On a dark, cold night, the moon rises. © Michael Gold 2025 with permission
In traumatic conditions, people think about where they stand amidst larger forces -- and they think about the why as well as the how of life.
-Timothy Snyder, Substack, 12/6/2025
'So then you're free?'
'Yes, I'm free,' said Karl, and nothing seemed more worthless than his freedom.
- Franz Kafka, Amerika, 1924
In the morning, in the evening, and at night these days, I imagine the small town where I live seen from above by satellites circling the earth. Specially designed instruments are recording our sufferation, as the Jamaicans call it, and sending distress signals to friends and allies overseas. From afar, we appear as distorted, uncouth figures, the detritus of a once proud, functioning nation state. The arrival of masked gunmen exuding the stench of medieval warriors descends like a thick fog on our communities and in our schools. We blow whistles to warn of their arrival, but the threat of inchoate violence penetrates every waking hour. We often feel as though we are being smashed with utmost force, if not physically, then spiritually. We march, we protest, we stand in silent vigil, we attend gatherings with kindred souls, we lay flowers on killing fields, we pray. Some days these antidotes suggested by our pundits and psychologists work, and some days they do not. Yet, we carry on regardless. There is no other choice.
There are those among us, many of whom consider themselves "liberals," who maintain a strict cordon sanitaire around their lives. They do not read the newspapers, or watch the news, or worry about ICE arriving to sweep documented and undocumented brown people into "detention." Why not? I cannot say, but their silence and disregard feels callous at times. I wonder what they are saying to their children, or how they are protecting them from the hellish realities of our present moment, a paraphrase of Tina Brown's substack today. It is wry, in the British tradition, and often makes me smile, a welcome facial expression after yet another overseas massacre and a lunatic with a gun still at large in Providence, RI.
I must not end this blog post, my 50th this year, on such a sour and forbidding note. Timothy Snyder suggests we make eye contact and small talk with everyone we meet, thus "affirming" them and listening deeply to their struggles and point of view. It is a deeply humane practice, and one I attempt to strengthen every day to counteract the negative loop in my head and to affirm my own engagement. Just this morning at the gym I met a buff young guy who works for our local utility company. He has two teenaged kids he worries about and mentioned the tragedy of Rob Reiner's drug-addicted son murdering his parents. I didn't ask this young father who he voted for, of if he voted, but if we continue to converse and get to know one another, I'll make an attempt. It will be my contribution to swinging the next election.