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
# posted by Frank @ 3:13 PM 
Comments:
<< Home
Frank, I know Sarah in Kentucky. I like your two posts so far. The quotes are awesome. Are you planning on writing more or are you going to lay low for a while? If you're going to write more, I'll link to you on my website, BlueGrassRoots.
Hello,
I've been browsing through your blog. I like it. I'm just making a comment to let you know, and to tell you that the good way to spell in proper latin it is OBITER DICTA (no "a" at the end of OBITER). I don't know if you care much about it, but I thought you would perhaps like to know.
Take care,
Dr. John Stein
Post a Comment
I've been browsing through your blog. I like it. I'm just making a comment to let you know, and to tell you that the good way to spell in proper latin it is OBITER DICTA (no "a" at the end of OBITER). I don't know if you care much about it, but I thought you would perhaps like to know.
Take care,
Dr. John Stein
# posted by 
: May 16, 2005 at 1:47 PM
: May 16, 2005 at 1:47 PM << Home
