Mornings |
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19 January 2024 - Askøy
Sitting here at the table by the windows overlooking the fjord Iwona and I are working at our computers with bellies full of breakfast and a fire blazing in the oven. Outside knee-high snow and icicles remind of of the cold. As if we needed it! Our feet are cold despite the woolen toffler we're wearing and the woolen long underwear. The whistling tea kettle tells me that the water is hot enough to brew our second presskanne of coffee. Today we're enjoying beans Iwona picked up last Fall in Finisterre. Last night we went to see a performance of Bruckner's unfinished 9th symphony at Grieghallen. Iwona was impressed with the acoustics - 20th century engineering rather than the ornate 19th century performance halls we often find ourselves. I was taken back to the first performance of Bruckner I saw here years ago. It his 4th symphony, and I have since seen several others in Zürich. Bruckner never had any children, so he considered his symphonies children and spent his entire life reworking them. Being in Bergen again means encountering many places that remind me of my children. It's hard not to re-hear Cara's voice channeled through them as to why taking them to the symphony or other musical performances was bad when I did it. Sadly, they still cling to her worldview that everything I do can be seen in a negative light. I've even been told dropping off gifts is equivalent to physical assault. As someone who generally tries to hear other people's perspectives it's hard not to let this craziness infect my brain. I told both Maxwell and Zara that I'm here, and they both told me that they're angry at me because of something their mom said about me. This is why so many men stop trying. And children learn that sending angry texts is good, while meeting someone in person to have a conversation with all the communication that face-to-face entails is bad if your mom says that person is an enemy. Divide and rule is the simplest game and still it's so effective. Like so many of us I've been watching the ascent of Javier Milei to Argentina's presidency with excited disbelief. His rhetoric is pure libertarian, as an American would say, or classically liberal, as they say just about everywhere else. Socialism, feminism, communism, etc. divides people into groups to make them easier to control, and Milei is saying openly that the role of government is not to divide up resources between the groups but to protect the rule of law so that people can know their contracts between eachother will be honored. It's incredible to hear a politician say taxation is theft and abortion is murder, but the proof will be in his ability to implement policies that turn Argentina around. 100 years ago the country had a higher standard of living than the US, but today they live with triple digit inflation. But in libertarian circles people are learning Spanish just to follow what's happening there now. My Spanish is sadly not that good, but maybe with a few more years of travel to Spain I'll get there. I'm also not a big believer in the hero riding in on a white horse myth. Milei alone versus the bureaucracy cannot win. But if there is group of likeminded individuals that can reform Argentinian society together then there's a chance of success. That is, shutting down half of the government ministries won't help if the other half are still run by leeches. As I watch the sun pierce through the clouds across the fjord over Bergen I have hope for the future though.
