Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

 I haven't written in three months. Since before Christmas, which was lovely with the family coming over for Christmas dinner but otherwise quiet. January passed, we continued to struggle with the effects of the pandemic here in Sierra Vista, although there was little acknowledgement of it publicly. Churches met online but some (fool)hardy souls met maskless and in large groups. And the COVID numbers stayed high, which led to more requests for substitute teachers.

I worked half the available days in January. A couple of assignments were awful. In fact, on one assignment I left an hour early, partly due to the out-of-control first grade class, partly due to chastising from the principal for having to go to the bathroom (because I have UT issues that are exacerbated by stress) and leaving the class for two minutes in the care of the parent aide. I didn't say anything under his chastisement, just bided my time for half an hour and then, after making sure the other first grade teacher could take the class with hers, told the office that I was sick and had to go home. Since then that teacher has continued to be absent 2-4 days per week, coming and going as she deals with the chaos of her home life, and any sub that takes that class quickly decides they won't do it again. 

I worked slightly less in February, 6 out of a possible 14 days. The classes were mainly okay but the issue is when I work I put my whole heart into it and I arrive home so tired that I don't want to do much else. Still, I think in these last couple of months I have realized that my passion, outside of genealogy, is teaching, trying desperately to inject more into this benighted curriculum in our school district that has made Math almost unlearnable, Social Studies a joke (we aren't supposed to mention that there is, basically, a war going on) and let's not even talk about English. I worked all five days last week with a sixth grade class and, by Friday, had established such a good working relationship with them that, when the principal tried to change me to a fourth grade class for the day, I said no. I said sixth grade or I go home. Long story there, but ultimately it was proven that when push comes to shove a good sub CAN stand up to the higher ups and both sides end up happy.

To escape all this local nonsense and world fear (well, a lot of the time anyway,) I read. I HAVE done a lot of reading in 2022. Favorite books thus far? "Inspired: Loving the Bible Again" by the late great Rachel Held for spiritual; "The Crime of Miss Oyster Brown and Other Stories" by Peter Lovesey for quick mystery stories; "Snow in August" by Pete Hamill, a good American novel; "The Night Hawks," one of the best in the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths (Brit mystery). I read five other books but they rated 3 stars, not 4 in my Goodreads rating system. I am currently reading "Game of Fear," the latest Charles Todd and I would say his best. His mother/writing partner died and so this is first solo in the Inspector Rutledge series and I would say that I actually enjoy his writing much more. He writes more tightly, less fluffy descriptions. In fact, I am anxious to return to it this morning so I will end this soon.

Finally, my take on the world. After sending out clear warnings for months--ever since the NATO nations started talking to Ukraine about joining NATO--Putin finally invaded Ukraine, three days after the end of the farcical Olympics in Beijing. Ten days of hell for Ukrainians has seen 1.4 million refugees, war crimes on the part of the Russians and a newly united West. The Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has become a symbol to the West of all the things we wish we could be but probably wouldn't be/haven't been were we in his shoes. Ukraine has held out for 10 days but Russia is becoming ever more vicious. The West is frightened whilst it tries sanctions and supporting Ukraine with military equipment--but on the sly, not directly confronting Russia militarily, under their own names. This reticence--I wouldn't call it cowardice, not at least right now, stems from fears of all-out nuclear war or pushing Western governments and citizens too far. Western altruism often only extends to where it starts to hurt our lifestyle too much: too bad for people who ten days ago were living comfortable (enough food, shelter, simple plans like meeting friends at a local cafe) lives like ours who are now homeless, hungry and cold, sometimes dead, lying in the streets outside their homes. Of course we're sorry, but really we have to look after ourselves. These fears--hey, I get it--on a governmental level prevent the West from providing the kind of military aid that was forthcoming during the Kuwait War. After all we aren't fighting a local madman like Saddam Hussein but a global madman who thanks to our support, has the power to blow up the world, not just the Middle East.

Am I frightened. Of course, any sane person who has lived with nukes on the planet should be. Not only do I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 1982 National Film Board documentary "If You Love This Planet," but I also live with someone who worked at every nuclear weapons facility in the US over his career. I had a difficult time reconciling my relationship with him at first, until I realized that if nukes were a fact of life, I wanted someone with that kind of attention to detail training the people who "looked after" them. 

Since the middle of 2019 we have seen three Horsemen of legend: Pestilence (COVID), War and Famine (the two go together.) And the fourth, Death? COVID caused millions of deaths, as do War and Famine. Not content with dealing with Pestilence, one human, with sycophant followers is unleashing the final one, Death. I realize many of my friends are not religious; that's fine, but permit me to share my own way of coping with the specter of Death:

I had a wonderful vision last night: if Vlad the Terrible were to push the nuke button having determined he’d lost, he’d be greeted on the other side by the One (in my belief system) who ultimately holds all the cards and the Book of Life. They would say to Vlad: 

“Hi Vlad, before I open your Book of Life and we can review what you did on earth, I would like you to turn around and look at all those souls that you brought with you in your last act on earth. Now, in your Russian Orthodox Church you were always taught that "Heaven and Hell are the fully manifest divine presence, experienced either pleasantly as peace and joy or unpleasantly as shame and anguish, depending upon one's spiritual state and preparedness.” (Wikipedia on the Russian Orthodox Church) Let me explain to you though, Vlad, that since you have no shame, those people behind you, who ARE finally at peace, will each take turns spending some time with you giving you their victim statements. You will not be able to speak in rebuttal (you may apologize however.) After doing so, they will be released to eternal peace while you will go on to the next person. That is going to take a very, very long time. You see, Vlad, your eternal peace was up to you; it involved making the world a better place not in conquering it. You blew it in more ways than one.”

Vlad (and others who claim to believe in Christian doctrine/the Bible) should remember Jesus' words:

Matthew 7:26 And every one that heareth these sayings of Mine and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand; 27 and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”