Season's Greetings

Letter from Shenzhen (23-16): Season's Greetings!

It's cold here, yes, cold. Well, ten degrees Celsius is no big deal to many of you, but here in the Southern part of China, heating is by no means universal, and it's not as dry as the North, so somehow it can feel very cold. Hot Pot restaurants are doing great business!

But we are hugely lucky. Our occasional discomfort is nothing compared to the masses of humanities dying literally before our eyes. It's bad enough to have people die from natural disasters (as recently in Gangsu, China), but it's inexcusable to let people die from man-made causes, as in the getting-to-be-forgotten Ukraine front and that horror of horrors, Palestine, where thousands of civilians and children had been wiped off as collaterals. Journalist casualties are approaching 100 - you tell me why! That grim fact should be entered into the Guinness Book of Records!

Back to us. We should be grateful that we enjoy our pursuits. We have a long list of gear that we covet, and may eventually get. We have an even longer list of musical albums that we'd like to get to hear. We run out of time to pursuit our hobbies, when a lot of people (like Palestinians) are simply running out of time, period. We say things like "Record to Die For" when people are dropping off like flies around us, often even caught by cameras. What a divide!

Grim? It is. But I wish you all happiness, but not building your own happiness upon the suffering of others, as evidenced in the Middle East..

In case you need a reminder of what civilization is, or just an escape, I'd point you to listen to Ellington/Strayhorn's The Nutcracker Suite. Comfort, it is. Art, it is. We need a lot more of the likes of Ellington and Strayhorn, and their brilliant sidemen. We can do without all the self-righteous warmongers out there. Sigh, that's just a wish!