Iskra Design

A comment from Sebastian Junger’s Substack today.

For local folks, I will be a featured reader tonight at Hugo House for Collections, a spoken word event. This is a lovely event held on the first Wednesday of the month and curated by Ariel Basom. Please come, and bring me your beta blockers. I used to consider myself 50/50 introvert/ extrovert. But the truth is I am someone who spends 90% of my time alone in a room. That would be seem to be a textbook definition of an introvert . . . ? Unless, given world events, I make a topical change at the last minute, I will be reading a piece about how an inward-facing person goes shopping, in pandemic, to find tribe. It is comic, tragic, and perhaps falls into the category of oversharing. So be it: if we don’t wear our hearts on our sleeves, who will ever see us? Speaking of sleeves, this puppet was made by my mother. Although she was known as a writer, she was a very fine seamstress and sculptor. Her Reading Boy, shown here declaiming the Latin version of Salome, has sat in family bookshelves for many years. Sometimes he reads in public and sometimes in private.

About the beta blockers, which can calm the racing heart and stop all tremors: One year I tried to overcome stage fright by joining ToastMasters. I did not realize that, like AA, each one is a different tribe. How I ended up in a church basement in Ballard, riffing for 5 minutes on a beach towel, checkers and the origin of Gothic fonts I do not know. I was such a hit the MC tracked down my personal address and sent a fan letter, written in smudged pencil, begging me to return. The experience was so traumatic I did not stand up in public again for 20 years. This will be better:)))

History repeating on speed cycle. On the left, the old style Crusades. On the right, the fresh graves of 160 school children in Iran. Behind this? See excerpt below from today’s news:
“Independent journalist Jonathan Larsen reported on 2 March that numerous US service members have lodged dozens of complaints saying senior officers are calling the war on Iran part of “God’s divine plan,” with claims that US President Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus” to spark Armageddon.

“President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” one combat-unit commander allegedly told troops during a readiness briefing, according to a complaint submitted to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).”

And the United States is always rushing to blame the “Muslim extremists.” Huh.

Source in comments.

See you this Saturday at Building C Holiday Open House, 2-9 PM in Ballard! I am a guest artist on the second floor, follow the signs (more details in flyer—swipe to end.) RiverLight, first image, will be sold as a benefit for Tree Action Seattle.