2.5.2022 – red scary moment

red scary moment
all yesterdays lighted fools
way to dusty death

McCarthyism been on my mind of late.

Groundless accusations, unjust charges along with statements having no basis in truth.

Can’t imagine why I was thinking about that era.

A thought came to me that brought me up sharp.

One of those moments when you stop and look over the edge of the cliff.

I had said to myself, what if Joe McCarthy had social media.

What if the Red Scare had facebook.

It is bizarre for me to remember that the Congress of the United States authorized and created an investigative committee named HUAC.

If you don’t remember it stood for House Un-American Activities Committee.

It is even odder when I remember that it was formed in 1938, 12 years before Joe McCarthy came along.

House Un-American Activities Committee.

Un-American.

And this in the era when all the news was in Newspapers.

And when Tail-Gunner Joe came along in 1950 with his list of 300, 786, 938 or was it 1,100 names (Joe couldn’t keep track either) of ‘known communists in the State Department’, HUAC was all set and waiting for him.

Had twitter and facebook been around during the Red Scare maybe this country would have come to an end.

But cooler heads, in the end, prevailed.

I say that because I can get feeling that way now.

I say that because the feelings in play across the nation look to be in place for along time and I cannot imagine where the cooler heads will come from, let alone, prevail.

But I think of other things.

I remember that Mr. Hitler came to power in 1932 and proclaimed a new Germany that would last 1,000 years.

In his novel on the era, The Winds of War, Herman Wouk has his hero, Pug Henry, watching the German army in action and thinking that the 1,000 Reich looked like a good bet to make it.

Then I remember the 1936 Olympics.

The Berlin Olympics.

The Olympics that came up with the Olympic Torch and Olympic Flame.

I remember watching a documentary on the track star Jesse Owens, who won 4 gold medals at the Berlin Olympics.

Mr. Owens got his shot at the 4th medal as part of the 400 Meter Men’s Relay team because the USA Olympic team quietly removed another member who was Jewish but I digress.

There was some controversy that Mr. Hitler did not shake hands with Mr. Owens or congratulate him on his medals.

At the end of the documentary, Mr. Owens stood at the entrance of the Olympic Stadium that stands to this day in the suburbs of Berlin.

As I remember it, Mr. Owen’s talked about Mr. Hitler and said something along the lines of, well, I am here now and he is not.

That 1,000 years of Hitler’s country lasted about 13.

In no way do I mean to say that the current political climate is reminiscent of Hitler’s Germany.

In no way can the current political farce of masks and vaccines and garden parties compare in any way to Hitler’s Germany.

Hitler’s Germany did not last.

Cooler heads did prevail.

In the USA, people realized that the House Un-American Activities Committee was Un American.

Maybe they even realized that the term Un American was as dumb as it sounded.

Cooler heads did prevail.

I guess I don’t need to be too worried today.

Tomorrow?

Who said it better than Big Bill?

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death.

(Macbeth, Act V, Scene V)

2.4.2022 – saw morning paper

saw morning paper
first page back page inside page
saw the world go by

From the poem, Moon Rider by Carl Sandburg published in Poetry – A Magazine of Verse in March of 1922.

Mr. Sandburg wrote these lines 100 years ago.

The man opened the morning paper: saw the first page,
The back page, the inside pages, the editorials;
Saw the world go by, eating, stealing, fighting;
Saw the headlines, date-lines, funnies, ads,
The marching movies of the workmen going to work, the workmen striking,

I start my day with the morning papers on online.

I see the front pages, the back page and the inside pages.

I see the world go by.

It is the first line of the poem that sticks with me.

WHAT have I saved out of a morning?
The earliest of the morning came with moon-mist
And the travel of a moon-spilt purple:

All those pages.

All that reading.

And I can’t remember a dang thing of what I read.

2.3.2022 – got more yesterday

got more yesterday
than anybody we need some
kind of tomorrow

Toni Morrison writes in her book, Beloved, “Sethe,” he says, “‘me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow.”

He leans over and takes her hand. With the other he touches her face. “You your best thing, Sethe. You are.” His holding fingers are holding hers.

The very next passage in the book is:

There is a loneliness that can be rocked.

Arms crossed, knees drawn up; holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a ship’s, smooths and contains the rocker.

It’s an inside kind – wrapped tight like skin.

Then there is a loneliness that roams.

No rocking can hold it down.

It is alive, on its own.

A dry and spreading thing that makes the sound of one’s own feet going seem to come from a far-off place.

It is difficult to try and say anything based on the the book Beloved that does not from me, seem trivialize the writing of Ms. Morrison.

I mean to try and put myself in a place where anything I write should even be allowed on the same page as Ms. Morrison is a tremendous amount of cheek.

Mr. Hemingway writes something along the lines that if you can write about a something in a way that it becomes part of the consciousness of the reader, then you are, indeed, a writer.

By that standard, Ms. Morrison is indeed a writer, understanding that it is me applying Mr. Hemingway’s standard as I have no standing to make such a statement.

Using Mr. Hemingway’s standard, I put it out there that no one, NO ONE, could read Beloved and not be changed somehow.

I don’t know who could read this book and not have the scenes become part of their consciousness.

Seemingly a life changing book.

But the book was written back in 1988 and life goes on.

The discussion in Wikipedia states: To heal and humanize, one must constitute it in a language, reorganize the painful events, and retell the painful memories.

Who among us does not have their own yesterdays.

Yesterdays, when examined or remembered, are filled just as much with all the events and emotions and trials as Ms. Morrison chronicles in Beloved.

Wikipedia also states: Morrison may be emphasizing that heroism is defined not by supernatural powers or acts of unparalleled valor, but by the courageous intent to overcome the assertive preconceptions of society in order to ensure the greater good and positively influence on others in the process.

The courageous intent to overcome the assertive preconceptions of society in order to ensure the greater good.

We, all of us, are hero’s, as well deal with our own stories.

The next passage in the book is:

Everybody knew what she was called, but nobody anywhere knew her name.

Disremembered and unaccounted for, she cannot be lost because no one is looking for her, and even if they were, how can they call her if they don’t know her name?

Although she has claim, she is not claimed.

Who is she?

She is all of us.

As Ms. Morrison writes, maybe It was not a story to pass on.

2.1.2022 – sat upon the shore

sat upon the shore
Fishing, Shall at least set
my lands in order?

Part of the series of Haiku inspired by The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot and the article, ‘It takes your hand off the panic button’: TS Eliot’s The Waste Land 100 years on by Andrew Dickson.

Mr. Dickson asks, ‘Is it genuinely one of the greatest works in the language, or – as the poet once claimed – just “a piece of rhythmical grumbling“?’

Readers of this blog may remember that from time to time I struggle with the weight of effort of producing a daily Haiku and any thoughts I may have about the words and time that went in the Haiku that day.

This daily schedule of missing a day can bring on a personal mental paralysis wherein writing these entries becomes impossible.

I learned to deal with this by not dealing with it and let it go.

Then when I look at my register of entries and see blank days with no post, I will grab a topic or book or poem for a source and produce a series of Haiku to fill in those blank dates.

This is one of the great benefits of this effort being my blog and my blog, my rules.

It IS cricket because I say it is.

It is ‘according to Hoyle’ because I say it is.

Thus I have this series based on ‘The Wasteland.’

A thoroughly enjoyable connection of wordplay and source of endless discussion in the search for meaning.

For myself, I like that bit about a piece of rhythmical grumbling by Mr. Eliot so said Mr. Eliot.

I have remembered this story before in these posts, but it reminds me of a story told by the actor Rex Harrison.

Mr. Harrison recounted rehearsing a play by George Bernard-Shaw and that the company was having a difficult time with a certain scene when, wonder of wonder, Bernard-Shaw himself dropped by to watch rehearsal.

Mr. Harrison tells how great this was as they went to the play write and asked how did he see this scene – what was he striving for?

Bernard-Shaw asked for a script and read over the scene, read it over again and a third time, then looked up and said, “This is rather bad isn’t it.”

1.27.2022 – I saw a penny

I saw a penny
picked it up, all that day …
wondered about change

I saw a penny in the parking lot the other day.

Bright and shiny, I knew it had to be new.

I checked first to make sure it was face up.

You do not pick up any penny that is face down.

I guess like an upside down horseshoe, all the luck runs out.

This one was face up so I picked it up.

I looked at Abraham Lincoln.

He has been there on the penny a lot longer than I have been here.

Mr. Lincoln has been on the penny since 1909, the 100th anniversary of his birth.

That was the first time a US President’s likeness went on a coin.

I read somewhere that the likeness of Abraham Lincoln on a penny is supposed to be the most viewed representation of any work of art in the history of the world.

Back in 1976, Braniff Airlines commissioned Calder to design the color scheme of one of their Boeing Airliners for the Bicentennial.

This red white and blue flying work of art was unveiled at Dulles International Airport and then flown on a tour of United States airports that included Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Grand Rapids had always been a bit Calder nutz and the First Lady, Betty Ford, (this story is fun and you can read the documented high level government discussion) would be part of the ceremony in Washington so Grand Rapids was added to the list of cities for the debut flight and the plane was added to the Braniff fleet.

At some point after that, Braniff issued a press release that this painted plane was the single most viewed work of art in history.

I think the numbers included anyone and everyone who ever looked up and said, “The plane, The plane” whether they knew what they were seeing or not or even if they were aware of the plane was painted by Calder.

I mean fly it over New York City and you can count 8,000,000 views.

I think Braniff accounted for their paying customers the same way which is why you don’t hear about Braniff anymore.

But Mr. Lincoln tops the list over total views of any artistic likeness, counting all the times that likeness has been reproduced and viewed.

I looked at the penny for a second or two.

It was dated 2021.

It hit me that this was the first time I had seen a 2021 penny.

Maybe even the first time, that I remembered anyway, that I have seen a penny with a date in the 2020’s.

Is it really 2021?

Really?

How DID that happen?

When did that happen?

In 2020 there was a feeling that the month of March lasted about 12 weeks.

I feel like 2021 never really took place.

Wasn’t out of the house often.

Rarely had situations where I bought or paid for something other than gas or a meal.

And never ever did I use paper money.

As for coins.

You don’t see change much anymore and so much has changed.

And I do feel changed somehow.

Or at least disconnected from the time before Covid.

I also don’t much like to look at pennies.

It was the writer, Jim Harrison, who once wrote that you aren’t old as long as keep finding pennies that are older than you in your pocket.

I used to carry a 1959 penny just for insurance.

But I can’t find it.

I haven’t thought about it years.

And now that it is on my mind, I am going find a 1959 penny.

After all, since moving to Hilton Head, where the median age is 59, I became middle aged all over again.

PS – According to what you can learn online, when Braniff went bankrupt, the Calder planes were sold at auction and the paint was sand blasted off. One website where they keep track of such things, says that the specific Boeing 727 that had been painted Red White and Blue was used as a prop in the movie Bad Boys and the last time anyone sees that specific (without the Calder Art) plane is at the end of the movie when it is blown up.