I have nothing profound to say today but I have a few moments so I figure I'll say SOMEthing. Think about radio talk-show hosts. They spend 3 or 4 hours a DAY saying whatever blather comes to mind, and some of them are millionaires because of it. The worst and most small-souled "conservative" of them. Ahh well. There's a couple of good ones on Air America. Thom Hartmann is the best one, Al Franken is decent, Randy Rhodes and particularly Mike Malloy are too shrill and angry for their own good. I sympathize with Malloy's anger, but man. I dunno. It's a messed up world, I agree. You have to be aware of reality and yet somehow at the same time maintain a positive attitude and a hopeful outlook. I guess the solution, as many have pointed out, is to be the change you wish to see in the world. As for the madness, you have to laugh at it or it will poison you. But my GOD, has it ever been more mad, nuts, insane, wrong? So just realize, and acknowledge, that parallel to that, inside and outside, it has also never been more great, vital, good-crazy, and right. This is not wishful thinking. It is a declaration of faith, yes, but everyone is going on faith in something whether they know it or not. Everyone I know is a rock-star. That is proof enough to me. And even when they aren't, when it's all just a milling crowd of cretins, I can toss my candies to whoever sees them and wants them, because tossing candies is fun, and you never know what kind of smile you might get back from it.
I just looked at the back of my hands. They are the hands of an old person. A fine leatheriness developing. Maybe accentuated by the light of the screen in an otherwise darkening room. You see all the little lines. And the skin is dry too, as this arctic air settles in. I wish it would snow about a foot but they're just saying flurries.
Powell's Books is one of the reason's I live in Portland but it is like being an alcoholic living next to a distillery. I went in today after work for one book, the next in a series I am reading, and walked out with a 40 dollar pile of new and used. I am reading 3 books right now (actively) and dipping in and out of another 3. Somehow I work and have a social schedule too, but it gets to be too much. I really burned myself out last weekend doing too many things. This week my evenings have been deliberately reclusive. Reading of course. I'm really enjoying Jane Jacob's "The Death and Life of Great American Cities." Can't believe I haven't read it before. She wrote it in 1960 but it is completely timely. She writes of simple and powerful truths that even after all these years are often ignored.