Perfection Is Perfectly Boring
By Ron Marr (05/31/03)
The rain and winds descended like a herd of drunken banshees this past Saturday. The mother of all storms - a spawn of hell which sprang from the heavens - ripped trees from the earth and sent boulders crashing down the mountainside.
The power was out for 27 hours (here at the Mother Lode Saloon I served drinks by oil lamp...then borrowed/purchased a generator from the neighbor's garage). I hear tell the carnage stretched from near Boise to the Canadian border. I know our one blacktop road was nearly impassable there for a bit.
No...you didn't hear about it on the national news. Those sophisticated talking heads only report "dangerous" weather when New York or Boston gets more than six inches of snow. They don't acknowledge the existence of "flyover country."
But, here in north central Idaho the rage of the gods left ground, air, man and dog with a mild chill. Clouds of steam, tattered cotton sheets refusing to dry on the line, hung like billowing shrouds above the white-hot rapids of the Clearwater River. A forgotten day and a forgotten scene comes to mind. A barefoot young boy and a flop-eared beagle standing in the back of a barn with bamboo pole and a freshly dug can of worms. "Rain rain go away, come again another day," we swore at the gray skies.
It didn't work then. It doesn't work now.
Still, there is a certain acquiescent comfort that arrives with springtime in the Rockies. The snow squalls and killer storms teach that there is magic in the skies, magic upon which our child-like oaths and adult-like wishes have no effect. Our words fly away unheard. Our desires sit silently, awaiting a fruition beyond mortal powers of creation.
It is days such as this that make us retreat and ponder, force us to seek solace in simplicity. It is a day to question and ask and gaze into the abyss. Weather is one aspect of life which forces us to settle on something far less than perfection. That's a good thing, for perfection has a tendency to be perfectly boring.
I think I've spent too much time watching the news and reading the papers of late, although that dangfool idiot box may just be the medium of most vast expression rather than causative contributor. Cutting through the gauzy propaganda of political squabbles, foreign wars and killer disease, there seems to be an undercurrent of settling in this country. I see it in the media every day, and wonder how much is true.
Yes, people are apathetically settling on acceptance of desultory modes of behavior and a need to bow to the status quo. They do not wish to bring attention to themselves by stepping up to the plate and voicing opinions unpopular with the politically correct elite, and thus accept the repercussions of mute non-responsibility. "Monkey see - monkey do" is the conventional wisdom du jour. Risk is unheard of. Individuality should be a crime. Fear of change rules the collective psyche.
Seems to me that a lot of people are desirous for the rewards found in a life of free will but are not inclined to pay the admission fee. The prevalent philosophy seems to be a scenario from the dog ate my homework school of avoidance, a golden rule mangled in the Salad Shooter. Do unto others only those things that politically correct theology deems appropriate.
Luckily, such behavioral modes do not stretch across the board. I still see many who say what they think and do what they say and value honor, loyalty and courage. Maybe I see it more in the rural life of Idaho - and less through the media portrayal of urban America - because our lives are more intertwined than theirs. We don't have to agree, but we do have to live together. We have no cloak of invisible anonymity. Maybe our lives are more simple, and in that simplicity comes a heightened sense of frankness, courtesy and personal code. Maybe we just know that if an ostrich sticks his head in the sand the best he'll end up with is a snoot full of grit.
There are choices to be made in life, and one should be willing and able to accept the consequences of those choices. Accountability is everything. A person can have most anything they want, they just have to be willing to make the sacrifice and still live with themselves
The rain will fall again...and with its arrival will come both life and destruction. Settle on the weather, for it will do as it pleases and could care less about foolish human wants. Unlike self-imposed apathy, it will eventually go away without any effort on our part.
Settle on something less than your dreams and convictions? There's no quicker way to drown the soul.
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