It has been my experience that we are so often less than what we’d like to be and even further from what we should be, that what we become looks more like what we shouldn’t have become than what we couldn’t. It is not our failure that ultimately does us harm, it’s our inability to cope with failure and our tendency to subvert failure into functionality. When life deals us lemons, we mix it with equal parts of unrequited love and abject disappointment and produce ‘lemonade’, making sure that we sweeten it with ample aliquots of lust and short-term gratification before serving it to friends as some trendy just-arrived-from-Columbia forbidden pleasure only available now and at no small cost.
Nowadays, many a philosophy of life revolves around the amplification of voice and marking of territory as substitutes for the accumulation of toys. While this may be the Twenty-first Century equivalent of The American Dream (aka The Great Ubiquitous Bastardization), the no-longer-subtle murmurs of disquieting realization have begun to penetrate the American (yet somehow still vaguely human, if only grotesquely displayed) psyche. Apparently, it is becoming less and less chić to wave the giant foam finger and proclaim at the top of our voices and in great numbers “We’re #1… we’re #1!”
So, under-achievers that we’ve now become, where do we go from here? I’m not so sure it really matters, as long as we just go. In the next 5 years or so, the hundred (or thereabouts) CEO’s of the remaining American corporations will have retired, taking with them what remained of the American economy, so we’ll take our crumbs and add them to our lemonade, selling it at inflated prices to all our junkie friends. Thanks, George… oh, and… Dick? I can see your hands making Dubya dance… you’re not fooling anyone.
“Halliburton’s #1, Halliburton’s #1!”
10 comments:
...and how do you even begin to organize a revolution when the revolutionaries are so damn tired...?
well said.
dang it Bob--I was so laughing at the picture and how if I had a box of those for real--how much money i could make on ebay--I really couldn't read your post..will come back---------------you are a hoot
Haha, love the fullness of language, great baroque sentences. As for your political situation, the rest of are watching and hoping and calming ourselves with the thought that anything at all has got to be better than mob of (long string of expletive deleted) crooks.
The first paragraph of this I took personally. Despite the fact that I know you weren't talking to me directly, and in spite of the big face on the top. It was a good talking to. It sunk right in.
Fork-- Good point. I know very few these days who have much zeal left for such things.
Scot-- Thank ya, thank ya!
Gingatao-- Thanks for the nice words... and I think there are a whole lot of us hoping (praying?) for big changes in November.
Amuirin-- As with most of my work, this one was intended to be, for the most part, directed at myself, but if it made you think, I like that, too. Thanks for letting me know.
If Jane Austen were an American male living in Moberly Mo, the first paragraph of this post would be the opening of the latest book by Jim Austen (aka Bob Church).
That was my comment from the writerly perspective.
From a personal viewpoint? I share the sentiment.
yes--it could be said--George, you puppet string are showing.
good one.
yeah... somehow, most of us missed the wake-up call. We must have been navel gazing...
Lee-- Wait a minute... what was that? Oh, I think I recognize the sound... it was Jane Austen turning over in her grave. You'd better be careful comparing my writing to anyone's that has been published-- you're liable to be defending yourself in a libel lawsuit! Ha! But, thanks... it's comforting to know that you agree with me.
Scot-- Thanks.
Harry-- Well, I can forgive a man a little navel-gazing, I've been known to spend a fair amount of time in the pursuit myself. I think the problem with our prolonged somnambulistic bent goes a little deeper...
Bob - If I wore a hat I would take it off for you - this piece is magnificent...not just clever and humorous, but one that indicates a deep and profound erudition...So because I do not wear a hat, I will clap instead...(insert roar here). Be Well
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