Rants and Raves

Ojai, California. I’m back after a three-month tour of Europe, a time of renewal, recovery and reorientation for me. My itinerary included Southern Spain, the east coast of France, Berlin, Hannover and Haarlem in the Netherlands, and in between trips, I lived in Saarbrücken Germany, an out-of-the way border state I happened upon thirty years ago while travelling with a new friend, Elvira L.

It was a challenging trip–challenging me to break old patterns and habits, challenging to converse in a foreign language, challenging to restructure my time without familiar frames of reference and “stuff” to prop me up. I reorganized a little corner in my friend Elvira’s apartment, and set about my morning read of the Frankfurter Rundschau.

What a difference between the Rundschau and the L.A. Times! Irag is a tiny topic in Germany, in comparison to Europolitik. Netherlands and France rejected the proposed Euro constitution, Joshka Fischer got heat for his border policies, Anjela Merkel’s star is rising so we may actually see a woman as the head of state there, and a new leftwing party is forming. Liberalism, yes even Communism (SHOCK, SCARE), is a topic one may again discuss openly without being shouted down or laughed unto scorn.

My new found friends always asked me what I think about Bush and the War. Neither of these topics scares me as much as a headline I read this morning in the L.A. times–in the midwest the cops are having trouble keeping up with proliferating meth labs. Apparantly our heartlanders are sucking up meth to stave off fulminating despair. Not just street addicts, but stay-at-home moms. A friend just told me this is happening out in the desert in Lancaster and Palmdale. Are we having fun, yet? Too many criminals to prosecute or house in jail.

One final sad note: While I was away, our little cat Angel died. Angel came to us in the late eighties when we lived in Santa Monica. Angel had been through many health challenges to stay with us, she was a guardian spirit and thus aptly named. Many were those who knew and loved her.

Question: Do cats have souls? My friend Neil Vanover sent me a great article on another similar question: Do dogs have souls?
He speaks to a spirit dog named Wutzi.

All I know, Angel’s spirit is to be felt everywhere in this household. Thus I dedicate my new BLOG to her memory.