Catastrophic - Originally posted to BMGS 1.0, October 24, 2007

Catastrophic
Originally posted to BMGS 1.0 on Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Fire. A few months ago, when I read Cormac McCarthy's The Road, I didn't get it about the fire. His fire-ravaged post-apocalyptic earth was perhaps the result of nuclear disaster, yet now, at the same time, I am beginning to get it about fire. The fire could keep coming. It isn't hellfire, but it isn't an accident either. Water here, fire there. Out there, it is the driest it has been in over a century. The planet will have the last word.

I just spoke to my daughter Kip on the phone. She's a transplanted Boston girl making her way in LA, but the last few days she has been at her grandmother's in La Jolla, surrounded by smoke. It's hard to get my head around what this experience must be like there, with ash falling like a bad joke from the sky everywhere, smoke rising up in frightening billows, and lovely La Jolla overfilled with people scared to death of where they have come from and not knowing when or if their lives will still be there when they go back.

It is every bit as frightening and catastrophic as 9.11, but it remains to be seen if it will inspire a fightback. There are causes, but they do not submit easily to campaigns of hate, being so close at hand. There are things that could be done, but they would take discipline and rigor and real concern about people and the planet. They do not involve invading any other countries. They may require a look in the mirror.

I shouldn't get started. This is no time for ranting, is it? I'm not sure. I am proud of my daughter for helping out at Qualcomm, and I hope that she doesn't inhale too much smoke.

*************************************************************************

Unencumbered

Wednesday's Soundtrack

That was me at 17, in 1967, making a move in a race on a Saturday afternoon in October. It's good, even now, to be able to summon that kid's heart and toughness for an important struggle, or, sometimes, just to get through the day. He was always ready. He could always do what had to be done. Whatever it took, day or night. Good chance he passed that guy just ahead of him in the teeshirt.

I figure that I will be living in whatever I make of my body for another 30 years. I know I'll never have that one back, too many nicks and dings. But I can get back a lot closer to that, and why wouldn't it be worth the effort?

Stood there boldly
Sweatin in the sun
Felt like a million
Felt like number one
The height of summer
I'd never felt that strong
Like a rock

I was eighteen
Didn't have a care
Working for peanuts
Not a dime to spare
But I was lean and
Solid everywhere
Like a rock

My hands were steady
My eyes were clear and bright
My walk had purpose
My steps were quick and light
And I held firmly
To what I felt was right
Like a rock

Like a rock, I was strong as I could be
Like a rock, nothin ever got to me
Like a rock, I was something to see
Like a rock

And I stood arrow straight
Unencumbered by the weight
Of all these hustlers and their schemes
I stood proud, I stood tall
High above it all
I still believed in my dreams

Twenty years now
Where'd they go?
Twenty years
I dont know
Sit and I wonder sometimes
Where theyve gone

And sometimes late at night
When I'm bathed in the firelight
The moon comes callin a ghostly white
And I recall
Recall

Like a rock. standin arrow straight
Like a rock, chargin from the gate
Like a rock, carryin the weight
Like a rock

Like a rock, the sun upon my skin
Like a rock, hard against the wind
Like a rock, I see myself again
Like a rock

Words and music by Bob Seger

Special bonus track, apropos of nada