Old So What

  And it’s a warm spring-like day…in December.   Which only means that the warmth will not last and the miserable weather of winter will be returning. But, for now we can pretend that we have arrived where we belong, at the start of pleasant weather once again. The Internet describes rain as: “moisture condensed from the atmosphere that falls visibly in separate drops.” That’s an almost poetic description, don’t you think? Anyway, I like it. A quiet, warm rain any time of the year can soothe your troubled brow and give you a feeling of peace. All is right as the rain lulls you off to a restful sleep on a silent Sunday afternoon. Enjoy! That’s all you have to do.

  Bashar al-Assad was a very bad boy. Well, he was very bad…period. He and his wife, “The Rose in the Desert, (now known as “the first lady of hell”), lived a life of luxury and plenty. How many Hermes scarves can you wear at one time (?), while his people lived lives of hunger, despair and desperation. How do you do that?   How do you live with yourself and do that? How do you go to a family pot roast on a Sunday when you’ve tortured, exploited and starved your fellow Syrians on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday through Saturday. I won’t even talk about the torture prisons and the graves where hundreds of thousands were flung in an effort to dispose of their bodies.   Apparently, these were mostly average citizens grabbed off the streets and checkpoints never to be heard from again. Disposing of human beings. After a while you must become inured to it. All of it. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, Bashar decided to sell his people and the world, the Captagon (a highly ad...

  I just read that the former President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, has left his country to seek refuge in Moscow under the protection of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Probably one of his last friends. I don’t know how to comment on this. I wouldn’t want to spend the rest of my life in Moscow…but. (Isn’t it really cold there with toilet paper shortages?) The one time I remember reading about Assad is when his wife purchased furniture from Paris. The amount was reported to be $150,000.   Which seems like a small amount considering who it’s for. It just sort of got stuck in my mind that someone would buy furniture from Paris.   Jewels, clothes, croissants maybe, but furniture? And now, he and his wife and three children are some of the newest residents of Moscow.   That can’t be good. And what happened to all the furniture?

  As of this posting there has been a shooting and killing of the United Healthcare’s CEO, Brian Thompson. The person of interest is, and I will say his name, Luigi Mangione. The suspect is 26 years-old.   A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in computer science. I know this school personally, both my brothers graduated from there, and my husband did design and photographic work for several of their departments for many years. I helped with some supplemental writing for two of their publications myself. So, I can say without hesitation that murder is not the norm. Since we do not know all the facts at this point, I can only wonder what happened? And why? Why did this young man take a life and throw his own away…completely. There must have been a reason. The whole event was so tragic. It could be the plot of a movie. And, of course, eventually it will be.