New Gods, Old Monsters

It’s early morning as I edit these notes and prep for posting. It’s been raining all night. The sound of the rain coming down on a metal roof is a cherished childhood memory from my time at grandma’s house, sleeping upstairs in the big bed in the room between hers and Uncle Bobby’s. 

Good things are happening in Namibia. Good things amid a sea of difficult things I could say.

MYO kids continue to dominate relative to their peers in their respective schools. This warms my heart. Namib Futures is sponsoring three young men and women at University. Combined with the three I am sponsoring it feels like progress. Emerging Namibians continues to progress. We will try to publish three new articles in February — one I will write.

At Silver Linings, Sue continues to find the most needy families and gives them food, clothing, bedding, medicine, toiletries, cooking fuel and other practical things to ease the suffering of the most deeply impoverished.

These are all smallish things. But taken together it makes me feel like I am participating in the world at a time when I am nearly paralyzed with sadness about the state of my own country. Democracy has failed here — or at best is failing. I feel ineffectual. I blog. I vote. I try to have rational conversations with people with different views. I boycott. I protest. But it seems a lost cause against the force of MAGA hate and Elon’s money.

As Trump rages through his first two weeks in power, the reality of what we have done is proving to be even worse than we imagined. My social media feeds are full of anti-trumpers who are aligned against this petty tyrant. But MAGA social media feeds are full of stories assuring them they are the chosen ones and largesse will soon be coming their way. Owning the libtards has been their most fervent dream for so long that I suspect most of them don’t even know what that means or what they actually want.

Shutting down USAid hardly seems like the thing that will put us right with the world.

We are divided and quickly being conquered.

‘Violence is the only lever big enough to move the world’
~ Whitehead Colson

I took the title of this post from an exhibit at the Columbus Museum of Modern Art when we were there for Wonderball 2025. Actually Brittany noticed the title and made the apt connection.

I drove to West Virginia last Sunday to check on Black Dog Ridge. The weather had been devastatingly cold on top of a lot of rain and snow.

Just before I left, I received a report from my neighbor about the condition of my driveway. It said ‘Treacherous‘. ‘Solid ice‘. ‘Do not attempt‘. He had tried to get up with a 4-wheel drive truck and chains and could not make it.

But when I got there, I just kept driving and motored up pretty much without incident. A little slipping and sliding but my little German SUV did good.

I could have of course parked at the bottom and hiked in. I’ve done it before. A few trips carrying supplies. Good exercise, although walking up an icy covered steep slope carrying large loads often results in a trip to the hospital.

I’ve never been one to accept advice completely. I like to hear the advice. Consider it. And then make my own decisions. My bias tends more to action over caution.

There’s a steep 150 foot drop off on the right side of the road that has to be taken into account. Anyway, we made it to the top without drama.

Then I encountered a 2nd  obstacle. Downed trees. Four of them blocking the road over the 600 yards or so to the house. I’d not been at BDR for four weeks and there’d been bad weather — strong winds and heavy snow. One big tree blocked the road about 50 yards into my lane past the junction to Rich’s.  

So me and the Fox hiked to the house. Before we got to there, we found 3 more trees down and blocking access.

I changed into work clothes, got my chainsaw and tow strap, and went back with the jeep. I  cut the trees and used the jeep to drag the heavy logs off the side of the road. We drove the jeep back, hiked back for the car, unloaded and had a beer.

This is the kind of problem-solving I like. Straightforward. All one needs is a reasonably strong back and legs, the willingness to stand out in the cold driving snow to do a little work for an hour. Get that shit done. 

It’s a good feeling. Makes me feel like a goddamn man. For guy with an unimpressive physique and not particularly husky, getting work done, solving a problem with physicality, makes me feel like I’m still somewhat capable. It reminds me there’s more to life than sitting in front of a computer pounding out emails and sitting in Zoom meetings.

On one of our hikes, Marti and I jumped a very large coyote. Probably the biggest I’ve ever seen. He was dark brown and very filled out. Not the scrawny, raggedy, sand colored coyotes I was used to seeing in Idaho. This guy was beautiful.

Unfortunately, Marti does not understand the danger. She chased after the beast as he loped over the ridge. So I had to follow as closely as I could — hoping my scent would deter him from stopping and teaching Marti a fatal lesson. I lost sight of them but kept hollering and after about 10 minutes Martini came jogging back unharmed.

There’s no joy in a dog’s life on a leash in a large forest. Coyotes for the most part hunt at night. So we only walk during the day. I think this guy was probably sleeping and Marti came across his lair and put him on the move. Marti is no match for a full-grown coyote, let alone a pack. So we will be careful. But I will not restrict her happiness by caging her or keeping her leashed.

After the incident, I did give Marti a talking to. While rubbing her belly, sitting by the warm fireplace, I explained  that while she was inside getting a massage and playing with her toy pig, that coyote was out in the cold snow hunting down and killing its next meal. So while she feels tough, she actually is not tough at all. I probably don’t help by calling her The Jungle Fox and telling her she’s a brave warrior. I think perhaps it gives her an outsized view of her prowess in the wild.

The US government provided Israel the political cover and the weapons to bomb Gaza and Palestine for over a year . Now, the US government, Trump specifically, is complaining that Gaza is razed and will need significant investment and many years to re-build. So we will re-build just so Israel can bomb it all down again in a decade or so.

Advertising is surely one of the worst of human experiences in the modern world. I don’t watch much television– haven’t had cable at home for 30 years or so. But in a bar or a hotel, I find myself watching. It’s the commercials I find embarrassing about our society. Cars, drugs, insurance, cell phones and carriers, credit cards, streaming services, and the occasional badly produce local pizza business. Childishly immature commercials that seem designed to appeal to simpletons. Cheap goods and services offered to the masses with cheap gimmicks. Familiar faces and even actual monied people selling their souls to hock a few more bottles of monkeyshine snake oil.

Commercials seem almost designed to make us feel diminished and disrespected intellectually. It’s as if the ad agencies completely gave up on us. Like they are just going through the motions and assuming we’ll get onboard and buy the bullshit they’re peddling.

My friend Steven, who lives in Melbourne and when I last spoke to him was CEO of a small tech start-up, is now a gardener. That’s the 2nd time someone who used to work for me quit corporate to become a gardener. Maybe there’s something there. Steven is happy. Said he lost a ton of weight and is super fit and loves it.

Just before I left BDR, I stopped into Lewisburg and met up with my favorite old hippie anthropologists, Steve and Kim. We had a couple of beers at Briergarten and got caught up on all the latest. Since it was a Friday I wandered down to Del Sol and had a martini there and then up the Livery for dinner.

Everything felt a little off. But the FNM tradition runs back a good long ways so I honor that responsibility.

The weather has turned more favorable. No more early morning walks at 3 degrees. So that is good.

The 6 nations has kicked off although I missed the first week. I will try to watch some of the games this weekend.

I’m leaving for Spain in a week to meet Sjoerd and Shane for our annual spring meet-up.

I believe there will come a time in the near future when we will be called on to be brave. The divides in this country are too great and too raw and inevitably we will be pushed too far and will have to stand up. We must protect the vulnerable people if we are able to do so. Even if it comes at risk to our station.

No other news of note.

Humbly submitted
Rob Myres, Flanker – Portneuf Valley Rugby Football Club (ret.)