So, Tell Me, What's So Bad About A Gentle Recovery?

I don't understand. Pundits fill column space bemoaning the current gentle recovery.  I don't see the problem they see. We're recovering from an expansion built on irrational exuberance. That didn't work out too well for me. How was it for you? Maybe a deeply considered, mindful recovery is the better way. What do you think? Be Well, Bice C. Wilson, AIA Principal Meridian Design Associates, Architects, PC

Vaudeville Wisdom for the Levant

I prefer to call the land east of the Mediterranean, south of Turkey and north of Egypt "The Levant". The Levant is a landscape you can walk across.  The Middle East is no place.  Try, map it.

The Middle East was a term invented by a geographically ignorant American diplomat in the 1700's. 

But why discuss the Levant?  Because hell is life there just now. Because I've been there, and had tea in welcoming houses, and laughed with good people.  Because I know it was once forested with great trees, and verdant with life, song, and prolonged interludes of joy.

And now, our Levant?  Now centuries of bad blood and unredeemed hatred, extended misunderstandings and tragic circumstance, NOW, our levant reminds me of the vaudeville wisdom I often shared with my sons.  It goes like this:

Kid comes to me hurting.  Tells me, "Dad, it hurts when I do this!".  I remind him of the vaudeville doctor, whose answer to the same question from a vaudeville patient was elegant, simple, and hard to actualize.  He said:

"Well, how about you don't do that?  Let me know next week if it doesn't feel better."

And so, Vaudeville Wisdom for my cousins in the Levant, for Bashir Al Assad and the refugees of Bab Al Amr, and for those crossing the Orontes River into Turkey just now in heartbroken darkness and for the tribes of Syria, Israel, Palestine and The Lebanon: if you want the pain to decrease, how about you stop doing that thing you keep doing?  Can't hurt to try.

Be well,

Bice C. Wilson, AIA