has made him a past master over the years of trying to fill a hole in his character with attention and he attracts those who have a similar need for power to him like flies to honey. If you had any dealings with bullies in high school, you should understand the dynamic.
The sad fact is that Don and the cult are not going anywhere even though they lost the election. His need for adulation has been supercharged in the past four years and I assume that he will still have a Twitter account as a megaphone. I expect that he will continue to use it. His adherents won’t be going away either because no one is dealing with the root problem that makes rational people believe in such things as the devil is behind a Deep State that doesn’t exist.
This will set up a very interesting political dynamic. The most interesting thing that will happen will be in the interior of the Republican Party. There is going to be a fight between the Trumpistas and the old line conservatives who ran the party before he showed up. The question is whether the RepCon’s can organize themselves enough to wrest control of the party from Trump, or will they form a new type of Republican Party (something that happened in the 1850’s when the Whig Party fell apart over the slavery issue), or will they just remain in the shock that they’ve been in for the past four years, or will they try to join the Democratic Party as noted Republican operative Steve Schmidt did this week. They have the access to the money and organizational talent to take the party back to reality (at least their version of reality that they used to have). The question is whether they have the guts and smarts to get back in control.
On the Democratic side, Joe Biden is going to spend at least the next two years trying to put the federal government back together after the Trumpistas have torn it up. He’ll have to do with the Progressive wing sniping at him. I think that he probably has the political talent to do this, but he’s still going to get hung up in repairing what Trump broke with or without the Republican roadblock in the Senate. Don’t expect any grand plans to be initiated.
All in all, for us political watchers it should be very interesting over the next couple of years. Interesting though probably not that good for the country as Biden tries to right the ship. As the old Chinese curse says: “May you live in interesting times.”
The Future: (Spriggs Predicts)
The Pandemic - Yes, I will eventually get out of the house, eventually, but only if the current crop of vaccines don’t have significant side effects. Up until now, the American public has sunk to the occasion about doing simple things like wearing masks having taken up fake excuses like the government is infringing on your liberties. Let me tell you, not being able to breathe infringes on your liberties too. But, as I’ve said, I don’t think that this attitude is going to change. Many more people are going to die because half of the country lives in Fantasyland. The Spanish Flu ended too, but only after a whole lot of carnage.
The Economy - It will come back, but slowly. And, of course, the people that will be hurt, as usual, will be the people at the bottom. Homelessness will increase since we have no coherent housing policy. Unemployment will drop, but the jobs with low pay and no benefits will be the first to be filled. It will continue not being pretty for the people who need help the most.
Climate Change - Climate change will come back as a big issue not only here but internationally. Because we haven’t gotten ahead of the problem, parts of the country will become unlivable in the near future. This will eventually even directly affect those people with multi-million dollar homes on Marthas Vineyard or who own wine vineyards in Sonoma County. So, things will start to be done. Nothing spells political action like bad things that affect the one percent.
If you didn’t believe before and don’t now you’re not paying attention to the rise in the number of tornados, the number of hurricanes, forest fires, droughts, and floods. Climate change is not something that is about to happen to our children, it’s here now and threatens our children growing up to be adults. Maybe someone will be able to connect the dots for most people so that we can get ourselves out of this pickle with minimal damage.
Extro:
That’s the way it is here on the 56th anniversary of the passing of my mother, Beulah May Spriggs. I doubt that she ever had a clue that her skinny red-headed boy would be around to commemorate this day. But I like to think of the Annual Report as a way of remembering both the year and her. I send my love to my Mom and I take her spirit with me into what is hopefully a better 2021. And to all the people who have helped me get this far, as numerous as you are, I send you a heartfelt thank you and know that I take you with me too.
Let us go together into the light. Happy Solstice to all.
Much love,
MTS - Shinryo
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