T.S. And I – Or Should That Be Me?
Bought myself a bottle of scotch tonight.
It’s been a rough few weeks for me…
Of course, it actually hasn’t.
I’ve been employed again. I keep getting jobs even though my intention has been to stop work, let my wife support me until I make ridiculous amounts of money from doing a speaking tour of anywhere that’s prepared to pay me the same amount they pay loser politicians like John Howard to come and speak.
Actually, I don’t want to sound cheap but I’d probably be prepared to speak for a fraction of the cost of John Howard.
Actually, I’d be prepared to speak for nothing. Which sort of makes me sound less than cheap. But still, it puts me on the same level as those politicians who stand for nothing.
But let’s be real. When Abbott is throne (yes, intended misspelling given his close relationship with the Royle Family… oh, come on people, don’t even bother pointing out that one) out unceremoaningly on his rear. And YES, that was an intentional miss pelling as well. Oh dear me… I didn’t finish the sentence. Well, when Abbott is thrown out on his arse, there’ll probably be even less people prepared to listen to him than… well, bad days I’ve had in the past few years…
Ah, that scotch… It was this sort of referencing that made TS Eliot remembered while my poetry lingers at the bottom of some box that anyone with any sense would have sent the way of John Howard a long time ago.
Of course, I haven’t consumed the whole bottle. Not even more than a couple of glasses. But sometimes, scotch helps me to see things a little more clearly.
Anyway, I was reading Ross Garnaut’s book “Dog Days” and I read this bit:
“I use the term ‘living standards’ many times in this book. I am only refering to the consumption of material goods and services. It should go without saying – but sometimes needs saying – that material living standards are not the only determinants of human welfare.”
Yep. Some days we have anniversaries of other days that nobody understands.
But out of a bottom drawer, and just because I’d like to find it just as easily as I can find “The Waste Land”. Oh, come on people – this is why I joined the Arts Party…
“Grief has come to stay a while
He’s an unwelcome visitor –
Not the good friend he pretends to be
When he opens that bottle and encourages
Another drink.
Grief has come to stay a while
Uninvited, like some distant cousin –
I’ll have to hold my tongue
When he reminds me of good times gone
And moments lost.
Grief has come to stay a while
And tomorrow he’ll dig up the garden,
Tramp mud everywhere
And put flowers in places where flowers
Do not grow.
Grief has come to stay a while
And while I wish him gone
I know that when he goes
So do you, and I’m not ready
To forget.”
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11 comments
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LOVO -
mark delmege -
rossleighbrisbane -
jagman48 -
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Jennifer Meyer-Smith -
Graham Houghton -
Matters Not -
paul walter -
CMMC
Return to home page*clink* ….oh come on I’m.. jest sayin’ 😉
There is a lesson in Wim Wenders film the Salt of the Earth about the photography and life of Sebastião Salgado. After traveling the world and snapping the beauty and ugliness of human civilisations and discovering our utter depravity he returns home to his once paradise on earth, the family farm. No longer wooded with waterfall but a barren wasteland of nothingness. The trees were chopped down by his father to pay for his and his siblings eduction. Over the next decade they planted trees and once more the earth was filled with life and the living in all their glory.
There is hope Ross that we will repair the damage one day. Root and branch step by loving step. Meanwhile… pass that doobie there are more immediate things to do.
There is more to unite mankind than there is to divide it.
Even the division of Left Versus Right presumes that we are part of the one body.
Sorry Can’t afford scotch now. The pension is getting so much smaller. Oh no we are now so much better said Morriscum.
“Grief has come to stay a while…” Brought a tear, for many reasons. In this context, grief for our country. But you’re right, Ross; we are all part of the one body. The young Muslims in Norway showed that so beautifully today. Love will always beat hate in the end. We will overcome, and the cancer will be eradicated.
Abbott announced today that we live in the ‘Era of Terrorism’.
Does this twerp seriously think he has a grasp on contemporary historiography?
The ‘Clash of Cultures’ stuff is just an embarrassing rehash of 19th Century Romanticist history.
There’s just enough bullshit happening in the ME that gives Rabid seeming and alleged legitimacy.
However, he’s a fake. We know it. He knows it. And many Australians know it.
We therefore, keep the resolve to expose Rabid’s and his inadequate LNP Government’s inadequacy in these trying national and international times, so that they are seen for the losers they are.
At about the age of six, or maybe seven, I read a wonderfully illustrated book of cat stories. Now I don’t hold with cats, but at the time they were a great vehicle for delivering an Aesopian message to a young mind. One particular story grabbed me back then and still holds me now. I can’t remember any of the others. It was about a cat that joined a ship in Boston and was a deckhand as it sailed around the world. At each port it docked at the cat would lean on the rail and survey the scene for many long moments, pipe clamped beteween its teeth. Eventually it would take the pipe out of its mouth, spit through its lips a nicotine-stained gob into the water and declare, ”T”aint as nice as Boston town.’. After a year the ship docked at yet another port. The cat went through the usual routine and declared the place to be no Boston town. Then the Bosun, overhearing what the cat had said, piped up, ‘Well, this is Boston town.’. I learned a million lessons the moment I read that line. First, I felt sorry for the cat that had forgotten who it was and where it had come from. The lesson being that life moves on. Second, I learned that change is inevitable and must be embraced even if you don’t like it. The lesson is that if you’re not part of the process, the process becomes a mystery. Similar to the first lesson Third, I learned that people who do not have a knowledge of history will repeat the mistakes of past generations. Lesson? Look to the past to build the future – use your foundations. No whisky involved back then; but I’ve had a glass tonight. We do not have to grieve about anything. We are here and we leave. But we should try to do better while we are here. We’re not doing that right now. We’re sailing past Boston, Lincolnshire.
Graham Houghton said:
Really? Are you seriously suggesting that one should simply ‘lie back and enjoy it’ regardless of direction?
While ‘change’ is ongoing, I for one do not accept that certain changes should simply be accepted. Or ’embraced’.
As for:
More agreeable, provided of course that you are ‘driving the buss’ or are at least attempting to do just that.
Matters Not, you deserve a raucous cheer. Let not the Idiots drive us to drink.
Dog Whistle Alert!
When Abbott says we are too liberal with the ‘Benefit of the Doubt’, he really means the ‘Presumption of Innocence’.
In other words, lets have another Cronulla Riot, bash them first.