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By the Sea – Words Outside the Bottle

September 11, 2010

Words Outside the Bottle

This morning brought one further occasion (aside from the state of my own writing) to bemoan the demise of the English language.

Two people were sitting on the boardwalk steps as I walked up from the beach at about 9.  I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but every day that I spend in Florida helping my folks seems to make me older and more decrepit (sorry, Folks!) and I was having a hard time getting my sandals which were lodged just below the boardwalk.   This meant that I spent a fair amount of time in the vicinity of these two individuals.  One was a going-to-seed, slightly greasy, youngish man with a large half-empty bottle of beer by his hand; the other an already-at-seed, slightly pudgy, youngish woman with a half-knowing (I will not say “empty”) grin.

“It’s cause you said that,  you know, what you said.” (from the woman.)

Man: “Nah, I never said that s—.  I told him, you know that other s—.”

Woman:  “No you said, you know, what you said.”

Man: “I didn’t, I said, whatever, you know–I said, uh-huh all that.  I wasn’t going to play that game of his.”

Woman: “Oh yeah.”

Man:  “S—, no.   I said, whatever.”

At this point, my sandal strap almost on, I couldn’t help but get quite close.  I thought they’d stop talking with me at their feet, but things actually picked up.

Man: “I was just telling him what kind of ho’s are ho’s.  That’s all I said.”

Woman:  “That it?”

Man:  “Not you….”

Woman:  “Whatever.”

Man:  “Good morning.”  (This addressed to me.)

Woman:  “Have a good one.”  (Also to yours truly.)

A part of me really did want to intervene at this point.  I don’t want to sound patronizing, but I was just aching for more, you know, words, and also, uh, directness.

Look, I wanted to tell the guy, just tell her that you want to get into her pants, and think that she’ll probably agree in the end because she’s sitting out here arguing with you.

To her: so, he really is kind of sleazy and opportunistic.  The question is how lonely are you?

Needless to say, I shuffled on in my silent, decrepit way, sandals (sort of) affixed.

Categories: Vicissitudes of Life
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Religious Outrage – Elephant Dung

September 10, 2010

We live in a country where you can use the Bible as toilet paper.  You can even post a video of this use on youtube.  (I hope not.)

It’s a country where you are allowed to draw horns on the President, a country where you do not generally have to memorize poems for fear that your scribbles will be discovered by the local police.  (The downside of this is that no one is much interested in poetry.)

It’s also a country where silly self-promoters, like Terry Jones and several other copycat “ministers”, have a right to do silly self-promoting symbolic things.

Of course, the rules that allow for Jones are also the rules that allow for artists and writers, museums and collectors, many of whom are also self-promoters, some of whom are also foolish.  (Some not.)

Remember Chris Ofili and the Virgin Mary painted with Elephant Dung, part of the Brooklyn Museum’s 1999 show Sensation, which exhibited works from the collection of Charles Saatchi.  Ofili’s Virigin Mary caused such a….sensation that it inspired then Mayor Giuliani to start a lawsuit to evict the Museum, the Museum to countersue Giuliani, and all kinds of politicians, artists, religious groups and concerned citizens to speak out.  The U.S. House of Representatives (typically!) passed a nonbinding resolution to end federal funding for the Museum, the City of New York actually stopped the Museum’s funding; a federal judge restored it.

I am not sure that people around the world, Muslims particularly, understand this aspect of our culture.

I’m not sure that many of us always understand it.  Especially some of the ones doing silly symbolic things.  (And why do so many have to center on 9/11?  Ground Zero?  Do these people even like New York?)

But what do you do?  We live in a country (thankfully) where people do not have to swallow their poetry, but can post it on the internet.  Even though no one is terribly interested in it.  With or without elephant dung.

More tomorrow.

Categories: elephants, news, Uncategorized
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Finding Good In the Very Alloyed

September 5, 2010

Enjoying What's There

The other day I wrote about not waiting for “unalloyed” enjoyment.    The idea, more or less, was not to be distracted by the proverbial “fly in the ointment” but to try to conjure up your own “fly-free ointment” – something that would allow you to whoosh above all the pettiness that blocks appreciation.

I am frankly not terribly good at this.  My eye (and heart too, I suppose) hook onto almost any deficiency.  Contentment is not just marred by a fly in the ointment, but by the idea of flies, even, perhaps, by the need for ointments.

But right now I’m sitting on a flight to Florida–actually I’m sitting on a plane that is, in turn, sitting on a runway, hopefully, aimed for Florida.  Something that seems like an emergency is going on in my family.  Weakness happens.

It’s an amazingly sunny day outside the lozenge window.  What’s even more amazing is that, in the midst of my worry, I am actually noticing it:   the clouds are elongated for Constable, but might just qualify for Tiepolo;  the blue certainly would.

I was given an aisle seat even though I bought this ticket an extremely short time ago. and lo and behold, the window seat (it’s a two seater) is empty, and now I’ve moved just into the shaft of light there, with plenty of room to sit cross-legged.

I find myself able too to enjoy a certain bizarre satisfaction at the success of ManicD quickness–bag packed, difficult arrangements made, JFK navigated, all with unimagined speed – it turns out that the words “my father’s sick” coupled with boarding pass can get you immediately to the front of the security line.

These are not exactly pleasurable moments; they are, however, the ones that currently encapsulate my experience of time.   And here are these wonders– a plane made, no baby crying, a book in hand, blue sky outside, clouds.

Categories: Uncategorized, Vicissitudes of Life
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More on “Ground Zero” Mosque – CBS/New York Times Poll, Goldman Sachs building, that guy with the flag draped on his car, Cherries!

September 3, 2010

More on Park51, the mosque and Islamic Center proposed to be built two blocks from Ground Zero:  a CBS/New York Times poll says that a substantial majority of New Yorkers feel that the statement: “it should not be built because, while Muslims have the right to do it, they should find a less controversial location” comes closer to their views than the statement ”it should be built because moving it would compromise American values.”

The poll also finds that many New Yorkers (of the whopping 892 randomly asked) oppose (rather than favor) the construction of the mosque near Ground Zero.

Boy, do I hate polls.  They carry the aura of science–black and white data–when in fact they are often reductive, self-fulfilling, and manipulable.

I’m not saying that the findings of the poll are inaccurate–I’m quite sure that many New Yorkers would just as soon (i) that the controversy would go away, and (ii) that if Muslims have to build a mosque, they budge it over a bit.

But one problem with the poll – despite the self-fullfilling terminology- is the fact that the questions had no control, no placebo, as it were–no context.  (No one was asked, for example, if they were actually familiar with the topography of Ground Zero.)

Here are some other questions that were not asked:

Which of the statements below reflects your opinion about construction at Ground Zero?

1.  Yes, Burger King has a right to have a franchise at the corner of the site, but they should move large outdoor pictures of Twilight’s vampires, such as Robert Pattinson, to a less morbid location.

2.  Yes, shoppers have a right to get great discounts on designer goods at Ground Zero,  but the huge “SALE” banners should be draped more decorously.

3.  Yes, N.Y. Dolls can have a strip club two blocks away, but they should drape some banners (maybe from Century 21–oops, maybe not) over the outlines of naked women.

4.  Yes, that guy with the big U.S. flag with all the stenciled names of victims can hang out, but he should not scam tourists on Sundays.  Ditto the people with all the burning WTC postcards.

5.  I don’t love Jeff Koons, but his balloon-flower sculpture looks like cherries.  (Who can can argue with cherries?)

6.  Okay, Silverstein has a right to some bucks, but should he really construct an office tower on a de facto burial ground?

7.  Yes, Goldman Sachs can (even perhaps should)  build its $2.1. billion headquarters just across West Street, but perhaps, after getting over $115 million in NYS and local tax breaks PLUS the use of $1.65 billiion in tax-exempt Liberty Bonds, it should not have been so active in the collapse of the U.S. financial system.

8.  Yes, the 9/11 attackers were Muslims, but they do not represent all Islam.

Categories: 9/11, New York City, news, Uncategorized
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Trying To Leave For Vacation (Sort Of)

September 1, 2010

Chameleon Brain

The wonder of over-pressure is that, at a certain point, things simply get put off.   Somewhere around the apex of “too-much-to-possibly-do”, “some-things-are-just-not-going-to-get-done” takes over, and the imperative becomes the postponed, then the optional, and sometimes even the irrelevant.

It’s a funny old world.  Our brains are so chameleon-like that you barely see the flash of turning tail.

Categories: Stress
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Shielded/Reaching Out – Woman in Clear Box in NYC

August 31, 2010

Woman in Box

I was wondering, yesterday, while walking on the street checking my email why people do this–i.e. check their email while walking on the street.

I tell myself that it’s because humans, in general, are a communicating species.

Communication brings a kind of acknowledgement (or at least a hope of acknowledgment).  It’s almost as hard for people (even people other than me) to live without acknowledgment as to live without air.  (Hence, the infamous rigors of solitary confinement.)

Is acknowledgement particularly important to humans.  Does any non-human animal ask whether a tree falls if there is no one there to hear it?  (How can we know?  If an animal doesn’t articulate such thoughts to us, do they actually think them?)

In old-time small towns, at least in my grandmother’s small town (as seen through my grandmother’s eyes), there was always someone watching–acknowledging, as it were–through a blinds’ eye gaze, even when the small streets seemed absolutely asleep.  (It can get hot in the mid-day mid-summer Midwest.)

This grandmother refused to let us hang out wet clothes to dry on an Tuesday afternoon.  Washing was for Mondays, or at least, mornings.  She couldn’t stand to have our disorganization noted.

This grandmother would not have texted or emailed while walking.

Cities offer the freedom of greater anonymity.  We city dwellers further this by training ourselves to avoid the gazes of those around us.

Extremely well-trained city dwellers walk around in little self-contained bubbles, boxes, hoping that our own clear walls will help hold up the walls of those around us.  (We’re a bit like little buildings; all self-contained, all nearly leaning against each other.)

But there’s still this communicating-species business, this need for acknowledgement.   So, as we move our little box around  (or, in the suburbs or country–our car),  we text, email, talk on the phone.

“What’s up?”

“How about you?”

Oddly, as I was writing this post, I happened upon what looked like a live woman (or realistic sculpture) in a plexiglass box standing just near the center of the Grand Central Station.

Many people had gathered around it.  It was as if a woman in a clear-walled box was something they’d hardly ever seen.

Categories: Uncategorized, Vicissitudes of Life
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Obama Witch Hunt – Crowding Out the Broomsticks

August 30, 2010

The airwaves are full of political broomsticks these days.  These are not brooms sweeping away corruption.  They are the brooms of a witch hunt, and they are busy stirring up a dust cloud of obfuscation and flat-out lies.

Is Obama a Muslim?

Is Obama American?

Is Obama even President?

The obfuscators have managed to make absolutely crazy questions (were we not all here in November 2008?) somehow mainstream.

The obfuscators, who include ex-drug addicts, serial husbands (serial divorces), sexual harrassers, plenty of non-church goers and multi-millionairess, try to pin every kind of moral, economic and societal evil possible on Obama, despite the fact that he is a clearly abstemious, genuinely Christian, devoted family man, and careful political thinker.

What can be done about it?  What, I mean, can be done by those of us who support Obama, or, at the very least, are against this kind of witchhunt?

Think, do, speak of the positive.  If you support Obama, then openly  (or at least silently) support him.

I understand that this may run against the grain.  Some of you, like me, may have grown up at a time, i.e. during the Vietnam War, when it was hard to be openly patriotic.

Even after the War was over, it was hard for many to let go of the anti-U.S. government stance.   To be openly in favor of a president was like letting go of youth itself, like finally acknowledging that one really didn’t look that great in jeans; like getting reading glasses and noticing a sudden hardness of hearing.

I admit that Obama has not been perfect.  (Yes, I know – no public option.)  But he is thoughtful, intelligent, hard-working, informed, fair-minded, articulate, empathetic.   (If you feel disappointed with him, think of how you would be feeling right now with McCain/Palin.)

All this means it’s time to speak up. When peole say “Obama’s gotta go!”, say “Go Obama!”  (As In “Go Team go!”)

If you don’t feel comfortable speaking up (if you believe, for example, that you really do look good in your old jeans), at least think up. Outmystical Glenn Beck.

Think of Obama’s good points – his grace, his intelligence, his judiciousness.  Then fill the air with these thoughtwaves.  Crowd out the broomsticks.  Do it now.

Categories: Obama
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Bozo With Holy Books – Abuse of September 11th

August 26, 2010

One Set of Ingredients for Bozodom in America

Feel sick after reading last night about Pastor Terry Jones.  He is the Florida ex-hotel manager turned “Pastor” planning to burn a bunch of copies of the Koran on September 11th.  This bozo admits that he has “no experience” of the Koran, but feels that burning it is his right as an Amerian Christian.

Oh, great.

Jones claims to know the Bible (excluding, I guess those parts, about brotherly love.)    (By the way, Terry, Yahweh appeared as a burning “bush” not a bookpile.  Also, fyi, –those best known for burning books were certainly not “not-Christian”, but not exactly folks you’d want to emulate.)

It’s idiotic, embarrassing, dangerous, sickening.

What is additionally upsetting to me as a downtown New Yorker is that he is staging his outrage on September 11th.

For people who lived in downtown New York on September 11th, the anniversary of the day is very somber.   We ran, we walked, we stared, we wept.  We breathed air, thick with dust, ash, bone, asbestos and the smell of burn for months.   We were fearful of crowds, saddened by bagpipes.

We worried (still do) – what if it happened again?  How would we meet up with children?  Did we have duct tape?  Face masks?  Iodine tablets?  Could we get across the Hudson?

We became, at least if you are someone like me, even more sympathetic to people who live with a risk of violence on a much more frequent basis–people who suffer “shock and awe” in war-torn  or simply difficult societies.

If you feel any kind of connection to 9/11, you do not want to augment idiotic symbolic violence.   You want to promote tolerance, peace.  This is not just because you want don’t want to foment another attack on yourself, it’s because you understand that any violent/burning extremism, especially when combined with religious fundamentalism, causes woe.   (You are down on woe.)

This ridiculous vicious ignorant intolerant hoopla from people whose connection to 9/11 came primarily through media exposure (i.e. seeing it on TV), and who are seeking (you guessed it!) more media exposure (i.e. seeing themselves on TV) is beyond sickening.

Categories: 9/11, news, Uncategorized
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Sniff Becomes Her (Draft Poem)

August 24, 2010

Dog Returning to City

A dog newly returned to the city
keeps her nose to the paving stone.
Who cares about loam?
Yesterday’s rural soil proffered
a podge of worm, root, growth,
but the leg of a park bench teems
with personality.

So long even to that grass that, tinged
with deer, she rolled about in
weeks now past; the sidewalk is tinge unhinged==
laced with history–her own and its grey slab–
who passed through–who was who–
she traces it
with the absolute doggedness of the canine.

Like a Buddhist achieving one-pointedness,
sniff becomes her, the Aum of all sentient beings
(all sentient beings who leave their mark)
reverberating in one small quivering hide.

Categories: dog, poetry, Uncategorized
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More Double Standards – Re Health Care (Crossing the Border to Canada)

August 22, 2010

Categories: Cartoon, Obama, Sarah Palin
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