Wednesday, November 3, 2004

I left the following remark in Dr. Omed's comments box earlier today: "I'm giving 24 hours to utter despair and hopelessness. I think taking grief as far as it will go can be a healthy thing if you put a time limit on it. Like pulling back the slingshot. 'Cause next we've got to take this situation and carve something sublime into it, and carve deep." I don't know how else to say it. We can't just rally around some collective notion of hope and optimism and don't-give-up-the-ship. That strikes me as ideological anesthetic. Yes, deep in our souls we see the great picture and understand that there's more to existence than these few paltry moments in human history. But in the here-and-nowness of our actual lives as a people we have got to let loose with a great yawp of pain. We've got to feel the anguish all the way down, until we really know in our bones what we have to do next to stay alive as a democracy, until we gather the hysterical energy we need to detonate the lid off this impossible box. I guess I did know how else to say it. 11:00:30 AM    comment []