After a day that followed a night of excellent sleep, I had a night of not-excellent sleep. So let me just post some reflections and see how/if they hang together.
--A tale of two Halloweens, well more accurately, two post-Halloween shopping experiences. Last year, on the afternoon of Nov. 1, between classes, I went to the saddest Target in the U.S., the one in Tenleytown, in NW D.C. I wanted to pick up some Halloween candy on sale, but there was nothing, not a scrap. And then yesterday, I went back to Walmart, where last week, Halloween candy was on sale for 50% off--yesterday it was 75% off.
--There was so much candy at Walmart that it was as if Halloween had never happened. Did Walmart overbuy? Did Walmart shoppers anticipate fewer trick-or-treaters this year and thus, underbought? And yes, I bought some candy at the 75% off sale, but mainly because I am creating a S'mores station for a gathering on Sunday, and it seemed like an economical way to get some Hershey bars.
--It's November, and my thoughts turn, as they sometimes do, to the movie The Day After. It was broadcast first in November. The other day, I thought, yes, November 1983, forty years ago this month (November 20, 1983, to be precise). I pulled up a calendar--that was a Sunday. I remember watching it in my dorm, in the lounge that had a TV, because I went to school in olden days when TVs were expensive, and we couldn't afford one to take to college for our individual dorm rooms.
--We must have watched that movie, and then a few days later, gone home to our families for Thanksgiving. Did we talk about the movie? Had our families seen it? I don't remember.
--As I realized how long ago the movie came out, I thought about my own students, the ones I teach in a physical classroom, who are the age now that I was then. Do they think about nuclear war? It may be a more likely scenario now than it was 40 years ago. At least 40 years ago, we knew where the nukes were, and it seemed highly unlikely that any new governments would be able to develop them. And now?
--I have written about the nuclear situation before, many times before. Climate change catastrophe does take up more residence in my brain, and I do wonder if that would still be the case if I hadn't lived in Southeast Florida and seen climate change happening in real time.
--Still, I find myself hoping that there will be some retrospectives as we get closer to the anniversary of the release of The Day After. I'd love to hear from some of the actors who performed, from the director.
--A year from now, will we be looking back to polls released earlier this week? It's the standard kind of poll--who's ahead in a presidential race that seems more precarious than usual, what with the two front runners being so very old, and one of them facing unprecedented legal problems. More than once each day, I shake my head and can't believe my country and the larger world has come to this.
--And of course, I wonder if I will look back on this time, the way I do my college years, and I think, I thought it was bad then, but wow, is it worse now!
--I feel I should end on a cheerier note. But it's November, early November, rarely a cheery time. Let me close, write my article for the Elimination of Violence Against Women Day for the Southeastern Synod, and then get ready to teach.
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