All aboard. People I very much appreciate:

Friday, August 4, 2017

The Human Race and Horseblankets



I have been mainly away from the computer for some days, possibly a week or more, because I experienced something that had never happened to me before.  I got into a debate. This how the pumphouse thermometer  looked here:
It looked like that again today but we just had a power failure up and down our road. It lasted 45 minutes and our utility district website said this: 
Updated at 9:41 PM August 3rd: Outages
                                                      Affected Communities
                                                      Customers
                                                    
                                                          3759 Customers
 It was really dark all of a sudden! Norma called out from another room, "Geo.?!"

I answered, "WHO?

"Geo.!" She repeated.

"I don't know, Norma. It's really dark in the kitchen and I can't see who I am!"

"What happened to the lights?"

"Don't know that either. I'll go check."

I went outside and it was dark, hot and quiet. Yes, I checked the breaker-box even though I knew it was a general blackout. I reported a breeze outside, so we sat on a bench and talked. I like her. She asked me what I had started writing and I told her it was about an unfortunate disagreement with another blogger. She inquired further --as she always does-- and I said something about a dispute over a horse blanket. By and by the electrics were restored and I returned to whatever it was.

So I returned to this post. Various Latin phrases unpiled in my mind: homo quisquilrian -mankind the litterer; homo factorum claustris --mankind the cage-builder; homo sapiens --mankind the wise.  These are various names that collected in the dark, but they have in common a single idea. There is only the all-encompassing human race. I told my pen-pal so, and was rewarded with the accusation that I was a traitor to the white race. I replied, there is no white race. We are all of the human race and the variations are only phenotypes --surface differences among ethnicities-- and I am not worried about what color humans will be in the future.

He is very worried about what color they will be and accused me of "white genocide"--my family is mixed.  I gradually withdrew from his blog over a period of a week, thinking the temperature in the the Mohave, where he is, rises beyond the capacity of my pumphouse thermometer --in fact would bend the needle right off-- and somehow addled his thinking. It is more comforting to believe that than believe --despite the fact he is younger than I-- that, unlike other fossils, he is petrifying from the inside out.

I don't even have a horse.


26 comments:

  1. I am so sorry.
    And would agree with you that our humanity is more important (much more important) than our pigmentation.
    I long for the day when there is no us and them, but only us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too, EC. As the melting pot continues to melt, as people fall in love with each other, I believe that day will come.

      Delete
  2. It seems like it is hot, hot, hot all over, but it shouldn't be on Blogger. I have only blocked one person and I think it was the same man that you wrote about. He had some problems and my heart went out to him at first. Then he showed his true colors and ranted and ranted so I decided it would be best if we parted company. Sometimes, we have to do that for our own peace of mind. To verbally attack a cool, kind (and very wise) gentleman as you are, Geo, means he should have no place among us people who are advocates of peace and love.

    I hope some lovely breezes come your way soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's still hot, Arleen, but raining in San Francisco. And yes, I agree with your take on blog debates that run to overmuch emotion. It is a kindness to withdraw without reflecting disturbance. Who knows what blows one's sudden adversary has taken in life?

      Delete
  3. So have you stopped reading the other person's blog or are you simply taking a break? As long as discussions don't escalate into fights each can learn from them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Admittedly, I did revisit once or twice to see if things had settled down. Stopped when he went back to reviewing the merits of a new beer he tried. Figured he was ok then.

      Delete
  4. Oh dear...such an unfortunate attitude to have....and so out of date. Good move to remove yourself from his company. Race on Geo......race on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Delores, the human race will go on in all its diversity for a long time --being so astonishingly adaptable.

      Delete
  5. As you are aware, I too have some experience with bloggers who's views, in my opinion, are beyond the pale. They have removed themselves from what I consider homo sapiens. and have moved to homo miserabilis. There is no reasoning or any reason for contact with those people. Remove yourself. Worked for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Mike, I believe you've nailed it. "Homo miserabilis" should definitely be added to the anthropological lexicon. Victor Hugo convinced the world of its existence in "Les Miserables" with the character of Javert --who misinterpreted things and removed himself rather drastically. The classification needs more work and I trust future people will work that out. We've done all we can.

      Delete
  6. I believe you did the right thing; there was no making sense of a discussion with said blogger. I must admit I gave up way before you did. It would be quite interesting to know the results of a DNA test on that person.

    And yes, truly there is one race - the human race. Anyone who doesn't understand that is cheating themselves of many wonderful potential friends and family members.

    It must be hot enough to fry an egg on the walkway there, isn't it? Whew! I'm glad your outage wasn't longer. Forty-five minutes probably felt like time to panic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Must agree. But sitting outside in the warm night breeze was not inducive to panic --not while owls inquired "who, who, who is sharing this silent dark with us?" As to DNA, Homo sapiens, the binomial nomenclature for the only remaining human species, has been verified by the Genome Project --we all come from a common ancestral life-form and are one species. Deductive reasoning of Carl Linnaeus and Chas. Darwin has been verified. A compassionate withdrawal from my correspondant's site seemed in order.

      Delete
  7. Geo-your comments to the errant blogger are to be applauded and appreciated. Thank you for your sense of decency and humanity.
    Just this morning at coffee-a diverse ideological/political group-- I opined that if we just lifted ourselves 100 thousand feet into the air and looked down, it would become rapidly apparent we are all in this together. Your air is my air. My water is your water. We are kindred children under the stars-we just don't look the same, but our hearts beat alike and we all bleed. Some attitudes exist to be challenged!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Tom, your kind comment puts me in mind of 2 teachers: the astronaut, Edgar Mitchell, who said,"On the return trip home, gazing through 240,000 miles of space toward the stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving, harmonious.”; and Shakespeare, "Merchant of Venice"(act3, scene1)--"when you prick us, do we not bleed?". I see we both learned from the best.

      Delete
  8. I am sorry you had to deal with that but even more sorry there are people who truly feel that way. I am eternally hopeful that the light side of the Force can still defeat the dark but it's a rough struggle.

    Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I share your disappointment, Squid, with bloggers who go for years pleasantly enough, talking about building projects and things they like, then launch into dark thoughts --well, maybe not thoughts so much as a series of irritable mental gestures. And I (like you, a film aficionado) remember that old (Barrymore?) line, "ah, it is only Svengali talking to himself again."

      Indeed, as you say, peace is primarily a personal adjustment that spreads by example. It can only be pounded back to square one, no further, then it grows and blossoms again and again.

      Delete
  9. It is disappointing that there are still people who sincerely believe in inherent racial differences and racial superiority or inferiority. As you know, I'm in a bi-racial marriage and have other family members besides my husband and children who are of other races, and I love looking at family photos with all the shades from palest pale to darkest dark co-mingling, co-habiting, and co-operating. :) My son, who is a light brown is married to a wonderful young woman who is almost as dark as my husband, and my daughter, who is a darker brown, is engaged to a wonderful young man who is as pale as I am!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your family sounds great, Lori, fit for a happy future --unencumbered by bad ideas that take generations to get rid of. You have made a good start. We both have. Future humans will be happier because of you.

      Delete
  10. Probably every blogger has had trouble/disputes with other bloggers. I had one blogger I followed until she went very political and adamant. Didn't discuss anything, just read her responses to others. Mean, mean spirited.

    It was "I'm right and you're wrong...not only that you are an idiot because you don't agree with me..."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Susan, sorry that happened to a blogger with whom you had a an otherwise interesting and congenial exchange. I hope it doesn't put you off correspondence with political antipodes who practice courtesy. For years I've had the pleasure of communicating with other bloggers who are, in many ways, my political opposites, but considerate and quite above name-calling. I hope there are others of their caliber out there. Consideration of our common humanity, from all political postures, is in defiance of the growing toxic state of public discourse. As to the blogger mentioned in the text of my post post above, all I can do is wait until he recovers his manners and senses. I shall possess myself in patience --and remember the words of Bertrand Russell when asked if he would die for his beliefs: "Certainly not, I might be wrong!"

      Delete
    2. Well, there was one blogger on here I did my best to understand, but I have a golden rule I stick by: Two red flags and I'll keep you in doubt - when it becomes three or more, sorry sister or mister, but you are out.

      I think the godawful heat has put a lot of folks on edge big time. Let's hope everyone calms down after summer is done.

      Delete
    3. I sure share your hope that, when summer burns out and we return to real weather, communications will normalize. Am also considering the wisdom of three-red-flags proviso and find it sound. Thanks for the tip; I'll be more discerning in the future.

      Delete
  11. I have a hard time relating to people with tunnel-vision, whether it's about race, politics, religion, or whatever. I applaud you for removing yourself from the situation, dude. Discussing anything intelligently with people who are dead-set in their hate-filled beliefs about skin color is as ineffective as trying to blow out a light bulb. One of my daughters-in-law is black, and the other is Peruvian. I love them fiercely, and our grandchildren are more precious than gold. To think some of my grandchildren could face difficulties in the future based purely on their skin pigmentation can reduce me to tears.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Susan. I remember some posted photos of family visits and your grandchildren are indeed beautiful. Add Vietnamese to the mix and you get my bunch. These kids ARE the future --our living, loving, goofy future.

      Delete
  12. Hi, Geo! I've been struggling to stay on top of blogging myself ~ a few disconcerting health challenges, but I'm my old self now. I really do think that summer temperatures in the Mojave Desert can addle your brain. But you are spot on ~ we are all one all-encompassing human species. I don't worry about "white genocide." I worry about genocide by hacking sword and gas chambers.

    I'm sure Norma groans at some of the things you say, for I'm willing to bet you say some of the hysterical things you write in your blog. Sometimes as a wife in a long marriage, I just have to shake my head and quietly chuckle!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kind Louise, I too am puzzled by people who can go along fine for years then, as if possessed by some sort of seizure, abandon rational thought and attack with social and scientific inaccuracies.

      So glad your health has improved; we need good minds.

      Delete

Please comment! Stats are just numbers and don't really represent you. I need to read what you think and thank you.