TURBULENCE CONTINUES: in Me, on IU Campus, downtown Bloomington, all fractals of the whole

And of course, this IS the day before Election Day. And we can all sense it: chaotic conditions are going to increase, no matter what the result. And, since the election does not appear to have been canceled (I wondered if it would be, and said so), we won’t even begin to see through the confusion until both Mercury (how and what we communicate), and Venus (what are our values? money? or each other) turn to go direct, which will happen mid-month just one day apart.

And even then, remember that though primal Pluto has turned to go direct, restrictive Saturn, eruptive Uranus, and confusing Neptune are all still retrograde. Churning, churning . . .

But yes, at least this:

Mercury turns direct November 13th.

Venus turns direct November 14th. 

 

On this morning’s long walk, some Halloween decorations (such as they were, mostly gaudy air-filled plastics from Amazon), are down, some not. But: all the leaves on a glorious nearby maple tree are down, and that turns me SAD. Of course, what is autumn, but the season of nostalgia!

But what’s really interesting, and it may be a harbinger of things to come, or things already here, everywhere, all at once, is, while walking through the IU campus, I came across a group of workmen on one side of multi-story Ballantine Hall (the largest academic building on campus, with nearly 250,00 square feet), all very serious and intensely focused, sorting through a huge number of coiled hoses. Hmmm . . . what kind of hoses; electrical?  Then, immediately, crossing in front of me to the back of Ballantine Hall, a giant semi hauling two enormous generators.

I noticed a workman standing there. Betting that he was friendly (most workmen are, compared to academics), I went up to him and asked: “What’s going on?”

Well, wouldn’t you know. He told me that electricity is down on seven gigantic IU buildings. Says this Duke outage will likely take 80-90 hours to fix. So generators instead for probably a week. “We’ll be here at 2 AM,” he said at one point. Then, he added: “it’s not surprising, since “its entire infrastructure is out of date.” (I presumed he meant IU infrastructure.)

“Ah,” I responded. And then countered: “As is the infrastructure of this entire town . . . of this entire culture!” To which he readily agreed.

“I ended with, “As is the infrastructure of me, myself!”

That was so we could both end up laughing.

Which we did.

But what I said is true. And by personal “infrastructure,” I include ethical infrastructure. What happened to kindness, to common sense, to truly listening to each other? My own mental programming is being obliterated as I continue to observe my own gut reactions to increasingly chaotic conditions “caused” by seemingly unprecedented situations.

 

Meanwhile, downtown, on Halloween, another shooting incident on Kirkwood Street, second one in five months? This one sent seven people to the hospital.

https://bsquarebulletin.com/seven-hospitalized-after-shooting-in-bloomington-near-iu-campus-following-football-victory/

Myself, IU campus, Bloomington, fractals of the whole.

As our increasing use of technology threatens to roboticize us further, let us pledge to relearn to meet and greet each other, face to face, with kindness, authenticity, truth-seeking.

Just my short encounter with one workman this morning made my day. I bet it made his, too.