Three Wise Men, All Dead
It's been an amazing week in death. James Brown, Jerry Ford and Saddam Hussein. It's like a backwards astrology: see what you share with those who weren't born when you were, but did die when you did.
And of course, who's the most influential of these dead? James Brown, surely. Anyone who could so change the way we hear music and move to it has a more lasting effect than either Ford or Hussein.
Ford: He's being praised this week as a wise man. Sorry - he shouldn't have pardoned Nixon. If we'd prosecuted him and his minions, we wouldn't have had Rumsfeld and Cheney in power these last few years to screw things up. He might have been a nice guy, but nice guys don't always finish first for their country.
Hussein: Who's to say he wasn't wise in his way? Now that we've cracked open the Pandora's Box of his country we can see the value of his iron fist. I'm not saying how he ruled was right, but he had a certain understanding of his culture and countrymen that is woefully lacking in our current foreign policy.
Brown: The Godfather. The hardest working man in show bidness. The man who took incredible odds stacked against him and did something with them. He made huge mistakes along the way and paid for them in ways American men of other classes never had to. But he forged a trail through our society that few could even attempt.
It's been quite a week. 2007 here we come.
I'll Be a Little Busy the Next Few Days
This chubby old man in a red suit asked for my help delivering presents this year.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!
A Different Kind of Christmas Story
I was driving up I-5 today and saw a snow-capped mountain in the distance. It probably wasn't Mt. Hood as I was too far south, but it made me feel like every mountain in Oregon right now is Mt. Hood and we're all being haunted by it.
The media is reportng that one missing hiker has been found dead in a snow cave 300 feet below the summit at the location of the cellphone that called out last Sunday.
They found the other hikers' footprints in and out of a higher snow cave. Anything could be happening, and to have Mt. Hood looming in our collective consciousness at this time of year is a good holiday reminder: human dramas are happening all around us every day that we should be paying attention to. People get lost and they're trying to get home. The best laid plans can still screw up and all we have is each other and the elements to survive.
I don't remember all the details of the Nativity, but there seem to be parallels there. The family looking for shelter and ending up in a manger. There's probably some resonance with Hanukkah too (Billy G can tell us). Tonight, we're reminded that not all miraculous holiday stories have happy endings. And we're reminded of our deep and fragile humanity.
It's times like these that remind us to care about each other. We're all on a journey to our own personal summit, but we all get lost along the way. I keep thinking about the 100 mile per hour winds these men have been through the last week with nothing to protect them but snow pounded into the correct formation. The snowfall was being measured in feet, not inches. It must have been blindingly white and surreal.
It's a story we'll all be witness to. It's a sad thing to unite our attention this holiday season, but in the end it might just yield some truth about redemption and caring.
If it gives us a chance to share some kind of cross-spiritual lesson this holiday season, that man may not have died in vain after all.
Might Blogging Have Peaked?
I know I need to write an entry so my few audience members don't have to suffer seeing a nutria every time they click here.
Also, on Keith Olbermann tonight, they reported the average readership of most blogs was a grand total of: ONE. So, like, you write your blog, then you read it. Count = one. Sad.
Then I click over to Driftglass and see that he's reliably written again today - and created a customized photo to boot! I applaud his creative instincts and his ability to control his time. I don't have either of those.
:)
Yet, Drifty writes passages that are too long for me to read anymore. I write an average of 500 words in a post. That's manageable. The four-screen essays scare me away. And, if I were to write them, I'd think I was asking a lot of my audience for reading that much. Aren't we all really busy?
Something to look forward to this week on my blog: photos of my sprained/broken wrist as it gets more and more black and blue. Yee-ha!! It only took four hours at the "urgent care center" to get the diagnosis I had given myself... only then to be told that most breaks don't show up in the first 48 hours, so I should come back and DO IT ALL AGAIN in ten days if the pain hasn't subsided. Fabulous. I love the health care that expensive private insurance companies give us. It's so... workable.
That's the deal. It's a Monday. Whaddayawant? I have a big project due Wednesday. My life shall return after that and I'll try to be more... prescient. Wise. Shocking. Naked.
And think about my duty as a blogger. If you ain't doin' it every day, you ain't bloggin'. Maybe we all peaked a few months ago and it's all downhill from here. Maybe DailyKos has killed my blogging. Maybe our massive need to hear our own voices echoing in the well has subsided.
Maybe there will be no Blogger Oscars after all.
:(
