putting it together

by Rain Trueax

Somehow, this blog is not coming out as i had intended...

Originally, I had intended to write more on MeToo. Particularly, I wanted to research if more info was out there on Congress's shush funds. Well, after some research, I got very little. These payoffs were only the part that the federal funds covered to stop someone from talking who had made a complaint, but they didn't all have to be about MeToo issues. There has only been $17 million paid out at the point I found figures. There was no info as to what it had covered or which Congressional employees. It also did not deal with private payoffs. Basically, I didn't feel I had enough to carry on with the subject. IF that changes in the future, I'll do more with it. 

I just want to add that it's good for there to be accountability whether it's movie executives, stars or political power brokers. There doubtless is still not enough being done.

So... what attracted my interest instead was another kind of cultural issue that was triggered by putting together one of my nighttime dreams, a popular reality show, and our political world. I was hoping I could write it in a way that made sense. 

Then,  I had second thoughts about that too based on not having the mindset to do it justice as well as all of what's going on with Covid-19, where it's causing such major disruption and has so much uncertainty attached to it. January 4th, I wrote about ['black swans']. The world has been hit by one of those with no idea where it's going. Not a good time for deep thinking where, at least for most of us, we don't have enough facts to put it all together...

So third plan. Photos of the desert and at the end a jigsaw puzzle, one of my current meditative distractions. Enjoy my piece of the desert where I find such peace and if i have to self-quarantine, I will enjoy my surroundings.

Andalusia

by Rain Trueax

I am a fan of documentaries. There are times when a movie just does not appeal to me. Almost always a good documentary will. On Amazon Prime New Year's Day night, we enjoyed 'When the Moors Ruled in Europe.' 

 

 

It's by a British historian looking at the architectural evidence for the Moorish presence in Spain from about 700-1500 AD. It presents a very different look at Muslims of that time and even today with the different ways Islam is seen. Beautifully filmed and quite interesting. This is the blurb for it:

'This program contends that the popular perception of the Muslim occupation of Spain toward the end of the first millennium is largely wrong. The eighth century Muslim invasion of the Iberian Pennisula was largely welcomed by the locals and rejuvenated the area with advanced technology, agriculture and a construction boom. This program describes these innovations. All this changed in the eleventh century when the regional government fragmented. That set the stage for the Christian invasion and the Islamic fundamentalist resistance leading to more of a civil war than a holy war that decimated the region with corruption, destruction and exile.'