Oh CoSo. 💛

What'd I do to deserve a crew like you?

Off to write through a weird, firework and truck-horn-tooting night. Do good crimes!

Here's a funny quirk of capitalism:

Some stores in Colombia host Black Friday, even though there's no Thanksgiving.

Now the sadder quirk:

Giving Tuesday comes *after*, on Nov 28. BUY FOR ME FIRST. GIVE TO OTHERS IF THERE'S ANYTHING LEFT. Weird, right?

If you're cash-poor, remember that investing in yourself is allowed. You can spread kindness for free.

But if you can do more? Food banks need *money* not goods; bail funds reunite families; & UNHCR has huge winter needs. TY for all you do. 💙

*This has been another episode of "esoteric thoughts accumulated while diving down research rabbit holes, with ML" - but I had a chuckle when I realized that I *do* often pause to think about the murder of Hypatia, and the earlier burning of the Library of Alexandria.

You know that toxic bro meme about how you're not a real man if you don't think about the Roman Empire at least weekly? This is my version of that: I grieve the destruction of knowledge and scholars... way more than is healthy. 😅

Dipped into Neoplatonism today for some novel research. (Felt sad about the murder of Hypatia all over again, as one does.*)

But in general, it always strikes me how much 19th-C categories fudged our sense of history. "Neoplatonism" is an early Victorian term used to organize late-Hellenic philosophies pre- & post- Plotinus. But it's *much* more fruitful to study the progression of "one-ness" from older Egyptian & Indian philosophies, through 3rd C BC Plato & beyond.

Periodization is a trap!

How's everyone doing this afternoon?

Feeling good? Fam time going well? Enjoying your peace, if feasting alone?

...No?

Well, here's some "nudes", if it'll help.

🤗 Hope your day improves.

#NudiPics

Next up, free newsletter!

Just editing it now - a nice light one for free subscribers on Wag the Dog. (We'll deal with McNamara and the Fog of War for paid subscribers this weekend.)

US friends: Happy Making The Most of A Holiday Based on Atrocity. We don't get to choose the histories we're born into, but what we make of them - in gratitude, in togetherness, in celebrating a lovely meal - is a testament to the best of our humanity, sometimes. 💛

Morning CoSo. 🕯️

As promised, today I have a piece that explores the history of political kidnappings, in war and for profit, with an eye to pushing back on armchair analysts.

As "easy" as these exchanges might look at a distance, there is a lot of pain and fraught history behind negotiating ceasefires and prisoner/hostage swaps.

There also isn't a great success rate.

This weekend, may we all be thankful for our safety, & grieve for those still waiting for their own.

https://onlysky.media/mclark/wartime-hostages-and-armchair-analysts/

I'm thankful for my snail's pace computer tonight. 🐌

Although my article is in queue for tomorrow, the absolute sluggishness of this machine while editing also allowed me to refine it in the last hour, to accommodate today's agonizing (though by no means surprising) delays in worldly follow-through.

We'll get there, mi gente. 🕊️

And I'll have an evergreen explainer on the complexity of hostage scenarios in war for you pre-dawn no matter what.

Goodnight, heavy hearts.
May tomorrow be better.

TO BE CLEAR,

Doing this part does *not* guarantee that I'll get everything right.

It is a dangerous person who lives with full confidence that their internal review process makes them impervious to error.

And a reckless media economy that ever presents itself as impeccable, too.

Integrity doesn't come from perfection.

It comes from how we own up to errors (and other situations where amendment is needed) as they inevitably arise.

Toodle-oo! 👍🏻

Now, my favourite part of the writing process - where I stand up, walk about, and come back with fresh eyes, to see if it all actually makes sense and challenge all my assertions with data-review before submitting for upload.

:) Sometimes this part goes smoothly. Sometimes I return & say, "ML, what were you smoking?"

And I honestly love that I still have enough self-awareness to self-correct. The day I don't second-guess and triple-check myself is the day I've stopped growing as a human being.

Years later, I would be raped by a Colombian who'd been triggered into wartime PTSD by me saying "no". I was held overnight. I knew how to keep my wits. I survived. One day I'll tell the full story, but I was *so* struck by how he had his own coping mechanisms for the PTSD that led to my pain.

I don't come by my kindness out of ignorance. I sit *routinely* with trauma. I do not look away from cruelty.

It's why I know how essential it is to educate ourselves, & be kind.

One other thing is coming to mind as I write this piece.

The *very first thing* I did when I came to Colombia was visit the museum of memory in Bogotá. Then the military museum. Then the memory house in Medellín.

Some people get defensive when I talk about the importance of honouring trauma - and I get it. Tough to visit Cartagena for a destination wedding, & be reminded that it was a MAJOR site of slave trade for centuries. But for me, it's non-negotiable. I always learn the history first. /×

Today I'm working on a piece to push back on the Monday morning quarterbacking.

The "solution" to war, & to kidnapping, can look pretty damned easy from the outside.

These 6 weeks, it's not the gruesome footage I've pored over that broke me.

It's the glib commentary.

The dehumanizing rhetoric. The warmongering from people who see this as a game. The geniuses who think they know *exactly* how to fix everything.

Sometimes the ethical thing to do isn't to rationalize. It's simply to grieve. 🕯

A big ol' hug to everyone who's going to be holding their breath a lot in the next few days.

I mean, more than usual, for this last nightmare of a few weeks.

We're going to be caught fast for the next few days in a news cycle of events we cannot control - but our bodies aren't going to know that. It's not going to be easy to manage the stress on 24/7 media-driven tenterhooks.

Take breaks.
Be with people.
Have grace with others, & forgive what they say while coping.
Be kind to yourselves, too.

Also, I think we're making plans to go off-grid? 🤔

I'm off for a walk in the rain, freshly disheartened by the world breaking 2°C over pre-industrial temperatures on November 17 and 18...

But I look forward to hearing your BEST HAM RADIO CALL SIGNS, so we can find each other in the after-times of this idio-acalypse. 🙃 I will work on mine en route.

One thing that routinely gets me down is how many people do tremendous harm with impunity--even supporters!--while so many of us are out here haunted by our "smaller" transgressions.

Was I a constructive presence today?

Did I own up to where my presence caused harm?

What've I done to mitigate the chances of doing harm anew?

Have I given grace to others, knowing my own flaws?

Self-accounting gives us a sense of agency in a cruel world--but try not to tip the scales against yourselves, eh? 🫂

Perennial reminder that we're living with two major wars, brutal climate forecasts, rising nationalism, an alarming amount of dehumanizing rhetoric in general...

*on top* of your personal crises: your losses, your setbacks, your doubts, your shattered sense of hope in a better world.

It's not only OK for the sum total of awfulness to hit you hard - maybe daily -

It's also human.

It's how you're affirming that you're still here, trying your best, one day at time.

Cry, heart, but never break.

Morning classes finished.

Two hours of novel time before diving into the main editing work of the day? Yes, please! 🎉