Posted by mofembot
Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:01:00 GMT
Per my post below, “Real life and death in the virtual world,” I expected that JohnnyRook, aka Steven Kimball, would die soon, but it was still a blow to learn about his passing this morning via a most eloquent obituary/tribute (followed by many eloquent comments) on DailyKos (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/5/23559/31946/555/705253).
Although I have greatly cut down on commenting on LTEs in the
Salt Lake Tribune, I deliberately looked there today for a climate change-related thread in which to post the following:
I am very sad this morning, having just learned that this past Monday the Earth lost a great champion: Steven Kimball, aka JohnnyRook. After learning that he had acute myeloid leukemia some two years ago, he devoted the rest of his life to providing meticulously-documented evidence of what he called “climaticide.” I encourage people who love and are concerned about the biosphere to read and ponder the information that he spent the last of his energies on: http://www.climatechronicles.org [The Climaticide Chronicles]
The hard-core naysayers and deniers will eat their words only after it is far too late to do anything to turn back the human-caused and accelerating changes that threaten us all. JohnnyRook worked to try to open the eyes and minds of those who prefer short-term convenience and profit to humanity’s long-time survival for the sake of his own teenaged son, and for us all.
A previous DailyKos diary had paid homage to Steven Kimball’s work while he was still alive, and induced me to send my thanks directly to JohnnyRook’s Climaticide site in hopes that he would see the impact he has had on me:
Thanks for opening my eyes so much wider. Thanks for your enormous efforts to get all of us to open our eyes and see the impact we’ve had on the biosphere. Thanks for giving us the facts and ammunition we need to counter the willfully blind, often profit-driven nay-sayers who hem and haw and do their best to stop or delay the difficult steps we must take to save ourselves (and them along with us — such irony!).
I hope you will rally again and stay with us longer. Obviously I am one of many of the faceless, pseudonymous people who wish you well and who selfishly grieve at the thought of your voice silenced. My sincere best wishes to you for renewed strength, my sincere best wishes to your family and “in person” friends for comfort and solace in the days ahead.
The good die young, “but time and chance happeneth to [us] all.” JohnnyRook was only slightly older than I am, and he firmly believed that his cancer was due to exposure to carcinogenic material in the environment. I think of my 15-year-old nephew who died in early 2007 of a type of cancer that appears only in heavy smokers over age 40… and I wonder about the provenance of his disease. “Time and chance,” indeed.
Climate change (as JohnnyRook so carefully documented) is very real, and weather extremes and unpredictability will continue to spread and increase unless we stop virtually all activities that pour CO2 and other greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. The odds of this happening on a global scale is zero. This fact, coupled with the continuing economic downturn, does not make me (ever the catastrophist) feel especially happy today, especially given the loss of yet another voice for needed change.
Rest in peace, Steven Kimball. You will be missed.
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Posted by mofembot
Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:07:00 GMT
I’ve started tracking down some of my Mormon feminist writings from the 1990s (published in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Mormon Women’s Forum, etc.), and I guess now the question is — what do I do with them? The Dialogue article in particular is quite long; some articles are PDFs and I don’t know how to deal with that format on this site (yet); and publishing any of them here, or even linking them, means… giving up my comfortable semi-anonymity.
I’m pretty close to being ready to give up the anonymity, lingering paranoia over the “no-fly list” notwithstanding. I suppose, however, that I could start a website with my own name for those kinds of things. Hmm.
Then there’s the whole issue of posting new content, or revised content, about Mormon feminism. Do I really want to get into that again? The thought makes reason stare, but I’m not sure exactly what reason is staring at. My perspective on Mormonism has changed dramatically since those early internet.lds and mormon-L and even elwc days, but that doesn’t make me any less an expert (or former expert, assuming there’s some kind of statute of limitations on theological musings). I have been presenting myself as an expert on Mormonism over at DailyKos….
(This scarcely qualifies as a blog post. It was going to be longer, but I got distracted a number of times. Fine, it’s another “stub,” and sorry about that. I reserve the right to return to this topic at a more convenient moment.)
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Posted by mofembot
Sun, 01 Mar 2009 09:33:00 GMT
There was a brief golden glow in the sky this morning before I got out of bed, and I thought that maybe, maybe we’d see a little sun here in Hamburg today, but No, it is not to be. At least the top of the nearest church spire has finally emerged from the fog, and it no longer seems to be actively raining.
I am starting to think that having grown up mostly in Southern California weakened my resistance to gray-related Inertia and Low Mood. I certainly seem to have more energy and ambition when I wake up to a blue sky. I have to wonder how the Hamburgers can stand this, but even they have it easy compared to, say, the Swedes in Stockholm, whose daylight at nadir is a paltry six hours, and whose skies are apparently prone to similar levels of gray during winter.
Fine, I’m glad this isn’t Stockholm. But it isn’t Quinson or Provence, either. We’ve had a fair bit of gray and rain at home this winter, naturally enough, but less frequently. And more daylight overall, and oh, believe me, visiting Mr Mo in Hamburg is a good reminder that I should appreciate the “home comforts” more. (Such appreciation will last until the first tiny white snails appear. Even though we will be moving to our village house sans jardin in April/May and thus be spared too much interaction with the wretched little creatures, the Joys of Country Living will be nonetheless briefly diminished in proportion to their numbers.)
Anyway, days like this always bring to mind one of the best songs from the Mamas and the Papas, California Dreamin’:
All the leaves are brown
And the sky is grey
I’ve been for a walk
On a winter’s day
I’d be safe and warm
If I was in L.A.
California dreamin’
On such a winter’s day.
If I were in L.A. today, there would be the awkward expectation that I’d be going to church with whichever sibling I’d be staying with. (My “black sheep” brother has no room, thus no haven there.) Meh. There are many shades of gray, even in L.A. (Of course, realistically, were I in California at this point, I’d actually be enjoying the day with Oldest Child in San Diego.)
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