Why did I ever discontinue the habit of working in coffee shops? I get a lot more done there than at home. 

We visited Klara’s best friend Chloe on Friday. Chloe’s Dad was doing yard work outside. When he came into the house, Chloe exclaimed, “Papa!” Klara lit up with joy and turned around to see papa. When she realized it wasn’t papa but some other man, Klara grew very anxious.

“No papa, mommy! Zis is no papa! No, mommy, no papa?” she kept saying, desperate for me to confirm that I wasn’t planning to pass this uninteresting man off as her papa. 

“Papa is at home,” I said. “Do you want to go home and see papa?”

Usually, I have to drag her away from her best friend, but this time Klara was eager to leave the place where people were confused about who papa actually is. 

“Yes! Home papa! Driving home car! Papa!” she declared and started dragging me towards the car. 

“Football players against Trump! Extremely rich vs fabulously rich!”

Next.

All of these sad little whelps of, “George Washington was a slaveowner! Benjamin Franklin was a sexist! And I’m not, I’m not! I’m better, mommy, right? Say I’m better and you love me more!” make me feel vicarious embarrassment. 

Washington and Franklin believed things that were normal and acceptable in their age. And so do the sad whelpers. But Washington and Franklin achieved something aside from that, and this means that the thirst of the whelpers for praise and recognition will not be quenched. 

This is, of course, as oedipal as it gets. A little boy discovers that daddy is not perfect and can be fought for mommy’s affections. A little girl discovers that mommy isn’t perfect, etc. To make the conflict that tortures them as obvious as possible the sufferers concentrate on those known as “founding fathers.” 

None of this does anything for racial justice. It’s not outwardly oriented at all. If a person with OCD touches a photo of MLK 5 times as part of his anxiety-reducing exercises, none of this has a political meaning. It’s part of his individual pathology. 

Remember, substituting politics (i.e. acting together for common good) with exhibitions of unshareable individual pathologies is neoliberalism’s way of destroying public life. People think they are very politicized when in reality they lead the most apolitical existence imaginable. 

It only took me 8 years but I finally found people around here who are like me. Today, we were at the local hot air balloon festival with some people, two of whom were women of my age who didn’t drive at all or not until recently. I felt very unremarkable, which is very restful. 

We have a large stone in the midst of the campus quad, and there’s a tradition of students and student organizations decorating it in all kinds of inventive ways with the hope that their decor will stay on the stone the longest. It’s a great tradition, and I like to bring Klara to the quad each week (it’s right next to her music lesson) to look at the stone. She already knows the words art, artist, painting, and poetry, and these visits help her practice the words. Plus, there’s shade, which is hard to find in our town. 

So then last week some individual who hasn’t been visited by the light of reason drew a Confederate flag on the stone. Of course, the drawing was removed by the school authorities immediately. Events were conducted to educate people on why they shouldn’t do this kind of thing.

Then yesterday somebody from the opposing camp used the stone to write “Fuck white supremacy!” Which is obviously not allowed to appear on campus since it’s profanity. I don’t think there will be any specific events because one doesn’t want to sound totally crazy with, “Kiddies, these are bad words. You can’t use such bad words. Now let’s sing itsy-bitsy spider and hold hands.”

I hope poutiness goes out of vogue and we can go back to our beautiful tradition.

I took Klara for a walk on campus today, and it’s pretty deserted except for a guy who was talking on Skype in Catalan. I couldn’t avoid hearing because Klara saw some squirrels right next to him and refused to budge. 

“No, mom, nobody is talking about Catalonia here,” he was saying. “No, nobody cares about the referendum. What’s on the news if not Catalonia? Trump’s problems with North Korea. No, really, nobody cares at all”

By the way, Catalonian independentists have outdone themselves in sheer, unadulterated idiocy this time. It’s a circus. And still, nobody cares. 

Special counsel Robert Mueller has sought phone records concerning the statement written aboard Air Force One defending a meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russians at Trump Tower last year that was set up by Donald Trump Jr., according to two people familiar with the investigation. Mueller has also asked the White House for documents and emails connected to a May 3 press briefing where Sean Spicer said the president had confidence in James Comey as FBI director, these people said.

In other words, he’s got nothing. 

Can we all move on now?

From FB:

I got 16 but I’m notoriously lousy with numbers.