'Lord, Where's My Disaster?'

[byronius]

Holiday dinner with the Big Family, such an excellent thing. Everyone there. Children roaming the house in gangs, involved in mysterious pursuits. Talk. Great Food. Wine.

Bit and pieces of the Bad Times. Everyone knows. Thirty percent off gross? You’re lucky. Layoffs on January 5th for a chip manufacturer. R & D? Cancelled. Furloughs. Months off. Variable rate mortgage reboot coming to accelerate everything.

700 Billion? ‘We don’t disclose that information’ huffed the Banker.

Even the surely-safe are wincing. Big Ass Monsters are coming — feel the ground shake?

There will be no holocaust. There will be no holocaust.

‘This is Barack Obama’s Recession’, huffs the Professional Liar. ‘Bush has done a Great Job’.

The RNC plots the economy’s failure, concerned about timing, making sure the Thundering Giants do not appear over the horizon until the 21st.

I’m utterly appalled by the continuing callousness, incompetence, and criminality of the Bush Cabal, and everyone who still supports any facet or tendril or tiny bit of conservative ideology may swiftly go to hell in my opinion, puffy-headed shit for brains that such a rotten crockpot would be.

Still. This is Life. Amidst the Fear, Courage. In Bad News, Perhaps A Better Future. Everyone was committed to surviving, and doing their best to maintain that difficult balance between One’s Own and Everyone Else. The Eldest of the Family predicted eventual recovery. The Wild Head predicted paradigm shift through emerging technology. (Me.) There was a lot of laughter, and love, and togetherness, and all that excellentness of human grouping.

On the way home, I thought about the days when Max and I spent times pretty damned close to the edge of food insecurity, chased by demons and always somehow seeming to choose the path of not-safety, but inscribing life along the way with a narrative that still rings, in many forms. He wrote a song, ‘Lord, Where’s My Disaster’, which was actually a plea for a little peace of mind, which was in short supply. It seemed like Bad Giants were always on the horizon. Sometimes, they appeared. We would generally then shamelessly run away, ignoring all reality, until they went away, or not, in which case we had to move yet again.

But we live still. Some of us.

Better leadership is coming. This won’t be like the 1930’s; it’s a wholly different world. Re-regulation of the financial world and some intense good spending can turn this tide quickly enough, although there has been and will be significant pain for many good (and bad) people. Solar films are due to ship in 2009 that will probably change the energy habits of the nation forever, and the world. The technological asymptote is jerking, the Theory of Everything is getting tested at the Hadron, and for all we know, Some Guy has a Matter Transmogrifier in his garage. Or basement, whichever.

It’s better together than apart. Respect and cooperation can overcome downward spirals.

It’s going to be important to know and remember This, and what caused This. Greed. Abridgment of Common Sense, and Subversion Of Constitutional Government. Torture, Treason, Spying, Looting, Murder, Corruption, Bad Information. Stupidity. This Cannot Be Allowed Again In Our Lifetimes, and for as long as we can carry forward this Terrible Knowledge.

I’m certain Max no longer sarcastically yearns for disaster, from danger of being misunderstood by some dull-witted Deity. Back then, we had nothing to lose, or so it seemed. It seemed Brave.

Married with children will often decrease one's bravado in such matters, I think.

Still. Further.