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Heavy Mental Lifting
Jun. 16th, 2025 09:22 amWent over the bridge to poke around in the Hyde Park garden yesterday.
Grass clippings seem to be doing their job of keeping the weeds down, plus my lettuce is harvestable. I took home enough of it to keep me in salads for the rest of the week:
Also, most mysteriously, a California Golden Poppy had popped up out of nowhere, and this made me very happy because it made me think I might figure out a way to get back to California one of these days. The augers just keep coming!
Afterwards, I toddled off to visit with Belinda.
We talked about the Israel/Iran situation.
"But Hamas!" she said. "It's a terrorist organization!"
I shrugged. "How do you define 'terrorist'? A political organization that uses violence & fear to achieve political ends?"
She nodded vigerously. "Yeah! That!"
"Well, by that definition, Israel is a terrorist organization."
She stared at me, shocked.
"Here's the thing. For hundreds of years, the people who eventually coalesced to form the nation state of Israel were under Ottoman Turk rule. And then for 30 years, it was a British protectorate. And during that entire time, any organization that lobbied for sovereignty or self-rule for the area was outlawed and so naturally turned to violence to achieve its ends.
"It gets complicated, of course, because the majority of Israelis today are descendants of Ashkenazis who migrated after World War II.
"Still. If you look at the history of the area—the future Israelis were once in exactly the same position as the people of Gaza. That should give them—well. Not sympathy for Hamas. But at least an understanding of why Hamas might seem attractive. And that understanding is key to defusing Hamas's attractiveness.
"Instead, they are acting exactly like the Ottomans & the Brits who opppressed them—"
I could see the rusty wheels start turning in Belinda's head.
Whether or not she ends up agreeing with me is irrelevant.
But I think people need to get into the habit of doing heavy mental lifting on their own.
###
Then we toddled off to the movies!
We saw Materialists. I was curious about Celine Song's follow-up to Past Lives.
Materialists is pretty awful.
But you know, the Hyde Park Roosevelt Theater has stale Raisinettes! And heated recliners. So, I had a good time.
Grass clippings seem to be doing their job of keeping the weeds down, plus my lettuce is harvestable. I took home enough of it to keep me in salads for the rest of the week:
Also, most mysteriously, a California Golden Poppy had popped up out of nowhere, and this made me very happy because it made me think I might figure out a way to get back to California one of these days. The augers just keep coming!
Afterwards, I toddled off to visit with Belinda.
We talked about the Israel/Iran situation.
"But Hamas!" she said. "It's a terrorist organization!"
I shrugged. "How do you define 'terrorist'? A political organization that uses violence & fear to achieve political ends?"
She nodded vigerously. "Yeah! That!"
"Well, by that definition, Israel is a terrorist organization."
She stared at me, shocked.
"Here's the thing. For hundreds of years, the people who eventually coalesced to form the nation state of Israel were under Ottoman Turk rule. And then for 30 years, it was a British protectorate. And during that entire time, any organization that lobbied for sovereignty or self-rule for the area was outlawed and so naturally turned to violence to achieve its ends.
"It gets complicated, of course, because the majority of Israelis today are descendants of Ashkenazis who migrated after World War II.
"Still. If you look at the history of the area—the future Israelis were once in exactly the same position as the people of Gaza. That should give them—well. Not sympathy for Hamas. But at least an understanding of why Hamas might seem attractive. And that understanding is key to defusing Hamas's attractiveness.
"Instead, they are acting exactly like the Ottomans & the Brits who opppressed them—"
I could see the rusty wheels start turning in Belinda's head.
Whether or not she ends up agreeing with me is irrelevant.
But I think people need to get into the habit of doing heavy mental lifting on their own.
###
Then we toddled off to the movies!
We saw Materialists. I was curious about Celine Song's follow-up to Past Lives.
Materialists is pretty awful.
But you know, the Hyde Park Roosevelt Theater has stale Raisinettes! And heated recliners. So, I had a good time.
