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Weekend Butler: If wishes were horses: Fantasies for the week before Christmas
By
Published: Dec 16, 2021
Category:
Weekend
PHOTO: A movie theatre in Mayfield, Kentucky, after the tornado. Photo credit.
IF WISHES WERE HORSES…
In another world, we wouldn’t be so worried. In another world, Joe Manchin wouldn’t object to the infrastructure bill’s inclusion of a one-year extension of the child tax credit, which helped 170,000 children in his state see a dramatically lowering of food insecurity last year. In another world, the TIME person of the year wouldn’t be Elon Musk. In another world, my daughter and I would be on a plane to anywhere. In another world, I wouldn’t be writing so many emails to friends that begin, “This year, I’m donating to a food bank near you…” In another world, many Governors would pick up on Gavin Newsom’s proposal to model an assault weapons ban on the new Texas abortion law. In another world, my new Mayor would rethink his enthusiasm for the return of stop-and-frisk.
You could make a list that’s just as pointed. But let’s not abandon our fantasies. This week, a few of mine.
TRAVEL FANTASY: SPIRITUAL
Something in me is desperate to travel to Tibet, climb to 18,000 feet and make the death-defying pilgrimage around Kailas. It’s a sweet fantasy. But it’s not my destiny.
Colin Thurnon made that trek, and wrote about it in To a Mountain in Tibet. He’s totally aware that, with his parents and sister dead, he’ll be facing personal winds much sharper than the winds on Kailas. These descriptions will suggest the holiness: “A site of astral beauty, separated from its companion Himalayas as if by divine intent.” The most sacred of the world’s mountains, holy to one fifth of the world’s people. The highest freshwater lake in the world —“Buddha’s mother bathed here before taking him into her womb.”
TRAVEL FANTASY: EUROPEAN ROMANCE
We arrived in Venice the day after Christmas. It was cold; at evening concerts held in churches, the musicians wore coats and fingerless gloves. And wet; there were raised wooden walks in the piazza. The expensive restaurants were closed for the holidays. But there were few tourists and fewer cruise ships — we had a magic week. There is almost no travel experience as pleasurable as walking home from dinner on a street out of a movie when the only footsteps echoing are your own.
One reason for our excellent experience of Venice was the gift of a book: Watermark, by the Nobel Prize-winning poet Joseph Brodsky.
“(The water) really looks like musical sheets, frayed at the edges, constantly played, coming to you in tidal scores, in bars of canals with innumerable obbligati of bridges, mullioned windows, or curved crownings of Coducci cathedrals, not to mention the violin necks of gondolas. In fact, the whole city, especially at night, resembles a gigantic orchestra, with dimly lit music stands of palazzi, with a restless chorus of waves, with the falsetto of a star in the winter sky. The music is, of course, greater than the band, and no hand can turn the page.”
REVENGE FANTASY
What if you could be prosecutor, judge and jury — what if you could actually punish criminals who routinely get away with their crimes? And what if you could do something about unindicted criminals and about policies we know to be wrong but are in no danger of being criminalized. I’m a law-abiding citizen, mostly, but this is an… interesting idea. It is, of course, impossible. Correction: Well, not if you’re one of the “Four Just Men.”
Vigilantes? You can call them that. But they don’t act like hate-filled zealots. The Four Just Men are civilized. They advise their targets they are guilty of crimes. They tell their targets to reform. They alert their targets to the date of their death. They even give their targets a final warning — delivered in person. As the author notes, “The honesty of the Four was their most terrible characteristic.” Honesty — how thrilling.
Edgar Wallace wrote 175 books, 24 plays and countless articles. The only title known to the contemporary reader? “King Kong.” Maybe you’ve heard of it.
MEDIA FANTASY: THE IMAGINARY ENEMY
Politicians run against, rarely for. In 2015, Trump ran against the usual suspects. The trick in such campaigns is to introduce a new element. Trump introduced antifa.
I like the definition from the Anti-Defamation League:
Antifa is a decentralized, leaderless movement composed of loose collections of groups, networks and individuals.
Persistent disinformation campaigns about antifa distort public perception of the movement.
Notice “movement” twice. That is: A loose affiliation of activists who oppose fascism. Not an organized group, not a small army. You could say it’s not a serious threat to anything. Or you could scream “antifa” to the heavens. Trump screamed. So did Fox News and others. In June of 2020, “Donald Trump promised on Twitter that “the United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.”
This imaginary enemy was the centerpiece of the plan to stop the certification of Joe Biden as President. Antifa would show up in Washington to disrupt Trump’s peaceful protest. The National Guard would be mobilized. Trump would declare martial law. The certification would be postponed while states changed their certifications. Pence would go along.
Reality: protesters showed up, but they were loyal to Trump. They overran the Capital. Pence astutely refused to leave the building. The House of Representatives ratified Biden. In the White House, Trump watched TV — as he’d watched Fox so many mornings of his Presidency — and did nothing to stop the riot for 187 minutes.
From The Washington Post:
But as senators and House members trapped inside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday begged for immediate help during the siege, they struggled to get through to the president, who — safely ensconced in the West Wing — was too busy watching fiery TV images of the crisis unfolding around them to act or even bother to hear their pleas.
“He was hard to reach, and you know why? Because it was live TV,” said one close Trump adviser. “If it’s TiVo, he just hits pause and takes the calls. If it’s live TV, he watches it, and he was just watching it all unfold.”
But the president himself was busy enjoying the spectacle. Trump watched with interest, buoyed to see that his supporters were fighting so hard on his behalf, one close adviser said.
In short, the President was in the same bubble as the credulous viewers of Fox News. The difference was that he was President. The difference is that Liz Cheney seems determined to see him indicted for at least two felonies.
THE HOTTEST BOARD GAME: VILLAINOUS
This game is beyond me. Here’s some kind of explanation: “Only the worse will take the gold in this asymmetrical game. Become a famous (or underrated) villain from Disney’s vast collection and use everything in your power to accomplish your goal. Villainous is an asymmetrical game where players use their realm to take specific actions to help them towards their goal. Whether it’s gaining power (money) playing down allies or items or vanquishing heroes it will be a puzzle for everyone to solve. HOWEVER, other villains will be trying to slow you down by FATING you and unleashing your greatest adversaries or events that will set you back. Can you lay down a curse down in everyone location as Maleficent, Vanquish Peter Pan with Captain Hook, Play a successful game of croquet as the Queen of Hearts, Claim the trident and crown with Ursula, Collect power as Prince John, or acquire the magic lamp as Jafar. Only the worse takes it all! PS: This game supports many expansions mixing and matching more villains giving it great replayability.” To buy Ravensburger Disney Villainous: Wicked to The Core Strategy Board Game from Amazon, click here.
