One problem about having the radio alarm set to NPR is that sometimes the first thing you hear in the morning just depresses or angers the crap out of you. Such was the case this morning when I heard about the latest update on BBC reporter Alan Johnston. The latest video shows him with an explosives belt strapped around his waist.
What the crap? If Palestinian separatists and dissidents want help and respect from the outside world, maybe the should drop the shit like threatening people who are there to tell their stories or killing wheelchair-bound cruise-goers or even blasting their own damn selves up in shopping centers! They've been pursuing terrorist and illegitimate means for over 20 years (in my lifetime anyway) to right what many people in this world agree is a political wrong. And what has it gotten them? Some of the worst unemployment in the world and a big fat wall. Here's a thought: try some Ghandi-style peaceful resistance. It took 20 something years in India, but it looks like you guys have all the time in the world on your hands, just no patience or even any realistic or reasonable goals. Here's another thought: I can't speak to the opinion of local Israelis, but I know that my Jewish friends here would prefer an Israel where Palestinians and Israelis live peaceably with dignity and opportunity. Your adversary may be actually be your ally if you stop and listen. But violence does not breed a credible partner.
There is some good news in my life. I don't want to post only on irritating subjects.
For one, Babydog has decided to sleep in this morning. This is good for me, because this means we'll probably have breakfast together, instead of her at 5AM and me at 8:30.
More excitingly, though, last night, I sent in my completed thesis to my thesis committee for their review and revisions. If I understand the process correctly, once they have sent it back to me, I make the changes, they and my advising professor sign off on it, I send it to the library and we're done! Since there's essentially nothing I can do with the content this week, I'll use this week to go to Staples and buy the correct weight paper that it's supposed to be printed on. And I'll run it by the library again to be reviewed for formatting. I have to admit that I'm rather nervous. Having worked on this for the last 10 months, I know the vein of my advising professor's comments, but not the general opinions of the committee members'. So I don't know what to expect when it gets kicked back!
TEN MONTHS! As Honey was saying last night, this thesis is past due. We need to induce! And how! I'm so ready for this to be over. And when it's done and we can stick a fork in it and it's published and I can truly chant, "no more pencils, no more books," then I'm looking forward to sleeping for two months and having a big ol par-tay!
Monday, June 25, 2007
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
What's Molly Dreaming Now? Edition 3
It has been almost a month since I've blogged anything. Why is this? Because my thesis will never die and it has been keeping me out of the blogosphere (and rehearsals for my show had begun). My professor wanted it to be done, forever and ever amen by next Friday. But due to some delayed communications, it will probably be at least another month. Chispas!
In any event, stress over my thesis has definitely been affecting my dreams. Namely, I've been dreaming of tornadoes again. Tornadoes are Molly's shorthand for sinister mayhem in her life. Quite often I won't even know that I'm under stress until I begin dreaming of twisters. It's the dreamworld tornadoes that often reveal the stress that I've been suppressing and bring it to the surface for me to acknowledge. (And sometimes deal with.)
But the tornadoes haven't plagued my dreams for a few days now. No, what surprised me was theme of my dream last night.
It was current day. Bush had just suspended the Constitution and taken sole control of the government. Another terrorist attack had just occurred on our soil, but it was not as vast or terrifying as 9/11. All I remember from my dream were the feelings of anger, disenchantment, disillusion and utter sorrow - not at the attack, but at the totalitarianism, at the fragility of our democracy that I love and take for granted and our apparent willingness to cede it so quickly to a single person under the guise of security. (A person who consistently displays no regard for the lessons history or promise to the future, no less.) And in my dream, I was terrified that I would be jailed and my family disbanded, simply because I - and my family - don't like our president and have been "foolish" enough in the present to actually exercise our freedom of speech both publicly and privately, against him and the policies he pursues in my name.
I wandered the streets of my neighborhood wailing like madwoman; hands in my hair, mouth agape. The image that flashed in my mind in my dream was that of an American flag. It was like any other American flag, except that the second red stripe under the blue field had been stripped out and replaced with a black stripe.
What triggered this dream, I don't know. I just know this morning, talking to Honey while he had breakfast, I had a feeling of dread. I seemed to worry that there would be a terrorist attack in the near future. Then I remembered my dream. Maybe it was the story in the news lately of the JFK plot. That's really scary, but I haven't really been following it closely. I also seem to remember hearing on C-Span radio a few weeks ago, though, that Spanky had quietly signed some piece of legislation essentially allowing him to suspend the Constitution and assume all control in a time of crisis if he felt it necessary. But I don't know the details of that, either. Quite frankly, the prospect of a single person taking over our government is equally terrifying to me as another 9/11 or a more invasive attack from a foreign agent. In fact, it's more terrifying: how can we fight to preserve our democracy, our "freedom," if we don't feel it can stand in times of direst crisis?!
In any event, stress over my thesis has definitely been affecting my dreams. Namely, I've been dreaming of tornadoes again. Tornadoes are Molly's shorthand for sinister mayhem in her life. Quite often I won't even know that I'm under stress until I begin dreaming of twisters. It's the dreamworld tornadoes that often reveal the stress that I've been suppressing and bring it to the surface for me to acknowledge. (And sometimes deal with.)
But the tornadoes haven't plagued my dreams for a few days now. No, what surprised me was theme of my dream last night.
It was current day. Bush had just suspended the Constitution and taken sole control of the government. Another terrorist attack had just occurred on our soil, but it was not as vast or terrifying as 9/11. All I remember from my dream were the feelings of anger, disenchantment, disillusion and utter sorrow - not at the attack, but at the totalitarianism, at the fragility of our democracy that I love and take for granted and our apparent willingness to cede it so quickly to a single person under the guise of security. (A person who consistently displays no regard for the lessons history or promise to the future, no less.) And in my dream, I was terrified that I would be jailed and my family disbanded, simply because I - and my family - don't like our president and have been "foolish" enough in the present to actually exercise our freedom of speech both publicly and privately, against him and the policies he pursues in my name.
I wandered the streets of my neighborhood wailing like madwoman; hands in my hair, mouth agape. The image that flashed in my mind in my dream was that of an American flag. It was like any other American flag, except that the second red stripe under the blue field had been stripped out and replaced with a black stripe.
What triggered this dream, I don't know. I just know this morning, talking to Honey while he had breakfast, I had a feeling of dread. I seemed to worry that there would be a terrorist attack in the near future. Then I remembered my dream. Maybe it was the story in the news lately of the JFK plot. That's really scary, but I haven't really been following it closely. I also seem to remember hearing on C-Span radio a few weeks ago, though, that Spanky had quietly signed some piece of legislation essentially allowing him to suspend the Constitution and assume all control in a time of crisis if he felt it necessary. But I don't know the details of that, either. Quite frankly, the prospect of a single person taking over our government is equally terrifying to me as another 9/11 or a more invasive attack from a foreign agent. In fact, it's more terrifying: how can we fight to preserve our democracy, our "freedom," if we don't feel it can stand in times of direst crisis?!
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