Despite what some conservative blowhards would have you believe, Al Gore’s film isn’t a stern 90-minute piece of propaganda on how we humans are causing our own extinction.  Yes, he does illustrate how dire things could become if carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere continue to rise exponentially, but he expresses a lot of optimism for our capacity to address the problem, if only we can summon the necessary political will.  The film’s website contains lots of practical tips on reducing our carbon footprint in the course of our daily lives, most of which I can comply with except for the one about planting a tree.  Here in downtown, we are sorely lacking in tree-lined boulevards, so maybe I can start a letter-writing campaign to urge the City Council to green up the neighborhood. 

The World Cup, the biggest sporting event on the planet, began today.  While productivity in most of the world’s nations will take a hit as close to a billion people tune in to the matches on television, radio, or the Web, we Americans remain proudly oblivious to the event.  This shouldn’t really surprise anyone.  After all, we couldn’t be bothered with the metric system either.  I do hope the American team does well, but I’ll be pulling for my birthplace, Germany.  Deutschland über alles!

While even your grandmother probably maintains a blog, elected officials continue to be wary of the practice.  Few public officeholders blog on a consistent basis and this reluctance to use such a potentially powerful medium probably has several causes.  Many lawmakers fear that political opponents could take a blog entry out of context and use it as a campaign weapon against the author.  And while blogs can make an elected official seem more accessible, it also provides an avenue for intense criticism from members of the public, criticism that, whether accurate or not, could influence other voters.  But on the whole, the potential benefits of blogging for lawmakers outweigh any potential risks.  Blogging is a quick and cheap method for reaching out to constituents and encouraging a more participatory democracy.  Here in Minneapolis, Councilmember Cam Gordon maintains a blog and he persuaded the City Council to pass a motion permitting all Councilmembers to use city resources to maintain blogs.  In fact, political blogs are more likely to proliferate at the local level before lawmakers at the federal level get up the gumption to blog at any meaningful level. 

 

I’ve often wondered what I’d do with this blog if I ever ran for office.  My advisors would probably urge me to mothball the whole thing, but I’d probably resist.  The people deserve to know what they might be getting themselves into if they elect me. 

Like snowflakes, no two days in a human life are exactly alike.  While most of our days seem to fade into our respective pasts in a monochromatic blur of routine and habit, each day is singular.  Ian McEwan’s Saturday is a recounting of a singular day in the life of one man, Henry Perowne, a neurosurgeon living in London.  The book follows Henry through the entire course of a singular Saturday in his life.  In many ways, his Saturday is mundane; it could be the Saturday of any affluent, urban-dwelling professional.  He plays squash, he visits his elderly mother at a nursing home, he goes shopping for dinner.  But a few small but important events transpire that ultimately stand apart this Saturday from all others.  Set against the backdrop of the buildup to the Iraq war, McEwan gracefully chronicles Perowne’s constant inner dialogue, which fluidly shifts from present to past, from memory to anticipation.  The book reminds us that it is the random, unpredictable moments, blazing across the horizon of our existence like a comet, that make life both sublime and horrifying. 

 

Next up: George R.R. Martin’s A Feast for Crows, the fourth book in his A Song of Fire and Ice opus.  At more than 700 pages, I’m going to have to exercise some serious discipline to finish this book in a reasonable amount of time.  It’s been nearly three years since I read the last book in the series, but the chapter synopses over at Tower of the Hand are proving very helpful. 

 

What books are on your summer reading lists? 

An acquaintance of mine, a young woman with a disability, passed away suddenly last week.  I didn’t know her well, but her partner is a colleague and good friend of mine.  Her memorial service was this morning and the church overflowed with those who had come to say goodbye.  Her empty wheelchair and a photograph of her and her devoted service dog sat in arrangement on the elevated stage at the front of the sanctuary.  I looked at them and I watched the pews fill with mourners and I thought about all the usual things you think about when you’re confronted with someone else’s mortality and, by implication, your own.  How sad it was that this person couldn’t have remained with the people she loved for a longer period of time.  How remarkable and rich her existence had been.  How I sometimes allow myself to be absorbed in the bothersome minutiae of daily life and forget to savor the occasional moment. 

 

It’s an absolutely perfect day outside.  I hope you’re enjoying a little perfection, wherever you are.