It’s one of those days when a person ought to try to get his
mind off current events. Unhinged minds are swarming about like hornets. Their
buzzing dominates the news and clogs the very air we breathe. It’s like
trying to respire nuggets of pure filth.
It brings me once again to the lines of Matthew Arnold:
“I, on men's impious
uproar hurl'd,
Think often, as I hear
them rave,
That peace has left
the upper world
And now keeps only in
the grave.”
Gosh I hope not. Arnold found peace and hope in Kensington
Gardens. I’ve turned to watching and listening to Yeol Eum perform Mozart’sPiano Symphony Number 21. It gives me a few minutes peace. Moreover, it gives
me hope.
If there are young people like Yeol Eum amongst us, and
there is beautiful music waiting to be played and heard, can it drown out the
insanity about us? Gosh, I hope so.
What was so startling about the last few days is the number
of people whom I had considered normal, rational friends who have aligned
themselves with, well, the scum of the earth: the KKK, the Aryan National,
American Nazis, and assorted hatemongers. Where it will all end I don’t know.
Those groups are quite adroit at passing their anger and hatred to others, and they
now have a new friend who just happens to be the most powerful man on the face
of the earth.
It’s more than a little unsettling.
What we are seeing may be what happens when people quit
reading poetry and listening to Mozart. Perhaps we should all go to a public
place of quiet reflection as Arnold did and seek hope as he expressed it:
Calm soul of all
things! make it mine
To feel, amid the
city's jar,
That there abides a
peace of thine,
Man did not make, and
cannot mar.
Meanwhile, send a bigot a link to Mozart.
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