The world is a strange place, and the human beings that people it make it even more so in a way that nature has little control over. The reverse of humanity having little control over nature. Which is as it should be, for the most part. There's an article in the paper today, that the Economist, in presenting its latest findings on the livability of the world's great cities has given Vienna, Austria, top billing. Judged by the standards of health care, education, stability, culture, infrastructure and the environment.

 

Jews had a prominent place in Vienna's culture, as philanthropists and collectors of art, along with their role as leaders in medicine and science. Vienna now boasts its pride in Sigmund Freud, but in 1938 when the Anschluss was declared, Austria opened its arms to German domination and enacted laws disentitling Jews of their citizenship blocking them from academia, purloining their property and sending them into exile.

 

A cheering crowd greets Adolf Hitler as he enters Vienna. Austria, March 1938. USHMM

Kurt Waldheim, a politician and diplomat who eventually became chancellor of Austria, was a member of the Hitler Youth movement (National Socialist German Students' League), and was involved in war crimes. Before becoming Austrian chancellor, he was elected by the United Nations general body to become UN Secretary-General in 1972.

The world is always in crisis of one kind or another, be it a natural phenomenon whose origins have nothing to do with the machinations of humanity; floods, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, wildfires; an inferno of never-ending calamities. The major cause of human disruptions, however, remain human actions, where world wars break out, and smaller, deadly conflicts follow. From places in the world as diverse as Darfur, Sudan, to Syria and Ukraine, territorial ambitions and ruthless leaders set the pace.

All of this to say how fortune we are -- we and most of the world's population -- not to have intimately and directly suffered the effects of these dire situations. Aside from the very real fact that we live with the indelible shadow of a collective memory of what humanity is capable of, and mourn the loss of distant relatives who never were given the grace of a future. 

 

Living in security and comfort as we do, we also know that the world is ever in flux, slowly changing around us. What we have assumed to be a permanent way of life, a history and culture that has been stable for generations is changing.

This knowledge doesn't hamper our enjoyment of life in the present. We go about our daily lives, little impacted by the news we read daily out of the rest of the world. A world where migratory aspirations have since time immemorial seen humans arriving on shores not their own, to become their own, eventually changing the face of humanity and the environment it makes its own.

 

Today, our little family enjoyed another hot and humid summer day, the air scrubbed fresh by an all-night rain that brightened the colours of all that surrounds us. A humid day, thick with moisture and warmed by the sun. Where inconsequential little things take our attention. A sudden inclination, looking about the house, to decide to move around paintings hanging on the wall; for a new perspective.

 

An urge, despite the heat, to move about the garden beds in wonder that nature's vegetation is so responsive to its environment that daily there are new surprises. And there is never a lack of pampering the gardens, just to attend to the odd little adjustment here and there, treating the plants just as we do the paintings in the house interior. So snip off old blooms to make way for new ones, tie up wandering tendrils of vines, prop up the long slender spears of lilies with restraints to keep them from falling gracefully from garden to lawn.

 

Above all, look to the exhortations of two little puppies who are certain that the hours of the day are passing too swiftly and when will they ever be given the opportunity to strut along the forest pathways sniffing out intriguing odours, discovering the presence of unrecalled items of curiosity, reminding us they haven't yet had their cookie treats, greeting their friends as they appear in expectation of cookie handouts.

These are the plentifully serene and worthwhile episodes in life that no one should be denied.