Sunsets
That fleeting time between one thing ending and another beginning.
I snapped this on Friday evening. A beautiful pink sky over the Vienna opera. The city is at the moment filled with tourists, often unbearably hot on public transport, and I am so tempted to ask what they were all thinking coming here in July. For me, Vienna is the last place you would want to be in summer. It is regal, filled with museums and concerts, balls in winter, it is a city of the academic year. Even the operas move out in summer, relocating to Salzburg and other “countryside” outdoor locations. And yet, this year, for whatever reason, it feels like the city is just teeming with people. It feels to me like a transition period. Yesterday, very far right neo-Nazi sympathisers (I really do not know what to call them in a politically correct way) held some kind of protest and marched through downtown Vienna. I did not see them, only on Twitter. I often wonder if these things get noticed in real life, or only blow up on social media. And if it only happened in our phones, did it happen at all?
Last week, just after I published my last post, Trump miraculously survived what certainly looked like an assassination attempt, and it feels at the moment like he has November all but wrapped up. He announced Vance as his VP, Ukraine gulped in horror, those of us who read Hillbilly Elegy back in the day (yes, I did, and I own a copy which I promptly passed to my 18 year old) reflected back on that. The RNC probably went just about a well as any Trump-supporter could have imagined. And on the Democrat side, we are all waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for Biden to do the right thing. The sad part is, once he finally does, it will be the only thing he will be remembered for. The older powerful people get the more concerned they become with their own legacies, and yet, timing is of the essence. No matter what happens now, it is hard to see the Democrats, in general, recover from this sense that the party was also hijacked by one family who could not make their incumbent budge, despite all the polling and the data and the oh so simple facts on the table.
I enjoyed this opinion piece in The Economist this week. I think it is very helpful to read about America from the other side of the ocean.
Where would Donald Trump and JD Vance take America?
I am linking here to a very useful thread on what actual polling of actual American voters is showing, and it all makes complete sense to anyone with a bit of common sense. It continues to amaze me, the elitism that must have gone into the decision making process of campaign teams and decision-makers within the party who thought all these basic concepts could just be ignored and replaced with an argument that only one candidate has ever beaten Trump.
Trump himself has evolved over the years, and I listened to an interesting podcast this week about how his rhetoric has changed, how he began by trying to sell himself to all voters, and now clearly targets a specific kind of voter. The language became more divisive over time. If you are interested to hear more, especially from the convention, I would recommend listening to The Daily and The Run-Up podcasts from this week. There are hours to listen to, but even if you listen here and there, you will quickly get a feeling for the mood that was in Milwaukee this week.
Here in Europe, I feel like we are still sleeping through summer (as one does without omnipresent A/C!), kind of putting our heads in the sand, choosing to ignore what fall may bring. Every Ukrainian I speak with is frustrated. Their friends and family back in Ukraine are dealing with long, daily power-cuts, meaning you have to think about things like how to keep the food in your fridge from spoiling, how to cool off when its ninety degrees and you can’t turn on your A/C, how to get up to the 15th floor when the elevator also isn’t working, how to “work from home” without internet. TikTok is filled of videos reminding us all of the sound of Ukraine this summer — generator-lined shopping streets buzzing away. So you are dealing with a lot of collective long-term stress, and no one knows for how much longer.
I find myself being quite short in my answers when I am contacted by Ukrainians who mistakenly hope that I may be able to help them solve their very real and very individual problems. If it hasn’t become apparent yet to people that each and every one of us is really on our own, that you cannot rely on anyone or any organisation to solve something for you, I don’t know when it will. My group chat on Telegram is much more now about answering everyday life questions, as it should be. How to pay this bill, how to sign up for this German class, what tips do you have for doctors. In other words, we are out of the crisis phase and into the long-term settling in this place now feels like home phase. For most.
I read an eye-opening thread this morning about the upcoming Paris Olympics which completely blew my mind. Read through the whole thing here. It makes you wonder why we go through the motions of doing things we have always done when at times it feels like both hearts and minds are not really supportive of them anymore. How much are we continuing to do, running on inertia? Here is also the original author’s follow-up thread in response to those who jumped on him for bitching about the games in the first place.
I have been making my way through this book — which is dense, and does not read like a thriller, more like an encyclopaedia in which the author feared leaving out any remotely relevant facts. Having said that, you can kind of skim to the parts that interest you the most, as it is arranged by topic and chronologically. I felt the need to get through one cerebral book before indulging in some more memoir-types on holiday. Reading this book is like flipping through centuries of history and reminding yourself how fluid it all is. I feel very much like the present in this region (I am definitely including Vienna, as the author does too) is another one of those turning points between something that is coming to its natural end and a new thing we cannot yet visualise. I mean, there are supposed to be elections here in September which is actually like very really soon and no one is talking about them. So the next time someone tries to convince me how important democracy is to modern EU citizens I will roll my eyes. Twice.
Speaking of which — I will take a little break now for a few weeks. Fingers crossed, it will soon finally by my time to go on vacation. Until now I have just been meeting teenagers at airports and train stations and supervising their travel. Am I jealous? Yes, a bit.
I can also recommend a dark but well done quirky film, if you feel like a break from the sun: Love Lies Bleeding was filmed in New Mexico. I also, to my own surprise, began watching the Netflix special about the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. And it drew me in. Me, a person who has only been in Texas either connecting flights or driving cross-country, who was never a cheerleader and never took a single dance lesson ever, and yet…it is a very interesting look into modern America. The more years I spent in Europe, the more foreign it all feels when I look back on what would have in the past felt “normal” to me. But talk about dedication and working 24/7. It is ruthless and yet it shows how powerful working towards a goal you are passionate about can be. I often feel like many in Europe do not have that. There is goal. Enjoying your life is the goal. Which is fine…until one day it isn’t enough. If that makes sense.
I heard this quote on the show, from a pastor in one of those mega churches, and it stuck with me, so much so that I even grabbed a notebook to write it down. He said, “a vision is when frustration with what is creates a passion for what could be”. If that isn’t hitting the target straight on, I don’t know what is.
Maybe, this time again, just after I hit publish, we will get another round of big news. One can hope:
Last but definitely not least, I would like to share the incredible Mario’s two-year round up. Mario has singlehandedly built up all the workings of Cards for Ukraine, from registering our Verein, to building the website, to ordering and sending out cards in bulk. He left me to focus on the only thing I am good at, which is being in direct contact with Ukrainians in Austria, in our common language — Russian.
Mario writes in his post about how it all began. Shivers. Really.
These days are slow in terms of card distribution, which is completely understandable, as none of this is new. However, I do still field requests from families in need, and I do still send cards when I have them. If you would like to support our work at Cards for Ukraine, you can donate here. We are and always have been zero-overhead. Thank you.
Thanks for reading and I’ll be back in August!