Wrapping up

[clevermanka]

In my first post of this year, I wrote: Seems like nearly everyone and their dog had a crappy 2005. As I scrolled through my friends page today, it was a similar refrain: That sucked. Let's have a better one this time. And to my few and lucky friends who did have a great year, here's hoping for more of the same for you. For the rest of us, brush off and move on.

I don't know how many of us had a better one. I think a lot of us had ups and downs. I think that's just the way life is, and if we expect a good year we might not get it, but sure as hell we'll get a bad year if we just lie down and accept whatever life gives us. If I want a better next year, I can't just hope for it, I have to make it. Brushing off and moving on is a good step, but I have to do more with my hands (physically and metaphorically) than just brush off.

I want to make some differences, some changes. Some will be easy, some will be hard, and it's not always the hard changes that will make the most difference to the world in general. I want to take up a smaller space and yet make a bigger impact.

Some of my changes involve money and how I use it. 2007 will see me making a concentrated effort to use my dollars to vote. It was an amazing thing to see my vote make a difference in November, but if I pat myself on the back for that two-minute effort, it will all be for nothing. I will make every effort possible to ensure that I don't spend a dime at Wal-Mart, and as little money as possible at any non-locally owned store in general. In order to use less gas, I will be making at the most two trips a month to the south side of town, and that includes trips to the fabric store.

Last month, rougewench told me I really needed to come with her to catch the Guy Forsyth show at the Jazzhaus. I picked up his most recent CD and the first track on it never fails to choke me up. This time next year I want to know that I did everything I could do (within reason and in good conscience) to slow down if not reverse this trend of American life. At the end of 2007, I want to hear this song and be pissed off at all the lazy bastards out there who can't be bothered to fight the system. At the end of 2007, I want to hear this song and not feel my heart breaking because I'm one of the lazy bastards. At the end of 2007, I want to feel like I made a difference in the world.

Long Long Time (click for MP3 of song)

It’s been a long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long time.
It’s been a long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long time.

When I was a kid I used to draw airplanes
with stars and bars shooting down airplanes
adorned with hammers and sickles.
I bought a hundred water guns so I could save the world,
saving my lunch money, and stealing my father’s quarters, dimes, and nickels.

I discovered religion watching Luke Skywalker rescue Princess Leia,
and destroying the Death Star by letting go and closing his eyes.
And I devoured comic books.
Three-color mythologies taught me right and wrong.
And if you believed, you could fly.

It’s been a long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long time.
It’s been a long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long time.

I remember listening to songs about trains,
and feeling the rush of wonder at the possibility that the world was infinite
and accessible, all at the same time.
And then it was songs about highways,
and born to be wild,
and little red corvette,
and the road went on forever in my mind.

But now it’s clogged bumper to bumper with stinking SUVs
and two-storey pickup trucks that can drive over anything
except the two-storey pickup truck right in front of it.
Now even the highways look the same.
Starbucks and 7-11’s and Wal-Marts jam the feeder roads.
We don’t live around this mess—we live under it.

It’s been a long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long time.
It’s been a long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long time
since I felt fine.

Now all the songs are about gangsters, and guns.
And the TV speeds by at a hundred deaths an hour.
And everyone wants to pull of the crime of the century.
Steal two hundred gazillion dollars—enough to buy myself an island
and build a real, honest to god train on it for no one but me.
And get away with it, get away with it.
We Americans are freedom-loving people
and nothing says freedom like getting away with it.
We went from Billy the Kid to Richard Nixon, Enron, Exxon, O.J. Simpson.
We used to dream about heroes, but now it’s just how to beat the system.

So where do we go to dream now?
Up on the roof of the projects,
straining through the city lights
to see if they’ve built golden arches on the moon yet?
Self medicated, half sedated, trying our best to stay distracted,
living life according to the T.V. set.
Corporations owning nations telling us don’t change the station.
It’s the only safe way to win the human race.

I wonder how the world sees us—rich beyond compare, powerful without equal.
A spoiled, drunk fifteen-year-old waving a gun in their face.

It’s been a long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long time.
It’s been a long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long time.

It’s been a long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long time.
It’s been a long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long,
long, long, long, long time

Since I felt fine.

Comments

[rougewench.livejournal.com]

Guy would be greatly enheartened to know that his words had touched you in this manner.

I am so very glad you came out, my dear.


D.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you're in regular contact with him, but if you are, feel free to tell him.

[rougewench.livejournal.com]

Oh, I most certainly am and I most certainly will.


D.

[thefox-rb.livejournal.com]

Holy shit. I've been told I need to meet this man and see him play (been sick each time now). I don't know what to say with these lyrics...except I need to get my ass out to see him. Wow.

[nottygypsy.livejournal.com]

Agreed, you DO. I play that album for all my guests, the GUYS always hear the lyrics to that song something like the "2 story pick up trucks" catches their ear and they ask me to play it again so they can listen. I love that tune, Taken Advantage of You is another good political anthem.

[starstraf.livejournal.com]

Just coming back from a road trip filled with Hazels diner and ma and pa gas stations - and getting those smiles and "what ya want darlin"