Today in History: June 17

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Now that Raif and I were forcibly separated from one another, we were behaving as we had done at the start of our relationship: we constantly wrote each other messages. We sent chats or spoke on the phone … When I woke up, I was usually greeted by one of his little hearts sent to my phone during the night.
 
This morning, however, I didn’t find a single heart, and no missed calls. […] I had an extremely bad feeling, and called his number. […] I don’t know how often I tried that morning. Twenty times? Fifty times?
 
At about the fifty-second attempt someone suddenly answered. I was almost speechless with surprise when I heard a deep man’s voice at the other end. But it wasn’t Raif’s voice. “Who the hell is this?” it asked angrily. “You’re getting on our nerves!”
 
I gave a terrible start. “Where is my husband?” I asked shrilly.
 
“He’s in jail.”—Raif Badawi, The Voice of Freedom: My Husband, Our Story, Ensaf Haidar, Andrea Claudia Hoffmann

Four years ago today, writer Raif Badawi was arrested for violating article 6 of the Saudi Anti-Cybercrime Law. He has been incarcerated since that day. In the subsequent four years he was convicted of “insulting” Islam in his writings, sentenced to 600 lashes and seven years imprisonment, and even had his sentence re-considered but made harsher: 10 years in prison and 1000 lashes.
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An Open-and-Shut Case of Something or Other

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Although I have been told that I have “loud” facial expressions, my pleading eyebrows were easy to ignore this morning. I guess my eyebrows were not loud enough.

My eyebrows were requesting conversational assistance … no, they were pleading for a rescue, stet.

One of the great parts of a life in recovery is the fact that I have a network of people with whom I can share some of my day-to-day difficulties. My friends in recovery remind me that there is really only one thing I need to understand: I am my only problem in my life. Anything that I feel is a problem is almost one hundred percent of the time a repercussion from me reacting to a person or situation as if it was the problem. My reaction is the problem, not the person or situation.
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Today in History: Bloomsday

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

“It soared, a bird, it held its flight, a swift pure cry, soar silver orb it leaped serene, speeding, sustained, to come, don’t spin it out too long long breath he breath long life, soaring high, high resplendent, aflame, crowned, high in the effulgence symbolistic, high, of the ethereal bosom, high, of the high vast irradiation everywhere all soaring all around about the all, the endlessnessnessness …”—James Joyce, Ulysses, “Wandering Rocks”

On June 16, 1904, James Joyce and Nora Barnacle had their first date. They later married. To commemorate this, Joyce set this date as the date during which the events in his novel Ulysses take place. The novel covers an ordinary day in the life of Leopold Bloom, an ordinary Dubliner. The closing chapter is written from inside the thoughts of Molly Bloom (Leopold’s wife) as she falls asleep, and the last words of the novel are seen in the image at top.

Joyce and his future wife met on June 10 on Nassau Street in Dublin. He spotted her and struck up a conversation. She thought he was a Swedish sailor, with his blue eyes and yachting cap. He asked her out on a date and they agreed to meet on June 14, but she stood him up. He wrote a dejected note and they decided to meet on June 16. On June 16, they strolled together at Ringsend in Dublin. That was all, but they were a couple from that day on.
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