I keep having this dream that I’m surrounded by all these strange people that are trying to make me dance to their music.
And I can’t keep up.
You ever have that dream?
They’re dancing with the missing
They’re dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They’re dancing with their fathers
They’re dancing with their sons
They’re dancing with their husbands
They dance alone They dance alone -STING
Today I read an article that stirred some thoughts I had the other day. I was in the shower, where I do most of my thinking, and my ipod was on shuffle. A song called “They Dance Alone” by Sting came on. If you are not familiar with it, the premise is thus. Sting travels to Chile. He sees a country torn apart by a brutal Pinochet regime. He meets people who have lost loved ones to torture, execution, and prison. He is particularly moved by a mourning ritual where he witnesses women of a village gathered together and they are all dancing…Not with each other. But alone. He gets closer and sees that each woman is holding a picture of a man they have lost. A father. A brother. A husband. A son. And they dance alone. It has always moved me. And the other day I thought of how this applies to mothers who mourn lost loved ones from a different battle. Pretty intense thoughts for the shower, I know.
The article I read today stirred up those shower thoughts from the other day. The NY times reports of a deadly form of crack cocaine that is the scourge of South America. In Argentina and Brazil Hundreds of thousands of lives are being destroyed by a drug called “paco.” It is basically a garbage form of crack. It is mostly chemicals and cleaning agents with a splash of cocaine paste. Its an intense and highly addictive high. Lasts about 15-20 minutes. And costs….About $1.50! It is wiping villages off the map. The police feel powerless. The dealers run the show. And the children are dying. And just like here in the States, sometimes it is the parents, specifically the moms, that have to fight back. We have MADD. Well in a little village of Ciudad Oculta in Argentina the mothers are fighting back. One woman lost two sons and now she is marching with some of the other moms in the neighborhood. Risking her life. Defying the drug dealers. Going after the drug dealers. Walking and protesting and raising her voice. What else can she do? What else can we do?
I have seen my Mom bury two sons. I talk to students Mom’s after every one of my shows. My heart breaks. The thought of these women…mourning…alone…I can’t write anymore.
Thats all
Below are two links. Check em out.
Link to the NY Times article on “paco.”
The other is the youtube video of “They Dance Alone” by Sting.
Hailing at once from my old Worcester, Mass
a maiden Elizabeth wrote so fair
a poem that struck me so deep I swear
it grabbed my soul and kicked my ass
As I once did sit on the Elm Park grass
to watch all the sights of man and nature
though none did compare in every feature
To the perfect words of this Bishop lass
For there will be a moment when the dead
long cold with open eyes will rise to grab
a hand and breath through six feet of black coal
For when your words crawled up inside my head
they slithered down to my gut with a stab
and the sonnet of blood did heal my soul
-john
I Am in Need of Music
I am in need of music that would flow
Over my fretful, feeling fingertips,
Over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips,
With melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.
Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low,
Of some song sung to rest the tired dead,
A song to fall like water on my head,
And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!
There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep.
-Elizabeth Bishop
Sir Charles Barkley does what he does best.
Posts up and takes it strong to the hoop.
No apologies.
Even though he was a sixer he is now in my top 5 after this.
This morning I read the following as the first paragraph in a Washington Times story.
“President Bush, acting on the advice of his national security advisers, has decided to attempt to shoot down a malfunctioning spy satellite that is expected to crash to Earth early next month”
Scary. Anyway, if I were still doing stand up, I would have 10 potential jokes for a set tonight.
Following are my 10 likely responses of prominent Americans.
10.The Pentagon: “Yeah! We get to blow stuff up!”
9. Hollywood: “Is Ben Affleck going to be involved in this? And if condoleeza is involved she will be played by morgan freeman”
8. The Media: “What is so important on that satellite that the government needs to destroy it.”
7. Bush: “We have reliable evidence that Osama Bin Laden is on that satellite.”
6. John McCain: “I was around when that thing went up. I voted for it after coming back from vietnam where, I don’t know know if you heard, I was a POW for 6 years.”
5. Mike Huckabee: “I am against firing a missile into the sky because it might hit Jesus. Or maybe nick the hem of his garment.
4. Hillary Clinton: “With the amount of money it costs to shoot this down…5 million kids could have attended head start programs. Not to mention that the debris might land on an unsuspecting senior citizen.”
3. Bill Clinton: “ I DID NOT LAUNCH THAT SATELLITE INTO ORBIT”
2. Barack Obama: “ Rather than blow the satellite up…We need to CHANGE the satellite. We need to change its fundamental direction and trajectory. I can nudge it. I can reason with it. You might say it can’t be done. I say YES I CAN”
1. ME: “Holy crap! Is anyone else scared that the minds behind the Iraq war and the hurricane Katrina response are now in charge of shooting MISSILES into the solar system. Ten bucks says we inadvertently hit some “unforeseen and unknowable” frickin space thingy that triggers an implosion of the universe. Let me repeat and put it country simple…George Bush and the pentagon are firing missiles into the universe like 6th graders with bottle rockets.”
