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Meaning is in the eye of the beholder
Mar. 17th, 2025 08:16 pmI've had Victor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning, on my to-read pile for longer than I should probably admit to in public, and I'm about halfway through now. It is a difficult read, even though he mostly doesn't go into very gruesome detail about his experiences in the camps. It just seems extra important to read it right now, as history is repeating itself.
I will have to give this book a lot of consideration in the coming weeks and months, and maybe my takeaway once I've finished reading it will be different from what it is now. So far, though, what I've come away with aside from the horrors of the concentration camps is that everyone finds their own way to survive the horrors, that everyone has to find their own meaning and work toward that.
Earlier today, Sharon Astyk posted that the US has "crossed a Rubicon." She was referring to the fact that the Trump administration has begun deliberately disobeying judicial orders. Up until recently, they were mostly kinda sorta obeying them, but now to all appearances that has gone out the window.
I was talking to my mother on the phone about all of this, and she was lamenting that some of her closest friends seem completely oblivious to everything that's going on. The two women she was referring to are both very wealthy white women, and their money and age and general privilege will insulate them against most of the bad things that might happen if Canada were to fall to military aggression by the USA. I suggested she talk to another family friend because that family is Jewish, and if there's one thing I've learned from my Jewish friends over the years, it's that every Jewish family is always on the lookout for when it's time to pack up and go.
My mother was surprised at first, but she understood and accepted my explanation that Jews have been persecuted throughout history and are therefore extremely vigilant about when the next round of persecution might start. I did caution her to tread carefully, because the last thing I want is for our Jewish friends to be accidentally even more traumatized, but I think it will be fine. My mother is unlikely to talk to them about it because I'm pretty sure she'll forget about it, and even if she doesn't forget I trust her to be reasonably tactful about it.
I should point out that my mother herself is a war refugee from World War II (or right after, in her case). She and her family had to flee her country in the middle of the night with nothing but the clothes on their backs and some jewelry sewn into the lining of my grandmother's coat that they might be able to sell later on. She carries that trauma with her quietly, and doesn't speak of it in terms of the terror and uncertainty and grief that was an intrinsic part of the experience. A couple of years ago we discovered some old photographs taken by my grandfather during this time, and the expression on my mother's face as well as on the faces of my uncle and grandparents, is identical to the expression I see on the faces of refugees in news reports. The look is identical and unmistakable: the trauma is universal.
So I'm not surprised that, now that we are watching the USA repeat the history of Germany leading up to World War II, that my mother is anxious about it. Hell, I'm anxious about it too, and pretty much anyone who is paying attention should be somewhere on the spectrum between anxious and panicked depending on where they live and how directly they're likely to be impacted. Right now, living in Canada, we are "safe" until the USA takes direct violent action against us, whether it be military or something else. The odds of the USA trying to annex Canada and in so doing triggering World War III are definitely not zero at this point. Honestly, if nothing else, this is teaching me a lesson about my own complacency: up until, oh, three months ago, I was convinced that it was impossible for there to ever be military action of any importance in North America. After all, Canada has only one major border, and it was with our longest-standing ally. At worst we might be collateral damage if some enemy of the US decided to launch a bunch of missiles at us. It never occurred to me that the US might turn on us. I always assumed that if there WAS a World War III, it would take place in the Middle East and probably have Israel as Ground Zero. Which would, of course, be terrible, but I wouldn't have to worry about my immediate loved ones.
Just goes to show, I guess.
It's been tough finding any mutual aid groups in my area, for obvious reasons. Mutual aid groups by their very nature kind of have to be kind of secretive because they use a diversity of tactics to make sure people get the help they need, and some of those diverse tactics are not always super legal. If nothing else, my own little group that so far is just chatting to each other on Signal is doing okay. There isn't a plan of action yet, but there's a lot of sharing of information and resources, and I think eventually when we've actually identified what the most pressing needs are, we might be able to move forward more effectively. Right now most of us are in the same boat: we're reasonably financially stable, but all of us are a few bad months away from being in a really tight spot, if not outright unhoused. So I guess it's just a matter of seeing what floats to the surface once the waters get agitated enough.
At some point this week i need to get my seeds started. It's at the point now where if I leave it too much longer I won't be have viable seedlings to plant. Putting seeds into soil will at least give me the illusion of doing something productive with my life.
I will have to give this book a lot of consideration in the coming weeks and months, and maybe my takeaway once I've finished reading it will be different from what it is now. So far, though, what I've come away with aside from the horrors of the concentration camps is that everyone finds their own way to survive the horrors, that everyone has to find their own meaning and work toward that.
Earlier today, Sharon Astyk posted that the US has "crossed a Rubicon." She was referring to the fact that the Trump administration has begun deliberately disobeying judicial orders. Up until recently, they were mostly kinda sorta obeying them, but now to all appearances that has gone out the window.
The Trump administration is testing the waters. They are doing intentionally illegal things on purpose to demonstrate that they can't be stopped. Then they will do more illegal things, and more serious ones.
Up until now, there have been shallow pretenses at the rule of law. Those are over. Trump and Musk and the rest will continue to push the boundaries harder and more violently and move them until we fight back enough to stop them.
I was talking to my mother on the phone about all of this, and she was lamenting that some of her closest friends seem completely oblivious to everything that's going on. The two women she was referring to are both very wealthy white women, and their money and age and general privilege will insulate them against most of the bad things that might happen if Canada were to fall to military aggression by the USA. I suggested she talk to another family friend because that family is Jewish, and if there's one thing I've learned from my Jewish friends over the years, it's that every Jewish family is always on the lookout for when it's time to pack up and go.
My mother was surprised at first, but she understood and accepted my explanation that Jews have been persecuted throughout history and are therefore extremely vigilant about when the next round of persecution might start. I did caution her to tread carefully, because the last thing I want is for our Jewish friends to be accidentally even more traumatized, but I think it will be fine. My mother is unlikely to talk to them about it because I'm pretty sure she'll forget about it, and even if she doesn't forget I trust her to be reasonably tactful about it.
I should point out that my mother herself is a war refugee from World War II (or right after, in her case). She and her family had to flee her country in the middle of the night with nothing but the clothes on their backs and some jewelry sewn into the lining of my grandmother's coat that they might be able to sell later on. She carries that trauma with her quietly, and doesn't speak of it in terms of the terror and uncertainty and grief that was an intrinsic part of the experience. A couple of years ago we discovered some old photographs taken by my grandfather during this time, and the expression on my mother's face as well as on the faces of my uncle and grandparents, is identical to the expression I see on the faces of refugees in news reports. The look is identical and unmistakable: the trauma is universal.
So I'm not surprised that, now that we are watching the USA repeat the history of Germany leading up to World War II, that my mother is anxious about it. Hell, I'm anxious about it too, and pretty much anyone who is paying attention should be somewhere on the spectrum between anxious and panicked depending on where they live and how directly they're likely to be impacted. Right now, living in Canada, we are "safe" until the USA takes direct violent action against us, whether it be military or something else. The odds of the USA trying to annex Canada and in so doing triggering World War III are definitely not zero at this point. Honestly, if nothing else, this is teaching me a lesson about my own complacency: up until, oh, three months ago, I was convinced that it was impossible for there to ever be military action of any importance in North America. After all, Canada has only one major border, and it was with our longest-standing ally. At worst we might be collateral damage if some enemy of the US decided to launch a bunch of missiles at us. It never occurred to me that the US might turn on us. I always assumed that if there WAS a World War III, it would take place in the Middle East and probably have Israel as Ground Zero. Which would, of course, be terrible, but I wouldn't have to worry about my immediate loved ones.
Just goes to show, I guess.
It's been tough finding any mutual aid groups in my area, for obvious reasons. Mutual aid groups by their very nature kind of have to be kind of secretive because they use a diversity of tactics to make sure people get the help they need, and some of those diverse tactics are not always super legal. If nothing else, my own little group that so far is just chatting to each other on Signal is doing okay. There isn't a plan of action yet, but there's a lot of sharing of information and resources, and I think eventually when we've actually identified what the most pressing needs are, we might be able to move forward more effectively. Right now most of us are in the same boat: we're reasonably financially stable, but all of us are a few bad months away from being in a really tight spot, if not outright unhoused. So I guess it's just a matter of seeing what floats to the surface once the waters get agitated enough.
At some point this week i need to get my seeds started. It's at the point now where if I leave it too much longer I won't be have viable seedlings to plant. Putting seeds into soil will at least give me the illusion of doing something productive with my life.
