William Cullen Bryant once wrote that “truth crushed to earth shall rise again” … but when?
Why doesn’t
Lawrence Ferlinghetti tell us when the “American eagle will really spread its
wings and straighten up and fly right?”
Why doesn’t
Edgar Allan Poe tell us if there is balm in Gilead? The raven says “nevermore”
which might just prove to be correct.
I wonder,
along with T. S. Eliot, “Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where
is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in
information?”
The answer, my friend, is that they have been lost in
misinformation.
The desert is not remote in Southern tropics … it is in the
hearts of mothers and fathers and sons and daughters in Ukraine and in other
remote places away from our fast food places and familiar faces.
We hear the words … those that ring true and the many lies
and distortions … we know the truth … that life is essentially nasty, brutish
and short … even for the super wealthy and those whose bank accounts have been
frozen and had their yachts repossessed …
The moral is so simple as Bob Dylan said in a ballad … “when
you see your neighbor carryin’ something, help him with his load” … our neighbors
in far-away places are carrying more than their fare share and suffering from
the arms and guns of those who wish to wreak havoc and cause them harm …
Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote that what was mysterious (beyond
understanding) was not how things are in the world (currently quite messed up)
but that there was anything at all … what I find mysterious is why some people
believe they should dominate, denigrate and cause the demise of so many others …
my father aught me that for every tear drop I caused I would lose a year of
life … I should be long dead by now so I modified that advice to be that for
every loss of life I caused, I would lose a decade of life … still breathing
with one hand waving free …
Mike Spector
March 2022
