1. Sometimes it is all right just to be blissfully out of it. The episode of Inspector Lewis that I started on Saturday and finished this morning was written as the last episode of the series and I didn't know that as I watched it. I was going merrily along, letting the episode fool me into thinking this guy, then that guy killed the professor, his wife, and, years earlier, a post-doc student and I enjoyed the satisfaction of Lewis and Hathaway digging their way to the truth about the murders. Then, all of I sudden, Lewis and Hathaway were ending their relationship as coppers over a beer and it was understated and tender and my tears welled up and I realized that I had randomly selected the farewell episode of Inspector Lewis.
It turned out, though, that it wasn't the last episode. I did some reading and discovered more episodes were made starting a year or so later. In due time, I'll check them out.
2. Around 12:30 or so, I sprang into the Sube and met Kristen Chesmore at Radio Brewing for lunch. Kristen and I first met nearly forty years ago at Whitworth when I was teaching part time in the English Department and she was getting underway as a student. Kristen took some time away from Whitworth, returned, and so did I. In January of 1984, she was a student in my Jan term course, "The Family in American Drama". I've kept somewhat current with Kristen through Facebook. Her brother, Peter Blomquist, and I are good friends and he told me a bit about how Kristen was doing when Peter, Mark Cutshall, and I got together in Newport, OR in September, 2013.
Kristen and I immediately and comfortably launched into a couple of hours of conversation. We updated each other on our families and our sons and daughters and grandchildren. Recently, Kristen traveled with a group working to observe and understand the frightening and dangerous conditions in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador that give rise to people leaving, seeking asylum in the USA. She also told me about the volunteering she does at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma and told me stories about two women she talked with for months who have now been deported. I talked about how much I loved living among people from all parts of the world in Greenbelt and Alexandria and what I experienced in wandering around the Washington, D.C metro area. Kristen told me more about her experiences in Central America and volunteering in the Seattle/Tacoma area. Being out in the world and having daily interactions with people who have come to the USA from all over the world has enriched both of us and I loved talking with Kristen about all of this.
3. Back home, I took everything out of the refrigerator and cleaned its interior. I returned to the television room and watched the second episode of Ken Burns' and Lynn Novick's documentary series, The Vietnam War. The episode explored the brutal irony of the idea that the military and civilian leadership of the USA, with some exceptions, imagined that we could make war in a country as a means of helping its people combat Communism, destroy crops, burn villages, indiscriminately kill Vietnamese people, often mistaking allies for enemies, force people to leave their homes and live behind barbed wire in strategic hamlets, and expect the support of the Vietnamese for our efforts. Many Vietnamese had come to resent the colonizing presence of the French over the decades and, similarly, came to resent the presence of the USA. This resentment emboldened the Viet Cong and helped them in their recruitment. What had once seemed like a limited action that would be over in a matter of months turned into a long and deadly slog. It's a terrible history to watch unfold.
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