December 5: I’ll be leaving Brazil in February. As a result of some clear thinking about how to use an opening the ambassador-to-be gave me to push him early on how open he’d be to my sort of professionalism. He then made his own clear decision to have me leave a week after he gets here in late January. I have some loose ends to tie up the Department, like what my next job will be....
December 12: Watched a little of a modern remake of The Tempest this afternoon. Struck me that I was also a sort of magi who used powerful words to call down a storm and shipwreck the man who did him a dishonor. Of course the results of magic, even when it works, is not entirely predictable. Dealing with the quick saida has caused me some discomfort. But it is simply impossible to walk down two paths at once. In my case, I am tired of being a foreigner, tired of thinking about others people’s problems and telling them what to do about them. (And no mistake, we are not all the same, all one family. We are different nations and I doubt there are many who live abroad that would deny this.)
Note: The new ambassador was a political appointee.
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