"Whenever
I find myself growing grim about the mouth;
whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul;
whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before
coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of
every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my
hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it
requires a strong moral principle to prevent me
from deliberately stepping into the street, and
methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I
account it high time to get to sea as soon as I
can. " -- Moby Dick
Not that it's particularly drizzly
... we're actually having some lovely, though windy and
power failure inducing, weather lately but it is November
on the calendar and in the soul. The revelation of the
depth of the homophobia in America's soul this week
really sucked the euphoria from the Red Sox World Series
victory right out of me. Lacking the wherewithal to "get
to sea" we went to the beach and took a long walk around
the Sandy Point end of Plum Island.
Sandy Point is a gem of a beach any
time but it was particularly gorgeous today as the high
winds had blown the sand into a landscape kind of
reminiscent of a zen garden -- especially around the
rocks. A couple of bold sanderlings walked right up to us
as if we were simply big piles of sea lettuce or
something. There were a few scoters riding the waves. The
ones I could see well enough to identify were all
white-winged scoters but I'm told there were black
scoters around also.
With so much beauty all around it's
hard to feel gloomy, so maybe one doesn't actually have
to go to sea but only to look at it.
Before you ask: No, I don't know
how many times I've quoted the above passage from Moby
Dick in this journal.
Last night we saw Team America:
World Police. We were by far the oldest people in the
theater -- by at least 30 years, maybe closer to 40
years... Who knew the f-word could be that entertaining?
It was just the catharsis I needed. Crude humor with
puppets making fun of both the left and the right. At
least I thought it was pretty equal.
Even after a cathartic satirical
movie, a fabulous walk on the beach, and an Angelina's
veggie sub (best subs on the planet) I still have this
nagging dread of the future as it seems to look to the
media who keep on discussing this "moral values" thing.
Who decided that what voters meant when they responded to
the poll questions that their vote was based on moral
values? Did the pollsters define what they meant by moral
values? Heck, I might well have said I cast my vote based
on moral values because I believe good stewardship of the
environment is a moral value. But the way the media keeps
discussing it as a vote against gay marriage, civil
unions, domestic partner benefits, and stem cell research
made me feel like gay people caused the Democrats to lose
the election. That's what it seemed to me the pundits
were saying in their weird coded language.
This November in the soul had
better lift soon. I don't think I can refrain from
stepping into the street and methodically knocking
people's hats off for four more years.
