Back Deck Cogitations

I am sitting on my back deck and watching Youngs Bay ripple in the distance. There is a gillnetter near the bridge. I am making sun tea in a mason jar. The ferns are ferning. A bumble bee prowls the lawn and reminds me of how Sonny used to love chasing them. That dog will never leave my thoughts.

The heat on my face feels strange. It’s been a long time. The garden is sprouting. Another garden in Astoria. I didn’t think there would be another on for me, but here it is. I’ll make it my best one yet. I’ve had deer in the back yard the past few days so we’ll have to have a conversation. They can have the leftovers on the last day of harvest, like last summer.

Colors are becoming vibrant in the back yard. I hear morning doves and hummingbirds.

The nation seems very sick to me, sicker than usual. The chief sign to me at the moment is the overeliance of taking prominent social justice cause cues from celebrities. I am sick of celebrities acting like they are leading anything. What is the work they are really doing? It’s still part of the National Entertainment State, as Gore Vidal memorably described it. There are such richer stories of people, real people, on the ground, fighting to make positive change and not having it tied to the promotion of the careers or a new movie coming out. I think if I read another profile of a celebrity in the New Yorker who is in the alleged vanguard of anything advancing social justice, I’m never going to read that magazine again. Moreover, you never hear anything from celebrities about the income distribution crisis in this country—the number one problem.

I do what I can to fight off the disease afflicting my nation: I write, garden, extend kindness, take the high road, teach, counsel writers, read, publish, build driftwood forts, help friends, talk to birds, watch deer, and I dismiss the ease of seething about this or that.

The mailman approaches. Will I receive a letter from a friend?

It is nice to have new people come into your life and refresh ideas or present novel ones. That happened to me about a week ago and I’m still marveling.

A few more sales for the Bonnie and Clyde book. I’ll head out to the sanctuary later to see Bonnie. I sure miss Clyde.

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