Currently Reading The Brothers Karamazov By Fyodor Dostoevsky, Konstanfin Mochulski see related

Thoughts in Detroit: Of Hell and Hell Fire; or, Can we Rise from the Ashes?

I still owe you a super-post on Europe, but I've decided to do a little local news before that. Or maybe a lot of local news.  This post is rather long.

However, first I owe you, mes chers lecteurs, an explanation.  It's been quite a while (nearly two weeks now) since I ended my travels, and up untill now I haven't posted.  What have I been doing with my time?  Well...very much and nothing at all. 

Now, I'll tell you right now (for those who haven't observed it) that I detest the whole idea of "being busy", and it takes immense personal discipline for me to not be angry at being pestered.  I don't  how common such a character trait(flaw? for I feel that it isn't inherently, yet often becomes, just that--but then again, that's true of every aspect of humanity) is, but at least I know I'm not alone: C.S. Lewis nailed the sentiment perfectly with his self description in Surprised by Joy as one who has "always been more violent in my negative than in my postive demands.  Thus in personal relations, I could always forgive much neglect more easily than the least degree of what I regarded as interference...In the course of life I could put up with any amount of monotony far more patiently than even the smallest disturbance, bother, bustle...Never at any age did I clamor to be amused; always and at all ages (where I dared) I hotly demanded not to be interrupted."  It's really one of the most important aspects of my personality.  Now, with that little personal insight, you can why I didn't feel up to writing lately, when the majority of my time since coming home has been given to the very worst breed of such "interruptions"--the kind where you have been occupied constantly for quite some time, but can't point to a single achievement to show for it.  I just wanted to light everything on fire then sit down without distration to read my book by the light of the blaze.

And it is just that--fire--that I have been meaning to get to after that rediculously long explanation for not posting (an explanation, I will note at my own expense, is not an excuse).

The part of my title line, "Of Hell and Hell Fire", comes from a chapter name in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, which I am reading right now.  GREAT book.  I strongly recommend it to all of you (who can stand a 1000+ page novel).  You see, after I wrote that paper-of-mega-death on Dostoevsky I became very interested in his writing.  the stuff he deals with is exactly the kind of stuff we need to be thinking about, considering the state of things in our society right about now(and again, I know it's been a while, but I'm sure you can remember that I'm not exactly happy with the way things are these days).

And that brings me to my second part, about whether I think things can change.  And it leads me to a story....

About three centuries ago, almost to the day, a little French fort and fur trading colony called Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit (Ponchartrain on the Strait) was established.  A century later that city (population:  600), newly American and called simply Detroit, was burnt to the ground--only one house survived.  But a Catholic priest named Gabriel Richard established a vision for rebuilding the city, which was crystalized in his statement that became the city's motto:  Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus--"We Hope For Better Things; It Shall Rise From the Ashes".

And it did.  Add another century, and the city (poulation 314,000) was a center of trade and manufacturing, and was just creating its automobile industry.  At the bicentennial celebration, a time capsule was buried, not to be uncovered for another 100 years.  In it was a letter expressing "one supreme hope" for the city's future--"that whatever failures the coming century may have in the progress of things material, you may be conscious when the century is over, that, as a nation, people and city, you have grown in righteousness, for it is this that exalts a nation. "

 As this next century progressed, the city experienced phenomenal success, and within fifty years it had become the Motor City, 2 million strong, the industrial capital of the world.  But the success didn't last, and the next half of the century it fell to pieces.  A few years ago, when that time capsule was dug up, the city had certainly not grown in righteousness; rather, it had been torn to pieces by entrenched corruption, racial conflict, and violent crime.

But it didn't have to be that way.  And more importantly, it doesn't have to continue this way.  And there is a chance for change.  The auto industry has fallen with the city, but there's an opportunity for the biggest of the Big Three, General Motors, to be rebuilt.  There is talk of a possible merger with Nissan-Renault.  Now, it's no fun to think of a French company having a stake in GM, but there CEO Carlos Ghosn revived Nissan and may be able to do the same for them.  And, as irksome as it is that I have to look at a giant picture of this German guy in an add for his website that's platstered on the side of the Chrysler HQ, everyone has to admit that Chrysler is benefiting from the Mercedes partnership.

It's not a cure all, it only adresses on of the city's problems, but it's a start.

So what's my point in all this?  (besides that it's creepy to see that mustachioed man taking up the whole side of this building, and that Fr. Gabriel Richard's escape from France during the Reign of Terror was proof yet again that France has a tendency to exile it's best citizens)

Well, it is that for my city, state, country and culture, I will continue to hold on to the motto Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus.  Our efforts may be to little, the West may continue to fail, to be burnt to the ground.  But we will continue to "Hope For Better Things", and work for the day that we can see it "Rise From the Ashes."

Isle of Man, Isle of Man; or, Does Whatever and Isle Can

Wow, It's been a while since I touched this, hasn't it?  Well, to be fair, I've been busy.  Oxford, Cambidge. The Original College Towns.  Did I mention that I took out some time in London to make a pilgrimage to Canterbury? It was my favorite place I've been, actually.  I loved it.  anyway, the point is that after Cambridge I went to (the real)Oxford, then Bath and the Cotswold Villages(Funny story about a National Fowl Trust--but when I come home to (the fake) Oxford I'm going to write a much more detailed account of my travels).  Then Bristol, Cardiff, Caernarfon and small-town Wales, Ferry from Liverpool, the Isle, Ferry to Belfast, and now here, stuck, becuase apparently there4's only one bus from Belfast on Sunday.  It's okay,  not a major obstacle.  Just a slightly unpleasanty surprise.

Speaking of unpleasant surprises, I was bit by a spider on my finbger while visiting the Avesbury Stone Circle (kind of a lesser known Stonehenge), and rather than transforming me into The Amazing Spider-Man, I soon found that I was having difficulty with muscle control in my left hand.  Which was unfortunate, to say the least.  But it got better by the next day, so I'm not going to worry about it.  Oh, and the Isle of man is a neat if obscure place, and I'm out of time.

I'll leave you with this thought:  There's no place like home.

Well, that's all, mes  amis

'Later

Currently Reading Rick Steves' London 2006 (Rick Steves' London) By Rick Steves, Gene Openshaw see related

Cursed Above All Other Mortals; or, This Place is a Furnace

again, no real formatting and blAtant typos.

So I'm in London right?  nd the worst thing that could possibly happen, of course, happens:  I 'misplace' (read 'lose') my passport.  panic, frustration, nd three hours at the embassy later, and I got a temporary passport that s good for the next year (although its plastic instead of cloth, and looks horribly fake.).

One bright spot:  I was able to help a dual U.S.-Israeli Citizen file his missing passport report while I waited for the joys of bereaucracy.  It was nice meeting you, Simon.  I hope you're trip to see you're family turns out nicely.  I also hope mine turns out nicely as well.

So far, with the passport an exception, it has been decent.  One observation in London:  It is Exactly everything I've ever been told, both good and bad.  It's also horribly expesive, but nevermind that.

One thing that has disapointed is that it hasn't rained yet (although the rainy england stereotype comes more from the north and west, Herr Pearse said).  But I hope it does soon; I need to use that cheap umbrella that I picked up at that market in Bosnia that only recently has been cleaned up enough to not be literally 'the black market'.  If I can't buy rocket launchers anymore, at least let me use the umbrella!  Honestly..........

Speaking of umbrellas, I need of of those for the shower I'm about to take here, If I really want to survive.  The shower temperature isn't adjustable--but unlike most of these types of things, this one is too hot instead of too cold.  way to hot.  like, It actually works out nicely that I still need to build my own rocket launchers, because I can get all my welding done by the heat of this shower.

Well, anyway, that's the news from the front lines, and,

Well, that's all, mes amis

                      Later

Currently Listening The Graduate By MC Lars iPod Generation see related

"No time for chit-chat"; or, the Joys of Tying Without Standard QWERTY

Im in a hurry, so formatting must go out the window.

Pensees......

Internet and everthibng is expensive.  Hats are expensive, but wonderfula and worth the cost: seven hats and counting.

People are simple, and all thouroughly corrupt.  I dont see how anyone could believe otherwise.

What I would do for good food and enough of it...

I dont believe you can trust anyone with power, which is why im a Christian and a libertarian.

This continent doesnt understand the virtues of peanut butter--or the virtues of virtues, but that goes for pretty much everywhere else also.

Italics arent called Italics in Italy, theyre called Corsivo.

Angleterre en trois jours...

Well, thats all, mes amis

'Later

Currently Listening Eurovision Song Contest 2006: Athens By Various Artists see related

Where am I?; or, What Ever Happened to That Guy Who Used to Ramble on This Website?

What, mes chers lecteurs, has become of me?  Well, the answer simple:  Canada, England, Hungary, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia, and Italy. 

Yes, I know what you're thinking--"Wouldn't Canada alone have been enough to ruin you're life?"  well, the answer is yes, yes it would. 

But that is also somewhat beside the point.  And the point is, after my essay of death on Dostoevsky, I went home, packed and made plans, spent a night in Toronto, then flew away on a plane that "served" (read "sentenced us to")......"Bangers and Mashed" (read "the lips of the seriously ill, cut off and put into gravy")

Whhhhhhaaaaattt?

After which, I had the great joy of spending 8 hours in London--at the airport.

Then it was off to Hungary and beyond, more detail mabe some other time, but I need to get sleep because it's midnight here and tomorrow I have to be up early for a rediculously long bus ride to Belgrade (Beograd). 

And yes, I thoroughly enjoyed writing that sentence.  Travel is happiness.

Oh, and I'm coming up with ideas for so many books (not even about the trip in particular, more about philosophical ideas like "the necessity of inherent meaning"), I just hope one day I have the time and the skill to write them. 

And finally, check out this rather troubling thing--the winner of the Eurovision song contest I had the (mis?)fortune of watching while here.

  Pourquoi??????????

(apologies to canadia, the people of northern britain, anyone with eyes and a soul, and others who may be offended by this commentary.)

Well, that's all, mes amis.

                                                     'Later