‽istis wonders how to live in such a state
(weekending March 26th 2022)
In
a week when:
‽ relationships with family and old friends are
rekindled by lovely visits – while across Ukraine, in Yemen, in Ethiopia (1),
in Afghanistan, in Syria and on and on, relationships are severed (2);
‽ a Royal Tour is
sorrowful about the enslaving past (3) – while a book is read (Insurgent
Empire. Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent by Priyamvada Gopal) and
another arrives (Legacy of Violence. A History of the British Empire by
Caroline Elkins) (4)
‽istis walks and chats, sees familiar sights
through the eyes of first-time visitors, cooks and eats and drinks in comfort
and annual leave leisure, plays board games with optional familiar banter, goes
to the theatre…
…and
for a moment forgets, when so many simply cannot.
And ‽istis wonders at the nature of the world where these experiences sit side-by-side, at the same moment in time and oh so close in space. ‽istis ponders fate and fortune; ‘accident of birth’; responsibility and culpability; fairness, justice and equity…
Conclusions
prove elusive this week, but ‽istis wonders whether there is a single word that
perhaps, possibly, maybe captures something of simultaneous thoughts and
feelings: gratitude, guilt, embarrassment and relief‽
And then, ‽istis wonders how to live in such a state‽
©
Pistis
NB: further reflections and comments
linked to this week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter:
replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the
very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment
and dialogue welcome...
1) References found
include information about the
weaponization of sex through rape: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/08/ethiopia-troops-and-militia-rape-abduct-women-and-girls-in-tigray-conflict-new-report/
2) References found include
the website of the Council on Foreign Relations: https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/?category=us
3) References found include:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/galleries/article-10648563/William-Kates-royal-tour-poignant-echoes-Majestys-1953-visit-Jamaica.html
'I strongly agree with my father, The Prince of Wales, who said in Barbados
last year that the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history. I
want to express my profound sorrow. Slavery was abhorrent. And it should never
have happened.' Yet apologies in word and, perhaps more importantly in reparative,
restorative deed are apparently absent…
4) On the reading lists of royals and government ministers?
