I’m weeping
silently now.
And I have
no idea why.
I saw the
photo of Carson McCullers laughing and the tears felt impossible to hold back
So I
started to silently weep
For my own
shoddy vanities and fruitless pretensions.
For the
wave of bullshit descending upon us all.
For the somehow-ill president elect (rediculous/unpresidented).
For auld Albion and the United States of America - soon to take their ungloved, ham hock
fists and smash themselves to pieces as they have done again and again in
paroxysms of identity lack.
For the gloating
storm of self-styled patriots of all persuasions taking power here, taking power there. Puppets of whom? Masters of whom? Lampoon judges of what
travesties of law or justice? Scarce able to repent for the damage they will cause
here and there before they, as with their mythologised and feared and fear-filled predecessors,
pay visit to one another, shoot and poison and garrotte and denounce and
torture and disappear one another and all others besides.
Briefly clutching and clinging to their small power before disappearing in a drying stain of misdirection and historical footnotes.
Briefly clutching and clinging to their small power before disappearing in a drying stain of misdirection and historical footnotes.
For the
overtaxed and overworked everywhere.
For the replaced and the replaceable to come.
For the replaced and the replaceable to come.
For everyone
who has ever signed on to the alluring emptiness of predatory demagogues
through all time.
For the
impatient who want it all and want it all NOW! These are the poor, sick fools we
all need to watch out for. This will be
the epochal evil inside each of us that we really have to guard against.
For those
bloated-to-the-point-of-bursting with conviction and certainty.
For those
starving and skeletal because they KNOW.
And in knowing, certainty for them is as far away as the planet Neptune.
For the world
that I have helped to build in my invisible and wretched, sub-atomic fashion.
And for you,
The
helpless onlookers and caretakers of this mire.
But if it’s
okay with you, I’d like to gaze upon the smile of Carson McCullers a while
longer.
At least
until I stop weeping.
It's a beautiful smile. I wish something as perfect in response to lighten you, Malcolm. But I'm going to offer this up instead, because it's what I turn to when all hope is in eclipse.
ReplyDeleteThe Paradoxical Commandments (with annoying insert by N Grant)
by Dr. Kent M. Keith
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway. (and roll your eyes at others)
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good (and art) you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway. And make your art anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
An addendum; sorry if the above comes off as trite. As Dickinson and McEwen say, sometimes the truth can be both bright and trite.
ReplyDeleteThese are beautiful, encouraging and enriching words on days such as this, my love, with nary a skerrick of triteness about them. And I thank you for the caring underlying each sentiment and for taking the time to even give thought to my scrawlings and scribblings.
DeleteSecondary addendum because I have problems, clearly. These days, I focus on not loving people so much as remaining interested in them. It's hard to completely withdraw and hard to write whole groups of people off when you're still interested.
ReplyDelete