The Day Before I Turn 76 My Mind Is On Afghanistan As the Leading Edge of Despair

What to call Afghanistan- a horror? A catastrophe? Whatever it is called, however tragic the immediate descent into totalitarian misogyny and cruelty, I am equally concerned about international repercussions and yet time advances and change is only predictable in retrospect no matter how clairvoyant or insightful I image myself to be.

The face of the USA is the least of the worries that trouble me today but not inconsequential and tied to the project of global inclusiveness. What scares me most is the validation it gives to home grown totalitarianism (not to mention maskless conspiracy loonies), justified or not, which will oppose reasonable efforts to mitigate global warming, reduce population and oppose slavery, such as China's treatment of the Uygers. There are so many tentacles the fall of Afghanistan and the rise of the Taliban will inevitably reach into and poison. It feels monumental to me now to write about the edges between disciplines or paint the lines between rock and sea, to with focus and conviction despite the escalating cascades of tragedy. The boundaries have been nibbled away and the centers are collapsing.

Early in my book, “Divining Chaos,” I wrote about thinking we had a little more time before the onslaughts of global warming might engulf us. Later in my book, I wrote that by the time this book comes out (next June), things will have gotten better or worse. The drama of that imminency is what has taken me by surprise- not the timing but the scale and range of the emotional cost of the actual violence.

The documentation of sunsets and dawns has fascinated me since 1976, because no matter how ghastly human behavior may be or how devastating the pain of what we witness or feel, the sun rises and sets daily in reliable beauty and endless transformation. I will turn 76 tomorrow. My hand on the camera is no longer reliably steady. But every day, the sun comes up in orderly, stately perfection, no matter my personal experiences or the laments of my fellows.