I’m Drifting

Every now and then the things I lean on lose their meaning,
And I find myself careening,
In places where I should not let me go….

James Taylor

So here I sit, in my car at bay’s edge, late at night and knowing everyone’s tucked into slumber at the house just behind me. Perseus is rising in the east; I always thought of the constellation as a “pi” sign rather than some heroic warrior. I’m thinkin’…

I roll back the sunroof…Mars is rising in the east as well, becoming reddish over the haze close to the horizon. Its polar ice caps are gonna be showing soon through the scope to young eyes that haven’t seen them before.* The wind is blowing restless, and it's cool late at night. And I’m thinking…

What’s bothering you?

I’m thinking.

I don’t feel right complaining:

I’ve got a house on the hill,
I got money in the bank,
cars in the driveway,
color TVs and mobile phones,
computer programs.
Baby tell me…
tell me baby,
How come?
We’re still on the chain gang..

Van Morrison

I’ll leave it at that.

No I can't. I can only ask this question, as I did walking down the windy lane to Bobalouie's place for a visit. How did we go from a country who's ideals were lauded in Tianamen Square to being attacked as an occupying force and despised for our unilateral aggression? Our leaders would have us believe the world changed. It did--but we did more.

Paul Kennedy wrote a book in 1987 called The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. It tracked dominant civilizations from the Hapsburg Dynasty through the English Empire and beyond, positing a similar arc for each hegemon: create wealth through economic success, translate that wealth to military power to artifically maintain influence when no longer able to compete globally, and finally go bankrupt trying to fund the military as it becomes more and more engaged in simply maintaining the empire.

Sound familiar?

Our government's debt (over $7 trillion) is almost one quarter owned by foreign interests. Our savings rate is 0%--do you know what the credit card company calls you if you pay off your bill every month? A deadbeat... Seems like every available electron is trying to get us to buy something we probably don't need...

When exactly did we cross the line between being the shining example of restrained government, which primarily is concerned with the freedom and protection of its citizens, to the snarling, threatening, industrial-military complex we have become--worried about what our neighbors are thinking because we never talk to them, because we are afraid they're not like us.

How did we go from a people escaping religious persecution to a country froathing at the mouth over whether a nominee for Supreme Court, one of the three equal pillars our Founders envisioned, is an evangelical Christain--not just a Christian--that's not good enough anymore...an evangelical Christian. Muslims, Buddhists or others need not even apply...we have a national religion, thank you.

I'm just askin'. I guess it happened sometime on my shift...

I'm gonna show my daughter Mars, the beautiful ice caps, the play of dark red on the lighter, rusty planet. I'm gonna tell her one day to read Ray Bradbury, not just for that story but hoping she likes it enough to read Farenheit 451, where future TV's call unwitting consumers to the cocoon of fantasy while "firemen" burn books. I'm gonna teach her to question what's being pushed on her--I can't shut the pitch off; but I can damn sure teach her about snake-oil salesmen.

I'm gonna show my daughter Mars and tell her that maybe, three billion years ago, there were rivers flowing over its surface--that I'm just guessing like a lot smarter people--but that her or her daughter will find out--will go there. How is that any more fantastic than my parents reading Buck Rogers and imagining how far-fetched? Come to think of it, why shoot low? Why not tell her that we will discover how to manipulate space and time and go anywhere in the universe? That we will understand how our universe fits into a lerger multiplex of universes, each separate like bubbles in a soft drink. Each its own miraculous blessing.

Those are the things I want her to hope for--not whether or not the entire world will be happily consuming the latest product and all bowing in unison. I want her to look forward to something really uplifting. Even Paul walked away from Athens--he didn't go back in with a Humvee--he lead by preaching the Beatitudes and eventually the empire came around.

Does our country still appeal to the world as a place where anyone can come and pursue a peaceful life and aspire for better prospects? I'm gonna try to tell my daughter it does--I'm gonna tell her this is what she should expect from her government.

I bet she likes the astronomy lessons better...

Maybe I think too much...
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* Best view until 2018... Get out--take a look. Some of you may not live to see the next visit.