March 9

We dock at 2pm so I have time for a few musings.

Yesterday was International Women’s Day….perhaps even in the US. More on that later. There was a special lunch featuring T-bone steaks and lobster. We skipped that meal. That’s a commentary on all the good food available.

Two of the Sri Lanka “must visits” are the Buddhist temple featuring a tooth from Buddha and, in another spot, a tree grown from a cutting off the original Bodhi tree under which Buddha sat and meditated. They both draw tens of thousands of visitors. Recently, on a visit to a temple, I’m pretty sure that I found another original tooth. I plan to turn it over to a small museum in Lyle. This might bring tens of thousands of visitors. Perhaps the gas station will reopen.  The Lyle Hotel will fill up. Souvenir shops will abound. Karla might become Mayor!  Just wait!

Some of the advance lectures stress the local value of respecting one’s elders. It seems like a good idea and I’ve talked to Karla about it. I’m not optimistic.

Also mentioned was the custom of seeking auspicious dates from astrologers for special occasions like weddings. When we attended Sahana’s wedding in India almost a year ago, it was aimed at March 28. The astrologer had recommended that date as auspicious. Originally, the astrologer had recommended November 29, but the wedding party couldn’t make it work. Quite a coincidence that the March date is my birthday and the November date is Karla’s birthday. Very auspicious!

Yesterday, the New York Tmes had a piece listing all of the words and phrases that the trump administration is discouraging (prohibiting?) in federal publications and websites. I’ll list about one third of them below:

advocacy,all-inclusive, at risk,barrier,biased, Black, clean energy, disability, diverse, equal opportunity, environmental quality, equity, excluded, female, gender, historically, institutional, minority, multicultural, political, pollution, privilege, pronoun, race, sex, social justice, victim, women (you should google it for more words.)

I am reminded of Newspeak in Orwell’s 1984….following most rules of English grammar, yet in a language characterized by a continually diminishing vocabulary—complete thoughts are reduced to single terms of simplistic meaning.

When I’m confused, I turn to the president to see what acceptable terms or phrases might be. A partial list follows: 

“shithole countries”…..losers…..retards…vegetable (describing a stroke victim)….Pocahontas (one of Indian blood)…rigged….crooked….tariff…yuge, bigly…..stupid….covefe…..fake news…witch hunt…incredibly stupid.  and “grab ’em by the pussy.” 

Since we’re in international waters and the Captain is in charge I will not participate in “trump speak”…..until we’re home.