There and gone

The theme at Goat Rope lately is Shakespeare's Hamlet, along with the usual links and comments about current events. But before I go on, I want to pass on a "deep" thought that occurred to me about the theater.

WARNING: Some thoughts that seemed deep to me at the time turned out to be either total gibberish or else totally obvious-- like the time I was blown away by the fact that every time there were three cats in a room they would make a triangle if you drew line segments between them. (OK, I'm embarrassed, but what can I say?)

Anyway, here is my my deep and quasi-Buddhist thought about theater: the coolest thing about it is its impermanence. First there is nothing, just an empty stage. Then a more or less magical performance. Then the stage is struck and it's empty again with no residue.

Not there, then all there, then all gone. Just like us. And everything else.

EASY CHOICES. Here's an op-ed by yours truly about policy options for helping WV get through the Great Recession.

HAITI. This is the latest on the American Friends Service Committee's Haiti relief efforts, along with background on its approach.

NIGHTMARES, EARTHQUAKES, HAITI AND MORE are on the menu in the latest edition of the Rev. Jim Lewis' Notes from Under the Fig Tree.

CLIMATE CHANGE. This NY Times editorial argues for the benefits of a climate change bill.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Sancho and Hamlet

Cervantes.

By an odd coincidence, two giants who divided the literary firmament in the early modern period died on exactly the same day (April 23 1616). I'm referring to Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and William Shakespeare.

Cervantes, born in 1547, was the older. Shakespeare's birth date is unknown but he was baptised in 1564, most likely soon after birth. Cervantes seemed to have the rougher road in life, being on occasion a soldier, captive of pirates, tax collector and prisoner.

Both have one thing in common, aside from being among the greatest writers and artists of all time. Their work embodied the kind of self consciousness that scholar Jacques Barzun described as a characteristic of the modern era. Yesterday's post looked at an artistic example of this in Velasquez' painting Las Meninas, in which he inserted himself.

In Cervantes' masterpiece, you can see this in the Second Part of Don Quixote, when the Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance (aka the title character) and his trusty squire Sancho find out that they are literary characters in someone else's book--and they are none to happy about it.

In Hamlet, the something similar happens with the players visit Elsinore and Hamlet gives them instructions on acting. At one point in the play, there are (real) actors portraying actors who are portraying other people in a play within the play.

Those are just small examples of the things that make such works interesting and durable.

PLAN C. In the wake of Tuesday's election, a scaled-back version of health care reform may be the next option.

WHAT NEXT? Here is one of many takes on what this means for the Obama presidency.

HAITI. Here's more on the American Friends Service Committee's efforts to relieve suffering in the wake of the recent earthquake.

COAL. A new report predicts the decline Central Appalachian coal production. Here's all kinds of info on this from Ken Ward's Coal Tattoo.

GREEN JOBS. West Virginia just got a $6 million federal grant intended to create 1850 of them.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Knocking holes in the darkness

I can't think of anything better to say on Martin Luther King Jr. Day than to recommend that the Gentle Reader check out this interview with civil rights leader Rev. Samuel "Billy" Kyles about the life, work and death of Dr. King.

Kyles draws on a figure of speech attributed to the young Robert Louis Stevenson. The story goes that one night the boy looked out his window at a lamp lighter who went from pole to pole lighting old fashioned gas street lamps and called out "There's a man coming down the street punching holes in the darkness!"

Kyles suggests that this is a good image for the work of Dr. King and a challenge for the rest of us.

(Given the general state of the world, it should be steady work anyhow...)

ON THAT NOTE, this item argues that if Dr. King was around today he'd be talking about poverty and economic justice.

HAITI. Here's more about the American Friends Service Committee's response to the earthquake in Haiti.

A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE was honored by El Cabrero's beloved state of West Virginia for her contributions to the causes of civil rights and social justice.

OTHER TOOL USING ANIMALS. Add crows to the list.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Somebody needs a handler

In case you were wondering whether televangelist Pat Robertson could top some of his older zingers (such as defining feminism as a "socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians"), the answer is one big YES.

Speaking of the humanitarian disaster in Haiti, he had this to say:

[S]omething happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. Napoleon the Third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, "We will serve you if you get us free from the prince." True story. And so the devil said, "OK, it's a deal." They kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free.

But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor...

You can watch it here.

(Actually, Pat, leaving aside the whole foam at the mouth/howl at the moon/whackadoodle devil part, I think the trouble was with the first Napoleon and they handled it themselves with a little help from yellow fever--but that's not the point right now. It might be time you considered getting a little help in the messaging department.)

MEANWHILE, BACK IN REALITYLAND. Many governments and good groups from around the world are trying to come to the aid of earthquake survivors in Haiti. As I mentioned yesterday, the American Friends Service Committee is one of these and you can click here if you want to support those efforts.

TALKING SENSE on politics is E. J. Dionne here. (Sorry about the weird word order thing.)

ANOTHER LATE ANNIVERSARY. Jan. 11 was the date of President Franklin Roosevelt's talk on the need for a "Second Bill of Rights" that dealt with economic issues.

A DEAL has been struck between labor supporters, the White House, and congressional leaders about the proposed tax on high end health care plans in the Senate's health care reform package.

TORTURING THE NUMBERS UNTIL THEY CONFESS. The WV Department of Health and Human Resources wildly exaggerated the costs of Medicaid expansion as part of health care reform.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Haiti

HAITI. Haiti faces a humanitarian catastrophe in the wake of Tuesday's massive earthquake. The American Friends Service Committee has a history of working in that country and will respond with immediate humanitarian assistance by working with partner organizations in the country and plans to commit available resources to longer term reconstruction. For more information on how you can help, click here or call 1-888-588-2372.

Regular posts will resume tomorrow.