The one-liner with four smoke stacks

Stockholm, Sweden
While I may be a long way away from your beautiful “liner with four smoke stacks”, I find the image to be a relief from all the “one-liners” that are so ubiquitous these days, used to brush aside rather than to convey meaning.

You write that you were positively “thrilled” by the incredible number of smoke stacks. Unlike you, I am mostly “fascinated” by them and still wondering if she is in fact the true Queen Mary? Just imagine all the fire that can blaze beneath her decks. You allude to some of what might be used to keep her burning: the death of her firstborn as an infant, the negligence of a young mother, the thoughtlessness of grown-up “children”, the symbiosis between a mother and daughter, insecurities and resentments. Your hints of the hell of the family pyre offer plenty of fuel to propel my pen long after you've abandonned your diary. You seem to epitomize the sentiments that will grow out of your time when you write: “None are so blind as those who will not see”. Perhaps this is similarly trite but likewise true: none so miserable as the miser, or so alienated as the one who builds walls.

All I can do now is examine the realities my own life in search of bad faith and in an effort to heighten my own sensitivities - to oppression and exploitation. That's why I am writing this “blog”, to exemplify the value that I choose to create each day and for which I am prepared to assume responsibility. What can you or I know about another human being in our present state of knowledge?

Here and there, the weather report says that storms are getting the better of budget airlines. There's the JetBlue debacle in the US and the FlyMe belly flop in Europe. JetBlue has evidently become the whipping boy of the US media, front page news in the New York Times, and the butt of every late night comedian. To be continued…

Your devoted granddaughter