Covid19 and Relationships

Originally, I was thinking about how Covid19 has affected many people's understanding of their relationship to the world.  There are more realizing the interaction that we have with nature, and that it is not just the dominance of humankind as many had thought before.  But Covid19 has affected all relationships, and probably more of us are spending close time with our immediate family.  A lot of us are thinking about our friends and how much we are looking forward to spending time with them again.  Perhaps some are missing going to the store, especially us Americans.

One of the things we probably think the least about though is our relationship with life.  This week, Wisconsin Public Radio's program Chapter A Day has been reading Henry David Thoreau's Walden.  There was a man who pondered the meaning of life all the time.  And someone who tried to live it to the fullest.  He also understood that our meaning of life was uniquely independent and wouldn't begin to suggest he understood what your meaning was but only suggest you don't just go about living your life in the mold that your family and society have crafted for you.

Another idea about our relationship with life which recently caught my attention was a Vox article about China and wet markets.  It's a great article and I highly encourage people to read it.  The pictures alone give a great deal of understanding to wet markets and why understanding them are difficult.  In particular though was one man's comment about the wet market which really struck home with me.  It was the comment that wet markets are what helped produce color in his life, because otherwise it was a life stuck in the office full of the stagnant behavior one finds in most offices, with little meaning other than to get the job done, and that that meaning is more important than the meaning of your life. 

So it is wishful thinking I know.  Some say that Covid19 will change the world.  From what I've seen of people, most will go back to living life as close to normal as possible once the restrictions are let down.  But I hope that at least a few more will use the opportunities learned from this experience to live their life more uniquely. 

Emotions and Immigration

Immigration has become a very personal issue for me.  I've tried to get my wife and son to immigrate to the USA legally in 2014 after my daughter was born.  We ran into a huge roadblock of my not being able to prove financially secure enough to support my family and being unable to find a joint sponsor who made enough.  That attempt went down the drain.  I spent a few more years teaching English in China.  Then my grandmother's health appeared to me to be getting to the point where she wouldn't be around much longer and the economy in the USA appeared strong enough to offer me a enough job to begin the immigration process with me being the financial sponsor.  About six months after returning to the USA, I filed the I-130 for my wife and son.  A few weeks later my grandmother died.

It has now been a year since I began the immigration process for the second time.  Lots has happened.  It took six months for the petition to be approved.  It then took nearly a month for USCIS to receive all the paperwork and begin the processes for setting up an interview before deciding on a visa.  All the paperwork I originally submitted for the petition had to be resubmitted to USCIS along with documentation showing my ability to financially support my family.  Around early June, USCIS told me that despite my making $16.50 an hour full-time, I did not meet the minimum financial requirements.  Perhaps it was because I had not worked an entire year and the taxes I filed therefore did not meet those requirements but when you broke the numbers down, I did meet them.  So we began the process of finding a financial sponsor.  Many people were afraid.  Why?  Because they'd be locked into a ten year contract that if my wife and/or son took welfare that the sponsor would be responsible.  About a month went by but finally someone did offer to become a joint sponsor.  Ironically, it was a naturalized citizen ie, someone who had immigrated and became a US citizen.  We submitted the paperwork during which time USCIS then told me the marriage certificate wasn't valid.  After doing a lot of research, consulting with two immigration lawyers, and finally with USCIS agents in their call center I realized it didn't meet the requirements as outlined on the website
to meet reciprocity on translations of Chinese marriage certificates.  To me, it ultimately looked like a way to force me into paying more money.  I had gotten a translation of the Chinese marriage certificate through an online translation agency along with their guarantee of authenticity.  The reciprocity agreements demanded by USCIS wanted the translation then given to an authority in China who would again verify the authenticity, producing another document.  During this whole situation, the most ironic thing was that when submitting the marriage certificate translation for my wife it was approved but for my son it wasn't.  And DHS felt it was good enough for approval of the I-130 petition.
We did finally have all documents approved about two weeks ago (around August 14, 2019).  They'll now begin scheduling of an interview at the Embassy in Moscow.  Since we heard that the documents have all qualified though, nothing else has been communicated.  Everything takes weeks.  When you've been apart from your family for 18 months, days tear you apart.  Originally I marked days off on the calendar thinking to myself we were one day closer to being together.  Now I have marked days off thinking it is one more day apart.  A huge shift in thinking even if it seems so subtle a difference.  Before I thought it was only a matter of time until we would be together.  Now, I think what else could happen to slow the process down and possibly even make it so that we cannot be together?

So what does this all have to do with emotions?  Immigration is a very emotional issue.  I've given you my story in part to understand why it effects me emotionally.  My wife and son have been separated from my daughter and me for 18 months and going.  My wife and I have been married for 8 years, 7 of them spent in China.  We've established a life together.  We've had a child together.  We've been raising a family together.  Why can't there be a legal process which allows us to continue doing those things together as the proceedings continue?  It's inhumane absurdities such as this which causes people who have less to loose to take more drastic measures: immigrate illegally.  Through this whole process, I have to admit I wish I had done things differently, I wish that I had taken advantage of the more gray areas so that we have not had to be apart for so long.  Having experiences like this makes one loose faith in their government, and the society in which one lives.

Immigration is a sensitive topic which doesn't get enough discussion because I believe it is one which highlights many of the flaws within the USA.  We claim to be a country of liberty and justice.  There has been nothing liberating or just about this process.  When going through immigration proceedings, what is just about keeping a family apart for 18 months?  The system needs to be balanced and fair.  In following articles, I intend to discuss some of the issues with the immigration system, and how politics unfairly uses those issues to prey on us rhetorically .

The battle of winter and summer

Recently, my daughter and I have been watching a Netflix series called "Tales from Arcadia: Trollhunters" by Guillermo del Toro.  It's fascinating, full of mixtures of different fairy tales and folklore.  I even saw the name Baba Yiga tossed in there which tickled my funny bone since my wife is Russian and I heard lots about Baba Yiga over the years.  Learning a new story for a kid always involves reenactment of the story, and since I'm the only one around who is able to play with her, I get to reenact it with her.  As always is the case, the story involves our own personal twists.  My daughter has been enthralled by the movie Frozen and probably was influenced by this in making the decision that instead of being in command of the sun, she would be in command of the ice.  And naturally, I had to be in command of the opposite of ice, which was fire.

This choice of opposites quickly reminded me of the Norse Muspell and Niflheim.  The void between these two places was called Gunnungagap and it was here, where the battle between ice and fire gave birth to life.  Having lived in Northeastern Minnesota for nearly two thirds of my adult life, I'm quite familiar with this battle between hot and cold.  The battle results in the formation of abundant water and the quick destruction of roads.

Today, this all took on a greater meaning for me.  All of existence is conflict.  It is the story of the world every where we look.  The cycle of the seasons is a battle between summer and winter, which corresponds with a battle between the light and the dark.  A twenty-four hour period is a battle between the light and the dark, the strength of which corresponds with the season and our location upon the earth. 

We exist.  And if we are to exist, we must come to an appreciation of this conflict, and use it to our advantage.  Many things do so.  The winter months are a time of rest for many.  Trees lose their leaves, store energy in their roots and wait.  These cold days of rest provide the opportunity for apple trees to produce apples for example, requiring a number of hours of temperatures below 45 degrees Fahrenheit just so they can produce apples.  Bears take the opportunity to rest, and give birth. 

On a daily basis, many use the hours of light and dark to benefit their needs.  In more temperate climates, hours of light are used to create while hours of dark are used to rest.  In hot climates, the hours of dusk and dawn are often used to create while the darkest and most light hours are used for rest. 

While plants spend much of the spring and summer months growing, a great many take this abundance of energy to consume plants for their energy needs.  And so down the line does the taking advantage go.  Some really take advantage of these opportunities by storing energy for later use.  Some great examples of this are the many rodents who store seeds for the winter months.  And those who produce alcohol..

This battle is both infinitely small, and infinitely large.  We can see the battle under petri dishes, and we can see it over scales of time.  Civilizations come and go because of this conflict.  Their period of relative light, or darkness, is countered by the opposite period.  And if the civilization in question hasn't learned to recognize that there are periods of growth countered with periods of rest, then they have doomed themselves.  In the great words from the motto of the Stark family in Game of Thrones: "Winter is coming."

American Civil War 2.0: The Media

Ironically enough, Russia Today beat me to the punch. One of the biggest reasons we could come to civil war in the USA is if people become so divided that they no longer are able to talk. During the election campaign in 2016, we heard plenty of stories of people unable to have Thanksgiving with their families because of the division present even then. It's been two, going on three years since then and one place you never stop hearing about how unfair it was, or just constantly taking jabs at Trump is through the media.

Nearly every time I turn on NPR in the car, look at news on the web, or check the major media outlets I am almost instantly bombarded with some news about how Trump is the worst president ever and how he is passing some legislation which is going to ruin our lives. The facts speak for themselves. More people are working. We haven't gotten involved in any military conflicts overseas. Overdoses seem to be going down. He, President Trump, is doing some much needed good. Some much needed good that neither a typical Republican nor Democratic nominee could have or would have. He does counter the good with a lot of stupidity, or narcissism. Not to necessarily defend him, but that is the American way.

The main, and important thing to realize, is we are being pitted against each other. The media especially is preying on people's emotions. Typical emotional response is either fight or flight. With things getting broken down into binary fashion, people are forgetting there is a middle ground. This is the commons. It's where common sense comes from. It is where compromise exists. As individuals within this country, we need to defend that ability and that option to meet on a common ground. A huge part of that defense means building up some resilience to the information wars we are exposed to. We'll delve into that next week!

American Civil War: 2.0

The first American Civil War happened because the nation was forced into making decisions which divided them. The same thing is happening right now. There are calls from both Democrats and Republicans that you are either for or against. You are for gun rights, or against gun rights. You are for hate, or against hate. You are for life, or against life. You are for the nation, or against the nation. Making all these binary choices fragments our society. It moves people closer to a binary choice of I am for this side, or against this side. And that is how strife erupts.

Let's take for example the American Civil War. T.R. Fehrenbach writes in Lone Star:A History of Texas and The Texans in chapter 18 Secession that the political crisis brewing in America at the time was based on social and economic reasons. “The real enemy of the North was Southern political power, insisting upon the strictest construction of the Constitution in a defense of states' rights that hindered and hamstrung industrialism and infuriated Eastern bankers, railroad magnates, and manufacturers. The true enemy of the South was industrialism itself, which threatened its agriculture with a worse colonialism..” He further writes “the two sections, doing what came naturally, had built two quite different societies”. Here a prime example of deep social divide existing based largely on lifestyles is described. It's hard not to see that current in modern grievances with a group of people demanding free, or affordable, higher education and healthcare. They often are the same group demanding that hatred and intolerance is growing in the country and that it is the result of instigation by the President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence, and all of their red MAGA cap wearing supporters, which are “all redneck white males”.

T.R. Fehrenbach continues that “With genuine economic and political grievances against each other, the Northern states and the South found their flashpoint in the question of Negro slavery. The Negro question made the states' rights question so crucial and violent. The South insisted upon states' rights to maintain the status quo, which the North was increasingly determined to alter.” Those economic and political grievances are mounting. The disparity between have's and have nots is growing. Many have nots feel they have no political voice. Legislation is being brought up to make changes to how the Electoral College works.  A recent NPR article about the Popular Vote Movement contains the quote from Seth Masket that "the status quo is unacceptable," he said. "This might not be the best way of changing it, but it's at least a way of forcing some change and forcing some discussion of it." Lines are being drawn. People are demanding change, often demanding it being changed immediately.

Does that mean Civil War is inevitable? There is still opportunity for people to discuss and bridge the divide. It will take willing ears and a lot of compromise. But the opportunity for a flashpoint exists, one which could firmly cement lines and division. We'll discuss next week how to identify these pitfalls and how to develop some resilience against reacting in a way with the flashpoints which could lead to further division.

Make America Great Again

A simple statement.  Make America Great Again.  It simple implies that people want America to return to greatness.  It also implies that America is suffering.  How can the average American take offense to that?  Do you take offense that people believe that the quality of life in America is suffering?  I'm not even 40 years old yet but I can see a country which has fallen in it's greatness.  The signs of decay are everywhere.  Our infrastructure is a mess.  Jobs are hard to come by and it's even harder to find a job which will provide enough to raise a family, have a house to live in, and save up.  Those weren't as common concerns prior to the 90s.

Since then things have steadily gone downhill.  Not for everyone mind you.  This chart gives a good impression of unemployment over the years.  It actually looks like since the mid 70s things have been tough.  Between those who lived in better times, and those who have only read about them, times now just don't seem as great.  It'd be interesting to see how many people were entrepreneurs over the years.  My gut tells me people felt more comfortable taking the risk to start a business before but feel much less so now.  This is supposed to be a land of liberty, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness.  A huge part of that involves feeling comfortable enough to take the risk to be your own master.   

Today, more and more people are wanting the government to be their master.  They want the government to pay for, or provide, lots of their daily needs, as if they are rights.  They want the government to give them jobs.  They want the government to regulate and decide what is right and wrong.  The problem with that, is right and wrong are up for interpretation, which is ultimately influenced by bias.  That in turn makes people feel more at risk.  Why?  Because, who is to say that the hard work you put into developing your business may not be taken away because of some bias lawmaker.  And then your opportunity to recover after that failure is less likely because there are less jobs.

So America certainly needs a return to this greatness.  The greatness that once existed.  Look to historical examples in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  People and families who often felt secure enough to take risk after risk but never felt that they'd be unable to put food on the table for the family.

Why else might people take offense to the simple phrase Make America Great Again?  Might it be simply because the connection between that phrase and our current president, President Trump?  I'd definitely say so.  As 10 minutes listening to the radio, watching TV, or just skimming headlines can tell you, he's not befriended by the status quo.  As I've already pointed out though, many people have good reason to not be happy with the status quo and for wanting change. 

What may then be hard for a lot of people to understand is that people wearing those MAGA hats, people who believe in Making America Great Again may not necessarily be firm Trump supporters.  They may just be people who realize something real needs to change so that there is opportunity for America to be great again. 

The Voyageur Institute/The Ranger School

Trees.  Plants.  Animals.  Flora.  Fauna.  Outdoors.  Nature.  Those things are not us, right? 

It seems that we live a life not connected with nature.  Our cities exist with a plentitude of buildings, streets, houses, and sidewalks but a very small amount of parks.  On a much grander scale though, the Earth and natural environments are the place where we exist and we've made bubbles within that macro environment.  We've made bubbles seemingly cut off. 

Cut off from the womb.  Cut off from the place which bore us.  Which provided for us.  Our civilization would not exist if it weren't for the resources which we've pillaged from the earth.  Our civilization would not exist if it weren't for the knowledge and wisdom gleaned from natural functions developing life.  Just like our civilization would not exist if not for the hard work and ingenuity of those before us.  The ground was tilled and planted and found fertile.  What shall we reap?  What shall be our harvest?

That's up to us.  We have many great examples to help guide us.  But we need some modern heroes.  People who are willing to do something different.  People who are willing to walk the road not taken, because that's what makes the difference.  We need people who aren't going to sit in front of the television/entertainment device all day.  We need people who aren't going to walk staring at their smart phone.  We need people who aren't going to buy their way out of the hole that's been dug but instead people who are willing to get muddy and banged up. 

We need people like Brad "Darby" Kittel from Tiny Texas Houses.  We need people like Brett McKay of  The Art of Manliness.  We need people like John Michael Greer of Ecosophia.  We need people who are willing to walk the talk.  People who make changes by being the changes.  Modern day Gandhis. 

Modern day people willing to make peace with living the change they want to see.  One of the biggest changes I want to see is more respect and communion with nature.  We've got some great examples from the past providing some headway into being in harmony with nature.  John Muir.  Henry David Thoreau.  Ernest Thompson Seton.  Aldo Leopold.  Sigurd Olson. 

What I'd personally like to start working towards over the next year is to lay the groundwork to start developing some nature organizations similar to the Woodcraft League.  Organizations which would both encourage and help people to get outside and develop a healthy relationship with the world from whence we came.  Would you like to help me or get involved somehow?  Post a comment!