612 B.C.

They WIll Have to Die Now--Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate by James Verini (W.W. Norton & Company, 2019).

I came to that certain age late last night while reading James Verini's new book when I knew without a doubt there were many things I'd never understand, and that they were all political--World War I, Northern Ireland, the Balkans, the Jewish question, The Mideast--and that while I'd never really understand quantum physics not understanding that didn't seem to me at 4 a.m. a preclusion to being thought of as human as much as my not understanding The Mideast.

My problem in this regard, and I assume I'm not alone, there being many people like me whose lack of understanding of The Mideast surpasses mine, among them The Commander-in-Chief of the USA and his adjutants, is that while I know the Assyrian forefathers worshipped war and actually believed in good and bad gods I'd rather stroll through The British Museum looking at the paintings of Nicolas Poussin.

The temptation, at least as I saw it last night, is to feel that politics is something that is happening to us, inflicted upon us by those inside or outside the social organization we live in, rather than something we are involved in and helping to make happen by our involvement, and that nothing can be done about this situation, it's just the way it is.

And then, as if to confirm my lack of understanding, I read in The New York Times (Saturday, January 4, 2020) on page A9 a story with the headline, "Trump Tells Evangelical Base: God is 'on Our Side'" about the speech the President gave yesterday in Miami, Fl., his first public comments after the US airstrike he ordered that killed Maj.Gen.Qassim Sulemani of Iran.

"He's talking from his heart," said Michelle Huff, who came to the rally with two other women from her prayer group. "I can't remember when we had a president who was honest like he is. LIke everyone else, he's a sinner saved by grace. A lot of people say stuff that they don't do, he's doing it."

The article continued.

"Asked if she opposed anything the president said or did, Ms. Huff said only that she wished he would appoint judges to fully overturn Roe v. Wade and same-sex marriage."

Late last night, reading James Verini's new book about the battle of Mosul, an appalling act of war called by no less an authority than the Pentagon, "the most significant urban combat since WWII," well before I'd read this morning's NYT, I had the thought that all god cares about is creation, that I'd been wrong to think god cares about destruction as I had thought in the past.