Saturday, May 30, 2020

Saturday Haiku: The Waiting Haiku

A Brief Look Back


Over the past month, the haiku I've written focus upon waiting. Could it be that sheltering-in-place had some influence? I didn't notice until after these were done, but the topics range from perching on a fence to actively waiting to "all the world will wait."

These screenshots will give you a review of the past four weeks:





























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Friday, May 29, 2020

Friday Funnies: Who Said That?

“Personally, I worry that, with everyone wearing masks, 
readers won’t be able to tell who in the cartoon is speaking.





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Cartoon by Jason Adam Katzenstein, The New Yorker.



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Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Let this Pandemic Be a Portal

Ten days ago, I posted my reflection upon our current living with the threat of the COVID-19 virus. In the past, pandemics have opened up new avenues for society. My friend, Dr. Andrew Duxbury will often include in his blog, Life, the Universe, and Everything,  posts that he calls his "accidental plague diaries." Last month he mentioned how in the past, pandemics have dramatically affected society. The Justinian Plague, for example, led to the development of  Byzantine society in the east when it essentially brought the Roman Empire to an end. The Bubonic Plague in Europe helped to pave the way for the Renaissance and opened Europe up for the Protestant Reformation and what came to be known as "the modern world."   

Who knows how this pandemic will unfold or where it will lead. the novelist and political activist,  Arundhati Roy suggests that instead of longing for a return to normal, we can let this time serve as a portal to a better way.

Here she is reading from her new essay, The Pandemic Is a Portal.* 





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*from her forthcoming book Azadi: Freedom. Fascism. Fiction. releasing in September from Haymarket Books.



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Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Favorite Recipes: Baked Tofu with Peanut Sauce and Coconut-Lime Rice

Baked Tofu with Peanut Sauce and Coconut-Lime Rice

Photo by Elaine Kinnaird
While we are sheltering-in-place with nowhere to go, it is a great time to try some new recipes.

This delicious recipe was featured in the New York Times Cooking. I don't have a paid subscription, so I was not able to get the recipe there. Instead, I went searching online and found it at Dining and Cooking.

If you don't have all the ingredients, don't let it bother you. I had a new bottle of lime juice, so I didn't go looking for fresh limes. This meant that I didn't have the lime zest to fluff into the rice. Even though it was missing that extra flair, the dish was still hearty and delicious.

Also, I used some local honey that was already in my cabinet instead of buying molasses. And instead of hunting down red miso, I used the miso that was in the fridge. The sauce was still excellent.



Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil, plus more for brushing the pan and drizzling
  • cup lime juice (from about 5 limes), and zest of 1 lime
  • Kosher salt
  • 8 baby bell peppers or 1 medium bell pepper (any color will do), stemmed and thinly sliced lengthwise
  • Black pepper
  • 1 cup smooth, natural peanut butter
  • 2 tablespoons buckwheat honey or molasses
  • 1 tablespoon red miso
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce (optional)
  • 2 teaspoons chopped habanero pepper, stem and seeds removed, or 1 tablespoon sambal
  • 1 tablespoon grated ginger
  • 2 (14-ounce) package extra-firm tofu, drained and sliced crosswise, 1/4-inch thick
  • 1 cup long-grain rice like jasmine or basmati
  • ½ cup full-fat coconut milk
  • 2 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
  • 3 cups peppery greens, like arugula, mizuna or baby mustard greens
Preparation:

1.      Heat the oven to 450 degrees and lightly brush a large rimmed sheet pan with oil.
2.    In a small bowl, combine 4 tablespoons lime juice with 1/2 teaspoon salt and stir to dissolve the salt. Add the sliced peppers, a few cracks of black pepper and set aside.
3.    In a medium bowl, use a whisk to combine 4 tablespoons lime juice, peanut butter, 1 tablespoon honey, miso, fish sauce (if using), habanero, ginger, 2 tablespoons oil and 3/4 cup water. Stir until smooth and season to taste with salt.
4.    Arrange the tofu pieces in a single layer on the oiled baking sheet and season with salt. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the peanut sauce over each. Be sure to cover the top, allowing the sauce to run down and coat the sides. Drizzle the tops with some oil, and roast until glaze is set, deep brown and caramelized along the edges, about 18 to 20 minutes. Use the remaining sauce in the bowl to make the dressing by whisking in the remaining lime juice and 1 tablespoon honey, and set aside.
5.     In a small pot, combine the rice with 1 cup water and the coconut milk. Season with salt and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook over medium-low heat until the rice is just tender, about 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow the cooked rice to sit covered until you are ready to serve. Just before serving, add in the lime zest, half of the sliced scallions and fluff with a fork.
6.    Divide the greens among bowls, and top with the rice and tofu. Spoon the peanut dressing over everything, and garnish with the drained pickled peppers and remaining sliced scallions.

Tip

  • Peanut sauce can be made 2 to 3 days in advance and stored refrigerated until ready to use

        Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
733 calories; 55 grams fat; 14 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 24 grams monounsaturated fat; 13 grams polyunsaturated fat; 40 grams carbohydrates; 9 grams dietary fiber; 21 grams sugars; 33 grams protein; 206 milligrams sodium




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Monday, May 25, 2020

Memorial Day Remembrance


Here is a post from ten years ago about how I came to understand the origins of Memorial Day with some thoughts on how best to honor our soldiers, both the fallen and the living.

I don’t recall much being made of Memorial Day when I was growing up. It was barely on my radar. I suppose there were Memorial Day sales, but as a holiday it was not high up on the list. Several years ago, Alison, a young colleague at work started talking about her childhood memories of Memorial Day. “I was always excited about the holiday because I would get brand new clothes. My mamma would always take me shopping. She would tell me, ‘We were going out to get your Memorial Day dress.’ That was the big thing about Memorial Day.” She was a young African American woman talking to me and Kevin, another young white colleague. Kevin and I looked at one another in mild amusement. We had never heard of such a Memorial Day tradition.

“You mean ya’ll didn’t get new clothes on Memorial Day?”

Kevin and I said no we didn’t.

“I wonder if my mamma was just telling me that. I sure thought new clothes were a Memorial Day tradition.”

It got to my young black colleague so that she went to another black co-worker to ask her about it. Alison returned later with a big smile on her face. "I asked Phyllis about it – she said it was a black thang.” We all three laughed about it.

That incident led me to ponder how and what we remember, and how we mark special days of observance. A quick look at the history of Memorial Day reveals the difference in how I, Kevin, and Alison had grown up observing the holiday. Memorial Day first came to be observed to commemorate Union soldiers who died in the Civil War. After World War I, it became a day to honor Americans who have died in all wars. In my white southern heritage, Memorial Day had no strong observance because it was not a thing that my white ancestors would have particularly wanted to honor or remember. To our black neighbors’ ancestors, however, Memorial Day would have signified a new beginning, new hope and opportunity (even though it took 100 more years for Civil Rights to be enacted). It makes perfect sense that our black neighbors would have celebrated with new clothes for a new beginning.

How then should we observe the day in the 21st century, after so many other wars have given us so many other soldiers killed in the service of our country? On Memorial Day it is certainly fitting to remember those soldiers who have paid the ultimate price for our country. It is also fitting to be thankful for the freedom we enjoy in this country. We would be remiss, however, if we did not pause to consider the price all of our soldiers pay during wartime. Rather than glorifying the fight, we should consider what our brave soldiers actually endure. We do not honor our soldiers by holding on to fantasies about the glories of war. By really understanding what it is we ask our soldiers to do, perhaps we would not be so quick to enter into armed conflict.

Nancy Sherman of Georgetown University writes of the invisible wounds of war in an article, "What Good Soldiers Bear". The article appeared in America magazine and was written after interviews with soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Well stated and insightful, I recommend the article which you can find by clicking here.

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Photo by Mark Wilson (Getty Images)



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Sunday, May 24, 2020

Dylan at the Movies: Subterranean Homesick Blues

In honor of his 79th birthday this month (May 24), we are looking at some of the songs by Bob Dylan that have made their way to the cinema. Here is a famous scene from D.A. Pennebaker's documentary, Don't Look Back. The film followed Dylan's concert tour in London in which he took the country by storm, wowed the journalists, and invented the music video with this clip.





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Saturday, May 23, 2020

Saturday Haiku: Foraging


when two doves forage
in springtime grass and clover
all the world will wait




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Photo by Charles Kinnaird




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Friday, May 22, 2020

Dylan at the Movies: I'll Remember You"

In honor of his 79th birthday this month (May 24), we are looking at some of the songs by Bob Dylan that have made their way to the cinema. Fried Green Tomatoes very effectively used Grayson Hugh's cover of Dylan's "I'll Remember You" during the closing credits. Someone has taken that song on the soundtrack and included memorable scenes from the film.





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Thursday, May 21, 2020

Dylan at the Movies: Things Have Changed

In honor of his 79th birthday this month (May 24), we are looking at some of the songs by Bob Dylan that have made their way to the cinema. This is "Things Have Changed," from the soundtrack of Wonder Boys which premiered in February of 2000. This was the song that "resurrected" Dylan's career after a decade of less than remarkable recordings. The self-proclaimed song-and-dance-man was once again hitting his stride.





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Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Dylan at the Movies: The Man in Me

In honor of his 79th birthday this month (May 24), we are looking at some of the songs by Bob Dylan that have made their way to the cinema. Here we have "The Man in Me" featured in the opening credits of the Cohen Brothers' The Big Lebowski.





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Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Dylan at the Movies: Shelter from the Storm

In honor of his 79th birthday this month (May 24), we are looking at some of the songs by Bob Dylan that have made their way to the cinema.

Here's a great clip of Bill Murray singing along to "Shelter from the Storm" in the 2014 film, St Vincent. I think these days more people should be singing along with Dylan and Murray on this one.





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Monday, May 18, 2020

Dylan at the Movies: Girl from the North Country

In honor of his 79th birthday this month (May 24), we are looking at some of the songs by Bob Dylan that have made their way to the cinema.

Silver Linings Playbook tells the story of Pat and Tiffany, two dysfunctional people who find each while suffering through their own mental illness. The movie was nominated for Best Picture, and Jennifer Lawrence took home the Oscar for Best Actress. Many of the scenes revolve around Tiffany and Pat rehearsing for a dance competition, in which a variety of music is played, but the most noticeable is Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” (from "The 10 Best Uses if Bob Dylan Songs in Movies")





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Dylan at the Movies: Every Grain of Sand

In honor of his 79th birthday this month (May 24), we are looking at some of the songs by Bob Dylan that have made their way to the cinema. From the YouTube notes we see how one of Dylan's songs was effectively used in this closing scene:

Final scene of the film "Another Day In Paradise", perhaps one of the best film moments in which a Bob [Dylan] song has fitted perfectly. I don't want to give spoilers of the plot, I will only mention that the boy we see running through the cornfield is fleeing from a lifestyle that was about to kill him. Each step forwards is one more step to a new rebirth, the subject of "Every Grain Of Sand".





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Sunday, May 17, 2020

This Time of Sheltering

J. BLUE/GETTY IMAGES

                         Life is a luminous pause between two great mysteries
                                                                                        ~ Carl Gustav Jung


During this time of sheltering in place, wearing masks, and keeping a “social distance,” we are ever more mindful that there is a virulent strain of virus among us. We were told we had to flatten the curve by limiting social contact and thus reduce the spread of the contagion. Our goal was to control the outbreak in order to keep from overwhelming the healthcare system. It has been an attempt to save lives.

After some weeks of social distancing, many of us are becoming fidgety, anxious, and perhaps a bit edgy. We fear the loss of income and the loss of social support. Since businesses, restaurants, theaters, stores, and even medical clinics, cannot do business as usual, unemployment is the highest since the Great Depression. People across the country are feeling the crunch as they line up in their cars for food from community pantries to feed their families.

Michigan rally protesting COVID
 lockdown (NBC News photo)
People are getting restless. Some are questioning the wisdom of our imposed isolation. They want to get back to work, open up the schools, take in a ball game, do some shopping. In Michigan, armed protesters showed up at the state capital demanding an end to the coronavirus lockdown. 

There are many questions about this “new normal” We are facing. How will it play out? How long will this last? Is this any way to live? I think many of us assumed that we could lay low for a month or two, let this disease pass on through, and then go about our lives as usual. Now we are beginning to see that this new threat is settling in among us.

Our Wilderness Period?

Maybe this is what Moses faced when, after liberating the enslaved Hebrews, they began to chafe at their circumstances. After breaking the bonds of their captivity, they got worried and fearful asking him, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” Perhaps our wanting to go back to the old normal is like the Children of Israel wanting to go back to Egypt.

It may be a new disease, a novel virus, and an alarming pandemic, but humanity has been down this path before. In the 14th century, the Bubonic plague killed 60% of the European population. In the 15th century, European diseases wiped out 90% of the Native American population. Humanity has faced deadly diseases before.

Last week I found myself wishing that I could email my Nineteenth Century ancestors and ask them how they managed to live in such proximity to death. Without antibiotics or modern conveniences, they faced death at many turns. There was tetanus, typhoid, flu, pneumonia, diphtheria, and a host of other ailments that could take you down. I wondered how they endured days of toil, hardship, and danger yet managed to find time to sing and dance. But then I decided that we are human just like they were. We will figure it out as they did.

A Time of Awakening? 

The advantage of being confronted with the possibility of death is that we can awaken to the wonders of life, however brief that life may be. ­As our scientists work to find a way to bring this pandemic under control, and as our nurses and doctors battle the frontlines of infection, perhaps we can find some bit of time to treasure the life that we have.

We have never had any guarantees as to the time we are allotted on this earth, but we do have the opportunity to take in this life we have been given. We can savor this luminous pause between two great mysteries. 



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Saturday, May 16, 2020

Saturday Haiku: Heron Waits









morning fog steps in
as sunlit waters glisten
a lone heron waits













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Photo by Cathy Pike: "Foggy morning at Lakeside Landing, Pell City, Alabama"
Found at Alabama the Beautiful Facebook site
Used with permission from the photographer


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Thursday, May 14, 2020

Dylan at the Movies: Knockin' on Heaven's Door

In honor of his 79th birthday this month (May 24), we are looking at some of the songs by Bob Dylan that have made their way to the cinema. Dylan fans will know that he wrote the entire soundtrack for the movie. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, in addition to having a role in the film. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" became a Top 40 hit and has been covered by many artists since.





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Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Dylan at the Movies: The Times They Are a-Changin'

In honor of his 79th birthday this month (May 24), we are looking at some of the songs by Bob Dylan that have made their way to the cinema. The opening credits of the superhero flick, Watchmen, featured Dylan's signature 1960s hit "The times they Are a-Changin'."





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Monday, May 11, 2020

Monday Music: Gladiolus Rag

In 1970 Joshua Rifkin began recording works by ragtime pianist Scott Joplin on the Nonesuch label and thus launched a ragtime revival. Shortly thereafter, Marvin Hamlish would use Joplin's music to score the soundtrack for the hit film, The Sting.

Gladiolus Rag is one of my favorite tracks off the Rifkin album. Listening to it makes my heart glad!





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Saturday, May 9, 2020

Saturday Haiku: Mockingbird



when the mockingbird
looks out from his springtime perch
vast meadows unfold




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Photo by Charles Kinnaird



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Friday, May 8, 2020

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Notes from the End of an Age


Photo by Charles Kinnaird
                       
As long as the sun and the moon are above,
As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,
 As long as rosy infants are born
No one believes it is happening now.
   ~ Czeslaw Milosz
   (From “A Song on the End of the World”)

This is how the world ends – not without struggle, yet so slowly and subtly that one can spend a lifetime in denial. Mislosz, in his poem, “A Song on the End of the World” depicts scenes “on the day the world ends” of everyday life that include a bee circling a clover, sparrows playing by a rain spout, and people going about their daily lives. He wrote as one who had indeed experienced world’s end, having witnessed life under two totalitarian regimes in Poland (first Nazi Germany then the Communist bloc). He gave us a clue about how world systems end.

Signs and Symptoms

We have seen and heard clues in the stories we tell. For example, those who give credence to the existence of ghosts often explain that ghosts are people who have suffered tragic deaths and linger in this world because they cannot accept the fact that they have died. This concept was skillfully presented in the 1999 film, Sixth Sense, starring Bruce Willis where we see a story of reluctant transition.

Could it be that the reason for our fascination with such tales is that those stories are signals from our own unconscious that the world as we know it has already passed? Our history books tell of civilizations that have come and gone, but how many who lived in those past civilizations realized that they were at the end of one age or at the beginning of another? Did the Fall of Rome make much difference to the fisherman and the farmer, or the weaver and the candlestick maker?

In our own day, the U.S.A. seems to be in the midst of transition. Half of the country wants to protect our way of life” (as they see it) while the other half is frantically concerned with preserving democracy” (or their understanding of it). Each side, while at odds with the other, looks back with reverence to stories of our founding fathers.

What we are seeing, however, is a society whose institutions are failing. Our educational institutions are increasingly ineffectual, our religious structures seem hollow even as they attempt to be relevant, and our government is paralyzed. We have a congress that for many years has been unable to legislate. The best they have been able to do is to go along with the executive orders of whoever happens to be president, to reluctantly pass 11th hour budgets, and to frantically seek reelection. The truth is, so much of what we know is in the process of dying.  

Many of our major institutions – government, banking, schools, and churches – were born during the Industrial Revolution. We are living with 19th-century institutions and have not yet figured out how to organize ourselves in the post-industrial 21st century.

It is unthinkable for most of us to ask at what point the broken becomes past mending. Are we now living day to day, unable to see that the world we thought we lived in has ended? What would we do if we realized that the system has failed? What if the government which all parties left and right seek to rectify is beyond rescue?

Life at the End of an Age

Living at the end of an age might simply mean that we are caught between the times. Old societal structures are giving way to new structures more suitable for where society is moving. But where is society moving? It is difficult to tell when you are living between the times as we are today.

Looking at the sweep of history, one can get a sense of what structures were needed for different stages of our social development. What served the hunter-gatherer tribes was not sufficient for the agrarian city-states as urban life became possible. The Roman Empire was one of many organizational structures that arose as civilization continued to advance toward a global as well as urban orientation.

Just as those living at the end of the hunter-gatherer period or at the end of the Roman Empire could not see that they were at the end of an age and heading toward another, neither can we fully grasp where we are or where we are going.

Finding Our Way

This is how the world could end – with struggles over outmoded systems. One person honors the old while another celebrates the new – neither knows the outcome. Neither understands that the world has ended. Both are unable to see the dying embers. How then do we find our way?

When things fall apart, perhaps we can learn from those who have made a life in the margins. Minorities, refugees, and other displaced people often must learn to find connections within a society whose structures do not necessarily work for them.

Or perhaps we could think of what we do at the funeral wake or when sitting shiva. We tell stories of life; we pay our respects; we connect with friends; we learn the art of letting go; we heed the admonition to prove all things and hold fast that which is good.  For those who find themselves between the times, death throes and birth pangs are comingled. It is in our own small daily encounters that we carry our lives from one world to the next.  

                                                                                                                                     ~ Charles Kinnaird



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Monday, May 4, 2020

Monday Music: Maple Leaf Rag (Scott Joplin)

According to Wikipedia: [“Maple Leaf Rag”] was one of Joplin's early works, and became the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers. It is one of the most famous of all ragtime pieces. As a result, Joplin became dubbed the "King of Ragtime" by his contemporaries. The piece gave Joplin a steady if unspectacular income for the rest of his life.

Despite ragtime's decline after Joplin's death in 1917, the "Maple Leaf Rag" continued to be recorded by many well-known artists. The ragtime revival of the 1970s brought it back to mainstream public notice once again.




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Saturday, May 2, 2020

Saturday Haiku: Waiting


waiting for the wind
the soul may securely rest
until time to fly



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Photo: House Finch by Charles Kinnaird



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