Move-in ready w' kitch, 3 bdroms
During the Nixon, Ford and the Carter years, unemployment rose to 9% with inflation rising to 11%. Me? I didn't keep track of such things and rarely read the newspaper, except for art and book reviews. I lived in a factless and imaginary La La Land--something solemn grown-ups often pointed out to me.
In those years, as a nation, we discovered the president lied, Vietnam was a rotting deception, the Manson family were murdering thugs, and Haight-Ashbery was dissolving in a welter of crime and speed. My father dropped dead in the Pentagon at age 49, and thinking, why the hell not? I resigned from a secure teaching job and went to a distant art school that offered no financial aid. I lived in a series of improbable places and often held three jobs, while painting in my unheated studio over the WeeWashit Laundromat, and stayed a citizen of La La Land.
In the past few weeks, some friends from that time have contacted me. One of them sent me Google map coordinates so I can see where he plans to hole up apres le deluge. There's a large barn-like structure in which, my friend informs me, he has built a library, a stashroom full of dry food and seeds, plus guns. There are workshops where he can weld things, and labs so he can keep his business going. Back in the day, I remember, he was always puttering on a shelter, in which he planned to seal himself and his daughter, come the revolution.
In my more befuddled past, had I known of this concept, I would have informed my old friend that he's experiencing a world destruction fantasy, so he really doesn't need to go to the barricades. But back then, I mostly shouted and threw things. I had a very low tolerance for fruitcake notions. I thought things were already loony enough.
The outlook is dire right now and it's tempting just to go nuts, but there have been other crazy, dire times, and we'll make it. As the writer Frank McCord points out, there are stories that would break your heart, which weren't too bad to live through.
Even so, you might want to plant a garden.
La La Land can always use the greenery.
In those years, as a nation, we discovered the president lied, Vietnam was a rotting deception, the Manson family were murdering thugs, and Haight-Ashbery was dissolving in a welter of crime and speed. My father dropped dead in the Pentagon at age 49, and thinking, why the hell not? I resigned from a secure teaching job and went to a distant art school that offered no financial aid. I lived in a series of improbable places and often held three jobs, while painting in my unheated studio over the WeeWashit Laundromat, and stayed a citizen of La La Land.
In the past few weeks, some friends from that time have contacted me. One of them sent me Google map coordinates so I can see where he plans to hole up apres le deluge. There's a large barn-like structure in which, my friend informs me, he has built a library, a stashroom full of dry food and seeds, plus guns. There are workshops where he can weld things, and labs so he can keep his business going. Back in the day, I remember, he was always puttering on a shelter, in which he planned to seal himself and his daughter, come the revolution.
In my more befuddled past, had I known of this concept, I would have informed my old friend that he's experiencing a world destruction fantasy, so he really doesn't need to go to the barricades. But back then, I mostly shouted and threw things. I had a very low tolerance for fruitcake notions. I thought things were already loony enough.
The outlook is dire right now and it's tempting just to go nuts, but there have been other crazy, dire times, and we'll make it. As the writer Frank McCord points out, there are stories that would break your heart, which weren't too bad to live through.
Even so, you might want to plant a garden.
La La Land can always use the greenery.
1 comment:
Dearest Ashley,
In addition to a garden, one could go on a news & information diet, limiting exposure to the doom & gloom news. You'd likely be happier, healthier, and certainly no worse for the wear. My wife quotes her father when she says, "The only thing I need to know from the news is, 'Are we at war?'" Answer: yes. Need to know much of anything else? No, not at the expense of your sanity.
And to NOT hole up into your very own end-o-the-world bunker-in-your-mind, and especially for those so keen on "staying atop what's happening in the world," take this great elixir: go help someone else. In your current job, at home, on the streets, in the town, whatever. Do something to fill any need of another and you'll soon gain a calm, helpful perspective.
Yours in la-la,
Mike
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