I'm sitting in the customer lounge at Brian Harris Porsche while my Macan gets an oil change and probably a new tire due to a slow leak caused by a bolt I found penetrating the tire. I came out yesterday (Sunday) to drop the car off early but Mary Lou never showed up to take me home so I finally left myself. She had left her phone at Maureen's and was driving around looking for the dealership unsuccessfully.
At 3:30AM I heard a short alarm sound. A few minutes later the doorbell rang followed by pounding on the back door. It was the Fire Department who had been summoned by SimplySafe, our alarm company. They tried to call both of us but my Do Not Disturb was activated and Mary Lou's phone was downstairs where we couldn't hear it. I got up for awhile afterwards and unplugged the alarm system so it wouldn't happen again (except I now find out it's running on batteries!). Having been brought into alertness, my night's sleep unsurprisingly was less than optimal. I will call SimplySafe when I get home to try to figure out what happened.
Reading my previous post, I realize my days have continued much as I wrote then. Following the Russian invasion has been an obsession reminiscent of when Iraqi forces were fighting to liberate Mosul from ISIS. Ukraine is the opposite situation- the invaders are the oppressors and the defenders are the "good guys," at least from the perspective of westerners with democratic values. Fans of nationalist authoritarians, most Russian citizens and other people who hate the west see it differently.
Mary Lou, Mary O'Brien, and I watched the documentary David Attenborough A Life on Our Planet last evening. The film is a powerful reminder of the ecological and environmental crisis the world is facing and the dire consequences that will ensue if the global community fails to act. What will it take for humanity to come to its senses? Attenborough said we got here through our species' intelligence and we can avoid the devastation through our wisdom. The problem is, wise people are not in charge; in fact, no one is in charge. As Putin's War demonstrates, global society operates as anarchy and one narcissistic leader can single-handedly drag the world into a destructive diversion from what should be our priorities. Even the extreme catastrophe of nuclear war isn't out of the question. Political processes are unlikely to result in significant action unless things become so bad the wealthy and powerful countries are compelled to address them. I feel I'm just an insightful spectator with only a tiny bit of power to affect the unfolding of disaster.
All of this in the context of my living in a bubble of comfort, safety and prosperity for which I am, of course, very grateful. What can I do to make a small difference? What should I do? It's a matter of my personal values.
