Continued Confessions

another day, but perhaps not another dollar

As the headlines continue to blare that Social Security is next on the chopping block, I can’t help but be a wee bit anxious. And my morning read of the tentacles of Christian nationalism as divulged by Katherine Stewart gave me more horror to digest.

But when I went out to get the paper from my driveway I was struck by the various birdsongs (I used my Merlin app to identify them), and I calmed right down. The Northern Cardinal, Carolina Wren, Song Sparrow, and the American Crow joined together in the harmony of the dawn chorus. How many millennia have the birdies hung out together?

I know it’s rather simplistic to think this way. My darling Mum’s husband Jack used to talk about “nature, red in tooth and claw” and now I can search for and find the source of that quote—Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “In Memoriam A.H.H.” I have to then dig deeper and find out that Tennyson wrote this elegy for his friend at Cambridge, Arthur Henry Hallam, who died at 22 of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Well, so much for starting on a positive note this morning. But I actually did take joy from Representative Al Green getting thrown out by the sniveling Mike Johnson. Rep. Green was the hero of the day in my opinion. And of course I had to research him as well because many people would recognize that name as a soul singer (who had a great hit entitled “Let’s Stay Together”). There are a number of Al Green’s however, and this one is a politician from Texas who is just about my age, and he has been serving Texas’s 9th Congressional District since 2005. There were many other more subtle forms of protest during that tedious recitation of purported past glories, but Rep. Green got the most coverage and was therefore the most effective in this media age. Waving the cane was a particularly nice touch for those of us in this age bracket. I am impressed that he is still so engaged in public life.

And in thinking about my younger days, I was sad to learn that Roberta Flack died recently. “Killing Me Softly” is among her great hits and her music always takes me right back to 1968. I’ll probably find and play some of her songs as I continue to browse through the Bob Dylan book Mixing Up the Medicine which contains treasures from the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Bob and Joan Baez as well as Gloria Steinem are still hangin’ tough (our motto for these difficult times).

Meanwhile, Substack has grown immensely, with some great news people joining our ranks. I try to read as many as I can, but I have to put down the phone and watch something absolutely frivolous on telly at the end of the day. I’m counting on all of us collectively to save our freedom.

RESIST ALWAYS

TTFN