My New Friend
Okay, call me a stupid consumer but I love Pledge Multi-Surface. It rocks. I had to do lots of chores as a boy in a single-parent household and my life would have been so much easier if I could have used this product. I can’t tell you, as part of my daily chores, how many times I used furniture wax on the fridge or Windex on the dining room table.
A National and Natural Disaster
Those who know me also know that I have a special connection with the city of New Orleans. I have visited New Orleans on several occassions. It is one of the only U.S. cities that I have ever seriously considered moving to. I realized fairly quikcly that this wouldn’t be a good idea and as recent events have so horrifically and eloquently pointed out, I made the correct decision.
It’s difficult for me to wrap my mind around the impact that Hurricane Katrina has had on the people who live on the Gulf Coast, despite the images I’ve seen in the media. New Orleans is a city I have visited repeatedly. How could it possibly be under water? I can’t imagine what the residents are going through, from those who evacuated and must now wait possibly months to even find out if their home still exists, to those who have been trapped in the city waiting for some mysterious reason, for the delayed rescue forces to come and help them.
Much has been made of the slow response of President Bush and his administration with regard to the aid sent to New Orleans, and I rightfully so. It is unforgivable that rescue forces were not deployed immediately in great numbers. But really, let’s be honest about this: are we surprised by anything that Mr. Bush does? My surprise would be for him to do something right. What is so criminal about his actions is the fact that there are lives in the balance here. Innocent lives in a country expecting leadership but receiving very little.
The “natural” part of this disaster keeps coming back to me as well. This horror has come about as a result of weather, something that man, try as we might, has little or no control over. Tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, blizzards… we can combat them as best we can. We can try to predict what they will do, but in the end, these things are part of the natural world, and that is something humanity has never really had a very good grasp of, both intellectually and physically.
What the future of New Orleans will be is still very much up in the air. The priority is to help the scores of people who have been displaced by this natural disaster. I hate when my thoughts drift to the inevitably selfish, “will that city I loved so much survive this cataclysm? When I next visit (supposedly next June) will the magic stlil be there?” It’s amazing how we can’t help but reduce a horrible experience, no matter how distant, to how it affects ourselves? For me, it’s just the enormity of such an event, and how unreal it seems. My heart goes out to all of those people, from friends I have in the area, acquaintances I have met online or during vacations, to the countless strangers whose lives have been uprooted.
Push Me Pull You
So, I keep coming back to children’s literature when I think of what makes “me” the person I am. And sometimes it scares me.
Why do all the classics I can think of have imperialist themes?
- Doctor Doolittle is a “vegetarian” who really craves the flesh of his patients.
- Babar would be nothing if he didn’t learn western ways. He certainly wouldn’t be king!
- Is the conclusion that Ozma is a “fair and gentle” ruler enough justification to alter the way of life of the people in hidden countries of Oz?
- How do those Narnia kids have *any* real claim to the throne of the country?!
And as a postscript… do you ever have nightmares about being held up against Mary Poppins’ tape measure? I do.
She Emerges from the Mists of Antiquity… at last!
Several people got this information to me today, knowing how she used to be my favorite musical artist, but the winner was Chris, who passed on this Billboard article to me this morning. After 12 years, Kate Bush returns with a new double album, entitled “Aerial” on November 8 in the States! What will it sound like? Will anyone care? Who could possibly imagine? I know that after her last album, “The Red Shoes,” a son, and a span of 12 years, Kate could have gone in any direction conceivable.
Now after three albums that I consider sheer genius, and incomparable in the world of modern rock (those albums being “Never Forever,” “The Dreaming,” and “Hounds of Love” – which bore the U.S. Top 40 hit, “Running Up That Hill”) Kate had difficulty maintaining that level of genius, and her last two album, “The Sensual World,” and “The Red Shoes,” while still amazing and pretty damn spectacular, could only be seen as disappointments. Regardless, 12 years is WAY too long to go without any new material from La Bush. At least it’s a double album… and I’ve heard that she is working on some video/movie project to go with it. I must say, I can’t wait!