I mostly grew up in Los Angeles, and certainly was shaped by California culture there and in Northern California as well. I celebrated my birthday on Malibu beach, went dancing up in Topanga at the Topanga Corral, hung out at Alice's Restaurant on Malibu pier, skated on the Santa Monica boardwalk. My mother grew up in Pasadena, and always talked about the Rose Parade there. My grandmother on my mother's side grew up in what is now MacArthur Park in downtown L.A., a very fashionable neighborhood at the turn of the Century. Her mother lived there too.
I sit here in a state of shock, to see Los Angeles burning. So much suffering, so many people who have lost their homes, so many animals and wildlife suffering also, such devastation. I don't know what to do. What can I do?
It seems like things are falling apart rapidly. In my previous post I shared Laurie Anderson's powerful "The Barbarians Are Coming" because, well, they are here. The American experiment in democracy, from my point of view, is being deconstructed into an authoritarian oligarchy right before our eyes, televised. Nero fiddled while Rome burned, and Trump rants and blames from his golf resort while Los Angeles burns. It seems the omens are not good as this reality star "leader" prepares to be inaugurated. Catastrophic fires in L.A. Monster hurricanes in the South. Mass killing in New Orleans. Hard times, and right now, many of us stand in shock, unable to go forward. The Barbarians are in Washington, blindly chanting "drill, baby, drill", and Mother Gaia is raging because the planet is changing.
I've tried to mostly make this Blog about Art and Women's Spirituality, but I find political and environmental realities overwhelm my thoughts these days. Art, and the Return of the Divine Feminine are not apart from those realities, indeed, Patriarchy has something to do with it. But today, as L.A. burns, I am deeply saddened, and deeply frightened, and mostly incoherant.
Here is a passionate voice from a man who knows what he's talking about. I want to share it, because it's not only important what he has to say, but it's the truth. America, wake up. Please, wake up.
"In every creative life, in every life of passion and purpose, there comes a time when the animating spark grows dim and the muscle of motivation slackens, when you come to feel benumbed to beauty and abandoned by your numen, suffocating in the exhaust fume of your own exertion, ossified with the tedium of being yourself."
Ah, yes. Here I am in my personal horse latitudes. 4 am (the so-called witching hour, although I sense not one molecule of magic at the moment). The above currently perfect quote by Maria Popova, from her marvelous Blog The Marginalian, is, currently, perfect. I feel "ossified with the tedium of being myself". It seems rather hard to move when in that Nigredo, ossification mode.
I may not be alone in this.
"so what's the point? The Barbarians are coming".
When I was a child of about 11 my family lived for a while in Italy. My mother was fascinated with ancient Rome, and we went to many ruins and museums of that great Empire that featured what seemed to me as endless statues of Generals, Gods, and Orators. Each and every one of them had no nose. I used to wonder about that, until I thought about the Barbarians, riding into Rome as it fell to loot, rape the Vestal Virgins, destroy the culture created by Patricians, artists, orators and philosophers, set fire to the Senate.......... and knock the noses off of every statue they encountered. I used to imagine that, horse riding men with bronze swords, joyfully banging off marble noses in an orgy of desecration as Rome fell at last. And, following in the footsteps of Ceasar years before, the Barbarians also finally crossed the Rubicon.
"The Barbarians are coming."
Very soon, the Whitehouse will belong, again, to Trump and his wife (who still hasn't learned much English). They are crossing the Rubicon. Is it, like Ceasar's march, a point of no return?
And our centers of government are in soon to be in the hands of, well, Elon Musk, seen dancing around in glee as they make a whole new Department, just for him. He might as well have a tee shirt that says "We own you". Meaning the Oligarchy. And, presumably at the helm, Trump, ever ready to turn the U.S.A. into his own private reality TV show. Soon to be our President, the very same guy who tried to start an insurrection 4 years ago, one in which several people died, our elected officials had their lives threatened, and violent, gun toting "Trumpsters" stormed the capital, screaming "hang the Vice President" when they weren't waving Trump flags. And here we are again: Almost Inauguration Day. Trump and Company utterly triumphant, and proving once and forever that now days you can get away with anything. Because he has. Now what?
"The Barbarians are coming".
I think this brilliant performance by the amazing Laurie Anderson is going to resonate in my mind for quite a while. It seems so very true to the moment. And I am very pleased, thanks to UTube, to share it here.
