That Winding Ol' River

This morning, I listened to an album by Danny Doyle I hadn't heard in a while. He's a balladeer in the voice range of John Denver (with an Irish accent). I drove down the lane, over the mountain and into town to run an errand. As usual, I talked to myself in my thoughts and heard a familiar cadence. Why, I reckon it's the ol' east Tennersee accent comin' through, a "hick" accent different from the one portrayed by a famous movie star.

I grew up in two worlds - one of my ancestors with the eastern Tennessee / western North Carolina / southwestern Virginia / southeastern Kentucky ways of living, including country farms and country life; one of my suburban peers, whose lives were mixed together from cultures all over the rest of the world. I developed an accent that some people placed in the generic Ohio/Pennsylvania suburban/urban environment (in other words, the pre-MTV television generation).

So, just as I was about to comment about this news story, and wonder where are the creative minds who will generate wealth from the mini/micro loan business (rather than the illegal drug business, one hopes, or even the macro-loan business), I listened to the echoes in my thoughts of my family from east Tennessee and enjoyed the sweet flavor that dripped off their voices and ideas about life.

I forget that real life is not Wall Street, London, Berlin, Hong Kong, Moscow, Sydney, Shanghai, Tokyo or any other financial artifice that resembles a bunch of kids' playground equipment jumbled together (or a house of cards, as some say).

Real life is sitting down and working on a quilt or standing up and sawing in one's workshop. Real life is not reality TV or Internet games. Or even this blog.

As we all know full well, life is a pyramid scheme. The base of the pyramid is the unknown masses, who toil like Sisyphus, willing to forget they push the same boulder up the hill every day in the belief that their life is satisfactory because they have belief in something bigger than their daily lives - hobbies, religion, a mixture of the two - but some see it as their lot in life, whatever that means. The upper layers build upon the lower layers with no clear boundary, with the ability of anyone to go from one layer to another, some against gravity and other inertial forces and some pushed/pulled up by others (some pushed/pulled down and some fall down).

I like the Moon-level view of our planetary system but detail gets washed out. This past weekend, I filled in the detail again, watching friends, family, football fans and other strangers interact in weaving the social fabric that forms the quilts of the mountains in people and fall leaves.

I have drifted afar, my thoughts way off base. In fact, all this talk has made me homesick! I figure that's why I was so happy yesterday, seeing folks being folks and enjoying a lunch out with their family and friends.

That's also why I don't get so hung up about "hot button" issues because no matter how much those overpaid TV and radio screamers want my attention, my eyes are focused on folks, not artificially-enhanced topics that have little to no meaning to me, knowing as I do that the screamers need your attention to make their money through advertising. I don't want my marketplace money or my company advertising associated with them. They divide and conquer and should be pushed off the pyramid, no matter what they promote - those who preach discrimination through a radio microphone are just as guilty as those who preach reverse discrimination from a religious stance - it makes no difference to me.

Enough of my thoughts on this blog. Time to enjoy peace and quiet and think about something funny to say. I had planned to write a blog entry about France and the Muslin [sic] situation, a la Emily Litella, an ode to a favorite SNL actor of mine, but I'm floating on happiness right now and want to enjoy this raft trip...

“Ever moving and winding and free
You rolling old river,
You changing old river
Let’s you and me river
Run down to the sea!”