Skip to main content

Living History

 The state of the union is...tired.  It's overwrought, cold and hungry, and irascible.  We're moving into the second year of "lockdown" and many good Americans don't want to be told what to do anymore.  No matter their health, or the health of other people.  They fret and whine about their "freedom." Yet they are the first to remind me and my ilk that "freedom isn't free."  They want it both ways, but that is not on the menu.

Our cities are dotted with homeless camps, shuttered shops, and crumbling infrastructure.  The Congress has a few members who openly advocate political assassination and call themselves "patriots," yet they can't seem to summon the courage to support the impeachment of a president who openly called for insurrection and even promised to join the mob.  He openly lied for 4 years and then warned his supporters that they needed to "take back the country."  Will they continue to fight for it?  Are we our own enemy?  Do they really know what they are getting themselves into? 



The openly fatigued populace would rather just forget.  They deaden themselves daily anyway, what's another item on the list to avoid.  The evidence is omnipresent.  Alcohol, recreational drugs, addictive drugs, pain killers, and paraphernalia abound.  Abound on the ground.  All around.  The town. Count the number of TV commercials for pharmaceuticals each evening.  Try to get the advertising jingle out of your head the next day.  Listen to the fast-talking pitchman speed-read the warnings that accompany each package.

Yet we persevere.  We photograph the beauty that surrounds us and hear the music and taste the food of many cultures nearby.  Just yesterday I photographed a tree stump with a breathtaking array of mushrooms growing from the cracks and layers.  Somehow, amid the complaints and sour dispositions of our fellow beings comes a new appreciation for what we do have and the life we may yet regain.  Does a glass of wine suddenly taste better? How about a cup of coffee?  



We need to be reminded that we are living history these days.  People will ask us in the days yet to come, how it was.  How we got by, kept optimistic, or if we did.  They'll want to know what we saw, how our lives changed, and what consequences remain.  

We will live a record. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

To a Tee

 I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt.  They are the foundational garment of my life.  My day starts with selecting a t-shirt and it ends with sleeping in one.  Once thought of as under garments, t-shirts are now original art and no doubt, a billion dollar business.   You can get a t-shirt with anybody's picture displayed.  You can commemorate an event, a birthday, a death, even a specular play in any sport.  Family reunions usually have a commemorative t-shirt.  Also, any organization that solicits your support in the form of a donation is likely to offer you a t-shirt. Where once I only had the basic white t-shirt, my drawers are filled with all manner of colorful choices.  Some recognize major events in my life, some, spectacular performances or plays I have witnessed, and some unforgettable places I have been.   I say I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt because I have taken the bait on what I perceived as a must-have only to be disappointed. ...

Illusory

What does it take to enrage you?  That moment when your words fly on pure emotion because enough is enough.  Is it a driver that cuts you off at high speed?  What about being an eyewitness to blatant racism or on the receiving end of some obvious injustice? I know some people who never express rage.  I admire them but know full well I am not capable of such distance from that which would bring about such a strong response. Another senseless shooting and 7 people die at the hands of a mentally ill gun owner.  The father of the 20 year old college student lets it fly and somehow millions feel a new sense of relief.  He calls the politicians bastards who do nothing, he wears his pain in public.  The news media responds but we all know that nothing is going to change.  We are the gun country.  We are the place where anybody, anytime, can be cut down just for being there when somebody else snaps. Usually the perpetrators are delusional. ...

Mr. Greene v. Mr. Brown

I want to tell you about something. Something I've carried inside myself for a number of years now. Perhaps if I were a different kind of person I wouldn't need to talk about it. I'm not. My need to tell it is stronger than your need to hear it. Because, however, there are a number of teachers and former students of mine who may read these meanderings from time to time, I need to tell this story all the more. About 7 or 8 years ago I was asked if I would allow a university PhD. candidate to observe an English class. At first I decided against it because I was scheduled to have a student teacher placed with me the second half of the semester in question. After some urging, however, at the request of a respected colleague, I agreed. Soon I was committing to extra meetings, signing documents and explaining to the class in question who the young woman who thoughtfully pounded away on a laptop in the rear of the classroom three times a week was. I knew that the topic of ...