Narrative

Stories

Joan Didion once remarked that we tell ourselves stories in order to live. Precisely what those stories might reveal about who we are
as a people is somewhat more fuzzy.

Thirty some years ago, Ronald Reagan committed to a strategy
in which supporting “Freedom Fighters” in Nicaragua
was seen as far more preferable than accepting
a communist government in the Western Hemisphere.

It is difficult today to understand how any leader
of a democratic society might suggest
we send automatic weapons to some
Central American country
to promote liberty.
Continue reading →

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Peace

Serenity

Freddie Perls hit the nail
Smack dab on the central issue
How we regard our past
What we do with our future
When we find presence.

They call it The Serenity Prayer
I find myself returning
To it’s simple elegance
Again and again.

“God grant me the strength
To change the things I can change
The serenity to accept
The things I cannot change.
And the wisdom
To know the difference.

Still working on that last one!


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Suburbia

The Modern Factory

One of the undermining conditions
Of the modern factory is that
Workers no longer directly build the products
They just service the machines and the software that do
As a result of working this way, the bakers
No longer know how to bake bread.

So say the sociologists.

There is often a sad, noncumulative pattern to working.
In some professions.  As you get older, you rise
To more responsible positions.
And that was true under the old seniority-based
Work rules in most factories.
But now there is a stochastic, episodic nature
To many careers.  As workers get older, potential employers
Become more suspicious of their skills,
Not more confident in them.
 As a result, you often meet people whom have been happiest at work
In middle age, and then moved down
To a series of positions they were overqualified for
And felt diminished in.
I often run across people who have gone back to menial work
In their 60s and 70s because they just wanted to get out of the house.

Many of their friends came through work, but those friendships
Tend to fade when the job ends.
There are older people who feel unneeded
There are younger people who feel lost.
Somehow these longing souls never find each other.
Suburbia isn’t working.
During the baby boom, the suburbs gave families
Safe places to raise their kids.

But now we are in an era of an aging population.
Telecommuting workers.
And single parent households.
The culture and geography of suburbia
Are failing to nurture webs
Of mutual dependance.
We are animals who can’t flourish
Unless we can’e get along
Without one another.

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