Lamentations and Consolations
And Other Natural
States of
Mind.
***
Cattle Point, Victoria, BC: From the Parking Lot
Click on Photos to enlarge
Photos by Deanne
Posts borrowed from the past few years:
Something blue: the
Pacific Ocean at
Cattle Point,
Victoria,
BC
*
Reprint from 2021, and 2022 and 2024: Things have changed quite a bit since December 2024: changed for the worse!
Telling it like it is:
***
Dateline Victoria, Christmas 2024:
After another protracted season of disaster, disillusionment and unmitigated depravity: after many tempestuous years of continuing social, political and environmental decay, humanity has arrived at a stage of full blown ethical, moral, environmental and psychological breakdown! We watch as the USA, a nation which has promoted itself as a beacon for the world, the “shining city on a hill”, falters while balancing precariously on the edge of internecine violence, autocracy and despotism. A renewed barbarism has been on full display in the Holy Land! Wanton murder, destruction and genocide dominate between Israel and Palestine and in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Is humanity still the prey of long Covid 19 in the form of post traumatic stresses? Did the pandemic cross a physical barrier to now infect the moral and ethical domains of the human condition? How can we explain the growing world wide attraction to cruelty, hate and corruption?
The Orange Grinch, the artificially tinted, convicted felon, leader of the most powerful nation on earth has evaded incarceration and the orange jump suit through the amazing grace of the Supreme Court and the questionable judgment of a plurality of the American electorate. Corruption, and malfeasance have been rewarded. When will we witness the results of the arc of a moral universe bending towards justice and civility? Who among us shall inherit the future earth, a world now choking, and exhausted? Have we indeed met the enemy and once again found that the enemy is us?
Add to all that catalogue of hate and violence, the recent antisemitic barbarism on Bondi Beach in Australia, the ongoing barbarism in Gaza, the freakish, erratic and aggressive behavior of the ruling authorities in the U.S.A., and what you get is a traumatized world wide population. We have to acknowledge the current state of affairs. What a legacy we leave to our young people! We cannot sweep all this violence and hatred under the thin veneer of cultural celebration, Christmas, a kind of time-out from the serious, murderous, violently anti-social attitudes which permeate and pollute the gamut of human affairs, international as well as inter personal.
Just ask brother Ray Charles about the troubling state of affairs facing us these days:
“The Danger Zone”
*
That’s because I’ve got a worried mind
You know the world is in an uproar
The danger zone is everywhere, everywhere
Just read your paper
And you’ll see
Just exactly what keeps worryin’ me
Yeah, you’ll see the world is in an uproar
The danger zone is everywhere
My love for the world is like always
For the world is a part of me
That’s why I’m so afraid
Of the progress that’s being made
Toward eternity
Every morning, noon, and night
Finds me hoping that everything’s alright
Mm-hmm, the world is in an uproar
The danger zone is everywhere
***
Click on photo of Chesterman Beach,
Near Tofino, BC
***
Consolations?
*
At this time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the sun will soon ascend from its low point, its aphelion, to lengthen our days and brighten our outlook, thus giving us an opening to adjust the bleak current psychology of impending twilight and gathering nightfall. The resurgent sun will inspire the rebirth of Nature. Nature then will rediscover her motivation to flourish. She will bear flowers and fruit, giving us tangible gifts. She will also add intangible gifts, hope and optimism.
Mount Baker from the parking lot at Cattle Point, Victoria, BC.
***
The Christmas Season grants us permission to become, for a brief period, willingly and deliberately naïve, idealistic and spiritual: to cling for a moment to the familiar fictions of our culture. But where are our Gods? Why have They abandoned us? Where is Peace on Earth and Goodwill Towards Humanankind?
Love the raw honesty and beauty in this post!
Well written!
Thank you Davey! Nice to hear from you.
Garry, you are a wordsmith with a Capital W. So well-written, and bang on!
Also, Deanne, great pic!!
Hi Rhea, nice to hear from you. Thanks for your positive words.
Love this Gary. Could tell it was you just by your writing. Felt it in my heart to be able to pick your writing. I loved your “bang on” perspective. Reading this, your writing, brought me back so many years. Listening to you and dad talking and writing. Thank you Gary 😊
Von, Thanks for your comment! You brought a few tears to my eyes when you mentioned your dad. What a classy dude he was! Meeting him is one of the highlights of our family’s stay in the Central Interior of B.C. The little trout farm on our Paterson Rd. property began with some conversations with your dad. We would never have been able to have a house that first year on Paterson Rd. without him. Of course we also treasure many moments with your mom. The trip we took with your parents to Ocho Rios Jamaica, deepened the relationship that we developed and still remains fresh in the mind for Deanne and me.
❤
Preach, Dad.