Friday, May 14, 2010

Days of Appreciation

Letters penned with stiff, concentrating fingers. Sloppy sticky notes scribbled, dry ink splotches exposing brief moments of thought. Envelopes licked and pressed and stuck with tongued stamps. Photographs in frames on sills and shelves; pinned onto refrigerator doors; wedged into vanity mirror corners and slipped into plastic wallet flaps. Books tilted and beckoned from their upright alphabetical positions. Soft, slightly yellowed pages flipped and fanned by thumbs while dust floats and disperses into the sunlight of tall, narrow library windows. Art hung amidst dry museum air, whispered articulations and tour guides dressed in black leggings or spotted blue bow ties. Above beer breathed rumblings and thrown piano key punches, stubbed cigarette smoke lingers like a threatening storm cloud. The sign on the window mustering dust reads "LIVE MUSIC TONIGHT". Paper bills delivered by mail trucks, glass bottles of warm milk by local dairy farmers. Bundled newspapers flung by boys on bicycles. Atop rickety town hall auditorium stages, spitting actors perform Richard III for spectacularly dressed spectators who fan their faces and applaud as the curtain falls. Everywhere voices overlap like tiered cakes -voluptuously voiced pig piles of sweet frosting, ripe fruit and flour. The days of appreciation. The days when dessert and strips of bacon were not so plentiful. Sweets after supper a delicacy, not an expectancy. The days when young men learned to shake hands while girls learned to dance. The days of "clean plate clubs" and picture books at bedtime. The days of handwritten recipes and homemade lemonade. The days when potatoes sat simmering only in stews and not on couches watching football.

Today pie, pork and pornography are plentiful and cheap. Push that button. Click that remote. Drive to that red and yellow window. NowNowNOW, we impatiently demand, while the belt buckles at our bellies expand.

One day, children will not learn cursive with dotted lines and fat pencils. They will never raise their hands; count on their fingers or write full sentences. They will not talk, but type. They will never need to wait patiently; walk to school; build or bake. They will have everything and therefore appreciate nothing. And our old raw American personality of dirt and gumption will be extinguished by their shy, frail incompetency.


6 comments:

  1. Rachel--what an incredible reflection from one that many would see as the "younger generation" and therefore the ones who don't "get it." Beautifully and intellectually and realistically said! Those of us who care are counting on those of you in the upcoming generations.

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  2. How did you get so wise?
    THIS should be published.

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  3. Just do it Rachel-or I swear I will!!!

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  4. Wow - it's good, Rachel.

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  5. So true! In advancing our technology we're jeopardizing a lot of the basic goodness of genuine human interaction. You've insightfully identified a number of the things I struggle against daily. I still make my students write their essays in notebooks before they type, I don't care how much they protest.

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  6. after you publish this (i agree with gram), you should start listening to tom waits and how he speaks in his songs.

    really.

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