It’s not “bright” with that calm at all, as it’s been POURING now for days, but all is calm, at least.
Calm. Dreich (dark). Rainy. Without riots. Yes, without riots. I received an email from someone in publishing this week saying they were sorry that we were experiencing such awfulness — Um.
I hate the stereotype of the American, for whom geography is at times a shaky subject, but then I get these emails. So. Dearly beloved: London is a little more than FIVE hours away from here by train, and is in another country. Being concerned about riots here is the equivalent of worrying about someone experiencing smoke from grass fires in Arkansas when they live in California.
Everything is fine here – well, except the kitchen ceiling is leaking, and there are boxes stacked up to my chest in the living room. We’re moving! The leaky kitchen, next weekend, will no longer be my concern. We will resume our regularly scheduled irregular posting at that time.
Until then, keep a thought for the people in ENGLAND who are suffering and confused, for the ethnic minorities who, because of the nonsense will be under greater scrutiny than ever — even if they didn’t have anything to do with the rioting and looting. When you hear people frothing at the mouth at all of the destruction, in your comments, remember mercy – we who aren’t there and who maybe haven’t experienced unfairness and abuse by the authorities in the same way maybe don’t really even understand what this is about… but many people feel that with the sharp divide between rich and poor and brown and white in the United Kingdoms, that it has been a long time coming.
Change is hard. As we Americans know, regime change is sometimes impossibly hard. Let’s hope the change before Great Briton doesn’t bring more bloodshed in England or anywhere else in the UK and its commonwealth nations.