NATO airstrikes killed Qaddafi’s son and three grandchildren on Saturday night. I find the rebels’ stance (stances—let’s be realistic) compelling, but it’s not clear to me that Qaddafi’s dictatorship is the worst thing Libya has known.
What is clear to me is that there’s an awful lot of dying going on, and I don’t hear any music in that.
Mira’s Kaddish for Osama Bin Laden is an example of why I’m so proud to be her collaborator. With her words echoing in my brain, and her “bismilleh” Kaddish text echoing in my headphones, I attempted to play a Kaddish for this whole sorry scene. I don’t think it’s coincidental that I was hitting clams and playing notes out of tune the whole way through.
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم The goal of building (or rebuilding) an Islamic State is something as yet under-appreciated in the West. Do we in the West ask what kind of State is it? Or do we just assume it’s the oppressive, misogynistic monolith that we have dubbed it? Do we even ask ourselves if there…
We grieve all kinds of losses that have causes other than death—people move away, break up, have fallings out, become senile, descend into mental illness, become incapacitated by injury or illness, and on and on. Some of these are perhaps harder than death itself.
There’s something I really don’t like about finishing things. Good at starting. Good at ongoing. Good at thinking about. Finishing: very depressing. So. I had just finished organizing the entire program for a SWAA conference one year, along with two colleagues. SWAA would be the Southwestern Anthropological Association. And we planned some real conference treats….
[powerpress] Zila’s brother was shot while sitting out in front of his house—gunned down, no apparent reason. Zila’s family can’t attend the funeral because it’s too dangerous to go there, to Mexico—or is it Guatemala? It hardly matters; the story could be true in either place, or in just about any US city, for that…
Mira, your writing and thinking and worldview blow me away on a regular, delightful basis. This is me saying in front of God and everybody what an honor it is to be your collaborator.
A kaddish for this woman who appreciated the humanity of the royals, and may Wills and Kate live out the happiness that eluded his parents.
Thought I’d better get this in before it isn’t April any more. I think next year, the whole month of April’s posts should be in poetry. I’d be pretty proud if I could manage it. This poem I stumbled on searching through my replacement computer after the crash of my favorite but unreliable old one,…
Last night I played a lullaby for the several dozen tornado victims in Alabama. That number has continued to grow today as officials across the southeast tally the losses. When last I checked the news this afternoon, it had risen to 150, and as of right now the New York Times is reporting that the death toll nears 300.
