Feeling Good: A Grab-Bag

     I think it was in Pet Sematary that Stephen King, arguably among the greatest of contemporary storytellers – hey, just because he’s politically naive and misinformed doesn’t mean he can’t tell a riveting tale – had a character say that you don’t pick your times for feeling good. I find this to be true. You can work at it, according to your notions of what would make you feel good, but there are no guarantees. Indeed, given how often people are somewhat deluded about what would make them feel good, I’d say the odds are against it.

     Much of the time, whether you will feel good depends more on the attitudes and actions of others than on your own.

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     I held a giveaway yesterday, in case you failed to notice. Approximately 1500 people downloaded free copies of The Warm Lands, my first attempt at a traditional, magic-based fantasy novel. At this time, I have no idea how many of those persons have even “cracked the cover.” I’m hoping for some favorable reviews, but we shall see.

     Even so, that 1500 people have downloaded the book has raised my spirits considerably. Some will enjoy it. Some of those will be moved to purchase other of my books. And some of those will become loyal readers. How many? No way to know beforehand. But an indie writer’s greatest challenge is getting his stuff into circulation in the first place, and for the moment I’ve met that challenge. So I’m enjoying the glow while it lasts.

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     In Eric Frank Russell’s classic novelette “Basic Right,” his character Gordon Fox, in announcing Earth’s unusual triumph over an invading force, tells that force’s leader a couple of things that everyone should know. The scenario is this: By dint of “judo tactics,” Terrans have seized control of four-fifths of the invaders’ ships and weapons. They intend to destroy the invaders’ homeworld, which seems to contradict what the invaders had assumed to be the core tenet of Earth’s worldwide peace: the “basic right” of every people to live in its own way. The exchange that follows:

     “Eight ships against Raidan’s thousands?” Zalumar indulged a hoarse laugh. “You haven’t a hope of victory.”
     “There will be no thousands from Raidan,” Fox said. “We’re going to send those ships hotfoot after Heisham. Even if they don’t overtake him, they’ll arrive so close behind that the Raidan authorities will have no time to react.”
     “And what then?”
     “A new binary will be born.”
     There was a brief silence, then Zalumar rasped with all the sarcasm he could muster, “So much for your well-beloved basic right.”
     “You’ve got hold of the correct stick—but at the wrong end,” said Fox. “The right we recognize is that of every species to go to hell after its own fashion.”
     “Eh?”
     “So when you arrived we were willing to help. It was a cinch. One naturally expects the greedy and ruthless to behave greedily and ruthlessly. You ran true to type.”

     The insight packed into that passage is simply stunning. You claim the right to live your life in your own way? Certainly – but don’t imagine that you can ever be free of the consequences of your decisions and actions. No one is obliged to bail you out, pick you up, or clean you off. No matter how you squirm, the laws of this universe will hold you to account.

     But wait: there’s more! Ponder Fox’s last statement, which is the sort of “of course” matter that far too many persons are inclined to dismiss:

“One naturally expects the greedy and ruthless to behave greedily and ruthlessly.”

     At any rate, one should. The application to politics – the pursuit and employment of power over others by quasi-legitimate means – is left as an exercise for the reader.

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     While we’re on the subject of politics – we are, aren’t we? – consider a recent, ultra-foolish statement by Andrew Cuomo, one of the greediest and most ruthless of all state governors:

     Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday ordered the Empire State to shut down and asked local businesses and manufactures to step up as officials mounted a desperate struggle to slow the corona­virus pandemic.

     “I want to be able to say to the people of New York — I did everything we could do,” Cuomo told reporters at the state Capitol. “And if everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy.”

     Incredibly stupid – and incredibly greedy and ruthless (see the previous segment). Cuomo does not have the authority to do what he seeks to do: i.e., to command a mass closure of New York’s businesses. The Fourth and Fifth Amendments forbid it. Beyond that, even if there were no Constitutional barrier, New York lacks the enforcement power to effectuate such a closure against significant resistance. As icing on the cake, should New York business owners do as he’s ordered, New York’s economy will collapse – and Cuomo will be remembered as the man who caused it. Quite a legacy, that.

     But the greedy and ruthless will seize upon whatever opportunities to behave greedily and ruthlessly present themselves. This power-grab, like that of Gavin Newsom in California, expresses the highest of any left-wing politician’s aspirations. Remember also that Andrew “You don’t need ten bullets to kill a deer” Cuomo does not consider gun shops “essential.” Get what you can while you can.

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     Everyone here at the Fortress is healthy, including the animals. That’s a pleasant bit of news. The C.S.O. and I are in our late sixties, and our animals are mostly in the second halves of their lives as well. We don’t have an active social life – I can’t remember the last time we got together with another family for any reason, the dogs just run back and forth along the fence barking at the neighbors, and the cats don't go out at all – so this “social distancing” business is no great displacement from the way we live normally.

     It’s a fortunate time to be retired from wage employment. Nothing about the way I go about my daily affairs needs to change. However, the C.S.O. is still working. Moreover, she works with populations even older, on average, than are we: Catholic nuns. She worries, both for them and about them. They’re required to cluster in ways that non-clerical people seldom experience. Some of them have already done some foolish (from a health perspective) things, and must await the consequences.

     Mind you, they consider my Jewish wife, who keeps their accounts straight and their administrative apparatus functioning, “essential personnel.” Many of them routinely address her as “Sister Beth.” A couple have even asked when she plans to take her final vows. There’s a moral in there, somewhere.

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     I think that’s all for today, Gentle Reader. I plan to give the rest of the day to fiction, chores, and prayer. Whatever the use to which you put your Saturday, I hope it leaves you feeling good. I’ll probably be back tomorrow.