Wednesday, November 03, 2004
We Lost .... Now What
“Change means movement. Movement means friction.
Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world
can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.”
Saul Alinsky (1909-1972)
Depression is a very infrequent visitor to me. For whatever reasons - good parent models, inborn personality traits, et. al. - I’m usually an optimist. (“Disgustingly so in the mornings,” says my night owl daughter.) Oh I’m no Dr. Pangloss, but I usually manage to either ignore or sublimate life’s little vicissitudes.
Not so last evening. About midnight depression came knocking as CNN revealed the prodrome of what would, in dawn’s early light, a perfect storm of depression-provoking events. Virtually every candidate for whom I’d worked and ballot initiative for which I’d had high expectations went down in the antediluvian welter.
I tried heading off the depression by getting a little blasted on schnapps and getting to bed before the Force 5 cyclone made landfall in my living room. No help. This morning the only thing left afloat was a Florida State Constitutional Amendment mandating an immediate $1.00 increase to the minimum wage with annual adjustments based on inflation.
OK, so my depression isn’t clinical but rather a failure of expectations. So what to do now? As my father used to say, “Do something even if it’s wrong.”
1. I’m sweeping the detritus of expectation - physical materials, emotional investment, unattained goals - off my desk, out of my computer, and out of my mind. I need a clean working space.
2. I’m evaluating the detritus as I sweep for anything that might be help me later. Not everything I did or thought was bad. Selective salvage is a useful art.
3. I’m picking up some deferred projects with renewed vigor and looking for some new ones.
4. I’m “changing” which means “movement”, “friction”, and “heat”. (See Alinsky in the epigraph.) In short, I’m looking for a fight. Soooo....
“Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more;
******
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect.”
Shakespeare, “Henry V”
Frank
Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world
can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.”
Saul Alinsky (1909-1972)
Depression is a very infrequent visitor to me. For whatever reasons - good parent models, inborn personality traits, et. al. - I’m usually an optimist. (“Disgustingly so in the mornings,” says my night owl daughter.) Oh I’m no Dr. Pangloss, but I usually manage to either ignore or sublimate life’s little vicissitudes.
Not so last evening. About midnight depression came knocking as CNN revealed the prodrome of what would, in dawn’s early light, a perfect storm of depression-provoking events. Virtually every candidate for whom I’d worked and ballot initiative for which I’d had high expectations went down in the antediluvian welter.
I tried heading off the depression by getting a little blasted on schnapps and getting to bed before the Force 5 cyclone made landfall in my living room. No help. This morning the only thing left afloat was a Florida State Constitutional Amendment mandating an immediate $1.00 increase to the minimum wage with annual adjustments based on inflation.
OK, so my depression isn’t clinical but rather a failure of expectations. So what to do now? As my father used to say, “Do something even if it’s wrong.”
1. I’m sweeping the detritus of expectation - physical materials, emotional investment, unattained goals - off my desk, out of my computer, and out of my mind. I need a clean working space.
2. I’m evaluating the detritus as I sweep for anything that might be help me later. Not everything I did or thought was bad. Selective salvage is a useful art.
3. I’m picking up some deferred projects with renewed vigor and looking for some new ones.
4. I’m “changing” which means “movement”, “friction”, and “heat”. (See Alinsky in the epigraph.) In short, I’m looking for a fight. Soooo....
“Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more;
******
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect.”
Shakespeare, “Henry V”
Frank
Monday, November 01, 2004
On the US Election Eve, 2004
Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen
Yes, I've voted early. Yes, I called at least 750 live people and answering machines for Kerry. Yes, I realize that it could all be in vain, but I hope...
This I know, when all the votes are counted, it will neither be as good nor as bad as I'd imagined. There are no unalloyed triumphs or defeats. It will be just another, predictable Sisyphean rock-roll, but I hope...
But this I know more, when the alarm clock sounds on January 21, the fight to subvert the unjust and uncharitable world order will still need our fresh and unflagging efforts. A daunting task, but I hope...
This subversion will engage my every effort as well as that of my wife Kathy, daughter Sarah, daughter-in-law Gwen, son Joel, daughter-in-law Kathryn, every friend I cherish, and every enemy I've accumulated and fail so often to pray for. Subversion is a team effort even when some of the team members aren't even aware they are engaged, but I hope...
Psalm 90:17 "Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and prosper for us the work of our hands--
O prosper the work of our hands!"
Frank
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen
Yes, I've voted early. Yes, I called at least 750 live people and answering machines for Kerry. Yes, I realize that it could all be in vain, but I hope...
This I know, when all the votes are counted, it will neither be as good nor as bad as I'd imagined. There are no unalloyed triumphs or defeats. It will be just another, predictable Sisyphean rock-roll, but I hope...
But this I know more, when the alarm clock sounds on January 21, the fight to subvert the unjust and uncharitable world order will still need our fresh and unflagging efforts. A daunting task, but I hope...
This subversion will engage my every effort as well as that of my wife Kathy, daughter Sarah, daughter-in-law Gwen, son Joel, daughter-in-law Kathryn, every friend I cherish, and every enemy I've accumulated and fail so often to pray for. Subversion is a team effort even when some of the team members aren't even aware they are engaged, but I hope...
Psalm 90:17 "Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and prosper for us the work of our hands--
O prosper the work of our hands!"
Frank
