"Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night in the Week."

[Cyrano]

Earlier this evening, an old acquaintance of mine plugged in his ancient recorder and put on a record from a different era. It was a Frank Sinatra record: "Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night of the Week." And somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I remembered hearing it before.

My guess is that, once upon a time, if you didn't have what was then called a "date" on Saturday night, you were a loser living with your own misery. Sinatra was great and the music was beautiful. Yet I came away thinking that, in the current environment, every night, day, or moment was the loneliest when you couldn't conceive of a way to put an end to the grotesque nightmare that those of us cursed with awareness have been subjected to for a long, unending six years now.

We post, we argue, we throw out theories and half-baked ideas, we curse, we hate, we hope, we might even pray. Yet the nightmare is still there the next morning.

At times, I visualize Cheney as the ultimate villain who would make Ming the Merciless, or Vlad the Impaler look like saints. He sits there, biting the heads off of Islamo-fascist babies while he chuckles and smears his bloody claws on the console in front of him. The one which he uses to control Junior's every move and thought. But then, that's only if you care to imagine that a hollow creature like George W. Bush, drunk on power and self-importance, could actually have what other human beings might call a thought -- not to mention a soul.

But this Saturday night actually is a very lonely one. Tomorrow may be different, but for the moment, I've abandoned hope. Hope that the upcoming election won't be stolen. Hope that we can once again be what we always believed ourselves to be. Hope that, somehow, a supreme entity, whose existence I don't even believe in, will take a hand and make the world right.

Perhaps I'm feeling the effects of the new dark ages in the same way felt by those who endured the original dark ages. But then it occurs to me that they didn't have refrigerators, TVs, computers, cars, or even a way with which to share their thoughts while satisfying their hunger or easing their misery.

At this moment, we exist at the mercy of our enemies. We can't stop the torture, murder, injustices, or anything else that they care to do on a whim. And tonight I feel helpless and hopeless. This too shall pass, but for the moment, I'm contemptuous of the human species as well as my own inability to make a difference.

Well, hasn't this been an unworthy little exercise in self pity. I guess the real lesson here is to just accept the fact that "Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night of the Week," shut the fuck up, and regroup in the morning.

But one thought that never, ever leaves my mind is that we must somehow, someway find the key to defeating the modern day barbarians who are destroying our lives and our hopes for progress -- progress, the one inevitability we always believed couldn't be halted.

I'm not a fan of "Gone With the Wind," but as Scarlett said, "Tomorrow is another day." And hopefully a better one.I promise to answer any comments, observations, criticims, or words of wisdom tomorrow. And if there are no replies, I promise to keep thoughts of this nature to myself from now on.

[Freeusfromthechurch]

1. I feel you 100%

Sometimes I wish I was ignorant of the current affairs.

[Stardust]

2. This probably doesn't help, but you're not alone...I'm bereft, too.//

[yorkiemommie1]

3. i wish i could be like my co-worker

who told me there was 'no war, no unemployment'...nothing that she could find to worry about.

[MoseyWalker]

4. it could be the loveliest day

and is.

[TomInTib]

5. Waking up tomorrow sure as hell beats the alternative...

I wake up every morning and walk out on my veranda and remind myself to never take for granted all the wonderful things that every day brings to me.

It is all relative.

I refuse to let the bastards bring me down.

I curse, screaming and crying and all that at these sorry fuckers.

But I leave 'em behind when it comes to Home.

I have managed, mostly, to engineer my path around anything they may throw in my stead.

And I surely wish that they have every oppurtunity to burn, forever, in Hell.

Tom

[Jackpine Radical]

6. The proverbial Dark Night of the Soul, I guess.

Yeah, I've been there. Sometimes I feel like I'm an involuntary passenger on a careening bus being driven by a madman, and I'm strangely paralyzed so I can't even move to try to wrest control for him. I keep sending nerve signals to my body ordering it onto its feet but nothing happens. All I can do is emit little whimpers that are heard only by a few people near me, who are also whimpering.

You know what I do when I feel like that? Maybe I go outside into the sunshine or the rain and experience the weather on my skin. Maybe go fishing or walk in the woods or in our back field. Maybe sit under the oak trees and immerse myself in the little world of the birds and squirrels. Maybe I light a candle & meditate for an hour. Maybe I dig out an old poetry book. Tonight I was reading the elder Edda in an English translation. (Sometimes I like to struggle through the old Norse & then read the English to see how poor my comprehension of the Norse is, but that seemed like too much bother tonight.)

Nobody can stay focused on the insanity forever and without letup. It ain't healthy. Go do something else. Go absorb a bit of the life we're fighting for. Then come back when you're ready and kick some ass.

[Bozita]

12. Good stuff! -- I'm just another passenger on that bus.

Gonna take that walk on the first Wednesday after the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

[mnhtnbb]

7. Loneliness ends with community. We all feel the hopelessness--maybe not

all--especially in the wee small hours of the morning.(Sing it, Frank.) I know I do.

I'm not sure that we're going to see things turn around, even, if by some miracle, the Dems retake the House and/or Senate in November. Too many of the current crop of Dems are beholden to the same corporate interests
that are controlling the Bushies. And the economic situation is not at all good.

Depending upon age, family situation, economic circumstances, I really believe that as many of us as possible should be making plans to get out of the country. "Hope for the best, plan for the worst" has become our (hubby's and mine) motto. Our plan for the worst includes building a retirement home in Panama, which should be finished next spring.

I have been reading Upton Sinclair's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, "Dragon's Teeth" which is based on the rise of the Third Reich. The parallels of what has been going on in the US under the Bushies to the rise of Nazism is frightening. Sinclair's book was published in 1942. I recommend it.

I have not lost all hope. Not yet. But at the same time, I'm not optimistic. I do hope that I'm as wrong in predicting the outcome
of this election as I was in 2004, when I didn't see how Kerry could possibly lose (and of course he didn't). This time, I'm expecting the R's to steal it again.
Let's hope I'm wrong, and that the Dems will not only take over Congress, but also develop some spine.

Let's hope.

[Straight Shooter]

8. There have been others in far worse positions than we are now.

They struggled. They prevailed. It's the human curse that generation after generation seems to fight this battle. We fight for justice for those who have had everything taken from them, we fight the agendas of the power-obsessed.

Give yourself some breathing room, and yes, remind yourself of what is good and decent about this world. To give in to despair is to hand a victory to those who would crush you. Don't give them a victory, no matter how small. Be sad, be angry, but do not despair.

:hug:

[Poiuyt]

9. I'm a little more optimistic than you are

The political pendulum always swings. Always. If not this election, then the next, or the next. It WILL swing back to the left. And I think sooner than later.

In the mean time, try to keep things in perspective. As much as I hate Bush, and get worked up over national politics, to be honest, it doesn't affect my day to day living too much. I know that my family and friends are healthy, my cat still hates me, and the trees are starting to turn to their fall colors. Observe what is good and beautiful in this world: children playing, the smile of an old lady, a peaceful riverbank.

Realize that you can't control everything. I don't worry about things I can't control. At least not for any length of time. I remember after the 2004 election, I felt like I was hit with a shovel. I took some time away from DU to recharge my batteries. I do what I can to get Democrats elected, but if I can't, I look for other ways to help and to make a small impact.

Don't sit on the sidelines of life. Are you involved with any volunteer activities. There is nothing that will make you feel better than helping your fellow man. It doesn't have to be much, but if everyone helped a little, the world would be a much nicer place.

One last bit of optimism is that future generations will know that George W. Bush was the worst president in US history. Can you imagine high school kids reading about that in their history books. It WILL happen.

Tomorrow is indeed another day.

[rhiannon55]

10. Oh for the comfort of ignorance

I sometimes envy the happy republicans. http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060214-111128-5493r.htm
What must it be like to not give a damn about anyone outside your own little circle of family and friends? What must it be like to not know or care about what America is doing to the world? I hate knowing so much. It's making me crazy.

[man4allcats]

11. It is raining in Houston right now.

A storm is rolling through from the northwest. The rain is not too bad yet where I am, but there is considerable thunder and lightening. I just spoke by phone with a friend of mine who is having a difficult night. She is an African woman whose brother, with whom she was very close, has just died in Nigeria. He was not old - early 40s. The early belief is that his death was due to a stroke. I am worried about my friend. She cannot really afford to travel home for the funeral, and of course that bothers her as it would any decent person.

In a way, this situation reminds me of what you and many, maybe most if not all of us, are feeling right now. Not only are many people being killed, but in fact ideals are being destroyed. The loss of life is always tragic, but we know that at some point and in some way it will happen to us all. That said, the human spirit must live on if there is to be any justice, any decency associated with the human race. What we are seeing now at the hands of Bush and other Fascists is quite possibly the death of morality and the civilization morality engenders. It is only natural to be depressed by that. All of civilization is at stake, and the outcome is by no means certain. We do not yet know how this battle will end. Civilized people may prevail, or they may not in which case Bush and his Antichrist spawn will rule until social evolution tips the balance back in favor of justice.

I can only say be strong. Perhaps we will prevail in the short term or perhaps not, but eventually justice will come because it is natural. A scientist might say it is thermodynamically favored. Ultimately, it doesn't matter how you express it. We will either learn to control ourselves as a species, or we will all die. History teaches that all species become extinct. The likelihood is that we are no exception. Maybe nature has decided that it is time to get rid of us and move on. Works for me. The planet and its life force will survive.

Thanks for posting. Take care.

[The Straight Story]

13. At least ya have DU and like minded folks to hang with

Misery loves company :)

[NanceGreggs]

14. It seems there have been too many lonely Saturday nights ...

... and we gather here, like family before the funeral, discussing what might have been had the dreams been stronger, the hopes more enduring, the power to control life and death in our hands instead of in the grasp of others.

Like all of you here, as well as Cyrano, the darkness and dread seem overwhelming at times. Especially on a Saturday night, when we know there are people -- somehow, somewhere -- dancing and laughing, oblivious in their ignorance. We wonder why we can't be one of them, instead of who we are.

Lately I think more and more about a simple sentence: "In spite of everything, I still believe that man is truly good at heart."

It was written by a teenager hidden in an attic in Amsterdam. She had seen the worst her fellow man was capable of, and yet she believed in his ability to be better, and his natural inclination to do what was right.

It's easy to say that in spite of her strongly-held but naive beliefs, she died in a concentration camp -- her faith in humanity disproven in the end.

But she left me with a glimmer of hope that wrong can be righted, that darkness can be banished by light, that if I look for the goodness in my fellow man's heart, I just might -- as crazy as it may seem -- find it at last.

I'm going to keep looking.

[Cyrano]

15. Well, it's Sunday and last night's blues have turned into a golden morning

My late night downer has become an early morning upper and I'm once again ready to go forth and do battle with the world. If only Sancho Panza would get here, we could be on our way. Those windmills won't wait forever.

Reading your comments is inspiring as most of you deal well with the darkness that has befallen the world. And reading NanceGregg's reminder of Anne Frank makes me ashamed to have allowed myself to fall into a state of self pity.

Thank you for the kind thoughts and the profound ones. Whatever the day brings, you've already brightened it for me. Once in a while, we all need to be reminded that we're not alone. And for this one day, I'm leaving the TV off, throwing the paper away, and going out to sit by the water. (I'm in FL and at least if I get eaten by an alligator, I'll go out in a healthy state of mind.)

Peace.