Struck

It’s funny but first I was complaining that it has been hard for me to slide into daily posting because I am just spinning and overwhelmed with everything that needs my attention these days and now – I am having a problem writing a daily blog post because I seem to be stuck in a state of “huh.”

Yesterday is a good example of huh. Between starting to read “Aftershock,” finishing reading “Orthodoxy” and then going out and having a few – not strange encounters, but definitely different ones I sort of sat back and went “huh” as all the little bits and pieces continue to tumble through my mind and find their places.

I am enjoying Aftershock, it is very simply written and the use of “bubbles” to describe the various aspects of the economy that are in danger of popping is a quick and easy way to visualize what is often made a fantastically complicated topic. Economics is not that difficult when you can give someone a clear path to follow to begin to understand how the pieces work together. I will be interested to see where Weidemer is going as far as his conclusions and solutions. He states in the book that bubbles are more clearly seen after they pop and not seen before for a) lack of willingness to acknowledge reality and b) lack of ability to imagine each element as it interacts with another. I have a sneaking suspicion though, that when I get to his conclusions and solutions he will have missed the biggest bubble-set of all. I am almost willing to bet myself money on it but so far, the way the book is shaping up, this bubble-set (which I will not name yet) casually appears in the pages and so far, is never considered. It is strange, almost as if it crept in unnoticed to the manuscript. My hope, and the reason why I am not going on and on about those bubbles, is that Weidemer is foreshadowing and doing a fabulous set-up for their inclusion. An inclusion that would be the most shocking economic revelation in the book.

This of course brings me right back to the Demon of Hope. Which is something that Weidemer threads through everything, it is because of our Hope that is based on false convictions and wishful thinking that we are able to deceive ourselves so easily about all of these economic bubbles. The two simplest examples he gives is that housing prices cannot exceed the income of the community or the price is false and the housing market bubble it creates will eventually burst and, that stock prices cannot exceed the product profits ratios of the companies or the stock prices is unrealistically inflated and the stock bubble will burst. Common sense. If companies are not creating profit through product, than how is their value increasing? Too often, it is through the acquisition of debt in purchasing failing companies. Think about that one.

In order to get to Hope, I have to get War off the beach and into the City of Love. I am almost at that point, but it is tricky. For War to enter the city she must rise above false desire and wishful thinking, yet having done so, she then encounters the dangerous charms of Hope.

Sun goes up.

Sun goes down.

I cannot wait to get through the next three weeks. It is just this delicate balancing act and is entirely too stressful, all this constant juggling and redefining and traveling. And then – winter. A long, slow winter of moving into the next phase of things. After the City I am going to play, my plans are to write a version of Antigone and one of Iphigenia before launching into more of the tale.

Ack…there is just not enough coffee in the world today.

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