Circle the Wagons, Stoke Up the Fire, Take Watches in Shifts, and Scrooch Up.


I’d thought that I might use this space to take the opportunity to vent a little about the events pictured in the last Day Off, and to warn you all, near and dear, to be very careful regarding the laws of this Fine Nation. But venting, I’ve done, and warning, none of you need. (Apparently I am the only clueless moron I know when it comes to matters of car titles and the cold masochistic capitalism of certain branches of law enforcement.)

…But the days that have passed since that bad day have brought worse things, and the memories of past bad things that come along with them, and I realize that I have something much more important to say.

There have been a lot of bad mishaps (several like my own experience in lovely Spartanburg County) and a lot of truly tragic incidences in the last few weeks. Three of my young lady friends have been molested by other friends. This is an unforgivable offense, and I am sad and shocked (and also somewhat relieved) that I forget that this is happening all the time, everywhere. All the time. As a group, we have lost six friends in horrible accidents in the last month or so. None of them were drinking; one of them was not even in a vehicle. She was crossing the highway. Hit by an Amoco 18-wheeler. A child in the family saw it all. A sweet lady and her two children, on a morning drive. A teenage girl on her way back from a day in the National Park, a community elder who had a diabetic blackout while driving.

I’m sorry, good people, my good friends. I don’t mean to depress and draw attention to the badness out there. But I feel certain that we NEED to see it and remember, for two very important reasons. We need to face the seemingly sudden influx of tragedy in our own lives, and open our eyes and hearts to the rest of the worlds’ pain. The Middle East, suicide bombings and executions. Soldiers and children. People who are losing homes to fires and floods just a t.v. broadcast away, neighbors who are lonely and afraid…

I thought that my experience on June 29 had made me raw and vulnerable - hypersensitive to everything around me, but I realized that I have not slept well or been able rest my mind at all since September 11. No matter what my conscious self does to avoid it, my subconscious is ALWAYS aware that the world is a very scary place these days, that we are a world at war.

“Yes, but you have to focus on the positive, Sam! You can’t let all that reality get to you!” etc, etc. I’ve heard it all and from some kind, and reasonable people, but you know what? I think you need to set the positive up where you can see it, reach for it, have it as a goal, but for now, it’s time to put shoulder to the wheel. Its heavy, its rough, it could roll back and crush you, but it’s there, and it needs to be moved. Sure, I could be inviting Sisyphus comparisons, but only from people who hide under the big ole’ Philosophy rock. To you I say, “Get your ass out from under there and come help us push.”

This wheel WILL roll down again, cycles of tragedy come with cycles of life. But if we just all keep trying to step over it, we will one by one, trip and fall and hurt ourselves and each other. So. What can we do? How does just LOOKING at all the bad make a difference? Being aware that there is pain and suffering leaves us, if we are normal, average (non-socio/psychopathic) people, unable to ignore what goes on around us, and that enables us to put our minds and bodies to work, to do whatever we can to lighten one another’s loads - to make the world better in our own tiny but immensely significant ways. Like an oyster. We can sit around on the bottom of the bay and just eat and sleep and crap, or we can work on that little bit of grit that’s been stuck in our craw and turn it into something beautiful, valuable and unique.

The two reasons that we need to face the facts: 1. Because they are the facts. People are dead, people are dying. People are suffering and afraid. People who have done no wrongs are being mistreated and bad people are living it up. Being aware of it keeps you from being surprised, keeps you ready, either to help, or to make sure you and yours aren’t next. And 2. because I – and a LOT of other people truly believe that belief changes things. Prayer makes a difference. The combined hope of many hearts can push the balance to the good. If you are awake and aware that your friend or neighbor or even a stranger (even one who is far far away) is in pain and in need, then you can give them a kind word or thought. Who knows how one little action may change the entire course of things. And if we all focus together, the Universe cannot help but feel the shift. Put your shoulder to the wheel. If we all push at the same time, we might move it.

One thing is sure. You can't have darkness and light in the same place at the same time. The cure for a gloomy outlook is a lighted mind.
- A. P. Gouthey

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