On reflection…
Semur-en-Auxoise, last week.
Quote of the Day
”Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.”
- Bertrand Russell
Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news
Keith Jarrett | My Song
Long Read of the Day
A Meditation on Train Stations
A really sobering essay by Timothy Snyder which brings home to one what the Ukrainians are having to deal with, courtesy of Putin and Trump.
“If you weren’t here, then you won’t believe it.”
Thus the gentle pronouncement of the distinguished literary scholar, walking slowly next to me in the dark, during our second evacuation from the train. It’s an ironic point, after a lifetime proclaiming the power of words.
But he is right. Knowledge demands presence.
Ukraine has an excellent rail system. In times of peace, and even in times of war, its trains run on time. This summer, though, has been hard. The departures board at the Kyiv station announced a two-hour delay for our night train. It was not that the departure was postponed. Our train left the station as scheduled. Passengers were being warned, rather, of an anticipated delay caused by predicted Russian drone attacks.
The forecast was reasonable; there were two drone attacks on localities along our route, and thus two evacuations. The engineers had to make two unplanned stops at small train stations, and the passengers twice had to exit the train and follow the conductors to safety. In the end, though, there was no delay; the crew made up the time.
“If you weren’t here, then you won’t believe it.”
The little indisputable realities of, say, an evacuation, have no easy correlate on the screen or on the page. I can strain after them with these words I am writing now, after the second evacuation, back in my compartment, but I can’t quite reach them.
The bearded, white-haired scholar walking a bit too close to the edge of the platform. The smiling conductress with her orange vest and simple commands walking over gravel in what might not seem to have been the most practical shoes. The reassuring beams on the ground from the one person in twenty or so who thought to pack a flashlight. The Milky Way; the artificial satellites; the one mysterious aircraft. The encounter of confusion and good will as passengers from two different trains going in two different directions are called back to board at the same time. The smell of swine through my open window as we get going again. The engineer racing to make up time.
“If you weren’t here, then you won’t believe it.”
Seeing is believing, and not seeing is disbelieving. Choosing to disbelieve, choosing to lie, requires looking away. Active separation, moral separation, depends on not being there…
Wonderful. And grim.
Books, etc.
I’m about halfway through Francis Fukuyama’s memoir and finding it intriguing because it’s not what I expected. Instead of the stolid slog through a long and busy life it’s a succession of 35 mini-essays on various waypoints in his journey. What I love about his writing is the way he takes complex ideas, relates how he came to understand them — and then explains them in clear, understated prose.
Linkblog
Something I noticed, while drinking from the Internet firehose.
- Walking Men Worldwide
Artist Maya Barkai assembled a collection of pedestrian traffic signals from around the world.
h/t Jason Kotke
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