Hey Joe,
In another era, you might have been an American expatriate living in Paris. It was once a home for freedom of thought and speech. (Like America acts the part.) I imagine your world-class mind would have gotten on famously, even drunkenly serious, with Hemingway. I look forward to reading more of your diatribes, that quite frankly exceed labels such as "leftist" and "malcontent". And I would love to meet the villagers you so expansively regard with respect and compassion.
Reminded me of a world-traveling old friend, who "feels sorry" for the Third World peoples he encounters in those far-flung places. They do not have all the advantages and money he does, so how can they ever be "happy"? I explain that happiness is given to those who appreciate and nourish what is theirs to love and honor (coconut birthday cakes, et al.) and not dependent on how much money you have to spend on your toys. No, this man has never been "happy", but consoles himself with travels and arrogant judgments, like so many here. At least he is not obese, too.
A wise friend recently commented on the obesity issue in our fellow country folk, "When humans are afraid that a famine will come, they put on the fat in order to better survive the times." Subconscious reckoning.
Of course, along with this prescription is a shorter life span riddled with modern ailments and diseases, even in their young. But there is no strength in them, no stamina. No exercise. Soft in brain and brawn.
When the belly grows, it indicates a loss of WILL. (Add this to your next diatribe on the subject.) Maybe you will also realize one reason that our fellows ignore the call for action to preserve our founding Values, Constitution, and can consume "our way of life" and culture of greed. Whipped cream with that?
Thank you for your unabashed, un-collectivized thinking processes, even in the "face of a 'cane" in your essay on Alternet ("How Americans Like Their Greed: Supersized").
Hope to meet on a sunny beach one day, (and make a sand castle that will wash away).
Sincerely,
Lia
Living on another coast, different ocean.
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Lia,
You are too kind to an old man's ramblings in print. As to the AlterNet essay (which was really just a set of notes written while waiting for a storm) I was surprised at some of the cynical responses it drew. As I just wrote another friend, it's rather amazing that so many Americans cannot even believe that love between families and neighbors still exists.
Regarding big bellies and small will, so true! The longer I am back here in the States the bigger the belly and the less the will to think. If it were not for the Village of Hopkins and the rest of the Third World (which I think is really just the real world) I'd be Jabba the Hutt with a laptop on my lower lip typing with my tongue.
In art and labor,
Joe
