I am determined to get off this emotional roller coaster by tomorrow. For now, reviewing some Key & Peele sketches is going to help me get there.
My favorite:
Prepared for terries: We’re not talking about no Teri Garr, and certainly not terrycloth. (And check out the other passenger – the dude from Timeless.)
Poem
-Novica Tadić
He turns the pages of books
And examines the poems there
Saying my god
All this has already been written
On this day that is meant to be a paean to love (even if it’s the most commercial farce of the year), all I can think about is hate.
I felt relieved, almost smug, if deluded, to believe (did I ever really believe?) that we lived in a time (or were closer to living in a time) beyond petty hatred and discrimination based on things like skin color or religion. I have never been able to understand the existence of this kind of hatred, the crippling inferiority and fear that it betrays. But then I have watched as suddenly all the closet racists, xenophobes and other bile-filled hate zealots became empowered to voice their inner hatred, perpetrate great violence openly – as late as 2017. Is this the new normal?
No, there is nothing new or normal about it.
Most stunning (but is it really stunning?) of all is realizing how deeply racist and – worse – fearful – people are – people I never would have imagined being racist, xenophobic or anti-Islam show themselves to be. I suppose I have been a hopeless fool for imagining that things were anywhere near being otherwise. In my current state of mind – the February doldrums – I only seem able to see the very worst. I can’t let this pull to defeatist gloom win – but my god, the pull is strong.
This popped up in a couple of Neil Finn feeds online today, and I realized I had not listened to him, Crowded House or Split Enz in a long time. This song…
“I don’t want to say “I love you”
That would give away too much.
It’s hip to be detached and precious,
The only thing you feel is vicious.
I don’t want to say “I want you”
Even though I want you so much.
It’s wrapped up in conversation,
It’s whispered in a hush.
Though I’m frightened by the word,
Think it’s time I made it heard.
No more empty self-possession,
Visions swept under the mat.
It’s no New Year’s resolution,
It’s more than that.
Now I wake up happy
Warm in lover’s embrace.
No one else can touch us
While we’re in this place.
So I’ll sing it to the world
This simple message to my girl.
No more empty self possession,
Visions swept under the mat.
It’s no New Year’s resolution,
It’s more than that.
Though I’m frightened by the word,
Think it’s time I made it heard.
So I’ll sing it to the world
This simple message to my girl.
No more empty self possession,
Visions swept under the mat.
It’s no New Year’s resolution,
It’s more than that.
Oh there’s nothing quite as real
As the touch of your sweet hands.
I can’t spend the rest of my life
Buried in the sand”
-“Message to my Girl” – Split Enz (1984, as if you couldn’t hear that already…)