Hi Fricka here (again). I wasn't going to post again before he came back but I have seen things today which have taken me from disbelief to despair to a sense that sometimes humans transcend the penguin-like.
Disbelief? I cannot believe that anyone would even mouth what Russia actually said aloud to Poland yesterday. What is it with your politicians? Poland is now a target for Russian nuclear missiles because it puts in defensive missiles from the US? You can scarcely blame them, especially with Poland's history of less than successful relations with Russia/the Soviet Union (I've been reading his posts on the Davies book) and Russia's less than transparent behaviour in Georgia. But what threat are anti-missile missiles? It's just like two little boys squaring up to each with 'my dad is bigger than your dad and he's going to kick the sh*t out of him'. Why can't the adults (male, that is) behave like adults and not like truculent little boys. One day, you will go too far and we will all be in the brown squishy stuff, right up to our eyebrows! It's also interesting to see the Russian army command turning the 'Nelson eye' to the behaviour of some of the 'non official troops', just like East Prussia, no?
Despair? I read that a coastguard crew are up for 'discipline' because they took a boat out to rescue a teenage swimmer that they had been advised not to take to sea because there were 'doubts' about its safety. Now three men had tried to swim out and rescue the teenage woman but two had had to give up because they couldn't 'stay with her' in the rough seas. One man was managing to keep her afloat but one assumes he too would have been forced to quit when his own life became endangered. What do the coastguard expect their crews to do? Stand by and watch someone die because maybe, but only maybe, the boat might start taking in water? Sometimes, taking orders from some bureaucrat isn't what it's about, is it? And even if the boat had gone down, wouldn't the crew have been in a better position to save her, not having swum the 100 or so metres to get to her, in rough seas? Sometimes, I wonder how some of you can be so callous! The men should get medals, the bureaucrat.......the sack!
And transcendence? From the Beijing Olympics (not the Paralympics) this. Natalia Partyka of Poland
That and Natalie du Toit, the one and a half legged swimmer, also at Beijing for the proper Olympics. Now they would make me proud to be human, I think.
The thing about being human is, and one reason I prefer it to being an animal is, for instance, the conscious choices we make. For instance, when one is dying of a fever brought on quite unexpectedly and humans surround the weakened person with help, assistance, love, and support. We humans should not despair. In fact, we are placed upon this planet to lift the spirits of depressed penguins (as well as humans.) Do not despair. Good will win in the end, though there may be many a day where evidence seems to point to the contrary. Lift up your chin, my little friend. There is still plenty of kindness in this world.
ReplyDeleteI loved the last chapter of Pellegrino's "Ghosts of Vesuvius" for that reason. So much hope, from even such a doubtful creature. I wanted to run to New York and hug his neck for that.