Sorry for the delay in posting. I've been unavoidably removed from my word processing program. I was back in Sullivan Friday working on the under-appreciated lawn. There are few things as thrilling as working hard to maintain the grounds of a home you no longer live in. The closest I can envision is a kinship with an indentured servant who traveled to the New World seeking a new life, but due to a tricky sub-clause in his control, routinely has to return to the Old World to trim his master's shrubbery. Saturday was largely spent running diagnostics on my computer since it was developing a tendency to crash whenever one opened a document file (as you might imagine, that makes it awfully difficult to compose anything). The problem has not been fixed, but a manageable coping mechanism has been fashioned.
The lag did provide me time to do some additional research. I chewed through the following tomes:
"The Culture of Fear" by Barry Glassner, a sociologist's views opinions on American's misplaced fears
"The Science of Harry Potter" by Roger Highfield, a science reporter who proposes potential muggle explanations for the magic and discusses how superstition and science mix
and "Crisis on Infinite Earths" by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, the 1985 comic series that dealt with the threat to all matter-based universes (especially, our own), which was also the first cross-continuum event that pulled together heroes and villains from all DC titles
I wish I could say I considered the 900 pages "light reading," but that would be pushing it even for me. As it was, I had to severely curtail my TV watching and limit myself to following only the first hour of the Patrick Fitzgerald press conference on the indictment of “Scooter” Libby.
The sacrifices one makes.
Anyway, I felt invigorated by the influx of ideas. It was also nice to know I’d developed themes that were also highlighted by prominent people. Apparently it’s not just me who thinks some of these things.
It may only be a handful of us, but according to Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant,” three people – working in harmony – can be mistaken for an organization. Add a couple more to it, and it becomes a movement. So be smart, catch the wave, and change the world… or at least read on.
