But Obscured By Green

The bridge over the Walkill River is the point I’ve decided that is approximately twenty-five minutes north of my house wherein I generally try to turn around and head back home  Today was beautiful outside and I biked right passed it.  I kept on passed the field that seems to be owned by the Coppersea Distillery, who have their sign up there and past the field where they’ve dropped a number of big trees and further along passed the old abandoned delivery truck clearly off there in the woods in the winter but obscured by green, this time of year, out beyond Cereus Way after which there’s a long straight shot that isn’t familiar to me at all and I marvel at the tall trees and to my right I notice a fawn lying on its side.  I think to look at it on my return but when I did, I zoomed right by.

Roger Cohen, who’s columns are always so thoughtfully written offered a quote by Marcus Delespinasse, concerning the “savageness of white apathy.”  This has, except for very brief windows of time, certainly been the default for the entitled beneficiaries of the United States of which I’m one.  Removed from the obligations, somewhat, living overseas for twenty-years I’m back now, considering with faltering steps, my reentry into my inheritance.  The Chinese tell us that “silence is golden” and the movement is insisting that “silence is violence.”  A contemplative posture, therefore, certainly in perpetuity, as savagery. 

It is a lurch though, after trying to do our part to stay safe.  I’ve been diligent about distancing.  I’ve done my part to protect my parents, my family, myself and to lurch suddenly into: “we must go participate in mass demonstrations,” proved harder than I’d anticipated to other to persuade other intimates, still, and rightly focused on social distancing. 

Fortunate, I count myself.  I do not have, nor have I ever had a Facebook account.  I’m increasingly convinced that Facebook was an interesting but failed experiment wherein a Saudi Arabia's worth of the nation’s personal data is the crude oil of one company.  Standard Oil was broken up.  I think  Facebook shouldn’t be allowed experiment with all the power it has.  I did have a Twitter account that I's tried to use for a few months about six years back.  It still exists, I suppose, as they spam me from it.  But I don’t have Snapchat, and I don’t have Instagram.  I’ll acknowledge the importance of voicing opinions and certainly of getting involved, but I’d don’t want to do so on “social” media.  It seems like a mob Althing from the outside, devoid of thoughtful moderation, measured argument  nor any reflection whatsoever.

Saturday, 06/06/20