Dinner conversation

A pleasant evening with Marilyn Krysl, catching up on our lives. We shared thoughts on many things:

• We both are happy to belong to our generation, the last not raised on television;
• we both cannot imagine a life without writing, i.e. writing as an existential act;
• we both wonder how much time we have left and greet each morning with thanks for another day;
• we each feel anxiety every time a progressive politician appears, wondering if they'll be assassinated (legacy of the sixties).

And we discussed differences. She loves where she lives, Boulder; I rather put up with Portland, rather stuck here.

Marilyn is a pacifist who has distinguished herself as an activist in the human rights area. I was curious how a pacifist would deal with Islamic extremists -- and so asked. All she would say is that she'd give them all a course in anger management. This, of course, is no answer at all but I couldn't get her to say more.

I've never understood pacifism when it reaches beyond the personal. That is, it makes perfect sense to me as a guide for individual moral behavior. But it makes no sense to me whatever as a guide to foreign policy in a dangerous world. When pacifists march, they appear to be wanting to influence national behavior (i.e. they reach beyond their own personal behavior) but I've never heard what foreign policy they advocate. To me, if you are attacked or threatened with attack and do nothing, as a national policy, you in effect are surrendering. At any rate, this was not a subject Marilyn wanted to discuss.

I am a great admirer of her work, particularly her short fiction. She appears happy and productive in retirement from the University of Colorado. Surely more good books from her are forthcoming.