Greg Writes Stuff

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Parades and Americana and the Future

My next door neighbor's daughter turned five. Part of the party involved she and her friends, costumed as animals, marching through the neighborhood, shaking tambourines and banging drums. It was marvelous. The adults walked beside and behind, sometimes talking with each other, sometimes cheering for the kids. Blue skies. Dogs barking. Neighbors stopping to watch and smile. Marching by the old houses, underneath giant oak and crepe myrtle trees, the scene waxed idyllic. Together, we created a cinematic-like memory, a sweeping scene that happens in fiction not life: A Happy Happy Birthday Parade! But here it was, real Americana.




That's all groovy. But a greater and simpler truth about the day is this: My neighbor's child turned five, full of life and wonder about the world. A child who smiles widely and hugs a hug that can rip the cynicism from your soul and replace that darkness with the bright-blue atmosphere of hope.  Children do this to us.

When telethon hosts, hack fundraisers and politicians admonish you with the clap-trap, "children are the future," well, we can rightfully barf a bit in out mouths.

But this child's smile, her sincere hug, cuts the triteness out of the phrase and leaves you with, "Oh, right, she is the future. Let's make sure that future exists."

That's what the truth of turning five, or having a parade or eating birthday cake is: We've got this kid to leave this world to. So, fucking up everything seems a bad idea. So let's don't.

Friday, November 07, 2014

Looking into the space at which I find truth but find it kind of average

I held
the contradiction until 
it was needless
to wrestle it
anymore.
The sky beams both
black
and blue
and other colors of which my eyes 
have looked upon
and nothing
nothing 
happened.
Nothing.

Thursday, November 06, 2014

Walking the street, Thinking of Appropriate Rants...

Sometimes I want to rant like a college sophomore, cross-legged, tumbling out a Nietzsche here, a Chomsky there. "Don't you get it, man," I'd say to those assembled, "Don't you understand the freeing nature of nihilism? Stop using the man's language. You're only oppressing yourself while the political process just sweeps more money into power."

It's not that those things aren't true even within the parody. But somehow discussions at that level both over-reach and under-reach at the same time. Theory goes too far when we want a practical solution that gets at our current -- and real -- level of dis-satisfaction of the current political winds. Thus, a near full six years into the Obama administration and two truths emerge: A redesign of the system to pull some of the goodies away from the wealthy just didn't happen, and, two, the backlash to a black, moderate-to-conservative Democrat is more nasty and nauseating than anyone foresaw. But practical solutions come up short when our methods of describing our dilemma come boxed in with so much discourse left outside. The lines are too narrow. We can't adequately describe the problem -- or get a solution -- when our political debate narrows itself to vapid discourse that barely tilts left or right of center.

Now, dissecting of the mid-term losses by Democrats today involve both the former (bad campaign, poor strategy) and the latter (lack of appeal to voters outside the regular messages, poor use of over-arching themes that capture ideological truths like income inequality). Neither is right or wrong. The truth is that a practical politics is possible within a theoretical and -- yes, radical -- framework. The trick is simple and difficult. We need candidates who bring a philosophy that encompasses the known truths -- wealth inequality, facts on foreign policy that come attached to human rights and dignity, and an awareness of how humans are limited by the resources around us. We need an understanding that the wealth of our planet can be shared without the idea of winners and losers. All of this can be implemented within the campaign framework if candidates come at an election with truth and courage. Our consultant-election complex tends to lean toward swipes and counter-swipes that leave us afraid of our own values. And if Democrats (or another, progressive form of Democrats) can just believe that what they have to say matters, the strategy will work itself out.

More later....

Wednesday, November 05, 2014

I'm drawing a Blank and That's Just Write

When the Election finally pulled it's hand out of America's ass yesterday, shit hung about from fingertip to armpit. The Election seemed unfazed by its fecal calamity, and calmly wiped the shit all over the country.

It's going to take a bit to clean off. From the Iowa crazy of make-up-your facts Sen. Elect Joni Ernst to the crap-mean Thom Tillis in NC, America embraced the crazy. That shit's everywhere, and soap's scarce. Young people don't need a shower because they skipped the reaming. Had they shown up, maybe the Election would have picked a less messy orifice.

I needed to feel better. I went looking for significance and profundity. I drove, which isn't my usual mode of moving but today was not a usual day. The car radio went XM, spinning 70s classics and blasting out off-color comedy. (The liberal handwringing on public radio -- well, that would only result in a deliberate wreck and hospitaliziation.)

I found my sanity in nothing. In blankness. In whiteness. Over in Durham, at the Nasher, standing one foot away from White Painting (seven panels) by Robert Rauschenberg. It cleansed the evil thoughts. I felt the pulse of the world. I heard my own heart. Reminded by absence of all I have. Finding something bigger than the election, something transcendent, allowed me to forget the shit-stained parameters now boxing in our politics. Art. Thanks, Art.