Days Going By, Ideas Coming My Way; CC Off to Terre Haute

I decided to just sleep after work yesterday. I had stopped by a convenience store for RC and cigarettes, and then watched a bit more of Ozark. It is intriguing me and more; intrigued enough that I think I should write about it. Right now, Wendy Byrde seems like a very scary variation on Lady Macbeth - so far, no attempts at washing blood off her hands.

I did some rummaging through my email while my back started hurting. After reading, I decided that I might as well go to sleep and get up later to do any work.

Indianapolis Monthly published its Best Restaurants 2024. I knew of only one. Once upon a time, I think I would have known more. If integrating me back into civil society means knowing what is going on socially around me, I am failing at reintegration.

Global Eats is from the same issue of Indianapolis Monthly. We are getting more and more diverse. That is a good thing for Indy, but what about the rest of the state? Is Indy becoming as separate from Indiana as Chicago is from Illinois?

Along the lines of diversity and food, I never knew little Huntsville has become such a center for restaurants: Madison County restaurant inspection scores: Rodents, kids & sketchy eggs in the kitchen. A Bonefish Grill in Madison County?

Reading the interview, Tom Vilsack: Why Democrats Don’t Get Rural America, should be required for Indiana Democrats.

A winning strategy to end Russia’s war against Ukraine - I do not believe that Donald J. Trump can make peace in Ukraine that is not a victory for Russia. Any victory for Russia is a defeat for America. However, the proposal at the link above sounds good to me.

I confess I am not keeping the Advent Fast as well as I could. I ordered a sandwich and macaroni from Dominos. The lentils in my slow cooker had no appeal for me. 

Back to Ozark, and my reading.

The Two Worlds of Patrick White (JStor) makes me think about my own writing. Which I need to be getting to...

Throughout his work, White seeks such truths in the spiritual lives of his protagonists. All of them are on journeys of discovery, on pilgrimages to purity, simplicity, or humility, understood not in dogmatic terms but in the living experience of human fragmentation and wholeness, suffering and redemption, pride and love. Through these dichotomies we trace the divisions that still blind and separate us, divisions that White worked so hard to overcome in order to show that there’s “another world in this one.” In his work, White argued that the sparks are all around us waiting to be whole, if only we can make the journey through the desert of our own defeat back to human status.

For all I am now seeing the spiritual side of things, am I getting this into my writing? 

Xenophilia: Golden Rule of the Stranger - (JStor) - caught with an unfamiliar word and a notion that is all too well-known. Always, the stranger was to be honored. For a Christian nation, Americans cannot swallow that idea.

Shankman ends his exploration of the importance of xenophilia with a quote from Emily Wilson’s introduction to her 2018 translation of the Odyssey. There’s a stranger outside your home, writes Wilson, “old, ragged, and dirty. He is tired. He has been wandering, homeless, for a long time, perhaps many years. Invite him inside. You do not know his name. He may be a thief. He may be a murderer. He may be a god.”

Treat the stranger as you hope to be treated. The Wikipedia entry on the Golden Rule cites variations of this basic ethic from Egyptian, Sanskrit, Tamil, Persian, Roman, and Yoruba texts, from the three Abrahamic religions, as well as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, and so on.

The sinuses seem to be draining better. Antibiotics are a good thing.

I forgot to mention that CC sent me a text on Wednesday that she was leaving for the inpatient facility at Terre Haute. I suspect she was scared. She gets that way. I hope it does what she wants it to do, but after my nephew's lack of success, I am not optimistic. The proof will be what she does when she gets back - does she stay or leave Muncie? The only good thing will be if she leaves. I will continue to hope for her.

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