Rain today after some beautiful days of sun. The river is low in its banks. We are not rich but we are incredibly lucky.
These photos were taken on my morning walks. The last photo was shot in the tire repair store where I went when a mechanic found a small nail in my tire.
Last week I wrote about Alaska and California and I think I may have insulted Californians as being somehow philosophically lightweight because they don’t have Brown Bears wandering in their communities. I’m sorry for this. It hit me in face when I realized that while I was writing my “Alaska has more weight because of the Big Animals in the woods” …two mass shootings happened in California one not all that far from me here.
First let me explain something about “Big Animals.” Years ago a mentor of my friend Richard Nelson came to visit in Sitka. Catherine Atla was a Athabaskan elder who had taught Richard many things about Koyukon natural philosophy. She drove with Richard toward the end of our road where there was an easy trail . The walk was surrounded by large trees and wetlands. It was much different from from her home country in the boreal forest in the sub arctic north. But they both have Grizzly bears and the big bears are treated by most native people with mythological respect. Bears are sentient creatures and can hear your words, If you speak with a lack of respect it can bring bad luck. Either in hunting or in a straight up conflict. So powerful were these creatures, like the traditional Jewish tradition it is forbidden to say the animals name out loud, for fear of offending the Bear. When they got deep into their walk Catherine Atla turned to Nels and asked, “Are there any Big Animals around here?” Nels assured her that any Big animals in the area had heard them and taken off as soon as they got out of his car.
“Big Animal” then is the phrase for the powerful force in nature that can change your ruin your luck.
California’s Flag has a Grizzly bear on it, though they have no more in their woods or mountains. But clearly have lots of Big Animals out there who can bring bad luck at a whim.
How to prevent mass shootings? I don’t know. Sadly i think the political rhetoric of the time has made it near impossible to get military grade weapons off the street. I respect and admire those who work tirelessly to do just that, I frankly cant see a time in the near future that those hideous guns will become unavailable. Possibly some day. But not now.
The common wisdom holds that most mass shootings are committed by men with repressed frustration and then they become isolated from any stable and loving community. They isolate and sometimes fall into community with someone who is clearly mentally ill. As in the Columbine killings, a follower is befriended by a sociopath and let their somewhat normative highs school frustrations build to a deadly and suicidal boiling point. The two Columbine shooters had access to loving families but for whatever reason turned away from them. Some suspect it was the influence of the sociopathic manipulation of the one member who needed the follower to help motivate him to commit the act. But I clearly don’t know. Boys like this are Big Animals in a sense.
You might say that now I’m being offensive to bears by comparing them to homicidal killers. And while it’s true I don’t think Bears intend any ill harm to humans but if you spend enough time in their habitat there will be dangerous confrontations. I myself have utmost respect for all bears, but I’ve had to kill three in self defense. So, I might not be the right one to ask. Nels told me that I must have done something to ruin my luck.
Lets leave the gun debate out of this discussion of Big Animals. Let’s take the case of D.D. who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband. DD is Canadian. He both is and isn’t a stereotypical offender of this kind. He grew up along the coast of British Columbia. then lived in Ranching country further inland. He was described shy as many perpetrators of this type are described. He had a girl friend who was left wing and very uninhibited. They were Obama supporters, they they broke up. DD sank into a clear depression. He became homeless for a time and then isolated himself, spending more and more time on line ;when a friend gave him a job doing manual labor. But then he found the rhetoric of anger and hate. He was always involved in video games but after the break up he became involved with the Gamergate scandal which metastasized into a hatred of women. He stayed isolated and sought some sense of the world by accepting the conspiracy theories of the Right wing, Q anon style hatred of liberals. Eventually he was standing outside of Nancy Pelosi’s house with a hammer. He waited outside for about four hours and eventually he decided to go inside with the plan to hold her hostage and “interrogate” her.
Let me stop right here and make a point: I don’t think playing video games made him do this. His politics didn’t make him do this. His politics only helped him choose a target but didn’t force him to become violent. The hammer didn’t make him do it. What made him do it is that his life had become a living hell. He was alone and only listening to hatefull screeds. He thought this action which he saw as revolutionary, would elevate him among his peers he had never met and most of whom he didn’t know the names of. He thought his killing the husband of the speaker of the house would make him famous particularly among his peers, who he had never actually seen in real life.. How is this different from a dangerous delusion?
The tire shop with an old useless pop machine.
Before he went in that house he was a person to be pitied. Now he is a person who is to be punished. What could any of us do to prevent the next DD? Screaming at our political enemies is not goig to do it. Would programs to get isolated and frustrated men out into the world? Would compassionate pro-social ways for these guys to spend their time be useful in preventing violence. Perhaps some kind of Universal Service that forces everyone to have experiences in the real world with both men and women. Give them other choices than the dark web. I’m biased, of course. I was a trail crew leader with an old Carter program, called the Young Adult Conservation Core. Most were working class kids who came together and found real community. Every twenty years they have reunions. They may not be fabulously wealthy but they all seem to be good citizens.
Okay let me say this to people who will say that I’m hopelessly naive. I know that I am. It wasn’t the hard work alone that made the YACCrs good citizens. DD had hard work, after all. But it was the security and community commitment that helped them be good people. There were men and women together and they learned to respect each other through their hard work. Would programs that offered this kind of pro social work and development possibly help stem the violence? I don’t know, but could someone at least discuss it … or something else other than gun bans?
But the fact is there are no easy answers. I honestly think love and kindness towards lonely and isolated people is the only real option that has much chance of success. It’s hard because many of them have chosen a path of hating people like me. DD called a radio news station after his arrest and apologized for “not killing more of them.” I get it. He was talking about people like me. I get that and in fact even if he doesn’t realize it now, it is too late for DD… but… DD wasn’t born that way. He became that way and why cant we give them some other options? We won’t save everyone. But we could offer a hand of respectful assistance to everyone.
And before you start penning your hateful screed to me. I will listen to what you say, but just know this, I’,m not going to take you on at your level. I will try and work the problem of how to get people to stop killing one another. I will try and preserve my humanity and while at the same time try and encourage you to preserve yours. But I’m not going to get in a public fight with you.
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Wet day …plum blossoms
glittering with bright raindrops.
There is no anger.
Here is a recording of me reading some Henry Miller about his life in Big Sur in the fifties.
CORRECTION: in an earlier version of this blog, I described Catherine Atla incorrectly. Catherine Atla was a Koyukon Athabaskan Elder.
