esrosedotblog

It is amusing to see all the hoo hah about our listening in on Merkel's phone calls. Is this a surprise? I would listen in on Angela Merkel anytime I could to figure out which way she will swerve on any given day. All this attention to spying is pure sensationalism. Believe me, if they could, they would all be listening in on Obama. Watch. The same people that howl against this are the ones who also want transparency and openness in government. How open can you get? Don't get me wrong. I don't want anyone listening to my phone calls but it is going to happen and happen big time the higher up one goes in the international game. Sorry. My reaction is that I am positively impressed with our skill at this shit. The Germans have to be pretty smart at security, they practically invented it. But this is an embarrassment to them and it is not going down well but it is not the end of the world. When Germany and Merkel want to disassociate from us and cuddle up with the new Putin, that will be something. For now, she should be grateful to have us nestled up to her ear.

I just finished the least likely book I would read all year. The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin. Unlikely as it is that Mary. You know, the holy mother. Why? Did I read it? Because I read everything by Toibin. He is a bit of a professional catholic. And I am not sorry I read it. As a literary experience it is pretty good. As a spiritual experience it is weird because the "new god" is not in it. Mary likes Artemis. She tells the hyper familiar story of Jesus in the end days and her experience of the whole thing. First, she is not cowed by the people who are milking her for her take on the whole thing. The guys who wrote the gospels. They are putting the story together and they have just a bit of an idea of how it should go and they want her concurrence. But she doesn't want to go along. In turn, they will protect her as it is not too safe a time to be the chosen one's mom even though she is out of the places where they are after the newly minted christians. Her story of it all is not that much different but she is a skeptic when it comes to the miracle stuff. She sees some of it and can explain it some. Lazarus was buried prematurely and even though he was out of the grave he was comatose for a long time after and then died for real. She says she saw the water into wine thing but didn't know but what all the jugs had wine except the one the gang set up for him to wave his hand over. And so on. As for the resurrection, she does not see it but rather sees it in a dream along with the other Mary. The novel is short and a very satisfying fiction read. I don't know how you would take it all if you were a believer in the myths but I don't think you would be offended by her take on things. After all, she is his Mom and the idea of a virgin birth is kind of abstract when you have been having regular sex with your husband all along. She focuses on the fact that this is her son. The boy she raised who went away and came back a man. A man with some strange presence about him. And with followers. Not only disciples but a rabble who hung out around the phenom who was viewed to be the new king of the jews. I liked this novel and would read it again sometime. Toibin is a great writer who has done non-fiction work as well as journalism, not the same thing as non-fiction literature. Sorry, if you are a journalist you are not quite and artist of the written word. So the book is a meld of all the genrés, a neat piece of reporting from the front by an eyewitness and a poetic recitation on motherhood. No matter who your son is or was or will be.

Another interview today with a young woman who has been especially mystified by driving here and finding the meeting place. I expect to point out that going to Boston area will be a lot more complicated but perhaps not. You hop on a plane and get off and take a cab. Here she has to drive from out in the Imperial Valley and find her way through the desert, five other "cities" which are not, and then find my corner in a place she has never, apparently, been. I did warn her about the bikers being there. So far it does not seem to have deterred her from the interview. Me either.

Labels: Administration Obama, books, desert, MIT