THE FEATHER
‘FEATHERY ENCOUNTER’ | The things you find while looking down on walks through the world. | Rotary Park, Barboursville, W.Va. | october2024 | theSTORYistheTHING.com photo
PRECIS
In which our interlocutor works himself out of a pre-dawn funk by fashioning an illustrated poem; seeks advice a few centuries old; re-directs attention to an Appalachian catastrophe; snaps a feather and a fog. And also offers up for your 60-second inspection an election video which, really, deserves more than an audience of zero. ~ Douglas John Imbrogno
THE POEM
After waking way-too-early and discovering that a much-labored-over election project this week had garnered exactly zero interest, I went seeking images of mountains I have photographed through the years. As one does before dawn, restless and seeking out the sempiternal, in the face of the constant sludge of diurnal reminders that maybe, after all, we are just an old man shouting at clouds. Instead, I raise a verbal toast to the skies by way of an illustrated poem. The mountain was likely clicked out my car window while slowed down in the middle of some out-there nowheresville, where I often prefer to be, one chilly West Virginia afternoon. At least, my files date it to March 2022.
THE ADMONITION
Oh, indeed, I know that I am no failure, at least in the conventional sense. And that we are all not failures, if we only have sense enough to pass through to the other side of the abusive gauntlet of our taunting, recursive personal psychology. Waiting out the oldest of our childhood scripts as they kick on. And, then, kick off, once we come to our sensible adult senses. And, also, as we recall our best teachers’ admonitions or an apt sutra or sermon from some old-time spiritual guide. Or the quote that gives the long view, instead of the wailing, self-involved, maybe too self-piteous passing one.
THE ASSIST
Besides which and after all, actual devastation roils a host of neighboring communities in Appalachia. Below are two useful, wide-ranging lists of various on-the-ground relief efforts that we can donate to, so as to directly assist with the massive recovery needs from the devastating floods in North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
LINK ONE: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/weather-news/article293253659.html
THE PHOTO
My man Earl Goodall is gone on to his next incarnation. One hopes that it is not one where he ducks, frightfully, on the savage front lines of a foreign war, an Appalachian lad narrowly missing a headshot in someplace dubbed incongruously Christmas Hill. That’s his old house below, seen through an early morning October fog in my neck of the Appalachian shire. You can see the wheelchair ramp his family installed for his final months on Earth. Fortunately, a relative of Earl’s inherited the place, keeping it lively, if a bit yippy, given the house’s new, rather too vocal canine resident, who spends a lot of time in the front-yard yapping at the world passing by. But, then, don’t we all?
THE ELECTION VIDEO
Not sure what I am doing wrong in finding an audience for my hyper-short election series, NotesBeforeYouVote.com. A couple of recent social media postings of the 60-second-or less videos that anchor each episode resulted in nil reaction or bupkis feedback. Yet, still, we persevere. The series is my response to Michelle Obama’s Democratic National Conference encouragement to “Do something!” in this most fundamental American election season. Thus, below (and bracketed by longer commentary, cartoons and more at this link), is my doing something. As the introduction at that link to the Episode 5 video notes:
“Our families certainly know us well, but so do those folks with whom we spend so much of our every waking hour: our colleagues and co-workers. As the clock ticks down toward one of the most consequential elections in American history — one that could well conclude the country’s constitutional history — we take 60 seconds to hear insights, alarms, and warnings from some chief officials who worked closely with Donald Trump in his first administration …”
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THE WISE ADVICE
Finally, a sage thought for your day and my day, courtesy of an old Roman guy named Atticus, who lived and proliferated his Platonic views during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 A.D. The photo, from the Meteorological Bureau of theSTORYistheTHING, comes from a recent encounter with day’s end at an overlook at Barboursville Park. It’s a place I retreat to when stalked by misanthropy, especially after far too much dire end-of-America doomscrolling, featuring soul-free politicians and billionaire bullies. Their kind is all too common these days, who’d like nothing more than to reign over the ruins of a post-Constitution America, reconstituted in accord with their insatiable, predatory Capitalist bottom lines and strongman thirst. In response, let’s take the long view and heed the advice of Atticus. After all, each day’s sunrise and sunset is the longest of views and freshest of perspectives.
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