Journey
I did some procrastinated Spring cleaning today. One and a half rooms done. I wanted my utility room open so I could start tap dance again. I planned to start practicing tomorrow, but once I was done cleaning for the day I practiced anyway before getting cleaned up for the opera.
I found my old digital recorder as I figured I would some day. It had been misplaced for at least two years. Actually, I found it after a long time, and immediately lost it again, so I am thinking it has been closer to three years. The batteries were dead, luckily it has static memory so the old notes were still there. Some were useless, as I like to note ideas when I'm slightly buzzed. Some look good in the light of day, others do not.
I was reading The Two Towers about that time. The name of the book is a little eerie for me. Our twin towers have a lot of meaning for our country, and I was struck by an unpleasant thought. When the terrorists were picking targets they did not pick ones that were the most meaningful to us. If they had they would have crashed those planes into Yankee Stadium and killed many more people. They were going after what they considered monuments to the most distasteful aspects of their hated enemy. Not a comforting thought, especially when you consider the resentment we have for our own corporations which have more rights and prerogatives than individuals in our own country. Just think of how often we are hearing in the news that communities that are resisting parasites like WalMart. Think of what it is like to live in a country that does not have the protections from our corporations that we have. It is even worse these corporations are foreign. We don't have the courage to look at it, and we have just begun to pay the price for our arrogance and greed. A loss of innocence.
That loss of innocence took me back to Tolkien, and my note. My old digital note talked about a loss of innocence and how the world is never the same after losing that innocence. Our ridiculous discount prices and general life style come at a price which we do not pay. We are living on other's sweat and blood, and they are just beginning to make us open our eyes. The bit from the book struck me in this manner several years ago, and it is more poignant to me now.
I found my old digital recorder as I figured I would some day. It had been misplaced for at least two years. Actually, I found it after a long time, and immediately lost it again, so I am thinking it has been closer to three years. The batteries were dead, luckily it has static memory so the old notes were still there. Some were useless, as I like to note ideas when I'm slightly buzzed. Some look good in the light of day, others do not.
I was reading The Two Towers about that time. The name of the book is a little eerie for me. Our twin towers have a lot of meaning for our country, and I was struck by an unpleasant thought. When the terrorists were picking targets they did not pick ones that were the most meaningful to us. If they had they would have crashed those planes into Yankee Stadium and killed many more people. They were going after what they considered monuments to the most distasteful aspects of their hated enemy. Not a comforting thought, especially when you consider the resentment we have for our own corporations which have more rights and prerogatives than individuals in our own country. Just think of how often we are hearing in the news that communities that are resisting parasites like WalMart. Think of what it is like to live in a country that does not have the protections from our corporations that we have. It is even worse these corporations are foreign. We don't have the courage to look at it, and we have just begun to pay the price for our arrogance and greed. A loss of innocence.
That loss of innocence took me back to Tolkien, and my note. My old digital note talked about a loss of innocence and how the world is never the same after losing that innocence. Our ridiculous discount prices and general life style come at a price which we do not pay. We are living on other's sweat and blood, and they are just beginning to make us open our eyes. The bit from the book struck me in this manner several years ago, and it is more poignant to me now.
"Yet also I should be sad," said Theoden, "for however the fortune of war shall go, may it not so end that much that was fair and wonderful shall pass forever out of Middle-earth?"While this quote is disturbing it is also hopeful. If we can't continue to live the American dream on the backs and blood of others, maybe we are preparing for a journey that will take us somewhere better. For me it is hard to see good, with the despotic leadership we have at the moment, where even the alternative is shit. Still, we have to go somewhere. Life and the world are never static. How do we mortals acting as citizens, intellectuals, artists, or technicians point the path in a worthy direction?
"It may," said Gandalf. "The evil of Sauron cannot go wholly cured, nor made as if it had not been. But to such days we are doomed. Let us now go on with the journey we have begun!"
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