The Grasshopper #61: Truth
Does it mean anything anymore?
My resounding answer to the question above is more than ever, especially for writers. We are facing challenges from AI, censorship, a culture of overt lying, misinformation and disinformation, and the potential for being physically threatened by an emerging fascist movement in the US.
Whew, right?
The effects of this past week’s historic events will color everything we write and do in the foreseeable future. You may not like politics but this is a turning point where Americans have existential choices to make. Those choices will determine the future of all of us on every imaginable level.
Is that an exaggeration? I don’t think so. As I write these words a live news report is covering the arrival of a former President to the federal courthouse in Miami to face 38 counts of serious felony crimes involving national security.
No matter what you think of him, this is real and no amount of hand wringing and conspiracy mongering makes it any less so. He will probably be convicted (the Department of Justice almost never loses a high profile case).
Why am I writing about this in a newsletter about the writing lifestyle? As professional communicators, we have a responsibility to witness these events and their repercussions in our stories, articles, and opinions. You may not agree but your right to disagree may be on the line if freedoms and the rule of law no longer mean anything.
Meteorological summer
The Summer Solstice is next week but those who study weather consider June first to be the beginning of summer, and it has been an odd one two weeks in. We were inundated in a curtain of toxic smoke for several days. Where I am, we went three weeks without a drop of rain at a critical point in the farming season, then yesterday the skies opened up and dumped 1.5” of rain on us.
Writing doesn’t depend on weather, though I admit that gloomy days and red suns do affect my state of mind. I took the past weekend off from my usual Sunday Edition of the Grasshopper because time got away from me. Instead I sat outside a cafe drinking tropical drinks with the girl and being blasted by a New Orleans-style brass band just a few feet away.
That finally felt like summer and I thoroughly enjoyed being lazy.
I’m in the process of making some personal changes in my life but I’m only at the stage of figuring out what they might be. I got into some routines during the Covid lockdown when mental survival was based on routines, routines that worked then but are now limiting.
There is an irony that to write you really have to embrace routines, like writing daily whether you feel like it or not, but you don’t have to be owned by those routines. For example, I can write almost anywhere so I have no argument for staying on the couch pecking away at my iPad.
I’m not much of a planner but the changes I feel coming probably need me to wear that hat a little more formally. I’ll keep you posted.
“If you don’t try to translate an experience into words, you simply have the experience, not thoughts, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch—they can all be experienced directly without words.”
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
Given the flood of news and the conflicting draw of a summery day, my writing here may be a little more concise. I’m not slowing down (I’ve written over a thousand words today) but I am more focused on the political writing I share with you in The Witness Chronicles, because of the responsibility to witness I mentioned earlier.
That sounds a little pompous but I can live with that. The saying is may we live in interesting times, and boy are we.
Did you write today?
Martin
619 words
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I like this article Martin. It's like sitting down and having a chat.
The cradle of democracy now appears to be its coffin. The election and continued support of Donald Trump threatens truth, justice and the American way. It is both infuriating and sad to see.