Bill is having heart surgery today.
I can think of younger days
When living for my life
Was everything a man could want to do
I could never see tomorrow
I was never told about the sorrow
And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain falling down?
Tell me how can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go 'round?
How can you mend this broken man? Yeah
How can a loser ever win?
Somebody please help me mend my broken heart
And let me live again
Al Green
Nexus, the new book by Yuval Harari (remember Sapiens?) is challenging. I’m only on Chapter 4 but already the text has addressed just about every condition humans have thought about since they emerged from the cave. And, the author throws so many details into each sentence that you have to pause, take a breath, and then attempt to extract the intended idea. Wow.
Maybe this lament comes from having just read Timothy Snyder’s book, On Freedom. He is the thoughtful academic who wrote On Tyranny and sounds really good on TV. This was another “kitchen sink” epic. Philosophy, politics, religion, biography. Another wow.
So, when I am not reading for my classes, I’ve gone back to savor the character Spenser. He’s the Boston private detective who inhabits the long series of stories by Robert B. Parker. I’m glad I’m reading both types of books at the same time.
While Spenser is landing a left hook, Parker allows him to impart the same universal and eternal truths in every tale. Another, and very satisfying, wow.
Here's my Mt Rushmore of great Chicagoans.
Harold Washington
Chicago's first black Mayor. He was a leader for all of us with the charisma and dedication to address real change in our divided city.
Leon Despres
The Hyde Park Alderman was a voice in the wilderness throughout the stifling Daley years. Made us aware that there was another -- and better --way.
Quentin Young
Chicago's doctor for all of the people. The first to fight for single-payer health care. "Everybody in, nobody out" was his cry.
Flint Taylor
This "lefty lawyer" was determined to find justice for Fred Hampton and the victims of the Jon Burge torture tragedy. Grit and patience have paid off. But oh, the cost along the way.
I’m exited that my friend Kathy sent me a copy of her new novel: “Interview with the Tarot Reader”. Looking at the cards on the cover, I had a memory from a time long ago.
My mother was a young widow who was left to support two frightened, sad children. A woman used to come over and lay out funny cards on the dining room table. Then the two of them would get deep into conversation. I thought it was “weird” and decided that the woman was the “witch lady.”
Now, I have a more compassionate view. Faced with so much uncertainty, maybe the cards helped my mother envision a path into the future.
I wonder if Tarot foretold business success. Because that was indeed her destiny.
This time, Superman spent most of his time on his back, up against an assault of computer- generated foes so swift, loud and unworldly that it left me dizzy in my seat. Only the villainous motives are totally familiar.
As I walked to my car, I thought of Bill’s comic book collection. It seems only a minute ago that they helped him to learn how to read.
Superman’s earthly father tells him he can choose to have his powers. Superman tells us he may be from elsewhere but we are all the same.
Oh Superman, we know you are brave enough. And your purity is intact.
Are we?
Robert B. Parker was the best-selling mystery writer who hit the jackpot with his character Spenser. The hard-boiled Boston detective is quick with his gun, and just as quick with a quote from the classics, both gestures occurring only when appropriate.
Parker died in 2010 and whoever was in charge decided to continue his series, hiring others to hopefully pick up his style…and his paychecks. I read a few of the “afterlife” books and then decided, if I still wanted Spenser and his world, I could just re-read the originals.
One of the “afterlife” books has a plot about how a stolen manuscript deprives the real author of the credit he deserves. Really? Spenser would never have so insensitive. Or was that a sly joke from one of the pretend authors letting us know he’s in on the game.
The times are heavy upon me…and I know you are feeling it too. I’m striving for balance between a stoic stance: “there is always evil in the world”, and heart stopping emotion: “how can they get away with this!”
In The New Yorker, Jill Lepore shares with us how she coped with the first 100 days of Trump 2.0. She kept the classics close at hand. She tapped into the treasures of the human mind and heart to find appropriate quotes.
My oldster friend Naomi handles it this way: “I’ve lived through so much: World War II, civil rights, Vietnam. I’m taking it in stride.” I guess when your book has many chapters, you don’t linger on one page.
There’s no right or wrong here. I like the way Jill summed it up: “There is no emergency, or any day, that does not require poetry.”
