I’ve given a lot of thought to Tamara’s comments on September 22, to wit: “I did not respond earlier, because I know of your illness and thought perhaps you were not feeling well - I did not want to aggravate the situation.” My illness, of course, is chronic myelogenous leukemia and it is true that there are some days when I don’t feel as well as others. But it seems an odd way to explain my comments critical of Sarah Palin.
More than aches and pains (which may just accompany growing older) a terminal diagnosis such as mine lends a degree of certitude to an already inevitable truth: I am going to die. It is in the context of this reality that I admit to a certain directness which not everyone (or anyone?) appreciates. Michael & The Mechanics’ haunting The Living Years powerfully raises the notion that if there’s something on our mind we had better say it now because there is no guarantee that we will be around to say or hear it later.
It may be time to duck and cover because I’m experiencing that sense of directness about Christmas this year. After decades of crass commercialization the Zeitgeist may finally be for genuinely reforming the observance. When Mercedes-Benz advertises their product as a well-deserved “holiday” gift, I call that stupid and make no apology for calling it that. There is a miraculous truth to be found in Christmas, that being the existential truth of relationship with our Creator. And so, once again, I find the attempt to attach any other meaning to the phenomenon to be disingenuous and stupid. That’s not because I’m not feeling well. It’s because it’s just plain stupid.
Right... because before your diagnosis you were such the shrinking violet, never making your opinions known to anyone.
ReplyDeleteI, for one, have always enjoyed your directness and the directness of others. I think it is a trait too many people lack and too many others do not appreciate. I find it refreshing.
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