June 25: A Monster, Smaug, Xenophobia

Either this world, my mother, is a monster., or I myself am a freak.

It's a simple statement that Dillard makes.  She has been meditating on death and evolution.  The world is full of examples of animals, insects, plants, and fish that spawn and devour, live and kill.  Our Monster Mother is ruthless in her ability to care for her children.  The strong overcome.  The weak perish and are devoured.  Dillard sees some cruelty in this process.  But cruelty is a human invention.

Survival is a difficult thing.  I think most people will agree with me on this.  In the United States (as in the rest of the world), a privileged few do not have to worry about clothing and shelter and food and warmth on a daily basis.  They see something they like or want, and they acquire it.  For the rest of us, it is not that simple.  If we need a new car, we don't fix a hole in the ceiling.  If we need to pay the water bill, we push off buying groceries for a few days.  Vacations are things you save up for (sometimes for years).  That's the way it is.

I'm not complaining.  These are simple facts.  My two Constant Readers will agree with me.  However, the fact that so few people control the majority of the wealth and resources of this world is sort of an abomination.  Picture Donald Trump sitting on a pile of gold in the bowels of a mountain, like Smaug, protecting it from all us hobbits and dwarfs.

Nothing will change this situation, despite Bernie Sanders' call for political revolution in the United States.  The issue for the upcoming presidential in the United States is whether we want to put Smaug in charge of the whole country.  The recent Brexit vote in the United Kingdom does not bode well for us in U. S.  It seems that xenophobia and exclusion are the current political flavor of the day.

I would like to think that the world will not have to endure a President Smaug.  However, we in the Shire know that the dragon is stirring in the heart of Lonely Mountain.

Saint Marty may have to get on a boat to Rivendell (or at least Disney World)  come the November election.

This is really funny if you know The Lord of the Rings

June 10: A Monster, A Freak, A Dance

Either the world, my mother, is a monster, or I myself am a freak.

Dillard goes on, after this short paragraph, to discuss both of these options.  She talks about them for almost a full page of the book.  She presents evidence that the world may be monstrous and that she herself may be a little on the freakish side.  Dillard never really chooses sides.  She leaves it up to the reader.

I am too tired to argue either of these alternatives.  I will say that I have seen some pretty terrible things in the world--suffering that made no sense, death that seemed arbitrary and unjust.  On the flip side, I have always been a little bit of a carnival sideshow attraction in my family, different from all of my brothers and sisters.  I have never met a poet who wasn't a little bit of a bearded lady.

My weekend is going to be equally monstrous and freakish.  Most of my day tomorrow will be spent in a dark auditorium, watching my kids practice and perform for their annual dance recital.  It is a long eight or nine hours.  Some people find this weekend a little torturous.  It's like an entire season of football or basketball in two days.  That's the monstrous part.  I really enjoy recital weekend, seeing all my kids' hard work over the past nine months pay off.  I am the freakish.

Don't get me wrong.  By about 4 p.m. on Sunday, I am going to be exhausted.  My daughter and son will probably be at each other's throats.  My wife will probably fall asleep on the way home from the theater.  It's not all sequins and feathers and lights.

However, I will enjoy myself.  Despite my daughter's inevitable meltdowns.  In the eye of my son's coming tantrums.  There's something very affirming for me in watching all these kids doing something they love to do.  Plus, dance is a beautiful art form.  It's live poetry--music and movement.

Saint Marty and Baryshnikov have a lot in common.