The image shows the girls of Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab on February 25th, who were all killed in an attack attributed to the United States and Israel.
Speaking a second language hearing only the first.
Opposite things can be true as enemy flags flow in harmonic waves.
Rhetoric raises ghosts outside of reality’s window. Feverish certainty knows no consequence.
Outside is only more noise in solidarity with itself.
But here, real, live, breathing… ‘symbols’!
Fantasy politics, safely in faraway fields, grain-fed on grief no one has to harvest.
Take these children, lay them neatly on the altar of an unnamed dawn.
Call it tomorrow.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
Don’t Tell Yourself Stories
Are the tales we tell about ourselves really true? Was everything so certain and so real? Don’t create a fantasy around everything you do When for others it holds no appeal.
Solidified as a clogged pipe, with a hunger never sated; stubborn, with a fistful of lies, illegal to be debated; The wrong colour or wrong type, in murder, congratulated; to blacken perfectly clear skies far from where you are located;
Populations submit to hype or kept pleasantly sedated; it’s them or us, all broken ties, arguing until frustrated; So the timing has become ripe, in the fervour you’ve created; it really comes as no surprise that you’ve become the most hated.
I neither cared for you one way or the other, your virtues and character were unknown; Ambivalently sympathetic to your suffering after all the horrible things I’d been shown;
But slowly you were revealed by yourself to be equally similar devils in disguise; Impossible to be unaware of the irony of your actions and repeated ridiculous lies;
And if you were not hated before this you are now surely bound to be; To inflict a holocaust for any reason removes all goodwill and previous sympathy;
There are those who still sit complicit in their silence, they are justifying; As if their own fingers pulled the trigger and, not so quietly, cause all those dying;
What goes around will again come around, this is the beginning of your own demise; With no moral high ground to stand upon there’ll be no one left to sympathise.
Now settled in for the greatest joyful genocide Where evil is no longer ashamed to hide Death and mutilation a spectacle cheered No prayers answered or conscience cleared
A playground of rubble where the children lay slain Brothers mop up the body parts that remain Rag-dolled and ruined by murderous intent Fires fanned by despair of the innocent
A holy hand grenade signed and sent with a laugh Floating ashes never find peace on this path This fertile ground may never satisfy the beast Once the Great Satan has been unleashed
At first, a little better but after getting to school, I just want to sleep. Headache, cough, difficulty breathing, exhausted.
Next, to go and wait at the hospital.
Health:
Physical: 6 Mental: 6
Today I’m grateful for:
All the nurses who helped me at the hospital today so that despite having to sit around for a while it was easy to know where to go and what to do.
One nurse accidentally flashed her soft, smooth, tanned (securely bra-ed) breast as she leaned forward and her uniform gaped a little. I should have said something to her but opted to look away instead.
The best thing about today was:
Getting a fair bit of book reading in. I’m finally at the last chapter of The Decline of the British Empire, which I’ve been reading since January. I’m looking forward to getting back to some fiction.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Waiting at the hospital – number 260 in the queue. Thankfully, they were already at the 140 mark and were also randomly putting people through. The delay for me was more connected with waiting for a doctor who could speak English.
I spent my time catching up with Substack reads.
Something I learned today?
Having read a lot of SubStack stuff I should have learned something today…hmm… I saw some pretty horrendous pictures of Israeli crimes but sadly, that is nothing new these days.
I did see some information that Starbucks is losing lots of money due to people boycotting it because of its connections to Israel.
I took this picture because the little one is on a rope now and can’t get into our scrumptious grass anymore. Here they are with mum, next to the fence where the gardeners had dumped all the cuttings.
Voices trembling, yet as one to sing A collected mind travels the crow road Where prayers and prophets seek to bring The moon silk dreams once borrowed
A shatter as the violence worshipped returns A zigzag missile homes in on the heart Faced with the darkness, the torment burns The moon silk dreams soon fall apart
I woke up with the light before 5 am and knew I wasn’t going to get enough sleep, so I reset my alarm for a little bit later.
Even then, I still felt like I could go back to sleep easily, even after breakfast, driving to school and coffee!
As it was a special event day today, though (Thai Language Day), I soon perked up walking around school and talking with students. There were very few classes going on, so there was a fair amount of excitement in the air.
I cancelled my grade 12 class, giving them a small assignment to do instead and took it easy with the grade 8s in the afternoon.
The best thing about today was:
Chatting with students Jee and Pemai this afternoon. It started off with their gossip about Freya and helped me understand their point of view about her behaviour. More interesting, though, was discussing differences between schools in Thailand and the West and also talking about some of the teachers and other students that they like and admire.
Something I learned today?
Amy’s mum has shingles on the right side of her face. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the effects before but it looks really bad and painful. I need to investigate more about it so that I can try and avoid ever having it too!
I took these pictures of Anchan and Jee because they gave speeches in Thai about the importance of education (so they told me) for today’s event.
Pretty good again. Got up and exercised and am now out for coffee.
A couple of days ago when I was moving the tree I got bitten by an ant on the inside of my little finger and now it is distractingly itchy. Because of the location it’s not easy to get a nice satisfying scratch on it and it’s super annoying.
Today I’m grateful for:
Art lending me a backpack that I can use on Sunday to go to Bangkok. I also found out that Monday is a national holiday so I don’t have to worry about not being back in time to start work!
Also, a sneaky little doze whilst listening to video discussions on YouTube whilst Amy did the watering and washed the car!
The best thing about today was:
Watching more of Three Body. I’m loving the slow pace of it. It seems each April holiday is marked by watching some TV series or other whilst avoiding the heat. A couple of years back it was Narcos.
I think last year though I ended up playing Xbox more than watching TV and I actually had planned to do that this year but in the end just didn’t bother.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I was on a roll and in the zone whilst sipping coffee this morning, first reading, then inspired, then writing. But I started to feel a little dizzy and knew I needed to come home and eat. Otherwise, I would have loved to have stayed longer and written more.
Tomorrow I won’t have so much free time as we will be running around most of the day doing things for Grandmum’s 100-day ritual.
Something I learned today?
Israel’s prime minister Netanyahu is likely to have an arrest warrant for war crimes issued by the International Criminal Court. Whilst it is likely just a symbolic gesture and he would unlikely ever be arrested at least it shows the world stands against him.
Russian president Putin also has an arrest warrant issued by the ICC but that was instigated by USA propaganda and that is all falling apart.
The world is starting to rise against the genocide perpetuated by Israel on the Palestinians and supported by the USA war machine.
Also, last night I watched a video from Thai Talk with Paddy and he was presenting 12 things that he didn’t like about Thailand. Whilst many other farangs agreed with some or all of his points there were others that I couldn’t believe just how self-righteous they were.
I don’t understand how you can say someone’s opinion is wrong. You don’t have to agree but you must be smart enough to at least counter their opinion. These days people don’t bother to do that just believing that they are right.
I don’t know why this particular video and comments stood out to me, maybe it’s been accumulating for a while. I will cut out this view of negativity as much as I can because it is just a waste of time and energy.
Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10
Noey and Natalie were in Utopia whilst I was there this morning and they were preparing for a presentation. I wished them luck.
Did you do something difficult or challenging today?
I did as much of the exercises as I could this morning though I am weak in certain (most) areas. 3 sets of 60 lunges had to be cut down to 3 sets of 40 and 3 by one minute of static Superman I just held for as long as I could. But I didn’t skip or give up.
I took this picture because I’m hoping this tree can survive the move from pot to ground.
Some things are indefensible We all make mistakes The idea is to learn and grow No matter what it takes
When genocide repeats itself What was the fight for? When the persecuted rain down Their own hypocritical war
When destruction becomes immoral What must a soldier do? Take a big bite of courage To get the message through
Propaganda no longer hides The truth of all this killing To turn a buck for a belief In a society no longer willing
Today I’m feeling:
Good, after forcing myself up and to exercise. I really wanted to sleep more so I’m happy with myself and my motivation.
Today I’m grateful for:
The local hospital and Dr Poom, my medicine dispenser. I was able to get straight in today with barely 5 minutes wait, despite it being very busy. I also asked about information for my students who are struggling and what to recommend them if and when they go to the hospital.
It occurred to me today that after Baipad tried to overdose on paracetamol all the hospital were concerned about was her kidney health. It seems like maybe no one even asked her why she did it!
Anyway, the info from Dr Poom was useful as they have a child psychiatrist there and psychotherapists too.
The best thing about today was:
My energy levels being great for most of the day due to that morning exercise. I felt energetic and inspired through all of the day and though I wasn’t doing much strenuous work since the morning I just kept going from one thing to another.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
As mentioned a couple of weeks ago there has been a change to access the full replay of the AFL matches online and whilst I was able to access it with a VPN last time, today it didn’t work and I was getting wound up by it while trying to figure out a way around it. Eventually I just had to resign myself to watching the 15 minute mini-match highlights. Disappointing but all I can do is shout at the clouds.
Something I learned today?
I learned that it is costing the USA 200 million dollars an hour to keep the genocide rolling in Palestine. Or as the USA likes to call it, defending Israel.
Review your acts, and then for vile deeds chide yourself, for good be glad. — Discourses 3.10
I sent pep messages to Anchan and Baipad this morning. I also chatted a little with my other students, Freya, Winter and Wipping.
I beeped at the annoying BMW in front of me that failed to move at the traffic lights, meaning that we all missed it and couldn’t go anywhere. I was frustrated for a minute.
Did you do something difficult or challenging today?
I picked up the guitar again today and it sucked! But I persevered even whilst continuing to suck. I need to change the strings too. They sound dull – much like my playing! Never mind. I won’t be deterred.
I took this picture because this was the view from our dinner table on Saturday, looking over the Mae Khong to Laos.
1994ever 