Winter of our content

In this winter where I find freshly fallen leaves covered with snow, Fall leaped on without mercy by the next season. And the bright orange shapes that peak out of the white crust stand brilliant and singular, boasting even. Unprepared for their mortality, defiant even. But under their shadows greater things shift. Suddenly there comes a time of reinvention riding on the fallen freaks of a broken extremism and paranoid delusions. Give no quarter for such swine, ours is a battle for beginnings that threaten to slip back with the oil-fouled tides.

But I stand puzzled over basic tenets. As my life has shifted from one path to another the greater economic conflagration and political insanity pales in the face of an epic search of the Word. Not some biblical edict spoken by a breathless god but a question of a mortal about how to lead a happy life. Melodramatic phrasing I will admit, but the question still stands resolute. I am willing to forget prejudices about what that word means, take into account the importance of struggle and remove the judgmental nature of good and bad. Starting from the ground and looking up. And I am at a loss for words...

Election Day

When I was a freshman in college I saw the Election of Bush. In Junior Year I saw 9/11 and in that second saw much of the future that sadly became true. I left college with trepidation and distrust in my heart. In the eight years that followed my graduation I saw government corrupt itself and refuse to honor congressional s0penaes, a war in Iraq launched on false terms with no end in site, a war in Afghanistan launched on real terms never brought to conclusion, federal debt skyrocket, my own income shrink and difficulty in finding a full-time job with benefits, and finally in the last month the collapse of the entire economy with a disastrous bailout package that puts our debt at record levels to bail out companies that plaid the game poorly. And yet today I feel optimistic for the first time. It is a scary kind of unsettling feeling. We are not quit comfortable with each other yet. But I think I am going to grow to like it.

Peace. Truly.

Fear and Loathing in the Public Library

The library is an asset in Squirrel Hill that I rarely frequent, partially because of the late fees on my library card which regulates my reading to their facilities (paying utilities is far more important than those pesky tithes) and because of the weird way outlets are hid there so using a laptop can be difficult.

Never the less, I was there recently, sitting by the big front windows reading and watching this young couple to my left with their one-year old playing on the carpeted window seat. They were talking about politics and their support of Obama when suddenly the father looks down at the child and coos , "...and we are going to have health care, yes we are. You and I are even going to have social security..."

It is strange that these are the lullabies we sing our children. May November 4 bring at least the chance that the father's promise comes true.