Building Let Alone Sustaining

Up at five and read the news.  The big stories, for me any way, hadn’t updated much.  The Republicans senators were parading through their railroaded version of the impeachment trial.  Trump would be exonerated by the end of the week.  The Corona virus had gotten worse, the number of cases and deaths had increased.  While I was sorry to hear about Kobe Bryant and his daughter and the rest of the people on the helicopter, it wasn’t something that I particularly cared to go into in more detail. 

It was only a few hours later when I looked again to see that that the Bolton book leak had upended the Republicans’ strategy.  Blood was in the water.  It was now looking likely that Bolton would be invited to testify.  It wasn’t clear that this would ultimately result in any action for impeachment by the Senate, but the smooth process they’d envisioned was in tatters.  Trump’s main line of defense was directly challenged by his former Secretary of State.  And the situation in China seemed to have gotten much worse, at the same time.  Hong Kong was blocking mainlanders from visiting.  Deaths reported in Beijing and in Shanghai.  The mayor of Wuhan now saying he’d resign. 

The virus isn’t making building let alone sustaining a business between the China and the world, any easier.  I truly felt for all the tour companies and school programs and even for Disney Land and Ocean Park for all the lost revenue, all the jobs in danger.  Later a colleague called and said he’d heard from someone at Tencent that they’d be extending their holiday for two months.  If that is indicative of anything, we’ll be in this for a while, now.  Morbid perhaps, and not something I’m necessarily in a position to act on, but it strikes you that it would be a great time to buy real estate Wuhan or perhaps stock in major Chinese companies who will necessarily take a hit just now.  And, having seen the SARS movie we can be fairly certain of how this will end.

I spent the day trying to make my way through the Old Testament.  It’s a goal I’ve set for myself:  finish the most important text in western thinking.  I found Jeremiah and Ezekiel pretty slow going.  God is perennially frustrated with his chosen people, who always seem to let him down and he spends much of the texts threatening them.  Psalms was a bit more upbeat.  I’m reading a version entitled the “Jewish Study Bible”, rather than the King James text that we’re otherwise more familiar with.  A testimony to my relative ignorance or certainly my apostasy, perhaps but the psalms reminded me as much of sermons I’d heard as they did of reggae albums I’ve enjoyed.  Who was it who had the song: “Chant a Psalm A Day.”  I’ll have to go back and through that on. (Steel Pulse)

Outside the squirrels are eating below the window on some sunflower seeds I’ve scattered there for them.  I’ve put some sticky stuff on the feeders, and they seem to be leaving those alone for now.  They eat and chase one another, seemingly frustrated with anyone else’s success at the zero-sum sunflower seed game.  But they are united as a species.  As soon as one squirrel sees something overhead, he will call out and they all dart for cover.  Indeed, it wasn’t long after that a big hawk swooped right down in front of the window.   It would appear that he moved on, without anything to show for his time in my yard.

Monday, 01/27/20