Comments on: Monday in Dubuque

By: david in maine

david in maine — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:14:19 +0000

john, no complaints here - some of the comments above reminded me of on of the senior associates i used to work with used to say. he was 40 years older than i was and always had interesting stories to tell. one poem started with, ‘There was an old lady from Nantucket….’ and when someone mentioned a remark about someone snobby or a whore etc, he woud say, ’some of his best friends were wh…’ it was a sad day when he passed away. it is a pleasure to read your blog and browse through your creative photos….. thanks john - david in maine

By: John H. Farr

John H. Farr — Thu, 08 May 2008 05:44:30 +0000

“Locals” in this case are just about everyone, but being less judgemental would definitely be cool for me.

By: Carmel

Carmel — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:42:02 +0000

Hmm … one could discuss this ‘growth’ thing for a long time. If things stop growing they die (which is sometimes a good thing). But growth certainly isn’t old or 20th century. It just is. I guess the important thing is to ensure the best things grow and don’t let the ‘weeds’ take over. Trouble is ‘weed’ is such a subjective term too, isn’t it.

Uh-oh, I’m going into one of my endless analytical cycles.

For my part, I’m trying to be less judgemental of ‘the locals’.

By: Number 6

Number 6 — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:55:58 +0000

oh, and i forgot to mention: you DID see this week’s Brezsny blurb for us Leos? very relevant and to the point.

By: Number 6

Number 6 — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:51:56 +0000

yeah, i know - i’ve actually given up long ago on “spooking the drones” as well, especially these days, when some of the drones will actually kill you for daring to challenge “normality” (a month or two ago in Chowchilla, Calif. a 15 year old transgender high school student (he just liked to dress like a girl) was shot and killed by a 14 year old fellow student at school, just for daring to be overtly “different”. the 14 year old is being charged as an adult with a hate crime). trying to “freak the people out” is really just banging your head against a very thick brick wall. it’s just that i was in a typically raw emotional state (from dealing with my two terminally ill parents who are here at home) and your story just struck a raw nerve with me; the deep, desperate desire to finally have a chance to be truly free, and the circumstances of my life conspiring to prevent that. my personal situation in microcosm kinda reflects the larger whole in macro- (”trapped in The Village”, on all levels), and for a few seconds i was really feeling that “Mojo Of True Freedom” wanting to bust out, and i took a nanosecond molecule of joy in your relatives being stunned by your Truthful audacity. also, it’s not like you were TRYING to “scare the normals” (when you consciously force such, it comes off as merely obnoxious), it was just one of those completely spontaneous, natural emergent moments that highlighted just how Out Of Sync everything is in our Human Existence, and it triggered a bit of a verbal spew on my part.

onward……

By: John H. Farr

John H. Farr — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:11:36 +0000

K.J.: Always thoughtful, as usual…

Number 6: Actually, scaring the normals is not my trip. It was once, but that never got me anywhere. The collective IS insane, of course, though by definition it can’t be educated. It’s really a matter of grace, of the spontaneous arising of expanded awareness. I think all each of us can do is influence others unconsciously by virtue of the love we feel for ourselves. I’ll have more to say about this shortly.

David: I know my best moments are NOT my emotionally-driven political posts, but those that reflect the true nature of our world. I haven’t been able to let go of politics, but maybe soon. And I realize you weren’t necessarily complaining, either, but commenting on what you enjoy. It’s just that I felt something speaking in me in response to what you said.

By: david

david — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:12:40 +0000

I knew some snobby Easterners once… and a poem that started, There was an old lady from Nantucket….

John, I’m enjoying your weather and natural descriptions - have a nice drive back to NM. David in Maine

By: Number 6

Number 6 — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:41:13 +0000

right on, John!!! scare the shit out of the normals!
make them feel as confused and inadequate as they deserve to!
violate that creaking ossified orthodoxy as much as possible!
they don’t Get It, and never will, so fuck ‘em!
(and i’m sure after the dinner on the drives home there must’ve been various bemused shakings of heads and disparaging comments about “that weirdo hippy” and “Taos has made him even WEIRDER!” (AHHH! MORTAL SIN! MUST BE NORMAL AT ALL COSTS!!!), not to mention “why did our dear sweet sister marry such a maniac loser anyway?”)

and i know what you mean about the chore of perception - i have always been aware of the Collective Psychosis for most of my life on some level or other; never understood why i never could “fit in” (as every various Authority in my life was coercing/ordering me to do in one way or another) until i realized long ago “i” wasn’t the problem - it was what i was being told to fit in to that was Wrong and Off and completely Out Of Whack Insane. and of course everyone else thought i was the “insane” one for daring to follow my own path in my own way with no reagrd whatsoever to The Way Things SHOULD Be Done.

oh well… it could’ve been a really cool planet, this little Earth, if only the stupid hairless monkeys didn’t fuck everything up for themselves and everyone/-thing else. who knows, once the majority of the global population gets culled away by various natural/manmade disasters and some balance is restored it still could be. like The Dead sang: may be going to hell in a bucket, but at least i’m enjoying the ride……….

By: K.J. Webb

K.J. Webb — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:28:27 +0000

There used to be an expression - “the old lady from Dubuque” - used to denote a narrow-minded church-going sort of widow or spinster from the hinterlands. I’m not saying it was fair, and I don’t recommend you try it out on your in-laws. I reckon it’s just one of those snearing things that snobby Easterners like to say about the folks who inhabit fly-over country. Like “Babbitt” for a smug small-town booster, or “will it play in Peoria?” for “is it sufficiently dumbed down?”. Like Thomas Frank’s book, “What’s wrong with Kansas?” - meaning “Why are they Republicans when they ought to be Democrats?”

–All very unfair, no doubt.