Tuesday, November 15, 2011

I Want to Care About It All

A hard frost the last three nights. Rain in the mornings and the coonhound won't leave the porch. We're settling-in here. There's snow in the mountains and soon we'll be skiing. It's time for running in sweatpants, reading near the space heater, and getting dark early. Thanksgiving is a week away.

Let's say that again: Thanksgiving is a week away.


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Killer first line of the moment:

How I hope never to attend that party again.

from "Tercets for Naiads" by Ben Doyle
(Radio, Radio, LSU Press, 2001)


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There is a shooting in Norway. A troubled but popular singer dies. The U.S. economy implodes. Unemployment rises. Economies in other countries collapse. The earth cracks open on an island and then in another country and another country and another country. Floods wash away an entire town. A dictator is overthrown and another and another and another. A terrorist is assassinated. A dictator goes into hiding. He is found. He is killed. Everywhere, the earth is dry and when it rains, it is never enough. Children are starving. Their parents are starving. Women and their bodies and their right to make choices about their bodies are increasingly under attack. A starlet who never had a chance continues to spiral out of control. Real housewives act messy all over the place. A celebrity who is famous for being famous for making a sex tape gets married on television. Less than three months later, she divorces her made for television husband. An innovator dies and his life is bared for examination. A teenage girl’s sex tape goes viral and worse yet, people watch. Politicians start their campaigns and race each other to the bottom. The world moves at such a bewildering pace these days. Everything demands our attention. There is hardly time to breathe. Or think. Or feel.

I want to care about all of it, the atrocious and the admirable and the awesome and the absurd. I don’t want to feel numb.

-gorgeous and well-wrought essay by Roxane Gay over at The Rumpus

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-via Slate


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2 comments:

Sandy Longhorn said...

Howdy, Luke! Thanks for the great links. Enjoy the changing of the seasons out West.

Luke Johnson said...

We're doing our best out here, Sandy. Much as the gray can weigh heavy, I'm not entirely unhappy to have such excellent reading/writing weather. Hope all's well on your end.