Chuck Grimes wrote:
>
> No,
>
> It's the whole fucked up country. I've been reading the news too much. This
> Gulf oil thing was ... I don't know. The same nothing.
I think this is wrong, though preferable to the impervious cheerfulness of a Dennis R or of Progressives who believe triumph is built into hisotyr. But it is still wrong, silly even. I don't share Yeats's cyclic fantasies, but the following is better than mere disgust:
***** All things fall and are built again, And those that build them again are gay.
Two Chinamen, behind them a third, Are carved in lapis lazuli, Over them flies a long-legged bird, A symbol of longevity; The third, doubtless a serving-man, Carries a musical instmment.
Every discoloration of the stone, Every accidental crack or dent, Seems a water-course or an avalanche, Or lofty slope where it still snows Though doubtless plum or cherry-branch Sweetens the little half-way house Those Chinamen climb towards, and I Delight to imagine them seated there; There, on the mountain and the sky, On all the tragic scene they stare. One asks for mournful melodies; Accomplished fingers begin to play. Their eyes mid many wrinkles, their eyes, Their ancient, glittering eyes, are gay.
*****
Who told you that the world had to be a pleasant place?
Carrol