Putin

The autocratic leader of Russia is a family murderer.  If the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice, then his own grandchildren will one day spit on his grave and change their last names in disgust. 

Don’t call him a “strongman”.  Like all bullies, he is utterly weak.  He isn’t fighting other people - rather he is fighting the pathetic, paralyzing, life-sucking weakness that grips his gasping heart with an iron fist.  So to prove himself, he kills children.  He takes, he takes, he takes, because he has everything and yet it is NOTHING.  Other people are simply collateral damage in his sociopathic rage against his own loneliness, isolation, and emptiness.

If there is an afterlife, should we wish him eternal damnation?  No.  There is no revenge without rehabilitation.  Like all murderers, he should have to live every single life that he has taken.  He should experience the vibrant, unique culture of each individual, each family, each circle of friends.  And he should experience its violent end by the hand of cold disregard.  He should spend thousands of years living through joys, sorrows, and abrupt endings, over and over and over for eons, until he sees his life and legacy with unflinching objectivity. 

Then finally, at one moment, all the lives would be lived, and he would see, not only the consequences of the current repugnant, spineless slime inside of him, but he would also see the beauty of life and of love.  And that utter lack of esteem, for himself and for others, would transform and grow into a beautiful garden of experiences - planting flowers, cooking a meal with family, sharing stories with true friends, delighting in the joyful laugh of a toddler, caring for someone who needs it, feeling loved….and he would become truly good - not through the force of violence, but through the force of awareness.

But until then, if it ever happens, the world must deal with a sociopathic, existential threat to all we value.  

Enid Wears A Mask

There's an article in the NY Times today about Enid, OK.  

We could have been having responsible conversations about public health over the last two years. For instance, when a government elected by the people, decides to impose, or not impose, a mask mandate - it should be because they are weighing different freedoms against each other. There is the freedom to wear, or not wear, what you want on your face. And there's the freedom to go out in public areas and not have to breathe everyone else's unmitigated exhaust during a deadly pandemic. Both of these freedoms exist, but we have to weigh them carefully. Before vaccines were widely available, I supported the mandates because I thought they led to greater freedom. But I wasn't glib about it - I take any public mandate pretty seriously as a drastic step.

Anyway, this is the responsible way to talk about these issues. When we differ, it's most often about balance. But idealogues don't like this. It's just not sexy enough to fight about balance - even though we certainly can and should have strong feelings about the proper balancing of different freedoms. No, idealogues - like Enid's Wade Burleson - have to believe that masks don't really work to help slow the spread of this disease. They don't want governmet mandates on vaccines (something I'm not sure about personally), but that's not strong enough, so they have to believe that folks who've had Covid already, and others, shouldn't even get vaccines. They cherry-pick through the dozens and dozens of studies to find the one or two that are more ambiguous. They cherry-pick through thousands of experts to find the few who disagree with the consensus.

Imagine going to 100 doctors, with a pain in your side, and 97 doctors say it's appendicitis, but 3 aren't so sure - and, coincidentally, those 3 are all anti-surgery in principle - so would you say "doctors disagree"? Or would you get your appendix out??

Why turn to this technique of misreprentation? Of breezing past the legitimate issue to use illegitimate means to "strengthen" one's argument? One of my many theories is that religious thinking colors all this. In conservative religion, one tends to decide what one thinks first, and then go hunting through theology and Scripture to find proof-texts. Then, because you have to believe the Bible is written in one voice, you read all the other texts that seem to be in conflict through the lense of your "proof-text".

To be fair, we all do this. We feel something strongly first, and then create reasons to justify our feelings after the fact. But conservative religion does this on steroids. Why? Because religion is an almost infinitely flexible post-hoc reasoning system. To his credit, Wade argues for more women leadership in the Southern Baptist Church. But if you read him arguing with more conservative Baptists, he interprets their anti-woman-leader clobber verses through the lens of his pro-woman-leader theology, and other Scriptures, that support his feelings on the matter. But he doesn't afford this extensive hermaneutic technique to our gay friends and family. Although he probably does extend it to rich people - "let's talk about what all the Scriptures about rich people REALLY mean.....it's not what it simply says...."

If you like something in the Bible - that's what it plainly says! If you don't - ah, it's obviously symbolic. If something good happens, it was thanks to God. If something bad happens, he moves in mysterious ways. And if we selectively interpret Scripture and religion to create post-hoc reasons, why not do the same with scientific studies and expert opinion? Then anything in the world can be interpreted into exactly what we want it to be.

I am not anti-religion, we need vehicles through which to explore our deep thoughts and feelings about this existence we share, but I am pretty anti-conservative, overly-literalistic religion. I think it can indulge our most dangerous tendencies - to privilege our ignorance over another's education, to justify our inclinations, and to condemn another's, by appealing to religious authority.....which might just be our personal feelings in search of a justification.

I hope we can do better.

A Short Note On The New Song "Chin Up High" by Noonish Moon

About a week after my accident in early July, Wolfgang was attending an outdoor camp, so we would get up early to help him get ready. I would usually go back to bed for a bit afterwards, but some morning in the middle of the week I went to the piano and started working on a little tune. I remember Susan asking me, "Are you working on a song?" - and I said, "I think so." It was a baby step back to things I liked to do.

I started working on it a bit more, and I didn't like it that much at first - but after tinkering quite a bit, I got the melody to a point I liked. The triplet in the third measure made it work, along with the chord progression towards the end. It was slightly more straightforward than my usual style, but it had one slight twist in it that I've always wanted to do. Almost every song is in a key - it has a main note or chord that it returns to, and this one is definitely in a key as well - but this tune never returns to the "tonic" (main note/chord). I love it when songs do that. They can be really simple songs, but that little twist can make the tune interesting. The tune "Magnet and Steel" by Walter Egan does this - as does "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry (I think, I need to relisten). I think Nathan Siler pointed this out to me? Anyhow, there is an unsettled energy to a song that never resolves.

I added lyrics. I imagined peaceful, strong, determined protesters standing up for justice. I imagined people working to make the world a more equitable place for all. I imagined their hard work in the face of forces that are more interested in maintaining the status quo. It became a song of encouragement and conviction - even though that was about the opposite of how I was feeling. But that's how things work sometimes right? Brian Wilson wrote songs about surfing, but he didn't surf. Leroy Anderson wrote "Sleighride" in July. Music goes deep, to a different place from our current reality, and hopefully brings things to the surface. We hope that works of imagination and craft, on all levels, help to create the manifestation of actual, concrete change for the better. We'll hope anyway.

Authority And Power Trump Good.

A common refrain over the last four years has been, "I just don't see how Christians can follow someone like Trump. It completely contradicts what they believe about Jesus."

While I agree with the sentiments about Jesus - the current president is the opposite of the Sermon on the Mount - I'd offer that conservative Christians are actually acting based precisely on how they believe. I am certainly not speaking about all conservative Christians, but many for sure.

Christians who interpret the Bible literally have been taught to respect the authority of "God". Because of this authority, they justify God drowning (almost) the entire population of the Earth with a great flood - men, women, children, babies, animals, etc. They've been taught to justify God ordering the Israelites to brutally kill adults and children in Jericho (Joshua 6) or commanding the murder of Amalekite adults and children in 1 Samuel 15. God made them, so He can do whatever He wants with them, right? They sinned (forget about the good they've done), so they deserve violent death, right? There are many other examples as well through Scripture.

Why would Christians either create justifications for God reportedly doing these things, or simply defer to his authority? Because it's in their interest. They can keep their "keep out of Hell" card, or believe there is a strongman somewhere in the universe, or believe they have a spiritual parent to take care of them. And they can keep the authority of the Bible which comforts them - something seemingly concrete to lean on. So when something good is attributed to God, then they praise God as good. When something bad is attributed, it becomes "we can't understand with our limited human morality. We must respect God's authority."

Obviously any God would almost certainly be beyond our complete understanding, but we are talking about an inconsistent application of credit here (and a systematic way to justify evil). If God is beyond, then we can't attribute good or evil. Only power. If God is within our ability to morally understand, then we must use that sense of morality (often called "natural law" for Christians) consistently. This is one reason why many Christians see the Bible as a human attempt to understand God, rather than as a perfect revelation from God. Our human nature, in all its glory and horror, is revealed therein.

So when an authority - our current president perhaps - is perceived to be acting in the interest of conservative Christians, many are quite willing to do the same moral maneuvering they've always done for God. It's in their interest, they think, and it's nothing new.

Ancedote Are More Salient Than Data

It is quite possible that you may know someone whose life was saved by not wearing a seat belt. Perhaps they were thrown clear in an accident and walked away.

However in the vast majority of instances, wearing a seatbelt will save your life.

The saying is that anecdotes are more salient than data. In other words, singular stories capture our imaginations better than vast quantities of stories compiled together. So don't make your decisions based on that one story you heard (anecdote). Look at the vast quantity of compiled stories (data) and make a decision that puts the odds more in your favor.

Wear your seatbelt. 

I just had a conversation with someone about immigration. We were not talking about the big metal fence, or even the best way to secure the border. We were simply discussing the fact that crime rates among immigrants, legal and illegal, are lower than crime rates among natives. (Obviously not counting immigration-related crimes here. We're talking about serious crimes).

This means that the per-capita crime rate falls when immigration happens. This is because, frankly, more future crime victims are entering the country than perpetrators. I hate thinking about it that way, but it's true. Therefore, when immigration happens, natives are safer.

But this fellow's uncle was in a car accident with "an illegal". So that's all that matters. And this fellow doesn't come across as a completely unfeeling, blind Trumpie. But seeing it this was does confirm his broader way of seeing things.

And anecdotes are more salient than data.

Ten Reasons Why We Must Use Ranked Choice Voting To Elect Our Leaders

Hello all!   Please read my piece on this over at:

https://medium.com/@stevenstarkmusic/ten-reasons-why-we-must-use-ranked-choice-voting-to-elect-our-leaders-5d5d5514434


Thanks so much!

Here is the Spring Tomato and Pepper List for 2017

I am happy to offer seven different varieties of tomatoes for sale this year.   After growing about 30 different kinds over the last few years, these seven really stand out in terms of production, taste and vigor.

 All plants are organically raised and cost $3 a piece.  I am planting on February 15 and they will be available in early April.   Please email me at stevenstarkmusic@gmail.com  if you’d like to place an order, and I’ll plant some seeds for you! 

Kellog’s Breakfast

This producer of large orange tomatoes performed very well over the course of the season.   I didn’t really even have it in a great spot, so I’m excited to place it in a sunnier location this year to see if it does even better.  The fruits were very smooth in their flavor - perhaps a tad bit subtle, though more sun may change that, and always sweet and delicious.       

Carbon

Wow, this plant did so well last year.   The fruit production was constant and continued all the way into the Fall.  It also seemed to do well in the heat compared to other nearby plants.  Nice, big, sweet fruits with a darker coloration.  

Cherokee Purple

Similar to Carbon but with a thinner skin, this famous heirloom variety was absolutely delicious in 2016.  

Dwarf Sweet Sue

This is my all-around favorite tomato plant right now.  The medium-small yellow globes are the prettiest fruits I have grown, and the flavor is excellent - very sweet with a bit of a tang.  The foliage features thick, potato leaves that hold up well into the Fall.  Also, being bred from dwarf tomato plants, it doesn't grow quite as quickly as other varieties, so it works very well in smaller spaces.  I’m pretty sure I’ll grow this one every year.

Sungold

This is truly the “gold” standard in cherry tomatoes.   The thin skin and sweetness will cause a flavor explosion when you pop one or two of these into your mouth.


Eva Purple Ball

This wonderful heirloom produces a ton of smaller pink fruits.  They are tasty and the plant remained very healthy late into the season.   If you’re looking for yield, this one will come on strong in the mid-season and keep producing until late.

 Stump Of The World

When I got a really good one of these fruits, nothing was tastier in the garden.  There was liquid sunshine running through these large pink tomatoes.   And it yielded constantly throughout the season. 


And Peppers!

I am offering three kinds of peppers this year, because I really only had three that performed really well.   I definitely have a few new ones I’m looking forward to trying this season!


Early Jalapeño

This plant produces an abundance of small jalapenos. By Fall, they are usually falling off the plant because of their huge numbers. I’ve also noticed that they seem to get hotter and hotter as the season progresses.  I can’t keep up. 


Emerald Giant

This plant was fantastic this year producing lots of nice, blocky sweet peppers.  If you like green peppers, these are amazing.  If you’re like me and you prefer your peppers fully ripe, then wait for them to turn red - delicious!   It’s definitely been a winner in my garden.


Lipstick Peppers

These smaller, red peppers are sweet.  I don’t think I ever cooked them or cut them up.  I just picked them and ate them, tossing the stems out in the yard.