“Too much” suggests there is a lesser measure; “enough.” And still another; a measure of inadequacy: “Not enough.” The same can be said for “too many.” But the other end of the spectrum for “too many” has another variable suggesting insufficiency: “Too few.” Although “not enough” can suffice in that situation, as well. When I read or hear the words “too few,” my mind tries to comprehend the meaning, but my brain locks up. That combination of words tries to force me to understand a concept that is foreign to me or, at least, a little awkward: “an overabundance of scarcity.”
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The leaves on one of the visible branches of the bush just outside my window attracted my attention a few moments ago. The rest of the bush—all the other leaves on the remaining branches—were still, but that branch and its leaves shivered, as if shivering from the cold or trembling in fear. I could imagine my body shaking, had I been standing outside and reacting to temperatures in the lower 50 degree range. But that bush (and, especially, that branch) has experienced much colder temperatures without complaints. Fear could be responsible, I thought, but only if that little branch had the ability to experience that emotion. I ruled that out, despite the fact that none of truly know whether plants have the capacity to feel fear. I decided to investigate. When I looked down at the base of the vibrating branch, I saw it: a chipmunk or ground squirrel, busily gnawing on something near the base of the plant. Perhaps the shrub was reacting in fear, after all. Or pain.
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I cannot understand how some people can so readily pick sides between Israelis and Palestinians; voicing fierce support for one and loathing for the other. From my perspective, both are instigators and victims of violence. I feel compassion for each when the other side inflicts on them incomprehensible violence and pain. Yet I condemn each when it is the aggressor. Perhaps I simply have never fully understood either side’s claims of victimhood or their justification for wanting to expunge the other from the face of the earth. But, then, I would rather not join with those who classify either side as demons, or as heroic victims.
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Last Wednesday’s chemotherapy started imposing its side-effects on me yesterday; mostly in the form of causing me to need to sleep quite a lot. After several days of feeling energetic and ready to break out of living for months in a cocoon, I seem to have returned to my more subdued self. Damn. I was SO enjoying those several days of normalcy. But I hope that period of engagement with the world will return again soon.
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The United States never ratified the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I; perhaps we’re technically still at war? The US withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia in 2019. Our country ratified the SALT II Treaty in 1979, but withdrew from it in 1980. Among the treaties made with Native American tribes, but broken or repudiated or never ratified were the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868); the Treaty of Medicine Lodge (1867); eighteen treaties (1851-1852 California Treaties); Treaty of Washington (1855); The Treaty of New Echota (1835), considered fraudulent by many Cherokee people. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) [officially, as I understand it, not really a treaty], was entered into in 2015 to place limits on Iran’s nuclear program, but the US withdrew in 2018. The Paris Agreement, an international treaty adopted in 2015 to combat climate change by limiting global warming, was entered into in 2015 and abandoned by the US in 2019. “Our word is our bond.” Uh huh.
