Reflection

 I am rereading El Tercer Reich by Roberto Bolaño.  The author, a Chilean, was highly respected and honored for his work.  He died at just fifty years of age.  Like many other Chileans, Bolaño lived outside his country for much of his life, probably to escape the long Pinochet dictatorship there.   The novel and an English translation were published after Bolaño's death.

I am not sure I will get all the way through El Tercer Reich again.  I recall the vocabulary being a bit challenging for me in spots.  The theme is also outside of my usual interests.  The main character is a German on vacation in Spain whose passion in life is playing war games on a big board with movable pieces and complex strategies.  The real plot, though, revolves around the acquaintances he. makes in the vacation resort.  Throughout the narrative there is an underlying sense of menace which the main character must come to grips with.

It dawned on me on picking up this novel again that my lack of comfort with a book dealing with a topic of little relevance to my own experience is likely similar to what many people may feel about my practice of making photographs with old cameras, and then writing for decades about my involvement with the topic.  (That lengthy sentence alone may be enough to repel potential readers.)

On the other hand (there always is one),  I feel I may have a slight edge on Bolaño as my writing is accompanied by illustrations related to the texts of my blog posts and which I hope will  have some stand-alone value.  

Whatever others may think of my writing and photography, there is an element of self-fulfillment from the sum total of my efforts over a period of decades.  I have over a thousand images in my Flickr photostream.  Those photographs are the ones I consider to represent my best efforts, and there is quite a purposeful variety there of subjects and techniques.  

My pictures posted on Flickr are selected mostly from posts on my blog, Photography & Vintage Film Cameras where my pictures are accompanied by commentary on photographic techniques and gear.  Everything Else (this blog) was originally conceived to let me talk about subjects other than photography, but I am increasingly posting pictures here too as my photographic efforts lean more toward the digital realm, due in part to improvements in digital technology, along with decreases in my mobility which was an essential part of my previous photographic endeavors.

 I visit the Flickr photo sharing site several times daily.  I look at recent pictures by photographers I follow and I always spend some time looking over my own collection.  The web site has a nice feature for viewing the pictures of a photostream or album as a slideshow which can be very captivating.  I made use of that capability recently to present a slideshow of my album of photographs of my wife, Margaret, at a birthday gathering.  While it was nice to hear some favorable reactions to my photography, it was mostly rewarding that I had some success in being able to communicate to othetrs a visualization of how I perceive something. of importance in my own life.

So, whatever literary value Bolaño's work may have, I think we need to be grateful to him and all the other novelists for providing some motivation to look into the possibilities of broadening our often-too-limited horizons.  

An early favorite from our Idaho days

Spanish Broom

 As I have said before, the best part of the Balloon Fiesta is the performances in Old Town by some of our local talent.

This occasion found us at an appearance of the. Spanish Boom flamenco group in the plaza adjacent to the entrance of the Botanic Gardens.  The dancers, singers and guitarists were all excellent.  The accommodations  for the audience not so much.  Nearly everyone had to stand as there were only a few chairs.  We arrived early and were able to sit up front on a very hard slatted bench.  We were able to hold out just long enough to get through the first half of the performance.

Still, it is very nice to have such a talented group of people performing in informal settings, often at no cost.  We always leave a few bucks in the tip jar.  The schedule of performances is available on the Spanish Broom website.

Here is a brief video clip recorded by Margaret of a performance in Old Town a year ago:

 

Clear Sky

 A hot air balloon appeared overhead as I walked into the Plaza Vieja.  

 

Old Town has been cleaned up and is ready for the balloonists and visitors to the annual Balloon Fiesta.

Looking Up

New Mexico averages about. ten inches of rain in a year.  This year the Rio Grande was dry for most of the summer months.  Now, thanks to the seasonal monsoon, the river is flowing again.  Our yard trees will no doubt appreciate the moisture, as will the riverside forest.  However, the reservoirs along the Middle Rio Grande will not be replenished unless Winter brings a good snowpack.

An Unfinished Love Story:

 A Personal History of the 1960s

by Doris Kearns Goodwin

I might not have. chosen to read this book had Margaret not received it as a birthday gift from a friend.  I'm not sure why that was the case. I was familiar with the author from her time as a commentator on PBS news programs.  I guess political memoirs are just not a genre that has held much interest for me.  I suppose what ultimately tipped the balance toward the book was the focus on the decade that spanned my own journey from ages twenty to thirty.

While I am about the same age as the author, our lives could not have been more different.  Kearns Goodwin was a born scholar whose academic credentials led to a close and enduring relationship to Lyndon Johnson, begun while she was still in her early twenties. Goodwin's husband, Dick Goodwin who is the principal character of the narrative, was a speech writer for both JFK and LBJ. He worked in media relations for Eugene McCarthy's brief presidential bid, and then left that effort to join in Bobby Kennedy's primary campaign for the Presidency.

The book took shape toward the end of Dick Goodwin's life when he and Doris decided to make their way through a mountain of boxes full of speech drafts and other documents hoarded by Dick.  Doris made copious notes of their conversations and fleshed out the narrative with her own carefully recorded memories of a lifetime as an historian of the American Presidency.

The Goodwin's were thus the ultimate insiders on the '60s political scene in the U.S.
I didn't come close to that, having spent a good part of that decade out of the country.  My life was certainly shaped by the political climate of the times, but my opinions and ideology were responses to the broad strokes of history rather than any real familiarity with the most prominent actors.

"Actors", as it turns out, is a perfectly apt term for describing JFK and LBJ.  It came as a surprise to me to learn that their most memorable words on the political stage flowed directly from the pen of Dick Goodwin.  The New Frontier, the Great Society and a lot of other memorable themes resided first in Goodwin's brain.  Beyond the words, of course, those two presidents did form and guide much of the strategy behind what seemed then to be near-revolutionary transformations of the Country.

Under the two Democratic presidents Civil Rights, Health Care and equal access to opportunity did make great progress toward realizing the prescriptions of the Constitution. The account of those accomplishments as related by the Goodwins made a convincing case that both of the Kennedy brothers and Lyndon Johnson were sincere in their inclinations and efforts to right historic wrongs.

What was not really explored or explained in the writings of either of the Goodwins was how JFK and Lyndon Johnson could let their domestic accomplishments be undermined by militarism and war.  JFK's, first by not cutting himself loose from Eisenhower's initiatives in Vietnam, and then the disaster in Cuba's Bay of Pigs.  Johnson recognized how the momentum toward war in Indochina was going to destroy the legacy which the Great Society had offered him, but he seemed unable to do anything to change course

Dick and Doris expressed regret at having to turn against their political heroes because of Vietnam, but they seemed to interpret the failures of Kennedy and Johnson primarily as evidence of character flaws. Perhaps that was in part because they -- and I as well -- were burdened to some extent with deep-seated cultural baggage that included elements of unrecognized racism and over-blown conspiracy threats about communism and socialism.  It seems to me also that the Goodwins, in spite of their intimate knowledge of the government's vast machinery, did not properly acknowledge the overwhelming power of the Military/Industrial Complex which Eisenhower had pointed out to us, and which the power of the presidency was (is) to some extent subservient, regardless of the preferences of the office holders of the moment. 

 In reading the book I was aware of a rising level of apprehension as the events of 1968 loomed.  JFK's 1963 killing was shocking, but somehow not a very emotional personal experience for me.  But the assassinations of Bobby and MLK seemed at the time to herald an irrecoverable disaster.  Still, I did appreciate Kearns Goodman's reconstruction which restored some order to the chronology for me beyond the trauma which had muddled my memories of the times.  

Kearns Goodwin's book is very well crafted and an important and inspiring story which only she could have told. 

+++++++++++

 I need to add that I have not read the other works about Johnson by Doris Kearns Goodwin.  It may well be she has gone into more depth in those book about the conflicts between foreign and domestic policies. 

Two Speeches

Donald Trump used the opportunity to speak to world leaders at the United Nations to announce that he might annihilate Iran if that country did not accede to his demands for ending the war over control of the Strait of Hormuz.  It was surely no surprise to anyone that Trump would choose to continue the shameful decades-long tradition of undermining the potential of the UN for solving international disputes by diplomatic means.  It was also a clear example of Trump's inability to appreciate the lessons in asymmetrical warfare provided to the world by Vietnam and Iraq.

Bernie Sanders spoke at New York's Riverside Church at a celebration of the Charter of the United Nations.  He focused on the undeniable realities of climate change, vast inequalities in income distribution and the prioritization of endless and pointless war making.  Those elements of the status quo -- along with the threat of unregulated AI -- are all clearly relevant issues for every country as well as being of special urgency in the U.S. at this perilous moment for our struggling. democracy.  Let's hope the voters are paying attention.

Up Early

 Up at 5:30 AM.  Walking the dog by 6:30