Change in the air

[gurdonark]

I don't know any one reason why, but I feel, like the feeling of a storm breeze in the air, the sense that external things around us will change very quickly very soon. Perhaps it is the aggregation of unrest overseas and economic dislocation here in the US. Perhaps it's the way in which politicians suddenly seem not the usual three, but a full seven yards, behind the times. Perhaps it's the "wars and rumours of wars" feeling in the air, and the sense that we cannot quite put our fingers on or get our arms around anything. It's always tempting to credit the September 11 tragedy for change, but I frankly think this feeling is broader, and would have arisen in any event. This feels like I imagine 1912 must have felt, or 1937, or 1858. We smell the rain from coming storms, but we don't quite know where it will fall, or how. We only know to batten down the hatches.

Comments

[sushimonkey.livejournal.com]

Eeek! You make me feel bad for being in a good mood. :( It's so hard to be excited about one's own life personally while all this external horror is going down. I hate living in a bubble, but I feel like that's where I'm putting myself these days. "Don't tell me the bad news! I'm happy with what I know!"

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Good heavens, don't feel bad about what is good in your life. Even if my foreboding has a basis, and is not just my perspective, you'll want all the good times you can have. Life doesn't stop for history. Keep on feeling good!

[uscwriter.livejournal.com]

Have felt that since Sept.11... Of course, I have to work hard at NOT feeling like something is happening that we are unaware of. Maybe it's just that all the stuff we haven't known is coming out now. Americans have been blindly living their lives without the evidence of things going on around the world, mostly because they really didn't involve us. Now that they do, we are paying more attention to what's happening and what may happen. As an aside, I am appalled when I read my weekly Time magazine because I see dead bodies-closeup pics- that I find disturbing. Not disturbing because there is violence in the world; disturbing because Americans feel the need to see it in a manner that seems like an action movie. And this view is from a former journalist... Were we better in the 50s, when the media sheltered the population? Hmmm...
K

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

We're better now, without shelter, particularly as we realize the immense limitations under which our current media operate. We just have to learn to filter, and to move on with life anyway.

[uscwriter.livejournal.com]

I agree about being smart enough to filter what the media gives out. Some people are still too stupid to see that there are people behind a story, and that ALL people have biases and think subjectively. That's the first thing an editor told me. It was very hard to learn to leave out personal biases when writing a news story- "just the information people need to know" theeditor told me, not your opinions. Unfortunately, the act itself revolved around my opinions- about what I thought they needed to know. Still, I think a lot of tv media is about shock value and what they can "one-up" another network with. I found that less in the newspaper medium, which is why I am so shocked to see some of the stuff in the news magazines. At what point do we as consumers decide that a human life is worth more than a caption or a cutline-that it's worth respect and privacy... God, I sound completely conservative... Anyway, I agree that we are better knowing more and making our own evaluations about events. Sometimes it's just difficult to do.
K

[marstokyo.livejournal.com]

Coming from an optimist like yourself--this is downright SHOCKING! and SCARY!!! of course, I've been thinking this for sometime-- but to hear it coming from YOU--my voice of reason?---now I got the Heebie Jeebies!!

change

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

If my feeling is right, and not just a poor guess, then these times will not be times for excess worry--there'll be worry enough to go round. These times will be the times when we create of our lives what we need them to be. I don't know how to say that very well. But I feel it's more important than ever we live as if we had normalcy, but recognize that we don't, quite. Both the easy jingoism and the chic anti-Americanism are going to have to fade out for "thinking people", because these times will spawn too much of each among folks, and life is too short for either.

I don't mean to seem down, though. I just see the changes coming.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_riomaggiore/]

thanks. i find your post to be a realistic, observant and common sense articulation of "what's happening" at present. i think we too often forget to look at and learn from history the signs of events that continually repeat themselves. our perspective is most often limited to our own short span of years. i don't think what you expressed was doomsday or pessimistic at all, just a realistic observation. yes, life goes on but we should understand that nothing lasts forever, we have little if any control over events and circumstances, and it is our choice to choose how we shall live our given moments.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

life must go on but we must realize that nothing lasts forever. I completely agree.