"Let's just skip this one, okay???"


        Today is Sept.1,2011. I'm dreading the next ten days or so, mainly because of the pending orgy of 9/11 'features' that will no doubt glut all American media networks, that is unless "FOOTBALL" is on.


         Can't really parse the prevailing desire to revisit this sad, traumatic event. I know for myself that I still carry those feelings of shock, outrage, sorrow, and anger within. All I have to do is see some 'iconic' picture of what went on in those terrible hours and the whole rancid, toxic stew of emotions is at my psychic fingertips.


          I've been through enough therapy to understand the value of 'facing the past'. Useful, to a certain degree, no doubt. I've also seen people I love repeatedly summon memories of things that deeply stunned them, and wrought havoc upon their emotional stability. As if reliving ( or more succinctly-- 'reviving') those traumas serves to sustain their well-being in some way. Like a coyote continuing to return to a poisoned carcass for sustenance. 


           I think it's way,way too early in the grieving process of this nation to conjure some 'therapeutic spectacle'. This is a deep psychic and emotional wound that needs time to heal. Not only time for us to allow some 'scabbing' over ( to put it bluntly..), but also a decent passage of days, hours and years needs to manifest so that we can digest the import of this wound with some wisdom. Wisdom that will only come with the passage of time.


            We're not done mourning by a long way.. and I think we should summon the maturity and decency to allow that mourning to proceed at its own natural pace, rather than start beating the drums to conjure some "9/11" cleansing process. This isn't something "Dr.Phil" (or "Oprah" either) can help us with in an hour or so. Let's give it time. Mark it in your own private way. In silence. Maybe with some tears. Open yourself up to some hard won understanding about loss and the lessons it has to teach.


           Don't allow yourself to be baptized in anger and rage as an alternative. We've all still got it. It's not doing any of us any good, and it's not going to go away soon. Let's let time heal us and allow that toxicity to dissipate in the maddeningly slow manner that real healing demands. If you're one who thinks re-opening those wounds and pouring your own bitter salt on them is going to serve you (or the rest of us) in some way, well, frankly I have to question your sanity and intelligence. It's not time yet. You'll know when it is.

sad,sad,sad

I've been in a number of "Wal-Marts" in various parts of this country. Often if I'm on the road somewhere, I know I can pull off and duck in to use their restrooms without drawing the attention of some clerk, as is likely in gas stations. Plus, you can stretch your legs and just walk around and check out the various shoppers and stuff. ( Besides maybe you need a Coke or something...)

Recently I was in the Wal-Mart in Rochester, Indiana. Again. I have kin nearby so that is a convenient landmark for me. I've seen the website "People of Wal-Mart" which features photos of people doing their shopping in these stores. Sometimes it seems funny to see the type of folks caught on camera. Many in outfits that should have never seen the light of day in public.

I don't think that the Rochester Wal-Mart is any worse than the rest in this regard, but the general make-up of the shopping public there is about the most depressing bunch I have ever found myself among in a Wal-Mart. It seems to be a magnet for every meth-head, overweight diabetic, sun blasted farm boy, whip-thin alcoholic, pudgy dirty single mom trailing a couple of crabbing kids, and white trash teenage boys who wish they were Eminem that dwell in that god-forsaken county.

I can see that the folks that have jobs there are doing their best to run a decent retail operation. To me, there seems to be a miasma of decrepitude that just hovers over the whole place and thwarts any effort to keep things in order or organized. The poor clerks are continually struggling against a subliminal tide of chaos that threatens to overcome them all the time. Spending more that five or ten minutes in that store just puts me in such a funk about the general state of humanity in the Midwest that I always end up muttering to myself all the way to my car in the parking lot. Desperate poverty and gross ignorance all jammed together in one location. Sad, sad, sad.

A Herculean task for us all

Recently I was visiting family in Taos, NM. Flew into Albuquerque and drove up to Taos. It's lovely country, and so different from the Midwest. I stopped often at 'pull-offs' to take pictures of the scenery, and my son took me on a number to 'jaunts' to scope out other beautiful views.

Sadly, I couldn't help but notice how much trash was strewn along the roadsides in that state. It's a truly distracting amount of refuse just discarded wherever people felt like, as if they couldn't take it home in their cars and dispose of it properly. (Food containers and wrappers, glass bottles both intact and broken to bits, soft drink and beer cans, plastic bottles of all varieties, plastic 'grocery' bags of multitudinous pedigree)

Don't know if the state of New Mexico can't afford to clean up their roadsides and public spaces, or if the citizens of New Mexico are just such uncaring slobs that it's impossible to keep up with the mess they make of their own 'back yard'. I do know that it does put the lie to their slogan-- "Land of Enchantment". Maybe they should add an amendment to it, such as, "But Watch Where You Put Your Feet".

As I commented to my son at one of our stops, "There's enough work here to keep a bodhisattva busy for the rest of their existence". Not that Indiana is exactly a shining example of caring for the environment either.....

Groveling at the throne of dollars

I'm really sick of newspaper columnists acting as apologists for the "Capitalistas". General Electric (largest corporation in the US) dodges paying any taxes on 14 BILLION in 'profits'. But Mona Charen thinks we should give them a break, because it's not them, it's the fault of the tax code.

Especially galling is her trotting out of the old debunked statement that they need those profits to 'make jobs'. Chances are the profit-taking comes from manipulation of stock prices... t'aint about needing that money to make jobs. I didn't hear anything about how many 'jobs' GE created in the last year in the US.....

Kitchen table bouquet

Kitchen table bouquet
Originally uploaded by DharmaCrow