Re: Returning (Eternally)

dr. elsewhere here

Not exactly Nietschze, but you catch the drift.

I’ve thought long and hard about how to re-enter the blogosphere after all this time, but I keep coming up short. And soft, in the head.

A few interesting things happened on my various journeys, so I’ll share some of them with you. Hopefully, you’ll find something interesting here, too.

For starters, there is nothing in life so wonderful as visiting family and friends. I’ve taken two distant and extended trips since I last surfaced, and the time was almost entirely about family and friends. Someone once shared with me her grandmother’s response to that eternal question, do you have any regrets as your life nears its end? I wish I’d spent more time with my friends, came the sincere reply.

I wish that on each of you; not the regret, but the time with your friends, in great abundance. Make time to do that, with frequency. Place it at the top of your priority list, without fail.

Life’s too damn short.

There is also this blessing of visiting distant places, though Atlanta and Seattle are hardly Paris or Bangkok. But still, a different setting is always good for broadening your horizons and refreshing your perspective.

I also wish that on each of you, a chance to view new horizons and get fresh perspectives on …things. In fact, I have always felt this should be required of each citizen, that we each spend time in at least one other place, preferably one other place inside the country, and one other place outside the country. Though more and more visiting inside this country is harder and harder to distinguish between cities and even regions, so pervasively WalMarted and Starbucked we’ve become. That trend is taking over the world, it seems. Is there anyone anywhere who does not have financial stake in this trend who can say this is a good thing? I think not.

I didn’t really get exposed too much to this trend while traveling the eastern seaboard over the holidays, as I generally stayed out of the cities when I reached my destinations. Though the toll road pit stops have really become quite the little mini-mall centers, replete with – you guessed it – Starbucks. Sigh. At least I knew I could get a soy chai latte.

On the west coast, though, spent almost all my time in Seattle and Portland, and I have to say, these are beautiful cities. I’ve long been enamored with Seattle, and now a real good ol’ buddy has a 9th floor condo with a view of the Space Needle and the Olympic Mountains and Lake Union and the sound. Really cool, especially the view of the Paul Allen Experience Music Project, designed by Frank Gehry. Quite the place. My fave, of course, was the Hendrix exhibit (Seattle is mighty proud of their home boy). Spent over an hour in there reminiscing. Yes, folks, I can claim to have seen the god himself twice in concert. And yes, he was a god.
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Seattle and Portland are both fabulous cities, especially progressive in areas like mass transit and recycling (even in the airport!) and promoting green areas and the like. So those of you hailing from that part of the world, thanks for all your work toward these fine results.

However, one thing really bothered me in both locations. There was a truly disturbing abundance of homelessness. Almost every corner, it seemed. Panhandling, hunger, despair. Of course, the "reason" for this "abundance" of "want" is actually embedded in the progressive nature of these cities, where both have active and relatively generous programs for the homeless. All that generosity attracts the homeless in droves, and they are grateful.

As a tourist, I make a point to avoid carrying any cash when I’m walking alone in cities, so I often had to say I had nothing to give. And in every single case, these folks (almost all of them guys) thanked me with kindness and courtesy; not a hint of bitterness or cynicism. But oh, the hopelessness, and the shame.

This was particularly heart-breaking in contrast to the remarkable abundance everywhere, all those restaurants and tony boutiques and Microsoft millions. Er, billions. Still, it is such injustice that these folks must suffer the absence of such a basic human need, a place to live. All the generosity from all that wealth will not change the fundamental problem; where there is justice there is no need for charity.

There lies the other half of my revelatory returnings: can’t get enough of our friends, ever, but neither can we give enough to our needy strangers. Poverty is not the result of a healthy society, it is the result of a greedy one. And we are members of this unhealthy, greedy society.

An old friend once wrote a really cool line in a song: Take what’s left, you come out ahead every time; one for the money is too many.

America’s capitalistic greed is deeply embedded in our history; just read Zinn. I don’t know quite how to undo all that, and I don’t even know if it’s possible to reverse any of it, we’re so entrenched in consumption. As frugal and minimalist as I try to be, my flights alone consumed enormous energy and lined deep, bulging pockets. The very fact that we’re communicating right now via computers and the net actually feeds into a remarkably pervasive cult of consumption, however spare the rest of our lives might be.

But my long absence from the Cannonfire frontline has made me wonder just how much I can count these often self-indulgent rants as any effort toward a better world. I know it may contribute to a cumulative positive effect, but is that enough? I know it’s not working toward a worse world, but is that enough? I can’t help but ask, regardless of the effort or intent, where can I look for a result that shows it makes a real difference?

I noticed upon each of my eternal returns that, although much had happened, most everything remained the same. The world is still just as insane as ever, and the bad guys are still responsible and they’re still bad as ever. Lots of details have shifted, but it’s still a large version of neighborhood gossip, this keeping up with the news. History as yesterday’s scuttlebutt.

So Joe and I are both belly-aching about this blogging thang, but for different reasons, each as valid as the other, neither more noble or more whiney. I honestly don’t know how he manages to continue digging deeper and deeper and finding more and more dirt and writing more and more truth, only to get the most active responses from crackpot readers. What could be more disillusioning? I don’t know how he has kept going, but I sure hope he'll keep it going, however much I understand his particular brand of frustration.

My frustration? I’m not sure it’s the blogging that frustrates me; reality is doing a bang-up job of that. I’m just unloading opinion, frustrated opinion. Nothing more, nothing less. I don’t claim any particular wisdom, no unique understanding, no special insights. Just lots of questions. Lots and lots and lots of frustrated questions, posing as opinion.

And maybe the odd observation now and again. My next post will share an observation of a dear old friend. Who happens to be a born again, fundamentalist Christian rightwingnut Bush fanatic. Who happens to be a wonderful, gentle, kind, loving, generous, devoted friend.

Go figure.

How’s that for the ultimate eternal return, spinning so many seeming opposites and contradictions into one person? I count him as, in addition to being a treasured pal, an opportunity to truly understand what lies in and at the heart of a man such as this. To my mind, this understanding holds a key to bridging this gaping divide in our country, and in the world.

Stay tuned….