Sunday morning is windy, with a light rain.  I cannot complain as the trees need moisture.  Soon the ground will freeze…  Vegetation will begin the winter season of sleep.  Life can be hard.  And life can be serendipitous, — the feel of a strange looking rock you happened to find, in your pocket.  Is there a balance, an averaging of the extremes, somewhere in the middle?  Does happiness and unhappiness reach an equivalence?  It does not seem so.  Luck, dumb luck, — and that is all that can be said about the current of the vast river of life.

Why would one not seize every opportunity to celebrate the good things, to proclaim a festival every single time that good fortune presents itself?

Yesterday our grand daughter celebrated her second birthday.  The theme of the party was Peppa the Pig.  An all family gathering was convened with games (the pickle tasting contest was a hit!).  Cousins played together, a pinata in the garage, and best of all, the birthday cake was ice cream.

I awakened this morning with memories of the party.  Perhaps her second birthday party will be faintly recalled with our grand daughter reaches adulthood?  I hope so.

The adults in our family discussed the approaching Thanksgiving holiday.  We planned a “field trip” to the Art Institute of Chicago for the Saturday of the holiday weekend.  I have not been in Chicago for several years.  Awareness of the violence in some areas of the city has grown.  Big cities, any big city imposes many constraints upon anyone present.  Millions of us in a limited geographical area presents extremes of opulence and of misery.  Cities have become a microcosm of the world in the 21st century.  Therefore, I find myself making a calculation when considering an experience of the amenities of Chicago: Is it worth it?

And there’s only one way to find out…

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Modern, complex, sophisticated societies are created by the imposition of boundaries of many kinds: geographic, commercial, class, financial, legal, enforcement etc.  A moment of thought entails the realization that these boundary constraints overlap, are self reinforcing.  Is it not immature, faux-childish, to fantasize that any of the nations of the West, or the big cities are organic developments, a peaceful and natural collaboration between communities with different goals?

We ought not to think for a single moment that the rhetoric of peaceful intentions, the prospect of negotiated splitting of the difference is the rule-of-thumb for business as usual in the early 21st century.  Powerful nations, and empires are not built by peaceable means.  A report in this morning’s New York Times is instructive, a lesson in RealPolitik.

In my dream fantasy I can imagine a nation and society that has adopted Peppa Pig for its symbol, the icon of aspiration for a way-of-life…