As with most years of human history
Twenty-twenty had its ups
And it had a plethora of downs
… with family and friends …
Happiness and sadness,
Gladness and frowns.
The vote sort of went my way
But we must not gloat!
As Brandy Clark and Randy Newman sing it:
“We’re either all the way left or all the way right
The only time we meet in the middle is to fight
The rich get richer, the rest get a little more broke
We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
In 2020 I learned of the knowledgeable and prudent tweeter,
Economic anthropologist Jason Hickel
Who has written “Less Is More.
How Degrowth Will Save the World.”
Jason suggests quite doable pathways,
Local and global.
And sustainable livelihoods
Which are socially just and ecologically sane.
We are hopefully weaning ourselves of another tweeter,
The infamous one
With shrewd cadres
And flimflammed masses
Of enablers.
The narcissistic calloused one
Who’s lying and con artistry
Brings out the worst in ALL of us.
…………………………..
In 2021:
- Fifty years
Delightful Elizabeth Florence Hoffmann Martin
And I
Will have been wed.
Around the Sixteenth of July
We hope to celebrate
And share
Love, spirit(s), and bread!
- Perhaps we, Betsy and I et al.,
Will have a book realized
Similar to that of Jason’s
On the Truth of an ethical community ecology.
Which may be read.
- There are those I dearly love
With whom I am estranged.
Perhaps, “graças a ‘deus,’”
Twenty twenty-one will bring a more or less bliss
Communion with these wonderful five once again.
- We believe
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Will be mostly managed somewhat adequately.
- We hope to visit friends …
From Maranhão to Campo Grande, Porto Alegre, São Paulo, & Rio in Brasil,
In Central America,
And maybe even take a trip to the Emerald Isle?
…………………………..
Happy (some belated) Diwali, Bodhi Day, Yuletide, Hanukkah, Yalda, Christmas, Ashura, Kwanzaa!
Happy living (and dying) in 2021 and thereafter!!!
Love,
paul bain martin, Betsy, and family
( 7 S’s / VV->^^ )
