Thursday, November 5, 2020

Halfway

 



On Tuesday night, when I saw 65 million people had voted for the man we call President in Terrible America, and after I'd felt disappointed then depressed then terrified then enraged then numb I threw the IChing, drew Hexagram 37 by tracing my hand writing writing writing into fingers and thumbs over palm, hunched over the tile table in my dining room. Hexagram 37 is Family (What will become of us? I'd asked). Be certain, however, that you are not involved in carrying out a role for which you are unsuited, or a role that has been cast upon you. This will rob your life of meaning. Every line of the hexagram changed, an occurrence that in the nearly forty years I've been using it, I've never seen. Skip straight to the transformed hexagram when all lines change. Look it up look it up look it up and then read Hexagram 40 (Liberation) which is sometime in the future so I eventually stood up minutes hours later peanut butter ghost redolent and walked down my dark hallway to the bedroom. It's a short walk but about when I'd gotten halfway my children smiling down from the wall of years the slant of moonlight disguised by the blue blinking LED light from the box over the door that waves in this constant stream of information to my room my sanctuary my sleep, I felt  suddenly enlightened (halfway) not by ghosts or peanut butter or Jesus or hands or Chinese oracles but by my persistent unconscious which was screaming exceptionalism is a lie. It was as if a hand were placed on the top of my head palm down the fingers draped over forehead (halfway) my eyes closed breathing there in the hallway (halfway) soothed.


Now it's Thursday and it's all a lot.



7 comments:

  1. It is all very much a lot. And this is a most beautiful prose poem.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This time they KNEW WHO THEY WERE VOTING FOR, THEY KNEW.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  3. Isn't it stunning that even after four years of his insanity and depravity and hatefulness, he STILL won such a large percentage of the country?

    Dave's parents voted for Trump. But I don't think they like him as a person -- in their case, it's all about abortion. (Don't get me started.) I suspect a lot of the electorate is motivated by similar specific issues or partisan loyalties that allow them to overlook Trump himself.

    Not that that's an excuse.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I missed this post. You had an inkling, an intuition, an insight that all was not lost. As it turns out, it was won.

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...